“Shen Lu,” a mysterious game that descended upon Lan Xing 20 years ago. Only one million spots are available each month. Once you become a player, you gain extraordinary power and rise to the top of society. ...... Ling Yi awakens the Super Mutation System. From consumables to divine artifacts, everything can be mutated! Once the mutation potential reaches perfection, he can even mutate multiple abilities comparable to a “golden finger”! By mutating the “Luck +1” talent, he gains the game-breaking ability—Probability Reversal! A 10% probability flips to 90%! A 0.1% drop rate becomes 99.9% for him! By mutating the “Eye of True Vision,” he gains the game-breaking ability—Eye of Truth! Not only can he see invisible units, but he can also view hidden information about items! In addition to these, there’s “Malice Manifestation,” which turns others’ ill will into voice-over commentary, and the “Intelligence-Lowering Aura,” which continuously reduces enemies’ intelligence… One year later.
Chapter 14: Dark Sky!
He shook his head, clearing his mind of distracting thoughts. Wang Ao watched his grandson, who was still brooding in silence. Fearing that continuing like this might make him ill, he finally couldn’t resist offering some words of comfort. “Actually, you don’t need to worry too much.” “It’s only the end of the first day. As long as there’s still time, there’s still a chance for everyone.” “If he can gain that much experience all at once, so can you.” At this point, Wang Ao stroked his beard with a smile and said, “Don’t forget the intelligence we have!” The reason Wang Shaoyu was so confident he could be the first to reach Level 10 was precisely because the Wang family possessed intelligence on how to defeat a certain type of elite monster on the main path. This had been discovered two months ago by a member of the Wang clan during the April session. Using that method, he had successfully taken down several high-level elite monsters at a relatively low level and had come very close to breaking the leveling record. Now that the method had been refined by members of the Wang clan, Wang Ao was confident his grandson could do even better. “Exactly!” As soon as Wang Ao mentioned this, hope flared up again in Wang Shaoyu’s heart. He leapt to his feet excitedly and said with enthusiasm, “With that intel, I can at least gain a few hundred experience points—leveling up two or three times won’t be a problem. That way, I might just catch up to him!” “But that’s still not a sure thing.” Wang Ao shook his head again; a faint chill flashed across his slightly weathered eyes as he continued, “The best approach is to curb the development of that variable.” At this thought, even Wang Ao—one of the first players to enter the Shen Lu—couldn’t help but frown. The skill that summoned the “Flaming Meteor” was clearly a Celestial Phenomenon-type skill. Casting such a skill requires virtually no action from the user, and since the attack comes from the sky, it makes it extremely difficult to track down the caster. Even if they spent a fortune hiring people in Zone 66 to search for him, they’d likely come up empty-handed. “Sigh, well, let’s give it a try anyway...” It wasn’t until noon, when the Sun was high in the sky, that Ling Yi lazily got out of bed. After taking his time to wash up, he got dressed and prepared to head out. In the modern world, life is simply inconvenient without a cell phone, so he planned to buy one on this trip. If he’d only had the 1,000 subsidy funds he received yesterday, he wouldn’t have even considered it. But now, he had gold coins! In the real world, the exchange rate between gold coins and Global Coins is 1:50. That is, 1 gold coin can be exchanged for 50 Global Coins. Global Coins is short for “Global People’s Universal Currency”; before Shen Lu arrived, everyone used this currency. On the Shen Lu forum, users can exchange between the two currencies. Before heading out, he exchanged 200 of his 1,000-plus gold coins for Global Coins. As a result, he now carried a “fortune” of 11,000! Half an hour later. Stepping out of a cell phone store, Ling Yi sat down on a chair outside, wondering if he should have lunch right there in the square. This is Firefly Town’s famous Tianxing Plaza, a massive complex housing everything from clothing and food to entertainment. The first floor sells fresh produce and daily necessities; the second floor offers clothing, shoes, and hats; the third floor features furniture, home appliances, cell phones, and computers; the fourth floor is home to restaurants; and the fifth floor houses a movie theater and arcade... It happened to be Saturday, so the plaza was particularly crowded. A quick glance revealed a sea of handsome men and beautiful women dressed in their finest. “Hmm… I guess I’ll grab a bite to eat.” Ling Yi strolled around, taking his time as he made his way up to the third floor, where he found a relatively quiet restaurant and went inside. He didn’t have any particular preferences for his meal and didn’t want to wait in a long line like everyone else just because a certain place was popular. But once he actually stepped inside, he realized the place was already packed. Only a table in the very back corner was empty. “Welcome! What would you like to order...?” The waitress spotted Ling Yi and immediately approached him with a beaming smile. A few minutes later. Just as Ling Yi was leisurely enjoying his lunch, a delicate voice, as soft as a little rabbit’s, suddenly came from behind him on the left. “Um… hello, may I… may I sit here?” Though soft, her diction was clear, and her voice was sweet and melodious. Ling Yi turned to look and saw a young woman in her early twenties holding a tray. She was gazing at him with eyes as blue as a clear sky, her gaze gentle and harmless. Two faint blushes of crimson had appeared on her lovely, snow-white, flawless face due to her shyness. Her fingers, holding the tray, were slender and fair, with her nails neatly painted with pink nail polish. “Go ahead.” Ling Yi nodded in response, then watched as the young woman walked to the seat across from him, gently set down her tray, and slowly sat down. She then began to eat her lunch elegantly and quietly. A refreshing, sweet, and faint milky scent wafted from the girl, but Ling Yi pretended not to notice and kept his head down, continuing to eat. This quiet and peaceful atmosphere didn’t last long. Just as Ling Yi was about to finish his lunch Good heavens. It suddenly went dark! The dining hall, which had been brightly lit by natural light, turned as dark as the dead of night in just five seconds. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face! Just as Ling Yi was puzzled, waves of panicked shouts suddenly erupted throughout the dining hall! “Dark Sky! The Dark Sky has appeared!” “What level? What level is this?! Please don’t let it be Level 2 or higher!!” “Shh, shh, shh! Everyone, keep it down, keep it down—the monsters are about to appear!” “Is there a player here? Even if you’re just a few levels—just let me know so I can feel a little better...” The sudden outburst of commotion quickly died down. In the blink of an eye, the room was once again so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Ling Yi was sitting in the corner by the window. Looking out the window on his right, he saw that it was pitch black outside as well. Apart from streetlights, landscape lighting, and LED lights along the sidewalk, he couldn’t see a single glimmer of light. ‘Black Sky? What’s going on?’ He furrowed his brow in thought, switched his phone to dark mode, and began searching. A moment later, he found the following information. [Opportunities often come with danger, and the emergence of Shen Lu is no exception. ] [We’ve discovered that since Shen Lu appeared, a phenomenon where “an entire area suddenly turns black” can occur anywhere in the world at any time. Accompanying this phenomenon are various monsters from Shen Lu. ] [We call this phenomenon “Black Sky”! ] [Based on the level range of the monsters that appear, we classify Black Sky into four levels from lowest to highest] [Level 1–30 monsters: Level 3 Black Sky. Level 31–60 monsters: Level 2 Black Sky. Level 61–90 monsters: Level 1 Black Sky. Level 90 and above: Grand Black Sky. ] [Once a Dark Sky occurs, civilians should take shelter where they are, avoid moving around unnecessarily, refrain from creating light sources, and avoid making noise... ] Having read this far, Ling Yi now had a basic understanding of the Dark Sky. “So it’s just an area going dark and monsters appearing... Then, as long as you’re strong enough, there’s really nothing to fear.” However, he was still very weak at the moment, so he’d better stay hidden. After all, even a Level 3 Dark Sky event could very well spawn a dozen or two dozen monsters. Unless he used [Starfall], he wouldn’t stand a chance against them. But in the real world, the [Starfall] skill couldn’t be used carelessly. If he wasn’t careful, people might mistake him for a saboteur—someone using the pretext of fighting monsters to actually wreak havoc on the city—and that would spell big trouble.
