Wu Wang appeared in the familiar Settlement Space.

He glanced down at his personal panel and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in surprise.

【Player Nickname: Pending Death#9527】

【Player Level: Lv. 4】

【Distributable Points: 4】

【Strength: 10】

【Constitution: 10】

【Agility: 10】

【Intelligence: 11 (Fixed value, cannot be increased)】

【Mental Strength: 40 (You have long resisted a certain Mental Contamination, which is tempering your spirit)】

【Charisma: 5 (Because you became a beacon of light for all the students in Fight Back to School, your Charisma is rising out of respect for Tiga)】

I leveled up this fast?

This was most likely related to liberating the entire school. He had gone far beyond the original mission requirements.

Although he didn’t know how many Instances players like Baili Dao and Tuxing Sun had cleared to reach level five or six, they certainly hadn’t jumped four levels in a single go like he had.

After all, those two seemed to have plenty of items and equipment, stockpiles clearly accumulated from one Instance after another.

“Isn’t this non-upgradable Intelligence a bit too absurd?”

Wu Wang’s lip twitched as he stared at the stat.

Did the 【Spirit Calamity Game】 really believe that intelligence was innate and couldn’t be improved by allocating points?

This was outrageous!

They say you live and you learn. Yet here he was, having fallen into one pit after another in the Instance, only to come out no wiser, at least according to the system.

This was discrimination against the simple-minded!

Fortunately, Wu Wang was confident in his own intellect. Even a simple farmer would have to admit it was top-tier!

On the other hand, the increase in his Mental Strength and Charisma didn’t surprise him. His initial Mental Strength was already high, likely a result of his long-term cycle of suicide and resurrection. After all, who else in the world had constantly experienced the terror of death and mental collapse?

Coupled with the torment from the Abyss God’s Red Vertical Pupil, his Mental Strength seemed to be tempered by the constant strain, growing stronger even without him allocating any points.

I’m the legendary king of resilience!

“Our teachers taught us to have a balanced development of morals, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor.”

Wu Wang cheerfully distributed the available points to 【Strength】, 【Constitution】, and 【Agility】 in a 1:2:1 ratio.

The reason 【Constitution】 got an extra point was simple. When encountering danger, having enough stamina to outrun your teammates was a victory in itself.

To be honest, he was even a little hesitant to allocate any points to 【Strength】 at all. From what he’d seen so far, it seemed impossible to clear an Instance with brute force.

The ghosts and monsters within were ridiculously overpowered. No matter how many points a player poured into 【Strength】, they likely couldn’t face a boss head-on.

It was more like an escape room. You had to use your brain.

Therefore, 【Strength】 felt like a relatively unimportant stat. Of course, it was also possible that he just lacked experience, having only been through one Instance.

“Let’s see what the clearance rewards are.”

Wu Wang clicked open the other sections of the panel.

In his backpack… nothing new.

In his skill bar… still the same.

“Damn it, did the system skim off my rewards? What happened to the superimposed rewards reaching their peak?” Wu Wang couldn’t help but curse.

But after a thorough check, he finally discovered something that had never appeared before.

【Due to superimposed rewards and the Hidden Reward, you have obtained two lottery chances for the Legendary Treasure Vault.】

【Legendary Treasure Vault. A warehouse from a deal struck between the Spirit Calamity Game and a certain legendary Myriad Treasures Auctioneer who traverses the Myriad Realms and trades in everything. The items and equipment obtained from it are at least Epic level.】

【Equipment & Item Grade Classification. Grades are Inferior, Common, Fine Quality, Epic, Legendary, and Exclusive.】

Great, just great. They turned the rewards into a lottery to make it easier to rig things behind the scenes, huh.

Wu Wang was so angry he almost laughed. He always felt like the system of this Cataclysm Game didn’t like him very much.

Lotteries were far too unpredictable. He’d never even won a “try again” cap in his life. Instead, he was the type of person to find an American cockroach at the bottom of his drink.

“Draw, draw, draw, goddammit. You’d better hope I never find out who designed this game, or I’ll draw my hand across his face a few times too.”

Wu Wang viciously pressed the lottery option.

A box engraved with a question mark appeared out of thin air in front of him and began to shake.

【Screening collection for you.】

【Congratulations, you have obtained the Epic-grade item, Pink Flower Tea (from a certain raising-sim game, Slave Girl Silvxx).】

【Effect. When used on the opposite sex, it will significantly increase their desire in a certain aspect for one month. Players with poor stamina are advised to use with caution.】

“?”

What the hell did I just get?

Before he could get a clear look at its effect, the Red Vertical Pupil on the inside of his wrist suddenly blinked.

Wu Wang’s vision went black, his face turned pale, and a large amount of his life force was siphoned away. He was almost sucked into a human husk.

Why is the Abyss God going crazy again!?

He didn’t have any items or equipment on him for it to tamper with.

The next second, a flurry of blood-red tentacles inexplicably appeared before the Question Mark Box. The tentacles wrapped around the 【Pink Flower Tea】, shoved it forcefully back into the box, and then began to stir wildly inside, as if groping for something.

The Question Mark Box began to tremble violently. It seemed to want to escape, but the surrounding tentacles held it tightly in place.

“It can do that?” Wu Wang was a bit stunned.

But can you really call this a lottery draw?

This isn’t a draw, this is a goddamn mugging!

A few seconds later, the blood-red tentacles pulled a black-and-white smiling face mask out of the box.

【Fake Smile Mask (Epic). The wearer can freely change their appearance and physical characteristics. Each use consumes 10 Mental Strength, and the effect lasts for 24 hours.】

【Note. Isn’t everyone wearing a mask? You think I put on a mask, but in fact, I took one off.】

The moment the equipment fell into Wu Wang’s hands, the blood-red tentacles and the Question Mark Box vanished. For some reason, at the instant it disappeared, Wu Wang could feel a deep wave of resentment emanating from the box.

“Not happy about it? Then come back!”

Wu Wang cursed again and pressed the lottery option. He had two chances, after all.

The next second, the Question Mark Box reappeared. The familiar process started all over again.

The Red Vertical Pupil blinked. A huge chunk of Wu Wang’s life force was drained, so much that he even died and revived once. Then, the blood-red tentacles appeared, wrapping themselves tightly around the poor Question Mark Box.

Its trembling this time was even more violent than before, perhaps because it never expected to be summoned again.

Don’t you fucking come near me!

Gurgle…

The tentacles forced their way inside.

This time, what they pulled out was a scroll.

【Cloud-Stepping Steps (Epic, Evolvable). Learn this skill upon use. When leaving the ground, simply perform a jumping motion in mid-air to complete a Double Jump (effect can be stacked). Each jump consumes a certain amount of stamina.】

【Note. Who says you can’t fly by stepping on your left foot with your right?】

“Okay, I forgive you. Looks like my life wasn’t fed to you for nothing.” Wu Wang smiled in satisfaction.

Although, it hadn’t actually managed to eat his life force.

This Red Vertical Pupil of the Abyss God was definitely not a good thing, but at least it had done something useful for him. If the Abyss God’s Mark on his wrist hadn’t devoured the pupil on the door in the Instance, it would have been difficult for him to even enter the broadcasting room.

Oh, wait, that’s not right!

Damn it, the reason the mission even required entering the broadcasting room was because this bastard twisted it for me!

Wu Wang suddenly realized that the source of his problems seemed to be this thing on his wrist.

He cursed, “You didn’t hear that just now, did you? In that case, I take back one forgiveness.”

With that, he crushed the scroll. A glint flashed in his eyes.

【Learned. Cloud-Stepping Steps (Epic, Evolvable).】

A single piece of Common equipment was enough to make players fight over it. Fine Quality equipment could make players take risks in the real world, even breaking the law to kill and plunder. An Epic-grade piece of equipment could cause a degree of panic.

This was because the struggle for Epic-grade equipment could affect the social order of an entire region.

Not to mention, Wu Wang now also had an Epic-grade skill. Although it didn’t look like much right now, it was clearly marked as Evolvable.

In the Spirit Calamity Game, anything that could evolve would inevitably become an overpowered, game-breaking skill, as long as the conditions were met.

In a sense, the potential value of 【Cloud-Stepping Steps】 was even higher than that of the 【Fake Smile Mask】.

【Logout?】

“Confirm Logout.”

Wu Wang’s expression grew increasingly arrogant.

“I’m going to stamp my boot right on their faces!”

Just as the Settlement Space was about to disappear, an extra notification sounded.

【Vision of Truth (Passive) has been integrated and evolved.】

【@!%# can now see your world more clearly. He is in high spirits in the Abyss.】

【I am beginning to understand everything!】

“?”

Wait, you can evolve too? What did you evolve with?