Chapter 56: Hooked on a Poison Called Diablo

"They are playing a game called Diablo?!" After Fang Qi’s brief explanation, combined with what he had just witnessed, Bai Lang seemed to grasp the situation slightly.

"But... could it truly be that miraculous?!" Bai Lang was, after all, a grand cultivator of no small cultivation. Having traveled far and wide over the years, there was little he hadn't seen, yet something as wondrous as what Fang Qi described was truly unheard of.

The little lolita, Jiang Xiaoyue, was also listening intently from the side. Having heard the introduction to the game several times already, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of doubt: "Is it really that incredible?!"

"Hmph! It must be an exaggeration!" Jiang Xiaoyue thought resentfully to herself.

Bai Lang also harbored doubts about the truth of Fang Qi’s words, but since even the City Master was playing, it indicated that the establishment's offerings possessed some extraordinary quality. Since he had come to gather information anyway, why not try it out along the way?

Ten crystals was not a steep price for a cultivator of his stature, and he was indeed growing curious as to whether the game these people were playing with such fierce passion was truly so entertaining.

"Shall I try?" Bai Lang knit his brows and drew out ten crystals, yet instead of handing them over, he spoke to question once more, "Are you certain these games in your shop are truly worth this much?!"

Fang Qi replied nonchalantly, "Do the numerous customers in my shop look like fools to you?"

The underlying implication was clear: if it weren't worth the price, would there still be so many people here?

"Very well! Then this Bai shall try it first!" Bai Lang remained somewhat skeptical, adding, "However, if I discover after trying that it is nothing of the sort, even if your shop possesses some background, I guarantee you will not have an easy time!"

Hearing this, Jiang Xiaoyue immediately rolled her eyes. One must know she had previously witnessed with her own eyes cultivators with higher cultivation than this man being thrown out in an instant.

Yet as to whether the game was truly so miraculous and entertaining, Jiang Xiaoyue was entirely incredulous: "It’s just fighting in a different place, what’s so fun about that?"

If it were merely as simple as "fighting in a different place," the game Diablo could naturally never have remained popular for so long!

Upon entering the game, the dark and oppressive sky, the somewhat squalid camp, and the pedestrians hurrying past proved the miraculous nature of this game. At the same time, this oppressive atmosphere, laced with wisps of fog, not only quickly immersed him but also kindled an impulse within Bai Lang to continue exploring.

"Greetings, stranger!"

"G-Greetings!" Bai Lang froze for a moment, surprised to find someone actively greeting him, and thus began to inquire about the camp.

Through casual conversation with Warriv, he quickly gleaned a great deal of information—for instance, the tragedy that befell Tristram, the legends of the Monastery...

Bai Lang was originally a cultivator who wandered the world, and his identity within the game was also that of an outside adventurer. Such an identity provided an even stronger sense of immersion, as though he had inadvertently stumbled into such a peculiar place during his wanderings across the continent.

"Rest assured, Your Excellency, this humble one shall certainly purge the demons from this place!" After gaining a clear understanding of the plight here, Bai Lang spoke out.

And as he continued to play, he began to discover the even more captivating aspects of this game.

"It should have only been a short while..." Bai Lang thought to himself, "I'll slay one more boss, and after leveling up, I'll try adding a point to Frozen Armor to see its effects before I log off..."

Half an hour later...

Outside the shop, the female cultivator in red and the middle-aged male cultivator had already grown impatient from waiting.

"Fellow Daoist Zhan, Brother Bai has been inside for so long, why hasn't he come out yet? Could something have happened?!" The female cultivator in red spoke with a face full of worry.

Zhan Yan also found it rather strange. Stroking the long, neatly groomed beard beneath his chin, he said, "Though Brother Bai acts somewhat impetuously, he has always considered the greater picture. Why has he not emerged after all this time?! Could something truly have gone awry?"

"Then shall we go inside and take a look?!"

"Let us go see," Zhan Yan spoke. "If something has indeed occurred, we can look out for one another."

"Very well."

The two walked into the shop and found that the soldiers did not block them, allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.

Soon, they spotted Bai Lang sitting to one side, utterly absorbed.

"Brother Bai!" the female cultivator in red hastily called out.

"Brother Bai!" The middle-aged male cultivator, Zhan Yan, also strode over quickly and asked in confusion, "Did they bind you here?"

"Uh...?" Looking at the anxious duo, Bai Lang scratched his head. "Why have you both come?"

"Half an hour has passed, yet we saw no sign of you coming out," Zhan Yan said. "Is this not because Sister Zhou was worried about you? Are they forbidding you from leaving?"

"Indeed," the female cultivator in red also urged hastily. "We still have to search for... this is a business of no small measure, we must not delay it."

"Half an hour?" Bai Lang felt as though he hadn't even had his fill of fun yet, so how could half an hour have passed?

"Wait a moment!" Bai Lang said with some embarrassment, "Give me half an hour. Once I vanquish the boss in this Den of Evil, I shall return."

"What? The Den of Evil?" The two immediately sensed a hint of danger. "Should we lend you a helping hand?!"

Bai Lang recalled how passionately An Cheng and the others had fought together earlier, and reasoning that fighting together should be faster, he immediately agreed.

"Yes!" Bai Lang shouted hastily, "Boss! Come activate the game for them as well, let them play for an hour first!"

"What game do we need to activate just to fight in the Den of Evil?" The two listened, utterly bewildered.

But before long...

"Fellow Daoist Zhan! Cast a few more Charged Bolts over here!"

"Sister Zhou, Ice Bolt! Ice Bolt!"

"I'll draw Corpsefire! You kill the Fallens' Shaman first!"

"Hold on a bit longer! It’s about to burst!"

"Look quickly, why is the name of this equipment golden!"

"Stalker's Leather Boots of the Skeleton! To think there is such a fine treasure?!"

To have actually dropped a piece of top-tier equipment, the group was wild with excitement!

"This game is rather interesting!" Zhan Yan's eyes lit up.

"Boss, add another hour for us!"

Jiang Xiaoyue walked over to collect the money and remarked strangely, "Didn't you all say earlier that you had business to attend to..."

"Uh..." The group looked at one another, instantly falling into a dilemma.

They hadn't even tested this newly dropped top-tier equipment yet, and they were supposed to log off?

That would be far too unsatisfying!

"How about..." Bai Lang suggested, "let me first test whether this golden equipment is powerful or not... and you two can also test your newly learned skills, and after that, we shall go...?"

"Very well..." Zhan Yan reasoned, "then we shall go slightly later. At any rate, that thing won't run away from its spot."

"True, this game seems quite fascinating. Let us play for a while longer before we depart."

After another hour...

"Burning with this Inferno feels absolutely marvelous!"

"This Frozen Armor freezes monsters the moment they touch me, it’s too comfortable!"

"If only there were such useful spells in reality..."

"These spells... are all so rigorous! It might actually be possible!"

"Quick... let us study it a bit more...?"

"The Burial Grounds! We are about to find Blood Raven!"

"Boss, add another hour for us!"

Jiang Xiaoyue: "..."

"This princess deeply suspects whether the boss has slipped poison into the game!" After collecting the money, the little lolita Jiang Xiaoyue glared suspiciously at Fang Qi.

The more Jiang Xiaoyue thought about it, the more she felt it to be the case, staring warily at Fang Qi: "Could the black-hearted shop owner actually be an evil cultivator?!"

Thinking of this, the little lolita wished to weep but had no tears: "Why does it feel like I’ve walked right into a den of thieves..."

A single, final period sat upon the page, a solitary speck of dust marking the absolute end of all things.