Who Let Them Hack at Xu Tongguang Right Away

"Rest assured, dear [Hunter]."

The female voice switched to a private channel.

"So long as you perform well, [Carnival Paradise] will never skimp on resources."

Fine then.

Zhu Yan thought his performance had been absolutely flawless.

The female voice offered no comment on that, and went on to announce the fifth place on the [Player Leaderboard].

"...The player with ID [ADX] ranks fifth on the board."

"Let us offer our congratulations to this player from Anwu City!"

"Thanks to efforts from multiple parties, his abilities are undeniably formidable. Though, he could still stand to gain a bit more practical combat experience!"

Zhu Yan caught on immediately.

What kind of player could be so powerful while still lacking real combat experience?

That line about "efforts from multiple parties" was practically a blatant hint.

Only the privileged second-gen brats from the rotten-to-the-core Anwu branch of the [Human Alliance] could get that kind of special treatment.

But there were far too many of those second-gen brats for Zhu Yan to guess who this was right off the bat.

Could it be Qiu Lingxiao?

Or was it someone else entirely?

He decided he would dig through Jin Rongxu's follow list and private message records on the [Player Forum] later to look for clues.

"And that wraps up the full details of the top five players on this domain's [Overall Player Leaderboard]."

"In addition, we extend our sincere congratulations to the sixth-ranked player [Golden Aura Wave], the seventh-ranked [Loves Eating Razor Clams], the eighth-ranked [I Give This Round an 8.6], the ninth-ranked [Is This the Right Place for a Piercing], and the two players tied for tenth place, [Chen Zhangming] and [Walking with the Light]."

Yang Zhanbai, sitting in the front row, straightened up all over again.

"Chen Zhangming...?"

"Chen Zhaoxing." Zhu Yan chimed in from the back row, matching his tone perfectly.

The female voice paused for a beat, sounding almost petty with irritation, and added a seemingly explanatory complaint on the public channel.

"Among those players, [Chen Zhangming] and [Walking with the Light] used underhanded tactics to kill one of the [Hunters], and remotely sabotaged the other."

Zhu Yan fell silent for a moment.

He could easily guess what the first "underhanded tactic" referred to.

But what on earth was this "remotely sabotaged" business?

From what he remembered, neither of those two players had skills that could pull off some kind of remote sabotage.

Yang Zhanbai was fighting back a grin.

He didn't dare burst into full-on laughter with Director Jin right there, but his face was already bright red from holding it in.

"Alright, the top ten of the [Overall Player Leaderboard] have all been announced."

"This leaderboard updates every 24 or 48 hours. We hope all players currently in dungeons will tune in in time, so you don't miss the exciting announcements."

"It is our great pleasure to inform you that the large-scale public beta dungeon is now officially open! All players, please pay close attention to every tiny detail and every single item around you; be extra careful when you enter buildings, ride in vehicles, or interact with other people."

"That said, if you only narrowly escaped death from a scenario not long ago, you can rest easy. For a set period of time, you will not be pulled into any dungeon."

"This is a mandatory rest benefit for players. Additionally, if you have any unused vacation days saved up, [Carnival Paradise] allows you to redeem those days during the public beta dungeon to avoid any potential death or misfortune."

"Lastly, we wish you an unforgettable lifetime here in [Carnival Paradise]!"

A cheerful, snappy piece of music played in perfect sync with that last line, before the broadcast cut off completely.

Yang Zhanbai turned around, looking at Zhu Zeyu with nothing but utter admiration in his eyes.

"Elysium's only good call ever," he said. "This number three spot is so well-deserved. Can I borrow your reputation to mess with people later?"

"Go right ahead," Zhu Zeyu grinned.

Yang Zhanbai was about to tease him a little more when he suddenly let out a confused "Huh?"

"Did you guys see that?" His gaze darted toward a spot thin air. "My interface just popped up a break time notice. It says congratulations to the players for surviving a close call, and that we've left the instance earlier than everyone else?"

Captain Zheng nodded. "I got it too. Mine says 24 hours."

Zhu Yan had seen it as well.

In the upper right corner of his field of vision, a 24-hour countdown had appeared, exactly the same as the others'.

This must be the "mandatory rest benefit" the female voice had mentioned.

"Same here," Yang Zhanbai said. "So that means we're completely safe for the next 24 hours, and we can't be pulled into any new instance. But the other players might not be so lucky."

"Director Jin," he turned to the solemn-looking Director Jin and asked, "where do we go now?"

It looked like Director Jin hadn't quite made up his mind yet.

But he didn't show any sign of panic. He just smoothed out his expression and gave a calm, decisive instruction.

"The higher-ups haven't sent down any orders yet," he said. "For now, head north. We're going to Silver Bay City or East Pivot City."

"To a place that big?" Captain Zheng looked stunned. "Director Jin, there are so many people there. Wouldn't that make things even more chaotic?"

Director Jin didn't answer the question directly. Instead, a confident, knowing smile tugged at his lips.

It was as if he held a secret no one else was privy to.

"Just head there first," Director Jin said.

Yang Zhanbai asked, "Sir, what about the other survivors?"

"If any of you have family members staying in the shelters, give their information directly to Captain Zheng," Director Jin said, surprisingly patient with Yang Zhanbai. "We'll dispatch dedicated helicopters to pick them up. Those two places..."

Director Jin furrowed his brows and let out a long, heavy sigh.

"There's almost no way things could go wrong there..."

...

The military truck sped down the empty highway.

Zhu Yan leaned back against the seat, pulled a few packs of chocolate pies and bottles of drinks out of his ring, and passed them around to Yang Zhanbai and Director Jin.

He tore open a small pack of egg biscuits for himself, munching on them as he browsed the text floating on his retina.

The Thriller Map had updated.

Nearly half of the buildings in Anwu City were melting and warping, merging completely with the surreal, absurd streets that belonged to the Crazy Elysium.

As Zhu Yan moved at high speed, the coordinate of the "Caged Bird" on the rapidly expanding map shifted in sync.

Several green light spots were flashing frantically right in front of the marked coordinate. Zhu Yan focused his gaze on them, and realized they were new exclusive fast tracks for the Hunters.

Zhu Yan had no need to go to the Recitative Platform right now.

He switched back to the Player Forum and opened the reply from Chen Zhaoxing.

"I have no idea, yeah someone did die, but how were we supposed to know that person was a Hunter?"

Zhu Yan slowly typed out a question mark in response.

"Come on, we just wanted to have a whole dorm to ourselves. There were barely any people here before, that was totally doable, okay?"

Zhu Yan typed back, "And then what happened?"

"So we picked a six-bed dorm, and all of a sudden two guys barged in. They were totally out of it, saying they hated crowded places and wanted to crash in our room. The second they stepped in, the stench of greasy hair and rank feet was so strong it could knock you dead. Tell me, could you put up with that?"

"And then what happened?"

"Then one night, they suddenly attacked us," Chen Zhaoxing answered super fast. "Who knows what their deal was? They just went straight for Xu Tongguang with a knife out of nowhere."