Inside the Red Temple, the Bald Strongman stared intently at the Altar, his complexion grave.
A young man dressed in a blue Bodysuit, resembling a superhero, walked over and said, "Old Gao, I'll hold things here. You should rest for a while."
The Bald Strongman, referred to as Old Gao, rubbed his temples and asked, "Lei Huo, have there been any abnormal energy fluctuations within Wanghai City?"
Lei Huo replied, "The situation is currently stable. There are no signs of an erosion point appearing yet."
Old Gao's expression softened slightly, and he continued to press, "How is the Citizen evacuation going?"
Lei Huo shook his head, "The situation is not optimistic. Transferring the population of an entire city in such a short time is unrealistic. We can only evacuate as many people as possible to minimize losses when the Plane erosion descends."
Old Gao sighed and silently watched the Altar.
Having the Ability but being forced to watch the thing he was supposed to protect collapse before his eyes.
That feeling was damn awful.
Seeing Old Gao's gloomy complexion, Lei Huo tried to comfort him, "Don't be too pessimistic. What if there's a turning point? Look at the time; it's already been an hour since the Instance began."
Old Gao exhaled a breath of stale air irritably, "What use is one hour? Even ten times that wouldn't be enough."
"You can't say that," Leng Shan, the Game Breaker nearby, interjected.
"The first hour of Death upon entering an Instance is when Players are most likely to fail. For 10% of Instances, surviving the First Encounter Kill is enough to find a way to hide until completion."
Old Gao replied irritably, "Of course I know those statistics, but I'm different from you. I am the Person in Charge of Wanghai City; I can't be as optimistic as you all."
"If we weren't facing a B-rank Instance with a 0% Survival rate that is about to go Out of Control, and if the Game Breaker we currently have wasn't a Newcomer who just joined the Abyss Game, I could afford to be less pessimistic."
Old Gao rubbed his shiny scalp. He knew they meant well, but he still couldn't suppress his inner frustration.
"Speaking of statistics, not counting the difficulty increase from the impending loss of control, what was the fastest record for clearing a B-rank Instance in Official records? It was Level 11! That was a genius meticulously nurtured by a Major Organization. I was Level 15 when I cleared a B-rank Instance for the first time."
"If a Newcomer can clear the Moonlight Sanatorium, I'll run naked around Baishui Bay!"
Wu Chang, currently inside the Instance, was unaware of the bet being made in the Temple. He was currently aiming Silver Dawn at the dying Jinton.
As an Elite Monster, even a minor BOSS in a B-rank Instance, Jinton's Vitality was incredibly tenacious; even with half his head blown off, he hadn't died.
However, under the Restraint of the Contract's Strength, Jinton's Vitality was rapidly draining away.
He seemed to have understood something. The only remaining eye flickered with unwillingness as he reached out and grabbed Wu Chang's trouser leg.
"You schemed against me, you despicable Outsider!"
"Despicable? If you're bad, practice more. If you can't afford to play, don't play. Why resort to personal attacks?" Wu Chang stepped back, shaking off Jinton's hand, and fired two more shots into Jinton's Body.
The Silver Bullet condensed by the Silver Dawn Skill burned with Explosive and scorching effects with every shot. The silver-white enveloped Jinton's Body. The Grease covering Jinton's Body served as the finest accelerant, causing the silver flames to burn fiercely, the firelight shooting straight toward the Ceiling.
As the flames burned, a faint red Grudge flew out from the fire and attached itself to him.
This was the first time he had witnessed a Grudge forming.
Gazing at the Grudge, its owner was indeed Jinton. The scene contained within was the gambling match that had just occurred.
However, one point required attention: the Last words within Jinton's Grudge were not about being unwilling to lose to Wu Chang at the gambling table, but rather a strange piece of information.
「The Sacrifice is about to begin, the God is destined to Incarnate; this is the Heavenly Mandate, unstoppable.」
A few minutes later, as the flames died down, Jinton's Body turned into a layer of black, thin ash.
The violent silver flames burned away everything, leaving behind only a Key and a wooden Seal.
The dozens of Grudges that had originally attached themselves to Jinton in the room dissipated, leaving only the final Deep Red Grudge stubbornly remaining, which then attached itself to the Key in Jinton's room.
Wu Chang clasped his hands together, bowed toward the spot where the Grudges had dissipated, and murmured softly:
"May you all draw a good lot when you reincarnate, and be born into a good family in your next life."
The dissipation of the numerous ordinary Grudges brought him no reward, but that did not mean they were without value.
On the contrary, these large numbers of ordinary Grudges provided Wu Chang with a lot of Intelligence.
For example, a Player skilled in exploring Instances triggered Jinton's private night gambling game; once the game started, Jinton would only defeat the Player within the game;
Three Players resisted when attacked by Jinton, and during the fight, Jinton transformed into a non-human Monster and exposed a Weakness: fear of fire.
The non-human Monster, combined with the Weakness of fire, was perfectly countered by the scorching bullets of Silver Dawn.
It was precisely because these Players verified the Intelligence with their lives that the Russian Roulette strategy succeeded so well tonight.
After expressing his thanks to the members of the "Strategy Group," Wu Chang began examining the wooden Seal dropped by Jinton.
The wooden Seal was a palm-sized round plaque, engraved with a crescent-shaped eye. The eye was slightly closed, as if its Gaze was about to vanish along with the moonlight, plunging the world into Darkness.
「Item Name: Walker's Amulet.」
「Item Type: Dungeon Item （Dungeon Items cannot be taken out of the Instance Plane ）.」
「Item Skill: Shelter.」
「Skill Description: When equipped, Will -2, Inspiration +10, and grants one layer of Spirit Barrier, capable of resisting low-level Curse-type and Mysticism-type Attacks. Activating the Seal of Shelter can temporarily strengthen the Spirit Barrier to resist mid-level Curse-type and Mysticism-type Attacks; activation consumes one point of Will per hour.」
「Remark: The benevolent God will Shelter His devout Believers, allowing us to walk in the Darkness without fear of getting lost in the malevolent.」
Reducing Will again, increasing Inspiration.
Looking at the Walker's Amulet, Wu Chang recalled the Special medicine distributed by the Sanatorium.
Both increased the User's Spirit resistance but reduced Will while increasing Inspiration.
According to the Attribute Panel description, Inspiration is an extremely important Attribute for intelligent lifeforms. It can be understood as the degree of Spirit activity, or another form of sensation detached from the organs of the Flesh.
Science, Theology, Art, and even politics—Humanity's understanding of the world in every field is inseparable from Inspiration.
Just as Newton discovered the Law of Universal Gravitation after being hit by an apple; the great ancestor of Meizu discovered that a weapon surpasses eloquent speech while holding the Falling Cherry Blossom Axe.
Countless sparks of sudden Inspiration allowed Humanity to stand out from countless animals and evolve into its current form.
For Players, the mental activation brought by Inspiration translates practically into faster learning and mastery of Skills, making it easier to discover unknown Clues in Instances, and allowing for easier comprehension of various Mysticism and new Concepts...
But Inspiration is a double-edged sword. Mental activity beyond the ordinary allows one to see things that ordinary people cannot.
Moderate discovery creates geniuses; excessive discovery creates madmen.
When what is discovered through Inspiration subverts or even destroys the discoverer's cognition, Inspiration becomes the catalyst for self-destruction.
For this reason, the Inspiration for exploring the unknown and the Will to maintain one's true nature must be increased synchronously; one must walk on two legs.
Yet everything in the Moonlight Sanatorium leans toward reducing Will and increasing Inspiration.
It is as if some entity residing in the Void is using Inspiration as a Trap, luring the people in the Sanatorium toward it.
And that entity is already impatient to show its form to people.
As the speculation formed in Wu Chang's mind, he felt a Gaze fall upon him. He jerked his head up along the Line of Sight toward a Corner of the Ceiling.
The feeling of being watched vanished quickly, as if it were his illusion.
The Dungeon BOSS, is that it? Dare you come out and fight? I'll show you what a Black Hand is!
As his Spirit calmed, he imitated Jinton's action and hung the Walker's Amulet on his Body.
Before equipping the Walker's Amulet, relying on his fifty-plus Inspiration, even without the Admission Notice reminder, he could sense immense danger from outside the room.
After activating the Walker's Amulet, this danger became very faint. When he pushed the door open to leave the room, he only felt that it was a bit colder outside; otherwise, there was no other Anomaly.
Relying on the Walker's Amulet and the number on the Key, he quickly found Jinton's room.
In the iron box under Jinton's bed, he found a White Key.
The moment the Key was obtained, the Deep Red Grudge that had been attached to Jinton dissipated.
Another reward received.