jdhmnovel What exactly is Chapter 318?
What exactly is Chapter 318?
Yuan Bao logged out of the game and spent a typical day in the real world, only logging back into the game when he went to sleep at night.
Entering the game world marks the start of a new day.
Yuan Bao immediately chose to enter the treasure hunt instance. After entering the instance, Xiao 9 immediately noticed something unusual:
"Master! The energy readings of the elixir are skyrocketing!" Little 9 slapped her cheek with its paw, its electronic voice tinged with panic, "It's rewriting the data encoding of surrounding objects!"
Yuan Bao instantly regained his senses and realized that the dungeon was the same as his own room.
The water glass by her bedside was twisting and deforming strangely, and characters similar to those on the bronze medicine cauldron in yesterday's dungeon appeared on the glass.
"Damn it..." She grabbed the game bracelet, its [Data Capture] indicator light flashing red wildly.
On the holographic screen projected by the wristband, strings of garbled characters rolled like a blizzard.
Little 9 quickly drew a blue light curtain in the air: "Little 9 has activated the isolation protocol, but it can only last for three minutes!"
Yuan Bao quickly put on his coat and took out a small bronze box from his spatial storage.
She carefully transferred the azure pill from her inventory to the box, and the moment she closed the lid, the strange phenomena in the room immediately stopped.
“This is a game item…” Yuan Bao’s fingertips trembled slightly. “It can affect the items here?”
Little 9's ears drooped: "Strangely, the main system replied last night that it couldn't detect any anomalies..." It pulled up a communication log, "Could someone have deliberately blocked our reports?"
Yuan Bao stared at the bronze box for a few seconds, then suddenly stuffed it into his pocket: "Let's go back to the entrance of the dungeon and take a look."
Since the elixir came from there, the answer should also be there.
Soon, the two stood at the entrance of the N168 Treasure Hunt PK instance.
At this moment, the dungeon gate transformed into the shape of a bronze medicine cauldron, with a data vortex rotating at its mouth.
"Wait," Yuan Bao stopped Xiao 9, who was about to rush in, "Let's check if the rules have changed first."
She opened the update log and noticed a line of small print: "[Optimized the PvP mechanism in the Tower of Trials; skipping battle animations will now grant an additional 5% time compensation]".
"Ha!" Yuan Bao snapped his fingers. "This is the breakthrough! If we skip the entire PK animation, we can theoretically have 35 more minutes of treasure hunting time than others."
Little 9 blinked: "But then we won't be able to see the magic weapon's combat effects..."
“Silly,” Yuan Bao gently flicked its nose, “the instructions say ‘reward unchanged,’ meaning skipping won’t affect the outcome. We just need to focus on collecting more magic items, especially those that can form sets.”
Just as she was about to step into the teleportation array, she suddenly turned back and asked, "By the way, can you hack into the dungeon's backend to check the player list? I want to know what kind of person that Shadow Blade is."
Little 9's ears immediately perked up: "Little 9, give it a try!" Its eyes shot out blue light, forming a keyboard-like afterimage in the air, its claws moving so fast they left afterimages. A few seconds later, it suddenly froze: "Strange...strange, the system shows that Shadow Blade's account was deleted three years ago..."
Yuan Bao narrowed his eyes: "So, what we encountered yesterday was either a hacker, or—"
"—Or maybe they're not a player at all." Little 9 finished her sentence and unconsciously shrank into Yuan Bao's neck.
The two exchanged a glance and stepped into the teleportation array simultaneously.
The familiar bamboo forest scene unfolds once again, but this time the air is filled with a pale purple mist.
The map on Yuan Bao's wrist unfolded automatically, showing that they were located in the "Youlan Valley" area in the southeast corner.
"The location is different from yesterday..." Yuan Bao frowned, observing his surroundings. "The map has been reset."
Little 9 suddenly pointed into the distance: "My lady, look! There's a flash of light over there!"
Deep in the bamboo forest, a golden light appeared and disappeared intermittently.
Yuan Bao crept closer and discovered it was a golden compass embedded in bamboo.
When she reached out to touch it, the compass suddenly disintegrated into countless points of light, which then reformed in her hand into an exquisite bronze key.
[Obtained: Feng Shui Compass Key (1/3)]
[Heavenly Treasures Series: Collect all three pieces to activate the "Master of Feng Shui" set effect]
"A great start!" Yuan Bao whistled, then suddenly felt the bronze box in his pocket vibrate slightly.
Just as she was about to take it out to check, the ground suddenly began to shake violently.
"Watch out!" Little 9 suddenly grabbed her collar and pulled her back.
A sharp bamboo spear pierced through the ground, just grazing the tip of Yuan Bao's nose.
"A trap?" Yuan Bao was still in shock when he noticed that the bamboo around him began to move strangely, forming a maze-like formation.
Even more frightening, the map on her wrist was being rapidly altered, turning the once clear route into a jumbled mess.
Xiao 9 anxiously scanned his surroundings: "This isn't normal dungeon mechanics! Someone is remotely controlling the terrain!"
Yuan Bao suddenly calmed down. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and unconsciously rubbed the bronze box in her pocket with her fingers.
When she opened her eyes again, the world had changed—the movement of the bamboo transformed into streams of green data in her eyes, and the path to solving the maze was clearly visible.
"This way!" She pulled Xiao 9 along and weaved through the moving bamboo array, each step precisely placed in the gaps of the data stream.
Three minutes later, they rushed out of the bamboo forest and came to a wide-open herb garden.
The data field of view in Yuan Bao's eyes suddenly disappeared, and her legs went weak and she almost knelt down.
"My lady!" Little Nine quickly helped her up. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know..." Yuan Bao gasped for breath, "I suddenly could see data flowing just now... and now my head hurts so much..."
Little 9 lightly touched her temple with its paw and was surprised to find that Yuan Bao's brainwave frequency briefly resonated with the game system: "Could it be the effect of the pill?"
Before they could figure things out, the fountain in the center of the herb garden suddenly stopped spraying water, and a white jade altar rose from the bottom of the pool.
On the altar were a scroll of bamboo slips and a small porcelain bottle.
[Hidden Treasure Chest Discovered: Shennong's Legacy]
Yuan Bao cautiously approached, and as she picked up the bamboo slip, the familiar system notification sound suddenly became distorted:
"Congratulations... on obtaining... a fragment of... a cross-dimensional... experimental log..."
Instead of the expected game item descriptions, what appeared on the bamboo slips was a fragmented text record:
"Subject X-7 lost control after dimensional travel... *sizzle*... The formula for the elixir of immortality has been altered... It must be retrieved... *sizzle*... The system vulnerability is located at the top of the Treasure Tower..."
The text ends here.
Yuan Bao and Xiao Jiu looked at each other, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.
"Dimensional travel? Experimental subject?" Yuan Bao's voice trembled slightly. "What kind of instance is this...?"
She picked up the small porcelain bottle, which contained three vermilion pills.
Surprisingly, the system gave a normal prompt this time:
[Received: Herbal Essence Pill x3]
[The detection range of plant-based magical artifacts increases by 50% for one hour after consumption.]
Just as Yuan Bao was pondering whether to take it, applause came from behind him.
She turned around abruptly and saw Shadowblade leaning against a tree, his silver mask reflecting a cold light.
"Excellent performance, Miss Yuan." His voice held a hint of appreciation. "However, I must remind you that taking that will make you more easily detected by the system."
Yuan Bao immediately assumed a fighting stance: "You've been spying on us all this time?"
Shadowblade shook his head: "I'm just following the same clue." He pointed to the bamboo slips in Yuan Bao's hand, "I've also collected a few fragments of that scroll. The story pieced together... is quite interesting."
Little 9, bristling with anger, blocked Yuan Bao's path: "Are you a player or an NPC? The account is clearly already—"
"—Cancelled?" Shadowblade chuckled. "That's the official record." He suddenly straightened up. "Listen, time is running out. If you want to find out the truth, collect the 'Master of Geomancy' set before sunset today, then go to the top floor of the Treasure Tower. Remember, skip all PvP animations."
After he finished speaking, his body suddenly pixelated and disappeared, as if he had been forcibly logged out.
Yuan Bao stared at the spot where he had disappeared, then suddenly made up his mind and swallowed a Hundred Herbs Essence Pill: "Let's go, we have many treasures to collect."
The moment the pill entered her throat, the world in her eyes changed again—countless green lights rose from the ground, and the location of every hidden treasure became clearly visible.
The most recent one is under the ginkgo tree on the west side of the herb garden.
“Little Nine,” Yuan Bao’s voice trembled slightly with excitement, “I think we’ve found the secret to finding treasure quickly.”
She walked towards the ginkgo tree, unaware that a faint blue light was seeping into her clothes through the gap in the bronze box in her pocket, coiling around her wrist as if it were alive...