Chapter 177: Total Silence

“Huh?” Gray Bear gaped. “Your Talent isn’t working?”

The others were shocked as well and immediately tried to use their Talents.

“Oh boy!” Can yelled. “I couldn’t go invisible...”

“Quiet.” Gao Yang quickly covered her mouth.

Can blinked, and Gao Yang let go of her.

She looked ready to burst into tears as she whispered, “I’ve become a muggle, Captain.”

Gao Yang attempted to activate Fire first thing. His energy was still there, but it was completely still like it was put into dormancy, unable to respond to its master’s call.

“Same for me,” Gao Yang said darkly.

“Fuck, I’m out too,” said Gray Bear.

“And me.” Black Sparrow scowled.

“Me, too,” said Ronnie.

“Same here.”

“Same.”

“Plus me.”

The responses came one after another, and the atmosphere grew tense.

In the end, everyone turned to Nine Frost. His Talent ranked higher and was level 5. Perhaps things would be different for him.

Nine Frost stayed silent with his brows tightly knitted. He didn’t need to say anything for them to know his answer: his Talent wasn’t working either.

Gray Bear turned to Xiran. “You brat, it’s not you, is it?”

“Of course not.” Xiran hurriedly explained. “My Talent isn’t working either.”

“It’s not Xiran,” said Lithe Snake. “He isn’t good enough to do this.”

“Yeah, my Mute is still level 3,” Xiran said, dejected. “If only I were good enough to make all of your Talents stop working entirely.”

“Then what is happening?” Gray Bear was irritated.

“Rune Circuit.” That was the only explanation Gao Yang could think of.

Everyone turned to him, surprised.

Gao Yang shared his guess without beating around the bush, “The Rune Circuit in this Rune Cave is very likely to be Support-type, and the strange sound we heard may be the Rune Circuit activating its ability to silence all of us.”

“Silence?” Gray Bear asked.

“That’s a gaming term, Vice-Captain,” Can explained. “It means sealing our Talents.”

Gray Bear pulled a long face and didn’t say anything.

They each went over the situation in their heads.

Gao Yang’s temples throbbed.

If his speculation was right, they were in big trouble. Without their Talents, they would lose the stats bonuses their Talents granted as well. That meant the twelve of them were now no different from regular humans.

He had to make sure.

[Access granted.]

—Check the status screen.

[Constitution: 28 Endurance: 27]

[Strength: 32 Agility: 40]

[Willpower: 41 Charisma: 30]

[Luck: 454]

—Fuck! What the hell?

[The special subspace negates all Talents and the bonuses they grant temporarily.]

—My stats should be higher even without the bonuses from Talents.

[Luck points allocated to the stats are considered bonuses granted by Lucky.]

—Seriously? Is there no leeway?!

—Wait, then why is my Luck the same?

[Luck is not a stat.]

[Once converted to Luck, the Luck points cannot be reversed or adjusted.]

[Warning: in this special subspace, you still receive bonuses to your Luck points acquisition, but the other functions are temporarily inaccessible.]

—What do you mean?

[You may not add points to your stats, you may not visit the Talent Pantheon, you may not comprehend new Talents, and the system will not give you danger warnings.]

—Dang, I’m totally silenced.

[Access ends.]

Gao Yang’s thoughts were a tangled mess, and curses threatened to escape his mouth.

Calm down, calm down.

He should first evaluate the battle power of his team.

Most of them had run out of bullets, so firearms wouldn’t be of much help. They could only rely on the cold weapons they carried.

Gray Bear, Lithe Snake, Nine Frost, and Black Sparrow were clearly well-trained. Even without their Talents and stats bonuses, they were strong as regular humans, making them their best combatants at the moment.

Gao Yang had been training recently, and he had quite some experience in battles. He had thus grown stronger during this time, which showed in his raw stats without bonuses.

However, he considered himself among the second-rate combatants, probably at the level of Dark Li and Xiuyi.

As for Xiran, Ronnie, Can, Yellow Butterfly, and Old Joe, they most likely hadn’t been doing physical training, and they didn’t engage in close combat when they went on missions. Their fighting power would be at the bottom.

Then there was the environment.

If Gao Yang’s speculation was right, there would be a little more than one thousand teachers and students in the Eleventh High School. Should all of them go berserk, the only fate awaiting the twelve of them would be total party kill.

Gao Yang’s heart sank.

After the Rune Cave with the Time-Space Rune Circuit, Gao Yang had thought he wouldn’t encounter a more dangerous Rune Cave. However, it seemed that he had been too naive and optimistic.

Each Rune Cave operated under a specific mechanism and came with its own share of dangers.

Now, he could only rely on his Luck.

Please work.

“Captain?” Gray Bear spoke up.

Gao Yang broke out of his reverie to find all members of the fifth team looking at him, waiting for him to say something.

Gao Yang couldn’t immediately think of a solution, but he had learned from War Tiger that it was important to keep morale up.

“I’ve been to more dangerous Rune Caves,” Gao Yang said in a confident tone. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way.”

“Ha, a way?” Lithe Snake spoke the ugly truth as he played with his throwing knives. “If the monsters are in human forms, I can kill dozens or even hundreds of them, but transformed? I can at most kill one, and only if it’s a wanderer.”

He looked up. “And you?”

“I can at most kill a wanderer,” Gray Bear admitted. “If I run into a slaughterer, I’ll die, no question.”

Xiran, Ronnie, and Can didn’t say anything. They would consider themselves lucky if the three of them managed to kill half a wanderer.

“So? What’s the solution?” Lithe Snake turned to Gao Yang.

“The monsters may have been silenced as well,” Gao Yang speculated boldly, not letting his uncertainty show.

“Oh, that’s right!” Can’s eyes twirled around as they lit up with renewed hope. “If the monsters are silenced too, they won’t transform!”

“Captain is right. It’s entirely possible.”

Xiran’s face recovered some color as well. He turned to Gray Bear excitedly. “Do you remember the mission from six months ago, Uncle Bear?”

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“Which mission?” Gray Bear frowned, struggling to remember.

“The slaughterer was hit by my Mute and ended up in an unstable condition physically. Its left arm turned back into human form...”

“Oh, that mission!” Gray Bear finally remembered. “You’re right, yeah. Now I get what you mean.”

“It makes sense logically.”

Gao Yang took over the conversation, having found a sliver of hope. “The universal silence debuff should be the doing of a Support Rune Circuit, and Xiran’s Mute is a Support-type Talent. Given Mute limits both awakeners and monsters, there’s no reason that the silence debuff applies only to awakeners.”

This time, Lithe Snake nodded slightly instead of making a counterargument.

Good, at least the morale has recovered somewhat.

Gao Yang turned around. Not far from them, the fourth team had made a circle and were talking about what they should do in a hushed voice. Judging by the serious look on Nine Frost’s face, it seemed that they hadn’t come up with any solid solutions.

Gao Yang walked up to them. “Nine Frost, we came to a speculation. I’d say it’s good news...”

“What are you doing so late at night, not sleeping?!”

Before Gao Yang could finish, a gravelly man’s voice shouted from beyond the metal gate of the boys’ dorm.