It'll Definitely Bring You a Surprise

Bed City, outskirts.

Jack, his face hidden beneath a hood, slipped furtively through the dense woods with a greatsword tightly wrapped in strips of cloth strapped to his back.

What was he up to?

A seemingly abandoned watchtower was his destination.

Jack knocked on the wooden door in a steady rhythm. With a creak, the door opened, revealing a desolate interior covered in dust.

But when he pressed a hidden mechanism on the fireplace, the stone-paved floor opened by itself, exposing a tunnel leading underground!

Once he passed through the tunnel, a vast secret base appeared before him.

This was actually a gathering place for black market dealers!

All sorts of shady goods strictly forbidden from being sold in Bed City circulated here.

As a Rogue with decent stealth skills, Jack could only sell the spoils from his petty thefts on the black market. Naturally, he had joined this small circle of black market dealers.

"I need to see Boss. I've got huge news!"

Before long, Jack was brought to a secret chamber deep inside. A huge, potbellied man sat across from him. His scar-covered face was terrifying, while his tiny eyes gleamed with shrewdness.

Sackman, the oldest and most powerful black market dealer near Bed City. Everyone called him "Boss."

Without wasting words, Jack set the greatsword down before Sackman and said mysteriously, "Found it in Sain Underground City. Have one of your men try picking it up."

"What is it? Why are you acting so mysterious? What good stuff could an old man like you possibly bring out? Looks like an ordinary sword to me."

Sackman wore a disdainful expression and casually grabbed the greatsword.

"Oh, oh, oh... Th-this is!"

Moments later, the secret chamber was packed to the brim. Everyone crowded around the appraiser, anxiously awaiting the result.

"What a miraculous weapon." The appraiser reluctantly set down the greatsword. "In all my years, I've never seen a weapon capable of granting its wielder a Battle Skill."

"Has nothing like it ever appeared in history?" Sackman pressed.

The appraiser shook his head, then nodded. "Perhaps. Only legendary divine artifacts can do something like this."

A divine artifact!

Everyone's breathing slowed. They looked at one another and saw the same delight in each other's eyes.

Sackman slammed the table, laughing so hard that the fat on his body jiggled.

"Damn it, we're getting rich this time!"

"We're getting rich!"

"Old Jack, you did great! You did damn great!"

For the first time in his life, Jack, now the center of attention, experienced what it meant to be the focus of a crowd. He immediately raised both arms and shouted excitedly:

"Everyone, hurry up and put together a team! I'll lead the way! It's finally our turn to get rich!"

Years of scamming people, robbing, stealing, and hiding from the city guards had forged an unusual kind of "family bond" among these black market dealers—a mutual kinship closer than that of real relatives!

If there was money to be made, they would all make it together! If there were risks, they would all bear them together!

Jack and his people became the first group to discover the "value" of Sain Underground City.

Before anyone else discovered that value, they would rush into the dungeon and earn enough money to retire in comfort for the rest of their lives!

Besides the excited black market dealers, some more "legitimate" people had also begun investigating Sain Underground City.

"Check your equipment one last time. We're about to enter the dungeon."

Sithran called out to the group of people behind her.

"Do you think these people can handle it? None of them look like they've ever entered a dungeon before," the sword-and-shield fighter Shuen asked quietly. The rest of his companions also looked worried.

Sithran spread her hands helplessly. "It's Lord of Bed City's request, after all. We'll look after them. Just try not to let them die too soon."

"We already emphasized that Sain Underground City has become dangerous. But these people insist it's no big deal and have to come along. What else can I do?"

After a full day of spreading, news of the terrifying mutation in Sain Underground City had traveled without wings throughout all of Bed City, causing a huge uproar.

Quite a few adventurers who had planned to challenge it backed down, but even more had their fighting spirit stirred, because the ultimate goal of this profession was adventure!

Count Bed, the ruler of Bed City, had made a fortune from the endless stream of rookie adventurers!

Aside from earning money from adventurers, House of Bede had developed a potion called the "Blood Healing Potion," which was highly competitive on the market thanks to its unique effects and relatively low price.

The main ingredient in the Blood Healing Potion was a red ore unique to Sain Underground City, called Blood Crystal.

Every day, hundreds of miners under House of Bede entered the dungeon specifically to mine Blood Crystal.

But yesterday's mutation had caught them completely off guard. Every miner who entered the dungeon was wiped out, and the day's Blood Crystal output was zero!

That would not do. Blood Healing Potion was House of Bede's lifeline and could never be abandoned!

So Count Bed commissioned Silver-rank adventurer teams from the surrounding area, asking them to take his Ore Experts and explore Sain Underground City again.

They were to see whether the mutation had changed the output, quality, or distribution areas of Blood Crystal within the dungeon.

A total of four Silver-rank adventurer teams accepted the commission. Including the Ore Experts, each team had as many as ten people—the maximum number that could enter through the Teleportation Gate at once.

The dungeon had a very strange rule—

[No more than ten people may explore together.]

So what about everyone else?

The answer was that everyone else could still explore normally, exploring the same yet somewhat different dungeon.

Simply put, the Sain Underground City each person explored was a different "small world." Every small world was identical, with the only difference being the people exploring it. These worlds did not interfere with each other. Loot collected and monsters killed would reset after leaving and waiting through a one-day cooldown.

If the dungeon was treated as an "instance" in an online game, it was easy to understand.

The dungeon's Teleportation Gate could automatically distinguish who was a teammate and who was not, so people rarely entered someone else's world by mistake.

"The Ore Experts protected by the other teams are all polite and know not to cause trouble. So why did we get stuck with..."

Sithran glanced back at the "experts," who were so cheerful they looked as though they had come on a picnic, and could not help shaking her head.

What experts? They were clearly spoiled young masters on vacation. I even saw Count Bed's eldest and Second Son among them.

This expedition probably would not be very peaceful.

"Move out! Put the wine bottles away! I told you not to bring anything with a strong smell!"

The tall and burly Shuen roared, finally making the people behind him reluctantly put down their bottles. Watching them, Sithran could not stop herself from sighing inwardly.

"Stay close to me. Don't get separated."

Sithran took the lead and became the first to enter the Teleportation Gate, with the rest quickly following behind.

When the last person entered, he bumped straight into the backpack of the person ahead and complained, "What's going on? Why did the people in front stop moving?"

"No idea. The leader seems to have frozen up. These country-bumpkin adventurers just love making a fuss over nothing."

At the front of the team, Sithran stared blankly at the scene before her. Her mouth hung open, but no sound came out, and her delicate body trembled slightly.

Shuen, who had come along with her, spoke the words stuck in her throat:

"Why the fuck has this place changed again!?"

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