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

Chapter 543 Private Space and the Wanderer

Perhaps as a side effect of gaining the ability to time, Valentine's body rapidly deteriorated and disappeared after his death.

Apart from the vial of blood he left for Wu Chang, he left nothing else.

Wu Chang looked at Valentine's blood-red last words. The first half of the blood-red last words, about finding Valentine's daughter, goes without saying. The second half, about killing Loki, should be the sentence that Valentine wanted to say but couldn't bring himself to say.

Valentine didn't have much time left and couldn't negotiate with Wu Chang. He offered his own blood as payment, only asking Wu Chang to do one thing for him.

Compared to his daughter, killing Loki seemed less important.

"When a player kills the controller of the Reason-8742 instance space, the Reason-8742 instance space becomes the player's private space. The player has management privileges within this private space, and targets not authorized by the player will not be able to enter this space."

"As the controller, the player is anchored to the Reason-8742 instance space. When entering the Temple of Truth, the player can choose to appear directly in this private space."

"Because the 8742 instance space has been eroded into the Realm of Reason, regardless of whether a player exists in this private space, the flow of time in the private space and in reality is fixed at 1:1."

"In private spaces, players are unaffected by the abyssal corruption of the non-safe zones of the Temple of Truth."

"The maximum capacity of the 8742 instance space is 500 people. Maintaining the private space requires 100 energy crystals per month. For each additional player, an additional 5 energy crystals will be consumed."

"Energy crystals can be obtained by refining energy ore, killing wilderness monsters, trading between players, and purchasing them at the Temple of Truth."

"Warning: The private space will collapse if not provided with enough energy crystals."

With Valentine's death, the Plague Source instance was broken by Wu Chang and became his private space.

Although the methods of obtaining the private space in the Realm of Reason and the Private Space in the Desolate Realm are different, both require resources to maintain. In the Desolate Realm, rent is paid to the Crimson Garden, while in the Realm, energy crystals are consumed.

He obtained information about the energy crystals along with the coordinates of Base 44.

Energy crystals are energy minerals that spontaneously form due to the high concentration of erosion from the abyss and the environment of the Temple of Truth. In the Realm of Reason, they are the hardest form of currency besides decaying silver coins.

It usually requires refining to obtain, and players must venture into the wilderness to find ores containing energy crystals for refining.

Generally speaking, a fist-sized piece of energy ore can be refined into a standard energy crystal.

These energy ores, rich in extraordinary energy, are favored by wild monsters and out-of-control bosses. Defeating them will cause the energy crystals that have not yet been fully absorbed by their bodies to condense again.

Each player sheltered in a β-level private space requires 5 energy crystals, but this is the cost. Solo players who want to obtain residency rights must pay at least 7 energy crystals, and in some spaces with favorable rules, they may even need to pay 10.

What should a player who has just been promoted to the Realm of Reason do if they don't have the ability to mine in the wilderness?
The answer is simple: buy.

The reason why energy crystals are considered the second most valuable currency after decaying silver coins is that energy crystals can be purchased with decaying silver coins.

Each energy crystal costs 1000 decayed silver coins. They can be exchanged infinitely in the official shop of the Temple of Truth, while the black market price is approximately 90% to 85% of the original price.

For the average player, clearing the simplest α-level dungeon with a passing rating will only yield 13000 Decaying Silver Coins. After deducting expenses for equipment repair and consumable supplies, the maximum remaining amount is 9000.

Even at black market prices, more than half of that goes to the private space, leaving less than 3000 for personal improvement.

If you encounter a difficult dungeon and only survive by chance, and your dungeon exploration level doesn't meet the requirements, then before entering the next dungeon, you can only pitch a tent in the controlled area and gamble with your life, living under high tension for 24 hours straight without being able to close your eyes.

Otherwise, even if you don't die in the eroded dungeon or from wild bosses, you might still die at the hands of other players.

If you enter a dungeon right before the 30-day deadline, like in the Wasteland, it will be difficult to accumulate enough resources to upgrade yourself, even if you conquer a β-level dungeon.

For most players, the increased cost of survival is the biggest difference between the Realm of Reason and the Realm of Wasteland.

Only after entering the Realm of Reason will players realize how expensive the safe environment they enjoy in the Wilderness truly is.

High survival costs highlight the advantages of the four major organizations.

Because all members of the four major organizations, after being promoted to the Realm of Reason, will be provided with private spaces by the authorities, and will not have to bear any costs for them.

This allows players from all four major organizations to invest all their resources in self-improvement without worrying about survival.

This alone is enough to create a huge gap between players from the four major organizations and ordinary players.

Wu Changcheng, as the controller of the plague's source space, naturally inherited Valentine's position as the Zombie King.

Valentine failed to control the zombie horde because he was only focused on finding his daughter and killing Loki, and had no interest in exploring his own abilities, not because he was incapable of doing so.

At this moment, Wu Changhua transformed into the Zombie King, and his inspiration instantly told him how to exercise this power.

He didn't need to return to Base 44, nor did he need to shout in a way that the zombies could hear. He only needed to stand in the disaster shelter and softly say:
“都回来吧。”

At the same time, the moment Wu Chang issued the order, the zombies fighting with Base 44 seemed to receive some kind of revelation, ceasing their attacks and instead turning to a defensive posture as they retreated towards Ain City.

As they left, they didn't forget to pick up their zombie companions from the ground.

The zombies in the plague's origin dimension are extremely resilient; as long as their brains are not completely destroyed, they can quickly recover from their injuries.

The four special zombies on the city wall, along with the giant mutated zombie that was frantically crashing into the wall, looked at the crumbling wall with resentment, but they could not disobey the zombie king's orders. They could only glare at the people in charge and turn away.

Faced with the departing zombie horde, the people at Base 44 were initially on high alert, not daring to relax their guard in the slightest. Only when they saw that the zombies had truly left and were not using any tricks did they finally relax completely.

With this lapse in concentration, several leaders were the first to give in and began to gasp for breath against the city wall.

If it had been another twenty minutes or so, they would have been prepared to abandon Base 44 and evacuate by aircraft.

Base 44 operates under the rules of the technology side. In order to adapt to the spatial rules, the people in charge who were sent here were mostly technology-side players.

However, the spatial rules at the source of the plague are the natural enemy of Base 44, which not only prevents Base 44 from utilizing its strengths, but also makes it difficult for the four leaders to exert their abilities.

The four struggled to hold off the special zombies in close combat.

If they were only facing zombies, they wouldn't be in such a sorry state. After all, the special zombies they were fighting were just elite monsters, not even mini-bosses, so they wouldn't have had much trouble dealing with them.

The problem is that the spatial rules of Base 44 have now become accomplices of the zombies.

Because high-tech weapons are ineffective against zombies, they are forced to fight using energy-based supernatural powers.

However, according to the rules of Base 44, using magic, spiritual energy, or other abilities in combat will temporarily deduct 1% of random attributes each time you make a move.

This negative effect is absolutely fatal for them.

The power used by the zombies is similar to the power of flesh and blood, and their attacks are mostly direct physical attacks, so they will not trigger the judgment of this rule.

However, the situation was different for the individuals in charge. These special zombies were thick-skinned and possessed powerful regenerative abilities. The damage they inflicted on these special zombies was not necessarily greater than the damage caused by the spatial rules.

In particular, these special zombies retain the commands they had before they died. Having realized this, they will not only dodge skills but also deliberately offer up parts of their bodies that do not affect the battle.

This made everyone hesitant to act, as they dared not make a move without being certain they would severely injure the special zombie.

Conversely, the special zombies were completely unrestrained, unleashing their attacks with abandon. To an unsuspecting observer, it would seem as if Base 44 was the zombies' home ground.

Although the battle was frustrating, the players were able to hold out for the time being.

They can hold out, but the walls of Base 44 won't hold.

The number of special zombies was far greater than they had imagined. In addition to the giant zombies that Wu Chang and Flash had seen, three more special zombies joined the demolition team. Under their leadership, the city wall was now teetering on the brink of collapse and could be breached at any moment.

Once the city walls fall, the Bureau staff will have no choice but to fight their way back towards the airport, abandoning control of Base 44.

Fortunately, the zombies stopped their attack before the city walls were breached.

Wei Rui, the person in charge of Base 44, looked at the retreating horde of zombies with confusion and asked:
"Why did they give up? Did the bureau's reinforcements arrive so quickly that experts have already posed a threat to the eroded instance?"

The second person in charge checked the information records and shook his head, saying:
"The progress I can see is that they are still selecting a suitable person to break the deadlock. I suggest we give up Base 44 for now. There is no information that a person has taken action to break the deadlock."

Wei Rui's confusion deepened. "What happened?"

Qin Lang, who was standing to the side, drank a bottle of stamina potion and finally caught his breath.

During the previous battle, when his skills were on cooldown, he released a burst of fireball in an attempt to force back the zombies that were getting close.

Unexpectedly, the zombie retreated and pulled away, avoiding being hit on the head by the fireball. As the exploding fireball was about to dissipate, it jumped up and deliberately rammed its belly into the fireball.

The zombie's abdomen was already a bloody mess, and this impact directly triggered more than thirty burn damages, resulting in thirty penalty judgments. What's worse, all thirty of these judgments were deducted from Qin Lang's already meager stamina.

This left him in a state of physical exhaustion and overload for a long time during subsequent battles, leaving his mind blank.

With the energy potion infused and fresh air entering his lungs, his mind finally cleared.

In the instant he regained consciousness, he happened to hear Wei Rui's question. He was initially puzzled, but then, as if remembering something, he opened the communication and asked Flash to confirm.

Two minutes later, when he received a confirmation from the other end of the flash, his mind went blank once again.

He stood up as if in a daze and said to Wei Rui and the others:

"I know why now."

The players on the city wall were instantly drawn to this sentence, and their eyes all turned to Qin Lang.

Wei Rui pressed further:
"Old Qin, what do you know?"

Qin Lang said:

"Just before the Erosion instance was approaching, a newcomer who had just been promoted to the Realm of Reason came to report to the base. At that time, there was a combat meeting for the Erosion instance, so I asked Flash to accompany him first."

"When the subsequent invasion of the erosion instance occurred, Flash was explaining the defensive distribution of the city wall area to him. It was he who saw through the dimensional rules of the erosion instance in just a few glances, saving us a lot of trouble and allowing us to quickly adjust our combat tactics."

Wei Rui looked enlightened and said:
"I only heard you say that you were a newcomer who had just arrived at the base. I didn't expect that you were so new to the Realm of Reason."

At this point, Wei Rui realized what was happening and asked:
"Could it be that he figured out the zombie horde's activity patterns again and lured them away using some method? If so, he's an extraordinary talent!"

Qin Lang shook his head and said in a hoarse, excited voice:

"No, it's much more exaggerated than you think."

"When we were at a complete disadvantage in the special zombie attack base, he told Flash that the zombies had come out in full force, and the interior of the dungeon would be left vulnerable, which would be the best opportunity to conquer the dungeon."

"He said he was good at navigating dungeons, stealth, and ambushes. If a boss in an Erosion dungeon is alone, he can try to assassinate it."

"I don't know how he convinced Flash. During the battle, Flash informed me that he wanted to enter the Erosion instance with that newcomer to try and break the deadlock."

"At the time, I thought that with Flash around, we could escape even in the worst-case scenario. In addition, that newcomer had outstanding observation skills. If he could discover any information to help the subsequent breakers complete the breakthrough, it would be a great achievement. So I agreed to their operation."

At this point, everyone on the city wall wore expressions of disbelief.

Especially Wei Rui, who shook his head and said:

"You really dare to send them? These mutated zombies have all sorts of strange abilities. What if some weird zombie leaves behind a flash of light?"

"Fortunately, the result was good. I didn't expect that newcomer to be so powerful. He was actually able to threaten the core area of ​​the zombies and force them to retreat."

"They gave us a huge breather this time. Even if the zombie horde comes back, we can hold out until reinforcements from the department arrive."

Qin Lang smiled wryly:
"I told you, it's even more outrageous than you think."

"I just contacted Flash, and he told me that the newbie successfully killed the Zombie King, broke through the dungeon, and has successfully taken control of that space."

"The zombies left because they were summoned by him."

After Qin Lang finished speaking, only one voice remained on the city wall.

"what?"

Everyone, including the person in charge, had a big question mark on their face.

For a newcomer who has just been promoted to the Realm of Reason to be able to break through an erosion instance that has driven Base 44 to the brink of despair, there must be something wrong with either this information or their ability to comprehend it.

By observing a part of the leopard, one can see the whole picture. From the combat power displayed by the special zombies, it is not difficult to see the strength of the erosion dungeon. If the elite monsters are this strong, how strong must the dungeon BOSS be?

And although the zombie horde is attacking Base 44, is the interior of the Erosion instance really empty?
There was no obvious power gap among the elite mutated zombies. Based on everyone's experience in conquering dungeons, there must be mini-bosses that were above the level of the mutated zombies.

They either lurk in the shadows preparing to launch a sneak attack, or remain inside the eroded instance, awaiting the orders of the instance's boss.

They all knew about Flash's abilities; he might be able to kill mutated zombies, but he was unlikely to be of any real use against mini-bosses or the final boss of a dungeon.

In other words, the new player in the dungeon was indeed the one who defeated the dungeon boss.

Everyone couldn't help but put themselves in the other person's shoes and consider the feasibility of infiltrating the instance alone and breaking the deadlock.

They quickly concluded that it was not feasible.

Aside from using cheat codes, they wouldn't even dare to dream of such content. It's not a question of whether it's feasible, but whether they can even comprehend it.

Compared to that newcomer, they were the ones who were as ignorant as newcomers.

After a brief moment of shock, Wei Rui seemed to remember something, and he exclaimed:

"Could the new recruit reporting to the base be named Leng Shan?"

As the former number one game-changer in the Desolate Realm and ranked first on the Desolate Realm's combat power list, Leng Shan's name is well-known to many members of the Reason Realm.

But such a genius, even if he had just been promoted to the Realm of Reason, wouldn't be assigned to Base 44, right?

Qin Lang said:

“It’s not Leng Shan, he said his name is Conghua (Scallion).”

Now everyone looked even more confused, clearly unfamiliar with the name.

Wei Rui couldn't help but sigh:

"We'll have to wait for that 'Onion Flower' to return to find out exactly what happened, but one thing is certain: it seems like we have a remarkable newcomer at our base."

The second person in charge couldn't help but correct him:
"If Lao Qin's intelligence is correct, and that newbie named Conghua really conquered the Erosion instance on the other side, then he is no longer one of our base's people, but the controller of Base 51."

"No, in terms of privacy level, the erosion instance on the other side is still above Base 44. Perhaps they are the ones who control Base 44, and we should be renaming it Base 45."

Wei Rui was taken aback upon hearing this and couldn't help but touch his sparse head.

The person who controls a private space and the person responsible for maintaining that space are two completely different concepts.

The controller is equivalent to a company director, while the person in charge is equivalent to a CEO, but is just an employee who helps manage the private space.

All the controllers were at least Level 3 Rangers, not on the same level as the executors like them. Unexpectedly, in just over an hour, the newcomer in the base transformed into his superior.

He looked at the several people in charge and said:
"Shouldn't we make some preparations so as not to neglect the future patrollers?"

Besides the attacked Base 44 and the Administration Bureau that received the request for support, another group of people were observing the changes on the ground.

Not far from Base 44, three people were observing the battle from a distance in their aircraft before it even began.

They were not only observers, but also the guides of this battle.

The zombie horde, which is not controlled by the Zombie King, will spread to the surrounding area on its own and launch an attack on Base 44 because they are secretly guiding it.

If Wu Chang were present, he would definitely recognize the three players in the aircraft as members of Loki's conquest team.

Their observations could not penetrate the spatial barrier of Base 44, but they could roughly estimate the form of the battle by observing the stability of the private space and the contamination value of the eroded copy.

According to their calculations, with the combat strength of Base 44, it could only hold out for a maximum of two hours. After two hours, Base 44 was destined to fall.

Before Base 44 falls and before the disruptor capable of taking down Valentine arrives, the Plague Source instance should still be able to devour two or three more private spaces.

With Base 44 on the verge of being breached, the three began setting up the next guidance plan when the leader suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the contamination detector at the source of the plague and shouting:

Is this instrument malfunctioning?

(End of this chapter)