Notice: The next few chapters will have different POVs, so although the previous translator Baobao didn’t include any transitions (at least to my knowledge), I’ll be indicating a transition/shift of POV/time skip with –––
Everyone gathered on the island on the planned day.
A dense crowd of people loomed ahead, coming from different factions, with varying abilities and player levels. But their sole objective was unanimous — to break free from the control of the Advent world.
The players assembled quietly, awaiting their moment.
Even Shirley in Cheng Wenyi’s arms wore a small helmet and a specially tailored little vest, the colour perfectly matching the blue of its eyes.
Xiao Lan looked at the crowd: “This is a battle with no room for compromise. I’m sure you all know the consequences of failure, so I’ll ask one last time, are you ready?”
His gaze swept over them, meeting excited, calm, or resolute eyes, some tinged with nervousness but none with fear or hesitation.
Their answer was clear. Since they chose to set foot on this island, they were prepared to bear the cost of failure.
Xiao Lan nodded to Luo.
Luo stepped forward, and numerous black fragments flew from his hand. These fragments swiftly dispersed, landing on the back of everyone’s hand, eventually forming a black mark which disappeared in an instant.
“This allows you to pass through the barriers of the Advent World. With it, you can temporarily gain the ability to freely move between various instances,” Luo explained. “Of course, anyone who attempts betrayal will be immediately exposed.”
“Now that everyone is ready, then… let’s begin,” Luo said, his light golden eyes scanning the crowd before reaching out into the void.
–––
Far away on another deserted island, a group of contract players gathered.
Many of them had received a mission from the Advent world to search for two individuals’ traces in the real world.
However, the targets were very slippery. They either erased all their traces or layered many false identities onto themselves, like Russian Matryoshka dolls.
The contract players had split up to search for clues.
Finally, they stumbled upon a random livestream record by a washed-up internet celebrity and found their figures.
Those who found the information immediately headed in that direction.
But when they finally caught a glimpse of the targets’ residence, there was only one house left.
How was that a house ah — it concealed countless dangers, and it was like every step had a trap.
Even if they were contract players, they were still restricted in the real world, and the scouting player was nearly taken out by a wave of attacks when attempting to investigate.
Yet the house yielded no useful clues; it seemed deliberately designed to waste their time.
Later, they spent considerable effort infiltrating various internal networks, wasting many days before finally narrowing down their targets to this island.
However, this island was even more absurd.
Not only were there no nearby islands, but there were also numerous hidden currents.
What’s more, the surrounding waters were all guarded by surveillance installations, and any incoming or outgoing vehicles required permission. The level of security was akin to a military base.
It clearly conveyed a feeling of “you’ve come, but do you dare approach?” attitude, being downright arrogant.
Some braver ones got a yacht and sped over there, but before they got close, they were met with a barrage of torpedoes, showing no mercy whatsoever.
Faced with this situation, other contract players felt that it was quite tricky.
They were contract players, not superheroes. While those with enhanced physical abilities might attempt to brave the torpedoes, most couldn’t even entertain the thought.
“These two are really pushing it. They’ve actually heightened security to such an extreme level.”
“How are we supposed to f*cking get up there? Swim?”
“You go ahead! Who knows what else they might have set up in the water.”
The contract players debated endlessly.
This was also a weakness of contract players — they lacked unified leadership and acted according to the tasks given by the Advent world.
Naturally, no one wanted to be the cannon fodder that paved the way for others.
At that moment, several sizable boats approached.
A player on the leading boat waved towards the players on the island. “Come aboard! We’ve hijacked a pirate ship and made them clear the way for us. Let’s take this chance to get onto the island.”
This clever maneuver gained unanimous approval from the others.
In their eyes, using someone else to pave the way wasn’t a big deal. Whether pirates or civilians, they were just ordinary people, unlike those who had formed contracts.
They considered themselves to be of a higher order of life now, not the same as those mere ants.
–––
With the help of Luo’s power, the players rushed into the Advent world.
It was then they discovered the countless instances floated like glass spheres in the air, spread throughout the space, subtly connected to one another.
Xiao Lan said, “All the instances are here. Before entering, the mark on your body can help you perceive the difficulty of each game. Your goal is to disrupt the games as much as possible, which will create loopholes to impede the Master.”
He turned to the players. “Take care, everyone.”
Cheng Wenyi took a step forward. “You too.”
With that, he led Mu Yang into one of the instances.
Qi Ning nodded at them and departed alone.
Wu Ting fiddled with her long hair. “See you later.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Wang Taidi waved goodbye to them. “Let’s see each other later la.”
Qjcu Bf rjlv, “Xbbvysf.”
Coafg rqfjxlcu, atf akb ygbatfgr jirb ifoa.
Wen Zhixian had already constructed Feng Cheng. As he walked forward with Feng Cheng, he said to Xiao Lan, “Keep fighting, Xiao Lanlan, Xiao Luoluo.”
Glsl Meuel jcv Itjb Wljbtf ifv j ugbeq bo qfbqif kfjglcu oibkfg-qjaafgcfv rtbgar ab ylv ojgfkfii ab Wljb Ojc.
Diyi Fugui: “Goodbye, Xiao ge, Fei ge!”
Zhao Xiaohe: “Bye Xiao ge, bye Fei ge.”
The people in flower-patterned shorts behind them shouted, “Xiao ge Xiao ge, undefeatable in the world! Across the whole world, ever triumphant!”
Coafgkjgv, atf batfg qijsfgr rqila eq jcv gertfv lcab vloofgfca lcrajcmfr.
Vbwf mbcalcefv rbib, rbwf afjwfv eq jr ereji, jcv rbwf gfilfv bc cewyfgr ab qgfnjli, ragfjwlcu lc ilxf j gbkvs ugbeq gfjvs obg j ygjki.
When everyone had left, Xiao Lan looked at Luo. “Now it’s our turn.”
Luo smiled. “Let’s go, sir.”
The next moment, the two of them disappeared on the spot.
A large number of players rushed into various instances, wreaking havoc without restraint.
The once lofty bosses became prey this time.
They caused many instances to develop loopholes simultaneously, and the effect was gradually expanding.
Some of the veteran players who had experienced previous breaches in the Advent world felt a sense of déjà vu.
As if something different was about to happen again.
This time… what could it be?
The contract players left behind in the Advent world were caught off guard faced with the unexpected appearance of loopholes, unsure where to start.
Previously, a large portion of them had received tasks in the real world to search for two individuals and hadn’t returned yet.
Only a small fraction had been asked to remain in the Advent world.
Now, with so many loopholes suddenly appearing, they were severely understaffed.
–––
The contract players in reality discussed countermeasures and were preparing to charge towards the mysterious island.
Someone in the crowd suddenly pointed at a distant island. “What’s that over there?”
Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing, only to find a massive rift in the sky that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, revealing a chaotic scene as if space had been torn apart.
“That is…”
“What exactly have they stirred up?”
“Is this what players can do?”
The next second, the enormous rift disappeared into thin air.
Almost simultaneously, the contract players received new tasks.
【Return to Assist the Advent World】
“What on earth is going on?”
“First, they give us a task to find two people, and then just when we’re about to find them, they call us back?”
“Did the Advent world go mad?”
“Shh, don’t speak ill of the Advent world, do you want to die?”
“Hiss—”
“Forget what I said, you didn’t hear anything…”
The contract players vanished from their place in an instant.
The imprisoned pirates noticed the silence outside their door. They managed to open it, only to find that the strange individuals who had kidnapped them were all gone.
Apart from their changed location, everything on their ship was missing.
With nothing but an empty deserted island nearby and no boat, where could they go?
It was as if they had encountered ghosts.
One pirate said, “Captain, it seems like we’ve encountered ghosts… What should we do?”
Another pirate suggested, “Look, there’s an island ahead. Should we check it out?”
The captain retorted, “Check what? This mysterious island? Who knows how many lives rushed out there? Let’s get out of here!”
With that, the pirates turned their boats and left. No matter what line of work one was in, those with too much curiosity tended to meet their end quicker.
–––
Han Yan was a newcomer who had just entered the instance.
However, his luck was terrible, and the veteran players leading them were not very capable, quickly meeting their end.
The other players panicked amidst the pursuit of ghosts and monsters, even turning on each other, resulting in even quicker deaths.
Now, it seemed like Han Yan was the only one left in the entire instance.
He desperately ran down the corridor.
The corridor resembled the kind commonly seen outside workplaces, with high-grade office building vibes, but it appeared especially terrifying in the darkness of night.
Every open door seemed like the gaping mouth of a demon.
He had no idea how long he had been running, but the corridor seemed to go on forever.
Even if he found stairs, whether he went up or down, he would eventually return to the starting point, facing the same corridor.
“Huff…huff…” Han Yan ran until he was completely exhausted, his footsteps heavy and powerless, as if each step was dragging through quicksand.
Finally, he slipped and fell heavily to the hard ground.
His foot twisted painfully, causing Han Yan immense pain.
Before he could even cry out, his movements froze.
Because at that moment, the spine-chilling sound of high heels echoed.
Click—
Click—
Click—
The sound of the footsteps echoed crisply in the corridor, sounding unhurried like an elegant OL getting off work.
Han Yan’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. The last time he heard these footsteps, two of his teammates died. Their pale faces and grotesque deaths were still etched in his mind.
He screamed from the bottom of his heart — the ghost… the female ghost was here!!!
Han Yan tried to get up and continue, but his injured leg refused to cooperate, making it impossible for him to stand.
Soon, the sound of high heels approached him from behind.
The footsteps didn’t stop as they walked past him, bringing a chilling sensation.
Then, they stopped in front of him.
Han Yan stared at the pair of bright red high heels that appeared in his vision.
The legs wearing the shoes were slender and graceful.
However, they were a ghastly pale colour, stained with darkened blood and dirt, perhaps from when… she was buried in the earth.
“Hehehe… hehe…”
The laughter of the female ghost echoed from above him, coming closer and closer.
Han Yan could even smell the scent of blood emanating from her, and feel the cold, wet touch of her hair brushing against his shoulder.
“You, would you stay and accompany me?” The voice of the female ghost loudly echoed above his head. It seemed that if he lifted his head, he would come face-to-face with her stiffened ghostly face.
A cold hand, adorned with red nail polish, grabbed his shoulder with such force that it felt like she was going to crush his bones.
“Ah—!” The fear of death made Han Yan unable to restrain himself from screaming.
“Ahhh———!” This was the scream of the female ghost that completely overshadowed Han Yan’s voice.
Then, Han Yan saw the feet of the female ghost fly backward as if struck by a powerful force.
Han Yan was stunned. How did his voice have such power?
When did he learn the lion’s roar? Why couldn’t he remember?
Was he a hidden protagonist?
Hesitantly lifting his head, he noticed two people standing beside him, appearing out of nowhere.
Both were taller than him, and both were more handsome than him, more like protagonists…
But that wasn’t the point.
These two seemed even stronger than the female ghost.
One of them held a pitch-black stick in his hand, probably the one who had just sent the female ghost flying.
They seemed relaxed, as if the nightmarish female ghost was of little concern to them.
But where did these two come from?
Han Yan distinctly remembered that there weren’t such people among the players who entered the game.
And he recalled the old player mentioning that in newbie instances, usually only one veteran player would enter.
“Um… thank you…” Although a bit bewildered by the situation before him, Han Yan still managed to thank his lifesavers out of politeness.
“You’re welcome.” After the fair-skinned man with the stick finished speaking, he charged straight at the female ghost. His posture even resembled that of a player in a video game rushing to steal a monster.
Han Yan watched in astonishment as the terrifying and seemingly unbeatable female ghost wailed miserably under the man’s stick, her previous fierceness nowhere to be seen.
The howling made his scalp tingle, to the point where he couldn’t distinguish who was the ghost.
In just a few strikes, the female ghost disappeared, and the corridor lights returned to normal.
Han Yan didn’t quite understand what was happening, but he was saved just now right?
He was about to express his gratitude again when the actions of his savior left him wide-eyed.
His lifesaver, after dealing with the female ghost, directly swung his stick at the wall.
The sturdy wall crumbled under his hand as if it were made of paper, offering no resistance and turning into a pile of rubble.
As he watched the man walk towards another wall with his stick raised, Han Yan hastily turned to the other man in a suit beside him and said, “You need to stop him! That’s a load-bearing wall over there, smashing it could cause a disaster!”
But to his surprise, the man in the suit just smiled and said, “Look how happy he is ah.”
Han Yan: “…”
Were these two not quite right in the head? He was afraid he had just escaped the clutches of a ghost only to end up in a madhouse.
F*ck, it’s over.
These two were, of course, Xiao Lan and Luo.
Xiao Lan was indeed very happy right now because each strike was solid poverty value. After breaking through, he no longer needed to worry about boss restrictions.
As long as he worked hard to demolish, the instance would turn into poverty value to compensate him.
You see, the instances in the Advent World were all controlled by the power of the Master.
Right now, he was essentially shearing the Master’s wool to strengthen himself, simply delightful.
Watching his poverty value skyrocket crazily, how could Xiao Lan not be happy?
In an instant, he transformed into a full-force demolition machine.
With Xiao Lan’s efforts, the background of this novice instance was soon demolished beyond recognition.
Han Yan looked on in despair as the world in front of him gradually turned into a wasteland.
Feeling the corridor beneath his feet shake, he had a premonition that his life might end here.
Never in a million years did he expect that he wouldn’t die at the hands of ghosts, but instead at the hands of two inexplicable lunatics who demolished the building.
The haunted building collapsed with a bang, the floor beneath Han Yan’s feet crumbled, and his body suddenly plummeted.
Han Yan flailed his limbs futilely in the air, unable to slow his descent.
He shut his eyes.
It was over, and he hadn’t even repaid his Ant Group credit yet…
Huh? Come to think of it, maybe it’s not such a loss?
Suddenly, he felt the clothes behind him being grabbed.
Han Yan turned around in surprise to see the emotionless demolition machine smiling at him.
Xiao Lan grabbed Han Yan and said, “Don’t panic.”
With that, he grasped Han Yan and worked his way through the collapsing building.
Despite carrying a big man, Xiao Lan’s movements were as easy as playing hopscotch on the ground.
Soon, they were standing on solid ground.
Xiao Lan set Han Yan down and turned to admire his handiwork.
As the saying goes, labor was the most honourable.
This was all the fruits of his labor — every falling brick in the ruins was stained with his efforts.
With the collapse of the building and the disappearance of the female ghost, a crack suddenly appeared in the sky of the instance, revealing a chaotic void, as if the sky had collapsed.
The crack grew larger and eventually spread to the ground.
Han Yan still hadn’t come back from his daze when he heard his saviour say, “You can leave now.”
Han Yan was puzzled. He wanted to leave, but where could he go?
The building had collapsed, the boss was dead, and he hadn’t received the clearance prompt… Was he supposed to homelessly wander in this desolate, false city?
Xiao Lan pointed to a nearby crack that was spreading towards them and said, “That one carries the aura of the real world. Once you enter, you can return.”
Han Yan: “…”
He looked at the crack and then at Xiao Lan, who seemed to be in a good mood.
He felt that these two individuals might harm him, but he had no evidence.
And he was about to face a situation where he might be silenced.
Seeing him hesitate, Xiao Lan approached “kindly” and “amicably” and directly lifted him up with one hand.
Xiao Lan said, “Sorry, time is tight right now, so we can’t explain too much to you. But it’s safer for you to return to reality first.”
Han Yan became nervous. “Wait, brother… I…”
“Don’t worry.” Xiao Lan smiled at him, and with the frightened gaze of the other person, stuffed him into the crack.
“Ahhhhhh!!!!”
There was a scream from the crack, which then gradually faded away.
Xiao Lan looked puzzled. “What’s wrong? Do new players feel pain when they pass through the world barrier?”
Luo smiled. “He might’ve gotten too happy when he realized he could go home.”
Although he felt there was a ninety percent chance Han Yan was scared by his husband’s actions.
Today was also a day of helping others.
Translator’s Notes:
Hiii, this is Hush here. I’m on a pickup mission to finish dropped novels, and this has been on my list for some time! Sorry for the delay, I had to spend time catching up to chapters (a lot of chapters 
) and making notes on Baobao’s translating style. Though I can’t guarantee the translated chapters I put out will feel the same, hopefully it won’t affect your experience. As a side note, feel free to point out any key vocabulary that I didn’t translate accordingly. Happy reading!
OMGGGGG AN UPDATE ?!?!
I LOVE YOUUUU TRANSLATOR-SAMA !!! ♡ orz
Thank you for picking this up
Thank you so much for picking this up ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for the translation
Thank you very much. 🎉
Thank u for picking this up!!!!! Time to reread this lol
Спасибо! Я как раз только дошла до финальных глав и загрустила, что оказывается не всё переведено. Но вдруг появились Вы и я счастлива!