The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 416 Faith Virus
With the world instance approaching, time is of the essence. Wu Chang is present, and the four major organizations are gathered together. Rather than communicating later, it would be better to convene a joint meeting of the four major organizations now.

When it comes to a venue for holding meetings, nothing is more suitable than the Totem headquarters right in front of us.

Leng Shan and his group were very restrained in their actions, only killing those with superhuman abilities and not excessively damaging the building, so as not to affect its use.

Totem Organization Headquarters, Main Conference Room.

As a frontline organization, Totem receives resources from multiple small countries below and is supported by the Light Society above, making it extremely well-resourced and never shortchanging itself.

The glass used in the conference room is a special, extraordinary material with mystical runes engraved inside, which can both maintain light transmission and block external detection.

Wu Chang sat by the glass, watching the Totem Organization members lined up outside, entering the room in batches for interrogation, and a strange feeling arose in his heart.

The four major organizations use headquarters built by Totem at great expense, while Totem members are tried outside. Isn't this a form of NTR?

Inside the meeting room, a long conference table divided the room, with the top executives of the four organizations sitting on one side and Wu Chang himself on the other.

While Wu Chang was idly observing the view outside the window, Hou Jingchuan, as the host of the meeting, was conveying the information that Wu Chang had previously provided to everyone.

The people who can appear here are all our own people who have been tested multiple times and are absolutely safe. He spoke without any reservations.

The high-ranking members of the other three major organizations looked even worse when they heard the news about Hou Jingchuan than when Hou Jingchuan first heard it.

The fact that the Light Society broke through the barrier between the Realm of Reason and the World Instance and interfered with the World Instance was already extremely troublesome for them.

Now, to make matters worse, another deity from the desolate realm has emerged, whose number and identity are still unknown. Who can withstand this?

Hou Jingchuan remained calm, observing the extremely unpleasant expressions on everyone's faces, but a hint of satisfaction flickered in his eyes.

He sent people to summon the other three major organizations, deliberately without explaining the reasons, and told everyone about the Bright Society's actions now in order not to give them any buffer time, but to see their current situation.

He can't be the only one who lost his composure.

This feeling of being shocked by the intelligence must be shared with others.

The leaders of the other three organizations began to discuss amongst themselves in hushed tones. After about ten minutes of discussion, the noise gradually subsided, and they looked at Hou Jingchuan, waiting for his next words.

They didn't hide their discussion from anyone. With the strength of the superhumans present, they could easily hear what they were saying if they paid a little attention. Hou Jingchuan already understood the answers from the crowd.

But this is a formal meeting after all, and the necessary formalities cannot be skipped.

He scanned the crowd and said in a deep voice:

"Everyone is probably aware of how serious the situation is. If we just sit and wait for death, who knows how many more tricks the Light Society will pull before the world instance begins."

“If we continue like this, we will lose even our last chance to resist. Gentlemen, it is time to make a decision.”

Wu Chang listened from the side, completely confused. It sounded like the four major organizations were hesitant about certain decisions, and Hou Jingchuan hoped to use this intelligence to help everyone make a decision.

But he didn't rush to ask, since in the end, the discussion would inevitably involve him.

The leaders of the other three organizations exchanged glances. One of them, a middle-aged man from the White Tower dressed in old-fashioned attire, said:

"Hou, let's do as you say. It's better to drag the Bright Society down with us than for us to get hurt alone."

The head of the Western Union and the Evolution Committee echoed:
"Our answer is the same: whatever you need, we will do our best to cooperate."

Hou Jingchuan's lips curled up slightly, and he smiled:

"You don't need to feel guilty. As I told you before, we didn't have a choice from the beginning."

With all four organizations maintaining a unified stance, Hou Jingchuan turned to Wu Chang and said:
"Your Excellency Peace, we received the information you sent before the qualification copy. We actually have an idea, but that kind of plan has too great an impact, so we have not been able to finalize it yet."

"Now that we have no other choice, we would like to ask His Excellency Peace to bring something from the Desolate Realm to the Realm of Reason and deliver it to Elder Xu."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow, a look of curiosity in his eyes. He wondered what it was that could make the four major organizations so cautious, only using it when they were forced to the brink of disaster.

He didn't mince words and asked directly, "I need to know what I'm transporting."

Hou Jingchuan said with a serious expression:

"Your Excellency Peace, I wonder if you've ever heard of the 'Faith Virus'?"

Faith virus? Wu Chang recalled the information in his mind, but had no knowledge related to it, and shook his head, saying:
"This is the first time I've heard this name."

As he said this, his main body in Wanghai City took out the Omniscient Crystal and inquired about information about the "Faith Virus" to prevent Hou Jingchuan from misleading him on certain details because he knew nothing about the Faith Virus.

Inside the meeting room, Hou Jingchuan slowly began to speak, recounting information about the faith virus.

The Faith Virus was originally created to combat evil cults.

In the early days of the Abyss game, the belief in evil gods was far more widespread than it is now.

The temptation of receiving rewards such as resources, skills, job changes, and even dungeon leveling services simply by worshipping an evil god and offering sacrifices to it is hard for even players from the four major organizations to resist.

At that time, there was no such thing as the three major evil god cults. There were at least dozens of evil god cults that were well-known and recognizable.

The desolate realm has been thrown into chaos by these evil gods. In almost every instance, followers of these evil gods are setting up rituals to appeal for help from the deeper levels of the abyss.

Ordinary players are extremely vulnerable to being suppressed by the followers of the evil god.

Despite the real-world efforts of the four major organizations in cracking down on cultists, they are still helpless against these guys once they enter the Abyss Game.

Gradually, the evil god cult grew increasingly powerful, even attempting to overtake the four major organizations.

In order to combat the increasingly rampant evil cults, the four major organizations developed a faith virus.

The "faith virus" is not a real virus, but rather a special ability to maintain order. In the context of online games, this ability would be called "reporting."

At this point, Hou Jingchuan gave Wu Chang a meaningful look, leaving Wu Chang looking completely bewildered.

If there weren't so many people around, he would definitely ask, "What are you looking at?"

What do you mean? You want to report him?
At this point, Hou Jingchuan gestured to his side and said:
"I don't know much about the principles behind the Faith Virus either; this part needs to be explained by the Stone Wanderer."

The Stone Patrolman that Hou Jingchuan mentioned was none other than Shi Ning. As one of the highest-ranking officials in the Wasteland from the Administration Bureau, Shi Ning also attended the meeting.

The reason Shi Ning was chosen to explain is not only because he is a researcher, but also because he is one of the developers of the Faith Virus.

Shi Ning picked up where Hou Jingchuan left off and said:

"Your Excellency should be very clear about the fundamental nature of the Desolate Realm. The biggest difference between the Desolate Realm and the Realm of Reason lies in the limitation of extraordinary power."

"In the dungeons of the Desolate Realm, the application of extraordinary power is not yet widespread, and extraordinary power is only in the hands of a very small number of people."

“When someone attempts to spread the extraordinary power that a few people possess to the entire plane, making it a power that most people can control, a plane upgrade will occur.”

Wu Chang nodded in agreement. As the owner of multiple pillars of the present world, he was already very familiar with the mechanism of plane ascension.

To be precise, it's not about the spread of supernatural power. In many instances, as long as the existence of supernatural power is accepted by most people, it will also result in a plane ascension.

Seeing that Wu Chang understood, Shi Ning continued:
"Because there are different layers in the abyss, from the perspective of the abyss game, it is considered a violation of the rules for beings in the deeper layers of the abyss to influence or interfere with the shallower layers."

"These interventions from the depths of the abyss will bring additional abyssal erosion, increasing the contamination level of the instance."

"As the contamination level of a dungeon increases, it disrupts the original order within the dungeon, causing the world that should be functioning normally to spiral out of control."

Shi Ning, as expected of a professor, had considerable experience in teaching and lecturing. He paused for a minute at this point, giving everyone present time to react and think. The existence of the Faith Virus was highly confidential, and it had been out of service for many years—longer than many of the players present had been in the Abyss game.

Not only was Wu Chang unaware, but even many high-ranking members of the four major organizations only had a general understanding of the Faith Virus and did not have a deep understanding of it.

After the time for reflection ended, Shi Ning continued:

"For the copy plane, the existence of the evil god's followers is like a virus invading the world from the outside, which is extremely harmful to the development of the world."

"To deal with the followers of evil gods, we must start with the abyssal corruption and pollution they bring. To remove the virus called followers of evil gods, we must first activate the plane's immunity."

"Just like when the human body is infected with a virus, it will specifically proliferate corresponding immune cells to prevent the virus from spreading."

"One of the functions of the Faith Virus is to help the plane mark these faiths from the depths of the abyss as viruses, so that changes that oppose them can arise within the plane."

"When the power of faith from outside clashes with the order of the plane itself, violations from the depths of the abyss will be clearly marked. At this point, triggering the reporting ability within the faith virus will activate the suppressive force of the abyss game."

"The restraining force of the Abyss Game will follow the markings and punish all those who violate the rules of the game."

Hou Jingchuan picked up the conversation and said:

"Back then, it was also in the world instance. The four major organizations abandoned that world instance and used it as bait to lure the followers of the evil god into it, and then put the faith virus into it."

"The faith virus almost wiped out all the evil god believers who entered it, and also severely damaged the evil god behind them, causing many evil god cults to be destroyed directly."

"We also used the faith virus twice more afterward. Each time we used it, it severely damaged many out-of-bounds evil god cults."

"Since then, the circle of believers has become extremely restrained. Many evil god cults, even if they survive, can only eke out a living and dare not appear in the open."

Wu Chang's eyes showed a thoughtful expression. He listened to Hou Jingchuan's words and realized that the reason why the believers' circle was so depressed and only dared to operate in the dark, hiding from the four major organizations, was because they had suffered from the faith virus back then.

Especially during the world instance event, most of the evil god cults suffered heavy losses, and some were even expelled on the spot.

However, Hou Jingchuan didn't say everything. Given the way the Tranquility Sect, Revelation, and Bliss Sect operate, it's impossible that the four major organizations didn't use the Faith Virus on them.

He looked at the members of the four major organizations. They were all beaming with pride and looking very smug as they listened to Hou Jingchuan talk about how he had dealt with the believers of the evil god. Anyone who didn't know better would think that the faith virus was created by them.

In contrast, Shi Ning, the true creator of the Faith Virus, remained calm, and even spoke with some apprehension when mentioning the Faith Virus.

Seeing this, he couldn't help but ask, "Then why don't you use the Faith Virus on the Tranquility Cult?"

The room fell silent instantly upon hearing this, and the atmosphere became awkward.

Hou Jingchuan hesitated for a moment, then said with some helplessness:
"Among evil gods, there are also differences in strength. Evil god cults like the Tranquility Sect have evil gods behind them that are too powerful. The Abyss Game suppression force caused by the Faith Virus can only affect their believers and cannot affect the evil god itself."

"As long as their physical bodies remain undamaged, it's only a matter of time before they rebuild the evil god cult."

"But there's no need to worry about that. Our target this time is the Light Society and their members sent into the instance. They can't withstand the Abyss Game's suppressive power."

Looking at the uncomfortable expressions of the four top leaders of the organization, Wu Chang's gaze was firm. He went through all the sad things in his life before he managed to hold back his laughter.

Just as he guessed, Hou Jingchuan had mentioned before that before the Faith Virus appeared, the Abyss Game did not have the title of the Three Great Evil God Cults. Why did they appear after the Faith Virus?
Either the four major organizations are harboring bandits to maintain their own power, or the three major evil god cults are too powerful, and the faith virus has limited effect on them.

The weaker evil god cults were eliminated, while the three that remained standing and unaffected naturally became the three major evil god cults.

Listening to the entire process, the effects of the "faith virus" are very strong, and it is particularly applicable to the current situation.

The intelligence brought back by Xu Dejun shows that the Light Society's method of influencing the world instance plane is based on the method of the evil god cult. It can even be said that in the world instance plane, the existence of the Light Society is equivalent to the evil god cult organized by players.

Using their faith, which they spread into the world instance, as the trigger, once the faith virus breaks out, all the actions taken by the Light Society will not only be countered by the dimensional order, but will also be punished by the Abyss Game's suppressive force.

So here's the question: if the Faith Virus is so suitable and effective, why did the four major organizations hesitate until they were driven to the brink of desperation before finally resorting to this power?
Wu Chang leaned forward, placed one hand on the conference table in front of him, and asked that classic question.

"Mr. Hou, I already understand the effects of the faith virus, but what is the cost of using it?"

The mention of the word "cost" caused the top leaders of the four organizations to look away; the cost of believing in the virus was something even they found hard to accept.

Shi Ning spoke up to answer on behalf of Hou Jingchuan:

"The price is that the faith virus will cause the dungeon to spiral out of control further, greatly increasing the difficulty of the dungeon."

"The Faith Virus will trigger immunity in the instance dimension to counteract the impact of the Light Society on the world instance. However, the changes that occur in the instance dimension will not only target the Light Society, but will also affect the players."

"Even the appearance of players affects the order of the dungeon dimension, and they are objects that the dungeon dimension rejects."

Wu Chang breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. He thought it was some kind of price to pay, but it turned out to be just a small matter of increasing the difficulty of the dungeon.

If it weren't for the fact that it concerned the secret of his talent, he would have liked to enlighten everyone on the spot.

"Don't worry, the Abyss game administrators will set the difficulty to the maximum for any dungeon I participate in, so there will be no room for improvement."

However, this also makes sense, which explains why the four major organizations abandoned that world instance when Hou Jingchuan mentioned that the Faith Virus was first used.

The reason is that the faith virus will cause the difficulty of the dungeon to get out of control and lead to an unknown development.

The reason why the followers of the evil god suffered heavy losses in that world instance was probably not only due to the restraining power of the Abyss Game, but also because the instance was out of control.

The reason why the four major organizations hesitated so much was because this world instance was too important for them to give up.

This world instance will be a turning point in the real world, and also the beginning of the next stage of the Abyss game.

Missing this world instance is tantamount to missing the future; they cannot afford to give up.

Using the Faith Virus now would be like killing a thousand enemies while losing a hundred of your own, essentially blowing up the Light Society. No wonder their decision was so difficult.

On the other side, while Wu Changzhen was listening to Hou Jingchuan and Shi Ning describe the Faith Virus, his true form was also questioning the Omniscient Crystal.

Omniscient Crystal's answer largely matched Hou Jingchuan and Shi Ning's descriptions, with only some details added by Omniscient Crystal.

For example, the reason why the faith virus can be reported is because creating the faith virus requires the highest level of authority of the four major organizations.

Only temporary administrative privileges at the highest level can utilize the Abyss Game Administrator's abilities to some extent, triggering the Abyss Game's suppressive force.

Creating the Faith Virus is extremely costly, requiring not only a large number of precious extraordinary items, but also items worth the equivalent of an S-grade item.

Each time it is created, the highest authority of the four major organizations will be unavailable for a period of time.

In addition to this, there was another matter that Hou Jingchuan and others held back about him.

Inside the meeting room, Hou Jingchuan said, "Your Excellency Peace, there is one more thing I think is necessary to tell you about the Faith Virus."

Wu Chang said, "What?"

Hou Jingchuan said cautiously:

"Although the Faith Virus uses faith as a trigger to amplify the destruction of the dimensional order brought about by faith, once its reporting effect takes effect, violations outside of faith may also be targeted by the Abyss Game's suppressive force."

"If you open, cough, if you accidentally use some illegal methods while tackling dungeons, you may be implicated."

Wu Chang glanced at Hou Jingchuan and thought to himself that Hou Jingchuan was honest enough to have mentioned the only possible risk.

However, Hou Jingchuan was wrong. Wu Chang's performance in the instance was entirely due to his hard work and effort, without any violation of the rules.

He said, "I'll take this job."

(End of this chapter)