Chapter 261: Cheating

"What about nightmare monsters?" Su Mu asked.

Yan Wu replied immediately, "Nightmare monsters work, but they must have a physical form. The specters in the Dungeon won't do."

Su Mu nodded, having grasped the general mechanics of the Life and Death Arena. While it had its limitations, its potential was tremendous. He planned to cultivate Yan Wu to see exactly how far the man could go. After all, as a Law outside the known Sequences, it held definite value for development.

That was right, Su Mu was just that magnanimous. When dealing with enemies, not only did he spare them, he actively invested in their growth. Yan Wu only had to pay an insignificant price—like having his mind erased and toiling for the Seven Deadly Sins for the rest of his life.

Sure, he had lost his freedom, his sense of self, and his dignity, but at least he was still alive, wasn't he?

A person simply had to be magnanimous and repay malice with virtue.

"Stay here and recover from your injuries for now."

He didn't give Yan Wu a Divine Healing Potion. It wasn't as if the man couldn't heal on his own, and Su Mu didn't have many of those precious potions left anyway. Although he had Duanmu Qing in his grasp, even the cleverest chef couldn't cook without ingredients. The current Seven Deadly Sins lacked the deep pockets of the Federal Pharmaceutical Company to gather the materials needed for Divine Healing Potions.

With his instructions given, Su Mu immediately entered his Sleepwalking State and began searching the Dungeon for Mithril Tokens.

He had named this state—relying on the dream realm to roam freely through reality without physically interacting with it—Sleepwalking.

Activating Sleepwalking was basically like turning on wallhacks and invisibility cheats, complete with a zero-encounter modifier. He traversed the complex, monster-infested Dungeon as easily as if he were strolling across flat ground.

He didn't care about the labyrinth's actual layout at all. By simply phasing through walls and heading in a single direction, he would find his way out sooner or later. If he didn't need to find a Mithril Token, he could have cleared the trial right then and there.

Passing through layer after layer of thick stone wall, he saw massive numbers of specters wandering aimlessly through the Dungeon. Yet, he acted more like a ghost than the specters themselves, walking straight through their throngs. He collided with quite a few of them along the way, but like air, he phased effortlessly through their bodies.

Besides the specters, he also spotted other types of nightmare monsters. There were half-man-sized bats hanging upside down from the ceiling, their wings like black leather, their sharp claws gripping the rock tightly, and their eyes glowing a scarlet red.

There were also giant rats lurking in dark corners. The size of adult pigs and covered in stiff black bristles, they were huddled together, gnawing on the corpse of some unlucky Nightmare Apostle.

Su Mu stopped in front of the rat swarm. Deep inside their nest sat a Mithril box. Given the intelligence of these giant rats, it was highly unlikely they had forged it themselves, which made its contents self-evident.

"Placing the Mithril Token inside a nightmare monster's nest... the Law Enforcement Bureau's methods are truly cliché. It seems this guy spotted the token, tangled with the giant rats, and ended up buried here."

He couldn't help but sigh at the dead man's stupidity and blind confidence. Anyone with half a brain could have guessed the true purpose of this trial; the examiners had practically spelled it out for them.

This trial was designed for forming teams, so the correct way to clear it was through group cooperation—recruiting teammates, building synergy, and working together to obtain the Mithril Token.

They were going to explore the Nightmare World in the future. If teammates were unfamiliar with each other and lacked mutual trust, their exploration efficiency would plummet.

Therefore, this was not just a test, but an opportunity for everyone to build trust and understand one another. If people were already fighting over the Mithril Token instead of cooperating, massive problems were bound to arise once they reached the Nightmare World.

Of course, those with immense strength were the exception.

Su Mu walked toward the swarm of giant rats at a leisurely pace, as if taking a casual stroll. Reaching the Mithril box, he immediately used his dream power to pull it into the dreamscape. The entire process was a fluid execution, failing to alert even a single giant rat.

Once the box was in the dreamscape, he opened it. Sure enough, a Mithril Token lay inside.

Logically speaking, he could leave the Dungeon right now. With his speed, he would undoubtedly be the first one out, but he was in no hurry. Leaving just like that would be far too boring.

He also planned to meet King Chi's avatar and hopefully recruit her into his team. One was the ruler of the Chiyan Empire, and the other was the Leader of the empire's largest villainous organization. Putting both sides on the same team carried the risk of exposing his identity, but... it was highly amusing, wasn't it?

He had already played a host of Gold tier experts like fools, and to be honest, he was getting a bit bored. Life required the pursuit of new thrills, so he planned to toy with King Chi for a bit.

Most importantly, no one in the world understood Supreme Heaven better than King Chi, nor did anyone know more about the truth behind the First Red King's disappearance in the Nightmare World. Bringing King Chi's avatar along would serve as an extra layer of insurance in his search for Supreme Heaven.

Su Mu began to accelerate, his figure darting rapidly through the rock walls like a phantom. With his cheats enabled, it only took him ten minutes to spot King Chi's trail. He then prepared to stage a chance encounter with her.

In truth, there weren't that many chance encounters in the world. Such things usually only happened in fiction, where a protagonist could visit a location and, regardless of its size, be guaranteed to bump into the most exceptional person there.

In reality, most chance encounters were premeditated—just like this one.

...

...

"Don't give it to me! I don't want the Mithril Token!" a man wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses screamed as he fled in a blind panic.

Chasing right behind him was a short-haired woman wielding a Mithril pistol.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The short-haired woman fired relentlessly. The man dodged left and right, but a Mithril Bullet still managed to clip his leg. While the injury was minor to someone like him, it was enough to slow him down.

Seeing this, the short-haired woman sneered and whipped the Mithril Token directly into the man's face.

"Ah! Don't give it to me!" the man screamed, swatting the Mithril Token away as if he'd been electrocuted.

The short-haired woman immediately turned tail and ran, fleeing as far away as possible.

Aside from the short-haired woman, three other Nightmare Apostles were hiding far away in the distance. They pressed themselves tightly against the wall, staring coldly at the man with obvious expressions of relief.