Worldwide Awakening: My Soul Kinds Are Lost

"The difficulty increased so much, and they even locked our health. Luckily, we managed to repel it." The Black Dart Guest looked at the departing dragon-headed humanoid monster with lingering fear.

"Isn't it always like this after the update? The monsters in the instances now always have locked health and can kill instantly, sigh." The Black Gun Guest also spoke helplessly.

"Did it drop anything?" The Black Sword Guest casually pointed. He didn't really care about such things; the important part was to take things as they came.

The Black Dart Guest and Black Gun Guest turned their heads to look, and indeed, something had dropped. The Black Dart Guest excitedly ran over to pick it up, feeling strongly that something good had dropped.

His eyes bulged when he opened it. "Holy shit..." These two words jumped out of the Black Dart Guest's mouth, noticeably louder than before.

The remaining two also quickly crowded around. Taking one look, they gasped at the sight of necklaces—not one, but three. At first, they hadn't paid them much mind, but the moment they picked up the necklaces, they too couldn't help but curse in awe.

"This is too outrageous! It dropped Artifact Quality items, and three of them at once!" The Black Gun Guest was visibly shocked.

The attributes on them were just too absurd.

"Could it possibly be a trap?" The Black Sword Guest was slightly worried. If defeating that previous boss had dropped just one such piece of equipment, no matter how absurd its attributes, he could have accepted it. But they hadn't even managed to kill the boss, and yet three items dropped at once. The situation felt quite strange.

"How could it be a trap? Besides, let's just equip them first. What's the worst that could happen? Even if we die, it'll just count as a dungeon failure." The Black Dart Guest didn't hesitate, picking up one piece and immediately equipping it, not caring about any potential consequences.

Not to be outdone, the Black Gun Guest did the same.

Although the Black Sword Guest was slightly worried, he also followed suit and equipped his. He figured the Black Dart Guest was right: once equipped, items wouldn't drop upon death, so why worry so much?

After they put on the necklaces, they felt a strange sensation, as though the world had become a little fuzzy. But the fuzziness disappeared in a flash. If they hadn't been paying close attention, they might not have noticed it at all.

"So, what should we do next?" The Black Sword Guest asked. He wasn't typically the strategic type, preferring to silently wield his sword and slay enemies.

"I'm not quite sure either. Ordinarily, we should be treading cautiously, but as you can see, the current situation doesn't follow the usual script at all."

"We've been here almost a day and have only encountered that one Evil Demon. We haven't even had a chance to perform paired suppression." The Black Dart Guest also sounded a bit puzzled.

Under normal circumstances, they should have been warily facing numerous Evil Demons. However, the reality was the complete opposite: no so-called Evil Demons appeared at all.

"How about we take a look at the fourth floor?" the Black Gun Guest suggested.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Since there's no one on the third floor, we should just focus on surviving to clear the instance. There's no need to complicate things unnecessarily," the Black Sword Guest objected.

"I agree with Black Sword. We don't need to create extra problems. Although our range isn't restricted, you know that once we leave the designated area, we'll be hunted by that Human Pupa Insect. It's an unnecessary risk." The Black Dart Guest also agreed with the Black Sword Guest's sentiment against seeking out trouble.

Last time, they had experienced it: the Human Pupa Insect hunted them under two conditions. One was if they left their room at night, and the other was when they left the fourth floor to explore the fifth. They encountered it as soon as they arrived on the fifth floor; if they hadn't run fast, they would have died on the spot.

"In survival-type instances like this, it generally gets harder the longer it goes on. If we don't take the initiative and just wait to be killed, the difficulty will only increase later," the Black Gun Guest offered a different opinion.

"Your idea isn't bad, but taking such a risk could get us all wiped out. You're too aggressive, always thinking about winning," the Black Dart Guest sighed.

The three of them chatted as they continued to repair their defenses. Their previous battle had naturally caused considerable damage, which needed to be fixed as soon as possible.

The Black Gun Guest advocated for exploring outside, but that didn't mean abandoning the third floor. After all, they still needed to return there to rest and use it as a base, or even as a place to maneuver during fights.

"Strange, why does my vision feel a little distorted? It's like I've got floaters." The Black Sword Guest suddenly spoke up. This symptom had been present for almost thirty seconds. He'd thought it was some negative status effect and had checked his status bar, but found nothing. Yet, instead of disappearing, the symptom was worsening. The shadows flickering before his eyes irritated him.

"I don't feel anything. Is there anything wrong in your status bar?" The Black Dart Guest was puzzled. He didn't feel any floaters; if anything, he felt a bit stronger. He'd initially dismissed it as an illusion, but after a quick test, his strength hadn't really increased much. He decided not to mention it to avoid being laughed at.

"There's nothing in the status bar, and it's getting worse. It feels like my vision is all muddled," the Black Sword Guest said, his voice heavy.

The Black Gun Guest, who was nearby, chimed in, "I don't have floaters either, but my scalp is a bit itchy. I've scratched it a few times already."

"I told you to wash your hair more often! Now your scalp is itching, serves you right! I remember there's water in the hostel; go rinse it." The Black Dart Guest retorted, knowing the Black Gun Guest wasn't usually meticulous about his personal hygiene.

The Black Gun Guest gave a wry smile and went straight to the nearby bathroom. It was well-equipped with shampoo and even a water heater. Some of the larger rooms' bathrooms even had small bathtubs.

"How are you doing? Should we force a logout and get you checked?" the Black Dart Guest asked with concern.

"Don't be ridiculous. Where would we go for a checkup now that the game has fused with reality?" the Black Sword Guest retorted.

"Still not used to it." The Black Dart Guest also realized that since the game's fusion with reality, the entire social structure had practically collapsed. Healthcare, education, finance, and so on—most of it was gone. Take medical care, for example: after Players' characters merged with their real bodies, illnesses could be handled simply by clearing negative statuses and refilling Health. All pain and sickness would vanish.

However, the current problem was tricky: the Black Sword Guest had floaters, but no negative status appeared on his status bar. Resolving it wouldn't be easy.

"So, what do we do?" the Black Dart Guest asked helplessly. Even the Game System couldn't solve it, let alone doctors.

"Dart Guest, I feel like something's wrong. The more I wash my hair, the weirder it feels!" the Black Gun Guest yelled out.

This made the already irritable Black Dart Guest roar, "What could possibly be wrong with washing your hair? You lazy oaf, always full of excuses! If you don't want to wash it, then don't!" If the Black Sword Guest hadn't needed looking after, he would have marched over and given the kid a beating.

"No, I'm serious! My hair is falling out! It's falling out in clumps!" the Black Gun Guest shouted.

The Black Dart Guest grew even more exasperated, feeling an urge to strangle the Black Gun Guest, but he forcefully suppressed it. He then shouted, "Just keep washing! I'll be right there!"

He then turned to the Black Sword Guest and said, "Alright, you try using some purification and recovery consumables, see if they have any effect. I'll go check on that kid, and then I'll come back. If that doesn't work, we'll force a logout."

"Okay, go check on Gun Guest first." The Black Sword Guest didn't insist; after all, he wasn't a child.

However, through the constantly flickering shadows in his vision, he could vaguely see that the Black Dart Guest's physique seemed to have become larger. And were those a pair of horns growing on his forehead?

It's probably an illusion caused by the floaters. The Black Sword Guest didn't think the Black Dart Guest could have actually changed. After reality became gamified, unless one used Skills or acquired certain unique Talents, physical changes were essentially impossible.

...

「On the fourth floor.」

Wang Linchi observed the changes occurring in these three Players from the inside out.

"Their bodies are showing initial signs of error-based transformation, but the psychological impact isn't significant. However, it seems their emotions might be altered."

"Extrapolating from the current trend, even if they become Erroneous Sins, they will most likely retain their self-awareness."

"Whether they can resist the fundamental instincts of an Erroneous Sin, however, remains an unknown."

The error-transformation was currently in its initial stages; they weren't yet complete Erroneous Sins, so the lack of significant psychological impact was normal. If they were to fully transform into Erroneous Sins, Wang Linchi didn't believe these three could resist the erosion of the error. Ultimately, it was very likely their instincts would affect their sense of self, just as the Game System itself had undergone changes.

"At most, another ten minutes, and they should fully transform into Erroneous Sins." Wang Linchi estimated the time. If it weren't for the enhancements from their game characters, it wouldn't have taken this long; they might have transformed into Erroneous Sins in an instant.