Chapter 853

“Squad… Squad Leader? Are you pulling our legs here?”

Shockbolt’s eyes were wide open as he looked at Tempest, who was on the pillar. Tempest had completely lost his original appearance.

That fellow earlier… just what did he do?

The three of them had strengthened their basic attributes to their very limits. Even so, they had failed to see just how Tempest came under attack.

All they saw was… a flash of light?

“Don’t be afraid!” Moonlight forced out a smile. “We have all redeemed Osiris’ Promise of Eternal Life. Even if we take fatal damage, we will be revived. All we’ll suffer is one level reduction in all attributes. Right now, we do not need points for any strengthening stuff. We can just strengthen the lost attributes again.”

“Right… that’s right.” Shockbolt too forced out a smile. “We’ve redeemed so many strengthening stuff. With the exception of a system-level obliteration, we can no longer truly be killed. Hey, Squad Leader, stop messing around and get up.”

However, the pillar continued to remain silent and nothing changed. The only exception were the blood and bits of broken body that were slowly flowing down the pillar.

“Hey, Squad Leader…”

Shockbolt’s face began to pale.

“Stop calling… Tempest is dead.”

Swift Swallow slowly walked over until she was behind Shockbolt, her voice as soft as paper. “The system has already given the prompt to change our Squad Leader.”

“That’s impossible!” Shockbolt abruptly swivelled around. Staring right at Swift Swallow, he roared loudly, “We’ve all redeemed death-exemption type skills! More, those are skills that you normally cannot redeem from the shop. Those are reward skills that you can only obtain by completing instance dungeon quests. How could we be killed by others with just one blow? That’s not a system-level obliteration!”

“But Tempest is indeed dead.” Swift Swallow raised her hand to point at the blood that was slowly trickling down the pillar. “You’ve seen it as well.”

Suddenly, Shockbolt’s entire body trembled.

He felt true fear.

Originally, the four of them had firmly believed that they had reached the realm of invincibility, be it through a system BUG or by accidentally triggering a special instance dungeon reward.

But now…

His entire worldview was beginning to shake.

“What do we do?” Shockbolt was a mess and his mind went blank. “Will those two natives… kill us?”

“Probably not.” Swift Swallow pondered for a moment before slowly shaking her head. “The first native was more preoccupied with running away and he did not unleash any fatal moves against us. As for the second native… I speculate that the reason Tempest died was simply because he was blocking the guy’s path.”

“He was blocking the way? Just for that reason?!” Moonlight looked at Swift Swallow in disbelief. “What nonsense is this?”

Swift Swallow sighed.

“There’s no other explanation. Now, I finally understand… why the system would suddenly allow us to strengthen ourselves to the point that’s beyond the norm. However… even the system did not expect that after giving us such an absurd amount of strengthening, we would still be no match for our opponents. Because those two fellows are truly so strong that they could be described as horrifying. Rather… it has exceeded the system’s range for normal strengthening.

“But there’s no need to worry.” Seeing Moonlight about to speak up, Swift Swallow shook her head and continued, “It doesn’t matter how the two natives’ chase is concluded, this instance dungeon will be completed in the end. Those two also will not deliberately come after us. We do not need to do anything. We just need to wait here. Once this instance dungeon is completed, we will be teleported out.”

“For real?” A look of hope appeared on Moonlight’s face. “Then, our privileges, and all the strengthening and equipment we’ve redeemed, can we keep them?”

“I don’t know either…” Swift Swallow sighed softly. “That will depend on what the Development Team thinks…”

“No, you fellows will not be able to keep them.”

A voice suddenly rang out.

The three of them jumped, every nerve in their bodies tense as they looked around.

However, apart from the debris of the destroyed Temple of Cancer, there wasn’t even a shadow in sight.

“Who is it?” Moonlight raised his head skywards and shouted.

“Come out!”

“No need to be so anxious.” The voice seemingly came from right beside their ears, so very soft. There was no way to tell what gender the other person was.

“I am… a member of the Development Team.”

Development Team!

The three of them grew stunned.

Within the small circle of information exchange between Players, there were rumours of the Development Team directly communicating with Players. However, that was but a vague rumour.

Within the knowledge of all the Players, the concept of the ‘Development Team’ was something that would forever exist only in system prompts and instance dungeon descriptions.

They had never imagined; a day would come when they would communicate directly with the Development Team.

“Err… may I ask, how should we address you?” Swift Swallow took a deep breath and spoke loudly.

“Most of the time, the monitoring of this world is mostly left to the Main Controller. Due to that, we failed to notice the emergence of such a serious issue.” The member of the Development Team did not answer Swift Swallow’s question. “Originally, I had assumed that by temporarily activating the authority for you guys, you would be able to resolve this issue. However, the result informs me that I was wrong.”

“So… are you now going to take back these… gifts?” Shockbolt stuttered somewhat.

It was an unexpected windfall that went beyond the limits of their imagination so much so that they had become so excited upon obtaining them. If so, how tortured would they become if they lose them all?

“Yes. Chen Xiaolian and Shen. The two of them have come to possess a power that surpasses the system’s range of strengthening. Relying on the available redemptions alone, no matter what you guys do, you will be no match for them. However…”

“However what?” Swift Swallow had keenly heard a glimmer of hope from the Dev’s tone.

“However, the problem that needs to be resolved has to the resolved. They have obtained the authority and power that they should not have obtained. Not even dispatching the Electronic Guardians would resolve this problem. In fact… we are also incapable of directly obliterating them. Thus, we will provide you fellows with a new power, a power that could truly resolve this problem.” The Dev’s voice remained soft, but to the three of them, every word was like roaring thunder.

“This… what kind of power is it? Are you sure it will be stronger than those two guys?” Moonlight could not stop himself from speaking up.

“Of course.” The Dev responded with a faint chuckle. “I will be providing you fellows with special bodies, the Exclusive Accounts that we use to test this world.”

Following the Dev’s voice, countless dust-like motes of light lit up before the three of them and three bodies slowly appeared within the motes of light.

All three bodies had their eyes open, but no life could be seen within their pupils. They did not appear in any way alive. Even so, they looked as though they had been carved out with the most delicate carving knife. From head to toe, there wasn’t a single flaw to be found on the bodies.

Only one word could be used to describe the three bodies.

Perfection!

Their good looks aside, the biggest distinctive aspect was the pair of white wings on the back of each body.

“Given the current situation, no matter how much we strengthen your bodies, there is no way you can obtain a power surpassing that of a BUG. Thus, you fellows must change into a new body. Only then will you be able to complete the objective,” the Dev continued.

“These are… for us?” Moonlight had to firmly press his chest. That was the only way to stop his heart from beating too quickly. “Permanently?”

Even without any explanations, he could guess just how powerful the body used exclusively by the Development Team would be.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“If you fellows can smoothly complete the quest.” The Dev sounded as though he was smiling.

“Then… what should we do?” Swift Swallow forced herself to suppress the desire to scream and did her best to calmly ask.

“You do not need to do anything. I will control your consciousness and load them into the Exclusive Accounts.”

Suddenly, everything before their eyes turned black and the whole world seemingly jumped.

Their bodies, which had been standing up, turned limp simultaneously and fell to the ground.

Slowly, the three winged bodies that were lying on the ground opened their eyes and sat up.

“So… it’s like this…”

Shockbolt stood up. He slowly turned his head around. First, he looked down at his palms. Then, he looked around him.

Everything in his sights had been transformed into countless flowing green code.

“This is… true power!

“Everything that we’ve seen in instance dungeons, all the things we’ve seen on the System Exchange’s menu… they’re all but a shell!

“It is only after having discarded that layer of shell that we are truly able to make contact with the essence of power!”

All three of them burst into a wild laugh.

“Come, let’s go kill those two natives!”