Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 700, Floor 94 (2)

As for the top players who were caught up in it, there were only a dozen or so of them. As the top-tier players, the difficulty of this dungeon was not much different from that of a normal nightmare dungeon for them. In addition, they had already obtained various flying abilities in advance through the previous Infinite City event and were now familiar with how to use them. Therefore, they did not encounter any dangerous situations and were basically experiencing the different quest lines. In their peaceful state, they were completely unaware that there was something wrong with the dungeon.

However, not all top players were oblivious to the anomaly in the dungeon. A few individuals who suspected something was amiss also noticed something amiss from the system announcement, but they chose to remain silent and observe how things unfolded. After all, the interior of the Infinite City wasn't their only concern.

At the start of the instance and after the system announcement, the group that first noticed the problem was actually those players whose strength was close to top-tier players and far surpassed mid-to-low-level players. For them, some of the more difficult questlines created unusual pressure, but their ability to overcome these difficulties also gave them more opportunities to discover anomalies and more time to analyze the connections between them. Among all the player groups, two teams discovered the anomaly in the instance, but because the two teams were in different locations and the players in the two teams were not familiar with each other, their points of discovery were different, and they had no way to communicate with each other. Therefore, although they knew something was wrong with the instance, they did not have a complete strategy.

The first team, named "Boundary Breakers," is a squad of five. Each member is near the top tier in strength, with their own area of ​​expertise. Whether it's single-target damage, crowd control, scouting, or healing support, they have an extremely balanced setup. It is precisely because of this setup that they were able to stand out among many near-top-tier player teams and successfully accept the challenging "City-State Guardian" questline. The quest requires them to guard the east gate of the core city-state "Falling Star City" in the dungeon, resist three waves of attacks from "wild beasts," and at the same time assist the NPC guards in checking suspicious persons near the city gate to ensure that no external forces have infiltrated the city-state.

The captain of the "Boundary Breaker" squad is named Lu Chen. He is a player skilled in close-quarters combat and environmental reconnaissance. His weapon is a dark-patterned short sword, a reward from a limited-time event in the Infinite City. The blade contains a trace of spatial energy, making it not only incredibly sharp but also capable of briefly breaking through low-level energy barriers. At this moment, Lu Chen is leaning against the crenellations of the East Gate, his gaze calmly sweeping over the gathering place of wild beasts below. His fingertips unconsciously rub the hilt of the short sword, his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

The instant the system announcement popped up, Lu Chen sensed something was amiss. In the Infinite City dungeons, whether on normal or nightmare difficulty, the triggering of system announcements followed a clear pattern—either an initial announcement when the dungeon opened, a notification upon completion or failure of a quest, or an emergency announcement in case of a major incident (such as the boss waking up prematurely or a dungeon area collapsing). But the announcement just now was ridiculously vague, simply stating, "The dungeon is running normally, please continue the quest," without any updates on quest progress or explanation of any abnormalities. It seemed more like a deliberate attempt to reassure players, which was completely out of character for Infinite City.

"Captain, what are you daydreaming about?" A clear female voice came from the side. It was Su Wan, the team's healer. She was wearing a light blue cloth robe and holding a staff inlaid with healing crystals. She looked at Lu Chen with a hint of doubt on her face. "The first wave of wild beasts will attack in ten minutes. The team members are all ready. Why are you still daydreaming here?"

Lu Chen snapped out of his reverie, slowly shook his head, and shifted his gaze from the wild beasts below to the NPC guards inside the city gate. He said softly, "It's nothing, I just felt something was off. Didn't you think the system announcement earlier was strange?"

Su Wan paused for a moment, carefully recalling the contents of the announcement, then shook her head: "Something's not right? It's just a routine system notification, isn't it? Maybe the dungeon is too big, and the system is worried that players will panic, so it's giving a special reminder?"

“It’s not that simple.” Lu Chen’s tone was very certain. “The system of the Infinite City never does anything unnecessary. Think about it, in all the dungeons we’ve experienced before, the system announcements were always concise and to the point, saying everything that needed to be said and not mentioning a single word that shouldn’t be said. That announcement just now seemed more like it was covering something up than reassuring the players.”

At this moment, Lin Ye, the team's scout, strode over. He was wearing a black stealth suit, a simple reconnaissance mask, and a small detection device in his hand. He said in a somewhat serious tone, "Captain, Su Wan, I found something strange while scouting near the city gate. Can you come and take a look?"

Lu Chen and Su Wan exchanged a glance and immediately followed Lin Ye to a corner inside the city gate. There, piles of discarded materials lay—remnants and scraps of technological building materials—completely out of place with the style of this questline, making them quite conspicuous. However, they were actually hidden beneath piles of miscellaneous items consistent with the questline's style. If it weren't for someone in the team's special ability detecting the anomaly, their location wouldn't have been so easy to find. Furthermore, the detection instruments in Lin Ye's hands, along with his own information-based passive skill, showed faint, abnormal energy fluctuations. The frequency of these fluctuations was very peculiar; they weren't the energy fluctuations of the wild beasts in the questline, nor the energy fluctuations of ordinary NPCs encountered in the dungeon, nor the energy fluctuations of players.

"This is it." Lin Ye pointed to the corner where the materials were previously piled up and said in a low voice, "I sensed energy fluctuations here just now. At first, I thought it was a wild beast hiding here, but after careful investigation, I found that the energy fluctuations were very weak and stable, unlike the violent energy fluctuations of wild beasts. What's even stranger is that these energy fluctuations are somewhat similar to the energy fluctuations I felt when I participated in the Infinite City event offline, but not exactly the same. It's as if they were deliberately suppressed."

Lu Chen crouched down, reached out, and gently touched the discarded technological materials with his fingertips. A faint coolness traveled from his fingertips, and at the same time, he sensed a subtle energy fluctuation. This fluctuation was very subtle; if Lin Ye's detection equipment hadn't been so sensitive, and if his own perception of energy hadn't far surpassed that of ordinary players, he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

“Something’s definitely not right.” Lu Chen stood up and scanned the surrounding NPC guards. “The NPCs in the dungeon, whether guards or civilians, have fixed and very weak energy fluctuations. They don’t have this kind of special frequency. This energy fluctuation is more like… the kind of energy fluctuation that only the staff of the Infinite City have, the kind of energy that is given by the system and used to maintain order or carry out special tasks.”

"Staff members of the Infinite City?" Su Wan's eyes widened, her face showing disbelief. "Impossible, right? How could there be Infinite City staff members in the dungeon? The dungeons are all simulated by the system, and the NPCs are all generated by the system. How could real Infinite City staff members infiltrate them?"

“I also find it unbelievable, but it’s the most reasonable guess at the moment.” Lu Chen’s tone remained serious. “Take a close look at those NPC guards. Have you noticed anything unusual?”

Su Wan and Lin Ye immediately followed Lu Chen's instructions, focusing their attention on the NPC guards near the city gate. These guards wore uniform silver armor, carried long spears, and stood ramrod straight, looking no different from ordinary dungeon NPCs. Their expressions and movements were highly standardized, even rigid. However, after Lu Chen's prompting, the two observed carefully for a while and gradually noticed something amiss.

Lin Ye spoke first, his tone certain: "Something's wrong, very wrong. These NPC guards, although their posture is perfect, their eyes are off. Look at their eyes, they seem empty, devoid of any emotion. They show neither fear of the wild beasts nor unwavering commitment to protecting the city, not even the most basic weariness. Moreover, they've been standing here for so long, and apart from occasionally moving a few steps according to the system's programmed sequence and scanning their surroundings, they haven't made any other movements, like soulless puppets."

Su Wan nodded and added, "Also, when I was treating an injured NPC guard just now, I noticed his reaction was very strange. Generally, when NPCs in a dungeon are injured, they will show signs of pain and may even groan. But when I treated that guard, he just stood there stiffly, without any expression or reaction, as if he couldn't feel any pain. Moreover, his wounds healed much faster than ordinary NPCs, even faster than some mid-level players, which is completely inconsistent with the settings of dungeon NPCs."

“That’s not all.” Lu Chen pointed to an NPC guard patrolling not far away. “Look at that guard. Although his patrol route seems to follow a fixed route, if you look closely, you’ll notice that every time he passes that corner we just explored, he deliberately slows down and his eyes subtly scan that corner, as if he’s confirming something. Also, his hand movements include a very subtle rubbing motion on his wrist. I’ve seen that motion on the staff of the Infinite City. They all wear bracelets on their wrists for identification and energy regulation. That rubbing motion is a habitual action.”

The three continued to observe, and more and more anomalies surfaced. Although these NPC guards looked and behaved exactly like ordinary dungeon NPCs, careful observation revealed their flaws—they had no emotional fluctuations, no instinctive reactions, their movements were rigid and stiff, and occasionally they would make some subtle movements that were not part of the dungeon NPCs' design. Moreover, they emanated faint energy fluctuations belonging to the staff of the Infinite City.

"Captain, so it's possible that these NPC guards aren't actually generated by the instance, but rather are staff members of the Infinite City in disguise?" Lin Ye's tone was tinged with shock. "But why would the Infinite City do this? Why would they have their staff disguised as NPCs and infiltrate this instance?"

Lu Chen remained silent for a moment before slowly saying, "I don't know what their purpose is, but what's certain is that these NPC guards are definitely not ordinary dungeon NPCs. Combining the strange system announcement from earlier with the anomalies we've discovered, I suspect that this dungeon might not be as simple as we imagine. The staff of Infinite City disguised themselves as NPCs and infiltrated the dungeon, most likely to be carrying out some kind of special mission. The system announcement earlier was probably to cover up their presence, reassure the players, and prevent us from discovering these anomalies."

"So what do we do now?" Su Wan asked anxiously. "Should we expose them directly? Or should we report them to the system?"

"No, we absolutely can't do that." Lu Chen immediately shook his head, his tone firm. "We have no evidence right now, and we don't know what these Infinite City staff members' purpose is, nor do we know how strong they are. If we rashly expose them or report them to the system, we might alert them, or even bring disaster upon ourselves. Moreover, we all know that Infinite City seems to have some problems recently. Although we don't know what the problems are, I suspect that these staff members disguised as NPCs might be related to the problems within Infinite City."

Lin Ye nodded in agreement, saying, "The captain is right. Besides, we still don't know what's wrong with this instance, or what these Infinite City staff are doing in secret. If we act rashly, we might get into danger. Why don't we pretend we haven't noticed anything unusual, continue the mission, and secretly observe these NPC guards to gather more evidence and see what they're up to?"

“That’s what I was thinking too.” Lu Chen nodded. “Now, the first wave of wild beasts is about to attack. Let’s go back to our posts and complete the task of defending against the wild beasts. At the same time, everyone should pay attention to the NPC guards around us. If you find any new anomalies, report to me immediately. Also, Lin Ye, continue to use your detection equipment to investigate the energy fluctuations near the city gate and see if you can find more clues about these NPC guards. Also, see if there are any other Infinite City staff members disguised as NPCs in this instance.”

"Understood!" Lin Ye nodded immediately, turned around and disappeared back into the shadows, the detection equipment in his hand continuing to work.

Su Wan also adjusted her staff and said, "Captain, I'll go prepare too. When the wild beasts attack later, I'll provide healing support on the city wall and keep an eye on the movements of the NPC guards."

Lu Chen nodded, his gaze returning to the NPC guards, a mixture of wariness and suspicion in his eyes. He knew these Infinite City staff disguised as NPCs were definitely not normal, and that strange system announcement from earlier must be hiding a secret. All he could do now was pretend not to notice anything amiss, observe secretly, and gather clues. Only in this way could he figure out what was wrong with this instance.

Soon, the roars of the first wave of wild beasts echoed across the distant wasteland. A massive, ferocious horde of beasts charged toward the east gate of Falling Star City, raising clouds of dust and displaying overwhelming power. The NPC guards on the city walls immediately raised their spears, assuming a defensive stance, while the members of the "Boundary Breaker" team instantly went into battle mode. Lu Chen stood at the forefront of the wall, his dark-patterned short sword already drawn, radiating a faint killing intent. Su Wan stood in the middle of the wall, her staff gleaming with a soft light, ready to heal her teammates at any moment. Lin Ye lurked in the shadows of the wall, scouting the movements of the wild beasts while also secretly observing the reactions of the NPC guards.

The battle was about to erupt. The wild beasts quickly charged to the foot of the city wall, frantically ramming against it with dull thuds. The NPC guards on the wall and the members of the "Boundary Breaker" team immediately launched an attack—the NPC guards wielded their spears in unison, thrusting them at the wild beasts below, the sounds of spears piercing their bodies echoing everywhere; Lu Chen flashed down from the wall, his dark-patterned short sword drawing a sharp arc in the air, instantly piercing the head of a wild beast, blood gushing out; Lin Ye moved swiftly through the shadows, his short arrows accurately striking the eyes and vital points of the wild beasts, each arrow taking their lives; Su Wan continuously chanted healing spells, soft light falling on her teammates, repairing the minor injuries they had sustained in the battle.