Silence — a dead silence. The world seemed to freeze in this moment, the entire Huaxia Region falling into an incomparably eerie quiet. Every player, in this moment, went wide-eyed and slack-jawed, listening dumbly to the system chime that rang out five times in a row at their ears.
Abyss?!
The Abyss-difficulty trial?!
Someone had actually passed the Abyss-difficulty class-advancement trial!!
“This… how is this possible?” Divine Domain Fallen Star wore a face full of disbelief, the system chime making him doubt his own hearing to no end. “We’re the strongest party, with the strongest gear, and we could never pass even the third gate of the Abyss trial. There’s no way a party stronger than us could exist. This person called Xietian…”
Wait…
Xietian…
One person?!!??
As if a great pot-lid had been clapped down over their heads, the atmosphere grew so oppressive amid utter shock that no one could breathe. The twelve people of the Divine Domain Pact, suddenly grasping it, fell into deathly stillness once more, no one getting out a single word for the longest while.
The system chime had mentioned only one name, only one person called Xietian — which meant that he had, incredibly, passed the Abyss-difficulty trial by himself, on the strength of his own single person!!
“Impossible, impossible…” Divine Domain Fallen Star shook his head, his face vacant. “Absolutely impossible… Even if he really did pass the Abyss trial, there’s no way it was one person… He must have filled a party of twelve, and by the end the other eleven all died. There’s no way it was one person…”
Every one of them had personally experienced just how terrible a trial the Abyss was. They’d challenged it time and again, and their most successful attempt had lost only six people in the second gate’s trial — and then at the third gate… they’d held out mere minutes before being wiped out entirely. He was certain their party had the best gear, the fullest supplies, the best coordination, and the strongest attributes; calling them the strongest party of the current novice stage wouldn’t be the least overstatement… Beat him to death and he still wouldn’t believe one person could pass the Abyss-difficulty trial on their own.
“You’re wrong.” Divine Domain Sky-Wall shook his head and said, his expression heavy. “For a party that entered the trial map together, even if they die off one by one along the way, so long as one person passes at the end, all the party’s members can pass. This person truly is one person!”
Not a trace of their earlier excitement could be found on their faces any longer. The pride and elation the twelve of them had just gained from passing the Nightmare trial were, in the span of a mere minute, viciously stamped down. Faced with the feat of one person passing the Abyss trial — a feat like a myth that shook all of Huaxia and indeed the whole world — the glory they’d won not long ago was so dim and lackluster, so utterly small.
“Impossible! Could it be a game bug… In the Abyss trial even the lowest monsters are one-star elites, and fighting even one has to be done with the utmost care — how could he defeat twelve at once… and then the two-star elites and three-star elites after that, and the even more terrible ones further on… Xietian — why has this person’s name never once been heard of before?” Divine Domain Fallen Star muttered, distraught. Knowing full well how terrible the Abyss trial was, what he felt right now was, without doubt, the enormous shock of having his understanding overturned.
“Fate has no bugs.” Divine Domain Sky-Wall said coldly.
Zangshen was silent for a long while, his expression dark and shifting. He turned around without a word and said, “Everyone go tend to your own affairs. Ying, find out this ‘Xietian’s’ background and every last detail on him in the shortest possible time. I imagine the Son of Heaven must be very interested in him too.”
“Yes, young master.” Divine Domain Ying answered and hurried off.
Novice Village No. 60001.
The instant the system chime rang out, a party struggling bitterly through the Hard-tier trial came to a stop like all the other players, listening slack-jawed to the chime sounding at their ears. And in this party, the five standing at the very front were, amid their shock, flushing red and paling white by turns.
“Xietian… Xietian… it’s that guy!” An Apprentice Archer, terrible memories stirred by the name, said with a ghastly-pale face. He was that pitiful archer from the Red Leaf Pact whom Ye Tianxie had tormented twice in a row.
Red Leaf Iron Wall’s face darkened and shifted by turns. As a power-holder within the Red Leaf Pact, how could he leave a grudge unavenged? He’d never once forgotten the name Xietian; the moment they reached a city and the Red Leaf Pact’s forces gathered in one place, he’d have someone track down Xietian’s whereabouts at once and make him understand the price of provoking the Red Leaf Pact. But right now, he suddenly realized he’d been thinking far too naively.
One person had passed the Abyss trial that other people’s full parties couldn’t even get past the third gate of — what kind of concept was that?! A miracle? A legend? A myth? An enemy like this — did he really still want to keep provoking him?
Red Leaf Iron Wall picked up his communicator and connected to the Red Leaf Pact’s Pact Master, Red Leaf Raging Wind.
……
……
The end of the trial ground.
Listening to the system chime sound five times in a row at his ears, Ye Tianxie nodded in satisfaction, expressing his approval of the system for being fairly obedient. Just then, a round badge the size of a palm slowly drifted down from the air, then floated before his eyes. This badge showed a dim bronze color, without any splendid, dazzling luster and without any complex patterns; both its front and back were carved with only two simple characters — Hero.
Taking this badge in hand, Ye Tianxie’s palm was just large enough to close completely around it — a badge, the hardest to come by, the most precious, the impossible-to-buy-at-any-price equipment in any virtual game world. The single special property of having no cap on how many could be worn, which no other equipment could possibly have, alone determined just how rare it would be.
Hero’s Badge — The symbol of a hero; a Hero’s Badge that only heroes who pass the Abyss-tier trial are qualified to obtain and wear. When worn, Renown +100. Cannot be traded, cannot be dropped, cannot be stolen; when discarded, it vanishes directly.
Renown +100… and then nothing?
Ye Tianxie looked at the Hero’s Badge in his hand somewhat dumbfounded, because apart from the one property of Renown +100, there was no other attribute attached at all.
The Abyss trial, a terrible difficulty that should have been impossible to pass, ought to have granted a heaven-defying reward as well — but this Hero’s Badge, in both appearance and attributes, had nothing whatsoever to do with the words “heaven-defying,” and was worse even than the single Bronze piece rewarded for passing the Nightmare difficulty.
In the World of Fate, Renown was an attribute very hard to raise — only obtaining some notable achievement, completing some fairly special quest, or killing a powerful BOSS would earn a Renown reward, and the Renown rewarded by quests could rarely exceed 5 points, while killing BOSSes only raised Renown for slaying a Lord or a BOSS above the Lord tier. The 100 Renown the Hero’s Badge added could be called a rather enormous figure. But Renown’s use was chiefly reflected in when a player established their own gang, alliance, or other power base — which, for a Ye Tianxie accustomed to going it alone, was utterly useless.
Still…
Ye Tianxie held the Hero’s Badge in his hand, his mind stirring faintly… Was it really just a simple Renown reward? Surely not — perhaps there was some hidden attribute in it he couldn’t see, one that hadn’t manifested… He could only hope so.
(End of Chapter 48)