Chapter 159: Bizarre Past

Speaking of Lycaon’s sister’s past experience, it was actually quite bizarre, at least stranger than Xiao Fen imagined.

Lycaon’s sister called herself Callisto. The small team she was in had a total of 5 people; it was a standard “Level 4-chasing” squad.

The so-called “Level 4-chasing” squad did not mean everyone drove Mercedes or the like, but that all members in the squad had mastered a large number of Skills, and basically all were above intermediate level. Various Skill combinations were mastered very smoothly. Generally speaking, the foundation of Level 3 was solid. At this time, entering Level 4 would not show any shortcomings.

In fact, even if there were level differences, a Level 3 Trialist with a solid foundation was still more power ful than a Level 4 Trialist with obvious shortcomings. In the same environment, they could survive longer and more successfully.

This point remained valid when applied to teams. A Level 3 team with a solid foundation could survive better in later Trial Worlds, but a Level 4 team with shortcomings often might capsize in a gutter.

The team Callisto was in had basically completed all Level 3 Trial Worlds. The team leader originally planned to lead the whole team to rush for Level 4 after completing the last Ming Dynasty Trial World, and then take this team further.

However, such a team with considerable strength was almost wiped out in the last Ming Dynasty Trial World. All their ambitions went down the drain in the end.

According to Callisto, the opening time of the last Ming Dynasty Trial World was May 28th in the Gregorian calendar, just 2 days away from the Great Explosion.

After entering that Trial World, the squad normally activated the Main Quest according to the prompt, and methodically completed most of the Main Quests, as well as some side quests, just waiting for the morning of May 30th to arrive.

When the time came, the squad would receive new mission instructions from the World Tree, mostly likely to have a battle with a certain enemy. After completing this battle, they would be able to get a normal evaluation, settle accounts with the World Tree, and finally return to the Real World.

However, this plan was finally disrupted by an accident.

The night of May 29th was the Dragon Boat Festival in the lunar calendar, and the Capital City was very lively.

A squad member named Sophie was wandering outside and accidentally bought a book from a vendor, then learned a new Skill through this book.

This point was very similar to Xiao Fen’s previous Greek Fire Skill, and the following process was almost the same. The World Tree issued a mission to Sophie, asking her to find the true source of this book.

In other words, the other half of the Skill from this book was likely in this Trial World, and Sophie had a chance to obtain it.

Sophie, who received this mission, immediately talked to the team leader about this matter.

Since the Trial World would refresh once every time it was completed, unfinished missions would also refresh with it. That is to say, if Sophie didn’t use this opportunity to find the next Skill, then once the next day came and the Main Quest ended, Sophie’s chance to find the other half of the Skill would also disappear.

The team leader attached great importance to such an opportunity. He gathered the team that same night, preparing to complete this small mission overnight, rushing to help Sophie get the matching Skill before the Main Quest ended.

This mission started like a running-errand mission, going here or there in the Capital City, collecting necessary information, and finally finding the location where the Skill appeared.

However, when they finally followed the clues to the courtyard where Xiao Fen and the others were now, a sudden mutation occurred.

They found this courtyard and entered around 2 AM. At first, they did not encounter any obstacles, but when their squad reached the main room in front, a large number of killers suddenly emerged everywhere in the courtyard.

These masked killers were exceptionally agile; in terms of physical attributes, they were no different from Level 3 Trialists.

What surprised Callisto’s squad was that those killers seemed to have planned for a long time and were fully prepared for the arrival of this squad.

Therefore, not long after this sudden battle began, these killers killed two people in the squad who were caught off guard, including Sophie.

The following battle became a one-sided situation. Although the captain and Callisto exited from the back door of the main room, fighting while retreating, and occupied a small room to resist with all their might, they could not withstand the large number of opponents. Finally, being outnumbered, Callisto’s other teammate and the captain died one after another.

Before dying, the captain used all his strength to throw Callisto out of the high wall of this residence. While flying in the air, Callisto watched the captain being killed by those killers.

After escaping death, Callisto was a bit dazed. After the Great Explosion happened the next morning, she didn’t care about what happened next at all, and was thus inexplicably settled out of the Trial World by the World Tree.

Leaving the Trial World, Callisto felt something was wrong. At the same time, she saw a piece of equipment at the Auction House that was exactly the same as the one on the captain. Whether it was attributes or other aspects, they were identical. Although coincidence couldn’t be ruled out, this kind of coincidence always made her feel there was a problem.

She decided to return to this world again to figure out what exactly happened before.

Strange things happened again.

When this Ming Dynasty Trial World started, the starting time had already advanced by more than 20 days, and no team application was required; a single person could enter.

More importantly, there were no mission prompts in this new Trial World. Callisto alone didn’t know how to trigger those Main Quests, let alone that strange Skill mission.

Compared to the previous Ming Dynasty Trial World, this Trial World seemed to have undergone earth-shaking changes, and the Main Quest from the previous Trial World could not be activated at all now.

She stayed in this world aimlessly for a day. When the battle started on Xiao Fen’s side last night, the constantly appearing lightning and the thunder that almost smashed the sky suddenly woke Callisto up.

She decided to come to this residence in advance to see what exactly happened here.

Compared to those Main Quests she didn’t know how to trigger, Callisto wanted to know more about who lived in this residence during the time before the Great Explosion, why they possessed such powerful force, and why they killed people regardless of everything.

This time, she did not make the wrong choice. In this residence, indeed, a large number of people wearing various clothes appeared again. Her intrusion caused the residence to start having problems again.

Some people began to hunt Callisto down again, without reason, looking like they would not stop until she was dead.

According to what Callisto said to Xiao Fen, she “accidentally rushed onto the beam, swept down the characters on the plaque, and revealed the few characters pasted inside.”

Subsequently, a Main Quest was triggered by her. The quest objective appeared before her eyes, requiring her to eliminate 50 Monsters within 2 hours.

Callisto accepted this quest, but she did not go to complete it. Instead, holding the mentality of perishing together, she did not issue any warning and allowed these Monsters to constantly appear from the darkness.

Eventually, those Monsters constantly appearing from the void killed everyone in the entire residence.

Then, also according to Callisto’s account, she “quietly left the battlefield alone while those Hell Creatures were fighting fiercely with the people in the residence, and finally arrived at the pavilion in this rockery.”

The final quest time passed. Her quest was not completed, and the World Tree punished her. At the same time, the entire residence was occupied by those Hell Creatures, and more than a hundred people died an unnatural death.

regarding such a bizarre encounter, the first thing Xiao Fen thought of was that if he had really gone to do that follow-up quest of Greek Fire at that time, he would very likely have encountered the same treatment as Callisto in the previous Trial World here.

Subsequently, Xiao Fen began to have doubts about Callisto’s descriptions. The example of Lycaon lying was right in front of him. Xiao Fen now reserved judgment on everything said by all Trialists.

In any case, Callisto definitely did not tell the truth, or at least not all of it. Many important parts were omitted by her. This could be understood as her not wanting to say too much, or it could also be understood as her lying about these issues.

But in any case, if the general framework of Callisto’s narrative was not problematic, then Xiao Fen was already able to vaguely see a line. This line connected this residence, the Eastern Depot, the Donglin Party, the White Lotus Sect, and the Hell Creatures all together.

So many forces were mixed together, seemingly fighting and struggling with each other for some common goal. And this common goal was probably the true history of this Trial World.

In other words, as long as their goal was found, one could grasp the true history of this Trial World. This also meant that Xiao Fen could more easily trigger the following Main Quest lines. It also meant that they could extricate themselves from the current predicament of being in a mess and not knowing where to start as soon as possible.

However, Xiao Fen still mastered too few things and could not quickly extract this clue. So he quickly turned his attention back to the things Callisto had just said.

What made him feel the most problematic was still the process described by Callisto, where 5 Trialists were surrounded by those killers, were outnumbered, and died one after another, with only Callisto surviving alone.

One had to know that for existences like Trialists, encountering sudden events in various Trial Worlds was not once or twice. They should have long had enough ways to deal with it.

Moreover, the squad Callisto was in had cooperated for a long time. It could be said that they cooperated seamlessly with each other. And the opponents they faced could not be Level 4 opponents. To cause heavy damage resulting in two deaths in the squad right at the start of the battle, this matter sounded somewhat incredible no matter how one thought about it.

Of course, if they encountered the situation in the London Trial World back then, where Sylvia’s squad was secretly harmed by Li Ruran’s squad, that would be a different matter.