103: Chapter 103 Server-wide Announcement! Hell Level? That's just a beginner's tutorial!

The air in the underground cavern was thick with the heavy scent of blood and brimstone.

Qin Ji stood with one foot planted on the massive head of the Hellfire Dragon-Wolf, his amethyst-gold eyes reflecting the disintegrating motes of data-light. With a casual flick, he shook the last drop of black blood from his longsword. The rasp of the blade sliding back into its sheath was unnaturally crisp in the deathly silence of the cavern.

"Snap out of it, Fatty."

Qin Ji leaped down from the colossal carcass, landing without a sound. He walked over to the pile of loot shimmering with enticing light, not even bothering to look back as he spoke. "What, you expect me to do the grunt work of looting the corpse myself?"

Fatty Zhou was still sprawled on the ground, his plump face a mask of stunned disbelief. He stared at the man who had just cleaved a legendary-rank BOSS with a single sword strike, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. It took him a long moment to find his voice. "Bro... Brother Ji... that was a legendary... and it's just... gone?"

"What else? Should we erect a monument for it?"

Qin Ji idly nudged the spoils on the ground with his foot.

It had to be said, the drops from the BOSS, after its evolution through [Essence Tampering], were obscenely rich. Aside from the scattered gold coins and a few pieces of equipment glowing with an orange light, the most eye-catching item was a crystal-clear, multi-colored gemstone floating in mid-air.

[Saint Spirit - Talent Awakening Stone (Unique)]

[Quality: mythic rank]

[Effect: Forcibly awakens one hidden Saint-Grade talent and raises its initial potential to MAX.]

Qin Ji's brow lifted slightly. This thing was somewhat interesting. All his current talents were obtained through plunder. A tool meant for players to awaken their original talents was actually redundant for him.

"Catch."

He tossed it casually. The priceless gemstone traced a parabolic arc through the air.

Fatty Zhou fumbled to catch it. After seeing its properties, his hand jerked so violently he almost threw it away. "Holy shit! A mythic rank Awakening Stone?! Brother Ji, this... this... is for me?"

"Your talent was already Awakened ages ago. Using it would be a waste." Qin Ji shot him a glance and began walking towards the glowing portal that marked the dungeon exit. "Mail it to Monkey after we get out. That guy's a bit thick-headed, but his build has good potential."

Hearing this, a flash of wild joy crossed Fatty Zhou's eyes.

Monkey was the fourth member of their dorm, full name Hou Tianming, a genuine martial arts fanatic. In their past life, although the talent Monkey Awakened was powerful, he never managed to break into the top tier due to a lack of resources. Now, with this mythic rank Awakening Stone, that legendary talent—[Well-Rounded Development in Morality, Intelligence, Physique, and Aesthetics]—would probably make its debut ahead of schedule.

The most terrifying aspect of that talent lay in two words: multiplier.

All freely obtained attribute points were multiplied by five, and each point of attribute bonus simultaneously affected all ten basic attributes.

Simply put, if you gave Monkey one free attribute point, he could use it as if it were fifty. It was a Late Stage, undefeatable numerical monstrosity. With enough resources piled on, he alone could be an army.

"Let's go. Time to leave."

Qin Ji's figure vanished into the light portal.

...

City of Origin, Dungeon Square.

It was peak player hours. The square was bustling with noise and activity. Frenzied Blade was resting with his guild's elite team, having just led them through the normal difficulty of [Mutated Direwolf] in 35 minutes.

"Boss Blade, our speed is definitely in the server's first tier!" a subordinate fawned. "That Snow Emperor might have gotten the guild founding token, but dungeon runs are all about teamwork. A lone wolf like him can't possibly be faster than us."

Frenzied Blade polished the golden greataxe in his hands, a hint of restrained arrogance on his face. "Naturally. I've already figured out the mechanics of normal difficulty. Next up is tackling the hard mode. Once we secure the first clear, the reputation of our Berserk Guild will be firmly established."

He instinctively glanced at the stone monument by the dungeon entrance.

It recorded the clear times for each difficulty level.

However, at that very moment, a grand, System-wide announcement suddenly echoed across the entire Divine Realm, drowning out all the noise in the square.

"Ding! Server-wide announcement!"

"Congratulations to player [Snow Emperor] and player [Divinely Fat and Invincible] for successfully clearing the dungeon [Lair of the Mutated Direwolf] and achieving the first clear on [Hell] difficulty!!"

"Time: 56 seconds!!"

"As the first team to clear Hell difficulty, their names shall be eternally inscribed upon the Monument of Origin, revered by all!!"

Boom—!

The announcement was like a nuclear bomb dropped into deep waters. The entire square instantly plunged into a deathly silence.

Immediately after, a tsunami of uproar erupted.

"Holy shit?! Did I hear that right? Hell difficulty?!"

"56 seconds?? Damn, it takes me 10 seconds just to load into the dungeon! He cleared it in the time it takes to drop your pants and fart??"

"He's cheating! He has to be cheating! Who can handle Hell difficulty at this stage? The BOSS's HP starts in the hundreds of millions!"

The arrogance on Frenzied Blade's face instantly froze. The golden greataxe in his hand clattered onto his own foot, but he seemed to have lost all sense of pain.

He stared fixedly at the two golden, shimmering names at the very top of the monument, his pupils contracting violently.

Hell difficulty... 56 seconds...

"This is impossible..." Frenzied Blade muttered to himself, his complexion paling from ruddy to ashen. "Even if you gathered the top ten experts on the entire server, they couldn't shave off hundreds of millions of HP in under a minute! Unless... unless he can one-shot the BOSS!"

One-shot a Hell-difficulty BOSS dozens of levels higher?

The moment this thought surfaced, Frenzied Blade strangled it. It was too absurd, completely defying the basic logic of the game.

"Guild Leader, then... should we still attempt the hard mode?" a subordinate asked cautiously.

"Attempt my ass!" Frenzied Blade gnashed his teeth, a deep trace of apprehension flashing in his eyes. "Investigate! Who is this 'Divinely Fat and Invincible'? For a lone wolf like Snow Emperor to bring someone into a dungeon, this fatty is definitely not simple! Maybe... half the credit for that 56-second record belongs to that fatty!"

If Fatty Zhou heard this, he'd probably be moved to tears—his only contribution had been yelling "Holy shit!" and "Help!" for 56 seconds straight.

...

Meanwhile, in a corner near the dungeon exit.

Qin Ji had long since activated his ID-hiding function. He pulled the still-dazed Fatty Zhou into an empty alleyway.

"Alright, stop looking like you've never seen the world before."

Leaning against the wall, Qin Ji tapped open the epic rank treasure chest that had been in a "locked" state.

Earlier in the dungeon, this damn chest's lock core had melted due to leveling up too quickly, prompting a need for a Grandmaster thief or a skeleton key. But when he glanced at the [Midas's Golden Abacus] in his inventory just now, he suddenly thought of another way to "pick" the lock.

In this data-driven world, as long as the money was right, no lock remained un-picked.

He deftly opened his friends list and found the guy with the gold ingot avatar—[Richest Under Heaven].

This person was the biggest black-market merchant in the Divine Realm. Qin Ji had plenty of dealings with him in his past life.

[Snow Emperor]: You there? I need Space Crystals. 36 of them. The faster, the better.

[Richest Under Heaven]: Yo, Grandmaster Snow Emperor! Congrats on the first clear! That server-wide announcement is still ringing in my ears. Space Crystals? Those are rare goods, only produced in the Forbidden Lands of the Gods...

[Snow Emperor]: Double the price.

[Richest Under Heaven]: Deal! Give me a moment, Grandmaster, I'll have them for you within five minutes!

Sure enough, the power of money was omnipotent.

In less than three minutes, a mail with an attachment arrived.

Qin Ji took out the 36 Space Crystals emitting silvery ripples and shoved them directly against the chest's keyhole.

"Detecting high-purity spatial energy... Forcing passage..."

"Ding! Payment successful. epic rank treasure chest unlocked."

Click.

The chest lid popped open. There was no earth-shattering light show, only a simple, ancient-looking iron-gray ring resting quietly on a velvet cushion.

[Gamble of Fate (Special Accessory)]

[Quality: Epic (Growable)]

[Effect 1: luck +50 (This attribute is extremely rare).]

[Effect 2: All or Nothing. Once per day, you can designate one attack to guarantee an 'Instant Death' effect trigger, with a probability of (Your luck - Target's luck)%. If the judgment fails, all your attributes are temporarily reduced by 50% for 1 hour.]

[Note: Go all in, a bicycle becomes a motorcycle; lose it all, work at the club to pay the toll.]

"luck bonus?"

A sharp glint flashed in Qin Ji's eyes.

In the Divine Realm's data System, Strength and Agility were easy to stack, but "luck"—this hidden attribute—was the hardest to improve. It affected critical hit rate, drop rate, enhancement success rate, even the probability of being critically hit by a BOSS.

50 points of luck was practically an official cheat code.

As for the active skill "All or Nothing"... Qin Ji completely disregarded the side effect. With the attributes he had stacked up now, even after a 50% reduction, he could still easily dominate the entire server.

"Put it on."

Qin Ji slid the ring onto the index finger of his left hand. Instantly, he felt the world around him seemed to become a bit more "agreeable."

Having dealt with the spoils, Qin Ji looked at Fatty Zhou, who was still drooling.

"Fatty, want to level up?"

"Do I?! I dream about it!" Fatty Zhou nodded his head like a woodpecker. "Brother Ji, should we go run the Hell dungeon a few more times?"

"No need. Dungeons have cooldowns, and the rewards diminish."

Qin Ji shook his head, his gaze shifting towards a certain direction outside the city. A playful curve appeared at the corner of his mouth. "I'll take you to a good place. Not only is there plenty of experience there, but there's also a 'big bird' waiting for us to reel it in."

According to memories from his past life, the Queen in the royal palace kept a magical pet named Klinfis, a griffin with ancient Bloodline. That beast usually hid within the palace wards, its only weakness being its extreme protectiveness.

And the Queen's secret treasury outside the city—the Black Wind Stockade—was one of the territories it patrolled.

As long as they took out the Black Wind Stockade, that griffin would definitely come.

...

Half an hour later.

Black Wind Stockade, located in Sunset Canyon, thirty miles north of the City of Origin.

The terrain here was treacherous, easy to defend and hard to attack—a level 30 open-world dungeon area.

When Qin Ji brought Fatty Zhou to the canyon entrance, they found someone had already beaten them to it.

"Fireball Spell! Focus fire on that elite bandit! Shield Warrior, hold the line, don't let it break formation!"

"Healer, pay attention to the tank's HP! Assassin, flank from behind!"

A sharp, female voice commanded from ahead.

Qin Ji looked up and saw a group of players in uniform gear besieging several elite monsters in front of the stockade gate. Leading them was a female mage in fiery red robes. As she brandished her staff, explosive fireballs accurately smashed into the monsters' faces.

[Dream Chaser in the Mist (Lv. 22)]

[Class: Flame Archmage]

[Guild: Dream Chasing]

"Well, well, if it isn't an old acquaintance," Qin Ji narrowed his eyes.

The Dream Chasing Guild was also a top-ten major guild in his past life, famously an "army of ladies" with an all-female high command. This Dream Chaser in the Mist was even nicknamed the "Spell Gatling Gun" for her exceptionally sharp mechanics.

However, at this moment, their situation wasn't looking good.

The elite monsters of Black Wind Stockade, the "Black Wind Marauders," though only level 30, possessed an annoying passive skill—[Bloodthirsty Frenzy]. The lower their HP, the faster their attack speed.

Right now, two heavily wounded elite monsters had blood-red eyes, their large blades whirling in an impenetrable blur. The HP bars of the two front-line Shield Warriors from the Dream Chasing Guild were yo-yoing wildly, on the verge of collapse.

"Guild Leader! We can't hold on! This monster's damage is too high!" one Shield Warrior shouted, his shield sparking from the relentless blows.

Dream Chaser in the Mist gritted her teeth, fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead. "Hold on! As long as we kill these two, we can get into the stockade! The rewards for this guild mission are rich, we absolutely cannot give up!"

Just then.

One of the elite monsters suddenly abandoned the Shield Warrior in front of it. With a bizarre sidestep, it slipped past the defensive line and lunged straight for the fragile backline—Dream Chaser in the Mist!

"Look out!!"

The surrounding team members cried out in alarm, but it was too late to intervene.

The rusted greatsword, accompanied by a piercing whistle of wind, viciously chopped down towards Dream Chaser in the Mist's slender neck.

Dream Chaser in the Mist's pupils contracted sharply. The Repelling Fire Ring on her staff was still on cooldown. She could only watch helplessly as the blade descended, a wave of despair washing over her.

I'm going to lose a level...

However.

Just as the blade was a hair's breadth from her.

A dark shadow, ghost-like, sliced into the battlefield.

There were no dazzling skill effects, only a dull, teeth-grating sound of impact.

Thud!!

That burly elite monster flew backwards as if it had been hit head-on by a speeding bullet train!

Its body traced a straight horizontal line through the air before crashing violently into the stockade gate behind it.

Boom—!

The sturdy gate, along with half the wall, instantly exploded into a cloud of splinters and dust under that single blow.

Dead silence enveloped the area.

Dream Chaser in the Mist stared dumbfounded at the back of the figure who had suddenly appeared.

The person wore a set of seemingly ordinary beginner's cloth armor, not even holding a weapon, merely maintaining a casual punching posture.

"Who said you could block the path here?"

Qin Ji slowly retracted his fist. Tilting his head slightly, his indifferent eyes swept over the members of the Dream Chasing Guild. His tone was as calm as if he were asking for directions. "I'm taking this place. Clear out."

Dream Chaser in the Mist was momentarily stunned. She instinctively glanced at the distant pile of rubble where the elite monster had been reduced to a pulpy mess.

One punch?

One-shot a level 30 elite?

Before she could even process it, Qin Ji had already stepped forward, heading deeper into the stockade.

"Fatty, follow. Don't keep that big bird waiting."

"Coming!" Fatty Zhou scurried out from the bushes. Passing by Dream Chaser in the Mist, he even puffed out his chest smugly. "Step aside, beautiful. Wouldn't want you to get blood on you."

Watching the two swagger into the Black Wind Stockade, the members of the Dream Chasing Guild exchanged bewildered looks.

"Guild Leader... who is that guy? So arrogant..."

Dream Chaser in the Mist took a deep breath, a strange glint flashing in her beautiful eyes. "Can't see his ID, but with that terrifying burst damage... could it be that Snow Emperor who just got the server-wide announcement?"

She clenched her teeth, waving her staff. "Follow them! Don't engage, just see what he's planning to do!"

...

In front of the Black Wind Stockade's main hall.

Qin Ji stopped.

He paid no attention to the hundreds of bandit minions swarming out around him. Instead, he lifted his gaze to the sky.

There, thick clouds were churning violently.

A sharp, piercing cry tore through the cloud layer, descending with a heart-palpitating pressure.

"It's here."

A slight smile touched Qin Ji's lips. His right hand slowly clenched in a grasping motion. A menacing, pitch-black greatsword materialized in his palm.

A fierce gale rose, whipping his clothes violently.

He raised his head, looking at the massive griffin breaking through the clouds. The greed in his eyes was unconcealed.

"Since you've come, leave your life behind."

Boom!

The next instant, the bluestone pavement beneath Qin Ji's feet shattered into powder. His entire body transformed into a black lightning bolt surging against the current, shooting straight up into the sky!

His posture suggested he intended to clash head-on with this ruler of the skies in mid-air!

Dream Chaser in the Mist and her group, who had just arrived at the scene, witnessed this breathtaking spectacle.

The setting sun was like blood, staining the broken stockade gate a dark crimson. In mid-air, that tiny human figure was about to collide with the sky-obscuring griffin. The greatsword in Qin Ji's hand trailed a black sword light dozens of meters long, as if intending to cleave the heavens in two, cutting ruthlessly and decisively towards that lofty symbol of royal authority.