Chapter4-Windblade Ridge, A Road of No Return!

The scene unfolded too abruptly. 

Inside the dungeon, the remaining three players were all stunned, a sentiment mirrored by the audience in the live comments; they had only been joking when they cheered for a brawl. 

They were aware that top players from such a guild wouldn't possibly engage in internal strife at such a crucial juncture. 

Yet reality slapped them harshly across the face with the unfolding events.

...

During the card selection phase, Maxwell understood clearly. 

The "The Unbeheld Demon" and "Maddening Murmurs" cards certainly had a synergistic effect.

[The Unbeheld Demon (Purple): Deep within the abyss resides an unknown mysterious demon, so formidable that no mortal can behold it directly. A mere glance could plunge one into madness. This card bypasses levels, instantly inflicting mental damage on players engaging the dungeon BOSS, reducing their spirit points and wisdom points by 90%.]

[Maddening Murmurs (Blue): In the abyss, people remain unaware that they are being watched by a mysterious entity. Random whisperings will emerge, driving players with low spirit points to attack their allies frenziedly. Players with spirit points below 200 stand a chance to assault their teammates.]

This combination could trap players entering the BOSS battle in a dire situation. 

Even players above level 55, despite the enhancements from their equipment, rarely had spirit points exceeding 1000...

Therefore, virtually all five players entering the dungeon found themselves unable to resist Maddening Murmurs after being affected by The Unbeheld Demon. 

The murmurs activated at random, and by a cruel stroke of luck, archer "SnipeYouMilesAway" was the first to fall victim. 

And the priest "SaveYourAss" had never expected to be fatally attacked by a comrade.

What added to the desperation was that the BOSS, Craping Venomblade Rat, had already appeared, its suffocating HP level and its chilling massive size vividly demonstrating its might.

"It's over."

Guild leader Meteor Stallion stared blankly at the BOSS before them, every ounce of the will to resist extinguished. 

Without the priest to restore HP and add buffs, they stood no chance in the BOSS fight.

...

[Player 'Crimson Blaze Pegasus' has died. Remaining players alive: 3.]

[Player 'Riverhorse' has died. Remaining players alive: 2.]

[Player 'Meteor Stallion' has died. Remaining players alive: 1.]

[Player 'SnipeYouMilesAway' has died. Remaining players alive: 0.]

[Congratulations, host has successfully designed an abyssal dungeon that eliminated all players, earning 5 lottery draws.]

[After successfully eliminating all players in the abyss, the host can choose a card from the current dungeon to keep as a permanent card.]

[Current permanent cards the host can own: 1.]

[Each new abyssal dungeon opened increases the limit of permanent cards the host can own by 1.]

[Permanent cards can be replaced; the replaced card will disappear until drawn randomly in a future draw.]

...

"Five lottery chances? Interesting, let's use one and see."

[Ding, host has used 1 lottery draw, receiving... 3,000,000 experience points!]

"One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand... 3 million?"

A full three million experience points! 

It might take Maxwell three months of monster grinding to accumulate such an amount! 

A series of "ding" sounds echoed as he surged up by five levels, advancing directly from level 20 to level 25.

At this moment, his personal attribute panel read:

[ID: WindShepherd]

[Class: Swordsman]

[Level: 25]

[HP: 1078]

[MP: 762]

[Strength: 252]

[Speed: 387]

[Wisdom Points: 125]

[Spirit Points: 125]

[Stamina Points: 209]

...

Below the attribute panel, all the "Elemental Resistance" and "Elemental Affinity" values stood at zero, and the only skills available were the few initial skills from the Swordsman class, which felt quite underwhelming. 

As for equipment, it was hardly worth mentioning — a collection of unwanted junk that was simply embarrassing.

However, this was to be expected. 

Before acquiring the Unlimited Abyss System, Maxwell was just the most ordinary of normal players; it was natural that his equipment and attributes weren't anything special. 

But now that he had the system, Maxwell was utterly confident that he could become a figure standing tall above the masses in "Abyss"!

He knew that gaining renown in this game would also bring him financial and social status in the real world. 

Thinking about this, Maxwell became somewhat excited, eager to use up the remaining four lottery chances right away...

[Ding, host has used 4 lottery draws, receiving... 12,000,000 experience points! Mysterious equipment*1!]

Seeing these results, Maxwell speculated that out of the four lottery draws, three had yielded experience points, while the remaining one awarded mysterious equipment. 

However, the total experience points he received this time seemed to be higher than the first time? 

The three draws amounted to a total of 12 million experience points, meaning each draw was worth 4 million, a whole million more than the first!

"Could it be that as my level increases, the experience points gained from each draw also increase?" 

"This design is actually quite rational. If it remained at 3 million each time, it would be almost impossible to level up in the later stages," Maxwell mused to himself while stroking his chin.

He was quite satisfied with the results of the five lottery draws. 

At this moment, his personal attribute panel updated to:

[ID: WindShepherd]

[Profession: Swordsman]

[Level: 32]

[HP: 1358]

[MP: 972]

[Strength: 322]

[Speed: 492]

[Wisdom Points: 160]

[Spirit Points: 160]

[Stamina Points: 265]

...

"The higher the level, the more terrifying the amount of experience needed to level up..." Maxwell couldn't help but lament as he saw that 12 million experience points had only raised him 7 levels.

Next, looking at the "unidentified" mysterious equipment in his inventory, Maxwell decided to visit a Blacksmith Shop later for an appraisal to see exactly what kind of treasure he had gotten.

"Right, there's also the matter of binding the card..."

Realizing the screen before him remained open for a long time, he recognized that there was still something left to do.

"Which card should I bind?"

"Judging by rarity, among these four cards, the purple one should be the best... Let's bind this one then."

[Host confirms binding of card—The Unbeheld Demon (purple). This card can be used in all dungeons henceforth.]

[Abyssal dungeon design system shutting down.]

...

Only after the system shut down did Maxwell finally find the time to turn his attention to the live stream room. 

At this moment, the live comments in the room were particularly interesting.

"How about it, streamer, did you pioneer anything?"

"Maybe next time try with some stronger people."

"The Pegasus Guild isn't really performing, huh? We haven't even seen you guys reach the second stage in the abyssal dungeon. It's not satisfying!"

"Why even title it 'Guiding Everyone through the Abyssal Dungeon' — better not to boast so much."

"What a waste of time, watched for so long and got nothing, we don't even know what the abyssal dungeon rewards are."

...

Most people were mocking, with few offering words of consolation, leaving the Pegasus Guild's streamer exceedingly embarrassed. 

Eventually, after persevering for another ten minutes, the live stream room was finally shut down.

The players who were enjoying a good rant and felt like they hadn't had their fill hurried over to the forums to start posting, brazenly ridiculing the players from Pegasus Guild. 

They accused the guild of being "inferior to XX," "can't even progress through X," and other unpleasantries that were too numerous to count.

Finally, unable to endure it any longer, some Pegasus Guild players started posting rebuttals. 

In one of the most replied-to threads, a post read:

"Can you trash players stop kicking us while we're down? It's just that we were unlucky to encounter a dungeon with an explosive difficulty level. I bet aside from the top ten guilds in the world rankings, no one else could conquer this dungeon!"

Below this post, the most upvoted reply stated:

"Admit it when you're incapable, don't make excuses. This abyssal dungeon challenge... we, 'Pale Blue Guild', accept!"