以下是英文小说第十七章"Chapter 17: Massacre"的润色英文版本,已优化为通俗欧美爽文风格,适合发布于 Webnovel 平台:
Chapter 17: Massacre
In the end, it was Zhao Nannan who broke the silence.
After hearing her account, Liu Wei'an stood frozen in place. The packages strewn across the floor hadn't even been cleaned up. Over four thousand Strength Seeds—over four thousand! Even if they were just the kind dropped by Rotten Corpses, each was worth at least one gold coin. And some were from more valuable Walking Corpses!
To think… all of that—thousands of gold coins—consumed in a single day. Liu Wei'an felt like his heart was bleeding.
He grieved for a long time before his thoughts drifted back to four days ago.
When the dazzling seven-colored divine light exploded, the amber disappeared from his hand and reappeared in his mind. At that same moment, an endless flood of information surged into his brain like a tidal wave, so overwhelming that he blacked out immediately.
By the time he regained consciousness, a massive book had appeared in the depths of his mind—boundless, like the universe itself. The book flipped open to its first page, revealing an image: a strange, starry diagram.
Why did he think it resembled a star map? Because in Liu Wei'an's world, anything extremely complex and utterly incomprehensible defaulted to "the cosmos." After all, humans looked up at the stars every night for generations and still understood next to nothing.
He couldn't make sense of the star map, but that didn't stop him from staring at it. One look—and his soul was hooked. At the same time, he felt a burning sensation deep within his body.
In a half-conscious trance, he found himself standing naked in a sun-scorched desert. The blazing sun above roasted his skin to the point of cracking, and his body's moisture evaporated at an alarming rate.
Just as he teetered on the brink of death, a spring suddenly gushed forth from within him, saving his life. The spring didn't stop—it continued to flow, nourishing and strengthening his body. In hindsight, he realized Zhao Nannan must've been feeding him Strength Seeds that entire time.
Relying on the internal spring, Liu Wei'an wandered the desert for months, enduring the punishing heat until he finally emerged—and awoke.
Nothing seemed to have changed.
Except, the massive book in his mind had vanished. Only the star map remained.
Strangely, the map was now 99.9% gray, with only 0.1% glowing faintly. At the same time, four words appeared inexplicably in his heart:
Dark Emperor Sutra.
He didn't know what the words meant, where they came from, or why they sounded so ominous. They simply… existed.
After waking, he was ravenous—hungrier than he'd ever been in his life.
"You should get some rest," Liu Wei'an said gently, noticing Zhao Nannan's disheveled hair and exhausted eyes. He was touched by how she had stayed by his side, feeding him and watching over him. Now that she knew he was alright, her heart settled. She climbed up to the upper bunk, and within moments, soft snores filled the room.
Liu Wei'an chewed through another roasted piglet before putting on his helmet and logging back into the game.
As soon as he arrived in Stone City, he was stunned.
The city—inside and out—was nearly empty. Corpses littered the streets, some piled atop each other, others scattered haphazardly. Blood stained everything: the ground, the walls, trees, even the dry grass. Judging by the coagulated state of the blood, these people had died around three days ago.
A few scavengers moved from corpse to corpse, keeping their distance from each other—clearly wary of ambushes. Liu Wei'an's eyes lit up. Without wasting another thought on what had happened, he joined them.
Dead people couldn't take their gear with them. Whoever picked it up first, owned it—unless, of course, the original owner came back a month later and recognized their loot. But Liu Wei'an didn't care. He was just here to make money.
Looting corpses was far more profitable than killing monsters. Everyone knew that.
The massacre stretched from Stone City all the way into the wilds. Corpses lay everywhere—dozens, hundreds, even thousands. The more obvious bodies had already been picked clean, so Liu Wei'an sprinted toward the outskirts, aiming for the ones in more remote areas.
It was a massacre. A real, goddamn massacre.
From morning till afternoon, Liu Wei'an didn't drink a drop of water. He looted hundreds—possibly over a thousand—corpses. The roads were lined with bodies, spaced every few meters, sometimes piled together. He even saw wild beasts feeding on them. The animals growled when he passed but didn't attack—probably because there was more than enough meat to go around.
Fortunately, some shops in Stone City were still open. Most had been looted or destroyed, but a handful remained—shops owned by the Mei, Sun, He, and Zhao families. No wonder no one dared touch them.
Every time his space ring filled up, Liu Wei'an would return to town. He frequently encountered other looters carrying gear by hand—they didn't have space items and relied on brute strength. In comparison, Liu Wei'an's efficiency was unmatched.
He hadn't even been online when the massacre started, yet thanks to his space ring, he still outpaced everyone.
Liu Wei'an didn't watch the news. So he had no idea that far beyond Stone City, similar slaughters were unfolding. The carnage spread outward in all directions, blades flashing, lives snuffed out like weeds.
It all began four nights ago.
After Liu Wei'an killed the black-robed man and took the amber, reinforcements soon arrived and found their comrade dead. They searched the area all night but found nothing. The failure was reported up the chain.
Soon, word of the black-robed man's death spread across the land. One by one, the major powers got wind of it. Finally, it reached the ears of those who had been silently watching all along.
Earth.
In the heart of a bustling city, a towering skyscraper rose into the clouds—668 meters high, shaped like a plum blossom.
Inside a massive office spanning over 200 square meters, a middle-aged man sat with a glass of red wine—blood-red. His eyes were closed as if asleep. In front of him stood a sharply dressed assistant in a suit, hair immaculate, posture stiff with fear.
"So you're telling me... thousands of people went in, and the thing still got lost?"
The man's voice was calm, betraying no emotion. The assistant trembled.
"Sir, I—"
"The item's dead. The people are alive. If you make the people dead, how can the item run away?"
"Understood!" The assistant's face went pale.
"Go."
Deep in the Pacific Ocean, inside a massive pyramid.
The pyramid was colossal, surrounded by submarines, schools of fish, and crashing waves. At its base, inside a secret chamber, an elderly man with a long white beard sat cross-legged on a cushion.
Before him, a middle-aged man knelt with utmost respect.
"Ancient Sutra..." the old man suddenly muttered. The chamber lit up as his eyes snapped open, glowing with a divine light.
"The stuff of legends… So close." He sighed. "If the legend has appeared, it won't go unnoticed. Let the storm begin—even if blood must flow."
"Yes, Elder." The kneeling man backed out silently.
In the depths of a bamboo forest...
A house made entirely of green bamboo stood hidden among the trees. Birds chirped, and a breeze whispered through the leaves. Late at night, someone was still reading aloud, their voice clear and strong.
The reading stopped.
A man in a blue scholar's robe stepped out. Though he appeared forty, the weariness in his eyes hinted he was at least sixty. He stared at the sky, lost in thought.
"Truth or illusion… who can tell? The world calls me a fool—but maybe, just maybe, this is the moment to act."
His gaze sharpened. He turned back inside and picked up the phone.
"Whatever it takes…"
Deep beneath the desert, in a hidden fortress...
Robots buzzed through metallic corridors. In a lab, scientists in white coats operated on a corpse that wasn't quite dead. Metal organs, exposed brain tissue, and blood-red sensors covered its body. The corpse's eyes were open—alive, aware, watching.
A knock came at the lab door.
One of the scientists, a bespectacled man in his sixties with a youthful face and authoritative air, left the room, followed by the nervous messenger. In his office, a beautiful secretary brought tea and left in silence.
"You failed, didn't you?" the scientist asked, voice gentle but cold.
"I… yes."
"After thousands of years, no one has seen the Ancient Sutra. If it were easy, it wouldn't be a legend. But—" His tone turned lethal. "I will have it. No matter the cost."
"Yes, sir." The subordinate bowed, chilled to the bone.
Similar orders spread across the globe—Earth, Mars, and Jupiter.
By morning, when people logged into the game, the massacre had already begun.
No one knew where the killers came from—only that they were fast, deadly, and countless. In minutes, thousands were slaughtered. From Stone City, the bloodshed spread in every direction, devouring every region touched by human exploration.
The slaughter continued for three days and nights.
Only when the Emperor of the Great Han Dynasty himself gave the command to suppress it did the massacre finally end.
But the damage was done.
Hundreds of millions of players were banned from logging in—for an entire month.