Chapter 99 Li Cheng Comes to the Abyss
[The Door of the World Tree: 1345 BC, Abyss Realm - City of Deception]

[Difficulty rating: 4 stages, SSS level]

The boundless nothingness swallowed up everyone who entered the door, and a strange light that did not exist in human language opened the passage.

[The magnificent palace stands in the center of the city, the well-dressed nobles smile elegantly, and the affluent living standards make every resident of this land proudly hold their chests high, but all of this is just an illusion.]

[The back of the city is a gloomy and smelly sewer, and run-down and cheap slums. Lies and betrayal, blood and killing are the main themes of this city. Simple people don’t even have the qualifications to see the sun the next day.]

[Last night's murder roulette finally stopped at 23; this morning a new batch of half-demons entered the brothel, and the carriage for soliciting customers stopped on the side of the road; the last civic chairman was stabbed 17 times in the back and committed suicide at home, and the city hall... well, the city hall is still the same city hall. ]

[Good morning, travelers, welcome to the city of fraud! ]

[Main quest: Obtain a career card in the City of Fraud and survive for 7 days.]

[Extra Mission 1: Find the owner of the City of Fraud and help him rewrite the predetermined fate of this city.]

[Extra Mission 2: Find the half-demon Vivian, gain her trust, and witness or rewrite her fate.]

[Failure penalty: none]

[Note: In order to ensure the continuity of history, after you leave this period of history, your voice, name, face, and other things that can represent your identity will be hidden.]

[At the same time, please be careful not to leave your real name in this world, otherwise, it will lead to unimaginable consequences. ]

[The World Tree will continue to pay attention to your performance and bless those who perform well. 】

[Are you just passers-by in history, or a part of history? ]

【Please witness it! 】

……

As the last voice disappeared from his ears, Li Cheng opened his eyes.

There was a hint of smoke in the air, and the sky was still a little gloomy, perhaps because the sun had just risen.

Victorian-style buildings fill the view, and a baby fountain holding a water bottle stands in the center of the square.

The kerosene lamps hanging on both sides of the asphalt road squeaked in the wind, and people of all kinds were walking on the streets in the early morning.

A gentleman wearing a top hat, a noble in a long robe, a porter carrying a wooden box, and a girl with animal ears sitting in a carriage on the side of the road. She has fair skin, long legs, a corseted dress, and is holding a pink handkerchief.

Behind him stood a dark black stone tablet.

Li Cheng realized that he had entered the secret realm of the third round of assessment - the City of Fraud.

At the same time, Lilith's voice was heard beside him.

"Wow, Li Cheng, the city here looks different from Full Moon Academy!"

The goddess with silver hair and red eyes was floating unscrupulously in the square, looking east and west, and was quite curious about the scene in front of her.

"Well, according to the background setting, this is the last era, a civilization that has been destroyed, so of course the city will have a different appearance."

"Oh~ Wow, that girl with animal ears is so pretty~" Lilith looked at the carriage beside her and said, "She has a great figure too. Is she from some noble family?"

"She's a lady, but not a noble." Li Cheng smiled.

"Ah? What do you mean..." Lilith said, her face suddenly turned red: "She, they are..."

“Didn’t the background story say that the carriage soliciting passengers was parked on the side of the road?” Li Cheng spread his hands.

"Ah, I actually saw this kind of thing, I am unclean!" Lilith covered her eyes.

Li Cheng no longer paid attention to this artificial idiot and turned his head to look around.

Since he entered the secret realm randomly, the two little ones, Karenina and Mu, did not follow him.

Instead, Anri from the Shadow Sect and Nalan Yu, the Saint of the Order Sect, were born at the same place as him.

In addition to these two people, there were several other candidates, but judging from the modeling, they were just ordinary-looking NPCs, so Li Cheng didn't specifically remember their names.

"Damn it, it's actually a 4th stage SSS level secret realm. This is the rarest situation we have encountered." Anri clenched his fists.

"Lord Anli, what do you mean?" asked Nalan Yu.

"Under normal circumstances, the World Tree will not throw travelers who enter into a historical segment that is much stronger than them." Anri said:
"In this case, either the World Tree has determined that some of us candidates have surpassed the fourth level, or we have encountered a time turbulence and have been thrown into a place we shouldn't be in."

"So that's how it is. Doesn't that mean we are in great danger now?" asked another candidate.

"Of course. I don't know if you noticed that the penalty for failure in this secret realm exploration is nothing."

"Isn't it good to be without?"

"No, that's not the case. Generally speaking, there is a price to pay for exploring secret realms. The penalty for mission failure is either a deduction of vitality or the loss of a certain ability. If there is no penalty, it means..." Anri took a deep breath:

"The danger level of this secret realm is far beyond our tolerance. There is no need to give additional punishment."

After the words were spoken, all the candidates present fell silent.

Everyone knows what danger far beyond their ability to bear means.

Death is like the wind, always with you.

"Lord Anli, you seem to know a lot about exploring secret realms?" Nalan Yu lifted her hair. She didn't care if the person in front of her was a pervert who stole women's underwear. "Well, I was lucky enough to follow my father into the gate of the World Tree several times." Anli nodded.

"Wow, so that's how it is. We are saved this time!"

"Yes, yes, Anri-sama, I'm lucky to have you!"

Several candidates immediately showed expressions of relief.

Even Nalan Yu stared at him and laughed: "Then I'll have to trouble you to direct me, Lord Anli."

"No, it's okay. This is what I should do." Being praised by so many people, Anri's face turned a little red.

In fact, he did not achieve any results in the previous World Tree Gate, and he didn't even remember what happened inside.

But he still lost himself in the sound of "Anzai-sama" again and again.

"Then I will volunteer to take charge." He coughed twice. "Obviously, the two additional tasks, finding the owner of the City of Deception and Vivian, should be the way to intervene in this history."

"However, the difficulty of this secret realm is too high. If we rashly get involved, we might be eaten to pieces. So I suggest giving up the two extra tasks and focusing on completing task one, which is to obtain the career card and survive for seven days."

"I'm sure everyone has seen the background of the City of Fraud. I think as long as we are careful and don't get involved in historical events, we should have no problem surviving."

"What do you think?"

"I agree."

"I agree. With such a high difficulty level, it's better to ensure that we survive first."

While the discussion on this side was in full swing, on the other side, Li Cheng was observing the black stone tablet behind him.

Lilith floated to her side: "Li Cheng, don't you plan with the other candidates what to do next?"

"What good plans can we make with a group of NPCs?" Li Cheng glanced at her and placed his hand on the stone tablet.

This kind of stone tablet is a unique product of the Abyss Realm, similar to the statues in the ordinary world. Its function is to establish connections with higher-dimensional gods. In human terms, it is an Abyss Points Store.

Before, Li Cheng helped the Mother Goddess of Pain to collect so much beautiful energy and gained a large amount of reputation in the Abyss, which could help him do whatever he wanted in this secret realm.

[Respected Little Angel of Great Love, Your Excellency the Undertaker of the Abyss Crossroads, the Mother Goddess of Pain is very satisfied with your previous performance. You now have 1235 points of Abyss reputation.]

[Combining your reputation and fate, you have received the blessing of the Mother Goddess of Pain. During this exploration of the abyss, you can choose an inherent ability and upgrade it to the fifth level.]

[After upgrading, the ability that exceeds the Golden Legend level will be upgraded to a unique ability. 】

[The improvement of ability is only effective in the gate of this world tree. 】

"Upgrade to level five? Surpass the legend?"

Listening to the voice beside him, Li Cheng showed his signature sunny smile.

The only abilities above the legendary level are powerful powers that can only be obtained at the end of the game, and each one has terrifying power.

In order to upgrade ordinary abilities to unique ones bit by bit, not only a huge amount of skill points are needed, but also a lot of tasks need to be completed.

Unexpectedly, this time, he would be able to experience it in the early stages of the game.

Although it was just a trial card, being able to use the highest level abilities in a high-difficulty secret realm undoubtedly meant that he could spread love more easily and obtain the blessing of the World Tree.

It turned out to be the right choice to spread love to the suffering believers before.

This time, the experience card is only for inherent abilities, that is, the abilities produced by the Lilith system.

Among the inherent abilities that Li Cheng currently possesses, [Sorry, you didn't let me have fun], [I bet there's no bullet in your XX], and [Rush, snail] are all only at the level of white trash. Even if they are upgraded to the fifth level, they can only reach the legendary level.

However, the two abilities [Gift from God] and [Merciful Evil Smile] have already reached the blue excellence level. After upgrading five levels, they will be able to reach the unique level.

Therefore, the ability to upgrade should be chosen from these two.

So, should you choose whoever you glare at to get pregnant, or should you choose the crooked-mouthed dragon king?

Li Cheng frowned.

Judging from the terrifying degree of the ability alone, the one that makes whoever you glare at get pregnant with twins is obviously more terrifying. If it is upgraded to the unique level, it is still unknown what this period of history will become.

But the problem is, when I upgraded [Merciful Evil Smile] to the excellent level, the system gave me a prompt (Chapter 95)——

[Compassion's evil smile captures the conceptual ability. When this ability reaches the unique level, it will show the conceptual level of face-slapping power.]

Li Cheng naturally knew what conceptual-level power meant.

This level of ability only exists in the background story in the PC version and cannot be used by players at all.

The most typical one is the classic opening animation of the game——

"The Witch of Death said that she hoped there would be death in this world, and thus, the cycle of life began."

Thinking of this, Li Cheng no longer hesitated and chose to temporarily upgrade [Merciful Evil Smile] to the fifth level.

[Compassionate Evil Smile (Unique): When you smile with a crooked mouth...]

(End of this chapter)