Chapter 158: The Temptation of the Artifact

Silver Thorn’s target this time was indeed that “welfare item.” Now that it was equipped with the “safety airbag,” where would she go next?

Wen Nan stood at the entrance of the staff dormitory, his gaze fixed on the hidden tunnel directly beneath the drainage outlet of the main building across the way.

“Brother!”

A familiar voice called from downstairs.

Wen Nan lowered his eyes and saw a petite figure standing before the altar beneath the dormitory, looking up at him.

“Qiqi?”

Qiqi raised her hand, forming a rectangular frame with two fingers, signaling Wen Nan to check the message.

Wen Nan summoned the chat window from the system and saw several messages—

[Slave Master - Jun: Silver Thorn’s target likely coincides with your mission objective. If she succeeds in entering the furnace, it will be impossible to defend against.]

[Slave Master - Jun: For safety reasons, I must leave and pursue at full speed. Before she enters the furnace on the opposite side, we must destroy her completely to eliminate future threats.]

[Slave Master - Jun: Take Qiqi with you and beware of diversion tactics, Master.]

Wen Nan raised an eyebrow slightly.

Once again, his effeminate little maid had arranged everything clearly for him.

Closing the chat window, Wen Nan borrowed the welfare items from Gu Jinxing and Hu Jiayao, giving one to Guo Xiaofu and the other to Qiqi.

In the blink of an eye, darkness had fully fallen.

Under the cloak of night, assassins moved with greater freedom; the “pathogenic key” in Wen Nan’s hand became all the more vulnerable to theft.

The longer the night, the more unforeseen dangers arise. They had to enter the furnace swiftly, complete this final main quest, and then leave.

Minutes later, they were ready, gathered at the entrance of the hidden tunnel beneath the altar.

The underground passage was divided into three stages—

The uppermost was a narrow corridor resembling a water park slide, about twenty meters deep. Its tightness could be described as “extremely narrow, barely allowing passage.”

Passing through that cramped corridor led to a labyrinth of branching paths beneath. Viewed from the side, it resembled countless octopus tentacles, tangled and intertwined. Standing among those junctions, Wen Nan felt as if he were inside a spider’s web cave.

Beyond this tangled maze lay the searing furnace below.

However, they were stuck at the start of the second stage.

Numerous large and small openings were embedded in the inner wall, like the compound eyes of a spider, densely packed. It was impossible to tell which opening led to the furnace.

Yang Mingzhong, carrying the “Brother Tiger” they had caught earlier beside the altar, quickly slipped into one opening, tossing back a sentence: “I’ll scout ahead first.”

Huang Yan and Guo Xiaofu each chose an opening and entered. “Let’s split up to move faster. Boss, wait for our update.”

Wen Nan nodded, watching the three disappear, then found a clean spot to sit on the ground. He activated the location sharing in the guild group chat to guide their return.

Qiqi crouched beside Wen Nan, vigilantly watching the tunnel entrance, her eyes fierce. Her posture suggested that if danger approached, she would pounce like a mad dog to ensure Wen Nan’s safety.

Wen Nan turned to look at her profile and smiled. Qiqi didn’t look back but whispered softly, “Brother, don’t worry. With me here, no one can harm you.”

Wen Nan wanted to say that, given Jun’s current status as a “no-life” high-level player, the one who should be worried was probably the opponent, not him.

But he said nothing, only reaching out to gently stroke Qiqi’s soft hair.

The scouting by the other three did not go well. Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye with no progress.

Wen Nan slipped his hand into the equipment reserve slot, his fingertip brushing the hard casing of the marker pen.

Its streamlined design, minimalist style, and smooth surface—

His gaze drifted, tracing the shape of the pen shaft while rapidly reviewing the events of the day and the various scenes that had appeared earlier in this dungeon.

His brow unconsciously furrowed.

On the back seat of the underground garage, when Yang Jingyuan was unexpectedly pierced by the tail end of this marker pen, a soul that should have been sent into the furnace suddenly appeared...

After they completed the fourth main quest, using Mr. Horn to successfully remove the marker pen in the lab, the segment of lost memory belonging to Guan Ailin, and the moment Wen Nan sat on the ground, inadvertently plugging the marker pen into the data cable port, followed by Guan Ailin’s hurried return and urgent words to Wen Nan...

And earlier still, the memories deep within Li Shuyi’s mind, preserving the longing for her deceased husband, a yearning so intense it caused her to cross the dungeon boundaries and send a message to Wei Junjie...

According to Yang Mingzhong, that message should never have existed, let alone been sent, yet for some reason, Wei Junjie himself received it at the time...

These thoughts circled endlessly in Wen Nan’s mind.

His fingertip spun swiftly over the jet-black marker pen, caressing it repeatedly.

He didn’t even realize that his behavior now resembled that of the hobbit elder ensnared by the magic ring—once the finger touched the ring, it was nearly impossible to remove.

Wen Nan: [9527.]

9527: [I’m here.]

Wen Nan: [If I wanted to take a critical quest-related item out of this dungeon, what would happen?]

9527: ...

After ten long seconds of silence, that cold mechanical voice sounded—

9527: [Such an action is extremely dangerous! Once detected by the dungeon’s task settlement system, you will be unable to complete the quest settlement. This will be treated as mission failure or accidental death of the player, resulting in account deletion and placement into the waiting space!]

Wen Nan: ...

In other words, it couldn’t be taken out, and the player would die.

Wen Nan sat up, rummaging through the equipment sharing area beside him, pulling out a black rhinoceros beetle. Pinching its pair of antennae, he dropped it into his equipment reserve slot.

Mr. Horn landed on its back inside the slot, its tiny legs slipping in the void, trying to flip itself over.

Wen Nan picked up the marker pen, tapped Mr. Horn’s hard shell with the pen shaft, flipping it upright.

Startled by the tap, Mr. Horn raised its body, sweeping its antennae across the pen. When they touched the metallic broken end of the pen’s tail, they froze.

Then, as if suddenly activated, two alloy pincers extended from its mouthparts, beginning to gnaw “crackling” at the pen’s casing.

Wen Nan watched the system prompts closely.

He confirmed that during Mr. Horn’s gnawing, there was no alert of any “key item” being destroyed.

In the blink of an eye, the hard black pen shaft was chewed through, revealing a metallic-glinting object inside.

(End of chapter)