Chapter 441: The Glitch in the Dungeon

What?!

A brief daze overtook him.

Yenir looked at Liang Lie in shock and instinctively shot back a question.

At that moment, he too sensed something was amiss.

From his own words about descending to the lower level, to Zhang Ke eagerly running over to trigger the mission, and then things starting to go wrong once they arrived here.

“It must be a system glitch!”

Echoing his words, Liang Lie, ever vigilant, suddenly stepped in front of him and quickly explained:

“I’ve seen NPCs freeze like this in the Military records!”

“At first I didn’t think much when these NPCs started acting strangely. But now, it’s clear—they’re ‘stuck’!”

“It seems the mission progression hit a snag, halting the plot midway!”

“Usually, at this point the system forces a fix to the storyline, which is why this is happening!”

As he spoke, Liang Lie pointed directly at Zhang Ke and the others, motioning for Yenir to look.

“See? They’re not silent or unresponsive! That little girl has been frozen in place, unable to find the portal she mentioned—all because the plot can’t progress!”

Listening to Liang Lie, Yenir—reborn yet never having experienced anything like this before—remained perplexed.

A system glitch? Fixing the plot?

What does it all mean?

The confusion didn’t last long. In the next moment, an aged Researcher, who had been stuck in a wall, was suddenly ejected.

It was as if he had teleported, appearing abruptly in the same spot.

Then, as if abruptly awakened, the elderly Researcher started wandering erratically before fixing his terrified gaze on Yenir.

His expression suggested that it was Yenir who had startled him.

“Who are you?! How did you…”

Before he could finish, within a fraction of a second a strange wave enveloped him, freezing him in place as he began to mutter mechanically:

“Ah, you must be Anya’s friend…”

“You actually managed to get here? You must have run into plenty of Otherworldly Ghosts along the way!”

“Excellent, your strength is impressive—I believe you can do me a huge favor.”

“Anya, Yenir, I need you to help me locate a hard drive. The password stored on it can open the portal!”

“Yes! That very hard drive!”

….

Like a sped-up recording, Yenir watched in astonishment as the Researcher babbled to himself, making everything seem even more surreal.

Not only did the suddenly spawned Researcher start talking at a frantic pace, but the originally stunned Zhang Ke and the others also began speaking ten times faster, darting around the Meeting Room like a fast-forwarded video.

They appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

In this bizarre scene, Yenir gripped his Elemental Blade tightly.

At the first sign of danger, he’d be out of there in a flash!

What on earth is going on?!

Is the system auto-completing the plot? Are these NPCs just acting out a scene?

A few minutes later, as Yenir’s expression grew graver, the Researcher’s rapid self-talk suddenly slowed down.

He looked at Yenir with what seemed like a familiar smile:

“Yenir, both your and Anya’s missions are complete. The hard drive you retrieved has helped me greatly.”

“I trust that once you enter the portal, you’ll secure that key item! But be careful!”

“Beep. Mission complete. New mission: Retrieve the Sword Case from the Core of the Otherworldly Ghost.”

Yenir: ???

What is going on? What are they even talking about?!

….

A few minutes later, as Zhang Ke and the others resumed normalcy, Yenir took a deep breath, his expression turning strangely somber.

After a few minutes, he finally figured out what had happened.

Just as Liang Lie had said, he had inadvertently triggered a system glitch.

This glitch caused the plot to stall once they entered, leaving everything in this chaotic state.

Reviewing the logic, he even found it absurd.

“In the Ghost Battlefield, once you enter the Dungeon, each Awakened Squad is assigned an Otherworldly Ghost to lurk nearby. Under its guidance, the Awakeners continue to explore downward.”

“Along the way, new NPCs join the team.”

“Around the transition from floor 12 to 13, an Otherworldly Ghost posing as a guide initiates a mission, directing the Awakeners to this Research Institute to unlock the next stage of the plot.”

“But here’s the problem.”

“Before entering the Research Institute, Anya would normally give out some extra tasks. In that mission, I would encounter a hidden Researcher and bring him back.”

“But since Anya died, that mission vanished, leaving Zhang Ke to bring me here.”

“So, without locating the Researcher, the area was left empty—and the plot stalled.”

He was utterly exasperated.

Yenir stared at the elderly Researcher—whom he had mentally pictured completing his mission—feeling completely speechless.

With the plot stalled, Zhang Ke naturally couldn’t move forward. Thus, the earlier scene unfolded.

Perhaps the dungeon system eventually detected the anomaly and forcibly spawned the Researcher, causing that bizarre scene.

Now, all missions have been skipped, and Yenir is meant to enter directly into the heart of the Otherworldly Ghost’s domain to retrieve something…

“So I’ve always felt this dungeon was weird—maybe I ruined the plot from the very start…”

Recalling how he killed Anya at the outset and the key plot character described by the system, a maelstrom of conflicting emotions surged within Yenir.

Exactly.

Normally, no Awakened would kill an NPC like Anya right after entering.

I simply skipped the dungeon mission, thinking it was a waste of time, and took her out…

Just look at Yinglong—ever so cautious, he never imagined the opening NPC to be an Otherworldly Ghost. He obediently followed the flow…

But I unintentionally disrupted the entire process.

It’s like a movie that starts by killing off the protagonist… how could the plot possibly continue?

Realizing this, Yenir let out a bitter laugh, at a loss for words.

Then again, if that’s the case, this Researcher’s request might be nothing but a trap…

“Under normal circumstances, without suspecting Anya or Zhang Ke, I’d have taken this Researcher’s mission at face value, focusing solely on how to complete it.”

“But Anya is an Otherworldly Ghost. Guided by it to seek out the Researcher, he kept insisting that descending this portal would lead to the Otherworldly Ghost’s lair, where you could obtain an item to counter them.”

“That’s just ridiculous…”

A bitter chuckle escaped him as he turned to the Researcher hurrying him along:

“Are you saying this portal is natural?”

“Before the Otherworldly Ghost destroyed this place, the Military accidentally discovered this portal. During their exploration, they encountered a type of stone that could counteract the Otherworldly Ghost just by holding it, so they tried to retrieve it.”

“But in the process, the Otherworldly Ghost detected the Military, sparking intense combat. After everything here was destroyed, you, being too weak, had no choice but to hide in this small shelter on the floor until now?”

“Exactly!”

“If you can bring that stone up to the Military, this catastrophe might finally end!”

Listening to Yenir’s questions, the elderly Researcher, oblivious to the sarcasm in his tone, simply nodded frantically.

“Hurry down already!”

“The portal is open! I trust you can retrieve that item!”

Meanwhile, Zhang Ke and the others echoed him with excited expressions—the sheer absurdity was palpable.

Sighing, Yenir looked at these illogical NPCs, realizing that Anya’s absence had caused innumerable glitches.

It might be true that this portal leads downward—to the very heart of the Otherworldly Ghost’s territory.

But retrieving the so-called key item to save the world? That’s surely a sham. It’s a trap…

“If I hadn’t known any better… I’d be a complete idiot to jump into such an obvious trap…”

“Now the only concern is—could Yinglong also be led astray by the Otherworldly Ghost and end up here to take on a ‘mission’?”

“If so, wouldn’t that blow my cover?”

Before he could fully form the thought and decide whether to silence him, a message from Blood Nightingale suddenly came through.

“Yenir, it appears Yinglong has encountered a key figure on his side!”

“He ran into a Third-Stage NPC who joined his team. We’re about to descend to floor 13! According to that NPC, there’s a portal on floor 13 that leads to the final level!”

“If you don’t act soon, when exactly do you plan to start?!”

Seeing Blood Nightingale’s message, a flash of determination lit up Yenir’s eyes.

Oh, it seems the plots on both sides are similar, but they aren’t happening in the same location.

So then…

“Buzz”

In an instant, channeling his Elemental Blade, Yenir decisively slashed at the Researcher.

First, he eliminated this obviously problematic guy, then planned to beat Yinglong to have Li Dafu pull off the scam!

Moreover, it appears Yinglong has also fallen for the Otherworldly Ghosts’ tricks!