There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

The Skill, Substitute, essentially combined a Summoned Creature with an item, thereby giving a Summoner some combat ability.

This Skill wasn’t very much like a typical Summoner Skill, but it seemed very interesting.

Especially the part about summoning a target into one of your personal items, imbuing that item with the properties of a Summoned Creature. It felt like this opened up a lot of variations, giving a Summoner many more possibilities.

He decisively chose Substitute. Duan Fei realized he still had time to familiarize himself with it, but he didn’t really feel like running a dungeon.

The event dungeons were only available once every two days. He planned to save up his energy and get himself sorted out before tackling a longer event dungeon.

But it seemed like a waste not to use the remaining time, leaving Duan Fei a bit unsure of what to do.

Seeing Duan Fei’s hesitation, the Divination Master smiled and said, "If you don’t want to run a dungeon but still want to play, how about checking out the training ground?"

"The training ground... Oh, I completely forgot I could go there! But I remember it’s a bit far, isn’t it?"

"You can go from the Divine Hall. There are many shortcuts inside. You can get there directly from here. Yu Bo, didn’t you just say you were free? Take Duan Someone with you for a look."

Yu Bo let out a long sigh of relief, grateful for the escape from his conversation with the Divination Master.

"You seem pretty happy about that..." the Divination Master said coolly.

"I’m not..."

"Your poker face needs work. The corner of your mouth just curled up by half a millimeter. And you still dare say you’re not happy?"

"I..."

Shaking the bracelet on her wrist, she let golden powder fall from it, forming a strange symbol on the white tablecloth.

After a glance at the symbol, the Divination Master sneered, "Be careful of the color red. Don’t say I didn’t warn you."

Yu Bo’s face fell as if he’d just been handed a death sentence. He dejectedly led Duan Fei away.

From the outside, the Divine Hall looked to be about the size of a soccer field.

But its interior was a complex and intricate maze where one could easily get lost.

But Yu Bo seemed quite familiar with the place. "I assume you’ve already noticed that doors in *Abyss* have special meanings," he said as they walked. "Some lead to dungeons, while others can teleport you to faraway places. The admin team set up an entire door network in the Divine Hall. By going through a series of them, we can travel great distances in a very short amount of time."

This was invaluable information coming from an administrator, so Duan Fei committed it to memory at once.

Though he didn’t know why, Yu Bo seemed to have taken a strong liking to him. This made Duan Fei feel like he could ask a few more questions.

Choosing his words carefully, he asked, "Why doesn’t the Divination Master wear the same attire as the administrators?"

"Hasn’t she mentioned it? Hmm... The Divination Master isn’t a member of the admin team. She belongs to another guild, called the Pan-human Alliance."

"That’s so cringey!"

Yu Bo glanced around cautiously. Only when he was sure no one was listening did he nod and say, "I think so, too. But don’t let her hear you say that, or I’m a dead man."

"Why? We’re making fun of the name, not her."

"She’s the one who came up with the name. What’s more, if you go to the Pan-human Alliance headquarters, you’ll see a sign with the name written in her own terrible handwriting."

"I see. So she must have a high rank in the Pan-human Alliance."

Yu Bo nodded. "Well, she is the founder."

"So how old is she, exactly?"

"Don’t ask that, either. Let’s just say she’s... been around a long time. She looked exactly like this when I was an intern, and she still looks the same now that I’m a full-time employee. It’s a game, after all. Avatars don’t age, so we shouldn’t ask questions like that."

"Right. I guess we should just respect our elders."

"I do respect the Divination Master, but sometimes... she’s just too much for me to handle."

Yu Bo gave a wry smile and shrugged helplessly.

For some reason, Duan Fei felt a sense of familiarity looking at him. It was as if he’d known him for a long time, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember from where.

Yu Bo continued, "The Pan-human Alliance is on good terms with the admin team, and they have a decent relationship with the dev team, too. As a high-ranking member, the Divination Master has given the devs a lot of suggestions that were implemented, so she holds a pretty high status within the game."

"I see."

After hearing the explanation, Duan Fei felt he had a general understanding of the situation.

As they walked and chatted, Duan Fei learned a lot of important information from Yu Bo, which made him realize this game was even more incredible than he had imagined.

’And this is only version 0.08. Who knows what massive thing those game designers are planning to cook up,’ he thought.

After they passed through another door, Duan Fei found that his surroundings had changed.

When he had first heard of the training ground, he had pictured a simple training base.

But now, he could see it was an entire city.

A city dedicated to training.

Every piece of equipment that had ever appeared in the game could be found here.

Starships soared through the sky, while attack helicopters zipped past at low altitudes.

On a nearby hillside, flaming steeds galloped alongside a sports car that was doing four hundred kilometers per hour. They shot past like lightning, leaving the acrid smell of burning rubber in their wake.

Beyond the vehicles, Duan Fei also saw a large firearms range. All sorts of weapons were being fired as if ammunition were free. A dual-wielding gothic lolita was cackling madly as she unloaded on her targets, looking completely unhinged.

Yu Bo clapped the dumbfounded Duan Fei on the shoulder. "Welcome to the special area. This is Area 2.1, the training ground."

Entry to the training ground was free, as was the use of certain facilities.

In the free-use areas, players could use a variety of melee weapons. Firearms were also available, but players had to provide their own ammunition.

However, if you spent Abyss Coins, you could train in specialized zones. The rate at which your Skill proficiency increased would scale with the training zone’s Level, and it would also significantly raise the probability of having an epiphany.

In addition, instructors were available for specialized coaching—for a fee, of course.

Yu Bo led Duan Fei to the training ground’s central service area, where he filled out an application. A short while later, he came back with a silver-white membership card.

Duan Fei’s ID, Duan Someone, was already written on the card.

As Duan Fei put the card away, Yu Bo explained, "The card is unique to you; you can’t give it to anyone else. It’ll get you a fifty-percent discount on all training fees."

"Yu Bo, why are you being so good to me?" Duan Fei asked, confused. "I know we hit it off, but this seems like a bit much."

Yu Bo looked at Duan Fei, his mind drifting back to that snowy night... to the days when the three of them would read comics and play games together.

Besides, Duan Fei and Jinghong had saved his mother and allowed his father and the others to escape unharmed. Yu Bo would never forget those two events as long as he lived.

In the Abyss, time wasn’t linear. It was more like a painting.

But only the Abyss itself could interfere with the past and thereby influence the future.

This was one of the Abyss’s secrets, one that players weren’t supposed to know until they reached "the end."

So, Yu Bo just smiled and said, "I don’t know, either. Maybe we were just fated to meet. Alright, go on and train. I’m off."

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