Olive Branch and the Special Dungeon

At eleven that night, after two hours of nonstop shopping, just comparing the resources in his possession, Higashino Makoto already had more assets than a low-ranking small guild.

Especially World Items—he had obtained three, matching the number held by the guild ranked second in World Items.

Not to mention that one of them was "Twenty." That was truly an unexpected windfall.

After posting the transaction information with Quick Fang and the others on the forum, many players who had been watching from the sidelines came knocking.

In just two hours, one-fifth of Higashino Makoto's wealth had turned into virtual data. Countless people online mocked him as a "super sucker," but Higashino Makoto did not care in the slightest.

If the transmigration succeeded, then three days later, he would have nothing to do with them anymore.

He would go to the New World, live forever, and throw his weight around, while those internet trolls could only keep slaving away in this trash world.

If the transmigration failed, that was even less of a problem.

So what if he had no money and no job? If he failed, at worst, he would die.

This battered body tormented him with pain every moment. Higashino Makoto could not understand how its original owner had endured it, but he had long since had enough. Death would be a release instead.

Speaking of which, he had forgotten to choose one with pain-relieving effects when buying nutritional potions earlier. Fortunately, you got what you paid for. The potions undoubtedly had some pain-relieving properties, so he did not need to buy painkillers separately.

"Today's purchasing period is over. We'll continue at the same time tomorrow."

"Since the time you can enjoy your equipment and materials will be reduced by one-third, the purchase price next time will be lowered by fifty percent."

After two hours had passed, Higashino Makoto sent that message to everyone, then immediately turned on Do Not Disturb mode.

As for whether they would sell, Higashino Makoto was not worried at all.

With the servers about to shut down, this was less of a transaction and more like free money for the players.

Especially those players known as "hoarder rats." Even when the game shut down, they might still have piles of rare materials, data crystals, and Items in their bags. Most of them would not mind selling them before the servers closed.

Of course, aside from players like Old Bone and whale players who did not treat money as money, the vast majority of players would be willing to recoup some losses before the servers shut down.

Higashino Makoto placed most of the materials, equipment, and the most important World Items into the warehouse.

Inside the warehouse, he equipped a black level-eighty powered armor, then selected a golden level-eighty powered armor as a backup, along with some consumables.

After thinking for quite a while, he ultimately decided to bring along one of the World Items called "Dove Carrying an Olive Branch."

It granted its wearer a "Peacekeeper" buff. Before the wearer actively attacked, all enemies—including players and monsters—could not attack the holder. Once broken, the effect would recover after twenty-four hours.

It sounded quite strong, since it practically guaranteed the first move.

However, testing had shown that active attacks did not only include offensive skills. Even applying a damage-increasing buff to himself would break the effect!

Other than movement skills like "Flight" and "Teleportation," using almost any other skill would cause him to lose the buff. Fortunately, putting it in his inventory would not trigger it.

Even so, at most, it could be taken out to save his life when he was about to die.

Using it at full health was no different from not using it at all, while using it at low health meant that if the enemy dealt enough damage to kill him instantly, there was nothing he could do.

Therefore, among the World Items whose effects had been revealed, this equipment had always been considered one of the most useless.

But it was quite useful to the current Higashino Makoto. At the very least, he would not be maliciously PKed on his way to the dungeon. He had no experience to lose, but wasting time was still bad.

Higashino Makoto flew toward the dungeon location he had chosen long ago, and the scenery along the way felt wonderfully novel.

The land beneath him looked vastly different from the scenery he knew from his previous life. It truly was a game world. Although there was no sense of taste or smell, simply observing the land and the monsters along the road was enough to keep one from getting bored.

This was his first time playing a full-dive consciousness game, so naturally, he found everything interesting.

The powered armor flew extremely fast, and the city he had chosen was already close to the target dungeon. Before long, Higashino Makoto reached his destination.

"Traitor's Sinful Church." It was only a level-thirty dungeon, yet it was one of the most infamous dungeons in YGGDRASIL's early days—

It combined every mechanic players despised: a long run, poor drops, disgusting monster mechanics, low experience rewards, and more. Quite a few players even returned after reaching max level specifically to "take revenge" on this dungeon. In players' eyes, it was unquestionably garbage!

Of course, some players believed the developers could not possibly have created such an awful dungeon solely to disgust people. There might be hidden drops inside, such as World Items. But after countless explorations yielded nothing more, the players could only reach one conclusion—

This dungeon had been made by the developers purely to disgust people!

Actually, that was not the case. Higashino Makoto knew it had been designed by the designer next door. He had forgotten the man's full name; everyone just called him Kobayashi. He had joined the company right after graduating middle school.

Perhaps his family had protected him too well, or perhaps he had someone influential backing him. In any case, he possessed a drive that most people in this world lacked. Traitor's Sinful Church was the first dungeon he had designed, and during breaks, he had even told Higashino Makoto about its design philosophy and hidden details—

Judas the Betrayer. Level thirty symbolized the thirty silver coins. The dungeon had nine floors, matching the number of Hell's layers in Dante's Divine Comedy. Its most disgusting mechanic was "Betrayal": elite monsters' attacks had a high chance of applying the "Traitor" buff to players or summons.

The Traitor effect was simple and brutal—it directly enabled friendly fire!

When the dungeon had first opened, countless players had been wiped out by a mage's large-scale AoE. Thus, Traitor's Sinful Church was also called Traitor's Friendship-Ending Church.

Some players even specifically formed parties to trick others. They would deliberately trigger the Traitor effect on themselves, kill their teammates, and pick up their dropped equipment. Eventually, under player protests, the officials made it impossible for teammates to pick up player drops, and the dungeon was almost completely abandoned.

But Higashino Makoto knew that when a player was below level thirty and possessed only Magic Caster levels, they could collect all thirty Sin Silver Coins dropped by monsters at once. It would take killing nearly every monster in the dungeon three times to gather them all. Each coin collected granted a unique damage-increasing buff, and once they left the dungeon, these Sin Silver Coins would lose their special effects and become ordinary silver coins.

Only by handing the thirty Sin Silver Coins and the boss-dropped "Rope of Regret" to the NPC on the first floor could they open the hidden room—Field of Final Blood.

Only after defeating the level-forty-four hidden boss, "Judas the Betrayer," could they obtain the unique special Item—"Gospel of Judas"—which could unlock the hidden class called "Inverted God."