Chapter 79: Plot Out of Control

When the four arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild in Druid, Lu Qiuchen had also quietly reached the place.

She had used consecutive teleportations and had just caught up to the group.

Gazing at the Adventurers’ Guild before her, a flicker of sorrow and nostalgia flashed in Lu Qiuchen’s eyes.

She set aside her thoughts and continued to observe the party ahead, watching as they split up within the guild to gather information.

She knew what would happen next: according to the storyline, Zhang Cheng and the others needed to talk to the beggar at the entrance of the Adventurers’ Guild to proceed. Seeing them head straight inside, she knew they wouldn’t find their target right away.

Still, Lu Qiuchen followed them inside. She wanted to observe Zhang Cheng more closely; his recent behavior made her uneasy, as if he’d never truly relaxed his furrowed brow.

‘Could it be that Zhang Cheng really has spent the past two and a half years chasing after the truth behind my death? Is that possible?’

Although they were extremely close friends, Lu Qiuchen wondered, if their roles were reversed, would she be so obsessed?

From Zhang Cheng’s behavior, it was either that there was another reason behind her own death, or that Zhang Cheng himself was truly different from others. If it was the former, she definitely needed to get closer to Zhang Cheng and ask him directly; if it was the latter, she couldn’t quite guess, but it probably wasn’t because of some unusual inclination…

Lu Qiuchen carefully recalled the way they got along. She was sure their relationship was just that of good buddies, rarely touching on sensitive topics—if there were, it was just harmless banter, nothing deeper.

Lost in thought, Lu Qiuchen forgot her original purpose of observing Zhang Cheng and simply followed behind him absentmindedly.

After searching the guild and finding no clues, the group left the Adventurers’ Guild disappointed, regrouping just outside the entrance.

“Nothing at all~~” Mala Rabbit Head stretched lazily, glancing at the quest log and said, “The quest says the surrounding area, so let’s check nearby.”

The group scattered in different directions, leaving only Zhang Cheng standing where he was. He was puzzled—he had felt a brief chill behind him, but when he turned, he saw nothing suspicious. Was it just stress-induced hallucination?

Off to the side, Lu Qiuchen remained invisible, holding her chest gently. She had followed Zhang Cheng so closely just now that when he suddenly stopped, her own distracted state had nearly caused her to bump into him.

I really shouldn’t rely so much on dragon instincts; when I’m distracted, they’re as unreliable as early autopilot tech back on Earth! Lu Qiuchen grumbled inwardly. Still, a dragon’s reaction speed was faster than a human’s. When she was still human, she would have crashed right into him.

Zhang Cheng, finding nothing amiss, put the matter aside and stepped forward to merge into the bustling crowd on the street.

Lu Qiuchen noticed the crowded street and, realizing it was inconvenient to move around while invisible, floated above Zhang Cheng like a kite, trailing him and observing the in-game Druid city.

The streets and buildings looked nearly identical to those in reality, except where the Tarra Kingdom’s crest once hung, there was now the crest of the Molton Kingdom, and NPC clothing had changed somewhat as well.

Seeing Zhang Cheng below suddenly double back, Lu Qiuchen guessed someone had found the beggar. Returning to the guild entrance, she saw the team’s mage and priest already standing before the beggar, listening to his story.

“I drank too much during the festival and was carried home half-unconscious to sleep it off, which saved my life. When I woke the next day, I found Druid had become a ghost town…

“Back then, the sky over Druid was dark and gloomy. I hardly saw a soul, the streets were a mess. Panicked, I ran for the city gates and only found people nearby. I tried to ask them what was going on, but nobody knew.

“I saw lots of folks fleeing the city with their valuables. Me, I was just a pauper—figured if I was going to die anyway, I might as well risk it. So I went home, grabbed a bundle, and snuck into an upper district noble’s house for some gold coins.

“…But the main road outside Druid was packed with adventurers and merchant caravans. The adventurers, who usually seemed friendly, had turned into a bunch of bandits! They suspected Druid was cursed and were too scared to go in, just waiting for unlucky folks like me to come out. All my gold was taken—I didn’t even have a copper left.

“They heard I might have more gold, so they chased me back into the city to get more. Of course, there were some bold folks who came with me—we ransacked a lot of gold, but when we left the upper district, several big shots descended from the sky, and Druid was sealed off.

“In the end, I never escaped. After the nobles from Mors took over, all the wealth I’d gathered was taken from me. Those Mors folks didn’t trust us survivors and drove us all out. I was penniless, and after hiding nearby for a while, I sneaked back.

“This all happened just a year ago, but I feel like it’s been ages since anyone listened to my story. If you want to see where the people died, head out of the city and go west—it’s all farmland now.”

Zhang Cheng and his companions received the next step of their quest and set off outside the city. In the newly unlocked level-70 dungeons, the drop rate for horses was pretty decent; most of the top players already had their first mounts. Even if they were just ordinary horses, at least they no longer had to rent from the stables every time.

Three horses and one drake carried their owners to the quest location. Because the wyvern was so much faster—and regular horses got extremely stressed around such fierce beasts—Zhang Cheng went ahead by himself.

To avoid arousing Zhang Cheng’s suspicion with her draconic aura affecting the wyvern, Lu Qiuchen used the Breath Concealment function in her toolkit, so she didn’t have to actively suppress her dragon presence.

Arriving with Zhang Cheng near the giant monument, Lu Qiuchen watched as he landed before the stone and studied the inscriptions, wanting to stop him but not knowing how.

In recent months, Lu Qiuchen had begun to face her own feelings—she realized she was now a dragon, and barring any surprises, she’d spend her long dragon life as a silver dragon.

Her habits and thoughts were slowly changing. For example, her eating habits: while she still resisted tearing into raw flesh and preferred to gut and roast her prey, she was already far more savage than she used to be. Perhaps in time, she’d even eat freshly caught animals raw.

Compared to her brief two and a half years as a dragon, the moral values Lu Qiuchen had developed over her nineteen years as a human hadn’t completely collapsed, but her human mindset was undeniably fading.

Seeing the monument again, she no longer felt the confusion and pain from the first time. Instead, there was a tense, shameful anxiety—the feeling of having been caught doing something bad by someone close.

The fact that she felt this way made Lu Qiuchen realize she was gradually growing numb to the fact that she’d personally killed tens of thousands.

After awakening, Lu Qiuchen had asked Auduin about this. Auduin told her that her rampage was triggered by absorbing the dragon clan’s legacy, which had rapidly elevated her from a wyrmling to an adult dragon. What she’d done was simply dragon instinct, unrelated to her own will.

According to information later released by the Church, the humans of Druid had been under the control of the demons, and the battle was likely a huge misunderstanding. Even if Lu Qiuchen hadn’t been in Tarra Kingdom, the fate of those people wouldn’t have changed. Knowing this, Lu Qiuchen felt a bit better.

The Church’s investigations revealed the demons’ goal wasn’t just to capture the “Calamity Dragon” Cecilia; stirring up the negative emotions of Druid’s tens of thousands of citizens was part of their sinister plan. Nobody knew what the demons wanted this power for, but it couldn’t be anything good.

Weighing all these factors, the Church ultimately joined the other southern nations in issuing a wanted notice for the “Calamity Dragon,” but it was all for show.

The powers that be all knew the root of the problem was the demons. Up to now, none of the factions that issued the warrant had actually hunted down the target. Instead, they’d learned from the fall of Tarra Kingdom and now focused more on guarding against the demons’ terrifying infiltration.

Of all these factions, the only one that might truly hate Lu Qiuchen was the Adventurers’ Guild. The fifty-odd adventurers she’d tricked into that mission weren’t nobodies—they were all epic core adventurers! All dead in Tarra Kingdom. That was a huge blow to the guild.

Lu Qiuchen heard the guild had paid a fortune to appease the families of the dead. Even so, no amount of compensation could restore its lost credibility. She had no idea how Auduin had managed to get the guild to quiet down.

Lu Qiuchen forced herself to stop overthinking and watched as Zhang Cheng, brow furrowed, circled the monument a few times, making her anxious.

When she saw Zhang Cheng finish without showing any emotion, standing quietly waiting for his teammates, she breathed a sigh of relief. But her mind soon began to wander again—was Zhang Cheng indifferent, did he not believe she’d done those things, or did he hate her but just not show it?

As Lu Qiuchen watched Zhang Cheng, frustrated and uncertain, three figures on horseback appeared in the distance.

The four regrouped and continued the quest. Lu Qiuchen set aside her distracting thoughts and followed.

According to the plot Beta had given her, soon the four would discover the underground space beneath the monument with a system prompt, enter the hidden dungeon, and beat up the low-ranked demons there.

Afterward, the dying low-ranked demons would summon a high-ranked demon to thrash the players. In the end, Mala Rabbit Head would pull out a teleportation magic stone to summon Lu Qiuchen herself, who would easily defeat the high-ranked demon, triggering the fourth phase of the main storyline and completing this main quest prelude.

Once the quest was over, it’d be Lu Qiuchen’s turn to distribute the rewards. Normally the system did this automatically, but Lu Qiuchen, claiming humans cared about ceremony, persuaded Beta and secured the pre-arranged quest rewards, getting the chance from Beta herself.

After years of development, AI’s emotional simulation still wasn’t perfect. Some vague or complex emotions were hard for AI to process, giving Lu Qiuchen the chance to deceive Beta.

She had already tinkered with the system’s equipment rewards. When she gave Zhang Cheng his prize, she’d drop a hint. Once he found the little note she’d hidden in the gear, her goal in seeking him out would be achieved!

No need for a dispel orb, no risk of being kicked from the game by the system—truly a perfect plan!

Lu Qiuchen’s plan was flawless, but plans always come with surprises.

Because once the demons appeared, the plot went off the rails.

Lu Qiuchen watched as the four entered the dungeon beneath the monument—but she couldn’t follow the system in, because her status bar now showed a space-confinement debuff, trapping her in place.

A Succubus with ram’s horns and hooves slowly appeared before her.

‘Beta, what’s going on? Why is there a Succubus here?’ Seeing this, Lu Qiuchen grew uneasy. This wasn’t in the script! Why would a demon appear here? Even if a demon was supposed to be killed in the dungeon later, it shouldn’t be a Succubus, a demon with nearly no combat power!

“An anomaly detected. Confirming…” Beta’s voice sounded, and Lu Qiuchen relaxed—so long as Beta was still around.

“Emergency detected! Interface error, data maliciously altered. Beta will focus on defense—temporarily granting player level-2 dungeon admin rights. Player, please determine plot progression…” Beta’s communication was cut off, and Lu Qiuchen was left stunned.

Combining Beta’s last words with the Succubus before her, who was now gazing around the area with a sly smile, Lu Qiuchen finally realized—the game had been invaded! And by the demons of the Eternal World! How could this be? Could demons operate computers?

“Little one~ No need to be so surprised to see big sister, is there?” The Succubus fixed her eyes on Lu Qiuchen and spoke, “So this is the spirit world? A false scene, a false world~ It’s all thanks to you that I get to experience this~”

Lu Qiuchen snapped back to her senses. Having majored in computer science at university, even if she’d only learned the basics so far, she could analyze the situation well enough.

Looking at the window before her, Lu Qiuchen saw Beta had granted her level-2 dungeon admin rights in the game. Her space-confinement status was instantly removed, and she now had full access to enter and exit dungeons at will.

Ignoring the Succubus for now, she sifted through the windows, found the dungeon options, chose an unopened dungeon space, and dragged the Succubus in with her.

Seeing the panic on the Succubus’s face as she was pulled into the dungeon, Lu Qiuchen sneered.

Didn’t expect that, did you! The tables have turned! I’m the game admin now!

This chapter is 4K. Only one update today—I haven’t played games in a long time, so I’m going to play today!

I’ll make up the remaining 2K tomorrow.