Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 477 - 460: The Conspiracy of the Eternal School

Chapter 477: Chapter 460: The Conspiracy of the Eternal School

Under the sweeping advance of these resourceful players, they soon found the whereabouts of the Eternal School and pieced together an outline of the conspiracy behind "Blood of Lies."

It had already been discovered that the initial main content of "Blood of Lies" took place in Charlton City, with the final climax requiring a return to Charlton City.

However, in the middle to later stages of the game, players would venture into entirely new map areas.

This included the "Abyss Mine."

After investigating the situation in Charlton City, new leads pointed to this special enclosed area beneath Charlton City.

In the original storyline, the people of Charlton City stumbled upon these mysterious special crystals in an archaeological discovery, setting the stage for Charlton City’s tragedy.

These special crystals were abundant in the underground relics of Charlton City.

Of course, the location of these underground relics didn’t completely overlap with Charlton City; they spanned an exaggerated scale. Part of it lay beneath Charlton City, another part beneath the wilderness or mountains, and some were even out in the open, nestled in valleys.

Charlton City engaged in long, deep excavations of these relics to obtain more of the underground crystals, and with the joint efforts of human and automaton miners, the mine had become astoundingly large.

It contained not only cramped and interconnected mine tunnels but also boasted a gigantic pit structure at its center, with layers upon layers of construction platforms and elevators descending into an abyssal depth.

Of course, this massive pit wasn’t solely formed by human excavation; the intricately structured relics originally buried underground served to aid Charlton City’s mining and excavation efforts.

Here, one could infer: the severe earthquakes in Charlton City were undoubtedly related to this colossal mine.

Thus, after scouring all of Charlton City and its surroundings without finding any trace of the Eternal School, the protagonist was compelled by the plot to delve deeper into the Abyss Mine.

Due to the destruction wrought by the earthquake, the direct routes to the mine from Charlton City had been completely blocked. Players actually needed to take a detour, entering the mine from the outskirts of Charlton City and continuously delving deeper to eventually open a path from the mine to Charlton City and return.

During the exploration of the mine, the most powerful monsters seemed to have gathered together.

There were mighty mutated miners, crazed mining automatons, Guardian Puppets ensuring safety, and many indescribable Abyss Creatures.

Originally, the Abyss Mine harbored eggs of unknown creatures, captured and domesticated by humans of the ancient relics. However, most perished in the disaster that obliterated the relics. Only a few eggs survived under special conditions, sealed and lying dormant.

With the occurrence of the earthquake, countless fissures appeared above the mine. The environmental changes caused these eggs to hatch, and they grew continuously, nourished by flesh and the crystals.

Even as juveniles, they had already become deadly threats to the players.

Additionally, players would encounter more and more bodies of members of the Eternal School.

These individuals all wore a peculiar kind of birdcage on their heads, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top. According to the plot, this was an important invention of the Starry Sky School, known as the "Thought Synchronization Device." This special device caused the wearer’s thought waves to resonate, amplifying their thoughts and receiving signals from the cosmos.

However, the Starry Sky School soon decided to abandon this dangerous invention as it led to some incidents within their ranks.

But the unscrupulous Eternal School, a group of extremists, was happy to try any possibility. Thus, they used these Thought Synchronization Devices to connect each other’s spirits and receive signals from the cosmos.

The members of the Eternal School seemed to have died not too long ago. Their bodies weren’t completely decomposed, and it was almost certain their collective death occurred concurrently with the disaster at Charlton City.

The deeper the exploration went, the more signs of violent crystal mining appeared, and the more bodies of the Eternal School were encountered.

The underground crystal mines could all serve as an energy source, but according to Charlton City’s regulations, there was a very strict prioritization for mining the crystals.

Like coal resources, some were superficial, with high purity and easy to mine, while others lay deeper, with more impurities, poorer quality, and were more challenging to extract.

The same was true for the crystal mines.

Some crystals were near the surface and could be quickly mined with simple miner’s picks. These high-purity crystals broke easily with slight pressure, were easily crushed into powder, and then used as energy for automatons or carriages.

Other crystals were located in the deep layers, almost fused with the rock and containing high levels of impurities. They required much violence to extract. After mining, they also needed a complex process to refine into powder for use as energy.

Thus, under Charlton City’s directives, the high-purity surface crystals were to be mined first. The deeper crystals were to be left unmined for the time being.

On the one hand, this was for economic benefit, saving these crystals to be mined later when refining technology advanced; on the other hand, it was to ensure the structural stability of the entire mine. Leaving these crystals fused with the ore served to provide more stable support.

But now, these deep-layer crystal mines were also rife with signs of violent exploitation, especially as many of the huge pillars left for support were dug through.

Without a doubt, this was also the doing of the Eternal School.

They had infiltrated and taken control of the mine long ago and conducted mysterious experiments here.

So, where had these violently-mined deep crystal ores gone? The Eternal School probably wasn’t planning to refine them into energy, as the current technology was still immature; refining was difficult and costly.

Moreover, the dead members of the Eternal School displayed certain characteristics; their positions of death seemed to be intentionally arranged, as if they were part of some mysterious ritual.

Finally, upon reaching the core area of the mine, players saw even more densely placed Eternal School members, arranged into specific shapes, and a vague truth emerged before the players.

The disaster of Charlton City was clearly rooted in the dangerous experiments of this school.

Although Unclean Blood itself would bring disaster and destruction, if left to its own devices, the process would be relatively slow.

The civilization where this relic was located had developed to such a scale, indicating that, even under the curse of the Unclean Blood, it had existed for quite some time.

Judging by this, even if Charlton City continuously developed and utilized the Unclean Blood, it would have been able to sustain stable growth for at least several decades.

But obviously, due to more advanced technology and more researchers, the arrival of this disaster had been greatly accelerated.

The Eternal School, driven by fanatical beliefs, had devised a terrible plan.

They infiltrated the mine through mind control and conducted horrifying experiments here.

They destructively mined the deep crystal ores, not hesitating to cut through the pillars that had been left intact. They didn’t plan to refine these ores for use as conventional energy for the puppets but instead crudely piled them up, preparing for an unprecedented and terrible ritual.

Through such a massive amount of crystals, all members of the Eternal School connected their consciousnesses and, with the flesh construct they created, temporarily combined a body "with the strong carrying capacity of an Ancient God" with a "mind as powerful as that of an Ancient God."

And that instantly drew the gaze of the real Ancient Gods.

The energy from the massive crystals erupted instantly, causing a violent earthquake; the gaze of the Ancient Gods, through the network of consciousness connected to the Eternal School’s flesh construct, spread out, not only instantly killing all members of the Eternal School but also fully impacting the entire Charlton City.

As a result, those humans who were more affected by the Unclean Blood instantly turned into monsters or living dead, while the puppets, due to the crystals, went mad, leaving only a small number of people, less affected by the Unclean Blood, to survive.

But even so, they experienced significant emotional fluctuations and severe mental trauma.

They barely clung to life, forced to hide in their rooms, afraid to leave.

To eliminate these effects as much as possible, players controlled the protagonist to engage in fierce battle with the "created God Construct" and ultimately hunted it.

But even so, the disaster had not yet ended.

The members of the Eternal School had not truly died; they seemed to be trapped in a special realm of thought. So, the players, by touching the corpses of the flesh constructs, entered an illusionary realm.

Here, the people and creatures of that ancient relic seemed to have all come back to life, returning to the peak of their era, with the Eternal School’s members mingling among them. The players had to find and kill all the Eternal School members to completely unravel this illusionary realm.

After a difficult battle, the players finally escaped the illusionary realm and acquired a special "Heart of the Ancient Gods."

According to the item description, it was the incomplete heart of an Ancient God.

It did not come from a real Ancient God but was a mass that formed naturally inside the corpse from the flesh construct combined with the thoughts of the Eternal School members, holding a portion of Divine Power.

Thus, the players opened a path back to Charlton City from within and returned to the grand cathedral.

They would have to face the Ancient Gods, who were gazing intently at Charlton City, through the incomplete Heart of the Ancient Gods and battle them.

Only by defeating this powerful Ancient God could there be a chance for Charlton City to be freed from eternal despair.

But before they could actually meet this Ancient God, the players had to ultimately defeat the powerful Lie Hunter.

Although they had fought it once before, it had escaped.

And this time, it was the final battle.

Only by defeating the Lie Hunter could they face the final boss.