Thirty-three, the heretical cultivator's breakthrough
At this moment, the scene inside the banquet hall was undoubtedly the ultimate battleground that Aquaman feared most.
There were a total of seventy-four ladies. Even if you didn't care about anything else and just counted from one to seventy-four, it would take half a day.
However, at this moment, the Earl was surrounded by seventy-four ladies, all demanding an explanation from him and asking him to choose one of them. The scene was so captivating that all the players spontaneously switched to "spectator mode," their eyes wide with interest as they stared intently at the family arguing and bickering in the distance.
Well, I guess we're family.
Although the butler said that each countess was married after divorcing her previous wife and was only temporarily residing in the castle, judging from the count's conflicted expression, it was clearly not the case.
"Tsk tsk, what a lucky man!"
"Those who run fishponds will eventually crash and burn. It's interesting, I enjoy watching it."
"Seventy-four options, this question is too difficult."
...
It's human nature to be a gossipmonger, and the scene before them was so interesting that the players even temporarily forgot they were still in a dungeon and began enthusiastically commenting on the storyline.
Although they were both men, the person next to Pi Min showed no trace of sorrow or sympathy for the fallen, only schadenfreude.
"Hahahaha... He brought it on himself! One wife was troublesome enough, but he actually brought himself seventy-four, seventy-four times the trouble! If he doesn't die, who will?"
"Who are you calling a nuisance?" Upon hearing his words, Pi Min's first reaction was to jump up and retort, but after a moment she shook her head to herself, "No, it's nothing, I'm not your wife, you're definitely not talking about me."
Only then did the man realize that there was a trap in his words.
Admitting that Pi Min is his wife is tantamount to calling her a troublemaker. If he doesn't admit it, then what was the point of him going through all that trouble dressing up as a woman to enter the dungeon?
Just as he was struggling with this dilemma, a strange siren suddenly sounded over the castle.
Immediately afterwards, viewers in the live stream began to wail in despair.
Why did the screen suddenly go black? What happened?
Why is there this weird system interference again? It's so annoying!
[This time, it wasn't just the streamer who was affected; every player who entered this instance experienced a black screen.]
【Huh? What happened?】
...
Compared to the bewildered viewers in the live stream, the people inside the instance were treated much better. Although the instance live stream was disrupted, the world in front of them was still normal, without any strange filters or pixelation.
A time-traveling patrol boat bearing a police badge appeared brazenly before everyone.
When the patrol boat that had been shuttling through the hall came to a complete stop, a group of space police officers in uniforms jumped out of the boat one after another.
The lead patrolman looked around the hall and asked loudly, "Who reported this instance, saying that its owner is suspected of illegal or criminal activities?"
Just as the players were exchanging bewildered glances, all feeling incredulous at this sudden turn of events, someone who had just delivered a resounding slap to the Earl's face had already raised their hand high.
"It was me, I reported it!" A tall, handsome man standing out from the crowd proudly raised his hand. "I'm reporting the Earl, the master of the Dark Night Castle instance, for bigamy, illegal imprisonment, and rape! This instance, which disregards interstellar law, blatantly tramples on human rights, promotes pornography and violence, and endangers the health of minors, should be banned according to law!"
Upon hearing this, not only were the players stunned, but even the Earl was speechless.
After exchanging a provocative glance with the Earl, the person added with a smile, "The game recording from earlier is the evidence. If it's not bigamy, why does the Earl have seventy-four wives? If it's not illegal imprisonment, why haven't any of these wives left?"
Seeing that the count was about to explain, he quickly stopped him with a cold laugh: "Don't talk to me about true love. How can there be true love for seventy-four people in the world? Unless you can cut yourself into seventy-four pieces on the spot and give one to each of your wives, you are committing bigamy, you are being a scoundrel!"
After reviewing the game recording, the patrol officer stepped forward without hesitation and presented the count with a pair of silver bracelets.
“The facts of the crime are clear, Earl. I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us. Ladies and servants of the castle, please wait a moment. A patrol boat will be on its way to take you to the police station to assist with the investigation.”
Realizing just how dire his situation was, the count's gaze towards someone was now filled with murderous intent: "You, why did you want to harm me?"
The man curled his lips into a cold smile, his gaze towards the count filled with disdain as always: "I hate those who use love as an excuse to piss off and claim territory everywhere!"
"I—hate—lesbians!"
The count let out a heart-wrenching roar, but unfortunately, he was eventually escorted onto the patrol boat by a group of police officers.
The reinforcements the patrolman had promised arrived quickly. As the ladies, stewards, and servants boarded the ship and left, only the thirty-four players who had survived the Earl's test remained in the entire castle. Everyone looked at each other in disbelief.
Just as everyone was at a loss, the long-absent system notification sound finally rang out again.
Due to technical reasons, the Dark Castle instance will be temporarily closed. The system will announce the reopening time separately. All surviving players will be considered to have cleared the instance and will be removed. The 60-second countdown to instance closure has begun: 60, 59, 58…
Even though she already knew that this cow cat never did things the way they always did, Pimin was still surprised by his crazy actions.
"You can actually beat the game like this?"
"Why not?"
An incredulous expression remained frozen on her face.
"There are police officers in the dungeon?"
"As long as there is order in this world, there will always be police."
"How did you come up with the idea of reporting the copy?" She stared wide-eyed at the man in front of her.
Is this the legendary "dimensional reduction attack"? While others are only thinking about how to cause trouble in the dungeon, he actually wiped out the entire dungeon.
The man remained calm: "Every game has a report button, you must know that, right?"
“Why would I report this?” Pi Min paused, then said, “Wait a minute, didn’t you say that rules are just lies used by those in power to deceive those in power?”
The man rubbed his nose: "I did say that, but a mere dungeon boss is far from being a superior being. A monster that can be defeated with the rules doesn't deserve my brainpower."
"Didn't you say you hate arrogant and self-righteous people the most?" In Pi Min's eyes, this guy in front of him was the real arrogant and self-righteous one.
The man could only continue to be stubborn: "I know I'm insignificant, but that doesn't stop me from despising the insignificance of others. Learn about aversion to stupidity."
"Fine, fine, whatever you do is right."
[10 seconds countdown. Please leave the instance in an orderly fashion, avoiding crowding. 9, 8...]
As the system countdown reached zero, the castle gate flashed with a dazzling light and then opened automatically. The game system even thoughtfully hung an exit sign above the gate.
"It's time to say goodbye again. Hide yourself and wait for me!" Taking advantage of the last chance, someone cupped Pi Min's face and lightly pecked her forehead. "If I win, I will come to marry you riding on a colorful cloud; if I lose, don't shed tears for me, and don't think about collecting my body. You just need to join the others in despising me."
Sensing the ominous tone in his voice, Pi Min finally couldn't help but speak up: "Why don't you tell me what happened to you? Perhaps I can help!"
"No, just take care of yourself. Go now, take care!"
Pimin wanted to say something, but unfortunately, the man had already pushed her out of the castle gate.
A dazzling stream of light enveloped her instantly, leaving only an overexposed white expanse before her eyes. When the white light dissipated, she was back in the junkyard, with the dungeon gate open behind her.
After waiting for a long time without seeing the man come out, she could only sullenly close the door.
As the door closed, the Dark Castle dungeon card inserted in the card slot vanished in an instant, turning into a stream of light.
[Congratulations to player "Playful and Happy" for successfully clearing the Dark Castle dungeon! The reward for clearing the dungeon is 50 supply pods. Due to an anomaly in this dungeon, the game has decided to give all players who cleared the dungeon a compensation reward. The reward will be drawn through a lucky draw. Would you like to start drawing now?]
Without hesitation, Pi Min chose yes.
A virtual spinning wheel appeared before them, offering a wide variety of rewards. Besides varying numbers of supply pods, there were even rewards with ridiculously overpowered names like unlimited water bottles and scapegoat dolls.
She had thought that someone as unlucky as her would be lucky to get even a few supply crates, but to her surprise, after the wheel spun, the pointer finally stopped on the scapegoat doll, which occupied the smallest position on the wheel. Just by looking at the area this reward occupied, you could tell that it was the most valuable prize in the prize pool.
[Congratulations to player "Playing the Fool is Fun" for obtaining the item "Substitute Doll". Item attributes can be viewed in the game inventory.]
Perhaps because she had previously won a big prize like a withdrawal card, when the doll with the same face as her wobbled into her arms, she didn't feel much joy, but rather a bit of a wry smile.
How afraid are they that she might accidentally die? How much does this lousy game look down on her?
[The substitute doll can shield the player from one fatal attack; death and pain sensations are 100% transferred.]
Although, it is indeed a good thing.
Pi Min was shocked to discover, after rummaging through her game inventory, that the rose the man had given her in the dungeon had also been brought out with her.
Indeed, the roses in the dungeon are still roses.
She first found a vase and put the roses in it before opening the system rewards and starting a fifty-draw streak.
Presumably knowing that ordinary players don't have enough space to store fifty supply pods, all fifty supply pods awarded as dungeon rewards exist in data form, and the extracted supplies will be automatically stored in the player's game inventory.
Pimin had little concept of the existence of fifty supply pods until her game inventory kept popping up with insufficient space warnings. Only then did she realize just how incredible this reward was. Without time to expand her game inventory, she could only open the door connecting the scrap yard and the sanatorium and quickly enter the larger sanatorium.
Even so, the supplies pulled from the supply depot still piled up into a small mountain in the sanatorium's lobby.
There is indeed no game in this world where death is inevitable. Although the reward for a dungeon is only fifty supply pods, time inside the dungeon is frozen relative to the outside world.
This means that as long as players have an unlimited number of dungeon cards, they can enter an unlimited number of dungeons. Even that unlucky player who needed over three hundred supply bays to upgrade still has a chance to survive.
Pimin only needs 31 supply bays to upgrade, and once the 50-ship bonus arrives, the housing upgrade progress bar will be full immediately.
[House upgrade begins. Outer layer reinforcement complete. Air density modification complete. Congratulations to player "Playful and Happy" for completing the house upgrade. Current house level: LV2.]
[Congratulations to player "Playful and Happy" for upgrading their residence level to LV2. As the first player in this server to successfully upgrade to LV2, they are awarded 10,000 points.]
Sure enough, the supply pods weren't for nothing. Upgraded accommodations will have different levels depending on the size of the accommodation and the number of supply pods.
The first player to complete the upgrade and reach LV1 was a player who started with a tent; all they needed to upgrade was two supply bays.
After the upgrade was completed, Pi Min habitually took a look at the forum.
Sure enough, the forums exploded as soon as the Dark Castle dungeon ended.
"Where's the promised 50% death rate for dungeons? Why is the completion rate for Dark Castle 95%?"
Pimin then realized that, apart from the two who attacked her at the beginning, none of the remaining players were injured or killed.
"I don't know. All the players' live streams suddenly went black at the same time. Nobody knows what happened inside the dungeon. The official statement only said that the dungeon encountered a system malfunction and was abnormally closed. So, it can't really be considered a clear. It can only be considered a clear."
"System malfunction? How could I encounter something like this? Ugh, why can't I be so lucky?"
"Any players who have cleared the game willing to share their tips and tricks? I'll offer 1000 points."
"It's just a report, right? These 1000 points are practically free." Pi Min didn't hesitate to send a private message to that player to tell them what happened. To her dismay, the system showed that the private message failed to send.
Well, it's true that everyone hates and condemns heretical practitioners.
The report button was still there, but a line of small text suddenly appeared on the "Eternal Night Dungeon Card" in her hand: "According to the system's self-check, there is a suspected fatal system bug in this dungeon. It is currently being repaired and cannot be entered for the time being."
Hmm, very good, shortcuts really can't be replicated.
This game is so fast, it doesn't give anyone a chance to get freebies!
Pi Min was about to shut down the forum in a huff when he caught a glimpse of a chilling title out of the corner of his eye: "Everyone, stop using the ex-girlfriend meme, it'll kill people!"
When I clicked in, I found that what the original poster said was actually true.
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