The Management Bureau's touring lecture makes its first stop in Wanghai City, hosted at the multifunctional hall of Wanghai University's library.

Several people, including Wu Chang, who were called by Zhao Yan, are currently wearing volunteer uniforms, standing outside the venue maintaining order.

Looking at the crowd packed inside the venue, Wu Chang turned to Hamster in confusion and asked softly, "Do people really like lectures this much now?"

Hamster, holding his phone to photograph the stage, replied, "Scallion, anyone can tell you don't really follow v-blog much."

Wu Chang said, "I use it occasionally."

"Professor Shi Ning is the hottest star right now." Mentioning Shi Ning, Hamster perked up, beginning to introduce him to Wu Chang.

Professor Shi Ning, who is hosting the lecture, is a young scholar recently soaring to fame. He was pre-admitted to Yanda at the age of twelve, graduated at thirteen, and finished his doctoral degree at fifteen, staying on to become a professor.

All difficult problems seem not to be problems in his eyes.

This year, Shi Ning, who just turned thirty-three, has research areas spanning multiple disciplines such as electronic information, biology, and quantum mechanics.

If someone were to look for a real-life example to define the word 'prodigy,' no one fits better than Shi Ning.

A genius mind coupled with outstanding looks has made Shi Ning incredibly popular, even influencers tend to adopt the scholar-type or cool academic persona because of him.

For this reason, Shi Ning's lectures receive high attention, selling out every session.

Wu Chang nodded, now he understood.

The crowd inside the venue, most of them did not come for the lecture itself.

At least more than half didn't know what Shi Ning was talking about, but for them, taking a check-in photo and posting it on their social media was enough.

If luck prevailed, and they managed to take a photo with Shi Ning to insert into their vlog, it would certainly go viral.

The other part of the audience, although they listened, mistakenly believed Shi Ning was discussing his latest research on brain-computer interaction, unaware that Shi Ning was actually speaking about reality.

However, regardless of whether they understood or didn't, several concepts from the lecture trended on social media, becoming hot phrases, sparking countless derivative memes.

This is also the purpose of the Countermeasures Bureau's touring lectures.

First, let these concepts familiarize themselves with the public, so when the Abyssal Game is exposed, people will understand it faster and won't be overly panicked.

The lecture went very well, at least as a publicity event, it was very successful.

During the lunchtime break, Wu Chang and others went to the touring team's lounge, where they met Sword Star in reality.

To hide his identity, Sword Star's brows and facial features differed slightly from those in the Abyssal Game, but the male protagonist aura of a martial arts novel remained largely unchanged.

Compared to the last meeting, Sword Star's status has improved considerably.

The conclusion of continuous failed instance strategies and the completion of phase transition tasks uplifted his Will, temporarily eliminating the risk of Inspiration running rampant.

The sneaky aspect of the Sword Sect profession lies here, overcoming adversity makes you stronger, but you don't necessarily have to overcome adversity yourself.

Sword Star finds himself in adversity, but having been carried to victory by Wu Chang still counts as overcoming adversity.

Although the improvement wasn't as huge as Xu Dejun and Lin Jiang anticipated, it can't be said to be small; the breakthrough not only replenished the lost attributes Sword Star experienced during this period but also slightly enhanced them.

It's just that it's uncertain whether the Sword Sect's adversity breakthrough ability has a cooldown time. If there is no cooldown or if it's very short, creating artificial adversity in each instance, overturning absolute disadvantages, exploiting bugs left and right, wouldn't that just explode the attributes?

The Sword Sect profession's nonconformity even made Wu Chang grit his teeth.

He couldn't help but complain in his heart to the Abyss Game Administrator, Did you see? I call what I use a mechanism, what Sword Star does is just cheating.

The real-world Sword Star, much like how he is in the instance, wasn't arrogant at all.

Even if there is a disparity in their identities, he still proactively greeted the others.

With the brief acquaintance nurtured in Peaceful Town, Wu Chang and others didn't seem too restrained while conversing with Sword Star.

Wu Chang already had a favorable impression of Sword Star; upon learning that Sword Star came with another compensation offer, and that the compensation was fairly generous, Wu Chang found the boy increasingly pleasing.

While they were discussing the one-on-one guidance plan, on the other side, the touring team and Wanghai University's leadership concluded a brief exchange of pleasantries.

With half of the lecture remaining in the afternoon, Shi Ning, citing tight schedules, refused the meal arranged at a restaurant outside campus, opting for a simple meal at the cafeteria instead.

Having reached Shi Ning's level of influence, no matter where he goes, people tend to accommodate him rather than the other way around, so a group of them headed toward the university cafeteria.

Initially, when they started eating, they were watched and photographed by students passing by, but the more time passed, the fewer people gathered.

Midway through their meal, during the lunch peak time, the cafeteria eerily quieted down, even the staff serving food vanished.

Not just the layer they were dining on, but the entire cafeteria building fell silent.

Several university leaders, puzzled by the situation, presumed some perceptive teacher dispersed the students.

However, Shi Ning and Sword Star had already set down their chopsticks, and their cautious gazes turned toward the stairwell.

Next to them, Wu Chang saw the others react, breathed a sigh of relief, and opted against flipping the soup bowl to alert them, content to lower his head and continue eating.

Thud, thud, thud.

Heavy footsteps echoed from the stairwell, the sound resounding distinctly in the silent cafeteria.

A dark-skinned man appeared at the stairwell entrance; his face naturally appeared unkind, and with not a hair atop his head—not even eyebrows or a beard—he appeared even more menacing.

The Egghead glanced at the now standing Sword Star, smiling as he said, "I found you."

The next moment, he acted like an exhibitionist, suddenly opening his coat wide, showcasing the artwork on his body to the group.

A man stripping upon meeting someone; the vice-principal of Wanghai University never encountered such a spectacle, was about to have this lunatic thrown out but hesitated as the words formed on his lips.

Indeed, you have to admit, the artwork on this madman's body was genuinely impressive, better than those few old heads in the art department.

Could he be some renowned artist engaging in performance art?

Unlike the reaction of the school leadership, seeing the glowing patterns on Egghead's body, Sword Star reacted like a cat bristling, reaching out to slap the rectangular cloth bundle at his side, sharp Sword Qi ripping it apart, sending a Flying Sword slashing towards Egghead.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

The Flying Sword struck Egghead only to pass through like slicing a projection; there was no feedback on the sword's edge to indicate a hit.

The next moment, the images on Egghead's body rapidly expanded, enveloping the group.

"I'll be waiting at the end." Egghead left his words for Sword Star before disappearing entirely.

The entire cafeteria fell silent, only Wu Chang's chewing of crispy roast stuffed rice audible.

The crunching sound indicated perfect heat, crisp and tender.

Tambourine Zhao Yan felt embarrassed, nudging Wu Chang with his elbow, murmuring, "Stop eating."

Still eating—he really has a big heart.

Gulp~

The sound of Wu Chang swallowing food snapped Wanghai University's vice-principal back to reality; belatedly, he pointed at where Egghead vanished and the Flying Sword suspended in the air.

"What...what is this?"

Shi Ning glanced at him, replying indifferently, "You're too worn out, experiencing a hallucination."

Saying this, Shi Ning dipped his fingers in water, drawing a Talisman on the table.

The Talisman glowed, causing all ordinary people present to fall into a deep sleep.

He stood up, saying, "Come on, let's go out and see what's happening."

As they walked out of the cafeteria, they saw a massive gray canopy forming overhead.

It spread from above them outward, not stopping after enveloping Wanghai University but continuing to extend until it approached the horizon, then halted its expansion, hanging down like a waterfall.

If viewed from above, a layer of gray light would appear akin to an overturned glass bowl, covering a large swath of the city.

Under the light screen, Wu Chang sensed that familiar aura, the specific aura of an instance teetering on the brink due to pollution values exceeding the limit.

Ordinary players would feel suffocated and uneasy in high-pollution instance environments, yet he felt at home.

Before Shi Ning could speak, the earphones Wu Chang wore broadcasted intelligence from the Management Bureau.

"Alert, detected anomalous energy fluctuations in Wanghai City. Anomalous erosion areas have appeared in Peace District. Preliminary detection suggests a B-Level uncontrollable instance. The city is under level one alert status, all Countermeasures Bureau members, prepare to eliminate anomalous erosion points."

"Repeating..."

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