Online game: Mistakenly became a female character, started by slaughtering millions of chickens.

Ding!

[System notification: Clue found. Please return to the slums and report to the old hunter Hamu.]

"Found it."

Su Yu blew the dust off the badge, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes.

"Dark magic..."

"It seems this is more than just a simple missing person search."

Putting away the badge, Su Yu took one last look at the desolate mine without any hesitation, and immediately pulled out a return scroll.

As the blue light of the recall scroll faded, Su Yu returned to this corner filled with the aura of corruption.

The old hunter Hamu maintained that颓废 posture, as if he had become one with the garbage heap behind him.

This time, however, when Su Yu's footsteps sounded, a faint, almost imperceptible expectation appeared in his originally cloudy eyes.

"Old man, catch."

Su Yu didn't waste any words and casually tossed it aside.

The damaged scout badge, stained with dried blood and red dust, traced an arc through the air and landed precisely in Hamu's withered palm.

Hamu caught the badge, but his movements suddenly froze.

He lowered his head, his calloused thumb gently stroking the deep crack on the badge's surface—a mark left by a sharp blade.

silence.

A deathly silence enveloped the corner.

After a long while, a long sigh escaped from the old man's mouth, carrying endless vicissitudes and sorrow.

"Even you... can't come back...?"

Hamu closed his eyes, and two streams of tears slid down his wrinkled cheeks.

In that instant, he seemed no longer to be that grumpy drunkard, but a father who had lost his child, aging ten years in an instant.

"He is my apprentice."

Hamu spoke slowly, his voice hoarse as if it had been sanded on sandpaper:

"Three months ago, I sensed signs of a resurgence of dark forces deep within the mines west of the city, so I sent him with a team of scouts to investigate. Unexpectedly..."

The old hunter suddenly opened his eyes, a chilling glint flashing within them:

"Deep within the mine lies a sealed, corrupt altar—a remnant of the evil left behind by the dark cult of the old era!"

"The seal was originally very secure, unless someone broke it from the inside..."

At this point, Hamu gripped the badge tightly in his hand:

"The dark magic remaining on this badge confirms my suspicions... Someone within the City Guard has betrayed their oath! Their soul has been corrupted by darkness!"

"That traitor, in order to cover up the truth about the altar's reactivation, lured the scout team into the mine and then murdered them to cover it up!"

"Even... I was framed by them and ended up like this."

Su Yu listened quietly.

Although the plot is very clichéd, a typical traitor and revenge story, it must be said that the game's immersion is indeed well done, and the old man's acting skills are Oscar-worthy.

Hamu took a deep breath, calming himself. He raised his head, his gaze hardening again, and looked at Su Yu:

"Young man, now that our captain has met with misfortune, we must stop that traitor's plot."

"Once the altar is fully activated, countless monsters will surge forth from the earth, and the entire Dawn City will be reduced to a wasteland!"

The system notification sounded again as soon as he finished speaking.

Ding!

[System Notification: Progress update for the hidden quest "The Prologue to the Dark Night"!]

[The quest has entered its second phase (2/7): Purifying the Corrupted Altar.]

[Mission Objective: Return to the lowest level of the abandoned mine (Lv.10+).]

[Description: Locate the hidden corrupted altar, defeat the guardian, Dark Overseer Karl, and destroy the altar's core.]

[Mission Reward: Hamu's Personal Gift.]

Looking at the red BOSS name on the task panel, Su Yu raised an eyebrow.

Faced with such a heavy plot that concerned the safety of the entire city, Su Yu did not show the kind of passionate expression that comes from fighting for justice and for the light.

Instead, he stroked his chin and immediately asked the question that concerned him most:

"Um... excuse me, sir."

Su Yu asked with a serious expression, "That guy named Karl, he's a BOSS, right?"

Hamu was taken aback, then nodded subconsciously: "Yes, he's a minor leader in the Dark Order, and he's very powerful..."

"Since he's the boss, he must be pretty rich, right?"

Su Yu's eyes lit up: "I mean, these kinds of villains must be carrying a lot of ill-gotten gains from the people, or top-tier equipment or something?"

"..."

Hamu was slightly taken aback, seemingly choked by the sudden question.

He looked at the young man in front of him, whose focus had completely veered off course, his lips twitched a few times, and finally he nodded helplessly:

"...That's natural. The lackeys of the Dark Order are usually greedy and carry with them looted treasures and magical artifacts."

"That's fine then!"

Upon hearing the word "treasure," Su Yu was instantly energized. He twirled his katana beautifully, producing a crisp hum.

"As long as you pay, I'll take care of anyone, even if they're a demon king, no matter who the supervisor is."

Su Yu patted Hamu on the shoulder, completely shattering the previous somber atmosphere:

"Please rest here and have a good drink. I'll take this job and be right back."

After saying that, Su Yu turned and left.

Watching Su Yu's departing figure, Hamu stood there stunned for a long time, then shook his head with a wry smile, picked up the remaining half bottle of wine, and took a big gulp.

"What a...strange little guy."

Meanwhile, the respawn point in Dawn City Square

At this moment, a slight commotion arose on the world channel.

World Channel

"Hey, did you guys see that? There seemed to be a beam of red light shooting into the sky just now, coming from the direction of that abandoned mine in the west of the city?"

"I saw it! I saw it too! It was terrifying! Was some kind of big boss appearing?"

"Don't overthink it. Those are all level 10 monsters with high defense. Who can beat them now? It's probably just a scene effect from the system or a bug."

"Exactly, none of our Dynasty Guild's elite teams went there to explore, so who can trigger the questline? Let's just call it a day."

"Don't say that. Aren't there other guilds? For example, Qingge, which is currently ranked number one."

"That's true, didn't the Dynasty lose to them in the first clear of the raid last time..."

"Shut up! They were just lucky to get in early!"

"Exactly! We went to the wrong square, which caused us to run into several elite monsters. Otherwise, the first clear would definitely have been ours!"

"..."

P.S.: Happy New Year! Wishing all my little ones a successful year ahead, great career advancement, and a happy family in 2026!