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墨書 Inktalez
In a moment, remember this: an exciting novel awaits your reading.
Meanwhile, a significant event unfolded in Dawn City.
Two old monsters, along with local police officers Zhao Wei and Evelyn, found themselves at a villa on the outskirts. This villa, built by the lake, was isolated with no signs of life within a five-mile radius. It served as a winter retreat for wealthy individuals from Nordo City, typically left uncleaned and unattended. Valuable items had been removed after the owner departed, and a security company conducted weekly patrols.
Today, however, there lay a body within the house—the body of the professor. It was evident that he had endured severe torture. Although the professor was not particularly powerful as a researcher, he was not someone easily controlled. His status in the cultivation world was high, and even Silent City treated him with great respect.
An old man asked, "Have we notified the Alliance?"
"Only just discovered," Evelyn replied. "The security thought it was just an ordinary criminal case handled by local police. They found my phone number on the professor's body and called me. You two have seen much..."
One of the old men raised his hand to silence Evelyn and leaned in to observe for a while. "A surprise attack, heavy damage—very skillful technique that temporarily incapacitated the professor. At this moment, a second person intervened; look at the neck—this is a Force Lock. It's not an ordinary Force Lock used to restrain wild people; this is Mercury Shackles. The failure rate for crafting Mercury Shackles is very high, and they are costly. An ordinary Force Lock prevents the opponent from using their Force, but they still retain their abilities like perception and protection. However, once Mercury Shackles are locked on, the opponent becomes indistinguishable from an ordinary person."
The old man continued, "The professor used secret techniques; look at his lips—they're blue. He could be considered one of the most knowledgeable individuals on this planet. After being locked by Mercury Shackles, he took advantage of his opponent's carelessness to counterattack and attempted to escape. But his opponent was extremely powerful... The professor was captured again; look at his back—what weapon caused these injuries?"
Another old man examined it for a moment and sighed lightly. "It's Warden; this guy has finally reappeared."
Warden—one of the Alliance's most wanted criminals. He was a Soul Reaper who always targeted those with strong wills among aspiring cultivators and practitioners, torturing them until their spirits were broken. He collected their souls using an evil artifact to strengthen himself. The collection of souls had long been suspected; Alliance members believed that Warden's artifact could absorb the Force of those with strong wills during torture, slowly draining them until they capitulated—not only leading to their deaths but also allowing Warden to absorb their Force.
This had begun forty years ago when practitioners across various regions began to fall victim to inhumane torture before their deaths. Two mages from the Alliance set up a time-space array and witnessed Warden tormenting his victims. Consequently, Alliance Hunters mobilized alongside the Four Great Families to ignite beacons across the continent. Ultimately, three Alliance Hunters caught up with Warden in the snowy plains of the Northern Eastern Continent during battle; two Hunters died while one heavily injured Warden before he escaped by boat.
Later on, Wandering—a young hunter—was among those pursuing Warden alongside a companion heading northward. The three engaged in direct combat on an ice island three hundred miles from the North Pole. Wandering gained fame in that battle; not only did he destroy Warden's evil artifact, but he also placed a heart lock on him—a curse-type spell where Wandering exchanged his handsome appearance for power, planting this heart lock within Warden's mind. For all his life, Warden would never be able to unleash even ten percent of his Force.
This was a desperate measure; Wandering and his companion were no match for Warden. Using his companion's death and feigning injury to lure Warden into torturing him allowed him to harvest his own soul before launching a counterattack with despair-fueled power that destroyed Warden's artifact while simultaneously planting the heart lock. In his fury, Warden kicked Wandering into the glacier.
The Alliance reinforcements pursued relentlessly and arrived just in time to rescue Wandering from beneath the glacier, but Warden had vanished without a trace. For the next decade, the Alliance made every effort to hunt down Warden, even sending hunters undercover in Silent City to search for any leads, yet there was no news of Warden. Unexpectedly, forty years later, they discovered scars left by Warden's weapon here. Warden wielded a scythe with a chain attached.
The four returned to the city and went to the professor's residence, only to find it in disarray, clearly indicating that someone had been searching for something. It was evident that they had been there for at least a day, rummaging through all of the professor's records without success before taking him away to a remote location for interrogation. However, it seemed they hadn't searched thoroughly; after several hours of effort, Evelyn found a clue left by the professor. This clue was hidden beneath the cover of the bathroom drain—a Poker card with a King on it—indicating that the professor had been imprisoned in the bathroom and had left this clue while his captors were searching for information.
The front of the Poker card bore scratches made by fingernails, but it was not a clue about the murderer; rather, it contained a brief message: "Run for two years."
The group pondered over its meaning, trying to figure out how to notify the Alliance while continuing their search for clues. It wasn't until the next morning that Zhao Wei took a short nap and then examined the Poker card closely against the light. "This seems like a Poker card left by Cui Ming," he said. He recalled that during their first meeting, Cui Ming had played a game using JQK and had gifted those three cards to the professor. Zhao Wei asked, "Does this mean the professor is trying to inform Cui Ming to run?"
"That shouldn't be the case," Evelyn explained at the scene. "After being shackled by Mercury Shackles, the professor was no different from an ordinary person—bound and gagged, placed in the bathroom. There were no other items in there that could leave clues; it was merely coincidental that there was a Poker card."
Zhao Wei replied, "Regardless, we should inform Beiyue and the others; after all, what happened in Dawn City might be related to them. We need to tell them not to leave Hero City for now and wait until we clarify things before returning to Dawn City."
Evelyn nodded. "Alright, I'll get in touch." However, contacting Hero City wasn't straightforward; messages had to be sent via telegraph through a base station to Eastern Continent. Once received by the police practitioners there, they would forward it to Divine Cult Island and then on to Hero Town before reaching the Alliance. Considering the time frame, it would likely be one or two days after their assessment had concluded. Evelyn could only hope that it was unrelated.
Unbeknownst to them, Cui Ming and his companions had already entered the second half of their assessment.
Cui Ming found himself in an unfortunate location—a Stalactite Cave with three paths before him. An assessment envelope appeared in front of him as he opened it: "Mission: Rescue your companions. Five individuals are trapped at five different locations. Once each person escapes their confinement and regains freedom, they can choose to teleport near one of their teammates' locations where they will receive communication devices along with maps of their teammates' trapped locations so they can guide them out. The rules are as follows: each person can only choose to help one teammate; those being helped cannot assist others. There is no time limit; however, at 8 AM, 11 AM, 2 PM, 5 PM, 8 PM, 11 PM, 2 AM, and 5 AM each day, there will be a mandatory half-hour break for meals. Additionally, with each mandatory break period, the monsters faced will gradually become stronger."
"When you leave your trapped position and reach a free point, you can choose to help your teammate or proceed to the next stage or go to camp and wait for your teammates. Be aware that delaying between this stage and the next will increase your challenges. If you reach a free point within three hours, you can directly choose to challenge the final stage with its difficulty halved."
Ha! The first stage already begins sowing discord. Reaching a free point within three hours means that due to varying difficulties among five people, some may arrive sooner than others. If it's a team lacking cohesion, someone might just run off on their own. Helping teammates is also an option—who do you help? Who do you leave behind? With five people being an odd number, one must inevitably remain unassisted; what thoughts might that person harbor? Waiting at camp with only two or three people—should they just move on to the next stage? Because delaying increases difficulty...
Damn it! So many choices—but none of them matter to me.
Cui Ming surveyed the three openings: The first path was a flat stone road with signs of human construction; the second path resembled an ordinary cave path with natural stones and small grass; while the third path was a gap that varied in width from narrow to wide. With such stark differences among these paths, careful consideration was necessary—reverse psychology... still can't figure it out? Then I'll opt for the conservative choice: I'll take the second path.
Does it actually have any meaning? In a situation where cheating is not allowed, you must bet on big or small. You feel and think about whether the previous round was big or small, which is completely meaningless; you might as well just pick one at random. Regardless of whether you choose big or small, your winning rate is fixed. Some gamblers, after careful consideration and hitting the right bet, believe they have skill. Those who miss the bet blame it on luck.
Since that’s the case, why not choose the path that is the easiest to walk? Cui Ming glanced at the mission and paused for just three seconds before stepping onto the stone path.
At that moment, a flickering ghostly flame appeared, and Dina's voice came through: “Routine inquiry—why are you taking this path?”
“This path feels more comfortable,” Cui Ming replied, stopping as a Vampire Bat appeared ahead. Cui Ming said, “Dina, you're quite sneaky; you lure me into conversation while hiding a nest of Vampire Bats ahead.”
“Hehe.” Dina chuckled; this was also part of the assessment, and the ghostly flame vanished.
The Vampire Bats had Force—weak Force. If Cui Ming's Force was 10, then each Vampire Bat only had 0.5. It was easy; seven bats flew out dramatically, only to be defeated by seven cards.
After defeating that nest of bats, Cui Ming walked for another three minutes before encountering another fork in the road. This time, the paths were paved with red, yellow, and green stones. Cui Ming chose red and defeated a few monkeys before realizing he had returned to the Stalactite Cave. This meant that red stones wouldn’t work; green stones wouldn’t either… but yellow stones were acceptable. Now there were three new choices: tall, higher, and short paths.
Cui Ming disliked this process of elimination; however, luck was on his side. After choosing the higher path, Cui Ming emerged from the cave and reached a Teleportation Array. Next to the Teleportation Array sat someone on a chair—a Substitute Staff: “Choose a teammate, select a camp, and enter the next stage.”
“Choose…”
“First break time is over.” Dina's voice echoed: “No one is allowed to leave their current five-meter radius; meals will be delivered shortly. Meal time is half an hour.”
PS: A non-responsible recommendation for an obscure text-based mini-game; please show your identification. Friends who enjoy finding discrepancies can give it a try. (To be continued.)
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