“Okay.”
New red characters flickered across his retina.
“According to your request, we will provide you with a fake [Connector] set.”
“The set will be placed directly inside the [Hunter]’s storage silver ring. We hope you make good use of it.”
The line of red text flashed, then rapidly converged toward the center.
It melted and fused together like wax, reshaping itself into a slender progress bar.
A tiny line of explanatory text floated above it.
[Authorization Progress: 1%]
It began to inch forward, and Zhu Yan’s heartbeat accelerated uncontrollably along with it.
It was a physiological reaction, as if a heavy force were pressing into his body and organs through every pore.
His vision blurred, and static instantly filled his entire field of view. He had no choice but to brace himself against the tiles behind him to keep his balance.
In the darkness, the red progress bar remained.
The final stage was nothing short of torture. Zhu Yan felt his heart being squeezed by forces coming from all directions. After the suffocating pressure came a burst of excruciating pain.
He bent over involuntarily, though fortunately, it was all over very quickly.
A few seconds later, the static slowly faded from his vision.
A new power flowed into Zhu Yan—or rather, into the body of “Zhu Zeyu.”
The invisible, weightless air around him seemed to suddenly grow denser. Zhu Yan flexed his fingers and found that the space itself felt like thick starch slurry, something he could stir apart.
“Authorization complete.”
“Congratulations, No. 1 [Hunter].”
“Every twenty-four hours, you may simulate three instances.”
“After completing a simulated instance, please replenish [Thrill and Pleasure] in a timely manner to keep your health bar full.”
Zhu Yan read the lines several more times.
[Thrill and Pleasure]. He had some.
Thanks to [The Bartender] from the previous Old Wolf instance, several bottles of the so-called “high-grade, concentrated version” of [Thrill and Pleasure] were still in his ring. He had no need to worry about draining his health bar.
The red characters gradually vanished as well, leaving behind only the original [Preliminary Mission 2].
So this was what success looked like.
Zhu Yan quietly breathed a sigh of relief. At last, he had the leisure to examine his surroundings.
The sprinklers overhead had already shut down. A masked player waved at him, signaling for him to walk through the disinfecting chamber filled with thick mist.
“One last checkpoint, classmate.”
As he spoke, the player opened the steel door at the exit of the disinfecting chamber.
“Go on in! Follow instructions, and don’t leave without permission!”
Beyond it was another stretch of corridor, with several soldiers still standing on either side, rifles at the ready.
A player in a uniform bearing the insignia of the [Human Alliance] was waiting in the middle of the corridor.
When Zhu Yan and Yang Zhanbai came out, he displayed the blue armband marked “Guide” and gestured for them to follow.
“First, everyone will collect bedding and a set of daily necessities. Then you’ll register and be assigned a dormitory.”
As he spoke, he waved at Captain Zheng, who had just emerged, as well as the three [Walking Corpses].
Zhu Yan immediately noticed the gun hanging at the player’s waist.
They followed him down a long passageway that sloped downward, eventually arriving in a small lobby.
Elevators lined both sides of the lobby. Zhu Yan glanced at the floor numbers and saw that the deepest level was actually Floor 28.
“There’s no Eighteenth Floor here,” the player explained, following his gaze.
Zhu Yan could understand that.
“Because of the Eighteenth Level of Hell?”
“Exactly.” The player gave him a wry smile. “It’s important to avoid tempting fate.”
Oh.
Zhu Yan twirled his fingers, but inwardly he was beginning to itch with anticipation.
He had just obtained his [Boss] authority.
Although this was only a virtual instance, if the elevator skipped directly from the seventeenth floor to the nineteenth, only to stop at an Eighteenth Floor that supposedly didn’t exist, it would make for a very interesting—and classic—scare.
Zhu Yan was growing more and more eager to try it.
Could he do it right now?
Yang Zhanbai frowned as he watched the elevator’s floor numbers change.
“I actually think the absence of an Eighteenth Floor is dangerous. Doesn’t that just give those things an opening?”
“What if a negative eighteenth floor appears—”
Zhu Zeyu kicked him. “When are you going to start saying something auspicious for once?”
Captain Zheng chuckled.
The player looked at them, then followed with a fairly friendly smile. “I think I’ve seen you before. Aren’t you Captain Zheng Feng and the two students from Xishan University…”
“First and second on the rankings,” Captain Zheng said with a hearty laugh. “These two boys are both impressive. The three behind them are with Captain Jin.”
The player nodded in understanding.
He led them into an elevator and pressed the button for “-5.”
“The Employee Services Hall,” he explained. “Your dormitories have probably already been assigned. Resources are tight, but fortunately, you’re with Captain Jin.”
Zhu Yan had already activated his ability, [Telekinesis].
His hand touched the new fake [Connector].
The fake connector was made of metal. It felt like a square metal plate about three centimeters long on each side, with a metal pull ring made from the same material set into its surface.
The bottom of the metal plate was coated with adhesive, allowing it to be stuck almost anywhere.
…Not bad. It wasn’t shoddily made. It looked even more authentic than the real thing.
If he used it now, would it arouse Jin Rongxu’s suspicions?
Zhu Yan considered the matter of his first simulated instance.
Meanwhile, he continued to keep [Mist] pressed against the glass window, monitoring Jin Rongxu, Director Jin, and the Seer.
…
“You mean you can’t see where the bed is?”
Faced with Jin Rongxu’s challenging tone, the Seer merely sighed helplessly.
“Captain Jin, please be rational.”
“I’ve already explained that what prophecy reveals is the inevitable conclusion of how things develop.”
“Where the [Hunter]’s bed is, and where the [Hunter] will live, have absolutely nothing to do with the outcome of the instance’s arrival.”
“Besides, the [Hunter] is stronger than I am. How could I possibly see his private information?”
Jin Rongxu fell silent, and Director Jin’s eyes turned completely cold.
After several seconds of silence, Director Jin finally let out an irritated sigh.
“You can only see a router? Can’t you predict what will happen next based on the [Hunter]’s real-time actions?”
“Look again now. What is he planning to do?”
“How does he intend to enter the shelter?”
[Mist] edged closer with great interest.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t even a crack in the glass. Otherwise, he could have squeezed his entire body into the room.
“Just like everyone else,” the Seer said. “I’m sorry, Director Jin. He can make it through all of your procedures—”
Crash!
The glass on the table was knocked to the floor. Zhu Yan could see liquid splashing through shards of glass, though the sound was almost completely muffled by the glass between them.
Director Jin had rarely lost his composure so completely.
His trembling hand hovered in the air, his lips pressed tightly downward.
The Seer neither moved nor spoke.
At last, Director Jin closed his eyes, seemingly forcing himself to calm down.
He asked, “What happens after he enters? What will he do once he’s inside? I need to know right now!”
The Seer furrowed his brows and began to think.
[Mist] remained pressed against the glass window, counting the seconds.
Zhu Yan was curious as well about how far the Seer’s vision would reach.
He had only just finished obtaining his authorization.
So what would change in the things the Seer could see?
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
