Kill The Old Ones!

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The strict rules and security that the GMU imposed pretty much everywhere lasted for longer than everybody was expecting.

They said that it should only last for days, but weeks have already passed, and it still hasn’t been relaxed, not even a little bit. If anything, some people even noticed that they became much stricter.

The tension was high, and conflicts were happening everywhere, causing massive dissatisfaction within the populace. To make matters worse, the authorities were permitted to use force if deemed necessary.

This led to several arrests, riots, and accidents, all for the sake of something that the GMU just refuses to reveal to the public.

By now, nobody believed that there was a viral outbreak. It must be something more, something much worse; that’s the only way they’d accept why the GMU was being so strict all of a sudden.

But of course, even though this is what they have to deal with, life must go on. There are some people who couldn’t let this viral infection hinder them from going to their jobs. How will they earn a living otherwise?

Obviously, people still went to dungeons. The Archstone Plaza got much stricter security personnel, but they didn’t prevent everybody from clearing dungeons.

Of course, this includes the Green Tea Party.

”Is it like this at Central City too?” Jules couldn’t help but ask Ren as they saw the strictness of the guards stationed in the dungeon gates and at the plaza.

”Pretty much, yes,” Ren replied. ”Slightly stricter, actually, since Central City is the capital. There are inspections everywhere; everybody must be cleared by GMU staff before going to public areas. There are also more vehicles on the ground and above, all manned by GMU staff.”

”Gee. That sucks. But this is really weird. They said that there is a strange virus that’s spreading everywhere, turning people irrational and mad. I’ve never seen one, though. I don’t know if they’re just good at their job or this is just all part of an elaborate scheme,” Derek softly said, making sure that only he and his party could hear his words clearly.

”Well, I did see one...” Ren stated, making the others look at him in surprise. ”I saw it from a distance, so I don’t know the full picture, actually, but I did notice that the person they arrested and contained had full-on berserk red eyes. No whites at all, just pure rage and hatred.”

”He was resisting madly and attacking everyone and everything nearby. It’s quite alarming. He was found and detained, of course, so I guess there really was a viral outbreak. But then again, I’ve only seen one. I don’t know if this is completely true or not.”

Ren lied with a straight face here. It was not true that he had seen the GMU arresting somebody who went mad because of the viral infection. Nothing like that happened.

But he had a reason to lie. He did it to alert his party about what to look for, just in case something like that happens near them. He wants them to believe that the viral outbreak was true...because it was, just not how they imagined it to be.

Ren knows how this goes. And even though he had preemptively made moves without exposing himself, he was not confident that it would be enough.

This ’viral outbreak’ is just a precursor to what’s about to come. It is going to get so much worse than this.

And again, this is with him alerting the authorities ahead of time. He also exposed that demon—Terrence Brian Patterson—indirectly, which was a bold yet calculated move.

If things worked out according to how he imagined it too, which he deeply wished they did, then Terrence should be dreaming about sweet nothings right now while the experts of GMU are working on unraveling his psychic shields and exposing all of his secrets.

As someone who knows how this story goes, Ren deemed Terrence a lost cause. He had no redeeming qualities at all. He’s more than just a traitor to humanity. If he manages to keep himself alive and capable, he will turn into humanity’s most terrifying villain.

He is the source of so much suffering, pain, and loss in the future. Time and time again, the hero of this story tried to slay the man, but he always survived and came back worse than before.

Ren was aware of what Terrence could do if he were kept alive. If there were still some competence left in the GMU’s ranks, then Terrence wouldn’t be alive for much longer.

”Hello!? Ren to Earth!”

Ren was returned to the present when Jen started snapping at his face.

”Oh, sorry, what was that?”

”You went into a daze just now. Are you okay? You’re not sick, are you?”

”Nope. Completely fine. Sorry, I just remembered something important.”

”That so?” Derek raised a brow. ”Do you need to leave early? We don’t mind if that’s the case.”

”No, no. It’s all good, don’t worry. I can handle it once we use up our daily quota.”

They were done with the Snowy Plains and the Frost Wolves already. Stage 25 was the most difficult for Jen. She damn near turned into a frozen statue when they raided it for the first time.

If it weren’t for the fact that she’s been pushing herself harder and burning her chakra even hotter to fight the cold, she would’ve died multiple times in that dungeon.

But they made it work. They conquered stage 25 and proceeded to clear it for a straight week.

By the end, Jen developed some resistance to the cold, and her chakra burns hotter now. The rest also developed some level of cold resistance.

Again, the fastest to develop this was Ren. By the second day they raided stage 25, he was already fine. He didn’t even put on an extra layer of clothing, yet he’s walking on the snowy plains as if he were just taking a stroll.

Since they’re done with this, naturally, they moved on.

Stages 26 to 30 have the Corrupted Forest Biome, and inside of that forest lives corrupted plant life.

What makes the Corrupted Forest Biome different and dangerous was that it imposes another element to the explorers, and that is ’Curses’.

Dark Magic was involved, it tainted a once vibrant, lush, and peaceful forest, turning it corrupted. As a result, not only did the surrounding environment suddenly became hostile to life, the creatures that live within it have also evolved into their twisted forms.

It’s not just limited to animals; plant life was corrupted too. In fact, in a corrupted forest biome, the most dangerous were the plant life themselves, not the other twisted creatures that made it their home.

The moment somebody trespasses into a corrupted forest, they will be cursed.

These ’curses’ are more like ’debuffs’ if this was an RPG. The explorers will either feel slower, weaker, lose their sense of direction, experience nasuea, see hallucinations or illusions, psychosis, etc.

It’s random, it’s annoying, and it absolutely hinders everybody. The worst part is that it’s different for everybody. A party won’t be cursed the same thing. One could suffer vision impairment while another turns deaf. Someone might lose their sense of direction while the other might feel like half of their strength was suddenly sapped out of their body.

This can get pretty annoying, especially for a party who’s not so fortunate.

This curse will last for the entirety of their stay inside the Corrupted Forest. It will go away pretty quickly once they manage to escape the forest’s area (very unlikely to happen, by the way) or if they find the safe zone within the forest.

The dungeon itself was now working against them, deliberately. Certainly, an added spike of difficulty moving forward.

And this is on top of expecting them to clear the required monster count, which are mostly carnivorous plants, thorny vines, trees that somehow grew legs and could now hunt them down, mischievous pixies that loved stealing their valuables, etc.

The dungeon gets harder and harder the further one climbs, and that’s just something they’d have to deal with as they go.

It’s roughly been a week since Ren and the party began raiding stage 26. Of course, Ren still goes out for solo clears whenever he can since he’s allowed to. But for the most part, he raided the dungeon with his party.

The improvements they received from the hot and cold environment were pretty much useless here. Everybody must stay alarmed inside that place since nobody knows if the next vine they stepped on would remain still or suddenly writhe and attempt to ensnare them long enough until another predator comes.

Even though the plaza was under a strict watch and regulation, it didn’t stop the party from doing what they’re supposed to do.

The annoying part is if they want to leave the plaza with their loot, they have to go through an inspection.

It’s invasive and something that many martial artists became dissatisfied with, but the GMU won’t budge.

Ren doesn’t mind, though, because he has a system inventory that hasn’t been exposed yet.