Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'

"Perhaps it's some sort of plague outbreak, or a special spell, causing creatures to go mad and start slaughtering themselves."

Long Yuqiong glanced around the street, crouched down, and inspected the body that had been pulled up:

"My [Intelligence] attribute is average, I can't discern anything special—however, the atmosphere here feels very familiar to me."

"Familiar? Maybe it's triggering the familiarity effect." Yutianxiao was a bit puzzled. "Speaking of which, Long Yuqiong, what were you doing at Clever Network Headquarters earlier?"

"I went to meet Lai Anding." Long Yuqiong did not hide it.

"So there really is someone named Lai Anding. No wonder the revival method is called the 'Lai Anding Medical Protocol,' just like how a game boss always names the protagonist Taff by default."

Yutianxiao was very interested in things related to the game:

"What does Lai Anding look like? What is it like inside the Clever Company? Are there many interesting places? I heard the chief designer is a very unusual foreigner, I wonder what he does."

"She looks very much like a mother, the internal decor is very simple, almost like a desert, not so much interesting as I couldn't feel it, as for the designer, instead of saying foreign, it's more like alien—"

Before Long Yuqiong could finish, a voice suddenly rang out beside him:

"Oh my god, such things actually exist!"

Long Yuqiong and Yutianxiao turned to look towards the source of the voice, only to see Xia Yubing bent over a pulled-up corpse, reaching out to open the other's scalp. Instead of revealing a brain, from the empty cranial cavity, she drew out a scroll.

Originally looking quite scared, Xia Yubing was now wearing white gloves, unrolling the scroll, comparing it with the word bank, and began translating its contents:

"...No mistake, although the grammar and format are a bit strange, it's English."

Xia Yubing carefully compared, consulted the data, and quickly deciphered all the content on the scroll, organizing everything. She adjusted her glasses and said to them:

"The situation in Zhengxu is quite complicated, let me be brief."

She displayed the scroll, saying:

"I just used the [Eye of Truth] to scout around and found this thing from an Apostle of Entropy's head. The content shows that someone self-proclaimed as [Hairdresser] wrote a secret scroll in English. He/She used a noble material called 'Ether Blood', submitting a pact to the 98th layer lord of the [Outer Society]—'Wind Erosion Lord' Lalabai Dion."

"Before I joined, I memorized the background story of [Starry Abyss]: [Outer Society] Pergale is considered one of the most degenerate and powerful [Society]. It has countless abyss lords equivalent to Omega Tier (24, the ultimate), each lord possesses powers comparable to deities. By submitting a pact to them and completing a sacrificial ritual, one can gain power and blessings."

"[Hairdresser] first used Ether Blood to summon Lalabai's power, and after some negotiations, finally agreed to [Hairdresser]'s request. The two agreed to sacrifice the entire Zhengxu Democratic Republic to Lalabai in exchange. In return, Lalabai would give [Hairdresser] something for reforging—probably a material equivalent to advanced upgrading."

"The sacrificial process should be these self-destructive mortals we see before us."

"This is the event happening in Zhengxu. It can be considered a hidden quest. Additionally—similar pact documents exist in abundance, this is just a part of it. Perhaps we can collect these pact documents, which contain the power of the devils. If we destroy them, theoretically, we can stop the sacrifice. However, this might invite [Hairdresser]'s retaliation. We can also abandon this hidden quest and simply eliminate Lord Entropy's troops..."

Xia Yubing analyzed very seriously, not only providing suggestions but also explaining the consequences of the choices.

Yutianxiao glanced at Long Yuqiong:

"Where did you find such an efficient advisor?"

Long Yuqiong replied: "In the graduate academy."

"Graduate student?" Yutianxiao shook his head: "That's practically cheap labor."

"Be confident."

Long Yuqiong said:

"They're cattle and horses."

"So, how do you plan to choose, leader?"

Yutianxiao said:

"This hidden quest probably isn't low difficulty, it hasn't even been triggered yet, and it involves the [Society]—you've seen the recordings, you know what kind of enemy the [Society] is, right? If defeated, your account would be gone."

"Anyway, it's not me leveling the account, just find a few studios to do it again."

Long Yuqiong said:

"Let's go, we're up."

"Decided just like that? We're about to fight the [Society] later."

"We're fighting the [Society]."

Long Yuqiong gripped his weapon tightly, his gaze fierce, realizing the surprise of those around him, he quickly changed his words:

"No, what I meant is: We missed the first siege against the [Mechanical World Society], we can't let this one slip by."

Hmm... a very standard answer.

The players of Qiongyu had no objections to this, hidden quests are famous for high risk and high reward, even a major guild wouldn't want to casually pass up on it. After a round of internal discussions, they established a respawn point and camp at Zhengxu's port, and left behind some people to guard the base to ensure that leaving Zhengxu wouldn't be impossible later.

"What you said is indeed correct."