Chapter 69: Talent Upgraded Again, Unlocking Cross-Map Infection Mechanism

Lin Ye couldn't describe the feeling of wearing the abyss decay set. It wasn't just the simple thrill of skyrocketing stats; it was a sense of power seeping out from his very bones. With all eight SSS-grade pieces of equipment active simultaneously, the range of his Decay Domain expanded directly from fifty meters to two hundred and fifty meters. The maximum number of Decay Debuff stacks doubled; originally, it could stack up to one hundred, but now it could reach two hundred. The stat reduction effect also doubled; originally, each stack reduced stats by one percent, but now each stack reduced them by two percent.

He stood on the top floor of the Unscrupulous Business Center, his Decay Domain active. Dark purple and pale golden light covered the entire building and was still extending outward. The players in the Main City Square were all enveloped within it.

The world channel exploded instantly.

"Wocao Wuqing: I was setting up a stall in the square when a Decay Debuff icon suddenly popped up above my head! It scared the hell out of me! Then I realized it was Brother Ye's Decay Domain, and the icon disappeared again."

"Brick-Moving Expert: Can Brother Ye's domain distinguish between friend and foe now? Didn't it use to cover everything indiscriminately?"

"Data Emperor: It's not distinguishing between friend and foe. It's a hidden effect of the abyss decay set. Non-hostile targets within the domain won't trigger the Decay Debuff; only hostile targets will get stacks. Brother Ye can now stroll around with his domain active."

"Invincible Sword God: Strolling around with a two-hundred-and-fifty-meter instant-death domain active? Who would dare to cause trouble in Dawn City then?"

"Yes Little Follower: It's not just Dawn City. It's the entire Chinese Server. Brother Ye is standing in the main city with his domain active, and monsters in wild maps can all be covered."

Lin Ye didn't look at the world channel. He was staring at his Talent panel.

After putting on the set, an extra line of text appeared on his Talent panel. It wasn't a description of the set's effects, but a gray, translucent line of text that looked like a bug.

He stared at that line of text for a long time.

"Cross-Map Decay Infection: Not Unlocked."

Six characters, no explanation, no unlocking conditions, nothing. It was like a scrapped game feature that the programmer forgot to delete, leaving a line of code on the interface.

Lin Ye turned the panel toward Su Qinghan: "Look at this line of text."

Su Qinghan leaned over to look, her brows knitting together: "Cross-Map Decay Infection? Can a Talent take effect across maps?"

"I don't know. It only appeared after I put on the set. It wasn't there before."

Su Qinghan thought for a moment: "Try it?"

Lin Ye nodded. He activated his Decay Domain, compressed its range to the minimum, and then targeted an Abyss Minion in the wild map of Dawn City. That Abyss Minion was a subordinate of the Lord of Destruction, had signed an employment contract, and was honestly mining. Lin Ye applied one layer of Decay Debuff to it. An icon popped up above the Abyss Minion's head, and its health started to drop. Then Lin Ye turned off the domain and stared at that gray line of text on his Talent panel.

No change.

"It's not for Abyss Monsters."

He tried it on normal wild monsters in the wild map again. He applied one layer of Decay Debuff and stared at the panel. Still no change.

"It's not for normal monsters either."

Su Qinghan suddenly said: "Try the Abyss Rift. Does 'cross-map' mean infection through the Abyss Rift?"

Lin Ye's eyes lit up. He walked over to the Abyss Rift. This rift was left over from the Abyss Invasion version, connecting the game world and the bottom layer of the abyss. The rift didn't disappear after the version ended; it became a permanent passage. He stood at the edge of the rift, activated his Decay Domain, and injected a stream of Decay Debuff energy into the rift.

The Abyss Rift acted like a fuse, sucking in the dark purple energy. The energy extended down along the rift, crossed the boundary between the game world and the bottom layer of the abyss, and entered the bottom layer of the abyss. Then, a faint resonance came back from the other end of the rift.

The gray line of text on the Talent panel lit up for a moment. It didn't fully light up; it just flickered, like a faulty light bulb.

The corners of Lin Ye's mouth curled up.

"Found it. The medium of infection is the Abyss Rift. Through the rift, the Decay Debuff is transmitted to another map and then infects the targets in that map."

He increased the energy output. With his Decay Domain fully open, dark purple light poured into the Abyss Rift like a flood. The resonance from the other end of the rift grew stronger, and the line of text on the Talent panel flickered faster and faster. After flickering for about thirty seconds, the gray turned into dark purple.

"Cross-Map Decay Infection: Unlocked. Effect: Transmit Decay Debuff to all Abyss targets in connected maps through the Abyss Rift. Infection Range: All abyss maps on the current server. Infection Efficiency: 100% damage to the primary target, 50% damage to secondary targets, 25% damage to tertiary targets, decreasing with each level."

Lin Ye turned the panel toward Su Qinghan.

Su Qinghan finished reading and was silent for three seconds: "All abyss maps on the current server. That means if you stand next to the Abyss Rift in Dawn City and activate your domain, all Abyss Monsters in all abyss maps across the entire Chinese Server will be hit with the Decay Debuff."

"Not just Abyss Monsters." Lin Ye pointed to a line of small text at the bottom of the panel, "Look at this."

Su Qinghan leaned in to look, her pupils contracting slightly. The small text read: If the target at the end of the infection chain is of Abyssal Lord level, reverse infection can be triggered, extracting the Abyssal Lord's abyss energy to the caster.

Reverse infection. Extracting abyss energy. This meant that Lin Ye could not only kill Abyss Monsters across maps, but also extract the energy of Abyssal Lords and make it his own.

"Let's try it." Lin Ye stood up and walked directly in front of the Abyss Rift. He pressed his hand against the edge of the rift and fully activated his Decay Domain. Dark purple energy surged into the rift like a tide, spreading along the subterranean veins of the bottom layer of the abyss to the entire Chinese Server. Forty-seven abyss cities, forty-seven mid-level lords, and over three hundred low-level lords. The location of every Abyssal Lord was the end of an infection chain.

Lin Ye closed his eyes, feeling the feedback coming back from the other end of the infection chain. Abyss Minion, down. Abyss Elite, down. Abyss Commander, down. The infection chain pushed forward level by level, and the damage decreased level by level, but it couldn't withstand the sheer number of stacks. Lin Ye had stacked fifty layers of Decay Debuff; the primary target took 100% damage per second, secondary targets 50%, and tertiary targets 25%. The Abyss Minions couldn't even withstand the tertiary target damage and fell in droves.

When the infection chain reached the end, the feedback changed.

A stream of pure abyss energy surged back along the infection chain and injected into Lin Ye's Talent core. On his stat panel, all stats started to rise. Strength +10, Agility +10, Intelligence +10, Constitution +10. Then another wave. Strength +20, Agility +20, Intelligence +20, Constitution +20. Each wave of reverse infection meant that an Abyssal Lord had been drained of abyss energy.

The world channel went completely crazy.

"Wocao Wuqing: I was grinding monsters in the wild, and the Abyss Minions nearby suddenly fell down on their own! They weren't hit by players; they just fell! A Decay Debuff icon popped up above their heads, and their HP bars instantly cleared!"

"Brick-Moving Expert: I saw it too! The Abyss Elites fell too! All the Abyss Monsters in the entire wild area are falling!"

"Data Emperor: It's Brother Ye. Brother Ye unlocked a new ability, Cross-Map Infection. He's standing in Dawn City now, and all Abyss Monsters in all abyss maps across the entire Chinese Server are being hit with the Decay Debuff."

"Invincible Sword God: Killing monsters across maps? This is too ridiculous!"

"Yes Little Follower: It's not just killing monsters. Look at Brother Ye's stat panel. His total stats are rising!"

Someone posted a screenshot of Lin Ye's stat panel to the forum. Strength rose from 2,000 to 3,000 and was still rising. Agility rose from 1,800 to 2,700. Intelligence rose from 2,200 to 3,300. Constitution rose from 2,500 to 3,800. All stats nearly doubled.

"Data Emperor: I calculated it. Forty-seven mid-level lords, over three hundred low-level lords. Each one, when reverse-infected, provides stat bonuses to Brother Ye. If he drains them all, Brother Ye's total stats can triple."

"Milk Tea Without Sugar: Triple? Then Brother Ye's base stats are already higher than the level 99 Abyss Council speaker?"

"Data Emperor: Not higher, but crushing. The Lord of Destruction's strength stat is 8,000. After Brother Ye drains all the Abyssal Lords, his strength stat can exceed 10,000."

All players on the server fell silent.

Meanwhile, Lin Ye was standing next to the Abyss Rift, his whole body enveloped in dark purple energy. The reverse infection continued, and the Abyssal Lords' energy poured in ceaselessly. The numbers on his stat panel jumped upward like a stopwatch. Strength broke through 5,000, 6,000, 7,000. Agility broke through 4,000, 5,000. Intelligence broke through 5,000, 6,000. Constitution broke through 6,000, 7,000.

The Lord of Destruction stood at the door, the purple flames in its eyes shrinking to the size of two pinpricks. It had lived for ten thousand years and was seeing someone capable of extracting the source energy of an Abyssal Lord for the first time. Even the first inheritor of the Decay Talent had never achieved such a thing.

Lin Ye opened his eyes and looked at the Lord of Destruction: "How does it feel?"

The Lord of Destruction lowered its head: "Your current power has already exceeded the sum of all speakers of the Abyss Council."

"Not enough yet." Lin Ye turned off his Decay Domain, the infection chain was interrupted, and the reverse infection stopped. His total stats finally stopped at Strength 9,300, Agility 7,800, Intelligence 8,200, and Constitution 9,600. His total stats hadn't quite tripled, but they were already enough to crush any Abyss Council speaker.

"What is the Lord of the Abyss's strength stat?"

The Lord of Destruction was silent for a long time: "Ten thousand years ago, before it was sealed, its strength stat was 50,000."

Lin Ye nodded: "Then it's indeed not enough."

He stood up and flexed his wrists. The abyss decay set had also absorbed some abyss energy during the reverse infection process, and the glow of the eight pieces of equipment was deeper than when they had just been crafted. The space-time rule fragments on the helmet originally shimmered with seven-colored light, but now there was a layer of dark purple within the seven-colored light. The breastplate, pauldrons, gauntlets, belt, greaves, and boots each had fused with the source energy of the Abyssal Lords.

The system popped up a notification.

"Your 'abyss decay set' has absorbed Abyssal Lord source energy, and the set effect has been upgraded. Decay Domain range expanded to 500 meters. Decay Debuff stack limit increased to 300 layers. Stat reduction effect increased to 3% per layer. New effect 'Abyss Resonance': All Abyss targets within the domain have their total stats decreased by 50%."

500 meters. 300 layers. 3% per layer. Plus the 50% attribute reduction from Abyss Resonance. Lin Ye calculated silently. With 300 layers of Decay Debuff fully stacked, it deals 900% of the target's maximum health as true damage per second. Theoretically, no target can survive more than a second. But the Lord of the Abyss has 50,000 in Strength attributes, which is more than five times his own. With such a huge attribute gap, it's questionable whether the Decay Debuff can even be applied.

"Need to level up again." Lin Ye looked at the newly unlocked cross-server infection mechanism on his Talent panel. "The infection range is currently limited to the current server. If I can infect across servers and also siphon the energy of the overseas Abyssal Lords, my attributes could double a few more times."

Su Qinghan looked at him: "You want to go to overseas servers to siphon the Abyssal Lords?"

Lin Ye nodded: "Two from the Japanese Server, one from the US Server, two from the European Server. Five Abyssal Lords at the Council level, plus the mid-level and low-level lords under them—if I drain them dry, my attributes could at least double to 20,000. By then, the attribute gap with the Lord of the Abyss won't be so large."

Su Qinghan thought for a moment: "Five overseas Council members, how do you plan to siphon them? One by one?"

"No need." Lin Ye pointed at the Abyss Rift. "The medium for cross-map infection is the Abyss Rift. The Abyss Rifts on overseas servers are connected to the Chinese Server. As long as I stand next to the Abyss Rift in the Chinese Server and inject energy into it, the infection chain can extend along the connected ley lines to the overseas servers."

He raised his right hand, and the Decay Domain activated again. This time, he didn't compress the range but expanded it to the maximum. A 500-meter dark purple halo spread out from him as the center, covering the entire Dawn City Main City Square, covering the surrounding blocks, and covering half of Dawn City. Then he poured all his energy into the Abyss Rift.

The dark purple light drilled into the rift entrance like a giant dragon, crazily extending along the ley lines at the bottom of the Abyss. The Abyss ley lines of the Chinese Server, Korean Server, Japanese Server, US Server, and European Server. The five ley lines intersected at the bottom of the Abyss, forming a huge infection network.

Lin Ye's energy surged simultaneously toward the five overseas servers along this network.

Japanese Server. The Lord of Dark Erosion and the Lord of Frost were shooting an advertisement in the Main City Square. The Lord of Dark Erosion held up a flyer and had just shouted "Abyss Protection Package" when a Decay Debuff icon suddenly appeared above its head. Its health started to drop.

The Lord of Dark Erosion looked down at the Decay Debuff on its body, the purple flames in its eyes jumping violently. It recognized this Decay Debuff. Decay, permanent, cannot be dispelled.

A message popped up on the world channel.

"Japanese Server Lord of Dark Erosion: Brother Ye! I'm shooting an ad! I'm not slacking off!"

Lin Ye replied with two words: "I know."

"Then why put a Decay Debuff on me?"

"It's not targeted at you. It's infection. Just endure it; it will stop automatically once the energy is siphoned."

The Lord of Dark Erosion didn't dare to speak anymore. It stood honestly in the square, enduring the Decay Debuff, and let Lin Ye's energy siphon in reverse along its infection chain. The Abyssal energy in the Japanese Server's Abyss ley lines was like being pumped out by a water pump, surging toward the Chinese Server along the infection chain.

US Server. The Lord of Despair was organizing the artifacts to be handed in this week in the warehouse. Twenty artifacts were neatly placed on the shelves, and two thousand Epic Crystals filled three boxes. It had just locked the warehouse door when a Decay Debuff icon appeared above its head.

The Lord of Despair was stunned for a moment, then opened the world channel.

"US Server Lord of Despair: Brother Ye, I have prepared the materials for this week. I will send them over tomorrow."

Lin Ye replied: "I know. Stand still and don't move."

The Lord of Despair stood still. European Server. The Lord of Plague and the Lord of Nightmare were holding the second round of surrender meetings with the European Server guild leaders in the conference room. The meeting theme was "Optimization Suggestions for the Abyss Protection Package". The Lord of Plague was drawing charts on the PPT, and the Lord of Nightmare was serving tea and water on the side. Decay Debuff icons appeared above the heads of the two Abyssal Council members at the same time.

The Lord of Plague put down the laser pointer and opened the world channel.

"European Server Lord of Plague: Brother Ye, we are in a meeting. Can you wait until we finish?"

Lin Ye replied: "No. Continue the meeting."

The Lord of Plague picked up the laser pointer and continued to lecture on the PPT. The layers of the Decay Debuff above its head rose layer by layer, and its health dropped layer by layer. The Lord of Nightmare was refilling tea for the attending leaders on the side, not even letting its hands shake.

The European Server guild leaders sat below, looking at the Decay Debuff icons above the heads of the two Abyssal Council members, petrified collectively. The Lord of Flame and the Lord of Shadow from the Korean Server were the calmest. The two Abyssal Council members were counting this week's material output in the Korean Server's Abyss City. When the Decay Debuff lit up above their heads, the Lord of Flame looked up, then continued counting. The Lord of Shadow didn't even lift its head.

On the world channel, overseas players were already in an uproar.

"Japanese Server player Yamada Kenta: I was just grinding monsters in the wild, and all the Abyss Minions nearby fell! They weren't killed by players, they just fell on their own after a Decay Debuff appeared above their heads!"

"US Server player Johnson: Same here in the US Server! All the Abyss Monsters in the entire wild area are falling!"

"European Server player Schmidt: The Abyss Commanders in the European Server are falling too! I recorded it! The Abyss Commander endured for ten seconds, then fell!"

"Korean Server player Park Jung-tae: Did Brother Ye just wipe out all the Abyss Monsters on global servers in one go?"

"Data Emperor International Edition: It's not a wipe-out. It's cross-map infection. Brother Ye is standing in the Dawn City of the Chinese Server, infecting all servers globally with the Decay Debuff through the Abyss Rift. All Abyss Monsters are being debuffed. Those who can't take it fall directly, and those who can are being reverse-siphoned of their energy."

"Wocao Wuqing International Edition: What does reverse-siphoning energy mean?"

"Data Emperor International Edition: It means Brother Ye is siphoning the Abyssal Lords' energy onto himself. Haven't you noticed Brother Ye's attribute panel has risen again?"

Someone posted a screenshot of Lin Ye's attribute panel on the international forum. Strength rose from 9,300 to 12,000 and was still rising. Agility rose from 7,800 to 10,000. Intelligence rose from 8,200 to 11,000. Constitution rose from 9,600 to 13,000.

Global players were collectively silent.

At this moment, Lin Ye stood next to the Abyss Rift in Dawn City, his whole body wrapped in dark purple energy like a cocoon. The energy of the Abyssal Lords from five overseas servers surged in continuously along the infection chain. The numbers on his attribute panel were no longer a stopwatch, but a compass, spinning crazily. Strength broke through 15,000, broke through 18,000, broke through 20,000. Agility broke through 13,000, broke through 16,000. Intelligence broke through 15,000, broke through 18,000. Constitution broke through 17,000, broke through 20,000.

The infection chain lasted for a full ten minutes.

Ten minutes later, nearly half of the energy of the global Abyssal Lords had been siphoned away. Lin Ye's attributes finally stopped at Strength 22,000, Agility 19,000, Intelligence 21,000, Constitution 23,000. All attributes had more than tripled.

The Lord of Destruction stood at the door, the purple flames in his eyes shrunk until almost invisible. He had lived for tens of thousands of years and was seeing someone rise from 9,000 Strength to 22,000 in such a short time for the first time. The first inheritor of the Decay Talent took three years from awakening to max level. Lin Ye took less than three days.

Lin Ye opened his eyes and moved his fingers. His finger joints made a cracking sound, not the sound of bones, but the sound of the air being compressed due to the overflow of energy. He turned off the Decay Domain, and the infection chain was interrupted. The Decay Debuffs above the heads of all global Abyss Monsters disappeared simultaneously. The surviving Abyssal Lords collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

A message popped up on the world channel.

"Japanese Server Lord of Dark Erosion: Brother Ye, are you done siphoning?"

Lin Ye replied: "Done for today. Continue tomorrow."

The world channel went quiet. Then the Lord of Dark Erosion sent another message.

"Japanese Server Lord of Dark Erosion: Still siphoning tomorrow?"

"Siphon once every day. Until the Lord of the Abyss wakes up."

Global Abyssal Lords were collectively silent. Lin Ye turned off the world channel and turned to Fatty Wang.

"How are the sales of the overseas Abyss Protection Package?"

Fatty Wang looked at the backend data: "Japanese Server sold 3,000 copies, US Server sold 5,000 copies, European Server sold 4,000 copies. That's 12,000 copies in total. Revenue is 1.2 billion gold coins."

"Not enough. Before the Lord of the Abyss wakes up, the energy of the global Abyssal Lords must be siphoned to at least 50,000. The current siphoning efficiency is too low. I need more Abyssal Lords to sign contracts; only after signing contracts can a stable infection chain be established."

Fatty Wang was stunned for a moment: "Brother, haven't all the global Abyssal Lords signed?"

"The mid-level and low-level ones have signed. But there are still hidden ones. Every server's Abyss bottom layer has some wild Abyssal Lords who haven't surrendered to the Abyss Council. Their strength is not as good as the Council members, but they are stronger than the mid-level lords. Find them too and have them sign contracts."

Fatty Wang nodded and turned to make arrangements.

Su Qinghan walked to Lin Ye's side, looking at the abyss decay set on his body. The light of the eight pieces of equipment had completely turned dark purple; after merging with the source energy of the global Abyssal Lords, the aura of the set was more than a notch stronger than when it was first crafted.

"How large of a range can you cover when you activate your domain with full power now?"

Lin Ye thought for a moment: "Haven't measured it. But it should be able to cover the entire Dawn City."

"What about the Decay Debuff layers?"

"300 layers. 900% per second when stacked to the maximum."

Su Qinghan was silent for a few seconds: "Can the Lord of the Abyss withstand it?"

Lin Ye shook his head: "Don't know. The Lord of Destruction said his strength attribute ten thousand years ago was 50,000. No one knows how much is left after being sealed for ten thousand years and just waking up. If 30,000 is left, I can fight. If 50,000 is left, it's shaky."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

Lin Ye looked into the depths of the Abyss Rift, the corner of his mouth curling into that extremely unscrupulous smile: "Keep siphoning. Drain all the energy of the global Abyssal Lords. When he wakes up, if my attributes are higher than his, I won't need to fight. Just make him sign a contract directly."

Su Qinghan couldn't help but laugh: "Make the Lord of the Abyss sign a labor contract? You really dare to think."

"What's there not to dare? The Abyssal Council members can sign, why can't the Lord of the Abyss sign? He is the creator of the Abyss, the contract terms can be slightly favorable. Fifty artifacts every Friday, five thousand Epic Crystals. Can't be less than that."

Su Qinghan shook her head with a smile. At this moment, in the deepest part of the Abyss bottom layer. The Land of Sealing. A place that no Abyss Monster has dared to approach for ten thousand years. On the black sealing array, a tiny crack appeared. A wisp of black aura surged out from the crack, a hundred times purer and a hundred times richer than the energy of the Abyssal Council members.

The Lord of the Abyss is about to awaken.