Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

Tonight marks the second night of players entering the Dungeon.

The homeless will lose the second point of Will.

Although the first three Will deductions can be slowly recuperated, or treated with medication, without causing long-term effects.

The premise, however, is that you have the space to recuperate slowly and the medication to recover Will.

Restorative medicines for Will are already rare, the raw materials needed for production are very expensive, and except for the core players of the Four Major Organizations who can exploit organizational resources, Independent Players seldom carry them.

Furthermore, under the Cursed Dungeon, the effects of medication are also suppressed, especially medicines for restoring Will. If the recovery points are below 10, they do not recover even by a fraction but become completely ineffective.

This mechanism forces most players in the Dungeon to rely on recuperation to recover.

To recuperate in a safe environment requires money, and in order to obtain money, players who originally didn’t want to stir up trouble also begin to take risks.

For example, Parker.

Milan Street is only three hundred meters away from Garden Street, yet the atmosphere is worlds apart.

This is one of the few ethnic minority neighborhoods in Sigef City, dirty, chaotic, violent—those are its synonyms.

Parker is currently sitting in a small alley on Milan Street, leaning against a pile of garbage, with an opened cardboard box covering him. His hand protruding from the box trembles gently, clutching a paper packet, with a sprinkle of flour on its folded edges.

This getup isn’t unusual on Milan Street. Anyone seeing it would think he’s just a high-spirited addict.

The only noteworthy thing is the bulgy paper packet in his hand, suggesting he’s just received his welfare and bought a week’s supply at once.

On Milan Street, this paints him as a fat sheep, and quite a few people have set their sights on Parker, waiting for it to get a bit darker to make their move.

They have their eyes on Parker, and Parker is waiting for them too.

The flour in Parker’s hand is real flour; he’s using himself as bait, ready to catch a few fish to cover his accommodation fees for tomorrow.

Nobody cares about conflicts among low-level gang members; without investigations, it’s not considered illegal.

During the wait, his mind reels, and he loses another point of Will.

An indescribable chill emanates from the darkness within the alley, making him shiver.

He pretends to roll over, facing the depths of the alley, where nothing exists.

He breathes a sigh of relief; as expected, it was just his illusion.

Damn it, the drop in Will makes him recall those bad memories.

Before Parker became a player of the Abyssal Game, he was a journalist, with his own set of rules for distinguishing between true and false information, and for searching information.

Ever since he saw Wu Chang’s interview that day, the words ”World Dungeon” filled his mind.

He believes it might indeed be true.

Because long ago, he began investigating the countdown that appeared in the plaza.

The countdown appeared a hundred and twenty days ago without warning or any related explanation.

Whether in the tavern in the public area or on the player forums, nobody knows what it represents.

After the initial few weeks of excitement, the players’ curiosity about the mysterious countdown began to wane, thinking that if any problems arise, the Four Major Organizations would handle it, and they just have to wait until the countdown ends.

Parker doesn’t think so.

A journalist’s intuition tells him there’s definitely big news hidden behind the countdown. From the first day the countdown appeared, he’s been collecting related evidence everywhere, and his replies can be found beneath every post discussing the countdown.

Hard work pays off; shortly before Wu Chang’s interview, he found a living fossil from the Desolate Realm, nicknamed Old Gou.

Old Gou met Parker in a private setting and spoke very cryptically, claiming he’d seen a similar countdown long ago; it appeared suddenly and disappeared just as suddenly.

He wasn’t sure what happened, just that after the countdown, the power of the Four Major Organizations increased tremendously.

The meeting was brief; Old Gou came and went hastily, wanting to reveal something but not daring to speak explicitly. Yet, despite this, when Parker tried to contact Old Gou a few days later, he found Old Gou had vanished without a trace.

Old Gou couldn’t hide this time.

Since then, Parker has always felt that he’s being watched, as if constantly under someone else’s control.

He began to feel anxious, fearful, almost to the point of a Will collapse. Fortunately, he found a Fusion-type Item that increases his Willpower Limit, which stabilized him.

But now, with his Will weakened again, he becomes uneasy, as if something is watching him from the darkness of the alley.

Whew, the night is hard to get through; after tonight, he definitely won’t sleep on the streets again.

He closes his eyes, waiting for the opportunity.

Time ticks by slowly, fewer pedestrians tread Milan Street, and even the homeless and biker gangs have gone home to sleep, yet he still hasn’t caught a single fish.

Why?

Could it be that the handful of flour he grabbed from the restaurant’s back kitchen isn’t convincing enough?

He cracks his eyes open to a slit, observing his surroundings, and just as his vision clears, he notices a vertical pupil manifesting in the depths of the alley.

His heart skips a beat; this time, it’s not an illusion but something he truly sees.

As the vertical pupil appears, a dark aura manifests around his body.

He can’t hide; he must look it in the eye and confront it!

Parker steels himself, looking fearlessly into the vertical pupil.

Thunk~

Beside the vertical pupil, a horizontal normal eye emerges, and the dark aura around him grows denser.