A More Dangerous Reality: The Appearance of Aberrants

As "Wandering Shadow" watched the skill's explosive demonstration, ambition ignited in his eyes.

It's definitely a special skill; you can't learn it through ordinary means!

"The Wandering Arrow" is well aware of the significance of this Skill Book.

Because we understand its effects, we know even more clearly how many competitors we must overcome to succeed.

"I have already reported this to the family, and even explained the skill effects in detail."

"They will definitely do everything they can to help me win the bid, after all, everyone can see how rare this skill is."

"Right now, only Chongxing can clear that Cheater, and even that's a random drop. I doubt even Chongxing himself has obtained the exclusive skill yet."

"The value of this Skill Book is self-evident."

"I really envy you archers. This skill is clearly a powerful tool for increasing burst damage and conquering dungeons. We other classes are extremely envious!"

Not only high-level players, but also any leaders in various factions who are archers or have trusted archer members have joined the bidding.

Some guilds even secretly joined forces, agreeing to form Fixed Team and cooperate in raiding once the bid was won.

Shortly after the Skill Book was released, its price skyrocketed to an astonishing figure.

Players in small and medium-sized guilds can only watch helplessly.

This was no longer an ordinary bidding war; it had become an arena for power struggles between major guilds and powerful forces.

It is also a demonstration of strength.

Those who can better demonstrate their strength will attract stronger players.

"Sigh, I wish I had mountains of gold and silver in my hands."

"Otherwise... what if I sold myself to Chongxing? Do you think that's a good idea?"

Like most archers who can't afford Skill Book, player "Hou Yi" can only watch helplessly from the sidelines.

The name sounds grand, but the financial resources are very limited.

"How dare you think you're worth so many Gold Coin?"

"If anyone's going to sell, it'll be me! Maybe next time they'll release a mage Skill Book!" "Silent Black Sheep" chimed in from the sidelines.

"We can no longer get involved in auctions at this level."

"I've heard that major guilds like Dragon Map, War Alliance, and Ironblood are determined to win."

"Datou Datou" wishes he were an archer, and there are many players who share this thought at this moment.

At this very moment.

Not only were guild players from the District 3 alarmed, but major forces from other regions also joined the bidding.

In the end, the Skill Book fell into the hands of the guild "Ironblood" for a staggering price of 13,000 Gold Coin.

During the auction, numerous guilds attempted to contact Zhang Mingzhen, hoping to conduct private transactions, but he rejected them all.

Later, some people even went to all District 3 and camped out in the wilderness to wait for him. During that time, he had to hide his game ID again. When he occasionally ran into other players in the wilderness, he could not avoid getting entangled with them.

After acquiring the Skill Book, the Ironblood Guild immediately handed it over to one of its veteran members—the archer "In the Flick of a Finger".

As one of the top archers in the "Ironblood" guild and a recognized expert in the District 17, he immediately went into a dungeon to test his skills after mastering them.

The feedback regarding the skill's effectiveness far exceeded expectations!

It not only significantly improves output efficiency, but can also serve as a special means to reduce enemy health and instantly kill monsters at crucial moments.

This is easy to understand.

Some monsters enter their final burst phase when they reach 5% health.

At this point, you can use this skill to unleash a burst of damage and instantly reduce the monster's health by 5%.

In this way, the losses can be greatly reduced.

This makes one even more eager to see the unique skills of other professions.

More and more guild players began asking Chongxing the Wolf Barbarian Escape Dungeon, which even interfered with Zhang Mingzhen's daily gaming.

He simply disappeared, even declaring, "If any force continues to be ungrateful and pester me, all future cooperation will be canceled."

After this warning, the previous restless atmosphere gradually subsided.

With a few days left until next week's dungeon refresh, Zhang Mingzhen once again threw himself into his daily leveling routine.

Everyone gradually returned to normal.

However, they were unaware that at that moment, an even heavier shadow was quietly enveloping the entire earth.

Gao Linzhi is scanning the Earth, checking the current progress.

He discovered that the Skyfall Game system was experiencing some new fluctuations.

Certain data codes have begun to enter the bodies of certain players.

He still needs to observe what specific changes will occur.

As for stopping it, that won't happen.

He intends to use this process to observe and analyze more of the core aspects of the Skyfall Game system.

During this process, the system will call more core functions, which is a good opportunity for him to parse them.

As Gao Linzhi had predicted, in a city of a small country called Jili Kingdom.

People went about their lives and games as usual, and no one expected that the smoke of war would spread silently.

A strange disease is spreading rapidly among the population.

In less than an hour, the entire city—including the players who were engrossed in the game—underwent a physical Mutation Tier, and the players were forcibly kicked out of the game.

They were horrified to discover that their bodies were twisting and transforming.

Their skin was festering, their teeth protruded, and a strange green liquid seeped from their eyes until it covered their faces... A race called "Aberrants" was suddenly born.

Moreover, consciousness is also transforming, gradually giving rise to new consciousness.

Although they originated from humans, once mature they resemble ferocious beasts, craving raw meat, attacking living people, and even capable of fusing and coexisting with one another.

By the time the news spread across the internet and people realized something was wrong, everything was already out of control.

The auspicious land quickly fell.

The players inside the game were the first to notice.

One by one, his comrades from the Jili Kingdom disappeared beside him, and some hastily sent out distress signals before retreating.

However, this country is being erased in another way.

When humanity across the globe became aware of the anomalies in the Kingdom of the Jili Kingdom, the entire land had already been occupied by "Aberrants."

The Aberrants can no longer enter the God's Domain Game, but has inherited the host's original skill system and even has a profession and skills!

They can even command those twisted and mutated game summoned creatures!

Almost all of the player's abilities were retained; the only thing missing was human memory and rationality.

These Aberrants beings, acting madly and bloodthirstyly, began to spread wildly outwards from the territory of the Jili Kingdom after their birth.

The first to be affected were the neighboring Stone Kingdom and Wind Kingdom.

Both countries swiftly issued emergency directives to border towns, requiring strict screening of all individuals entering from the Jili Kingdom.

Heavy weapons were also positioned at the entrance.

Tanks, drones, armored vehicles, heavy artillery, Gatling guns—all urgently deployed.

They also placed an unprecedented large order for weapons with Dragon Han.

You should know that in the past Dragon Han's weapons could not be sold in the west at all.

This shows just how urgent the situation is.

Despite the extremely thorough investigation, the alien species possess unique methods of concealment—before actively revealing their true forms, they appear no different from ordinary people.

As a result, games on a mini-program suddenly became very popular.

"Border checks: Identifying imposters!"

In reality, the customs process is just like in the game.

A separate steel room, with machine guns pointed at it.

Personnel can only enter after being questioned by inspection personnel.

The inspectors need to use many methods to provoke the Aberrants's temper to explode, thereby exposing his true identity.

Once the other party is exposed, the alarm button must be pressed immediately. At this point, the Gatling gun will be aimed at the inspecting Aberrants and spray bullets.

However, not everyone can do this.

This eventually led to cracks in the defenses, with several cities reporting sightings of the alien species.

Subsequently, some factions took extreme measures: completely sealing off entrances and exits, prohibiting anyone from coming or going.

Meanwhile, Dragon Han, where there were no signs of alien invasion yet, also began discussions to prepare for the worst.

The player community is abuzz with discussion.

Some advocated for the immediate elimination of all Aberrants.

Some emphasize that national defense should be the top priority.

There are also proposals to form a transnational player alliance to carry out a comprehensive crackdown to eliminate future threats.

Amidst the discussions, a sense of unease continued to fester.

"In my opinion, we should completely close our borders and refuse all outsiders."

"That's absolutely foolproof! Players who are in foreign countries should return as soon as possible—is there really anywhere safer than their own country?"

"While the threat from the Aberrants is urgent, extreme measures should not be taken."

"Shutting out all other players would not only harm cooperation among them, but also damage the economic and technological exchanges of Dragon Han."

Are these interests more important than life?

"Jili Kingdom has a population of tens of millions, yet it has all fallen in a very short time!"

"Isn't this enough to prove the severity of the situation? If even one case of an alien species appears in our country, it means the entire nation has been infiltrated—this is no exaggeration!"

"I can confirm the terrifying speed at which it spreads," one player exclaimed in horror.

"We once had a player from the Jili Kingdom in our team. During a dungeon raid, he suddenly disconnected without warning and never logged in again... It was absolutely chilling."

"Was there absolutely no warning beforehand? What exactly are the authorities in the Jili Kingdom doing? We must learn from this."

"I've seen images of these alien creatures—they were practically indistinguishable from monsters, with almost no human features remaining, and even retaining animal-like tails."

"However, they can still disguise themselves as normal people, which is terrifying."

"How can this be allowed?"

"May our nation never suffer such calamity again."

Dragon Han are urgently screening individuals who have recently traveled to or from the Jili Kingdom.

As a populous nation, Dragon Han citizens are found in various countries, and even among the Mutation Tier in the Jili Kingdom, Dragon Han have been discovered.

Any oversight could cause Dragon Han to repeat the mistakes of the Jili Kingdom.

In recent days, both the real and virtual worlds have been shrouded in a tense atmosphere.

People are extremely suspicious of any rumors involving alien species.

Some pessimists have begun spreading doomsday rhetoric, claiming that "monsters running rampant, games encroaching on reality, and alien species ravaging the world are all signs of the apocalypse."

They advocated giving up resistance and simply accepting the end.

Just like some people who choose to end their own lives when faced with danger.

Such remarks will naturally be quickly removed once discovered.

At this moment, we must not allow any voices that could shake people's spirits to spread.

Within days, even more alarming news arrived: the Stone Kingdom and the Wind Kingdom successively confirmed traces of the Aberrants' activities, proving that the calamity had invaded their territories.

At this moment, players in the God's Domain Game seemed restless while carrying out their daily tasks, and the conversation always revolved around the recent Mutation Tier events.

"Moer, I heard that you've entered a state of maximum alert?"

"How are things on your end? Have there been any unusual occurrences in the city?"

In the Fixed Team of the District 17, a Dragon Han player was asking a question to Moer, Shield Guard from the Stone Kingdom.

Moer's tone was heavy. "Our country has long been on full alert, most towns have had their access blocked, and residents have even been asked not to go out."

"Officials are conducting door-to-door checks."

Another teammate pressed, "Can this really produce results? What methods do they use to verify them?"

Moer whispered, "Use the most primitive yet most effective method—have every resident log into the God's Domain on the spot."

"Those who can connect to the game normally are human; otherwise... they are aliens."

"Throughout this process, machine guns were aimed at us."

Everyone suddenly realized.

"Oh right, how could I forget?"

"Yes, this is another way... Although it sounds a bit clumsy, it's definitely the most direct and effective method right now."

"It seems that this can also be done during immigration checks, so why bother checking each case individually?"

"Hehe, some people bring children when they enter the country, and children aren't allowed in the game anyway."

"I see."

"Then why do you still look so worried? Isn't it going to be cleared up soon?"

"Things aren't that simple. I'd rather find nothing at all—if a city really did have Aberrants appearing there, that place would probably have already fallen."

"To be honest, I don't even dare to leave the house easily now. I feel uneasy even staying at home, and I'm restless all day long."

"The only way is to immerse yourself in the game and desperately improve yourself, as if becoming stronger will make those Aberrants less scary."

"Sometimes I really envy someone like Cheater who's so Chongxing. If it were him, he probably would have solved the current predicament long ago."

Seeing that Moer was in low spirits, his teammates offered words of comfort.

But then, something chilling happened.

Moer, who had just been speaking, gradually faded from everyone's sight, like a stroke of ink being erased.

He himself noticed something was wrong, and his face immediately turned pale.

"Moer? Moer! Are you alright? Did you lose contact? What happened? You can contact us by phone, Moer?!" his teammate asked urgently.

In the end, no one heard from him again.

All online traces of Moer in the game were displayed in gray, like sand scattered by the wind.

Moer has clearly met with misfortune.

What's even more frightening is that this may not be an isolated case.

Since then, players from the Stone Kingdom have begun to disappear from the God's Domain one after another.

The authorities of the Stone Kingdom naturally became aware of this silent erosion—the invasion of the Aberrants had already spread to their territory.

Within the Stone Kingdom, two voices gradually emerged.

One side advocates rising up in resistance, attempting to completely eliminate the Aberrants through extreme means;

The other side tends to preserve its strength, secretly seeking a way out for its people to continue their lives, or establishing connections with other countries and organizations to seek asylum.

Dragon Han naturally received similar distress signals as well.

Domestic opinions quickly split into two camps: some believed that in times of crisis, more forces should be united, and the more allies there were, the greater the chance of survival.

The opposition was even stronger, with many people resolutely refusing entry to the Stone Kingdom, fearing that they were inviting trouble and causing Dragon Kingdom to repeat the same mistakes.