Chapter 17 The Infinite Boss Invites You to "Eat Melon" 17. Host...
Lu Yu had been outwitting and outmaneuvering the players all day, and he certainly didn't think that everything would be fine once he got home, with both sides automatically ceasing hostilities. He knew very well that there was a 100% chance that players would come to his house tonight to cause trouble.
He made some preparations before going to bed, such as hiding a kitchen knife under his pillow and setting up scientific devices like screaming chickens, alarms, and small razor blades on all the doors and windows.
But the players are unscientific.
Although they seemed quite wary of his identity as the final boss and dared not confront him directly for the time being, no one could guarantee that there wouldn't be any reckless fools among them. After all, just a few hours ago, Lu Yu's phone had been snatched away on the street by outlaws.
Moreover, he knows his own business. The players are afraid of him, but he really hasn't figured out what's so scary about him. Does his particularly scary expression when he's working overtime count?
Anyway, compared to those players with extraordinary abilities, he considered himself just an ordinary person, capable of dealing with scientific methods but unable to deal with unscientific ones.
So before going to sleep, Lu Yu summoned the gossip system and gave this uniquely unscientific entity within him a task: to wake him up whenever a player infiltrated the area so he could prepare in advance and make a ruckus throughout the entire neighborhood.
In the neighborhood, especially in their building, there are a lot of people who love to watch the drama. He hangs a small speaker around his neck, and when he turns it on, the melodramatic radio drama audio of "Whose child are you pregnant with, and whose gigolo am I?" will play. Within three seconds, at least ten heads will stick out to see what's going on.
Lu Yu had already guessed from his experiences today that players could not reveal their extraordinary abilities in front of a certain number or range of NPCs, and that was exactly what he wanted to take advantage of tonight.
The more attention they attract, the more restricted they become. Without extraordinary abilities, players are just ordinary people.
But... what about the players?
As soon as Lu Yu received the system notification in his sleep, he immediately and silently grabbed a kitchen knife and held the small speaker that he had already turned up to the maximum volume. He was ready to open the window and call for help as soon as he saw anything unusual. However, to his surprise, even though everything was ready, the player was nowhere to be found.
Fortunately, he checked it first and didn't turn on the speakers directly, otherwise the high and low volume would have disturbed the neighbors.
Lu Yu stood on the balcony and looked down. The neighborhood was pitch black, with every household having turned off their lights and closed their windows. There was nothing unusual, except for the chirping of insects that belonged to the summer night, which came from near and far, creating a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere.
Lu Yu withdrew his gaze and said coldly, "System, I meant that a player came to remind me, not that you're just messing with me for no reason."
The Gossip System: [Host, you're making malicious assumptions about this system! This system really did detect a player sneaking into the building!]
Lu Yu: "Where is that person?"
For the host's safety, the "Gossip System" can alert Lu Yu to player infiltration attempts, but it cannot directly tell Lu Yu the player's whereabouts if the infiltration fails and Lu Yu is not discovered. Therefore, all Lu Yu hears is: "[This system is limited by...]"
Lu Yu: "..."
I won't ask any more questions.
He closed the window, went back inside, put down the kitchen knife, lay back down on the bed, and closed his eyes.
Just as the gossip system thought Lu Yu had moved on from the matter and was preparing to adjust and fall asleep again, the man's voice suddenly rang out in the consciousness link: "System, I remember your 'Dungeon' entry mentioned that the world I live in is full of dungeons, right?"
The gossip-eating system displayed the following text: 【Yes, host.】
Lu Yu opened his eyes: "Then my Morning and Evening Apartments must be no exception? So, the player you reminded me about who infiltrated the complex tonight has a certain probability of accidentally falling into a dungeon trap on his way to my house and is either dead or trapped somewhere in the apartment?"
The system paused for a moment, then the floating screen changed: [Congratulations, host, for unlocking a new entry, "S-Rank Dungeon: Dawn and Dusk Apartment"!]
【Dawn and Dusk Apartments, formerly an SS-level instance (based on pollution intensity and danger level), began to be downgraded five years ago. When it was first opened two years ago, it was downgraded to S-level, becoming an S-level instance.
This instance has only been opened twice so far, with two players surviving but no one completing it.
Building 13 in this instance is the most polluted area, containing numerous eerie phenomena, including but not limited to "Hellhound's House," "Midnight Woman," "Human Sacrifice," and "Longevity Star"...
Lu Yu: "System, don't tell me this 'Cerberus House' is Uncle Zhou's house on the third floor. Is he the only one in Building 13 who keeps a husky?"
The Gossip System: [Host, this is his house.]
Lu Yu: "Are you sure? I think his Qiuqiu is much more normal than that husky outside the convenience store tonight."
The gossip-eating system: [The person standing in front of the convenience store is a player in disguise.]
Lu Yu: "...I thought the one walking the dog was the player."
The gossip-loving system: [The one walking the dog is also the one being walked.]
Lu Yu: "..."
You players are really something else.
Lu Yu shook his head, trying to shake off some of the strange thoughts, and then tried to match the code names of the strange creatures with his neighbors one by one.
The "Midnight Girl" is most likely the woman on the fifth floor who suffered from neurasthenia due to her civil service exam preparation, couldn't sleep at night, and often pulled her hair while making dark, guttural screams.
If we're talking about "human sacrifice," perhaps it refers to Grandpa Zhang on the sixth floor?
He loves chicken, but finds store-bought chicken too expensive and unhealthy, so he raises and slaughters it himself in the neighborhood, keeping a huge number of cages. Because of the strong smell and the chickens' frequent crowing, he's been complained about by residents more than once, and the police have even come. But Mr. Zhang ignores the complaints completely, continuing to raise chickens as soon as the police leave, which makes him very unpopular.
As for "the birthday man", Lu Yu could only think of Grandma Feng on the seventh floor.
She is a well-known health product promotion ambassador in the community. She can't stop talking about health preservation and longevity. Her catchphrases are "You are still young now, of course you are not afraid. You will know when you get old. Who is not afraid of death?" and "What's wrong with trying it? What if it works?"
This entry is quite long, and it also talks about other areas, such as the guardhouse and the express delivery station.
After Lu Yu finished reading, he remained silent for a moment and said, "I have lived here for five years and dealt with them for five years. In my interactions with them, they have not shown any strange or unusual behavior."
"Our company is also a copy; can you unlock the data?"
[Laughing Media Company, originally an S-level instance (based on the intensity and danger of contamination), was downgraded five years ago and is now an A-level instance...]
“Downgraded, and all five years ago,” Lu Yu’s gaze narrowed slightly. “System, do you think I can make two inferences based on this?”
"The first possibility is that this world is inherently abnormal, but for some reason, it mostly appears to be in a normal state. And this reason is probably related to me, the so-called final boss. Perhaps I can suppress, mitigate, or absorb the pollution?"
"But why?"
"We're all from this world, so why am I different from others and have this ability? Is it related to the 'power of rules' in my skill description?"
Lu Yu said, "The second direction is that this world was not originally like this. It became like this because of some kind of problem. In my understanding, the world I live in should not be polluted or strange, but should be the normal world that I have seen over the past twenty-seven years."
"So, what problem caused it to become like this?"
The suspended projection in front of us remained unchanged.
The gossip system remained silent and did not respond immediately.
Lu Yu gazed silently, his pupils hidden in darkness, unfathomable.
"Because of that game whose name I don't even know yet, right?"
He said, "Pollution and eeriness are all related to it."
The projection flickered, finally creating ripples.
[Congratulations, host, for unlocking the new term "Game Pollution"! Related terms such as "Strange Objects," "Strange," and "Strange Transformation" will be automatically unlocked!]
[Congratulations, host, for unlocking a new term, "Blue Star"!]
[Congratulations, host, for unlocking the new content "The Self You Don't Know" under the entry "The Power of Rules - Purification"!]
Game contamination refers to the (garbled text) injecting polluting power into a new world to invade it. This power can corrupt the world's rules, alter cognition, and distort all living and non-living entities.
"Strange creatures" are non-living entities heavily corrupted and transformed by the game. "Strange phenomena" are living entities heavily corrupted and transformed by the game. "Transformation" refers to both the state of a normal or non-living entity undergoing strange changes due to severe corruption, and also to the phenomenon where strange phenomena and strange creatures, stimulated, shed their everyday pretenses and erupt into their heavily corrupted forms...
Blue Star, the host's home planet, was once an ordinary world, but is now a (garbled) SSS-level dungeon called "Fool's Kingdom".
Nine years ago, (scrambled code) descended, inviting the people of Earth to participate in an infinite game. Whether willingly or unwillingly, large numbers of Earth's inhabitants became game players, entering another world called White Horse Star to play the game and conquer dungeons.
Five years ago, White Horse Star was fully opened as the SS-level dungeon "Tianyuan". (garbled text) designated the current Chosen One of White Horse Star as the SS-level Boss and used Blue Star people who had become S-level players to attack the Chosen One.
But the Earthlings had already sensed something was wrong.
Through their contact with White Horse Star, they discovered that White Horse Star was once a normal world, where (the garbled code) had descended and countless players had lived. It was only after a pollution outbreak that it became what is known as a game instance. The Blue Star people, having learned the truth, joined forces with the White Horse Star people in the final boss battle to counterattack the (garbled code), with the host as the main fighting force.
During the great battle, the host's divine essence shattered, and (garbled text) was injured, triggering the power of pollution, and the blue planet was completely corrupted.
Because of the protection of the host's divine fragments and the rules of the Blue Star world, (garbled text) failed to conquer Blue Star, but Blue Star has been corrupted and cannot return to normal...
Purification, one of the world rules powers controlled by the host, was stolen from (garbled code) and can purify the game pollution caused by (garbled code).
Currently sealed, it cannot be actively purified. It can only be passively suppressed and purified within a certain range for both life forms and non-life forms on Earth, maintaining their normal state for a long time and preventing them from easily becoming monstrous. Non-Earth beings require direct contact for passive purification; the closer the contact, the better the purification effect.
The fragments of divinity return to their rightful place and awaken, breaking the seal and releasing their power...
Two new terms and one new piece of content have once again brought about a dramatic change in Lu Yu's worldview.
He really wanted to question the gossip system.
But he understood that the gossip system had no reason to lie to him, because proving these things was both difficult and easy. The quickest way was to find a few players he had already locked in and bluff them, or, to be even more ruthless, lure them in to try it out.
But if the gossip system wasn't lying to him, then it means that this content is probably true.
In other words, their world should indeed be as normal as he sees it, with normal humans, normal animals, and normal mountains, rivers, plants, and trees.
On the fourth floor, Qiuqiu only worries about snacks and being arrested for destroying the house; on the fifth floor, Ms. Wu only worries about taking the civil service exam. On the sixth floor, Grandpa Zhang can be obsessed with raising chickens, even though the police come to mediate time and time again; on the seventh floor, Grandma Feng can be enthusiastic about health care, fanning herself with a palm leaf fan and teaching her health theories in the community.
They weren't born as "hellhounds" and "midnight women," "human sacrifices" and "longevity men."
It was all because of pollution, all because of a broken game whose name he didn't even know.
Lu Yu could no longer lie still.
He sat up, somewhat dazed.
He opened his mouth, unsure if he was speaking, but he vaguely heard his own voice, very calm, yet low and almost hoarse: "System, if my purification power can be unsealed..."
The system, seemingly knowing what he wanted to ask, replied directly: "[Blue Star lifeforms below the level of severe pollution and not yet corrupted—what players perceive as ordinary NPCs—can be restored. However, those severely polluted and already corrupted cannot. From a realistic perspective, they are already dead. Even if the host becomes a god, it is impossible to bring them back to life.]"
Lu Yu paused.
[Furthermore, this system does not recommend that the host frequently use passive or active purification before their divinity is complete.]
The gossip system said: "The larger the purification range, the sooner the game will detect it, and the sooner the encirclement and suppression of Blue Star will arrive. The host's godhood is incomplete, and Blue Star is not prepared. Facing the encirclement and suppression is extremely dangerous."
Furthermore, excessive purification can also harm the host's body and mind, and can only be eliminated once the host's divine nature is complete.
Lu Yu did not speak.
The "Gossip System": [Host, the pollution of Blue Star was detonated five years ago and has stabilized. It won't worsen, and the number of strange creatures and entities won't increase. You don't need to rush into anything. The best approach now is to wait until your divine essence is complete and everything is ready before undertaking a comprehensive purification.]
Lu Yu said, "Blue Star's pollution is stable... but what about the players?"
The "Gossip System" states: [The outsider player is not a human from Earth who experienced a pollution outbreak; they are inherently pure, and the pollution level is constantly changing.]
Lu Yu closed his eyes.
The gossip system seemed to have read his mind: [Host, do you want to save the player?]
Lu Yu nodded, then shook his head: "Although the players are from outside, it would be better to unite with them, just like Blue Star uniting with White Horse Star. It's always good to have more strength."
"But I'm not a saint, and my abilities are limited. Apart from Yan Zhi, I only save players who are willing to join this camp. No, it's not really saving them yet. I'm willing to help them reduce and stabilize the pollution to some extent, but more importantly, we'll have to see what happens in the future."
The gossip-eating system paused for a moment: [Is the host still willing to save Pei Yanzhi?]
A note from the author:
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