Chapter 217: Mishap! Dungeon Collapse

Chapter 217: Chapter 217: Mishap! Dungeon Collapse

As time went on, the Junk Monsters in the assessment area were gradually cleared out.

Seraphina Sullivan swung her whip, which was wreathed in Clean Bubbles.

Once again, she completely obliterated a Sludge Monster that tried to lunge at her.

As the monster died, it left behind a single, glittering Energy Baryte.

She bent down to pick up the baryte and scanned her surroundings.

The assessment team, which had originally numbered in the dozens, now looked much sparser.

It was impossible for a battle to be without casualties.

Whether it was the inexperienced Players or the local Native People, a single moment of carelessness could mean being left here forever.

The smell of blood mixed with the foul stench in the air, adding to the grimness of the scene.

After a series of consecutive battles, Seraphina herself felt exhausted.

Using Clean Bubble for so long had consumed a great deal of her spiritual power. The continuous use of Skills placed a significant strain on her mind.

The Clear Flavor Ball she had been holding in her mouth to resist the stench had long since lost its effect.

Now, she was relying solely on her Willpower and Anti-Poison Mask to endure the all-pervasive odor.

However, her hard work had also brought handsome rewards.

In her Space, she had already stockpiled no fewer than forty or fifty Energy Barytes.

These were tangible resources.

More importantly, the number of Junk Monsters she had killed was considerable.

She hadn’t forgotten the side quest for the Junkheap Ruins instance.

The more Junk Monsters she killed, the better the Quality of the final reward would be.

At this thought, her fatigue seemed to lessen.

Seraphina looked up at the massive Sky-Hole in the sky.

Garbage continued to pour down like an endless waterfall, creating a dull roar.

But strangely, the Garbage Sludge Monsters that had been constantly spawning and crawling out of it were no longer appearing, as if their source had been temporarily cut off.

Just then—

BZZZT!

A familiar Energy fluctuation rippled through the air, and a silver Space Ring materialized out of thin air nearby.

The assessment proctor—the old man with the Folded Fan—appeared once again, along with the silent, tall, and sturdy man behind him.

The old man’s sharp gaze slowly swept over the survivors on the field, all of whom were weary and injured to varying degrees. He gave a slight nod.

"Hmm, ten people left. Not bad."

His tone betrayed no emotion, as if he were merely stating a number.

"All others whose whereabouts are unknown will be considered to have failed the assessment."

Seraphina counted silently. There were indeed only ten people left.

What particularly caught her attention was that Yana Yates and her puppet, Evan, were not among them.

Seraphina refused to believe that two Level 5 individuals would die so easily in a place like this.

’There’s definitely something strange about their disappearance.’

However, that had nothing to do with her current objective.

She composed herself and focused on the situation at hand.

When the assessment proctor announced they had passed, the system’s voice sounded in her ear.

[Ding! Side Quest 2: Become a Purification Envoy, has been completed.]

[Reward: Purification Set!]

By passing the assessment, she became a Purification Envoy.

Seraphina had successfully obtained the Purification Set.

The old man said no more, gesturing for the ten who had passed the assessment to return.

Becoming a Purification Envoy came with many duties.

Seraphina had completed Main Quest 2.

Now, she just had to complete the task of surviving for seven days to return.

For the remaining few days, she just needed to find a relatively safe place to wait it out.

’When no one’s looking, I’ll find a hidden corner and enter my farm space directly.’ Seraphina decided instantly.

But the better the plan, the more likely something was to interrupt it.

Just as the survivors who had passed the assessment were preparing to leave with the old man, a sudden change occurred!

RUUUMBLE—!!!

A sound countless times more terrifying than the falling garbage erupted.

A tremendous noise, as if the sky itself were being torn apart, suddenly exploded!

Everyone looked up in horror.

They saw the massive Sky-Hole shatter like a mirror, with spiderweb-like cracks instantly spreading across that patch of the heavens!

A soul-shuddering pressure, far surpassing any Aura of pollution she had felt before, surged out from the cracks like a tangible tsunami, sweeping across the entire land!

And what fell from the largest spatial fissure was no longer cold metal, broken plastic, or rotting garbage.

It was... a creature of unimaginable size!

It was a gigantic creature, murky yellow-brown all over, like a super-sized Slime!

Its body was as massive as a mountain.

It nearly blotted out half the sky. Its soft, viscous body writhed slowly in mid-air, its surface constantly bubbling up and collapsing. Each pop released a dense, yellow-green corrosive mist.

And all around its massive form, as if being birthed by a mother, countless smaller but equally grotesque yellow Slimes fell endlessly.

The scene was like a horrifying storm of slime!

This terrifying sight plunged all who witnessed it on the ground into a state of shock and panic.

The assessment proctor from the Forest of Verdure was also gaping in shock.

"What is happening?"

That was the question on everyone else’s mind.

At the same time, in Seraphina’s mind, the system’s voice erupted with an unprecedentedly sharp warning.

[Ding! Warning! An unknown Divine power has been detected intervening in the special instance ’Junkheap Ruins’! Instance rules are under severe impact! Instance difficulty has been forcibly increased to Level 5! I repeat, instance difficulty has been increased to Level 5!]

[Ding! Severe Warning! An unknown high-level power has been detected forcibly intervening. The instance’s structure is rapidly destabilizing! The instance is about to collapse! All Players, please prepare for an emergency return immediately!]

[Ding! Emergency Notice: The system is initiating the forced return procedure! Program preparation and coordinate locking will require three hours! All Players must ensure their own survival within these three hours! Countdown begins now: 02:59:59!]

[Ding! Important Notice: During the return preparation period, Players are strictly forbidden from hiding in any space-type items! Spatial fluctuations will interfere with the return coordinate lock, which could result in the Player being permanently stranded in this collapsing instance. You will be responsible for the consequences!]

This series of system alerts, like a death countdown, instantly drained the color from Seraphina’s face. Her heart felt like it was about to leap out of her chest.

After hearing the system’s notifications, Seraphina felt as if the sky was falling.

This wasn’t a metaphor.

The "sky was falling" in the most literal sense!

The shadow cast by the giant falling yellow Slime and the terrifying, despair-inducing pressure it emitted made the blood in Seraphina’s veins feel as if it had frozen solid.

’What in the world is happening?!’

Seraphina screamed frantically in her mind.

’How could a Level 1 instance have such a drastic change?’

The images of two people immediately flashed through Seraphina’s mind.

Yana Yates and her companion.

’Could it be because of those two?’

’The difficulty jumping straight to Level 5 was deadly enough, but now the instance is collapsing too?’

’What does this mean? Is this entire world going to be destroyed?’

’Unknown Divine power? How could this world attract such an existence?!’

Seraphina’s gaze was locked dead on the giant yellow Slime falling from the fissure in the sky.