Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 496: 496 Chapter 496: 496 At last, it felt like money well spent.

Playing with the Clear Dream Ring, which now appeared even more profound and sparkling, Fu Qian was gratified to see the annotations.

Although somewhat cryptic, the additional content clearly indicated that the artifact had been upgraded.

The targets it could influence had expanded from ordinary people without any capacity to resist to legit Transcendents.

“Souls that are not powerful enough, even if they realize they are in a dream, cannot escape,” this phrase now seemingly transformed into a special kind of spiritual prison.

It might be worth considering using it specifically against lower-ranking Transcendents in the future.

As for the empty cup—Fu Qian put the ring back on his finger with satisfaction and glanced at the empty Golden Cup.

To his surprise, after the trait had been extracted, the cup didn’t turn into ash and Annihilate; instead, it stubbornly remained preserved in the warehouse.

After much consideration, the only possible reason for this seemed to be related to the special pattern on it.

The Holy Grail Sect really was something, and this was undoubtedly good news.

Fu Qian slowly put the cup back in its place.

On one hand, this proved that the pattern itself possessed extraordinary mysticism.

And now he remembered that, while trapped by the Angel of Comfort, he had seen a sinister pattern rotating counterclockwise more than once.

Comparing the two, there seemed to be a similarity, which was probably why there had been a sense of déjà vu.

On the other hand, Fu Qian had already decided on the cup’s fate—unwilling to feed its trait to the Starry Prism, the cup was still fair game, even if the latter was made of pure gold.

The Holy Grail Sect was undoubtedly an interesting organization. If the Starry Prism could extract some useful information for him, pursuing the footsteps of this ancient organization, much like Mr. Luo and You Er, would surely be an intriguing matter.

Some might ask why he didn’t simply feed it to the Starry Prism now, instead of putting it back and waiting for later.

The reason was that Fu Qian had just realized there was an issue—it had been over twenty-four hours since he last clocked out.

Yet, there was no breach alarm upon his return to the warehouse!

This was indeed a rare occurrence, could it be a change of heart—

[Identity verification complete, today’s work begins]

Just as this thought emerged, a prompt suddenly sounded.

[Warning, containment breach]

Is it really responsive to my thoughts?

Fu Qian said nothing, standing there calmly as he thought of what had come to pass.

[Name: Radiant Shift, Code: 1-005]

[Today’s task updated: Enter the containment scene of 1-005, complete recontainment]

Sheesh!

Listening to the details in the prompt, Fu Qian took a sharp breath.

Another item beginning with 1? This week’s work is all high-end!

And to think he had just assumed he could take it easy.

Indeed, the dramatic ups and downs of life are utterly thrilling!

[Entering containment scene of 1-005]

[…5%…15%…40%…65%——]

As his senses gradually blurred, Fu Qian was internally calculating that not being allowed to equip himself with Skills probably meant another task with restricted abilities, but to his surprise, midway through loading, the progress stopped abruptly.

What’s happening? Things were getting stranger and stranger!

[Welcome, welcome]

Fu Qian’s fingers twitched, wondering if he would be trapped to death in this peculiar state. However, the next moment the prompt continued, though much deeper in tone.

After a brief repetition, Fu Qian’s consciousness returned to his body, and the view before his eyes suddenly brightened.

What is this?

Realizing that the hitch had vanished and the task was to continue, Fu Qian immediately began surveying his surroundings.

Surprisingly, there was no twisted, bloody scene, no monsters to be seen, and not even a second person present.

He found himself in a cozy office, bright light filtering through the modestly sized window.

He was sitting at his desk, facing a light-colored wooden table strewn with a stack of documents or something of the sort.

Fu Qian reached out to flip through them and confirmed he was looking at several strings of mathematical formulas.

It seemed to be high school material, so was this a school, perhaps a teacher’s office?

Fu Qian quickly made a judgment.

No, a female teacher’s.

Noticing the fancy makeup mirror next to the documents, Fu Qian added the detail.

Of course, this was just a probability estimate.

If the makeup mirror and the size 38 high heels under the desk both belonged to some male teacher, that wasn’t entirely impossible either.

While doing all this, Fu Qian also checked his own status and realized he was indeed in a mortal state.

[The current task has been updated: leave the office within five minutes.]

Just then, the task prompt appeared very efficiently.

Such detailed mission guidance? And isn’t this task a bit too simple?

Fu Qian glanced towards the door.

The office door was right there, and it didn’t seem to be locked at all; its flimsy construction meant that even an ordinary person could kick it open with ease, leaving no possibility that it could trap him inside.

Fu Qian thought for a moment and instead of immediately following the task instructions to leave, he started from the bottom up, opening the desk drawers one by one.

With five minutes being quite a long time, he might as well collect more information.

The task seemed odd, and Fu Qian was not about to let any opportunity to gather information pass by.

He opened drawer after drawer of the desk, each containing fairly standard items like ink, a utility knife, a small makeup bag, and so on, all plain to see.

Fu Qian did not give up; his hands kept moving, continuing to open other drawers.

[Locked, a key is required to open it.]

And just as he reached the top drawer on the left side, a voice suddenly chimed in his ear.

Wtf!

At that moment, Fu Qian took in another breath of cold air.

This task was off!

Although there had been hints in the past, they were all within the scope of mission guidance.

This kind of instant feedback prompt was completely new to him.

Anyone who plays video games is familiar with such messages, having seen them far too often.

And based on experience, if a place tells you a key is needed to open something, it usually means it’s been secured by a system wall, and violent breaking becomes completely impossible.

To get to what’s inside, apart from finding a key, maybe using a hairpin could work as well.

But the problem is, right now he’s not playing a game.

So what exactly is the problem?

In that instant, there was a feeling as if the barrier between dimensions had been shattered.

Brain in a vat? The Matrix? Hypnosis?

Fu Qian looked back at the office door. This thin wooden barrier suddenly seemed to have momentum.

What if, when he reaches for the doorknob later, a prompt suddenly appears—[A malicious presence prowls outside, do you really want to open it?]

What would he do then, open it or not?