The dense, numerous stars dotted the dark blue sky.
The entire sky looked as though it were the wrapping paper of candy inside a wine trough.
Jiang Yan and Jian Hou, under the lead of the maid who was over two meters tall, walked along the circular corridor supported by several enormous, thick pillars, entwined with golden carvings of roses.
The corridor hung high in midair, with an arched dome overhead, painted with a mural of the "Creation," as though one were inside God’s grand cathedral.
The maid’s high heels clicked “da-da” on the white jade tiles covered with golden patterns. As she walked, she continually muttered to Jiang Yan and Jian Hou, her tone filled with helplessness and shock, “She is extremely abnormal!”
“From the moment I went to knock on her door to ask her to come out for dinner, strange noises started coming from her room, like a giant snake hissing on the ground…”
“Oh! I kept knocking on her door, and she didn’t respond at all! It was so awkward…”
“...”
Jiang Yan and Jian Hou did not pay attention to the maid’s words. They were both excited and curious, examining Jian Hou’s new gadget, Star Time.
Jian Hou, suddenly enlarging the pocket watch in his hand, widened his eyes in surprise,“Wow!”
Jiang Yan: "Wow!”
[Envy!! Just a casual check and it's already an A-level item!!!]
[Changing the flow of time within a certain range, this is a BUG for all time-limited dungeons!!!]
[It reminds me of that guy in the survival dungeon, whose item was a survival house]
[No! These two people’s items have additional effects, one is [Leave Dungeon] for five minutes, and one is [Change Time Flow within a certain range]?? And they're friends! What are they trying to do?!]
[Alright, alright! So this is how we're playing, huh!! Is this how we're playing?!]
[...]
"It looks quite practical! You can smash people or tie them up, but... are all the items in this game so simple and brutal?" Jian Hou tilted the pocket watch in his hand, feeling a little weightless.
However, the data in his item bar showed that the weight of what he threw could reach at least 30 kg, with no upper limit. 254 explained in his mind that this would be tied to his mental strength.
Jiang Yan shrugged: "As you can see, there aren’t many puzzle-based dungeons in this game.
"Violent demolition is a tradition in this game. According to the 'game history materials' provided by 663, most of the top players on the leaderboard are famous for violent demolition or tearing through dungeons."
"Not thinking, no meaning. If this game were from a real-world game company, it would have already gone bankrupt." Jiang Yan coldly spat out the words.
They had already crossed through the suspended corridor and arrived at the other end of the castle. As they stepped through the towering golden door carved with roses, Jiang Yan glanced up at the hypocritical, dreamlike sky that resembled a children's animation.
The glass-paper-like stars reflected one by one in his cold blue eyes, like a string of cold data chains.
A purely bizarre, boring, and evil game.
Jiang Yan coldly muttered a sentence, then followed the maid’s steps into the other side of the castle.
—
“Da.”
The maid's high heels stopped in front of the nearly ten-meter-high, intricately carved and gilded door. Golden light spilled out from the crack beneath the door, and faint sounds of broken plates and indistinct screams could be heard.
Jiang Yan slightly furrowed his brows and looked up at the tall back of the maid.
“Your Highness,” the maid, with her back turned to Jiang Yan and the others, spoke, “Do you know what I saw the moment she opened the door?”
“What?” Jiang Yan asked.
“A huge worm.”
Jiang Yan and Jian Hou were both stunned.
With a creak, the maid slowly pushed the door open.
“Help!!”
“Move away!”
“Damn it! Don’t let its slime splash on you!”
“...”
The players' screams echoed, and the bizarre and absurd scene in front of Jiang Yan and the others caused their eyes to widen in shock.
Inside the enormous, luxurious banquet hall, with its vaulted ceiling dozens of meters high, players were scrambling and fleeing among the giant furniture made of walnut wood, marble, and white jade carvings.
A giant, pink-colored worm, wearing a beautiful lace skirt and with two fleshy tentacles on its head, was wriggling its body and relentlessly chasing after the players!
The tentacles on the worm's head were adorned with two heavy black-and-white spherical objects, constantly rotating—those were eyeballs.
Black short hair covered the head, which had fused with the neck and entire elongated body, obscuring the deformed facial features. A cut ran across its head, and from the incision, a long red tube-like organ, covered in yellow slime, stretched and retracted like a snake's tongue.
It looked like a giant snail that had lost its shell.
However, even though the entire creature had deformed to such an extent, Jiang Yan instantly recognized the “worm’s” identity.
“Geng... Hui?” Jiang Yan asked incredulously.
As soon as he finished speaking, the worm, which had been moving between the walnut wood tables and chairs, suddenly stopped. Its slimy, disgusting tentacles shot toward the door, and the two large, round eyeballs coldly stared at Jiang Yan and the others.
“Ah--!!”
With a shout from Tao Shi, who was hiding behind the giant walnut wood armchair, Geng Hui, who had turned into a “worm,” twisted its disgustingly soft body, swinging its tongue and tentacles toward Jiang Yan and Jian Hou!
The two froze for a moment, just as they tried to step back, but unexpectedly, they were grabbed by the collar from behind by the tall maid and thrown inside!
“Thud!”
The two were thrown right in front of the “worm.”
“Boom!”
The massive door behind them immediately slammed shut, cutting off their escape route.
Jiang Yan and Jian Hou: “...”
The sudden change caught the two completely off guard.
The “worm” fell, and the eyeballs on its tentacles, spinning chaotically, perfectly reflected Jiang Yan’s pale and delicate face. The gap in its head, which should have been a “mouth,” instantly opened to 180 degrees!
Inside, rows of tightly packed human teeth filled the entire exposed mouth, extending into the throat. The long, red, tube-shaped tongue, covered in disgusting slime, waved through the air, heading straight for Jiang Yan’s face.
“Ah!! Why are you frozen?!”
“Yan Yan! Run!!”
“It’s too late!”
“Jiang Yan--!!” Tao Shi’s voice echoed throughout the banquet hall.
In Jiang Yan’s blue eyes, the reflection of the worm’s long tube-like tongue grew larger, closer and closer...
Ding!
[Item: Star Time]
Ding!
[Item: Medical Bandage]
“Boom!”
In the critical moment, a pocket watch, as large as a grinding disc, slammed into the “worm’s” face. At the same time, white bandages instantly tightened around Jiang Yan and Jian Hou’s waists, pulling them into the air!
With a loud “Boom,” the worm’s body crashed into the walnut wood long table at the center of the banquet hall. The table leg, as thick as an adult male’s waist, broke with a loud crack.
The entire long table began to tilt, and the exquisite plates and delicious food on the table fell to the ground with a "sizzle".
"Puff..."
The “worm” that had fallen to the ground sprayed a thick, foul-smelling yellow slime from the red tube in its mouth.
At that very moment, Jiang Yan and Jian Hou were flung out in a perfect parabola through the air of the banquet hall, amidst the scattered cups and plates, by the white bandages, and safely landed behind a red velvet sofa in the corner that looked like a small mountain.
Where they had been lying just moments ago, the exquisite floor had been corroded by the “worm’s” slime, now bubbling up with grayish-white foam, and the air was thick with the smell of sulfur.
“Damn! That scared the life out of me!”
Jian Hou collapsed onto the floor, breathing heavily from the narrow escape.
At this moment, all the players, except for Geng Hui, had hidden here, along with the real NPCs Ding Wanyu and Cang Rou.
“Teacher Jian, not bad! You used the new item pretty skillfully!” Tao Shi reached out and pulled Jian Hou up from the ground, patting his shoulder with a smile.
[That was really decisive just now!]
[By the way, what’s Jian Hou’s ranking on the player and overall leaderboards now?]
[It shouldn’t be low, right? After all, with the A-level item bonus.]
[Mid-tier, not too high but not low. His overall ranking is higher than Jiang Yan’s]
[Is it that strange that his overall ranking is higher than Jiang Yan’s? Isn’t Jiang Yan at the bottom?]
[Correction! Yan Yan is now in the mid-lower rankings! Not at the bottom anymore! How could a real NPC holding an S-level item be at the bottom?]
[Wait... Jiang Yan has an S-level item, so why is he still in the mid-lower ranks? Didn’t he used to be ranked 50th?]
[That was for his mental strength. Also, right now, Jiang Yan’s mental strength is ranked 20th on the overall mental strength leaderboard.]
[What?! Jiang Yan’s mental strength is that high?!]
[Seriously, how could his mental strength be that high? He always looks like he's about to die, but when needed, his character can still respond accurately.]
[...I’m shocked that his mental strength is so high, and with an S-level item, why is he still in the mid-lower ranks on the overall leaderboard??]
[Probably... his other stats are too low, like his physical strength…]
Jiang Yan was seen leaning against the back of the sofa, sitting expressionlessly on the ground. The corners of his eyes were slightly red, and he was panting heavily. A fine layer of sweat dampened his neat black hair at the front of his forehead, giving him the appearance of someone who had exhausted their physical strength.
In the live broadcast, the viewers were: [.....]
[Still...?? Didn’t he look like he could run pretty well when the giant rat chased him in the town earlier?]
[Yeah! Even though he looked like he was about to pass out the whole time, he didn’t fall behind, so someone with poor physical stamina definitely wouldn’t have been able to keep up.]
[Probably... that was just survival instinct during the day, right?]
Jiang Yan shook his slightly dizzy head.
His physical strength had been overexerted earlier. After taking a nap and waking up, his limbs felt even more sore. On top of that, he had been led by the maid on a long detour, so his physical exhaustion had already reached its limit today.
The personal system 663 also noticed Jiang Yan's strain. It feared that this ancestor would do like before, suddenly give up and pretend to be ignorant, so it was constantly persuading and encouraging him in his mind, saying nice things.
“Shut up, it’s so annoying.” Jiang Yan scolded it to stop.
Irritated, Jiang Yan looked at the sudden [Divinity System] panel on the main system interface. Feeling the subtle sensation of its touch on his waist, he raised his eyes and his gaze once again landed on Jian Hou, who was holding the newly obtained item and smiling smugly at the players in front of him.
A faint light flickered in his calm blue eyes.
At this moment, the “worm” Geng Hui, which had fallen onto the long table, had righted itself. It seemed enraged, opening its mouth 180 degrees, exposing rows of teeth. The red, tube-like tongue continually sprayed out thick, foul-smelling yellow slime.
For a moment, the entire banquet hall was filled with the corrosive “sizzle” sound, and the sulfuric smell in the air was almost suffocating.
The people hiding behind the red velvet sofa quickly covered their mouths and noses.
"What's wrong with her?" Jiang Yan covered his mouth and nose, frowning slightly.
"I don't know." Tao Shi casually placed his arm around Jian Hou's shoulder, holding the [Star Time] item in his hand, and said indifferently, "She was already like this when the maid brought us here."
Ding!
[Item: Data Concealment Card]
"Something mutated in her."
Cao Youfeng’s gaze fell into the air, a series of blue data chains crawling across his dark eyes. He looked at the data panel of Jiang Hui in front of him and said," Her level is A-rank, not very high, but as you can see, the slime in her mouth has corrosive properties. According to the [Data Concealment Card] test, this slime should be spread all over her body."
"We could have just killed her, but as Old Cao said, she still has self-awareness." Yu Jia raised both hands and made a gesture as if playing with a string, his fingers interlocking the transparent string of the figurine.
Jian Hou's eyes widened: She still has self-awareness after becoming like that?
"Although I also find it hard to believe, it’s the truth." Cao Youfeng snapped his fingers lightly.
Click!
A blue, semi-transparent [Data Concealment Card] screen appeared in the air, and a distorted, nearly inhuman voice began to scream in despair.
"No... I don’t know!"
"Classroom... certificate... classroom--"
"No... no... not here..."
"Come... come out... come out..."