Chapter 187 – The Heart of Malediction

Translated by ALy

Edited by Canis, Cien, Dray

The eerie statue towered in the middle of the hall. The figure’s empty face coupled with a lingering white haze and countless kneeling people painted a rather unsettling picture.

Fatty nimbly strode forward, weaving between the Spirits of Misfortune. He’d been cursed with various permanent debuffs: speed decrease, HP decrease, potion effectiveness decrease, etc.

The countless people within the Hall of Misfortune were each a spirit formed from misfortune. When one disappeared, another was instantly born; there was no end to them. At the moment, these spirits, with their ashen faces and wide grayish eyes, surrounded Fatty and hurled themselves at him one after the other. More and more Spirits of Misfortune flocked to him, every one a bodiless entity immune to attack and defense.

Fatty could only gawk as they flung themselves at him, accompanied by a series of system notifications pinging in his ears.

Gradually, his movement grew slower and slower; his max health dropped lower and lower; and, even his appearance changed. White appeared in his hair as he looked tragically older and older.

Thud! The Skeletal Dragon that Fatty had summoned perished under all the curses, and Fatty was knocked out of “mounted” status.

Earthwalk. Fatty used the Movement Art a third time and directly slipped beneath the circling spirits to appear under the statue’s feet.

Swish! All the spirits immediately turned and gathered around Fatty anew.

The God of Misfortune’s bowed head was like that of a majestic, motionless idol surveying ants on the ground, as if it didn’t see Fatty at all. Fatty weakly swung the Elemental Sword. Clank! With a small noise, a default –1 damage rose from the attack.

“The statue of a God Expert is indeed the statue of a God Expert,” he praised.

Climbing onto the statue’s throne with difficulty, Fatty took a look around the hall. The interior was extremely luxurious with gold and jewels; however, most of it was just for decoration and couldn’t be removed. Aside from the army of spirits and the statue, there wasn’t a single useful object.

“Hisss! Rooaar!” The spirits hissed and screamed as they climbed up the throne right behind Fatty, exhibiting an undying intent to curse him to death.

“You defilers! You should all be publicly beheaded!” Fatty yelped, pointing at the Spirits of Misfortune. He was forced to crawl upward once again.

In the midst of his climb, Fatty suddenly felt something wasn’t right. An originally vague idea suddenly became clear in his head. This is the God of Misfortune; it should only have the ability to create misfortune. How does it have the ability to curse if it isn’t the God of Curses or something? Could it be that misfortunes and curses are one and the same?

But, he didn’t have long to ponder as a spirit closed in on his heels.

Crawling up about 40 or 50 meters to the statue’s chest, Fatty saw a feeble white light radiating from within the statue, as if treasure was hidden inside. “Huh? What’s this?”

“So, it’s hidden here!” Fatty was overjoyed. Finally, something at last! This trip wasn’t in vain! Quickly pulling out the Elemental Sword, he started to dig at the chest.

The statue was made of an unknown material pretty impervious to the sword. After half a day, the elementalist had only carved out a shallow hole. Additionally, the hole had been regenerating with the system’s reset.

Pff! A spirit snagged Fatty’s foot and immediately merged into his body.

Ding!

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

System Notification: The Spirit of Misfortune has cursed you. After one hour, you will be permanently blind.

I have one hour left. Fatty ruminated. He moved to another spot to evade the spirits’ attacks and considered how to retrieve the object inside the statue.

Just then, the elementalist felt his map vibrate. Rumble… He quickly opened it and saw dozens of red spots appear on the map. There are other players entering this place again.

He quickly consulted his squad about this development and was surprised to learn they were all unaware. From the looks of it, the alert about the new group was only available to the squad leader.

“Fatty, you can stay in there to get the object without worry. Leave things out here to us,” said HeadofGod. “Besides the fact that they won’t be able to reach the Paradise of Misfortune for a while, even if they do, we can still send them on a free trip back.” HeadofGod didn’t exaggerate. The new group’s strength really wasn’t enough to make the Fat Squad get serious.

Fatty chuckled faintly and tossed the matter to the back of his mind, then continued to think of a method to dig into the statue.

The whole statue seemed to be sculpted from one entire chunk of an unknown material. On top of that, it was fortified by the supreme power of the God of Misfortune, making it all the more solid. Even the sharp Elemental Sword couldn’t cut through the surface.

The object inside was a mystery as well. It emitted spots of white light and imbued the statue with a bizarre dignity. When the spots of light reflected off him, Fatty felt as if countless ants were crawling around inside his body, and all his hair stood on end.

Unexpectedly, the Spirits of Misfortune stopped at the middle of the statue and didn’t dare climb farther due to the presence of the light. Their originally emotionless ash gray eyes revealed a hint of fear. The spirits bared their claws and helplessly brandished their arms, yet were unable to reach Fatty at all. The spirit threat was temporarily solved.

Metalwalk. Lacking a better option, the he could only try a Movement Art.

Whoosh! Fatty vanished on the spot.

“AAH!”

A tragic scream rang out from inside the statue. A figure had materialized three meters beneath the statue’s surface. The person had an extended arm, and his head was a little twisted, like a worm sealed inside a hunk of amber.

“Damn it! Why is it so hard to move?!” Fatty was stuck. He originally wanted to ‘walk’ ten meters inside, but unexpectedly stopped at three. “Again!” He persisted in using Metalwalk. After three more times, he finally reached the center of the statue.

In this place, the white luminance was far brighter and denser. Each halo diffused and rendered a person unable to open their eyes. Every part of the statue was dyed with this white light and looked like the highest quality white gold.

Thump! Thump! A sound similar to that of heart throbbing echoed. The closer to the white light, the clearer the sound grew. Led by this sound, Fatty’s heartbeat gradually mimicked the frequency. Thin streaks of blood started to stream from his eyes, nose, and mouth. His body, already weakened by curses, immediately failed to hold up against this sonic attack.

“Spatial Spoon.” Fatty strained to draw out the tool. In a flash, he disappeared from within the statue.

“Whew!” Sitting down in his secluded dimension, Fatty’s forehead dripped with sweat, and blood continued to pour like a fountain. After stuffing several red pills in his mouth, his HP finally stopped plummeting.

The private dimension was detached from the outside world, running parallel to it. In a normal situation, entering the dimension meant eluding danger; however, at the moment, Fatty could still hear the heartbeat and be affected. Fortunately, the effect was greatly weakened; so, the elementalist could remain in his dimension without worry and observe the radiant object.

It was a heart. To be more exact, it was the kind of heart that was a meter wide, ghastly white, and had numerous ferocious faces that could scare a person witless with a single glance bulging from its surface.

“A heart? Is this the thing Sevik wanted?”

A doubt arose in Fatty’s own heart. What does Sevik want this terrifying thing for? Could it be…? He thought of one possibility.

Seeing the image Fatty transmitted, the others were stunned as well. “What? A heart?” Such a big hall actually contains nothing more than this eerie heart?

“So disgusting!” Qian Xiaoqian and the girls rushed to close the image.

“Any way to get it out?” asked West Gate Blowingwind. The brat actually looked pretty excited.

“I’ll try.” After his rest, Fatty’s health was fully restored, and he stepped out of his dimension. A ten-square-meter radius in which he could walk surrounded the heart.

Whoosh! As soon as Fatty appeared in the space, a majestic voice boomed by his ears:

“I, Aurista, in the name of the God of Malediction, condemn you to eternal darkness.”

“I, Aurista, in the name of the God of Malediction, condemn you to eternal agony.”

“I, Aurista, in the name of the God of Malediction, condemn you to eternal exile.”

“I, Aurista, in the name of the God of Malediction, condemn you…”

Along with this voice, every time the heart beat was accompanied by an unknown force of power that enshrouded the statue, putting it under a bizarre state of being cursed.

The God of Malediction? Fatty was dumbstruck. How did the heart of the Malediction God get inside the Misfortune God’s statue?!

But, he had no time to think about it. The moment Fatty had stepped from his private dimension, the force of the curses had come crashing back, like a tidal wave, and twined about his body.

Frailty, pain, fear… Almost every negative state quickly buried him. In that instant, Fatty felt as if he had fallen into eternal darkness. No light, no heat, no sound, nothing. Only every kind of fear stuck to him like a shadow that slowly consumed his soul.

“Ahhh…!” Fatty let out a wretched scream. Blood gushed from his orifices, and the man fell limply to the ground.

Swoosh! Suddenly, a five-colored light shot out from his set of Elemental Equipment and formed an aura that rejuvenated Fatty inside. The warmth it emitted alleviated his pain a little.

“Hoo… hoo…” Fatty panted. Just then, his health had reached a terrifyingly low point below 1% in the blink of an eye.

“Fatty, what’s wrong?” The squad grew anxious when they heard Fatty’s miserable shout.

Nearly crying, Qian Xiaoqian pleaded, “Bro, just come out if it can’t be done!”

“Hehe, it’s nothing.” Looking at the five-colored aura around him, Fatty still felt a lingering fear in his heart. If the Elemental Equipment hadn’t suddenly exploded with might, he would have died already.

Yet, Fatty was still being gradually weakened despite the light blocking the heart’s curse. Very soon, he only had a sliver of health left.

Fatty stood, caught his breath, and fully replenished his health. Then, he stretched out his arm through the five-colored barrier and grabbed the big heart. He viciously yanked at it.

Ding!

System Notification: Congratulations! You have acquired the Heart of Malediction.