Chapter 7: The Inspiration Trap

Inside the Red Temple, the bald, burly man stared intently at the altar, his expression grave.

A young man dressed in a tight blue suit, looking every bit the superhero, approached and said, “Old Gao, I’ll keep watch here. You should take a break.”

The man known as Old Gao massaged the bridge of his nose and asked, “Lei Huo, have there been any unusual energy fluctuations within Wanghai City?”

Lei Huo replied, “The situation is stable for now. There’s no sign yet of any points of dimensional erosion.”

Old Gao’s face eased slightly, but he pressed on, “How’s the evacuation of the citizens going?”

Lei Huo shook his head, “Not well. It’s unrealistic to relocate the entire city’s population in such a short time. We can only evacuate as many people as possible to minimize casualties when the dimensional erosion arrives.”

Old Gao sighed deeply and silently gazed at the altar.

He had all this power but could only watch helplessly as the things he was sworn to protect crumbled before his eyes.

The feeling was unbearably painful.

Seeing Old Gao’s grim expression, Lei Huo tried to console him, “Don’t be so pessimistic. Maybe there’s a turning point. Look at the time—it’s already been an hour since the dungeon started.”

Old Gao exhaled irritably, “What’s the use of an hour? Even if they gave us ten times that, it still wouldn’t be enough.”

“Don’t say that,” interrupted Poju Ren Leng Shan beside them. “The first deadly hour in a dungeon is when players are most likely to fail. Ten percent of dungeons can be cleared just by surviving that initial ambush.”

Old Gao retorted, “I know that stat well enough, but I’m not like you. I’m in charge of Wanghai City. I can’t be so optimistic.”

“If we weren’t facing a B-rank dungeon with a zero survival rate that’s about to spiral out of control, and if our current Poju Ren hadn’t just joined the Abyss Game as a rookie, maybe I wouldn’t be so bleak.”

Old Gao rubbed his shiny scalp. He knew they meant well, but he couldn’t suppress his frustration.

“Speaking of data, not counting the increased difficulty from the impending loss of control, the official record for clearing a B-rank dungeon fastest is level 11! That was a genius meticulously cultivated by a major organization. I only cleared a B-rank dungeon for the first time at level 15.”

“If a newbie manages to clear Moonlight Sanatorium, I swear I’ll run naked around Whitewater Bay!”

Meanwhile, inside the dungeon, Wu Chang was unaware of the wager made among the temple’s occupants. Gripping the Silver Dawn, he aimed at the dying Goldton.

As an elite monster, even a mini-boss in a B-rank dungeon, Goldton’s vitality was tenacious. Even with half his head blown open, he was still alive.

But under the binding power of the contract, Goldton’s life force drained rapidly.

He seemed to have realized something. His remaining eye flickered with unwillingness as he grabbed Wu Chang’s pant leg.

“You plotted against me, despicable outsider!”

“Despicable? Train harder if you’re bad. If you can’t handle it, don’t play. Why resort to personal attacks?” Wu Chang stepped back and shook off Goldton’s hand, firing two more shots into his body.

The silver bullets condensed by the Silver Dawn’s skill exploded and burned on impact. Wrapped in silvery flames, Goldton’s oily body served as an ideal accelerant, causing the silver fire to blaze fiercely, its glow reaching the ceiling.

With the flames burning, a faint red grudge emerged from the fire and attached itself to him.

This was Wu Chang’s first time witnessing grudge creation.

Staring at the grudge, he confirmed it belonged to Goldton, containing scenes from the recent wager.

But one thing stood out: Goldton’s parting words in the grudge were not about losing at the gambling table to Wu Chang but rather a strange message.

“The sacrifice is about to begin. The gods are destined to descend. This is fate, unstoppable.”

Minutes later, as the flames died out, Goldton’s body turned to a thin layer of black ash.

The fierce silver fire had consumed everything except a key and a wooden seal.

The dozens of grudges once attached to Goldton’s body dispersed, leaving only a deep red one stubbornly clinging to the key in Goldton’s room.

Wu Chang clasped his hands and bowed softly toward where the grudge dissipated, murmuring,

“May you all draw a good lot in reincarnation and be born into a good family next time.”

Though the dissolution of these ordinary grudges brought him no reward, it did not mean they were worthless.

On the contrary, these numerous grudges provided Wu Chang with a wealth of information.

For example, a player skilled in dungeon exploration had triggered Goldton’s private nighttime gambling session, during which Goldton would only defeat players inside the game;

Three players resisted Goldton’s attacks. During the fight, Goldton transformed into a non-human monster and revealed a weakness to fire.

A non-human monster with a fire weakness was naturally countered by the scorching bullets of Silver Dawn.

It was these players’ sacrifices that validated the information and led to tonight’s great success with Russian roulette.

After expressing his thanks to the “strategy group” members, Wu Chang examined the wooden seal dropped by Goldton.

The seal was a palm-sized circular token, engraved with a crescent-shaped eye. The eye was half-closed, as if its gaze would vanish with the moonlight, plunging the world into darkness.

“Item name: Traveler’s Amulet.”

“Item type: Dungeon item (cannot be taken out of the dungeon dimension).”

“Item skill: Protection.”

“Skill description: Equipping reduces Will by 2, increases Inspiration by 10, and grants a mental shield that can resist low-level curse and occult attacks. Activating the Protection Seal temporarily strengthens the shield to resist mid-level curse and occult attacks, consuming one point of Will per hour.”

“Note: The merciful Lord will protect His devoted followers, allowing us to walk through darkness without fear of losing our way.”

Once again, Will decreases while Inspiration increases.

Looking at the Traveler’s Amulet, Wu Chang recalled the special medicine dispensed at the sanatorium.

Both items enhanced the user’s mental resistance but lowered Will and raised Inspiration.

According to the attribute panel, Inspiration is an extremely important trait for intelligent beings. It can be understood as the level of mental activity or as a kind of perception beyond the physical senses.

Science, theology, art, even politics—human understanding in all fields relies on Inspiration.

Just as Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head, or as Empress Meitai wielded the Cherry Blossom Divine Axe and realized weapons trumped rhetoric.

Countless sparks of Inspiration distinguished humans from other animals and drove evolution into its current form.

For players, Inspiration’s stimulation of mental agility translates to faster learning and mastery of skills, easier discovery of hidden clues in dungeons, and quicker comprehension of occult knowledge and new concepts...

But Inspiration is a double-edged sword. Excessive mental activity beyond normal levels causes people to see things ordinary folks cannot.

Moderate discovery breeds creative geniuses; excess discovery breeds lunatics.

When what Inspiration reveals overturns or destroys the discoverer’s perception, it becomes the catalyst for self-destruction.

That is why exploring the unknown through Inspiration and maintaining one’s core Will must advance hand in hand—two legs walking forward.

Yet everything in Moonlight Sanatorium leaned toward reducing Will and increasing Inspiration.

It was as if some entity lurking in the void used Inspiration as a trap, luring the sanatorium’s inhabitants toward it.

And that entity was impatiently beginning to reveal itself.

Just as this thought formed in Wu Chang’s mind, he sensed a gaze falling on him. Following it, he suddenly looked up toward the corner of the ceiling.

The feeling of being watched flickered and passed, as if it were only his imagination.

Dungeon boss, huh? Dare to come out and show yourself? Then you’ll know what it means to face the Black Hand.

As his mind calmed, he mimicked Goldton and hung the Traveler’s Amulet around his neck.

Before equipping the amulet, with over fifty points of Inspiration, he could sense the enormous danger outside the room even without the sanatorium’s entry warnings.

After activating the amulet, the sense of danger became faint. He opened the door and stepped out, only feeling a slight chill in the air, with no other abnormalities.

Using the amulet and the number on the key, he quickly located Goldton’s room.

Under Goldton’s bed, inside an iron box, he found a white key.

The moment he took the key, the deep red grudge once attached to Goldton vanished.

Another reward had arrived.