Time is like the wind, blowing through winter and spring.
The desk calendar flipped quickly and came to the end of May of the solar calendar year 4419.
In the past six months or so, the circus has not changed much.
Maggie went out with Robert and his wife, and she only came back a few times, especially in the past two months, there was almost no news from her.
The plague outside the city became more and more serious, and martial law was even imposed in the outer city area.
Through newspapers and other channels, Chen Lun learned that even more terrible epidemics had occurred in surrounding towns and villages.
Many people seemed to have become "puppets" of the plague, turning into terrible monsters and crazy lunatics.
The plague called "red dancing disease" reached the point where people were terrified and became a wave of panic.
It is not spread by rats and mosquitoes like the Black Death and yellow fever, but it is spread in a way that no one knows, people are inexplicably infected and then break out... No one knows who will be infected next, nor how to cure the disease.
This unknown is what is most frightening.
Those infected with the "Red Dance" plague will dance tirelessly and fall into a state of extreme agitation. They will uncontrollably want to commit violence and crave killing and chaos.
According to the information currently known, this disease is also fatal, and the duration varies, from a few weeks to several months.
Because the epidemic had spread over a large area, it had already caused a response from the empire. The Public Security Bureau dispatched police officers to guard the city, and a large number of soldiers were dispersed to various plague sites to suppress and maintain order.
But the effect is not good.
Countless soldiers died, and in order to prevent the spread of the plague, their bodies often could not be sent back and had to be burned on the spot along with the bodies of local residents.
The causes of death were complicated, some were infected with the plague, and some were killed by rioting mobs. In short, the morale of the troops sent to various places to control the plague was low, and even defections occurred.
They would rather deal with a clear and powerful enemy than face an invisible plague and horrifying patients.
The weather was getting hotter and the ground was scorching.
People were hurrying on the road, and when the carriages were moving, the drivers rang their bells impatiently to drive away people who might be blocking the road.
jingle…
Chen Lun came out of the Foil Fighting Club again.
He pulled down the brim of his hat, walked quickly to the carriage parked on the side of the road, and got straight into the carriage.
"Go back."
"Yes, Mr. Jack."
The driver responded briefly, shouted to the horses, and pulled the reins.
Tap tap…
Chen Lun sat in the carriage, gently stroking the silver cane in his hand.
Kaka…!
After a transformation, the cane turned into a silver sword, straight and slender, lying quietly in his hand. His fingers slowly stroked the sword, and a strong urge to swing the sword emerged.
"Swordsmanship..."
Chen Lun murmured these two words.
During this period of time, he would often take time to go to the Foil Fighting Club to build relationships with the Black Knight Byers, but most of the time, Byers was not there.
Chen Lun would try to communicate with him whenever he could. Thanks to the Moon Faction Sequence he had taken in his previous life, he could have a pleasant chat with Byers on related topics.
Sometimes, even a few simple words can bring inspiration to Biles.
More than half a year of hard work paid off. Chen Lun finally raised Biles's favorability to "close". At the same time, he also learned two more skills from Biles!
Two extraordinary sword skills, active skills!
Byers Swift Sword LVMAX
Skill Description: The extraordinary sword skill created by the Moonlight Black Knight Byerswolf can cover the sword with the power of death and cut out a high-speed and light cold sword light.
This skill is similar to "Send Waves". After spending 4 skill points to upgrade it to the maximum, each sword energy is equivalent to a slash and comes with the power of death, which is quite good.
The only regret is that due to the different sequence paths, Chen Lun will consume more energy when releasing this sword skill, and the effect will be slightly inferior to the original version.
But he was already very satisfied. After all, he had an extra means of attack, and this means was originally supposed to belong to the middle sequence stage, but now he had mastered it in advance.
Byers Moonlight Sword LVMAX
Skill Description: The extraordinary sword skills created by the Moonlight Black Knight Byerswolf can accumulate the power of death on the sword and finally cut out a gorgeous sword light like moonlight, stunning and deadly.
This skill also takes 4 skill points to max it out.
The effect is a bit like a charging sword, the longer the time, the greater the power. However, it has a limit, it takes about one minute to fully charge, and the strength is about five times that of the lowest level.
Like Byers' Swift Sword, it was discounted when it came to Chen Lun because of the different sequence, but it cannot be denied that it was a powerful ultimate move.
Chen Lun just happened to lack such a killer move.
*
*
*
Return to Jack's Manor.
Chen Lun found that the lobby on the first floor of the villa was empty.
He was not surprised because the entire team had been basically busy during this period of time.
Noah and Golov were out completing commissions, Connie was busy in the warehouse, and Floin was mostly catching up on sleep in her room.
'It's almost there... The public beta will be in two days.'
A hint of anticipation flashed in Chen Lun's eyes.
After such a long period of preparation, everything is almost ready and we can finally warmly welcome the players.
He went straight upstairs to his room.
Taking off his coat and hat, he sat down on the sofa, then leaned back and closed his eyes.
A circle of green fluorescence slowly emerged between the eyebrows - this is the Jingzhe bookmark.
In the past six months, Chen Lun has spent some time to figure out a way to store it in his body. This way, he no longer has to hold it in his hand when using it, and it is much more concealed.
With a bang, white light appeared.
Chen Lun opened his eyes and found that he had arrived in fairyland.
He walked straight to the door of the lake house and glanced at the grape vine, the branches of which were already in bloom.
The changes of this extraordinary grape vine confirmed the previous conjecture that the number of wooden houses found determined its growth process.
Because in the past six months, Chen Lun entered the wonderland many times. Starting from the "Forest No. 1" wooden house, he conducted in-depth exploration in the left and right directions and discovered two more wooden houses.
One of them had been "occupied" by him and named "Forest No. 2". In this wooden house, he once again found the handwritten book left by Philip, which recorded the extraordinary knowledge of the magician of the sequence 7 of the quarter destiny faction.
All together, he had half of the extraordinary knowledge about magicians, and was one step closer to the prerequisites for promotion.
'Go to Forest One.'
Chen Lun closed his eyes and connected with the wooden house in the gloomy forest in his mind.
The next moment, he felt the air around him fluctuate.
"As expected, it's just like a save point. It's quite convenient."
After opening his eyes, Chen Lun chuckled, then pushed open the door and walked out.
The trees were gray and shadowy, and black smoke began to spread from behind some of the trees.
"It's the polluting creature 'Lumberjack' near 'Forest One'. It's a waste of time to be held back. Let's go quickly."
After taking a glance, Chen Lun took a step forward and started running wildly to the left without waiting for the lumberjacks to show up.
"Forest No. 2" is on the right side, which he has already explored. Next, he plans to occupy the wooden house on the left before the public beta.
We ran for about ten minutes without encountering any danger.
But he did not let his guard down. After all, every trip to wonderland was a different adventure.
boom!
A loud noise suddenly came from the side.
Chen Lun turned his head and saw a "wild boar" as big as a carriage rushing towards him.
There was a rectangular white bone plate on its forehead, on which a ferocious human face could be vaguely seen. Two arm-long fangs grew on its lower gums, standing upright like two spears.
On its back sits a "monkey" wearing a bone mask and holding a vine basket in his hand.
call!
Chen Lun dodged sideways and passed by the rampaging "wild boar".
At the same time, he kicked it hard in the side and abdomen.
Peng!
squeak!
The huge beast actually let out a sharp cry like a rodent, then lost its balance, staggered to one side, and almost fell on its belly.
Chen Lun took the opportunity to release his Life-Seeing Eye towards it and observe its information.
"Another kind of polluted creature that cannot communicate, the bone-faced monkey and its pet? Their strength is roughly equivalent to that of a Sequence 8 Beyonder..."
The monkey called out twice and dropped two colorful fruits from the basket. The big pig under him opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue, like a chameleon rolling its tongue, and swallowed the fruits.
The big pig squeaked excitedly and rushed towards Chen Lun again, its two scarlet eyes filled with madness.
Kaka... clang!
Chen Lun swung his silver cane and it transformed into a silver sword.
'Swift Sword...'
He suddenly raised his hand, and the silver sword swung out a cold light. An arc-shaped sword energy with a light purple glow instantly flew out and chopped the big pig's face.
Phew!
Blood splattered and the big pig squeaked. A deep sword scar appeared on its face and half of its nose was cut off.
The power of death attached to the sword energy made the flesh and blood at the wound appear a decayed black color. The big pig's momentum stagnated slightly, and he seemed to be a little weaker.
Peng!
In a frenzy, it crashed into Chen Lun.
But the latter already had various ways of coping in his mind, which was the result of his full-level knight swordsmanship.
Chen Lun slapped the bone plate on the pig's forehead with one hand, then leaped into the air, landed on its back, and slashed the monkey on the head with a sword!
squeak!
The monkey screamed in fear, but it was too late to dodge.
A flash of silver light passed by, and its head and half of its body were split in half by the sword, and the fragments inside its body exploded along with the red mist in the sky.
Chen Lun landed smoothly and turned around to see that the big pig had already rushed far away. The dead monkey on its back had rolled to the ground, and the colorful wild fruits in its fruit basket were scattered all over the ground.
The big pig simply opened its mouth and swallowed up the fruits along with the monkey's body. Then, drastic changes occurred.
The wounds on its face recovered rapidly, and its body began to swell and turn red. A monkey-like figure appeared on the bone plate of its forehead.
'The name has changed, and it's now 'The Bone Rat and Its Food'?'
There was mist in Chen Lun's eyes and he raised his brows.
'interesting… '
Rest! Rest!
He swung the silver sword in his hand, slashing out three arcs of pale purple sword energy in succession.
Byers Swift Sword!
Buzz!
The bone plate rat was startled, and immediately lowered its head suddenly. With a few loud clangs, three deep sword marks appeared on the bone plate on its forehead, and even cracks spread out.
If it weren't for this bone plate, its head would have been blown off by the sword energy.
Take a break!
Two more conspicuous sword energies attacked, and before the bone rat could react, one of its fangs broke, countless bone fragments flew, and one of its forelimbs was also cut off.
Chen Lun seemed to sense something and looked at the silver sword in his hand with some surprise.
"The sword energy seems to have been strengthened a little bit... Is it my illusion? "
With an attitude of giving it a try, he continued to strike with his sword.
Buzz!
The pale purple arc-shaped sword light, which was three times thicker than before, flew straight and diagonally.
squeak!
The bone-plate rat was fearless and rushed towards Chen Lun covered in blood.
But in the process, it collided with the thick sword energy, and the bone plate on its forehead was finally broken, and half of its head disappeared.
winter!
The huge body fell forward and slid for a distance due to inertia, raising countless dust and sand, and finally knocked down a big tree.
"Sure enough, the sword energy has been inexplicably enhanced..."
Chen Lun was secretly puzzled.
Amidst the rumbling sound, he took out a yellow potion on the spot and drank it with his head tilted back.
This is the result that Maggie brought back two months ago.
Extraordinary Potion-Thirst Potion
Item description: A recovery potion developed by a heretic pharmacist. It is a yellow potion blended using ancient techniques and materials.
Item Effect: Can slightly restore physical strength and increase the speed of physical strength recovery within 30 minutes. Warning: Do not take it repeatedly within one hour, otherwise it will cause the upper limit of physical strength to decrease.
"Maggie's stamina potion has finally been developed successfully... and the effect is pretty good."
Chen Lun threw the empty bottle casually, burped, and then frowned slightly.
'But the taste is really hard to describe...'
Kill the contaminated creature "Bone Plate Rat and its Food" to obtain 3000 experience points, extraordinary material "Weird Bone Particles" (Natural Faction) and low-sequence pure material *1
Boom!
As the trees fell, a giant hand slapped down from the sky.
Peng!
The earth trembled and mud and sand flew all over the sky.
Chen Lun was just about to slip away, but then a scene from the past flashed through his mind. It was the fragments of words recorded on the title page of "Philip's Adventures in Wonderland".
"—I discovered that my extraordinary power was affected there, and it became stronger and weaker. When it was strong, it could even burst out with power beyond its own sequence, and when it was weak, it was even weaker than an ordinary person...
If I had to describe it in one word, I think 'absurd' would be the most appropriate."
He gradually understood why the sword energy he had just slashed out was amplified - this was because of the bizarre phenomenon in the fairyland.
'In that case, perhaps...'
Chen Lun clenched the silver sword in his hand and slowly raised it.
Buzz!
The shiny blade of the silver sword began to emit a hazy light purple light, which kept flickering and emitting countless flashing spots.
boom!
Chen Lun kicked the big tree next to him suddenly, making a loud noise, and the tree slowly fell down with a rumbling sound.
The giant arm in the sky that was about to retreat suddenly slapped towards him.
Boom!
The ground shook violently, and a huge pit was blown out of the open space! Countless sand and rocks were blown up, and the nearby trees swayed violently, as if they were about to fall down at any time.
Buzz!
Chen Lun continued to store the moonlight and sword light, and the pale purple light on the silver sword became more and more dazzling.
He always used his peripheral vision to observe the huge hand that covered the sky, so as to avoid looking directly at it and triggering "contaminated witnessing", which would result in a loss of sanity.
Whenever the giant arm was about to retract and leave, Chen Lun would raise his leg and kick down a tree to attract its attention again.
Woo woo!
The "Desolate Giant" seemed to be enraged, and the repeated provocations made its attacks more powerful.
A gust of wind pressure came, and a giant palm covered with strange berries came over.
The power and accuracy of this palm was greatly enhanced, and Chen Lun's spiritual intuition gave a strong warning!
Boom!
Chen Lun dodged to the side relying on his high agility.
Although he dodged in time, the shock wave still hit him. Dense stones sprayed over like shotgun shells, colliding with the dark golden scales, making crackling sounds.
He felt the pain all over his body and let out a sigh of relief.
'Too powerful...'
Chen Lun's eyes turned fierce and he gripped the handle of the staff with both hands. A pale purple light was emitting from the silver sword, which was already extremely dazzling.
"But it would be a pity if I didn't try it out while the power is increasing..."
He raised the silver sword high and swung it down fiercely.
"moonlight!
”
Buzz!
Byers Moonlight Sword explodes and releases!
A several-meter-long arc-shaped pale purple sword beam, flashing as brilliantly as starlight, flew straight towards the giant hand in the air!
During this process, the sword's light received an invisible amplification, and increased by another 70% to 80%.
boom!
Oh!
A strange cry of pain came from the sky, and throughout the forests in this area, countless birds that had never been seen before flapped their wings and flew away to an invisible place.
A huge severed hand, splattered with boiling blood, fell from the sky.
With a loud bang, the severed palm was like a fallen elephant, still wriggling on the ground, and thick purple-black blood plasma was spilled all over the ground.
After a few breaths, it finally stopped struggling.
Obtain the extraordinary material "Desolate Berry" (Natural Faction)*1!
Chen Lun received the prompt box and was delighted.
'Is this the strange fruit that grows on the giant's palm? It must be a higher-level extraordinary material!'
He thought to himself.
Thanks to his recent mastery of the high-damage skill of Byers Moonlight Sword, and his chance encounter with the bizarre supernatural amplification phenomenon of Wonderland, he would not have been able to harm this extremely powerful pollution giant.
Boom!
The sky suddenly turned dark.
Chen Lun's spiritual intuition once again gave a crazy warning!
A giant head with disheveled hair slowly descended from the sky upside down.
Among the "hair" made of vines, two rotten fruits full of maggots were its "eyes", looking straight at Chen Lun.
'run!
'
Chen Lun shouted in his heart.
He ran as fast as he could in the originally planned direction, and he could hear strong wind and whistling sound behind him.
call!
Peng!
I felt a huge force and a sharp pain in my back, and my whole body felt like it was falling apart.
Chen Lun activated his "Big Snake Form" in time. After being slapped, he curled up into a ball and flew a distance on the ground. He used his scales to resist collision and friction, reducing most of the damage.
With a bang, he knocked down another tree, then bounced up, quickly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and ran forward.
A bright green light emerged from his chest, and the Jingzhe Bookmark was releasing its vitality to heal him.
After escaping for a distance, the roar and tremor behind him gradually faded away.
Chen Lun secretly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the "Desolate Giant" had been left behind by him and could not catch up for the time being.
"Now that we're here, let's see if we can get to the cabin in one go."
He thought to himself and quickened his pace.
I felt the sanity value in Maggie's statue, and there were still more than 1100 left. The accumulation over the past six months has not increased much, because every time I go to the dungeon, it is a huge consumption.
Not only is it used to offset time consumption, but also occasional injury recovery and activation of gloves, etc., all require sanity value.
Chen Lun is too poor, and he is now eager for players to "sponsor" him, "donate" him, and "crowdfund" for him.
I ran like this for more than twenty minutes.
Suddenly, he saw a familiar corner of a wooden house through a gap in the dense forest.
But there was a constant roar all around, and in the blink of an eye, seven or eight huge bone-faced rats rushed out, each with a bone-faced monkey sitting on its back.
Squeak…squeak…!
The shouts continued, and it seemed that there were more companions rushing towards this side.
"There are powerful enemies roaming around every cabin..."
Chen Lun sighed.
He flicked his hand, took out two bottles of purple potion from the Blood Poetry Ring, and threw them forward.
Peng!
The medicine bottle exploded on its own, and two streams of purple smoke came out.
This is the bottle of poison obtained from Maggie, called "Psychedelic Poison".
The bone-faced rats were in a bit of a mess, and seemed to be too excited after smelling the poisonous smoke, and they were running around in all directions. The bone-faced monkeys on their backs were not much better, and they took out wild fruits from the fruit basket and threw them at each other.
Chen Lun took the opportunity to take out a black-patterned cufflink and pinned it on his sleeve, then took out the bottle of benzoin and sprayed himself twice.
Puff…
Black smoke enveloped Chen Lun, and a light and complex ocean fragrance penetrated into his nostrils.
Chen Lun felt his mind dizzy and he actually felt a little sleepy.
Fortunately, his own poison resistance was high enough and he quickly returned to normal.
When the purple smoke dissipated, the dozen or so giant bone-plate rats that had gathered around were puzzled to find that the strange upright creature had disappeared.
The monkeys on their backs also chattered non-stop and slapped the big pigs under them frantically.
"There is no direct sunlight in the forest, and the light is quite dim, which is just right for hiding the cufflinks... plus the perfume also has the effect of reducing the sense of presence, so if you round it off, doesn't this mean invisibility?"
Chen Lun thought.
He held his breath and walked carelessly among the dozen or so giant beasts, trying not to make any noise.
The nose of a bone plate rat twitched, as if it smelled something.
Soon, its crazy eyes flashed with confusion, and then its eyelids began to droop.
After a few seconds, the monkey on its back also lay down and fell asleep.
The other bone-plate rats and bone-faced monkeys noticed something was wrong and immediately began to move away, but they did not leave completely and instead lingered nearby.
Chen Lun ignored them, walked straight to the door of the wooden house and pushed it gently.
Crunch...
The wooden door opened and Chen Lun walked in.
The decorations and furnishings inside still looked familiar. Chen Lun came to the table and saw a small box on it.
The box was covered in graffiti and had a scribbled smiley face on it.
It's Philip's style.
Chen Lun stretched out his hand, moved closer to the box, and wanted to pick it up and take a closer look.
Peng!
There was a loud bang.
The box suddenly exploded, and countless colorful pieces of paper flew everywhere.
A red object connected to a spring flew out of the box and hit Chen Lun's face.
Chen Lun frowned slightly. His spiritual intuition did not give him any warning, so he simply raised his cane to block in front of him.
"Surprise! Hehehe! Hehehe!"
The "lips" were half the size of a palm, like two slices of sausage stacked together, and connected with the spring, swaying back and forth in front of Chen Lun.
It opened and closed up and down, spoke in human language, and laughed.
Just as Chen Lun was puzzled, it continued:
"Hey my friend, I'm glad you found another 'fragment'..."
The voice was that of a young male, with a brisk and energetic tone.
"The gift left here for you is a piece of knowledge, oh, very rare knowledge... We call it the 'Extraordinary Law of the Mysterious Realm'!"
The spring twisted, and the "flaming red lips" opened and closed, uttering a series of strange tones that did not sound like language at all at first glance.
You discovered the second (part) of the extraordinary law of the mysterious realm and gained 10,000 experience points!
The law of increasing supernatural entropy (incomplete): …supernatural properties will not be destroyed, but will only be transferred from one carrier to another, and will not decrease, but will only increase…
'Supernatural Immortality...'
Chen Lun suddenly understood.
No wonder after the death of a supernatural being, his spirit would turn into a strange creature, and after the death of a supernatural creature, he would leave behind supernatural materials... Even after the strange creature collapsed, it would decompose into mysterious substances.
As the most basic unit of characteristic embodiment, mysterious matter cannot be damaged.
'Extraordinary entropy increases, it will not decrease or disappear, it will only increase... Public beta... Players...'
Chen Lun frowned.
At this moment, he seemed to see some fragments of the future.
Earthquakes, sinkholes, tsunamis, wars, and all kinds of terrible disasters...