Taking one step was like entering an entirely different world.

Black clouds pressed down from the sky, and ominous lightning danced wildly within them. The world turned gray and grim, and the stench of Hell assaulted their senses.

A sinister wind howled, carrying countless roars, screams, sobs, and wails. The pain and despair within the sounds pierced straight to their souls, deeply unsettling them.

As far as the eye could see, hard crystals—scarlet as blood and black as ink—covered everything. The entire World had become a black and red Crystal Hell, as if a bizarre blizzard had swept through, freezing all creation in its icy grip.

Zhou Chen raised his hand and looked at the gauge on his wrist. The number displayed was 1024.

As they ventured deeper, the number slowly climbed.

It measured the contamination level of their surroundings. A reading of 0 meant normal and uncontaminated, while 1-100 indicated light contamination. Most incidents were within this range, which was considered an acceptable level under normal circumstances.

If the contamination level surpassed 200, the Star Association would declare a state of emergency, requiring all Ascenders to mobilize immediately and resolve the incident with utmost speed. If the level reached 500, the entire city would sound the alarm, go on high alert, deploy the military, and request support from headquarters. The slightest oversight could lead to irreversible, catastrophic losses.

A level of 1000 meant the surrounding environment had been completely corroded by the Abyss. This was no longer the human World, but a playground for the denizens of Hell.

Zhou Chen’s party walked on the black crystalline ground. These crystals were different from the pure ones in the Land of Crystals; they didn’t multiply or devour everything they touched. Stepping on them was like walking on a smooth sheet of ice—so bone-chillingly cold it felt like it could freeze the blood in their veins.

They were a product of solidified Abyssal Essence, radiating contamination at all times.

After entering the city, the six of them proceeded with caution. The streets were filled with countless Corrupted Demons of all shapes and sizes, staggering about aimlessly like the walking dead.

Some of the more savage Demons had begun to turn on their own kind, growing stronger by devouring others. To avoid unnecessary fights, the six of them would find a different route whenever they encountered aggressive Demons.

Behind the crystallized outer wall of a residential building, the Plague Doctor, who was leading the group, raised a clenched fist to signal a halt.

On the street ahead grew clusters of eerie, blood-red crystalline flowers. They were perfectly silent, like exquisite Crystal sculptures.

A few mindless Low-Tier Corrupters wandered into the flowers. In an instant, the silent patch erupted into a frenzy. The blood-red crystalline flowers shot out countless crystalline vines, piercing the Low-Tier Corrupters’ bodies. The vines flailed wildly, tearing them to shreds. As flesh and blood rained down, the Red Crystal Flowers bathed in it and grew even more vibrant.

"Hee hee hee..." The branches and leaves of the Red Crystal Flowers swayed, emitting the eerie, coquettish laughter of a woman.

The Plague Doctor gestured for them to go around, but before they could move, the earth suddenly trembled. A low, muffled rumble erupted—something colossal was approaching.

The group shrank back against the wall. A few minutes later, the tremors intensified. A massive Giant made of concrete and asphalt slowly approached, shedding large fragments of concrete and scorching asphalt as it moved. It strode between the skyscrapers, leaving a trail of steaming, searing asphalt in its wake.

The concrete-asphalt Giant passed right over Zhou Chen’s group. It didn’t notice the little insects hiding below, instead lowering its head slightly to gaze down at the thicket of Red Crystal Flowers blocking its path.

It paused for a moment.

Then, it lifted its foot and continued forward.

CRUNCH!

The sound of shattering mingled with the piercing shriek of a woman.

The thicket of Red Crystal Flowers was crushed under the concrete-asphalt Giant’s foot. All the shattered fragments stuck to the Giant’s foot, looking like a pair of red shoes. Then, something strange happened. The Red Crystal Flower fragments began to proliferate rapidly, forming a scarlet shell over the Giant’s body. It looked as if the asphalt Giant had absorbed the Red Crystal Flowers, turning them into a part of its own Power.

The concrete-asphalt Giant observed the Transformation on its body, let out an excited roar, and continued to stride forward as the earth rumbled and trembled.

But the Giant didn’t get far before Zhou Chen saw a black shadow flit across the roof of a crystallized building. With the dynamic vision of Siegfried’s body, he clearly made out the shadow’s true form: a pale-skinned man shrouded in an aura of death, wearing a tattered black suit.

It was on all fours, leaping across the rooftops like a wild beast at incredible speed.

’Well, he’s literally a corporate slave now,’ the dark thought flashed through Zhou Chen’s mind.

Moving as fast as lightning, the wage-slave monster leaped from the rooftop of a skyscraper and shot like a rocket toward the concrete-asphalt Giant’s heart.

A deafening BOOM, as if from a missile strike, shattered the Red Crystal Flower armor on the Giant’s chest. A gaping hole was torn open, revealing a throbbing heart of concrete and asphalt. The wage-slave monster latched onto the heart and, like a mad beast, sank its teeth in, ignoring the scorching heat of the asphalt.

A horrifying crunching sound filled the air. With a final, sorrowful cry, the concrete-asphalt Giant collapsed, smashing a city block into ruins.

The crunching continued for a few minutes before falling silent. Suddenly, the monster in the tattered suit burst from the dust cloud and leaped onto a skyscraper rooftop. Its skin had taken on the appearance of mixed concrete and asphalt, and an exoskeleton of Red Crystal Flower fragments now covered its body. The waves of contamination it radiated were significantly stronger than before.

Its victory was short-lived. From the gloomy sky, a large, foul-feathered bird dove down and swallowed the monster in one gulp. The bird rapidly evolved; its flight speed increased, and it began to exhibit the traits of the three previous Corrupted Demons in the chain.

’What in the world? Evolution is just a matter of swallowing things?’ Zhou Chen stared, dumbfounded. It completely shattered his perception of the Abyss. It was pure chaos, with no order to speak of—just the big fish eating the small fish everywhere he looked.

And sure enough, the large bird hadn’t flown far before a massive, mutated serpent covered in human limbs leaped up, killed the bird with a single bite, and devoured it in a few quick gulps before beginning its own grotesque evolution.

"Let’s go," the Plague Doctor said, calmly looking away and beckoning the group to move on.

Perhaps because the oppressive presence of the concrete-asphalt Giant had been so overwhelming, the group traveled a full kilometer without encountering many hostile entities. Their progress was surprisingly smooth. If they could keep it up, they could reach the city center within fifteen minutes.

But things never go as planned.

To the things in the Abyss, the living were like a delicious meal, sooner or later destined to attract the gaze of terrifying entities from the Darkness.

Before long, an elite private school—one untouched by the Abyssal Crystals—appeared, blocking their path.

It was like a classic horror movie trope where the characters are supernaturally trapped; no matter which direction they walked, the dilapidated and gloomy school always reappeared to block their path.

The school’s lights flickered on, and the sounds of students laughing and playing drifted out. But there were only sounds; not a soul was in sight.

"What do we do?" Ted asked, instinctively looking to the Plague Doctor.

The Plague Doctor mulled it over for a moment before saying in a grave voice, "It’s targeted us. We can’t avoid it. Our only choice is to go in and force our way through."

"This school gives me a weird feeling, like it’s alive," Zhou Chen said, raising an eyebrow as he observed the campus. The sounds of activity were undercut by a sense of desolate bleakness. "Anything weird or bizarre is possible in the Abyss. Maybe this school really ’came to life’ from the Abyssal Contamination. Once something enters its grounds, it gets slowly devoured and becomes a part of it."

"I feel the same way," the Plague Doctor agreed with a nod. "But we have no other choice. We can’t move forward until we deal with it."

"Then let’s go break our way through," Zhou Chen said, taking the lead. He walked up to the security booth at the entrance and peered through the glass. Inside, several guards stared blankly at the dark monitor screens.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"Hey, mind opening the gate?" Zhou Chen asked, rapping on the window.

One of the guards mechanically raised a hand and pressed the button. The school’s main gate swung open.

Zhou Chen walked to the school gate. He lifted one foot as if to step through, then suddenly pulled it back.

The Plague Doctor and the others immediately went on alert, thinking he had sensed danger. Instead, they watched as Zhou Chen extended his foot again, quickly retracted it, and then began to brazenly taunt whatever was inside, standing right on the threshold but refusing to enter.

The others watched him in speechless silence.

After a few more attempts with no reaction, Zhou Chen finally stepped into the school. The Plague Doctor and the others followed. The group advanced cautiously. There wasn’t a person in sight, but the noisy chatter of students echoed all around them. If they listened closely, they could even make out a teacher’s booming voice trying to keep order.

"Hey, you lot! What class are you in? Why are you wandering around when class is in session? Get back to class, now!"

Suddenly, a sharp reprimand rang out. Zhou Chen turned to see a teacher in expensive clothes stalking toward them, eyes wide with anger. "What are you looking at?" he snarled. "Get back to class!"

"Sir, I’m not feeling well. I’d like to be excused," Zhou Chen said without missing a beat.

The teacher snorted. "Excuses. You look fine to me. Now get back to class! If you don’t get a perfect score, you’re not going home!And if you dare to skip school... Hmph!"

’Did we stumble into some bizarre instance dungeon here in the Abyss?’ Zhou Chen grumbled to himself.

From that short exchange, he picked up on a few key clues: if they failed to get perfect scores on their exams, they would likely be trapped here and become part of the school. And if they tried to skip, they would face some dangerous punishment. The setup was very similar to an Extraordinary-grade instance.

"Still not moving? What are you waiting for?" The teacher’s expression twisted into a ferocious snarl, like that of a malevolent ghost. An ominous black aura began to rise from his body, as if he might rip off his false pretense at any moment to reveal his terrifying true nature.

Zhou Chen and the Plague Doctor exchanged a look. Then, with a tacit understanding, they both drew their Swords of Law and thrust them into the entity before them.

An instance? What a joke!

With a group of Tier Three Ascenders here, who cared what kind of instance it was? They would just tear the whole thing down.

They were here to win by brute force!