This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 358, Section 357: The Discarded Case
The far north, north of the Stone Fortress Underground City, lies a vast ice plain.

"Hiss—! It's so cold!"

"Indeed... it's been a long time since I've experienced this biting cold. I should have brought a warm one with me!"

Two Mushroom-born individuals sat on a makeshift cart, rubbing their almost frozen arms.

The cart was piled high with all sorts of magical materials, and pulling it were two rows of hardworking sleds chugging along on the ice and snow.

Their destination was a small open-air testing ground built against a steep ice wall.

This is a place that Lin Jun specially chose for testing dangerous abyss magic.

It is remote and deserted, surrounded by a vast carpet of fungi.

Even if something unexpected happens, there is enough buffer zone to deal with it calmly.

Xinghuo had arrived earlier and was currently drawing a complex magic circle on the ground using materials.

The abyss-related magic books that Lin Jun obtained from Margas contained only profound and unfathomable high-level abyss magic, which Lin Jun could only roughly understand.

But after finding many basic abyss magic tomes in the Stone Forest, Lin Jun finally understood one thing: it's no wonder that abyss magic can't develop!
Its most distinctive feature is that all abyssal magic must be cast through a complete "ritual," and there is no type that can be cast instantly like fireball.

Moreover, for magic of the same level, the complexity and forbidden items of Abyss rituals far exceed those of other factions.

Take, for example, the relatively basic "servant summoning ritual" that Lin Jun is currently preparing to try. Only a quarter of the entire book describes the materials and setup methods required for the ritual, while the remaining three-quarters are all incessantly listing various precautions, warning signals, and safety measures!

For example, in addition to the regular materials required for the core of the magic circle and a low-level contract scroll, the ritual must also include a separate "disruption circle" to ensure that the caster can forcibly interrupt the ritual at any time before the summoning is completed.

The book records many similar insurance methods, and the words seem to be imbued with the lessons learned by predecessors at the cost of their blood.

Offerings are also a mandatory requirement of the ritual, and they must be healthy, conscious, and full of vitality—intelligent beings.

Their role is to "resist the erosion of the abyss" at the crucial moment when the spellcaster initiates the ritual.

According to Lin Jun's understanding, these offerings are essentially "human buffers" that carry information garbage. Before they are filled up and collapse, the garbage information flow will not directly impact the spellcaster.

However, Lin Jun does not intend to use sacrificial offerings this time.

Every living intelligent being, even those collected social dregs, is a valuable talent in his eyes, and cannot be wasted in this way.

Furthermore, Lin Jun already had the intention of collecting and analyzing that "junk information," so not needing a sacrifice would kill two birds with one stone.

The most frustrating thing about abyssal magic is that even if you prepare everything in meticulous detail, the outcome is still full of great uncertainty.

The book Lin Jun had listed dozens of abnormal situations in which the interference array had to be activated immediately once a sign appeared. It was enough to make one's scalp tingle and feel that the success rate of normal spellcasting was so low that it was despairing!

At the end of the book, in bold, is a concluding statement: "The abyss bestows no favors, only equivalent exchanges. Every bit of power you gain is built upon the ashes of sacrifices and the risk of your own descent into collapse, without exception."

Further down, there is a line of slightly messy handwriting, seemingly a reflection from a former owner:

“They are not knowledge, but the manifestation of curses… but power is real…”

Shen Shen nagging.

After the setup was completed, Lin Jun sent the mushroom offspring back, and a group of poops emerged from the fungal carpet.

Controlling Puji, he carefully checked every detail of the magic circle again to confirm that there were no flaws.

Then, several Puji voluntarily climbed onto the magic nodes that should have been occupied by the living sacrifices and sat quietly. Finally, a Puji specifically responsible for casting the spell activated the entire ritual magic circle.

The dark magic runes suddenly lit up, emitting an ominous glow.

Almost at the same instant the magic circle was activated, Lin Jun once again clearly sensed those massive and disordered "junk information"!
[Arm length 1.2 meters, four-finger structure]

……

[Reproductive Capacity Level: 3.3]

……

Perhaps because this ceremony was of a lower level, the intensity and volume of the information flow were far less terrifying than when we directly faced the void last time.

It felt like an old radio with a poor signal, constantly emitting vague static.

Lin Jun felt that with her current information processing ability, it seemed that there wouldn't be any major problems in continuing to receive information like this.

The only problem is that the makeshift, low-level magic circle beneath our feet simply can't hold for that long...

He temporarily set aside the junk information and focused his attention on the ceremony itself.

The magical ritual was proceeding smoothly. In the center of the magic circle, a chaotic and blurry black mist appeared out of thin air and began to gradually condense.

The mist churned, and something seemed to be struggling to solidify within it.

Through the hazy mist, the gradually forming outline looked...like a...ball of yarn?

A tangled, constantly wriggling ball of yarn?

This form is not among the seven known forms considered "safe" as recorded in the magic book, but it is also not on the blacklist of 42 "dangerous" forms.

Given the unknown nature of the situation, according to the book, the safest course of action at this moment would be to immediately interrupt the ritual.

But Lin Jun didn't do that. Because he had already seen its panel information:
[Race: Shadow Insect (Scrapped Draft)]

[Level: LV3]

[Skill: Shadow Blend LV1]

The ball of yarn was actually the tangled body of an insect. It twisted and turned, gradually merging into the shadows cast by the stone wall, at a rather slow pace.

Before it completely disappeared into the shadows, Lin Jun, through a pre-established contractual connection, forcibly issued an order to pull it back from the edge of the shadows.

However, Lin Jun's attention was no longer on the summoned creature itself at this moment.

What a load of rubbish! When I first came across the Abyss information, I felt that it was some kind of discarded data, and now it seems that I was right!
Is this world really just a game?

So, who is the "planner" of the game?

Are they those legendary, high-ranking deities?
Lin Jun is feeling very unwell. If this world is really just a pre-designed game, then who exactly is he?

A player who is addicted to it without realizing it?
Or is he an NPC who thinks he has free will, but whose fate has already been programmed?

Then what about Little Black, Norris, Little Pig, Hunter...?
Data with rich backstories, yet capable of being reset or deleted at any time?
This feeling is awful, even worse than being dried out in the sun...

(End of this chapter)