36: Chapter 36 Projection of Despair and Data Tampering

The afterglow of the setting sun was swallowed by the massive shadow of the Tower of Heaven, and the air was thick with a high concentration of arcane particles; every breath felt like inhaling liquid mercury.

Qin Ji stood before the tower. Sensing the aura of a living being, the hundred-meter-tall giant bronze gate lit up with countless intricate runes on its surface, slowly groaning open with a dull rumble.

[Warning: Abnormal data detected for player "Snow Emperor"...]

[Matching trial difficulty...]

[Match complete. Current Mode: Despair Echo.]

[Trial Objective: Defeat the strongest existence in your memory of the "Newbie Village" (Fully unsealed state).]

Qin Ji raised an eyebrow. The strongest existence in his memory?

Was it that balding village chief who only gave out chicken-killing quests? Or was it Blacksmith Wang, who was always swindling players out of Ore?

If it were the latter, Qin Ji didn't mind letting him experience the joy of being defrauded once more.

His vision distorted as the magnificent crystal-punk buildings around him instantly disintegrated, reorganizing into that familiar and dilapidated little village.

By the cliff, a cool breeze blew.

Under a makeshift shed built at some unknown time, an old man in coarse linen clothes was leisurely sipping tea.

"Snow Emperor, come have a cup?"

The old man looked up, his wrinkled face carrying a hint of a kind smile; it was exactly that seemingly harmless Old Village Chief from the Newbie Village.

Qin Ji's pupils constricted slightly.

Within the vision of his [Eye of Truth], what appeared above the old man's head was not a green NPC tag, but a string of scalp-tingling red question marks.

[??? (LV. ???)]

"Interesting."

A playful arc curled at the corner of Qin Ji's mouth. With a flash of light in his hand, the [Bonebreaker Greatsword] he had just appraised did not appear; instead, a pitch-black longbow took its place.

Since it was a trial, he would greet him in the most direct way.

"Whoosh!!"

The bowstring vibrated as a fletched arrow wrapped in dark purple magic tore through the air, accurately shooting toward the tea cup in the Old Village Chief's hand.

The Old Village Chief sighed and slowly set down his tea cup. "Snow Emperor, you've disappointed me too much. I didn't expect you to choose this path in the end."

Before he had even finished speaking, the arrow, which possessed enough force to pierce through rock, abruptly halted three inches from his forehead.

Crack.

The water molecules in the air instantly condensed, and the arrow turned into a crystal ice sculpture before shattering into powder.

Qin Ji's expression changed slightly, and without any hesitation, his body blurred into an afterimage in mid-air.

Twisting String Archery Technique!

Three arrows were fired in a triangular formation, each carrying a spiral force; this was a technique specifically designed to break a Protective Aura.

However, the Old Village Chief's way of responding was simply an insult to the Laws of physics.

He merely extended two withered fingers and, as if shooing away a fly, lightly flicked them in front of him.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The three high-speed spinning arrows were accurately deflected. Then, with a casual wave of the Old Village Chief's hand, those arrows that had deviated from their trajectory eerily turned back in mid-air, reflecting toward Qin Ji at twice their original speed!

"A Grappler's 'Using Strength Against Strength'?"

A cold light flashed in Qin Ji's eyes as he forced his body to twist in mid-air, avoiding the reflected arrows with a clumsy donkey roll.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ground where he had originally been standing was blasted into three deep pits, with gravel flying everywhere.

Before Qin Ji could even steady himself, the Old Village Chief's figure suddenly vanished from his retina.

A hair-raising sense of crisis instantly exploded.

Behind him!

Qin Ji subconsciously tried to activate [Void Walk], but a large hand like an iron pincer had already clamped onto his shoulder.

"Too slow."

The Old Village Chief's voice rang in his ear, followed by a dizzying spin of the world.

Over-the-shoulder throw!

"Bang!!"

The earth shook violently. Qin Ji felt as if his internal organs had shifted out of place as he was slammed hard into the ground, with spiderweb-like cracks instantly spreading in all directions.

-5128!!

A massive, bright red damage number floated up.

Qin Ji gasped; was this old man's damage True Damage?! His defense was currently stacked to an insane level, yet he was still as fragile as paper.

"It's not over yet."

The Old Village Chief didn't give Qin Ji any chance to breathe, grabbing his ankles to hang him upside down and slamming his knee like a battering ram into Qin Ji's spine.

"Crack!"

-10256!!

Qin Ji's health bar evaporated by a huge chunk. If not for the pain reduction System, this single blow would have been enough to make him faint on the spot.

Just as the Old Village Chief was preparing to follow up with a hand-blade strike to completely end the battle, the necklace around Qin Ji's neck suddenly erupted with a blinding red light.

[Sigh of the Bloodthirsty Monarch] — Passive triggered!

[Monarch's Majesty]: When controlled, automatically trigger Blood Explosion!

Boom—!!

A crimson shockwave exploded outward with Qin Ji as the center, causing the Old Village Chief's movements to stiffen for a split second.

"Hmm? The aura of a Legendary Grade item?"

A flash of surprise crossed the Old Village Chief's eyes, clearly not expecting this adventurer who had just left the Newbie Village to possess a treasure of this level.

Now is the time!

Using the recoil of the Blood Explosion, Qin Ji forcibly broke free from the restraint. He rolled in the air, but instead of choosing to run, he gripped his dagger and lunged toward the corner of the shed like a cannonball.

There sat an inconspicuous Silver Grade Chest.

This was his intuition, and also his instinct as the owner of "Greedy Grasp"—since he couldn't win, he absolutely had to take some interest!

"Trying to run?"

The Old Village Chief snorted coldly, and his figure vanished again.

In the next second, Qin Ji felt his head being pinned down by a large hand, followed by an irresistible force.

Thud!

His knee slammed hard into Qin Ji's abdomen.

This strike had no flourishes; it was pure suppression through power and speed.

Qin Ji felt his consciousness fading, but he gritted his teeth and, instead of stabbing at the Old Village Chief, used the last of his strength to slash the latch of the Silver Grade Chest.

[System Prompt: You have obtained "Unidentified Mysterious Chest"!]

At the same time, the Old Village Chief's killing blow landed.

There was no suspense.

-59280!!

The terrifying damage of nearly sixty thousand instantly emptied all of Qin Ji's remaining health.

Before the [Withered Wood Meets Spring] talent could even trigger, his body turned into a shower of white light.

...

Emerald City, Resurrection Altar.

The white light condensed, and Qin Ji's figure reappeared.

He glanced at his attribute panel, where the Rank column had strikingly changed from LV.10 to LV.9.

He had dropped a level.

The surrounding players didn't notice him in the corner, but the World Channel had already exploded.

[Game Brother Dong], who had been keeping an eye on Qin Ji's updates, posted a mocking thread almost immediately:

"@Futou Shield Mountain Heh, I don't need to say much more, right? Less than half an hour after entering the main city, the Snow Emperor you guys hyped up has already dropped a level!"

"What does this show? It shows that without the Newbie Village's protection mechanism and those one-time items, he's just a rookie who's worse than an ordinary player! He can't even pass the first floor of the Tower of Heaven; it's practically a joke!"

"This level drop is ironclad proof. The myth of the Snow Emperor is shattered!"

The replies below the post exceeded ten thousand in an instant, as countless bandwagon players began mocking him frantically, as if stepping on the former number one could give them an inexplicable sense of superiority.

Qin Ji closed the forum expressionlessly.

He wasn't livid as everyone imagined; instead, a light of excitement flashed in his purple-gold pupils.

"Old man, you really hit hard..."

He rubbed his neck, which was still aching slightly, but his mouth split into an exaggerated grin.

If he hadn't died that once, how could he have brought this thing out?

He spread his palm, and a chest emitting a faint silver light floated quietly in his palm.

This was the loot he had forcibly forced into his backpack using the System judgment delay at the moment before his death.

According to normal logic, failing a trial means one cannot bring out any items.

But who was Qin Ji? He was a BUG in this world.

"A Silver Grade Chest... is a bit beneath my status."

Qin Ji narrowed his eyes and activated that rarely used talent ability—[Data Cataclysm].

This was his other trump card besides "Plunder Attributes," capable of forcibly tampering with an item's grade data by consuming a certain resource of his own.

[Target: Silver Grade Chest]

[Activate "Cataclysm"?]

[Option 1: Consume 5000 Gold Coins to promote it to a "Gold Grade Chest".]

[Option 2: Consume 50% of your current Rank's experience points to cataclysm it into a "Dark Gold Grade Chest".]

[Option 3: Consume 1 point of "Source Essence" (obtained by killing BOSSes) to cataclysm it into an "Epic Grade Chest".]

Qin Ji chose Option 2 without hesitation.

Experience points? That stuff was the cheapest currency to him; as long as there were enough monsters, he could farm it back in no time.

"Cataclysm."

Buzz—!

The Silver Grade Chest in his hand began to tremble violently. The silver shell peeled off like melting candle wax, revealing a core flowing with dark gold light. An obscure, heart-stopping fluctuation spread through the air, as if something forbidden was being born.

A few seconds later, an entirely pitch-black chest with dark gold runes flowing on its surface appeared in his hand.

[Dark Gold Grade Chest (Cataclysm Product)]

[Description: Originally just an ordinary chest, but under the erosion of some inexpressible power, it has undergone a mutation. Open it, and you might obtain a Divine Artifact, or you might release a demon.]

Qin Ji licked his lips and lightly gripped the lid.

"Let's see if the thing I traded a life for is actually worth it."

Click.

The chest opened.

There were no dazzling golden special effects, only a mass of black mist slowly rising.

As the mist cleared, two items lay quietly on the black velvet.

A yellowed Skill Book and a fragment that looked like it was polished from some creature's bone.

Qin Ji picked up the bone fragment, and the moment his fingertips touched it, a piece of information flooded his mind.

[Bone of Greed (Special Item · Unique)]

[Effect: Passive while in backpack. When you kill any unit, there is a 1% probability to forcibly plunder one of the target's "Racial Talents" or "Hidden Skills" and convert it into a permanent passive.]

[Note: This is the price of your greed, and also its reward.]

Qin Ji's fingers stiffened slightly, followed by a burst of low laughter.

A 1% probability?

For ordinary people, this might be a useless item.

But for a madman who would let tens of thousands of slimes besiege him all night long just to stack defense, this was the ladder to the throne of gods!

As long as the base was large enough, 1% was 100%!

He casually tossed the bone fragment into his backpack, turned his gaze to the Skill Book, and then slowly stood up.

In the distance, the Tower of Heaven still towered into the clouds like a sharp sword piercing the sky.

Qin Ji patted the dust off his trench coat and turned to walk toward the "Endless Insect Hive" outside the city.

Since his Rank had dropped, he would kill a hundred thousand bugs to gain it back.

And incidentally... test this bone's quality.

The setting sun completely sank below the horizon, painting the Emerald City in a shade of blood-red. Qin Ji's silhouette stretched very long at the end of the street as he casually flipped a gold coin into the air. Under the effect of gravity, the coin tumbled down and landed accurately into a roadside beggar's broken bowl with a crisp sound, while that black silhouette had already merged into the night, just like a lone wolf that had just sharpened its claws and teeth, preparing to begin a gluttonous feast in the darkness.