Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 511 - 146. 【Doctor】

Chapter 511: 146. 【Doctor】

BOOM!

With the sound of an explosion, the cave collapsed. Fully armed players trampled on the blood and bones of goblins, skillfully raising their enchanted crossbows to kill the lingering targets.

The massive Goblin Lord slumped on its skeletal throne as Night Fighting Sword lifted his blade and chopped off its head. Holding it up high, the tired look on his face vanished as he proudly announced,

"From now on, the Newbie Village Strategy Group has officially conquered the Goblin Lair!"

"This is also the first time in ’Starry Abyss’ that an alien region conquest has been successful," Yutianxiao reminded.

"&*...*@+!"

Caramel Snail made a muffled sound, struggling to lift his arm. Due to the accumulation of too many negative debuffs on his body, he was wrapped up like a mummy.

Cumin Powder focused his gaze, blinked, and said,

"I took a screenshot. Night Fighting Sword, I’ve got some good news. You’re not only the top player in the Fiery Summer District, but also the first player worldwide to reach Level 30. Any thoughts?"

"Thoughts?" Night Fighting Sword lowered his head for a moment in thought, then solemnly said, "Talking about victory now is premature. The Fiery Summer District’s eSports performance has not been strong. Real victory or defeat will be determined on the battlefield."

"But it was tough," Garidon complained, "If our Azure Star didn’t have a mentor like Li Aozi who opened up the second planet for us early, we would probably still need another week to reach Level 30 in our Newbie Planet environment."

Saying this, he picked up a shiny scale from the Goblin Lord’s body and remarked in confusion,

"Why would there be a dragon scale in the Goblin Lair..."

"Hmm... indeed." Night Fighting Sword didn’t mind Garidon’s murmuring and slightly nodded, revealing his enchanted long sword: "Li Aozi is like a special privilege for Azure Star players. We now not only have these enchanted weapons but also our local Azure Star technology—no matter which national team we face in the future, the Fiery Summer District has nothing to fear."

"Oof oof oof!" Caramel Snail nodded vigorously, but his tongue was corroded by the goblin’s deadly poison, leaving him only able to make strange noises.

"Yes, speaking of it, our little Niuniu has also been impressive." Cumin Powder hooked an arm around Caramel Snail’s neck, lavishly praising him, "Even little Niuniu is only 13% experience away from Level 30. Soon, all Newbie Village players will be in the Alpha Stage."

"Speaking of which," Yutianxiao glanced at Night Fighting Sword, "Old Ye, what’s your Alpha Stage advancement task?"

"To master three core martial techniques of my school with advanced proficiency." Night Fighting Sword replied, "My school is the Crane School. The techniques ’Coexist,’ ’Kesa-giri,’ and ’Swallow Return’ are almost at the required proficiency, so I should reach the Alpha Stage by tomorrow."

"I truly envy you martial artists." Yutianxiao lamented, "The specialized requirement for Mechanics is to create three ’Exquisite Craftsmanship’ quality mechanical creations. I can only rely on throwing money at it."

"Hang in there." Night Fighting Sword nodded.

"Don’t just tell me to hang in there; give me some practical support."

"I’m just a martial artist, not blessed with your intelligence."

Just as Night Fighting Sword finished speaking, a player suddenly shouted,

"Hey! Come over here! There seems to be something else in this Goblin Lair!"

Something else?

Players like Night Fighting Sword looked at each other in surprise, then quickly collected the Goblin Lord’s head as a trophy and followed the crowd to the deeper part of the Goblin Lair.

They navigated around a pile of eaten skeletons and a scattered armory but found no goblin treasure. However, as they went deeper, the energy in the air grew increasingly stronger, and soon they realized what the group had meant by ’something else.’

clang! clang!—bang!

A miner player accurately struck a few times with a pickaxe on the wall, causing the dirt to crack and soon revealing a large gate made of some unknown blue metal. Embedded on either side were lifelike sculptures of ghouls and winged demons, intricately detailed as if protected by a powerful force, showing no signs of erosion from time or the elements.

"Holy crap... there’s a hidden area!"

Players suddenly perked up.

They thought they were done with goblins, but it turns out there was more.

"There’s an inscription here," Night Fighting Sword noticed a stone tablet in front of the gate, "Yutianxiao, your Tanas language level is the highest, why don’t you translate it?"

"Leave it to me."

Yutianxiao walked forward and studied the characters on the stone tablet, waiting for the system to load and decode it. His mastery of the Tower Tribe language was at a proficient level, so the progress bar quickly filled up. He scanned it and read aloud fluently,

"To those who come after, whatever reason brings you here, your arrival proves your courage to explore uncharted paths."

"The future is an abyss with no bottom, but all hope is stored within. I don’t know how to express this feeling in proper language... but trust me, as an honorable traitor, I will forever stand by conscience and justice."

"To those who come after, beyond this gate is confined a long-forgotten monster, created by me using forbidden technology, drawn from the chaos. If there’s one person in this world I’ve wronged, it is that child."

"I’ve prepared a series of trials for you. If you pass them, you will awaken her with your genuine heart, to aid you in overcoming countless challenges."

"Children of the Starry Abyss, I urge you to annihilate all ’society’ and restore peace to the world."

"Thirteen Councillors of the Secret Society—Doctor Leverkusen Dokete (original name: Aidel Gold), resting here eternally."

"Erected by—former Secret Society Jury: Aerlia; Citizen: Verimia."

The players glanced at each other.

"Looks like we’ve stumbled upon something pretty significant."

Yutianxiao plainly stated,

"This repeatedly mentions something about ’society,’ and then a traitor, Secret Society... I think it might relate to the main storyline of the game."

"Could be."

Night Fighting Sword nodded,

"Everyone set up camp, reset the respawn point. Let’s enter the gate and scout it out first."

A moment later, the players surged through the azure gate, but to their surprise, there was nothing behind it.

All that awaited them was a shabby-looking lab.

Dust-covered instruments, a damaged magic circle, and fortunately, a few less-damaged golem puppets that might be repairable.

"No enemies here." Caramel Snail finally cleared away his negative status effects, heaved a sigh of relief, and began searching. He approached a desk, flipping open a document that immediately caught his eye,

"Huh? What’s this? ’Dragon Demise Weapon Design Manuscript’? Sounds cool, gotta touch it."

Caramel Snail, typically curious, immediately moved closer.

As he opened the cover, he saw a sentence—surprisingly, it wasn’t in the Tower Tribe language, Azure Star’s language, nor any known language. Yet, for some reason, he could understand its meaning.

"To my dear child: Please forgive me for sacrificing your personal happiness for the hope of Quan Starry Abyss. Your life is doomed to be full of misfortune and turmoil. Even so, I still hope that you can live on strong. When you complete your mission, I hope you’ve found your own love, meeting someone who will love you more than I do—Leverkusen Dokete."

Caramel Snail flipped through several more pages, most of which were blurred due to humidity.

Fortunately, a page with a photograph remained legible, with an inscription matching that of the cover page:

"Subject is eight years old, in excellent physical condition, completely immune to the toxicity of Ether Blood, but still lacks fundamental values... she is still merely a weapon. Perhaps I should not develop emotions for her."

He looked at the photograph:

The picture showed two main figures, one a middle-aged man with brown hair and eyes, a kind look giving him the appearance of a doctor. He was sitting on a couch, feeding ice cream to a girl on his lap.

Stopping there, he seemed like any ordinary father, taking a picture with his daughter.

The girl had golden hair and eyes, a pretty face, but an empty gaze. She held a still-beating heart in one hand and a fresh brain in the other, her small body burdened by five meters of green, unknown intestines.

She opened her mouth mechanically licking the ice cream, much like a domesticated wolfhound, numbly accepting the hunter’s feeding.

Perhaps it was Caramel Snail’s imagination.

In the doctor’s eyes, there seemed to be some... guilt?

"Huh? Is there dust in the lower left corner?"

Caramel Snail lightly rubbed off the dust, revealing the doctor’s note for the girl:

Dialan Alexandra Dukejin.