The movements of Copernicus and Galileo were indeed not something that ordinary LV 18 players could do. The two of them walked on flat ground, but it felt like they were treading on waves, just like the legendary "Qinggong". From a gaming perspective, this was the effect of a large number of passive skills overlapping.
The two mini-bosses that came through the gap in the forest were two deformed creatures. Their bodies were pieced together from body parts, and they barely managed to form the shape of a human. Their appearance could be described as both disgusting and scary, but their power was only average. Of the six players in the scenario, even excluding the GMs, any one of them could take on these two mini-bosses alone. Of course, there would be a price to pay.
The blade glinted coldly, and the figure was as sharp as a bowstring.
Both Copernicus and Galileo used the same weapon, and their combat abilities were similar. Even the moment they drew their swords, they had the same judgment. Both of them were very familiar with the data of the monster. They had no doubt that they could beat the enemy in front of them half to death in one hit. At most, they could end the battle in three hits.
But … the moment they made their move, the situation took an unexpected turn.
It was not that these two mini-bosses had a sudden increase in strength, but that they had suddenly died … Only the people involved knew that these two monsters had mysteriously died the moment before they were attacked. When the blades landed on their bodies, the two monsters had essentially become two dead bodies that were moving forward due to inertia.
For example, it was as if you saw a ferocious person rushing towards you with a brick, but the moment he rushed in front of you to attack, he suddenly had a myocardial infarction and fell to the ground, dead.
However, only the two GMs knew about this, and even Feng Bujue did not know the truth. On the surface, it looked like … Galileo and Copernicus had each attacked once, and the two monsters were taken care of in the blink of an eye.
The three from Regulation soon caught up, and Invincible Champion was the first to gasp. "Are you kidding me? You are all professionals, aren't you? "
"Something is not right … these two monsters were not killed by us." As Galileo spoke, he opened the GM menu to check, and the expression on his face turned serious.
Right then, the environment around the players changed. All the illusions disappeared, and the forest around them returned to normal. Looking at the mountain, they realized that they were not far from the farmland at the foot of the mountain.
Feng Bujue reacted quickly. He turned to ask Copernicus, who was next to him, "Is the magic circle no longer working?"
"Why would you ask me … How would I know …" Before Copernicus could finish.
Feng Bujue interrupted him again. "Why would it not work?"
"So … why would you ask me?" Copernicus grumbled with annoyance.
"Because your mastery is sleuthing," Feng Bujue answered matter-of-factly.
"In your mind, the 'detection specialization' …" Copernicus' mouth twitched. "Is it the same as' omniscience '?"
"If you want to put it that way, I'll have to ask you another question." Feng Bujue's expression and presence changed drastically at that moment. His eyes seemed to be saying, The game of acting is over.
There was passion in his eyes, but his face was calm and confident. Feng Bujue asked directly, "Is this the work of an Anomaly?"
"Pfft …" Meng Jingchan spat out the beer in his mouth.
There was information about the Anomalies within Regulation, but it was very limited. Other than the existence of the Anomalies, the few contacts they had did not provide much actual information.
Ye Zhi and Invincible Champion were not high enough in the gaming studio, so this was the first time they had heard of this term. However, for players like Meng Jingchan, they had higher access to information about the game, so he knew about it. Of course, the information he knew was that in a Team Survival Mode scenario with six players, there was a very small chance of encountering an uncontrollable data called an Anomaly. Regulation had no information about the Anomaly, the involvement of GMs during the scenario, and the power of GMs.
Regulation only had two recorded encounters with Anomalies. The first was when a six-man team reported to their superiors that they had encountered a humanoid creature that called itself an Anomaly. It had incredible power, and its intelligence was far greater than a normal scenario boss. Furthermore, it had nothing to do with the scenario itself. The second time was also a six-man team, and the situation was similar. They claimed that they had been attacked by the boss and the Anomaly, resulting in their team being wiped out. In the short communication between the six-man team and the Anomaly, Regulation had obtained the information that they currently had. It was classified as high level information and entered into their database.
The main reason Zen Dream was so shocked was because … the term 'Anomaly' came from the lips of this man by the name of 'Feng Bujue'. Could it be that this unknown guild, Underworld Frontline, had the ability to gather and analyze information that was on par with Regulation? How many members did they have? Just how professional were they?
Copernicus and Galileo's expressions were the most interesting. Even Meng Jingchan reacted that way, so one could only imagine how the two GMs would react.
"What … are you talking about …" Galileo still seemed to be hoping for a fluke, trying to play dumb and get away with it.
"Do you want me to be more specific?" Feng Bujue said. "Brothers, please open your GM menu and help me take a look. Is the sudden loss of the magic circle around us related to the Anomaly?"
The three GMs from Regulation looked at Copernicus and Galileo like they were looking at monsters, and then they turned to look at Feng Bujue like they were looking at a super monster. There was too much information in those few sentences, and the atmosphere was so tense that they did not know how to express their opinions.
The two GMs looked at each other and exchanged a look. Galileo then smiled and turned to Feng Bujue. "After the scenario is over, you'll have to talk to our superiors."
"Let's talk about the current situation first." Feng Bujue said. "When the illusion disappeared, I used A Strategic Victory to take a look …" Since the GMs knew what kind of skills the players had, he decided to be direct. "It did not show anything." He paused before asking, "Can I conclude that the Anomaly has dealt with the boss?"
"The well of resentment is still there, but it has lost its power," Galileo replied. "The same is true for the other three magic circles on the mountain. Just now, they lost their power at the same time."
"At the same time?" He thought about it for two seconds before adding, "Ignoring the possibility that there are four Anomalies working together in the scenario, the problem probably lies with the 'source of power'."
"To cut off the power source of the well of resentment, other than destroying the magic circles, there are other ways … but that way, instead of calling it 'cutting off', it would be more accurate to call it 'destroying'."
"Based on the information on the flag," Galileo said, "this scenario has a real boss called Wailu. He is not on this map, and we cannot see his specific data. What we do know is … if we have less than three magic circles to destroy, we will encounter this boss if we jump into the well of resentment. My guess is that the Anomaly has gone to the other side of the well of resentment and killed this boss, causing all the magic circles on our side to lose their power. " When he said that, he understood the question that had been bothering him earlier. Why would the coordinates of the Anomaly appear and disappear? The reason was most likely because the Anomaly had entered the other side of the world.
"Hmm … Then here comes the question," Feng Bujue said. "Why haven't we cleared the scenario yet?"
"This …" Galileo really did not know.
"I suspect it is a problem with the main quest," Copernicus said. "Currently, the main quest is still 'enter the mountain to find the abandoned shrine'. Perhaps it is because we have not triggered the flag for the next step." His gaze showed that he was looking at the GM menu as he spoke. "Successfully destroying any one of the three magic circles in the mountain will update the main quest to 'destroy the four Soul Harvesting Circles and seal the power of the well of resentment', and directly meeting the real boss will update the quest to 'destroy Wailu'. But now … we have not triggered any of them, and all the magic circles have lost their power. "
"So, the main quest is stuck at the first step, huh?" Feng Bujue said darkly. "Interesting … If this analysis is correct, now that the real boss has died, there is no flag in the scenario that can change the progress of the main quest. So, how are we going to clear this scenario?"
"Since you sound like you know a lot," Copernicus said, "why don't we get straight to the point?" He turned to look at the three from Regulation. "The four of you can leave the scenario now."
"What? What?" Invincible Champion replied, "The three of you are talking to yourselves. You're telling us to leave after saying all those ridiculous things to each other? Quitting halfway will result in a penalty for not being able to queue up, and there will be no reward. For us, this loss is worse than being wiped out! "
"I'm sorry, but from the looks of it, this scenario can be considered a bug, and we are unable to clear the scenario," Galileo replied. Galileo replied, "Just as Mr. Feng said, the main mission is stuck, and there's nothing we can do."
As if afraid that Invincible Champion did not get it, Feng Bujue added, "This is like Li Xiaoyao leaving Yuhang Town, and Bishop Baiyue was killed by an alien passing by Earth with an antimatter weapon. Even if you continue to play, you will not clear the scenario."
"We still have work to do, and that is to deal with the Anomaly," Copernicus said. "If you stay, even if you are not killed by the Anomaly, it will be a waste of time, and you will be forced to quit in the end." He knew that he could no longer blame this on the players, so he followed the company's rules and said, "With regards to the loss of game time, since it was caused by the system, the company will compensate you. After we deal with this scenario, we will report this to our superiors. The related people will contact you and come up with a solution. I believe you will be satisfied with the result. "
Ye Zhi then asked, "Since you are GMs, can you explain to us what the Anomaly is?"
"Hmm … I'm sorry, but we have no right to reveal that," Galileo replied.
Ye Zhi's reaction was similar to what Feng Bujue had done to Pan Feng and Hwa Xiong. "You should know that we are from Regulation, right?" She pressed. "With the credibility of our studio, if we expose what happened today on the official website …"
"That is your freedom," Galileo replied confidently. Galileo replied fearlessly, "The company will respond and explain accordingly." He had the confidence to say that because … after the scenario where Pan Feng and Hwa Xiong met Feng Bujue, the higher-ups immediately came up with a new rule based on their report. If the GM's identity was exposed and they were threatened like this, the GM's response had to follow a standard procedure. Facing Ye Zhi's question, they only needed to answer like this.
Actually, the Anomaly had been exposed a long time ago, but the four players present, including the major studios, did not know about it …
In fact, two days before the change from closed beta to open beta, there were already posts about the Anomaly on the forum, but they were soon drowned by the sea of posts. This could not even be called a 'gaming legend among a small group of players'. It was clear that the current players, or rather … the people of this era, would not easily believe anything. Who can we blame? Blame the news? Haha …
"Humph … If you say so …" Ye Zhi wanted to say something else.
Meng Jingchan waved his hand to signal for her to stop. He said, "Ye Zhi, there is no point in saying such harsh words." He suddenly exuded an authoritative presence, and he told Copernicus and Galileo with a serious expression, "Please do not worry. Right here, I can promise you that Regulation will not spread any information about GMs and the Anomalies to the public." His thought process was clear. For information, the less people who knew about it, the more valuable it would be.
"But …" Meng Jingchan changed the topic. "At this moment, it is up to us players whether to leave the scenario or not, right?"
Galileo understood something from his words. "Hmm … If you wish to interact with the Anomaly, we will not stop you."
Copernicus shrugged and smiled. "Let me give you a kind reminder. The Anomaly's strength and attack power are far stronger than any scenario boss you have encountered. When you are killed, don't be surprised by how fast the Anomaly is."
"They just want to collect as much information as possible. Furthermore, if they are killed, there will be no punishment for voluntarily quitting," Feng Bujue interjected. "By the way, I wish to meet this Anomaly as well."
Meng Jingchan turned his gaze to Feng Bujue and asked in a low voice, "You wish to collect information as well?"
"I'm just a casual player. I don't have as many burdens as you," Feng Bujue replied. "I'm just doing this out of interest." That sounded more believable coming from his mouth. "Due to this Anomaly, I won't be able to get any reward. At least I have the right to go and see what the culprit looks like."
The only Anomaly that Feng Bujue had met was X-23. He did not expect to run into her again. With the history of Anomalies, X-23 had probably been destroyed a long time ago, so the chance of running into her again was practically zero. Therefore, Feng Bujue believed that the Anomaly in this scenario should be an unfamiliar level four Anomaly.
His curiosity was very strong. It was rare for him to have the chance to interact with other Anomalies, so naturally, Feng Bujue wanted to know more about this group of special AIs and interact with them. He could use that as a reference to see what was different about the Anomalies and whether they had unique personalities and ideologies like sapient lifeforms in real life.
"Then do as you wish," Galileo said. "But there is something that needs to be said first. Our goal is to destroy the Anomaly, to 'kill' it and turn it into data fragments. No matter what happens, the priority is to kill it before it is too late. If you wish to watch from the side and collect information, that's fine. If you wish to help, we welcome that. But please do not do anything that will hinder us. "
The three from Regulation nodded in agreement. Only Feng Bujue remained silent. After about ten seconds, he suddenly said, "There is one more thing that I wish to confirm … the two of you … are unable to obtain the main character's plot armor?"
Galileo hesitated before replying, "Yes … Er … How come you even know something like that?"
"Don't look at me with that expression. That is basically a guess. Counting the time at the start of the scenario, the main character's plot armor has randomly transferred three times. Brother Invincible has done it twice, and Ye Zhi has done it once." Feng Bujue replied. "And the directional transfer has happened three times … once for Brother Invincible, and twice for me." He glanced at Meng Jingchan. "Other than you two GMs, only Brother Zen has not obtained the main character's plot armor.
In the plot introduction, in the section about the plot armor, the term 'player' was mentioned many times, but there was one thing that was not mentioned, and that was' when the number of players in the team is less than two, the main character's plot armor will disappear '. After confirming that you are GMs, I thought, if the system did not treat you as' players', then the appearance of this plot armor is very reasonable. "
"You mean … if this scenario did not have Anomalies and GMs, and it was just a normal survival map, the system would not have added this plot armor setting?" Ye Zhi followed his train of thought.
"At least, that is what I think." Feng Bujue replied. "The plot armor is a kind of protection that the system created for the players based on the scenario's difficulty and actual situation. Since it is an effect created by the system, even if the players are transported, as long as the scenario is not closed, the plot armor will continue to exist.
Normally speaking, if the scenario is cleared, four players will leave, and the remaining two will be the GMs. If the plot armor still exists, it will be very unfair to the Anomaly. Therefore, no matter the situation, the GMs will not be able to obtain the plot armor. "
"What are you talking about? Why would the system make the battle between us and the Anomaly fair?" Copernicus asked. "You've watched too many sci-fi movies. The photon computer has no self-consciousness. Furthermore, even if it does, why would the system give a set of trash data that needs to be destroyed the chance to survive? "
Feng Bujue scoffed and thought to himself, If only I knew … Perhaps there is one or a group of madmen among your superiors who purposely designed the system this way. "
"Hmm … Perhaps I'm overthinking it." Feng Bujue replied calmly. "Let's go up the mountain first. If we can find the well of resentment, we'll be able to find the Anomaly."
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