Chapter 25: Filthy Remnants 【Slight Forum Content】

Chapter 25: Profane Echoes "Micro-Forum Format"

Something like a pair of cicada-wing-like membranes seemed to have grown inside his throat...

In the second-floor guest room, Wang Lin had slowly regained consciousness. Anxiously, he ran his fingers over his neck, lightly touching the most vulnerable part of his body, triggering the thin wings that had grown inside his throat to flutter.

With trepidation, he walked to the mirror, opening his mouth and tilting his head at different angles repeatedly, trying to see deep into his throat—but of course, he couldn’t see anything clearly.

So Wang Lin could only endure the unfamiliar sensation of having an extra organ in his body, carefully feeling the movement of the thin wings to determine their size and shape.

The soft, delicate wings only occasionally brushed against his throat when fluttering violently, provoking a faint tickle.

Most of the time, they were like a butterfly quietly perched on a flower, gently opening and closing its wings.

Small, thin, lightweight...

—What the hell is this?

Wait, he distinctly remembered walking normally on the mountain path before someone suddenly called his name from behind, and then...

Then how did he suddenly lose consciousness and wake up here? And what was with these wings?

Wang Lin pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering if he had come down with some sudden illness, when suddenly, a "Ding!" sound rang out, followed by a cold, mechanical voice echoing from nowhere:

"Lifeform meeting player standards detected. System binding in progress..."

"Binding successful! Welcome to the Playground of the Gods—Player #31244. Below is your personal information."

"Name: Wang Lin

Homeworld: Third Dimension · First Universe · Milky Way · Earth

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Age: 21"

"Ability: Profane Echoes (Tier 3)"

"You have evolved after merging with an unhatched larva of the *Moth God* during Divine Pollution exposure. From now on, your speech holds power, capable of influencing reality to a certain extent, potentially manifesting curses."

Along with the voice, a translucent pale-blue panel appeared—like something out of a sci-fi movie—displaying all his basic information, along with opaque terms like "Ability" and "Pollution"...

"This can’t be real... Am I hallucinating?"

Wang Lin couldn’t help but look horrified, waving his trembling hand in front of his eyes a few times, but the surreal display persisted.

Alone in the empty room, he steeled himself before slowly following the system’s tutorial to acclimate to its functions and the so-called "Playground of the Gods."

The hidden, arcane underbelly of this world gradually unveiled itself before him, revealing its lethal truth.

Little by little, Wang Lin realized that this might be a system that bound Ability Users as players, sending them to various worlds to complete dungeon trials.

And he and his classmates had unfortunately blundered into a dungeon zone, thrust against unfathomable threats completely unprepared...

"Special Dungeon: 'Echoes in the Cocoon,'" Wang Lin read the mission on the System Panel, ice water flooding his veins. "The task is... to survive?"

"If survival is the mission, does that mean... this place is lethally dangerous?"

Christ, he was just an ordinary college student who was tongue-tied around people—how was he supposed to survive alongside his classmates?

Wang Lin despaired that, forget this sudden Playground System, he didn’t even understand his own Ability yet!

No, he had to get his shit together. At the very least, he was the only Ability User who knew a little about what was going on...

In the end, Wang Lin stopped at the help forum of the system’s built-in forum, took a deep breath, and dropped an anonymous post—

"HELP: Newbie Here. Came to the mountains for research with classmates. How to survive Divine Pollution?"

Perhaps because the title contained buzzwords like "Divine Pollution," the post immediately attracted a swarm of users as soon as it was published.

Before long, the thread was bumped to the top of the homepage by layers of replies, sitting among the hottest discussions.

#1:

...OP, what backwater dungeon did you crawl into? Is this the kind of question that belongs in the newbie help section?

#2:

This is so absurd. Are you just farming clicks?

#3:

Who’d bother lying about something like this? Who here would joke around with their life at stake?

#4:

I think it’s probably real. Keeping an eye on OP’s situation. Also, lighting a candle.

#5:

Lighting a candle +1. GL OP (praying)

#6 (OP):

I’ll keep updating this thread. The situation is urgent—please, vets, help us!

#7 (OP):

First, I want to ask—the system told me there’s Divine Pollution here... WTF is that??

#8:

...No cap? Fresh meat?

#9:

Getting Divine Pollution in your first dungeon? OP rolled a nat 1 on luck.

Most of the players in the discussion thread were deeply curious and sympathetic toward Wang Lin’s experience, immediately dropping knowledge about the Playground 101.

Wang Lin read the information intently, wishing he could pull out pen and paper to take notes, muttering to himself: "Divine Pollution refers to residual power from high-level divine beings..."

...

Downstairs in the lobby, the students sat around a long dining table, silently eating with their heads lowered.

The villagers had been exceptionally hospitable, bringing freshly cooked meals one after another as soon as dinner time arrived—dishes like farm-fresh egg soup, braised pork, mushroom chicken stew...

The lavish dishes were laid out one by one on the table, their enticing colors shimmering in the wispy steam, yet no one present had an appetite.

Under the villagers' earnest hospitality, the students sat around the dining table, their lips curled into strained smiles as they mechanically picked up their chopsticks and served themselves.

The food was shoved into their mouths, chewed a few times without registering any taste, and then gulped down.

Everyone's minds were still echoing with Teacher Ju's eerie, self-talking recorded conversation, leaving them distraught.

It was as if a chill had seeped from the silence on the other end of the call, soaking into their bones.

Only Yi Fengchu remained the most composed. Sipping the delicious chicken soup, his thoughts lingered on the scent of that charred, unidentified substance from earlier—his appetite, in contrast, remained hearty.

As the person directly involved in the phone incident, Teacher Ju looked the most shaken, her face deathly pale, almost translucent.

She sat quietly in her chair like a specter, lost in thought: *Had she been insane from the very beginning?*

*Had she, this madwoman, led these trusting students astray?*

When the students began setting down their utensils one after another, Li Yin cast a concerned glance at Teacher Ju and hesitantly spoke up, "Teacher, none of us think this is your fault. If anything, we should blame this godforsaken place..."

The others chimed in agreement: "Yeah, Teacher, try to relax! Tonight, we'll sneak out to get help."

"The priority now is to focus on leaving," Yi Fengchu added with a nod.

"..."

Teacher Ju twitched the muscles at the corners of her lips into a faint smile and deflected. "Xiao Wang hasn’t come downstairs yet. Who’d like to bring him some food?"

Wang Da volunteered eagerly, taking a plate upstairs.

Soon after, the students drifted away in small groups, returning to their rooms to pack and prepare for a swift departure.

As for the four students chosen to drive out of the mountains late at night, they took the opportunity to rest their eyes, waiting for the dead of night to make their move.

After everyone had left, Teacher Ju sought out Yi Fengchu and solemnly instructed him, "Xiao Yi, I hope you can use the special quality of your name to protect everyone—of course, only if you can ensure your own safety first."

"I know you're the most level-headed. If anything unexpected happens, try to keep the others calm. As for organizing things, leave that to Li Yin—she has the most experience..."

Teacher Ju went on at length, while Yi Fengchu listened in silence before bluntly stating, "Telling me all this sounds like you're bracing for separation from us."

Staring blankly out the window, Teacher Ju's voice drifted softly through the air. "Yes... because I don’t know if I’ll start acting like a madwoman again—hearing voices, even seeing visions—dragging everyone down..."

"So there must be someone besides me who can take charge."

Yi Fengchu neither agreed nor disagreed.

Studying Teacher Ju’s pallid face and her distant gaze toward the mountains, he faintly guessed she hadn’t revealed her full reasons.

Whether it was fear of the unknown or confusion over her own experiences and mental state—there was no denying that the secrets of Fengyi Village had completely consumed Teacher Ju's every thought.

Like a moth drawn irresistibly to a deadly flame, she couldn’t help but plunge into the scorching fire.

Just as Yi Fengchu had anticipated, late at night, faint scuffling sounds came from one of the rooms.

Light footsteps crossed the hallway, descended the stairs, traversed the spacious living room, and finally, with a soft click, pushed open the front door.

Hazy moonlight spilled through the crack, illuminating Teacher Ju’s face.

She should have been sound asleep at this hour, but instead, she was fully outfitted in a black windbreaker, one hand gripping a trekking pole, the other holding a flashlight. Her backpack carried water, biscuits, and other supplies.

She activated her phone’s recording function, mounting it on a stand in front of her. If she didn’t make it back alive, this footage would be sent to her students—perhaps it could help them.

Drawing in a lungful of crisp night air, Teacher Ju closed the door behind her and soundlessly vanished into the dark.

Following the location and directions she remembered "Professor Lin" once telling her, Teacher Ju trudged through the dark wilderness, unsure how long she had been walking.

In such silence, every rustle of leaves or grass stood out starkly, making her glance back repeatedly to confirm nothing—or no one—was following her.

Only after putting some distance between herself and the village did she cautiously turn on her flashlight.

The beam landed on a tree—and suddenly illuminated a pair of eyes, stark white sclera and slit-pupiled, blinking at her!

The flashlight trembled violently in her grip as Teacher Ju clamped her mouth shut, swallowing the scream clawing at her throat. She stared unblinkingly.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, her "companion" reassured her, "Don’t be afraid. It’s just a moth."

Teacher Ju looked closer—it was indeed a large moth resting on the tree, its wings as wide as palms, pale with black patterns that, from a distance, resembled eerie eyes.

And when the moth fluttered its wings against the bark, those "eyes" seemed to come alive, blinking incessantly.

Her heart pounded heavily in her chest as Teacher Ju steadied her breathing and said to her companion, "Thank you..."

—*Wait.*

Mid-sentence, Teacher Ju suddenly snapped back to reality: *What companion?*

Instantly, she felt as if she’d been plunged into an ice cellar. Her neck creaked like rusted gears as she turned her head slowly, in stiff increments.

At the same time, the flashlight beam swung toward the direction of her "companion."

Mist clung to the mountains, blurring the surroundings into a hazy dreamscape. Amid this treacherous trek, a figure had appeared silently beside her at some point—unnoticed until it spoke.

The flashlight’s glow pierced the darkness, revealing a head of golden hair, radiant as gold, and a pair of crimson eyes brimming with gentle amusement.

The mysterious "companion"—a man with golden hair and red eyes—wore a simple gray robe draped in a veil of gauzy mist, the mountain night's chill clinging to him as he stood wordlessly beside Teacher Ju, looking down at her through lowered lashes.

From beginning to end, his presence was like a mountain breeze—natural, untraceable.

...A foreigner? An otherworldly foreigner?

Teacher Ju stared at the young man, whose appearance stood out starkly against the local backdrop, her expression stunned.

She even wondered if she was hallucinating again. Her mind reeled, and she asked, "Who are you?"

Of course, what she really wanted to know was—*Is this being in front of me even human?*

But Teacher Ju didn’t voice that question. Instead, she took half a step back, white-knuckled the trekking pole, ready to fight or flee.

"Good evening, madam. I am Bryce, Bryce Feibod."

This young man who called himself Bryce—no matter how bizarre his sudden appearance in the deep mountains was—smiled, his voice flowing like a clear brook, making it impossible for anyone to feel wary or hostile toward him.

Teacher Ju was no exception. The moment she heard Bryce speak, her wariness and sense of unreality instantly faded.

Though he had uttered only a single sentence, an inexplicable trust welled up in Teacher Ju’s heart, as if Bryce were an old confidant she’d known for years—someone she could share any secret with.

In her daze, she even questioned her earlier reaction. *What was so strange about Bryce’s presence?*

*Why had she been so resistant, so intense? That was terribly rude.*

Unconsciously, Teacher Ju’s demeanor transformed completely. She shed all defenses, all suspicion, and her death-grip on the trekking pole slackened, allowing her to listen to Bryce’s words with patience and focus.

"I am a wandering troubadour, delighted to meet you on my travels."

His crimson eyes crinkling slightly, Bryce inclined his head with a courtly nod.