Chapter 33: Settlement

Chapter 33: Settlement

The pale young man couldn't suppress a gasp that escaped his throat; as he lifted his gaze forward, his translucent light-colored eyes seemed to be veiled with a delicate mist.

The vines binding him gradually loosened, and the bone-chilling seawater turned tepid, gentle waves caressing his body with a ticklish sensation like the brush of feathers.

They supported Qin Fei's body, gently rising and falling with minimal movement.

Opposite, those blue eyes had already gathered the familiar sparkle that Qin Fei knew well.

The entire sea became tranquil.

The sense of crisis emanating from the unknown darkness was swiftly dissipating.

Qin Fei furrowed his brows and gazed straight ahead.

In the moment their eyes met, a fleeting hint of discomfort flickered in the other person's gaze.

The contours of his jawline tensed, and his head instinctively tilted to the side, only to be seemingly forcibly reoriented back to its original position.

Can a source of corruption feel embarrassment?

Qin Fei blinked, gazing leisurely into the eyes of the source with a composed expression.

Compared to It, Qin Fei had shown remarkable adaptability to the unexpected intimacy just now.

Not because of anything else.

It was simply because Qin Fei had thick skin.

The man, with most of his body concealed in the thicket, hesitated before speaking.

Qin Fei understood His unspoken words and waved his hand with a grin. "It's alright, you didn't mean it."

Though the reason for Its earlier state was unclear, it was obvious that It had lost control.

There was no need to dwell on actions taken while one's consciousness was compromised.

The source froze for a moment, a fleeting emotion flickering in Its eyes, unreadable to Qin Fei.

Soon, It calmed down and nodded, saying, "Just now..."

There was a pause as if It was unsure of how to explain further.

Eventually, It changed the subject, "Don't you still understand why you're here?"

Its voice echoed eerily in the depths of the sea, sounding as though it originated from an ancient era long gone, carrying a resonance that stirred a deep sense of connection within one's very soul.

Qin Fei nodded in response.

Finally, the main storyline is approaching.

Regarding this unexpected arrival in these waters, Qin Fei was well aware that it must have transpired beyond the boundaries of the original scenario.

At that time, the players had reached the final stage of the hidden quest. The system notification clearly informed them that upon shattering the bronze mirror, the mission would be completed, and the dungeon would come to an end.

And apart from that, there's more.

Whether it was the unusual behavior of the copper mirror in Qin Fei's hands.

Was it even earlier, when the altar, after absorbing Qin Fei's blood, suddenly went into a frenzy, revealing itself one by one?

They seemed like coincidental occurrences.

And the reason behind them—

Qin Fei: "Was it you?"

Confirming Qin Fei's suspicion, It replied, "I sensed your presence."

The altar and the copper mirror served as conduits connecting this sealed sea to the outside world, being the weakest points of the seal within the entire dungeon.

From the moment Qin Fei's blood touched the altar's surface, It became aware.

Beneath, withered black thorns spread in all directions, circling around to reinforce the binds on Its body. Long, sharp spines pierced through Its black robe, embedding into the flesh. Qin Fei could see tiny droplets of blood seeping from Its body, then silently dissolving into the seawater.

"This sea area was originally imprisoning an evil deity."

The Source of Pollution spoke with a calm tone.

Originally trapped.

Originally.

This word surprised Qin Fei. He had always taken it for granted that the evil deity Yu Aba worshiped and tried to summon was the Source of Pollution itself.

But now, from what It implied, it seemed not to be the case?

Indeed, it was not.

As Qin Fei listened to the Source's subsequent account, he gradually pieced together the entire story.

Yu Aba had been devoted to an evil deity whose purpose was "world destruction." The followers of this deity wandered throughout the lands, causing endless turmoil.

One day, the evil deity was ambushed by righteous apostles and sealed beneath this dark sea.

However, its followers did not abandon their faith. They continued to lurk in every corner of the world.

Just like Yu Ah Po, concealing their true identity and purpose under the guise of an ordinary person, they silently prepared for the release of the evil god.

As for the source of corruption, it had nothing to do with the evil god.

"I stumbled upon this place by accident. As for the reason, it's rather complicated."

"The current me is not whole."

The source of corruption explained.

"Due to some reason, my soul has fragmented into twelve pieces, scattered across different worlds."

The source of corruption was a life form existing beyond the dimensions known to humans. It could exist simultaneously in countless timelines. With its power, it should have been able to easily reassemble its essence.

"However, the Rule Game's system has hidden four of those fragments," the source of corruption's voice turned colder.

Due to the deficiency in its primordial soul, it wasn't clear about the exact conflict between itself and the system; it could only speculate based on the available information.

"Similar to me, the Rule Game is also an entity from a higher dimension. It descended to a lower plane of sapient existence, nourishing itself by absorbing negative energy from various worlds."

The Incomplete Contaminant Source had a limited understanding of many matters, which the System exploited to deceive It.

Concealing its possession of the fragments, the System convinced the Contaminant Source to form an alliance and jointly construct a game of rules.

In truth, the Contaminant Source was well aware from the start that the Rule System held malicious intentions.

However, in search of Its scattered fragments, It pretended to cooperate with the System.

"The vision you just witnessed was one of my soul shards."

Due to being a fragment, Its mind was muddled and unclear.

And as a fragment, It acted like a beast, following Its primal instincts. That was why, upon seeing Qin Fei, It was overwhelmed by the most primitive desire within Its depths, leading It to commit...

Those impulsive actions.

The man in the bramble's gaze darkened.

Qin Fei furrowed his brow. "Wait, wasn't there an evil deity sealed in the ocean? How did it become one of your fragments?"

The Contaminant looked up innocently: "He came first, and I arrived later."

"This place was originally the sealing ground for that malevolent deity. After my fragment descended, the seal naturally transferred onto me."

Qin Fei: "What about that malevolent deity?"

Did it run away?

The Contaminant: "It vanished."

Surprise flickered across the young man's face, and the Contaminant felt awkward again: "Just... vanished, gone."

The Contaminant was an entirely different entity compared to the malevolent deity.

Even as a mere fragment, the contamination it could cause was immeasurable.

From the moment its fragment descended upon this sea region, the malevolent deity dissipated completely into foam within the ocean, merging with the seawater and becoming impossible to reemerge.

Qin Fei: "..."

The Evil God was truly pitiful.

From then on, the fragments of the Pollution Source replaced the former Evil God, remaining eternally at the bottom of the sea.

In truth, this seal couldn't truly contain the fragments. But as fragments, they lacked any sense of autonomy.

It slumbered continuously, like a piece of shattered glass lying deep in the ocean, posing no aggression whatsoever.

"The System might not even be aware of which worlds those four fragments are hidden in," the Pollution Source said.

"That's why it panicked and launched an R-rated live event when it suddenly sensed my presence in this sea area."

In this instance, the objectives of the various factions were strikingly distinct.

Granny Yu had no knowledge of the happenings in the Sea of Seals. Her sole focus was on causing chaos within the werewolf community to rescue her revered Evil God from its plight.

However, the System had somehow learned that the Evil God was no longer trapped within the Sea of Seals.

Instead, it was a fragment of the pollution source that the system was desperately trying to conceal.

If left unchecked, once the 15th of July arrived and Old Lady Yu connected the Sealed Sea to the real world, the fragment would awaken, and its main body would become aware.

At that point, the system would be powerless.

To nip the crisis in the bud, the system had orchestrated this R-rated live broadcast.

The system couldn't destroy the fragment, nor could anyone else.

Moreover, bound by the 'Laws,' the system was not authorized to interfere with the operation of the individual rule-bound micro-worlds.

Thus, the system planned an indirect approach, compelling players to enter the Werewolf Community and disrupt Old Lady Yu's sacrificial ritual.

After assessing the players' abilities, the system prepared two sabotage strategies.

The first was a permanent solution: to destroy the bronze mirror.

That bronze mirror was the sole key to unlocking the Sealed Sea. Once destroyed, the dimensions within the Sealed Sea would become isolated islands, inaccessible to all.

In that case, the contaminated source fragment would slumber eternally at the bottom of the sea, untouched by external influences.

Though this method was excellent, it was not an easy task to accomplish.

The copper mirror only learned about the werewolf community's existence within the instance dungeon at the last moment.

Transforming a world into a regulated world required numerous intricate procedures.

The System didn't have the luxury of time to spare, so it could only designate the werewolf community as the most exceptional and quickest-to-produce R-rated instance dungeon.

And for this very reason, the System could only select two A-rank players to enter the instance dungeon.

As a contingency plan, the System came up with a second strategy.

That was to have the players disrupt the upcoming sacrificial ritual.

This task was much more manageable.

The System granted the players a full fifteen days, within which no matter how incompetent this group might be, it would be impossible for them not to find a single ghost.

The possibility of the sacrificial ritual proceeding smoothly was zero.

As long as time could be delayed, the System could think of other ways to destroy the bronze mirror.

It had miscalculated, however, despite all its calculations.

"Do you remember those altars?" the Contaminant Source asked.

The bronze mirror was composed of fragments broken from the altars, so those altars were also part of the key to unlocking the Sea of Seals.

When Qin Fei's blood touched the altar, the fragments that had been slumbering at the bottom of the sea suddenly trembled.

"You've awakened the fragments," the Contaminant Source said with absolute certainty.

With the fragments awakened, their main body sensed their presence.

Moreover, Qin Fei's blood had cleansed the key to the Sea of Seals, allowing the Contaminant Source to reach this area without any hindrance.

Now, those fragments had fully merged with the main body.

As He spoke, Qin Fei's gaze would involuntarily be drawn to His expression.

He didn't look directly at the young man in front of Him; His lowered eyelashes hid the deep blue of His eyes.

For some reason, when Qin Fei gazed at Him up close, an odd sense of familiarity would well up within him, as if they had known each other for a long time.

Finally, Qin Fei couldn't resist asking the question that had been on his mind for a while: "What kind of connection do we actually have?"

Was his blood special to the Pollution Source?

As Qin Fei finished speaking, apologetic emotions flowed in the depths of those sapphire eyes: "I'm not quite sure myself."

"You see, I've lost a lot of my memories," the Pollution Source said. "All I can sense is your uniqueness."

"You're different from everyone else, from all the other players."

"To me, to every fragment of myself, you are a one-of-a-kind existence."

There was something oddly peculiar about those words.

Qin Fei raised an eyebrow but didn't respond.

"So, what should we do now?" Qin Fei asked.

Some of his previous speculations had been confirmed – there was indeed an adversarial relationship between the contamination source and the system.

Since the system aimed to trap the contamination source in the Sea of Seals, it surely wouldn't stand idly by and watch as It escaped.

Qin Fei wasn't worried about what the system might do to the contamination source.

Given how powerful the contamination source was, the system likely had no means to deal with It.

His concern was for himself.

He was the one who had awakened the fragments of the contamination source and lured Its main body into this underwater realm.

Now that the main body was about to flee with the fragments, what would he do?

Once the system discovered the issue, it wouldn't let him off lightly.

Tsk.

The future truly seemed bleak.

Upon hearing the Pollution Source's words, Qin Fei felt a sense of despair. However, the Pollution Source was subtly delighted by Qin Fei's unintentional use of "we."

A soothing smile tugged at the corners of Its lips. "Don't worry."

As Qin Fei had anticipated, the Pollution Source couldn't leave directly.

It had sneaked into this sea without a trace, and it would have to leave the same way.

The entangled vines suddenly dispersed, retreating beneath the surface of the sea like an animation on rewind, at an astonishing speed.

The man clad in black robes regained his freedom. He extended his right hand towards Qin Fei, with a black ring resting in his palm.

It wasn't quite accurate to call it a ring; it resembled more of a signet ring.

The entire object was pitch-black, with a smooth surface adorned by silver patterns that resembled chaotic threads. Despite their randomness, they exuded a wild yet vibrant aesthetic.

"What's this?" Qin Fei took the ring.

The Pollution Source replied, "It's for you."

For him?

Qin Fei gave the Pollution Source a glance, his lips curving into a faint, enigmatic smile. "Giving me a ring on our third meeting? Is that so?"

It was a playful remark, spoken without much thought from Qin Fei.

The Pollution Source, upon hearing this, froze for a moment, maintaining an unperturbed expression. Unnoticed by others, however, a flush of red involuntarily crept up its ears.

Qin Fei himself paused as well.

Although Qin Fei often presented himself as gentle and approachable, he wasn't one to crack jokes easily.

Frankly, he and the Pollution Source weren't really close.

So why had such casually intimate words slipped out of his mouth?

"The ring is for you. Inside the instances, it can conceal all my auras, making the system unable to detect me," the Pollution Source said with a soft cough.

Similar to Aunt Yu's copper mirror, this ring was also a spatial key.

"After I enter the ring's space, you can return to the junkyard, destroy that mirror, and pretend nothing ever happened," the Pollution Source continued.

"The system won't notice," Qin Fei was told.

Once the copper mirror was shattered, the system would assume that the crisis had been completely resolved.

Qin Fei's eyes lit up slightly.

This was indeed a good plan.

He reached out to take the ring, and as if it had gained consciousness, it slid onto Qin Fei's right ring finger on its own.

The ring initially seemed too large, but it now fit perfectly on Qin Fei's finger.

The source of contamination remained silent, taking Qin Fei's hand with the ring on it.

The skin their palm touched was soft and cold; the next instant, the figure before them vanished abruptly.

Turbulent waves stirred beneath the sea, and before Qin Fei could blink, an immense force surged towards him.

The world flipped upside down, and space twisted—Qin Fei found himself back in the junkyard once more.

Everything was still as it was before. He had spent a long time underwater, yet it appeared that only a second had passed externally.

Lin Ye and the ghostly flame still stood there with their mouths agape, looking at him expectantly.

Mi Yang, like a worried mother, anxiously gazed at the wound on Qin Fei's palm.

The cracks on the copper mirror had vanished, leaving it whole and polished. As the blood droplets fell, they rolled along the slightly tilted curve of the mirror's surface and landed on the ground.

Qin Fei lowered his head, and the mirror still reflected his indistinct face.

What black mist, what ocean floor—it was like a fleeting, surreal dream that had suddenly descended upon them.

The viewers in the live stream were still going wild with excitement.

"Hubby, smash it, smash it!!"

"Hubby, charge! Ahhh, victory will always belong to our Princess!!"

"It's amazing that you finished the hidden quest in just two days. Your D-rank seems different from mine, huh??"

"Hilarious, Butterfly is pounding on the door in frustration outside."

...

No one noticed anything amiss.

Neither the teammates within the live stream nor the viewers outside of it.

Qin Fei lowered his gaze.

Amidst countless expectant gazes, the young man raised his hands high into the air.

"Bang!"

It was the sound of something hitting the ground.

Immediately after, with a "crack," the copper mirror shattered before everyone's eyes.

"It's a success!!!"

In each of the live-streaming rooms, an overwhelming chorus of celebration threatened to lift the roofs off.

"Congratulations to Player Xiao Qin for successfully completing this instance dungeon's hidden mission!!!"

"The winning team of this R-rated competition: Red Team!"

"This R-rated competition has concluded. Please exit the stream in an orderly manner, host!"

The impartial system announcement echoed throughout the instance world. In the junkyard, every player's face was illuminated with indescribable joy.

Aside from Qin Fei.

The moment the system's announcement concluded, Qin Fei's face froze abruptly.

...Announcing the end of the instance and the victorious faction was one thing.

But why did it also announce who had completed the hidden quest?????

Wasn't this tantamount to signing his death warrant?!

Sure enough, in the next second, Qin Fei heard a world-shattering roar coming from outside the junkyard:

"Wang Mingming!!!"

"No, Xiao Qin, you wait for me!!!!!!!!"

There was no suspense; the one shouting outside was none other than Butterfly.

Gosh!

Qin Fei gasped, the murderous intent in that roar was too intense.

He even began to worry; would Butterfly be angered to death?

Losing the contest wouldn't cost one's life. After struggling hard to survive until the end of the dungeon, it wouldn't be worth it if Butterfly were to kill him out of anger.

The silver-gray gate gradually appeared before the players. Qin Fei rushed in like he was being chased by a pack of dogs.

Worried about being trapped by Butterfly in the transitional space, Qin Fei didn't dare to linger in the settlement space for even a moment this time.

The system's voice echoed incessantly in the pure white space. Qin Fei was like a broken record, urging frantically,

"Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up! Stop talking! Don't calculate anymore, just add all the points to me and let me go!!"

The transitional space was an empty plain with not a single object to hide behind. If Qin Fei were to encounter Butterfly there, it would surely end in tragedy.

This was the first time the system prompt had encountered such a player.

In the past, who wasn't grinning from ear to ear when they left the dungeon alive? Upon hearing the system announce the point settlement, everyone's smiles stretched wide.

Qin Fei's unappreciative attitude dampened the system's enthusiasm. Besides, Qin Fei's incessant chatter was louder than its announcements.

Why bother broadcasting at all then?

Grumbling, the system's voice vanished, and Qin Fei dashed out of the settlement space at a speed ten times faster than before.

Scenes on both sides of his vision blurred as he ran, giving the illusion of a high-speed train passing by. Qin Fei couldn't quite grasp the reason behind this.

He could turn every instance into a parkour challenge, and that was acceptable.

But why did he have to keep running like this even after completing an instance?!!

Parkour, get out of China!!

Qin Fei cursed inwardly, but he didn't dare slow down. Remembering the incident with the butterfly blocking his way outside the living area, Qin Fei headed straight for the service hall without stopping.

He took a shortcut to the staff lounge, where entry required a card. Ariane had given him one last time, seemingly encouraging him to visit often. Qin Fei, of course, saw no reason to be polite about it.

In the lounge, an NPC was sitting on a sofa, engrossed in brewing tea. Upon seeing a player panting as they rushed in, the NPC froze in place.

Qin Fei, taking deep breaths, handed over the access card in his hand. "Hello, I'm looking for Ariane."

With an access card and the ability to correctly name a colleague, this person must be acquainted with Ariane.

Though puzzled as to why Ariane would be on friendly terms with a player, the NPC surprisingly found that they didn't dislike this young man before them.

There was a subtle, inexplicably pleasing scent about him.

The NPC smiled amiably. "I'll go call her for you."

With that, she turned and left, leaving Qin Fei alone in the lounge. He promptly slumped onto the sofa, all sense of decorum forgotten.

Exhausted!!

Qin Fei felt as if his lungs were about to burst out of his mouth.

Back in the settlement space, Qin Fei was so pressed for time that he barely caught what the system's notification had said.

Now that he had some leisure, he could afford to sort out the points he had acquired.

Upon opening his attribute panel, Qin Fei was startled by the lengthy list of points and the prominent notification that greeted him!

It turned out that with his current accumulation of points, he had actually amassed enough to advance to the A-Rank level!