Using a One-Shot Cheat
The eyeballs of his teammates also began to inexplicably Shedding.
A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of the female team member's left eye, and then, an intact eyeball, covered in viscous tissue fluid, slowly slid out of its socket!
Just as the eyeball was about to fall off, the female team member's long, black hair seemed to come alive, the ends quickly curling up to catch the Shedding eyeball and wrap it up.
She was pale but calm. "The ghost stories are affecting me too. I suggest you get your missing eye examined."
After thinking for a moment, Ding Lexin took the lead and gouged out his left eye.
"What if we don't follow the methods of ghost stories? My eyeball was modified and implanted; let's give it a try."
The Blood Moon hanging high overhead seemed to have grown even more intense and ominous with its dark red glow.
[Qin Lang: New strange tales have begun to emerge, but they all appear to be physical attacks, though the methods are very bizarre.]
[Su Luo: Okay, I understand. Remember to keep an eye on the mental state in the area; quite a few people have developed mental problems from the Trial Instance.]
[Qin Lang: I've given this serious attention.]
After quickly processing the urgent communication from the Zone 76 Mutual Aid Association, Su Luo closed the semi-transparent personal information panel and turned her attention back to the Dream Tower in front of her.
Beside him, the Iron Guard remained silent, only occasionally flashing a purplish-red light behind his mask.
Ever since Su Luo managed to leverage a sliver of power through the connection between her Source Essence and her main body, Iron Guard's expression has been strange, and he hasn't said much.
Perhaps they are just naturally quiet.
The two stepped into the next "room".
The scene shifts, and they find themselves in an ancient stone corridor, dimly lit and with walls covered in slippery moss.
The corridor wasn't empty; a battle was underway.
The two sides in the battle were quite conspicuous. On one side were three bizarrely shaped creatures with hunched backs, wearing tattered cloaks and huge red masks that almost covered their entire heads. The one in the middle was particularly prominent, looking like it had a kunba on its face. In short, they did not look like good people.
On the other side was a lone female tower climber, agile and clad in dark, form-fitting leather armor for ease of movement, covered by a hooded travel cloak, her long, dark hair neatly tied back and hidden under the hood.
Most striking was the mask she wore on her face, which was the skull of some large animal, tightly fitted to her face.
With Su Luo and Iron Guard Wei's arrival, the Desolation Plague intensified.
The Health Points above the heads of the three red-masked monsters, which had been hovering around 40, began to jump and swell wildly as if injected with stimulants!
In the blink of an eye, their health points soared to an astonishing number—[900/900]!
The woman with the skull froze, incredulous, and slowly turned around.
"You..." Her voice came through the skull mask, tinged with a hoarse, distorted tone.
"Hello, I am Scholar, and this is Iron Guard." Su Luo said without changing his expression.
The woman took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in her heart. She could clearly sense the thick "Desolation Plague" Curse swirling around the two people in front of her, especially the man who called himself a "Scholar".
That is the Tower's "favor" towards those who break the rules, try to take shortcuts, or cause abnormalities.
"You, you all... the Desolation Plague... never mind, my name is Jingjing."
Jingjing, she waved wearily and continued, "Iron Guard, right? I remember you. In the past, we fought side by side and climbed the tower together."
Iron Guard nodded, indicating that he remembered as well.
"Then... what about you, Scholar? Why can't I find any trace of you in my fragmented memories? Could it be that you... have been active on a higher floor all along?"
Jingjing focused her attention on Su Luo, as she could sense a large amount of Desolation Plague energy emanating from Su Luo.
"I've long heard of the Tower's fame, yet I'm merely Tower new challenger. And you? What is your purpose in challenging the Tower?"
After listening to Jingjing's words, Su Luo knew that this person, like Iron Guard, was endlessly climbing the tower and endlessly Resurrection, belonging to the NPCs with a higher degree of freedom in the Tower.
"Me? This is my mission, and the faith of my clan."
Where is your clan located in the Eternal Night Court?
"Beyond the Tower, on the land, stood the most powerful clan of that era." Jingjing recalling her tribe, a hint of pride lingered in her voice.
Su Luo nodded, and then posed a question.
"So, Ms. Jingjing, you have climbed, Reincarnation, and struggled within this Tower for so many long years. How is your clan outside doing? Does time flow outside the tower in the same way it does inside?"
Su Luo chose to speak from the heart.
"..."
Upon hearing this, he fell Jingjing, frozen in place like the Iron Guard from before.
Outside the tower... clan... time...
Like the Iron Guard, she hadn't thought about anything since entering the Tower.
Just as Jingjing was caught in a violent Psychic Shock due to this question and had no time to think about anything else, Su Luo moved.
Only three thin, pure black threads of fire, as fine as hair, silently drifted from his fingertips and instantly wrapped around the three red-masked monsters whose health had surged.
Death, level cleared.
The monsters on this floor are significantly stronger than the giant sphere on the previous floor. With the amplification from the Desolation Plague, their Main Attributes are around 17 or 18, but they still can't withstand Su Luo's Black Flames.
"You...!"
Seeing this scene, Jingjing was so bewildered that she couldn't even think about Su Luo's question anymore.
"He's using cheats, One-Shot Cheat, that's why we're being punished by the Desolation Plague."
Iron Guard thoughtfully explained, pointing to himself in the process.
"Do you want to team up with us? The Desolation Plague has broken out; you have no way out."
At this moment, Jingjing suddenly realized that a cold, heavy, and malicious force of rules had already entangled her body and soul like a malignant tumor.
The Desolation Plague had already been attached to her when the Scholar used her cheat code to instantly kill the monster.
"You... alright, let's go together. With the Desolation Plague afflicting you, there's no way you can climb to the top of the tower; it's just another Reincarnation..."
Su Luo glanced at Iron Guard, who was still questioning his existence, and then at Jingjing, the new recruit who was beginning to feel dejected, and remained noncommittal.
"Then let's rush it, wipe out the monsters in one go, and reach the last floor of the second phase of the Tower to fight the boss."
Su Luo can now condense Source Essence by absorbing the free energy in the Tower, without needing to fight to accumulate rounds, meaning she gets stronger the more she AFKs.
But that's too slow. He needs to defeat the second-level boss. Then the Relics can be upgraded, allowing him to "return" the Source Essence on a larger scale and more efficiently, leveraging more of his Suppression power to create a snowball effect.
Before the rules of the Tower react, or before the Desolation Plague accumulates to the point of being overwhelming, establish an irreversible power advantage.