6: Chapter 6: Soloing Nightmare Dungeon?

The registration efficiency for combat Professionals was much higher than expected.

In less than half an hour, the counter called Lu Yang's number.

Lu Yang stepped forward and reported his identity information to the young lady behind the counter.

The other person's fingers tapped rapidly on the light screen, and in just a few minutes, his occupational information and identity information were bound and entered.

During the process, Lu Yang also learned from the young lady that the higher the Rank of a combat Professional, the more social resources they could enjoy.

Currently, he had just undergone Awakening and was only Rank 1, belonging to the lowest level, and could receive 10,000 Alliance points per month.

Alliance points were the universal currency of this era.

Taking a short-distance hovering flying car cost about 1 point, and a nutritionally balanced breakfast was about the same price.

If converted according to the consumption level of his past life, 1 Alliance point was roughly equivalent to ten yuan.

In other words, Lu Yang could get one hundred thousand yuan for free every month, easily making a million yuan a year, and that was net take-home pay after taxes.

Once his Rank achieved a Breakthrough past Rank 10 and advanced to Tier 1, the Alliance points he received monthly would increase further.

Besides that, various social security and welfare systems would also be matched according to the highest standards.

Lu Yang could not help feeling a bit excited inside.

This was the first time in his life he had ever received so much money.

You must know that his original monthly allowance was only 200 points!

Leaving the registration office, Lu Yang did not go directly to the dungeon area, but instead went to the trading area first.

His first month's salary had already arrived, and he wanted to see if he could buy some practical items to improve his monster-killing efficiency in the dungeon.

The area of the trading district was more than an order of magnitude larger than the registration district, occupying the entire third floor.

It was divided quite meticulously inside: equipment shops, potion shops, rune shops, enchanting workshops... all kinds of shops were dazzling to the eyes.

The most core area of the entire trading district was an auction house.

The auction house was officially operated by the Professionals Association, and most of those truly precious treasures, such as equipment and rare skill books, would be placed here for public auction.

Lu Yang took a rough stroll around and gained a basic concept of the prices for combat Professionals.

Even the most basic ordinary-quality skill book cost twenty to thirty thousand Alliance points.

As for equipment, it was slightly better. A piece of Rank 1 green-quality equipment cost about several thousand Alliance points, but its attributes had limited improvements compared to white novice equipment.

Lu Yang went back and forth to look at several shops, but in the end, he still couldn't bear to spend the money.

As for health potions and mana potions, he didn't even consider them at all.

After resurrection, his state was directly restored to full, so these things were purely a waste for him.

After picking and choosing, Lu Yang ultimately only bought a few disposable consumables.

[primary poisoned crystal (Ordinary): Applies poison to your melee weapon, lasting for one hour. After poisoning, melee attacks can poison the target, dealing 1 poison damage per second, stacking up to 3 layers, and the poisoning effect lasts for 10 seconds. Usage Rank: 1]

To be honest, the cost-performance ratio of this thing was mediocre for ordinary combat Professionals.

The poisoning lasted for only ten seconds, and the damage wasn't high either. Even at full 3 stacks, it only added 3 damage per second, and one had to fight in close combat face-to-face to trigger it.

But for Lu Yang, its value was completely different.

What he was going to fight was the Nightmare difficulty, where the monsters inside were at least elite templates, and their defense was definitely a huge chunk higher than ordinary monsters.

Having one more source of poison damage could save a lot of trouble.

One poisoned crystal cost 1,000 Alliance points, and Lu Yang directly took five.

Anyway, weapon enchantment items would not disappear even upon death unless the duration expired or the weapon itself was damaged.

Five primary poisoned crystals were enough to last until the dungeon was cleared.

Carrying five primary poisoned crystals, Lu Yang walked briskly toward the dungeon area.

Inside the Professionals Association building, there was only one dungeon entrance, which was the welfare dungeon, so it was only open for a few days after Awakening Day every year.

Following the guidance arrows of his personal terminal, Lu Yang quickly found the dungeon area.

This was an empty room with a radius of about two hundred meters, with a very high ceiling and plain silver-gray walls.

In the exact center of the room floated a distorted vortex, its edges constantly rippling with faint light patterns.

That was the dungeon entrance.

Beside the dungeon entrance stood a stone tablet.

On the stone tablet were the names of various Professionals, followed by their Ranks, dungeon difficulty, dungeon time, and then the monster tiers and quantities they had killed.

This was the performance data in the dungeon of novice Professionals who had already entered it.

The Alliance issuing free dungeon attempts was, on one hand, to give novice combat Professionals a good start, and on the other hand, to screen for Geniuses.

Because there were too many powerful races in the Universe, even though the Blue Star Alliance was now one of the top four major forces in the Milky Way, it still did not dare to slack off.

The screening and cultivation of Geniuses began right from Awakening.

For combat Professionals, the method of screening Geniuses was actually very simple.

That was combat!

The performance of novice combat Professionals in the welfare dungeon would serve as an important basis for the Alliance to screen Geniuses.

Those who performed outstandingly in the dungeon would receive attention and recruitment from various major guilds, planetary garrison armies, the four major legions, and other forces!

At this moment, the room was crowded with novice combat Professionals.

They gathered in groups of twos and threes, shouting at the top of their lungs to form parties, their buzzing voices blending together, as lively as a vegetable market.

"Normal difficulty, four waiting for one, need a tanky warrior!"

"Challenge yourself, choose Hard difficulty! A violent mage with a blue talent leads the team, looking for fierce people of all classes!"

"..."

The five-person teams that had formed their parties successively walked toward the vortex, and with a flash of light, they were swallowed into it.

Lu Yang noticed that when most teams entered, the vortex lit up with a white light.

That was Normal difficulty.

Occasionally, a few teams emitted a light red glow, which was Hard difficulty.

As for the Nightmare difficulty with a deeper red color plus a skull symbol, he hadn't seen it even once so far.

He had no intention of forming a party and walked straight toward the dungeon entrance.

Along the way, two or three groups of people successively sent him party invitations, which Lu Yang politely declined.

Just as he walked close to the dungeon entrance, a familiar figure came into his view.

High ponytail, barefaced, pure facial features, tall and well-proportioned figure—it was precisely Shen Qingci.

What she wore was not the white-plate mage robe given by the Alliance, but a silver-based, blue-trimmed mage robe of fine texture, with a trace of visible cold air faintly flowing across its surface.

The staff she held in her hand was about as tall as a person, entirely azure blue, with a fist-sized blue crystal floating at the top of the staff, emitting a chilling light.

Lu Yang could not help but twitch the corner of his mouth at the sight.

"Is this seriously a heavy pay-to-win player?"

Previously, he only heard that Shen Qingci's Family background was very good, but he had no specific concept of just how good it was.

Now he did.

Just the appearance of these two pieces of equipment started at least at the blue elite level, and they might even be purple legendary equipment.

Standing beside Shen Qingci was another person.

That was a beautiful young girl wearing golden full-body armor, with blonde hair draped over her shoulders, snow-white skin, and facial features featuring the soft lines unique to Easterners, except that there was a bit more sharpness and aggressiveness between her brows and eyes.

Lu Yang was not surprised by this. The Blue Star Alliance had been established for thousands of years, and the Fusion between different races had long penetrated deep into their Bloodlines. This young girl might have the blood of multiple ethnic groups flowing through her.

She carried a sword and a shield on her back, and the whole set of equipment exuded a faint golden radiance, just standing there exuding an aura of "I am super expensive".

Lu Yang had never seen this young girl before; she shouldn't be a student of No. 4 High School.

But without a doubt, she was likewise a heavy pay-to-win player.

There really are so many rich people...

As Lu Yang was sighing inwardly, Shen Qingci and the blonde young girl had already stepped side by side into the vortex.

After the two entered, the vortex immediately glowed with a deep red light, and a skull symbol slowly emerged above it.

Nightmare difficulty.

Because both of them were outstanding-looking girls, quite a few people were already paying attention to them in secret.

Seeing them actually go to challenge the Nightmare mode as just two people, the surroundings instantly exploded into a commotion, and everyone started whispering and discussing among themselves.

Lu Yang vaguely heard someone say that the blonde young girl was named Rebecca Parker, a student at No. 3 High School who also came from a combat Professionals Family, and was rumored to possess a quite formidable Soul Talent.

Lu Yang didn't pay too much attention to it either.

Other people were other people; it had nothing to do with him.

He took a few quick steps to come before the vortex and, without hesitation, stepped right in.

[You are about to enter the Blighted Woodlands. Please select difficulty: 1. Normal, 2. Hard, 3. Nightmare]

[Nightmare]

[Selection complete! Enter the dungeon!]

A screech that seemed to come from the depths of a nightmare brushed past his ears.

The vortex surged, completely swallowing Lu Yang's figure.

Meanwhile, in the dungeon area's lobby, the novice Professionals who had just been shocked by Shen Qingci and Rebecca challenging Nightmare mode all fell silent at this moment.

They stared at the direction where the vortex disappeared, their heads full of question marks.

After a brief dead silence, the crowd exploded into an uproar.

"No way... soloing Nightmare??"

"Is our batch really this absurd? It's one thing for Shen Qingci and the others' two-person party to farm Nightmare just now, but now big shots soloing Nightmare are popping up too??"

"Did it have to be this exaggerated?! My heart beats like a drum even when I form a full five-person party to play Normal difficulty!"

"I feel like they probably aren't aiming to clear the whole thing, right? They might be eyeing elite monsters and boss monsters. Hero-grade bosses, those are simply not meant for humans to fight!"

"Even without fighting the bosses, it's already fierce enough! That's Nightmare difficulty, after all. The elites and bosses inside give ridiculously generous amounts of experience and equipment! Not to mention one is soloing and the other is a two-person party!"

"..."

While everyone was discussing animatedly, in the observation room on the second floor of the dungeon area, several figures were quietly standing in front of the one-way glass.

Vice President Feng Lide of the Professionals Association, Deputy Commander Zhu Changye of the Planetary Garrison Army, recruitment officer Robert Baker of the four major legions...

One heavyweight big shot after another was gazing at the skull mark slowly fading above the vortex.