In the dark and damp tunnel, a man's heavy breathing echoed through the deep passage, disturbing the residents within. Small creatures with gray fur scattered away, and brown-black insects crawled quickly through the sewage.
"Stop!"
The running man heard the voice and stopped as commanded. He roughly pulled down his hoodie and mask, saying breathlessly, "Strange things have happened. Take me to see the Elder quickly."
"Luo Bu, what happened?"
Though concern laced the voice, the speaker's facial muscles remained motionless, resembling a human-like robot with a human exterior but movements that sent chills down one's spine.
But Luo Bu was unfazed, instead offering critique: "You're far from being able to go outside looking like that."
"Really?" The person scratched their head, "I thought it was pretty good."
Thinking of what had occurred, Luo Bu said, "That's not important. Let me see the Elder first."
"Hey! Buddy! Of course!"
The person exaggerated their gestures with shrugged shoulders and outstretched hands, eyes wide and mouth agape, somewhat reminiscent of Puppet Billy: "How about this?"
Luo Bu walked forward two steps and patted their shoulder: "That's even further off."
With that, he wasted no more time and walked inside.
The person left behind returned to their expressionless state and asked puzzledly, "Was it really that bad?"
Luo Bu traversed the passage, his nostrils filled with the stench of decay. Though the suburban area had been abandoned for years, the sewers connected to the inner city, allowing internal filth to affect the outside.
He reached the end, grabbed hold, and easily climbed up the ladder, ascending in just a few moves.
Luo Bu nodded to the two guards. Above was an abandoned factory, and he hurriedly headed toward the Elder's location.
"Elder."
Luo Bu bowed his head in respect. Before him stood an elderly person wearing black robes, their expression serene.
If anyone were present, they would recognize this as the attire of the Ancient God Cult.
"What is it?"
As an elite sent to investigate, Luo Bu wasn't one to make a fuss over nothing, so the Elder asked directly.
"Elder, the Masked Man has appeared again."
The black-robed elder remained expressionless, making no further movement.
Suddenly, a substance like gas, a faint white mist with a mysterious quality akin to what clients might describe as iridescent white, separated from the black-robed elder's body.
A similar gas emerged from Luo Bu's body, though his was grayish in color.
The white mist approached the gray mist.
"Have you discovered their background?"
The gray mist shifted slightly.
"No, from their reactions, they seem to want to help the monsters upgrade."
"That's strange, we were the first batch of our kind..."
"Elder, perhaps we could ally with the Masked Man."
"Inappropriate. The bodies of this world's intelligent beings that we've borrowed are far inferior to theirs. Unless we reveal our true forms, but exposing our identity would be more serious than them exposing theirs."
The white mist flowed slowly through the air, while the gray mist constantly changed shape.
"Why?"
"If they are from this world, then to them, we would be the same species. They'd deal with outsiders first, then their own kind. If the Masked Man thinks the same way..."
The white mist's unfinished implication was clear, causing the gray mist to shudder.
"We entered early to explore the world, to prepare for accepting our kind. Staying hidden is more important now."
What the white mist didn't convey through thought was that it had never seen such monsters capable of directly breaking through world barriers. Their kind had spent years establishing themselves, only managing to enter gradually through unstable points in the world's space.
It now worried whether this world was truly suitable for their kind to inhabit.
However, after years of wandering, finally finding a suitable world, even if they could transmit messages, their kind might not heed its advice.
"Understood."
The gray and white mists returned to their respective bodies, and everything returned to calm.
...
"The Ancient God Cult has released new monster files again..."
Qi Yuan finished browsing the trending content and fell into contemplation.
This cult was more popular than other cults, with some foreign youth even revering them as lone warriors. This was because while some of their followers engaged in pillaging and murder, their large-scale organizational activities focused more on rituals, evangelism, and targeting governments.
They also frequently voiced their opinions online, declaring that their deity's wisdom shone equally on all people, and everyone deserved to know the truth.
Unlike middle-aged and elderly people who had been beaten down and learned to get by, young people were tired of being kept in the dark, tired of governments making decisions for them without permission, just like their parents did.
Moreover, they all had a mysterious confidence, believing they could resist the monsters' mental infection, thinking others failed because they lacked strong will.
These clear attribute labels helped the Ancient God Cult stand out among the many cults, becoming the acknowledged third-ranked underground organization.
Notably, the first and second places were held by the Masked Man and the Mystery Organization respectively, and merchants even produced merchandise that sold extremely well.
Qi Yuan had once estimated the profits in his mind; even a ten percent share would be enough for merchants to make a fortune.
Although each cult had its peculiarities, and even the Flat Earth Society had reemerged after the advent of supernatural abilities, Qi Yuan's instinct as an insider told him they seemed to want to promote monster upgrades.
If the first announcement was to declare their establishment to the world, the subsequent series of revelations raised suspicions.
Continuously leaking classified information was something no country could tolerate. If they couldn't crack down on the top two organizations, surely they could handle the third?
However...
Qi Yuan shifted his gaze to the phone beside him. He needed a villain organization, preferably domestic, with international ones as a backup. The Ancient God Cult was just one of several options.
He hoped Gao Changze hadn't yet tracked down the domestic organizations, or things would become complicated.
With official involvement, information would easily be suppressed. The 404 error was truly the source of evil, which Qi Yuan despised.
As if some force in the universe responded to Qi Yuan's thoughts, his phone began to vibrate under his gaze, with Gao Changze's incoming call.
"Hello! Brother Yuan, can you hear me?"
As soon as the call connected, Gao Changze's voice came through the speaker.
Qi Yuan didn't detect any joy or excitement in his voice, which somewhat calmed his heart.
"I can hear you. Let's talk about your progress. What did you find at the orphanage last time?"
The other end of the line went quiet for a few seconds, then the voice became squeaky, "Big brother, you won't blame me if I'm too incompetent, right?"
Qi Yuan nearly dropped his phone. He could maintain his composure when facing SSS-Level Monsters, but Gao Changze's voice made him jump, causing goosebumps to spring up all over his body like bamboo shoots after rain.
"Have you lost your mind?!"
Yin Qingran's lioness-like roar came through the speaker, a rare display of her losing composure.
"Ouch, stop hitting, stop hitting... if you must hit, at least spare my handsome face..."
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
