Chapter 32: Abyssal Unrest, The Arrival of the Notification

Late at night, the meeting room of the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs.

At a time when everyone should have been lost in beautiful dreams, the meeting room was filled with every high-ranking official capable of attending the Bureau; those unable to be present were participating via network projection.

Most people wore expressions of confusion.

One must understand that the original intention behind the establishment of the Bureau was to seek ways for humanity to achieve better development and survival under the circumstances of the [Spirit Calamity Game].

This naturally included addressing the challenges faced by social order under the presence of transcendent beings like Spirit Calamity players, as well as the supervision and handling of all threats the [Spirit Calamity Game] posed to humanity.

Each of them was responsible for their own respective projects.

Generally speaking, the departments responsible for maintaining social order had no contact whatsoever with the personnel responsible for supervising the game itself, unless it involved internal personnel transfers or similar situations.

But tonight, people from almost every department had been summoned to the meeting room.

Clearly, the situation was extraordinary.

"Please remain calm. The Director is on his way. I have important information regarding dungeon pollution to notify you all about."

A tall, burly man with a square face and thick eyebrows stood at the front, looking extremely authoritative. A microphone that a normal person would grip with their whole palm was held between his two fingers, as if he were afraid of crushing it.

This was the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs.

He was also the public face who represented the Bureau in daily affairs.

As soon as these words were spoken, the murmurs among the crowd grew more pronounced.

"The Director? Holy crap! Will I be lucky enough to see this legend in my lifetime?"

"I heard the Director doesn't need to enter dungeons anymore, because currently, any dungeon in the Spirit Calamity Game is nothing more than a flick of his finger to him."

"Hmph, you all think the Director has it easy? He's actually working too."

"Huh? The Director still does manual labor himself?"

The person who asked this was frontline personnel responsible for social order management. They rarely came into contact with other fields, so they looked at their colleague beside them in a daze.

The colleague was a technical specialist responsible for supervising and analyzing the essence of the Spirit Calamity Game.

Adjusting his thick spectacles, the technician said coldly

"The Director is personally responsible for supervising that Being within the game's code abyss, to prevent it from waking up prematurely."

"!?"

The surrounding crowd gasped in unison.

Even those from other departments had heard of what the technician was referring to.

That Being...

Unnamable, unspeakable, and unviewable.

Was this truly something humanity could face and supervise? It was hard to imagine what kind of monster the Director actually was!

*Buzz—*

Before the discussion could escalate further, the large screen in the meeting room suddenly lit up.

A man appeared on the screen, looking to be only in his early thirties. His chiseled features appeared incredibly resolute, and his clean short hair and white casual short-sleeved shirt gave him the image of a bright, cheerful older brother from next door.

However, beneath his feet lay a monster as tall as a ten-story building. Under the creature's massive frame—large enough to make those with megalophobia tremble—the man looked as tiny as an ant.

Yet, at this moment, the massive monster lay motionless on the ground.

A plain, unadorned sharp sword was thrust through its head. The appearance of this sword was identical to the emblem on the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs' badge.

The man casually pulled the sword out, performed a simple flourish to sheath it at his waist, and spoke calmly toward the camera: "Greetings, comrades. I am the Director of the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs—Azure Dragon."

"!?"

With just that single sentence, most of the personnel in the meeting room stood up in excitement.

Even though they had been high-ranking officials of the Bureau for many years and had occasionally received orders from the Director, almost no one had ever seen what he looked like.

He truly lived up to the saying of a divine dragon whose head is seen but whose tail is never found.

To see him today was extraordinary!

Because they could tell that he was not currently in the real world, and the monster beneath his feet was no minor character.

Judging by its size and the extent of the surrounding environmental destruction, this fellow would be an absolute Final Boss even if placed in a Hard Mode dungeon.

A Boss-level character that would cause players endless headaches, making it impossible to break through head-on and forcing them to rely on intelligence to find a weakness, was now being slain by the Director like a dead dog.

Furthermore, the white short-sleeved shirt on Azure Dragon didn't have even a speck of dirt on it.

This was a one-sided slaughter without any suspense.

"Let me first explain the current situation," Azure Dragon said, lightly stepping on the monster beneath his feet. "As you can see, this thing has been subjected to some form of powerful pollution, resulting in unpredictable mutations."

Hearing this, everyone realized that the monster indeed looked wrong.

From a distance, it appeared humanoid, but its skin was covered in all sorts of scales, feathers, and even single horns formed from keratin, similar to a rhino's.

The ends of its limbs were in the eerie shape of tentacles, and there were even two tumors on its neck, only slightly smaller than its head, where facial features could be faintly seen growing.

No living creature should look like this.

Even the malevolent ghosts within dungeons should not exhibit such a bizarre, Sanity-dropping form.

"The source of this mutation comes from the Being sleeping in the abyss of the [Spirit Calamity Game]. He has been silent for many years, but ten minutes ago, a certain unknown emotional fluctuation suddenly emanated from him," Azure Dragon explained.

He continued in a serious tone: "This single emotional fluctuation alone has caused hundreds of dungeons to be affected simultaneously; it is estimated that nearly a hundred dungeons have collapsed or been damaged on the spot."

"I hope everyone focuses as much as possible on increasing your [Mental Strength]. This is your only chance of survival when encountering pollution. Any intelligence regarding polluted dungeons must be reported promptly and in detail."

"Judging the method of that Being's pollution is simple: if you see this type of painted mark anywhere, you have encountered it."

With that, Azure Dragon zoomed the camera in.

Only then did everyone notice.

The eye area of the mutated monster was not a physiological ocular structure.

Instead, it looked like painted eyes.

They were a pair of red vertical pupils.

The painting style was exquisite and elegant; even the world's most outstanding artist could not depict such spirited pupils, with every detail rendered vividly.

Even through the screen, everyone felt their scalps tingle, breaking into a cold sweat as if something unclean were staring at them from behind.

————

"Huh? Abyss God, did you secretly turn on a beauty filter for yourself? Why do I feel like you've become prettier?"

Wu Wang lay on his bed, looking at the red vertical pupils on his wrist with confusion.

At first, this thing looked like a simple sketch with only a few strokes.

But after the evolution mentioned in the recent dungeon and the settlement space, the strokes seemed to have increased; it even had three eyelashes on both the top and bottom.

"Whatever, it's not important. Better check the loot."

Wu Wang shrugged, acting indifferent.

After killing Tu Xing Sun earlier, the equipment and items on the opponent naturally passed to him.

Baili Dao had explained the current management protocols the Bureau had for Spirit Calamity players.

In a sense, they were quite lax.

As long as a Spirit Calamity player's personal vendetta did not affect the lives and property of ordinary people or cause major negative social impacts, it didn't matter if the two of you found an octagon cage and fought until only one walked out alive.

Of course, you had to handle the corpse yourself.

Otherwise, if discovered by ordinary people and affecting social order, the Bureau would have to step in and deal with you.

Regarding the incident where Tu Xing Sun was killed after being overcome by greed, Baili Dao mentioned he could even call colleagues to help dispose of the body.

Naturally, Wu Wang wouldn't pass up such a good deal and asked Baili Dao to help.

After all, anyone who kills people frequently knows

Killing is easy, but disposing of the corpse is the most troublesome part.

Imagine this: you are carrying a body bag to dump the corpse, and halfway there, you run into an acquaintance. Being socially anxious, you are simultaneously trying to figure out how to interact with them while worrying if they'll notice anything unusual about you.

Ultimately, out of necessity, you choose the "convenient" method.

Fine, now there are two corpses that need handling.

Just as Wu Wang was happily flipping through his loot, the prompt sound of the Spirit Calamity Game suddenly echoed in his ears—

【Attention all players】

【The Spirit Calamity Game beta testing has ended. The official public beta will begin in 50 days】

【After the public beta, any dungeon where players fail to clear three times consecutively will descend into reality. Please prepare yourselves to welcome the supernatural calamities】

【Detailed information will be announced ten days before the public beta】

【May you all find your own death】

Public beta?

Wu Wang froze for a moment.

Before he could figure out what this meant, the prompt sounded again, and an information panel appeared before his eyes

【You will begin a Nightmare-grade solo dungeon in three days — "Chronicles of the Desolate Village"】

【Please prepare in advance. Find and wear a bamboo hat on the day the dungeon opens】

【May you find your own death】