I hadn't expected the AI to actually find a way through for him.
The altar before him was in a sunken area, with a raised platform piled up in the middle. It was as if another section had been dug beneath the underground space where Shally was, forming a massive depression. Waterway-like structures encircled the depression, surrounding the altar at its center.
But there was no water in those channels, only a glaring crimson expanse.
The altar was not made of stone platforms either, but countless piled-up skulls, like steps leading to a throne.
At every point around the channels stood a figure.
And in the middle of the altar was a crimson greatsword embedded in stone.
They were conducting a ritual.
That said, it was clearly not an ordinary ritual like the one at 228 Black Ding Street.
You heard the echoes of war.
Mad killing intent gradually consumed your reason. To avoid losing herself, she slowly retreated several steps.
Only when the altar vanished from the character's field of view did the prompt disappear.
Ryan had clearly seen the blood around the channels continuously climb along the patterns carved into the altar, seemingly flowing into that greatsword.
"They're worshipping that sword?"
Sword of Ares.
Ryan was certain that thing was the Job Change relic from the game.
However, in the game, the sword only dropped after defeating a powerful boss. Judging by its strength, that boss was at least Fourth Tier—a servant of the Blood God descended upon the mortal world.
Otherwise, why would it only unlock after the main story began? Going there without enough strength would mean a full party wipe.
Of course, players could choose not to fight it. It was only a hidden class quest, after all, and would not affect the course of the game.
But Ryan definitely did not want to miss it. This class was one of the top hidden classes in the game, no worse than the Silent Nun.
"Let's wait and see."
There was still time, so Ryan was in no hurry.
He made himself a cup of coffee. After finishing it, he continued waiting with renewed energy.
"Back to staying up all night grinding games. I really miss this."
Though staring at it did not accomplish much, Ryan kept watching until the wall clock chimed twice and the time reached midnight.
The faint red glow that had been flickering over the character interface suddenly vanished. Shally pressed herself against the wall and slowly moved forward, seeing the figures that had been conducting the ritual begin to retreat.
Each position had an exit leading away. Only after everyone had left did Shally emerge and follow a path to the channel.
She dipped a little of the "bloody water" inside.
Blood.
System appraisal—guaranteed accurate.
As for whether it was human blood or cow and horse blood... maybe it was all the same?
The skulls were definitely human skulls. From the looks of it, the Blood Cult had been preparing this place for a long time. It was hard to imagine those lunatics having such patience.
You heard the echoes of war.
When Shally crossed the blood pool and stepped onto the skull-covered altar, the system message appeared again.
This time, Shally did not retreat. Instead, she continued up the stairway of skulls.
Since he was already here, Ryan was certainly unwilling to leave just like that. Though things differed somewhat from the game, the Job Change relic was right in front of him.
But he soon noticed that as Shally climbed higher, crimson filled the screen, and her health bar began dropping bit by bit.
"A domain?"
You have accepted the trial.
"So this is where they were waiting for me."
Ryan did not hesitate. He hurriedly had Shally chew on Roasted Chicken.
Over the past few days, Shally had reached Level 11, and her health pool was thick enough. Otherwise, she would have died after only a couple of steps.
And the closer she got to the top of the altar, the faster her health drained. Seeing that the healing rate was beginning to fall behind the damage, Ryan hesitated for a moment before taking a Magic Scrolls: Constitution scroll from his inventory and applying it to Shally.
Constitution was tied to health. After the Magic Scrolls increased Constitution by 20%, her health would rise accordingly.
"Still not enough..."
Shally took out a small bottle from her inventory.
Thousand Day Brew.
Ryan felt a pang of reluctance, but as Shally's health slowly neared empty, he timed it precisely and made her drink it.
It was a bottle of wine that restored 60% of current health and also granted 10% bonus damage.
It was the only bottle Lin Qi had obtained after grinding levels these past few days. That absurd 60% recovery was practically a life-saving medicine, and using it on an Alt like Shally was far too wasteful.
And the bonus damage effect would not even be useful.
But having come this far, giving up would only mean watching Shally die. Better to gamble on it.
Her health instantly recovered by more than half. Shally continued chewing Roasted Chicken and finally stepped onto the altar before her health ran out, reaching the Sword of Ares.
Boom—
At that moment.
Blood-red suddenly covered the entire character interface. Beneath her feet, on the ceiling, in the air—everything was crimson. The bones that had been lying around the altar had somehow become demon-like entities, scrambling to crawl toward the center of the altar!
The shadow of an invisible Great Demon hovered above the Sword of Ares, as though it intended to tear open the rift between illusion and reality and descend.
The flames of war had been lit, burning from ancient times to this day without ever being extinguished. The authority of the old days hung high in the sky. You glimpsed supreme greatness. From the throne of blood and bones, glory would belong to the final victor.
The crimson interface reached its peak, but at that moment, Shally's health was locked at its final point, and she did not fall.
"Did I trigger the Job Change Mission?"
Ryan raised an eyebrow, but the expression on his face was soon replaced by shock.
To obtain the power of the Chosen of the Old Days, achieve the following objectives—
1: Step forward and pull the sword from the stone.
2: Blood-sacrifice 8,888 lives.
"What the hell, what kind of god-slaying class is this???"
Thoughts on Going Premium (A Few Things)
This newbie was finally going premium!
This book had really been through a rough time. Because of the original-fiction environment on Ciweimao, I had hesitated for a long time over whether to write original fiction. After thinking it over for ages, I finally decided to give it a shot.
Then, things were fine for a while after I started the book. This week, I pushed for the click rankings, and all sorts of problems started appearing.
Since the protagonist's cheat involved raising game Alts, gender naturally came up. I actually made it very clear in the synopsis: beneath the protagonist's throne stood two rows of "loyal" and "capable" people, and I wrote "they" in the feminine sense. It obviously referred to female characters. I also mentioned below the synopsis that he played female characters.
I don't know whether some people failed to see it or deliberately saw it and chose to stir things up, but they kept saying things like "gay men," "lesbians," and "marriage" in the chapter comments. If I had even mentioned such a plot point, I could understand you saying that—but where did I write it?
Recently, some people even randomly added tags like "yuri" and "marriage." It felt like a bunch of people stirring up trouble just to get attention. I could not be bothered explaining at first, but I saw that readers in the comments really had been misled, so I separately posted a pinned comment to explain.
So I'll say it again here: this book raises female characters. There are no gay men, no lesbians, no marriage, and absolutely no giving women away. There, explanation over. If anyone brings this up again, all I can do is give them a mute package.
Sigh. Sometimes writing feels like a dead end. The environment is getting worse and worse. All kinds of people with extreme ideas start flaming the moment anything displeases them, and then it easily affects the people just trying to read normally, ruining the atmosphere of a perfectly good book.
They're just so worked up. Some people do not even read carefully before they start attacking.
Everyone's worked up—worked up, worked up, worked up. I'm the King of Getting Worked Up. Though I suppose it's fine to relax online.
I've been writing full-time for seven or eight years, so I feel this firsthand.
I'm saying all this just to let everyone know that I really do not want to deal with all that messy nonsense. Just let me be a quiet, handsome man who writes his chapters in peace!!
I'd rather stay handsome forever, have a wife who stays young and beautiful forever, and be rich forever—as long as I can happily write books!
I wish everyone ten gold pulls in every ten-pull, jackpot lottery tickets, handsome men, beautiful women, good health, immortality, and food that always tastes great. Thanks!
Oh, one more thing: it goes premium tomorrow at noon, and the update will be on time. Please subscribe~
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