Chapter 9: The Ninth Cup

Chapter 9: The Ninth Cup

He Wuning knew that the official command center had rough evaluations for most players. The "intermediary" had explicitly told He Wuning that he was rated A on his file and that if he joined a combat team, he would be a key talent to cultivate.

But He Wuning refused.

He had always been a lone wolf player. Joining a team would likely just mean causing trouble, being insubordinate, and having too much self-will—unsuitable.

He Wuning was clear in his mind that choosing to tell Yi Luo about his ability changes served two purposes: trusting him and also notifying the officials.

He Wuning had just accepted Yi Luo's request, opened his backpack, paused, then looked up, "Are you in a hurry?"

"Huh? Not really," Yi Luo raised an eyebrow, "What's up? Is the synthesis time longer now?"

He Wuning took out his skinning knife and got off the car, "Not enough materials."

After the milk tea upgrade, the material consumption increased significantly. The materials they had gathered during the day were diverse, but there weren't enough tea leaves and milk.

Yi Luo was taken aback, then couldn't help laughing, "So you're... killing and selling on the spot?"

He sat down in the driver's seat without hesitation, "Use the car, let me drive for a bit?"

He Wuning thought it over and agreed that using the car would be more efficient, so he nodded and put away his knife.

Yi Luo drove steadily, and He Wuning leaned against the car door, closing his eyes to rest. Yi Luo observed him through the rearview mirror and asked, "No speakers in your car?"

Q-jiang floated up excitedly, "I can sing for you!"

Yi Luo immediately declined, "Never mind."

Q-jiang whimpered, "Wah."

He turned a corner and stopped, gesturing for He Wuning to get out and collect materials, "See if you have enough now."

"I think you should install a collector in your car. You could gather materials while driving; it would be so convenient."

"I don't know how to do that," He Wuning said matter-of-factly, "Can you repair and modify vehicles?"

"I wish I had some skills for modifying vehicles," Yi Luo shrugged, "We'll see if the system gives us any."

He Wuning collected the materials, hesitated, then asked, "Have you seen a prop called 'Administrator Privilege Fragment'?"

Yi Luo's gaze suddenly became strange, "What did you say just now?"

He Wuning frowned at him and repeated, "Administrator Privilege Fragment."

Yi Luo's expression was indescribable, "…What did you say? Why did the game mute you? Did you curse me?"

He Wuning remained expressionless, "Idiot."

"That I heard. So you weren't cursing me," Yi Luo raised an eyebrow slightly, "Why can't the system hear that?"

He Wuning frowned, and Q-jiang peeked out quietly, "It's useless. Only those with the right qualifications can access that information. You don't have permission to disclose it yet."

He Wuning paused, opened his communication device, and tried sending a message to Yi Luo— "Administrator Privilege Fragment."

Yi Luo opened it and saw that the message had turned into gibberish. He seemed to realize something and looked at He Wuning with a probing gaze.

"It looks like you've had some unusual encounters."

He Wuning looked somewhat helpless, and Yi Luo laughed, "Forget it, no rush. We'll try again later. Is the milk tea ready? I'll head back and fix your car before I go…"

Before he finished speaking, his gaze froze as he scanned the safe zone, and his smile vanished, "He Wuning, look at the boundary of the safe zone."

"Isn't it… expanding?"

They were a distance from the safe zone, and it was night, so only someone with Yi Luo's exceptional sniper abilities could see the boundary clearly. But Yi Luo was certain.

"It really is expanding." Yi Luo frowned, "The sign of the noodle shop in the city used to show only half, but now we can see the new barbecue stand sign."

He Wuning opened the forum, and it was clear that others had noticed the anomaly in the safe zone. Players were panicking, and the audience forums were even more chaotic. Many residents around City A were calling for evacuation.

—In reality, they had already evacuated. As soon as the game-affected area appeared, the residents around City A had activated emergency plans and evacuated. Now the safe zone had expanded by less than two meters, posing no real threat.

But people in panic had forgotten rational thinking, and some were even shouting about fleeing abroad. Unfortunately, the Earth is round, and other regions like B and C also had game-affected areas, making escape impossible.

At this moment, someone started solving geography problems, calculating the region on Earth farthest from the three game-affected areas and calling it the "fated circle," claiming they would start running from the poison globally.

He Wuning shook his head, about to switch forums when his gaze froze.

Yi Luo seemed to be contacting the officials, and his expression wasn't pleasant. He hung up the call and looked at He Wuning, who pursed his lips, "Did you see the new region?"

Yi Luo rubbed his temples, "Yes. Besides the A, B, and C regions, there's a new game-affected area. There are now four affected areas on Earth."

The audience forums had already posted news from external officials. On the blue planet, four circular red areas appeared like wounds.

Yi Luo was silent for a moment before saying, "The expansion of the game zones isn't new—these details will be announced soon. I can tell you now."

"In the days leading up to City A becoming a game-affected area, the boundary expanded rapidly, increasing its radius by nearly a hundred meters."

"Did you see the number of online players in each region on the forum? That's the number of survivors."

He Wuning glanced at it; the current online count in City A had barely broken one million. He remembered this number hadn't changed much...

"Many people have already died," Yi Luo said softly, "Once the number drops below one million, the game-affected area expands. Today, monsters of similar strength to the stone giants appeared worldwide, causing a sharp increase in deaths."

"Region B is in a developed country, and they've made some adjustments. Although the radius of Region B expanded by nearly ten kilometers, they managed to control it. But Region C..."

"They recently had armed conflicts, and the game-affected area directly included their capital. It's almost in a state of anarchy now, and after the number of survivors dropped sharply, the game-affected area expanded explosively until it formed a large circle covering approximately one thousand square kilometers. Then, another new game zone formed near Region C."

He Wuning fell silent for a moment. He seemed to rarely ask such naive questions: "We didn't lose many people, did we?"

Yi Luo lowered his head: "… The number of people decreased by five percent, and most of them were key training targets with stronger awakened abilities."

"The squad led by 'Healer' Bai Yan was almost completely wiped out. Only he was sent back from the respawn point and is now in the intensive care unit."

He Wuning: "…"

He knew there was a respawn point within the safe zone. Players killed by other players, rather than monsters, would not die but would respawn at the respawn point after losing certain equipment, items, and all their levels.

After discovering this, players who were in dire straits would kill their companions themselves to ensure they could survive…

He Wuning closed his eyes, gripped the knife in his hand tightly, and for a moment, he seemed to recall the sticky sensation of blood on his hands, clenching his teeth forcefully.

"Why did it only expand so little?"

He heard himself ask.

"There are monitoring stations outside," Yi Luo looked at him. "Once the number of people drops, the authorities will send in troops to replenish the numbers."

"The recent expansion of the safe zone caught everyone off guard. No one expected that so many people would be lost today, and initially, they were unprepared."

"It seems that Zone C has become a fully formed game area. Once a complete game area forms, they establish a new one. Currently, we can only suppress further expansion by replenishing the numbers to avoid more losses."

"Although we don't know the purpose of the game, it appears to be consuming our land."

"Ding dong—"

At this moment, almost everyone in the global game-affected zones lifted their heads simultaneously, as an emotionless mechanical voice echoed through the sky.

"Congratulations to 50% of Blue Star players for completing the awakening mission. The first unscheduled update is complete, version 1.1 has finished random testing and is officially launched today."

"Some monster strengths have been increased, five new ordinary monsters have been added, three new dungeons have been added, dungeon difficulty levels have been introduced, the bug preventing team damage in dungeons has been fixed, five new wild bosses have been added, and the spawn rate of wild bosses has been increased…"

With each announcement, everyone's hearts sank a little more.

"Wishing you all a pleasant gaming experience."

He Wuning heard a burst of curses erupt from the safe zone, mixed with cries of despair. He tilted his head upward toward the sky.

No one knew what the game intended to do. It gave humans the possibility of awakening, and as awakened humans gradually adapted to fighting monsters, it increased the monsters' strength again, like a cruel observational experiment.

His communicator beeped. He Wuning absentmindedly opened it; the sender was "World Voice" — "Version 1.1 of the game has launched. More ways to obtain administrator permission fragments are available. We look forward to your early reign. Wishing you a pleasant gaming experience."

Administrator permission fragments.

He Wuning asked Yi Luo: "Have you seen any items with unknown uses marked with three question marks?"

Yi Luo snapped back to reality and shook his head: "No."

"Then keep an eye out for them; they're good things." He Wuning couldn't say more, so he hinted indirectly.

Yi Luo guessed it had something to do with what He Wuning wanted to say but was censored and nodded seriously: "Alright, I'll let the others know too. You alone…"

He Wuning didn't look up: "I won't die."

Yi Luo laughed: "You'd better not."

He got out of the car, his tall and slender figure seemingly blending into the night. He Wuning called out to him: "Hey."

Yi Luo turned around. He Wuning seemed to have called out impulsively and hesitated before saying: "Are you usually free?"

"Huh?" Yi Luo was a bit puzzled.

He Wuning looked away: "My car breaks down often."

Yi Luo laughed: "Then call me anytime."

He waved goodbye to He Wuning and walked away. He Wuning put his hands in his pockets, but his fingers in his pocket twitched slightly.

He frowned and glanced at his hand, as if disgusted that he had instinctively responded.

He leaned against the car door and asked Q-jiang: "What specific qualifications are needed?"

Q-jiang perched on his shoulder: "You need an S-level or higher rating in your ability system, and after awakening, you must possess an intelligent system, as well as… a bit of luck."

"His system rating is definitely fine, but without a cute system like me, it still won't work!"

He Wuning glanced at him, forcing a smile: "Should I thank you?"

"How do you get the fragments?"

Q-jiang answered honestly: "Based on current permissions, they are obtained randomly."

That meant there were hidden rules, but they couldn't tell him yet.

He Wuning took out the key and thought expressionlessly about the two times he had obtained fragments, looking for commonalities…

Only his intuition.

Both times, his intuition told him the monsters seemed to come alive for a moment.

"Can you search for nearby monsters with abnormal strength?" He Wuning looked up at the always full moon. Tonight, he probably wouldn't sleep, so he might as well get some exercise.

Q-jiang: "Babe, why are you taking a knife out late at night?"

He Wuning: "To restock."