System Notification: You have slain Ogarra and gained 500 reputation points!
System Notification: You have slain Ogarra and gained 5 charisma points!
It seemed the system sensed Xiao Hua's anger, and now he received two belated notifications!
Upon seeing these notifications, Xiao Hua's mood immediately improved. Even if he knew the system would reveal his name, he would still choose to kill Ogarra again without hesitation!
Outside the Dark Temple, the forced plot scene ended for all players, and they resumed their activities – killing monsters, completing quests, or whatever else they were doing. However, within the Dark Temple, after the global forced plot scene concluded, another forced plot scene began!
Everyone remained immobilized, but the fallen dark angel Ogarra suddenly floated upward from the ground!
"This is a trap. Ogarra willingly served as bait and set up a mechanism within the Dark Temple. Upon his death, his body would become the key to activate the mechanism, trapping all humans who entered the Dark Temple!"
As the subtitles appeared, a stream of black light emanated from Ogarra's body, growing stronger and forming a massive black energy vortex above Xiao Hua's head! Like a black hole, the vortex began to crazily suck everything around into itself. Those spells that were suspended in midair, mere meters away from Xiao Hua, were instantly pulled into the black vortex!
At this moment, the forced plot scene also disappeared. Xiao Hua felt an irresistible force pulling him into the vortex!
Xiao Hua was not the only one being sucked into the black vortex. Some players from the Oak Forest Guild, who were closer to the altar, also succumbed to the vortex's massive gravitational pull and were drawn in.
As the first one to be sucked in, Xiao Hua spun deeper and deeper into the vortex. As he spun, he saw one player after another being pulled in, but unlike him, they did not sink further into the vortex. Instead, the tanks with the most HP soon began to dissipate into white light upon entering the vortex.
The Flower of Darkness was at work again!
Though there was no system notification, Xiao Hua was dizzy from the spinning but guessed what was happening.
After spinning for quite some time, no more players were being pulled in, yet Xiao Hua found himself still spiraling without stopping.
Is this a bug? How long will this go on?
Xiao Hua was annoyed and thought it was not a good idea to keep spinning in the vortex. Just as he planned to seek help from Capella or Avio, the mainframe suddenly spoke!
But this had nothing to do with Xiao Hua being stuck in the black vortex!
System Announcement: The Huaxia region has completed the first chapter's main storyline mission first. All players in the Huaxia region will receive a 20% increase in monster-killing experience for 30 days!
System Announcement: The first chapter "Shadow of Doubt" ends, and the second chapter "Age of Chaos" officially begins!
The following major updates will be implemented:
1. Faction mode is enabled. Players can apply to join their preferred faction via NPCs in major cities or in the wild. Different factions have different rights and restrictions. For details, consult the relevant NPCs.
2. Attributes of monsters level 40 and above have been significantly enhanced, and all monster drop items have changed.
3. Death penalties have been increased.
4. In conjunction with the new death penalties, skill levels have been refined. God-level skill missions are now available, and the experience required for leveling up has been reduced!
5. A large number of new items are introduced, and the free creation system for life skills is now open!
6. The pet system is now open. Pet eggs can be obtained from various monsters or NPCs. Different pet eggs have different hatching methods!
7. The race system is now open. Players can join a race by finding the relevant NPCs and completing corresponding quests. Different races have unique abilities and may slightly affect a player's appearance!
8. The adventurer team system is now open. For details, visit the newly opened adventurer guilds in major cities!
9. The main storyline missions of the second chapter are now open!
System Announcement: Due to the extensive updates, all players will be forcibly returned to the login space in 30 seconds. Please stop your current activities to avoid unnecessary losses. The estimated update duration is 1 hour. An announcement will be made when the update is complete. Countdown starts now! 30, 29, 28…
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Damn! What kind of update is this? I'm still stuck here!
Xiao Hua hurriedly entered the system help channel and sought assistance from online spirit 007. These online spirits weren't real spirits but intelligent avatars controlled by Capella and Avio. Usually, they responded promptly, and you could chat with them when bored. However, asking boring questions would result in merciless punishment from the two ladies.
Usually, the online spirit replied very quickly, but this time, after Xiao Hua sent his question, the online spirit immediately responded, "Sorry, during the system update, please leave a message after the beep, and I'll answer you as soon as possible after the update completes. Thank you for your support!"
"...". Faced with this familiar official response, Xiao Hua was momentarily at a loss for words.
Xiao Hua's body continued to spin endlessly in the black energy vortex, and the black hole above his head gradually shrank.
Thirty seconds later, Xiao Hua was ruthlessly ejected back to the login space, temporarily escaping the tragic situation of being trapped in the vortex.
Having not returned to the login space for a long time, Xiao Hua noticed a small change. In the previously empty space, several bookshelves had appeared, which would prevent boredom during the wait.
The emergency NPC still floated vaguely beside the pedestal. Xiao Hua browsed through the books on the shelves and found that they covered everything, as if the game's library had been moved here.
He casually picked up a book and sat on the shelf to read slowly.
An hour passed quickly. As soon as the system announced the completion of the update, Xiao Hua eagerly stepped onto the pedestal and logged back into the game.
Where am I?
Upon logging in, Xiao Hua found himself in an unfamiliar environment.
The system time was still daytime. Judging from the surrounding Roman-style low-rise buildings, he was likely in a small town. However, Xiao Hua felt a chill, as he saw no players on the long street, only a few NPCs walking around!
But as long as he wasn't stuck in the black vortex, it was fine. Given that airships were unusable and that he had been exposed by the system for stealing the boss, leaving Maple City was obviously more advantageous.
"Let's see the attributes of those two items first!" Xiao Hua quickly put aside his troubles, adhering to the philosophy of taking things step by step. At least he was safe now. Recalling the two items he had obtained from Ogarra, he immediately checked his backpack.
The first item, "Broken Fallen Angel's Wing"!
Broken Fallen Angel's Wing: A wing shed from a fallen angel, unfortunately, it is badly damaged. If repaired, it could serve a greater purpose. This item is a special equipment piece that can only be equipped by non-Light faction players of the flying race class. It consumes MP and grants the player a brief period of low-altitude slow flight!
The second item, a black greatsword named "Sky-Piercing Sword"!
Sky-Piercing Sword (Sub-Artifact): A greatsword with unique abilities. According to legend, this sword can cleave through the sky and is incredibly powerful!
Attributes: Physical Attack 520-710, Level 50 required to equip, binds upon equip.
Strength +50
Agility +40
Stamina +60
Additional Skill: Sky-Piercing Strike, Divine Power!
Sky-Piercing Strike: 20% chance to ignore target's physical defense. When ignoring defense, there is a 30% chance to deal 400% damage!
Divine Power: Increases strength by 100 points instantly, lasts for 50 seconds, cooldown time is 5 minutes!
Sweat! The first item, Broken Fallen Angel's Wing, was fine since it only provided auxiliary effects until repaired, and the equipment requirements were relatively high. But the second item, the Sky-Piercing Sword, made Xiao Hua break out in cold sweat! The physical attack of this sword alone could rival the total attack power of his entire equipment set. To put it bluntly, if he were unlucky enough to be hit by a warrior wielding this sword, he could be instantly killed. Any warrior with this weapon would be nearly invincible!
Fortunately, this overpowered weapon landed in his hands. He'd rather let it rot in storage than let it fall into the wrong hands!
Thinking of this, Xiao Hua immediately began searching for a warehouse NPC in the small town.
This place was indeed a small town, devoid of any player presence. Everywhere he looked, there were only leisurely NPCs. If it were any other time, Xiao Hua would start building relationships with these NPCs to look for worthwhile quests, but now was clearly not the time. After spending over ten minutes, he found an old man, the warehouse NPC, in a remote corner of the town.
Putting the Sky-Piercing Sword and the Broken Fallen Angel's Wing into the warehouse, Xiao Hua checked his inventory and noticed that he had accumulated a lot of unused items, which might soon fill up his storage space.
His gaze swept over the items in the warehouse, and his eyes suddenly fell on a black and a white egg. With the pet system now open, these two eggs might prove useful!
Pets grow gradually, much like mounts. The earlier they are raised, the more benefits they provide. Xiao Hua immediately reached out to take the two eggs and examine how to hatch one.
First, the Giant Turtle Egg. When he took it out, he noticed that the description of the Giant Turtle Egg had indeed changed!
Giant Turtle Egg: A rare pet egg that can hatch into a pet giant turtle with strong defensive capabilities!
Hmm, it really is a pet egg. Based on the description, it shouldn't be too bad, except he still wasn't sure how to hatch it.
Xiao Hua reached out again and picked up the black egg. As soon as he touched the black egg, it suddenly changed!