Learning to play games, a 40-year-old woman achieves a remarkable turnaround.

Chapter 317 Abnormal data has been cleared.

Yuan Bao turned around abruptly and saw a young man dressed in black standing at the entrance.

He wore a silver mask, revealing only his sharp eyes.

His game ID, "Shadow Blade," floated above the boy's head.

"According to the game rules, discovering treasure will trigger a PvP challenge." Shadowblade slowly descended the steps. "I suggest you give up immediately; this dungeon isn't for you."

Yuan Bao instinctively protected the medicine cauldron: "Why? I found this place first."

Shadow Blade sneered, "Just this?" He raised his hand and waved it, and three silver lights flashed, accurately pinpointing three positions on the medicine cauldron—the exact locations of the oracle bone inscriptions that Yuan Bao had just discovered.

Suddenly, the medicine cauldron emitted a dazzling light, and the characters on its surface began to recombine, forming a completely new pattern.

"You...how did you know..." Yuan Bao looked at the changing medicine cauldron in surprise.

Shadowblade did not answer, but suddenly accelerated and rushed towards the medicine cauldron.

Yuan Bao reacted extremely quickly, drawing a silver needle from his waist—a basic piece of equipment provided by the system—and shooting it at Shadow Blade's wrist.

With a "clang," the silver needle was deflected by Shadow Blade's dagger, but his movements were also halted as a result.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Yuan Bao reached into the medicine cauldron and grabbed the jade box.

"PK Challenge Triggered!" the system notification sounded. "Both players, please prepare..."

However, at that moment, the medicine cauldron suddenly began to shake violently, and all the characters on the cauldron floated into the air, forming a rotating circle of runes.

The jade box in Yuan Bao's hand opened automatically, revealing a tattered sheepskin map and a pill that emitted a faint blue light.

"This is... a fragment of the elixir of immortality?" Yuan Bao stared in shock at the text on the sheepskin map. "This shouldn't be in the game..."

Shadowblade's eyes suddenly sharpened: "Give it to me!" His voice carried a hint of urgency that Yuan Bao couldn't comprehend.

"Warning! Abnormal copy data!" The system notification suddenly became distorted. "Unauthorized content detected..."

Little 9's body began to flash: "Master! The system has malfunctioned! Something that doesn't belong in the game seems to have infiltrated this instance!"

Yuan Bao quickly stuffed the map and pills into his pocket, then looked at Shadow Blade warily: "Who exactly are you? This isn't just an ordinary game competition, is it?"

Shadowblade was silent for a moment, then suddenly turned and rushed towards the exit: "You'll find out. Be careful of those 'NPCs,' they're not all system-generated."

As the Shadow Blade departed, the light from the medicine cauldron gradually dimmed, the underground space began to shake, and rubble fell from the top.

"My lord, this place is about to collapse! We must leave quickly!" Little 9 shouted anxiously.

Yuan Bao took one last look at the mysterious bronze medicine cauldron, then turned and rushed toward the exit.

The moment she stepped out of the underground space, a loud bang came from behind her, and the entrance was completely sealed off.

Back in the bamboo forest, Yuan Bao sat down on the ground, panting, and took out the tattered map to examine it carefully.

Several locations were marked on the map, one of which was the location of a traditional Chinese medicine shop near her home in the real world.

"This is too strange..." Yuan Bao felt a chill. "How could a game instance know the location in the real world?"

Little 9 leaned worriedly on her shoulder: "My lady, I just tried to contact the main system to report the anomaly, but the signal was blocked. This copy... might have been tampered with by someone."

Yuan Bao gripped the map tightly, his eyes hardening: "No matter who's behind this, since it involves the real world, I have to find out the truth."

Shadowblade seems to know something; we need to find him.

She stood up and gazed into the depths of the bamboo forest: "Furthermore, I'm very interested in the formula for this 'elixir of immortality.' What if a real-world traditional Chinese medicine formula really was mixed into the game..."

Little 9 interrupted her anxiously, "My lady, this could be dangerous! We should exit the instance immediately!"

Yuan Bao shook his head, a glint of adventure in his eyes: "No, this is exactly the challenge I need. Don't forget, I need to earn 50 points. These hidden quests usually have the most generous rewards."

Just then, an unfamiliar message popped up on her system panel: "Want to know the truth? Go to the next location marked on the map. But be careful, I'm not the only one watching you. —Shadowblade"

Yuan Bao and Xiao 9 exchanged a glance; the mystery surrounding the dungeon seemed far deeper than they had imagined...

"Ding—" With a crisp notification sound, Yuan Bao and Xiao 9 were teleported out of the instance space.

Yuan Bao stumbled, grabbing the table in the room to steady himself. "That tremor just now felt so real..."

Little 9's fur stood on end, spinning in the air like a fluffy ball: "That's terrifying! There's definitely something wrong with that Shadow Blade!"

It hurriedly brought up the system panel, its little paw slapping the emergency contact button, "Little 9 wants to report this directly to the main system!"

The pale blue holographic screen flashed the words "Connecting," but the main system, which usually responded instantly, remained silent this time.

Yuan Bao stared at the constantly spinning loading icon, his fingers unconsciously tapping the edge of the game pod. Ten minutes later, the screen finally lit up with static-like noise.

[Abnormal data has been cleared]

[N168 Treasure Hunt PK Dungeon v2.0 loading complete]

[Stability test passed]

A mechanical female voice suddenly rang out from all directions, startling Xiao 9, who was dozing off, so much so that she fell from mid-air and was caught by Yuan Bao.

She rubbed Little 9's ears and frowned, saying, "That's it? The anomaly we encountered..."

"Ding-dong!" A brand-new system notification suddenly popped up, slowly unfurling in front of them as a golden scroll:

Dear player, hello!

N168 Treasure Hunt PK Dungeon is a newly launched casual competitive gameplay mode. The specific rules are as follows:

The treasure map will randomly generate 100 treasure locations, corresponding to four categories of magical treasures:

Heavenly Treasures (15 pieces) — Can activate the ultimate set effect

Advanced Magic Items (25 pieces) — with special skills

Intermediate Magic Items (30 pieces) — Basic Attribute Bonus

Basic magical artifacts (30 pieces) — can be synthesized into advanced artifacts.

Acquiring 3 items of the same series will activate a set effect, which can be stacked.

Automatic PvP in the Treasure Tower will be enabled daily at 18:00.

The system calculates combat power based on the combination of magical artifacts.

You can choose to skip the battle animation (rewards remain the same).

Ranking rewards are calculated based on the number of treasures found multiplied by the set bonus.

Friendly reminder: The instance lasts for 7 days, so we recommend exploring the edge areas of the map first!

Little 9 poked the still-scrolling description text with its paw: "It looks...okay now? But those real-world coordinates from before..."

Yuan Bao suddenly reached out and grabbed the edge of the floating scroll, where he found a line of almost transparent small characters at the end: "The final interpretation right of this copy belongs to ■■■" - the three middle characters were deliberately blurred.

"Interesting." Yuan Bao's eyes lit up, and he casually rolled the scroll into a tube and tapped his shoulder. "Since the system says there's no problem, shall we continue tomorrow? I'd like to see just how many sets we can collect."

Little 9 jumped around anxiously on her head: "But that Shadow Blade! And the elixir of immortality..."

"That's why we need to keep going!" Yuan Bao suddenly revealed a sly smile, pulling out the dark blue pill from his pocket, which reflected an eerie halo under the light. "When I exited the dungeon just now, this thing was still in my inventory..."

Little 9's round eyes widened even more, and its downy fur began to fluff up at a visible speed.

Yuan Bao quickly hugged it and soothed its fur: "Relax, relax, this time we'll secretly record all the abnormal data. If anything goes wrong again..." She shook the [data capture device] disguised as an ordinary bracelet on her wrist, "that will be enough to submit a complete report to the main system."

The virtual sunset outside the window sank perfectly onto the dome of the game pod, giving the girl and the panda sprite a golden edge.

Yuan Bao stretched and walked towards the supply station: "Right now... let's conserve our energy. We'll start tomorrow—"

"Search the entire map!" Little 9 suddenly chimed in energetically, leaving a bright trail in the air.

The two exchanged a smile, neither noticing the pill in Yuan Bao's pocket that was glowing slightly in sync with her heartbeat.