Chapter 23: Plague is coming

“Nice to meet you.”

Zong Mi stared at the hand the ice mage extended toward him.

After a brief hesitation, he reached out and lightly shook it.

Their hands separated almost immediately.

Zong Mi himself felt nothing about it.

Xu Yue, standing nearby, was so shocked his jaw nearly hit the floor.

As Baili Kong’s cousin, Xu Yue knew his personality better than anyone.

Whether in Descending or in reality, Baili Kong belonged to the type of person with a terrible temper and an intimidating presence.

On top of that, he was taciturn.

At a young age, he had already risen to the upper ranks of the military and been awarded the rank of Major General.

His family background was equally formidable.

Very few people dared to provoke him.

After entering Descending, he had firmly occupied the top spot on the Ladder Rankings until the second expansion update, when he was finally dethroned by an unknown newcomer.

Xu Yue knew exactly what kind of person his cousin was.

Although he looked expressionless and cold on the surface, his competitive spirit was unbelievably strong.

After falling from Rank One to Rank Two, Baili Kong had immediately assembled an elite team and plunged into a dungeon.

He practically lived in the snow mountains until he managed to complete an entire Ice Mage equipment set.

Yet even after obtaining the set bonuses and additional attributes, he still failed to reclaim first place.

That alone demonstrated how unfathomable Zong Mi’s strength was.

The top thirty players on the rankings covered nearly every combat and magic class available.

Most of these experts already knew one another.

Even if they hadn’t met in-game, they usually knew each other in reality.

So the moment Zong Mi appeared, everyone fixed their eyes on him.

Seeing this, Zong Mi paused before briefly introducing himself.

“Bard class.”

“ID: Zong Mi.”

“Nice to meet you all.”

Every class had its own distinct characteristics.

Archers carried bows on their backs.

Warriors and swordsmen always carried weapons.

Assassins wore concealed sleeve blades and equipment designed with subtle colors and patterns.

Mages and priests were the easiest to identify.

Priests typically wore red-and-white robes.

Wizards favored large wizard robes and shorter magic wands.

Other mage classes wore traditional mage robes and wielded staffs longer than wands.

“A hidden class?”

Someone asked.

“Yes.”

Zong Mi didn’t bother hiding it.

Although his entrance had indeed been flashy, he wasn’t putting on airs or acting arrogant.

That straightforward attitude earned him a few favorable impressions.

“I’m still considered a magic-type class.”

“Just treat me as a normal mage.”

Of course, whenever necessary, Zong Mi could also pull a sword out of his inventory and instantly cosplay as a melee class.

Still, compared to melee combat, he preferred magic classes.

They allowed him to openly hide behind warriors and slack off while dealing damage.

Combat was much more comfortable that way.

“Alright.”

“Since everything looks good, let’s head to the dungeon entrance.”

Xu Yue looked up at the moon.

It had only recently risen and would soon pass overhead, eventually hanging directly above the Realm of the Undead.

The entrance to this incomplete main-story dungeon was exceptionally well hidden.

It only opened during the early hours before dawn.

Miss the window, and they would have to wait until the next day.

There was no time to waste.

They needed to enter immediately.

The maximum party size in Descending was thirty players.

After Xu Yue invited Zong Mi into the team, the entire group set off toward the dungeon entrance.

The entrance was located outside Kadina City, within an abandoned castle near the border of the Realm of the Undead.

The other players participating already knew the dungeon’s basic details.

The authorities were paying close attention to this mission.

Shortly after Baili Kong submitted information about the dungeon, humanity had dispatched an advance scouting team.

They had thoroughly explored the first two stages.

Along the way, Xu Yue personally explained everything to Zong Mi.

“Since it’s a Realm of the Undead dungeon, the abandoned castle contains some undead creatures.”

Xu Yue had previously entered with the scouting team and was very familiar with the place.

“Most of them are around level forty.”

“They’re not difficult to deal with.”

Time was limited.

Xu Yue only had enough time to explain the dungeon’s background before the group arrived at the entrance.

[Baili Kong has shared the Epic Quest “The Missing Count.” Open the party interface to view quest information.]

[Baili Kong has transferred party leader authority to Zong Mi.]

Two system notifications immediately appeared before everyone.

Quite a few players looked surprised.

Normally, dungeon leaders needed extensive knowledge of class skills, quick reaction speeds, and excellent coordination abilities.

They weren’t necessarily the strongest player.

However, this party consisted entirely of ranking elites.

Most of them were proud and difficult to manage.

Rather than arguing over leadership, they had simply handed the position to the strongest person present.

Only Xu Yue knew that Zong Mi’s command ability was top-tier.

After all, they had cooperated before.

That left him completely at ease.

Zong Mi, however, shook his head.

“I’m not familiar with the dungeon or the team composition.”

“You handle the command.”

“Alright.”

Xu Yue readily agreed.

The castle’s layout was strange.

Every window had been nailed shut with wooden planks.

Dust covered every piece of furniture.

Broken porcelain shards were scattered across the floor.

The gray rats unique to the Realm of the Undead scurried in and out of holes in the walls.

The instant the dungeon activated, the castle’s main hall grew dark.

The iron gate at the entrance slammed shut and locked itself.

At the same time, the creaking sound of skeletal bones echoed through the air.

Human players were already very familiar with that noise.

Several dungeons within the Realm of the Undead used the same formula.

Skeleton monsters were the lowest tier of undead creatures and posed little threat.

Every player in the top thirty rankings was above level forty-five.

They charged forward together.

The first stage was little more than a warm-up.

“The second stage isn’t very difficult either.”

“In the castle kitchen, you can obtain several clues indicating that the former owner of the castle was a noble obsessed with necromancy and dark magic.”

“Once you obtain the torn page from the Book of the Dead, the second stage begins.”

Thanks to the advance scouting team, dungeon exploration became far easier.

Otherwise, simply searching for clues would have been a nightmare.

That was precisely why clearing a brand-new dungeon was so difficult.

However, the second stage was clearly much harder than the first.

After obtaining the torn page from the Book of the Dead, the fragment trembled in midair.

Suddenly, bright red blood dripped from above.

The moment it touched the ground, the incomplete magic circle engraved there activated.

“Mages and archers, fall back.”

“Warriors, move forward.”

Xu Yue’s commands remained calm and orderly.

The instant he finished speaking, a gigantic rag doll puppet emerged from the magic circle.

Above its head floated a blood-red level indicator:

Level 60

The scouting teams had all failed here.

Humanity’s leading players were only around level fifty.

The scouts had been wiped out every time they triggered the boss.

Silence filled the party.

The elite players quickly moved into their preferred positions and began attacking.

Most first-wave players were military elites from Earth.

In reality, they were trained fighters, psychics, or individuals with exceptionally high mental strength.

Combat was second nature to them.

They had all fought together before.

Only Zong Mi was truly unfamiliar.

On top of that, he possessed a hidden class.

Xu Yue had no idea where best to place him, so he simply allowed him to act freely.

Zong Mi ignored the subtle glances directed toward him.

The moment he entered the castle, he had equipped his most valuable gear.

The crimson royal robe.

The scepter in his hand.

The royal orb and sword at his waist.

Rather than looking like someone running a dungeon, he resembled an emperor rushing toward a coronation ceremony.

Everyone present was knowledgeable.

One glance was enough to tell his equipment wasn’t ordinary.

Someone had even gathered the courage earlier to ask which dungeon had dropped such gear.

“Control mages, begin your rotation.”

Thanks to the party’s excellent coordination, they safely passed the boss’s first phase.

The puppet’s health had already fallen below seventy percent.

Just as the order was issued, Baili Kong stepped forward.

He brushed past Zong Mi’s side.

A loud chant echoed from his lips.

A fourth-tier high-level ice spell instantly formed.

The surrounding temperature plummeted toward freezing.

Frost spread through the air.

The puppet was immediately trapped.

At the same time, the hunters’ traps activated.

Dark mages followed with Shadow Arts.

Wood-element mages unleashed Vines Entanglement.

Zong Mi raised an eyebrow.

For some reason, he felt that Baili Kong harbored a strange hostility toward him.

Yet Baili Kong had been the first person to shake his hand.

Zong Mi had originally assumed handshakes were a gesture of goodwill among Earthlings.

Could they also be a form of provocation?

Up until now, Zong Mi had been completely slacking off.

He merely held his seven-stringed harp without playing a single note.

However, Descending possessed a fully immersive system.

That meant there was also a damage ranking tracker.

Healing and damage numbers were faithfully recorded by the system.

At the moment, Zong Mi sat firmly at the bottom.

Beside his ID was a pitiful zero.

Although nobody said anything, the atmosphere was clearly shifting.

After all, everyone in the party had sacrificed part of their own interests to invite him.

More than half the team had even agreed to allow Zong Mi first pick of one dungeon reward.

If he continued contributing nothing, it would be difficult to justify.

“Full damage output.”

“Warriors, maintain aggro.”

After weighing the pros and cons, Zong Mi cheerfully hung the seven-stringed harp back onto his equipment slot.

Then he casually drew the Sword of the Night Goddess.

With a light step, he soared over everyone’s heads and charged directly toward the boss.

The puppet boss possessed an enormous health pool.

It also loved summoning rag dolls.

Fortunately, its summoning had been interrupted by crowd control.

Otherwise, the fight would have been even more troublesome.

Even without the rag dolls, the boss itself dealt frightening damage.

Zong Mi moved incredibly fast.

He currently possessed six Legendary-grade pieces of equipment.

Together, they increased his attributes by an absurd sixty percent.

Combined with the terrifying base stats of the equipment itself, his strength had reached an astonishing level.

Measured against NPC standards, he was probably equivalent to an eighty-level warrior.

After all, six Legendary-grade items placed him only one step away from divine-tier equipment.

The blond bard casually swung his sword.

Flames erupted from the blade.

The puppet’s neck was instantly scorched black.

At the same time, Baili Kong was instantly pushed down from first place on the damage rankings.

Zong Mi, who had just been sitting at the bottom, shot directly to the top.

Behind his name appeared a damage number so absurd it seemed unreal.

“That…”

Everyone was stunned.

The battle froze for an entire second.

The distraction caused the puppet boss to enter Berserk Mode.

The Dawn Priest immediately scrambled to cast healing spells.

One strike.

Just one strike.

Zong Mi had removed nearly thirty percent of the boss’s health.

A single sword attack had nearly pushed it into the red.

“What are you all standing around for?!”

“Keep attacking!”

“Berserkers, use your aggro transfer skills!”

Xu Yue was equally shocked.

Fortunately, he retained enough sanity to shout everyone back to attention.

“Holy hell…”

“We invited an actual monster…”

The party’s lead assassin tightened his grip on his dagger.

He immediately coordinated with the berserkers and resumed carving away the boss’s remaining health from every possible angle.

Everyone shared the same thoughts.

They all knew Zong Mi was only around level fifty.

For someone at that level to possess such power…

Either his skills were absurdly broken.

Or his equipment was.

And most importantly—

Wasn’t Rank One supposed to be a magic class???

Since when did a magic class put away its staff, pull out a sword, and beat a boss to death?

As it turned out, such a person did exist.

And Zong Mi was currently providing a perfect demonstration.

After delivering that devastating sword strike, he paid no attention whatsoever to the gasps behind him.

Using the puppet’s body as a foothold, he executed a flawless backflip.

While airborne, he casually murmured a few words.

A fourth-tier ice spell instantly formed in his hand.

The attack crashed directly into the boss.

Another ten percent of its health vanished.

Well then.

At that point, no amount of aggro management could save the situation.

The boss’s eyes turned blood-red.

Countless puppet strings shot toward Zong Mi like a tidal wave.

It clearly wanted him dead more than anything else.

The others:

…

Complicated feelings.jpg

The boss was originally expected to take two hours.

After Zong Mi joined the fight, it died in less than ten minutes.

When the puppet collapsed onto the magic circle with a thunderous crash, everyone felt as though they were dreaming.

Honestly, they suspected Zong Mi could have solo-cleared the dungeon.

Earlier, they thought he was freeloading.

Now that he had finally shown his strength, they felt like the real dead weight.

Everyone was roughly the same level.

Yet the gap was simply ridiculous.

“Aha… haha…”

“As expected of Rank One…”

Xu Yue secretly glanced at his cousin.

Although Baili Kong’s expression remained unchanged, the shock in those deep blue eyes was unmistakable.

That immediately made Xu Yue feel much better.

The last time Zong Mi had led him through Dawn Holy City, escaping from a group of level seventy and eighty NPCs while ignoring a massive spatial teleportation array, Xu Yue had already prepared himself mentally for Zong Mi’s true strength.

Even now, the highest-level wanted notices in every major city still featured both of their names.

Anyone would lose their composure in the face of such overwhelming power.

They were all level fifty-something.

They were all Earthlings.

This gap was simply unreasonable.

Most members of the party belonged to government-affiliated organizations.

Some quietly activated recording software.

Others immediately began documenting everything.

The moment they exited the dungeon, reports about the player known as Zong Mi would undoubtedly reach the highest levels.

Humanity had worked tirelessly within Descending.

This was no longer merely a virtual reality game.

It had become a second world carrying humanity’s hopes.

Every top-tier combatant was incredibly important.

“Let’s move.”

Zong Mi merely responded with a short sentence.

He remained calm and composed, as though nothing could shake him.

This was precisely why he hadn’t wanted to interact with human players too early.

Still, he had already collected six Legendary Divine Artifacts.

Once he ascended the throne, the first server-wide announcement would expose him anyway.

Since discovery was inevitable, there was no point worrying about it now.

After the puppet boss died, the magic circle beneath it grew even brighter.

Soon, the ground began trembling.

A massive sinkhole opened beneath them.

Since the scouting teams had never reached the third phase, nobody was prepared.

One after another, party members tumbled into the darkness below.

At that exact moment, Zong Mi’s expression suddenly changed.

His eyes began burning once again.

Yet the arrival of another future vision wasn’t the true reason for his reaction.

The real reason was the aura emanating from the depths of the pit.

“That noble obsessed with dark magic…”

“Was he also a devout believer?”

The darkness below seemed bottomless.

Nearly a full minute passed, yet nobody reached the ground.

They were likely falling deep into the Realm of the Undead itself.

Fortunately, the party included a wind mage.

Combined with the archers’ basic wind manipulation skills, they managed to slow their descent.

“I’m not sure.”

“But I think the butler’s diary mentioned something like that.”

Xu Yue thought for a moment before answering.

His response caused Zong Mi’s heart to sink.

The source of dark magic did not actually come from the Night Goddess.

In truth, part of it originated from another existence.

An existence that had not yet fully formed.

Zong Mi lowered his eyes.

Dark crimson streaks flashed through his gray irises, making him look eerily mysterious.

Although the aura was ancient, it remained as familiar to him as if he had encountered it yesterday.

It was the aura of plague.

The moment he fully recognized it, the burning sensation around his eyes reached its threshold.

Darkness shattered.

The future arrived.

【Golden-red flames erupted around him, illuminating the depths of the pit.

This future was different.

Zong Mi was no longer falling.

Instead, he lay upon a pool of icy liquid.

Frowning, he tried to rise.

He couldn’t move.

Something tightly bound all four of his limbs.

Judging by the weight and sensation, they were anti-magic chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles.

Worse still, the cold liquid beneath him carried a foul metallic scent.

Fresh blood.

Without question, it was fresh human blood.

The angles of the surrounding flames made the truth unmistakable.

This was an ancient altar.

Ancient sacrificial rituals were cruel.

Most involved living sacrifices offered directly to gods.

Naturally, any deity willing to accept such offerings was never a benevolent god.

Such beings were usually known as Evil Gods.

Yet that wasn’t the worst part.

The worst part was the corpse lying beside the altar.

It had already dried into a mummy.

A knife remained clenched in its hand.

The blood on its wrist had long since dried black.

It had clearly died from blood loss.

Which meant the ritual had already begun.

The blond bard was chained upon an altar filled with blood.

He was the sacrifice chosen for this ceremony.

The moment Zong Mi realized that, gray-black energy began flowing through the runes carved into the altar.

Something unimaginably cold touched his forehead.

Starting from the center of his brow, it slowly moved downward.

Lower.

And lower.

Toward somewhere far more dangerous.

The scent of death flooded the bard’s senses.

For the first time, he understood with perfect clarity that he was bound helplessly at the center of the altar.

Like a lamb awaiting slaughter.

Deep within the Realm of the Undead, there was only one thing.

The origin of the Twilight of the Gods.

The source of countless nightmares.

An existence feared like a great demon king.

The plague was coming.】

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