Interstellar Wreckage Secret Realm

Zhou Heng took the card and glanced at it, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Interstellar Wreckage Secret Realm Entry Card

Quality: Inferior

With this card, you can enter the "Interstellar Wreckage" secret realm once at no cost.

The description was short, but it revealed quite a lot.

"Uncle, this card is good stuff, but I-I don't have to give anything in return, do I?"

There was a pointed undertone to Zhou Heng's words.

Foreign Friend gave Zhou Heng a long look, then suddenly burst out laughing.

"Not bad, kid. I have high hopes for your future."

"But you don't need to do anything. It's just a little level 13 secret realm. Consider it a gift from your uncle."

"You can also take this opportunity to get a good look at just how cold Frost City is."

Foreign Friend stood up, plucked a hat out of thin air, and pressed it onto his head. He gave Zhou Heng a gentle smile, then turned and vanished from the little tavern.

Zhou Heng lowered his head to examine the card again, his gaze flickering incessantly.

Judging by the earlier conversation between Brother Wu and the woman, the Player System after the first advancement might be different from what he understood.

A thought that was both reasonable and unexpected rose in his mind. Perhaps, after the first advancement, all kinds of wild monsters were monopolized.

If ordinary players wanted to grind levels, could they only grovel before those powerful players or the Longevity Family?

The more Zhou Heng thought about it, the more convinced he became that his guess was correct. Without further hesitation, he put the card away and headed for Frost City's outer district.

Frost City-outer district!

"Level 25 powerhouse offering leveling services! Entry fees split fifty-fifty, earnings split ten-ninety! If you want levels, come negotiate with an offer!"

"The Longevity Family is recruiting beautiful women and handsome men! Come if you want a bright future! Players and NPCs alike, everyone is welcome!"

"The Bright Association is recruiting members! You must let us inspect your talent panel. As long as your values are sound, you can join with no other conditions!"

"The Caesar Divine Court is recruiting members! NPCs and players alike, beautiful women get priority!"

The sprawling outer district was practically one enormous marketplace. There were people setting up stalls, people hawking their wares, and even people selling an entire day of their time.

After browsing along the way, Zhou Heng confirmed one thing.

His guess was correct. Wild monsters were essentially all monopolized.

It was no longer the online-game routine he knew: leave the city, grind monsters, level up, farm equipment, leave the city again, and grind more monsters.

In the current Frost City, a player like him who had completed his first advancement had three ways to level up.

One: leave the Frost City region and try his luck elsewhere. But the result would basically be the same. After all, Frost City surely wasn't the only place where resources were plundered like this.

Two: leave the territory of the Sakas Empire and venture deep into unknown mountains, deserts, vast seas, or even the seas of clouds in the sky, staking his life on his future.

Three: work for someone else and save money for paid secret realms.

Working for someone else was out of the question.

He had spent his entire previous life working, toiling like a beast of burden. Now that he had a second life, along with the unique talent "Fate Hint," he was definitely going to live on his own terms.

Following the surging crowd, Zhou Heng reached the secret realm entrances in the outer district.

There were six secret realms here, arranged from cheapest to most expensive, left to right.

The Star-Rank Wreckage Secret Realm Zhou Heng could enter was the first and cheapest, costing three silver coins per visit.

That price couldn't be called cheap. It was astronomically expensive.

Never mind that the monetary system had now collapsed, with one silver coin selling for as much as three hundred thousand copper coins-even when prices were stable, that would still be a full five thousand copper coins.

A wild monster had only a small chance of dropping copper coins. Grinding out five thousand copper coins really was still something one could accomplish through sheer relentless effort.

Not to mention that after entering Frost City, all the wild monsters were monopolized. Players really could only work and rely on their monthly wages to level up.

Honestly, if he couldn't actually see his own panel and log in and out of the game, he would have wondered whether he was playing an online game at all.

"How many people are entering?"

The NPC guarding the Star-Rank Wreckage Secret Realm had a pointed mouth and monkeylike cheeks. One look was enough to tell he was no respectable character.

He glanced at Zhou Heng and spoke lazily, his feet propped up.

"One!"

"Five silver coins. Go in if you can pay. If you can't, get out of the way."

Without thinking much of it, Zhou Heng took out the Star-Rank Wreckage Secret Realm entry card and handed it over.

The sharp-faced NPC glanced at the entry card Zhou Heng offered, then put it away.

"Go on in."

Interstellar Wreckage Secret Realm

Level: 11-20

Party size: 1-6

[Enter the Interstellar Wreckage Secret Realm?]

Zhou Heng chose "Yes" without hesitation.

Amid streaks of brilliant light, Zhou Heng entered the Interstellar Wreckage Secret Realm and soon disappeared from the entrance.

Zhou Heng opened his eyes to a deathly silent expanse of the Sea of Stars.

In the distance were endless stars glimmering faintly. Ahead lay densely packed technological wreckage of every kind, scattered in disarray.

There were Exoskeleton Mechas, the wreckage of Interstellar Warships, and the remains of all sorts of incredibly cool Starry-Sky Mechas.

His three years of high school education had mentioned that the Boundless Endless World contained not only all kinds of classes, but also technological artifacts left behind from an unknown era.

The various scientific technologies benefiting humanity on Blue Star had essentially all been developed from inspiration drawn from technological artifacts in the Boundless Endless World.

If the online game "Boundless Endless" hadn't changed the conditions of life and death on Blue Star, the scientific technology learned from the world of "Boundless Endless" would long since have sparked a world war fought with technology.

The scientific power of the Boundless Endless World was not easy to obtain, and textbooks said little about it. The only information players could learn about scientific power was in chapter four of the expansion "The Ancient Years": "Neutrino Submergence Cannon."

According to the records, in chapter four of The Ancient Years, the Ancient Machine God controlled by the Sakaste Empire was activated within the Ancient Ruins, serving as the primary fighting force against Hero King Karenna.

As for anything more, that was what Zhou Heng could learn at present.

[Fate always appears when it is needed. This is true for you, and for others as well.]

[Fate offers you hints.]

[Fate Hint 1: The vast Interstellar Wreckage may seem to be merely a small level 11-20 secret realm, but it still holds secrets. Head right. Perhaps you will find what you seek there.]

[Fate Hint 2: Choices are inevitable in life. At this very moment, to your left, a woman who will soon influence the course of history faces mortal danger. You need only intervene slightly from a distance to change fate. Faced with such a fate, what will you choose?]

Zhou Heng raised his eyebrows and looked to his left in surprise.

Zhou Heng had few thoughts about women. Right now, he was facing the Longevity Family, and it was very likely a fight to the death. If he got involved with a woman at a time like this, setting aside whether it would bring any so-called love, the assassination attempts from the Longevity Family alone would be more than either he or she could withstand.

So it was better not to do something that would bring harm to someone else.

Still, if a single intervention from a distance could change the course of history, it was a worthwhile deal. With that thought, Zhou Heng activated "Extreme Long-Range Vision" and immediately locked onto the woman "awaiting rescue" in the other direction, surrounded by two men and two women.

Through Extreme Long-Range Vision, Zhou Heng noticed that the surrounded woman differed from ordinary women. Her hair and eyebrows were entirely snow-white, like a poor soul suffering from leukemia.

But unlike a poor soul with leukemia, the woman's long, snow-white hair actually gave off a faint glow, lending her a barely perceptible air of holiness.

"This is the woman who can influence the course of history?"

Zhou Heng considered briefly, then stopped hesitating and acted decisively. He wanted to see what kind of returns this "woman" who could change the course of history could bring him, and whether they would benefit his development...