However, this time the dungeon was rather special. Fifteen people entered the dungeon, fourteen of whom were combatants, and the last one was the "Messenger." The Messenger's task was, while the other fourteen fought the ultimate boss's minions, to place the quest item given by the NPC—the Amulet, Pandora's Seal—onto the Demon King's altar, sealing the Demon King's heart.

In this game dungeon, the Demon King's minions were responsible for guarding the Demon King's heart, and their power also came from the heart. As long as the heart was sealed, the minions' power would sharply decrease, making them much easier to kill.

However, the altar holding the Demon King's heart was actually a magma furnace, with the heart floating above it. No matter what level you were, jumping into the magma meant certain death. So, only a Controller could be the Messenger, using telekinesis to place Pandora's Seal onto the Demon King's heart.

But a new problem arose: a circle of monsters surrounded the altar. Controllers, who were fragile and slow, couldn't possibly stroll into the monster horde, strike a pose, and then use telekinesis to place Pandora's Seal. It was simply impossible.

Hundreds of teams in the world tried all sorts of methods, but all ended in failure. In the end, they chose to forgo the Messenger and brute-force the ultimate boss, only to be completely wiped out...

As for John Carter, although all his gear was either trash from quests or bargain-bin items from the shop, and physically he was even weaker than high-level Controllers—one touch from a monster meant instant death—he did have two skills: the Rogue's Stealth and the Controller's Telekinesis. He was perfect for this task.

He could stealth his way through the monster horde, then use telekinesis to toss the seal onto the heart. The world would be at peace, and then he wouldn't have to do anything else—just wait for the boss to die, collect a huge amount of experience, a system-rewarded purple epic item, six assignable attribute points, 1000 honor points, and, in addition, whatever unknown equipment the boss dropped.

It's worth mentioning that in "Gods and Demons," loot is player-specific—each player can only see their own equipment, gold, and potions, so you can take your time picking them up. And any equipment that's pick-up bound is always for your own class, so you never have to worry about getting something you can't use or trade.

This completely eliminates loot snatching and unfair loot distribution. If, under this system, someone still never gets any gear, they can only blame their own luck—maybe help more old ladies cross the street. So John Carter wasn't worried about missing out on loot because of his low level.

John Carter was having such a beautiful dream as he logged into the game. But after putting on his helmet, he received a message that sent him from heaven to hell: System prompt—Ghost Slayer "Dark Sword" character does not exist, system data lost, reason for loss: unknown.

Damn it!

What kind of joke is this!

John Carter didn't believe it and tried logging in again, but got the same prompt.

Shit!

John Carter was going crazy. Three months of effort, so much hard work, just waiting to make a little money from this game to pay off the debt for his helmet—how could it end like this?

For the past three months, John Carter had barely attended any classes. Sure, you could skip classes in college, but that didn't mean there were no consequences. John Carter was already on many teachers' blacklists, just waiting to be dealt with at exam time. It was basically a sure thing that he'd have to retake courses.

At Lingnan University, retaking courses meant paying retake fees! One hundred yuan per credit. John Carter estimated he'd have to pay at least a thousand or so this time. If he had no income, would he have to ask his poor family for money?

On top of that, because John Carter was "not doing proper work," the girls in his class generally had a poor impression of him. After all, in most people's eyes, even if you're good at online games and can make money, it's still not a proper job. So even though John Carter was lucky enough to be in a class full of beautiful girls, his chances of having a college romance were basically zero.

If he lost his game account too, he'd really be left with nothing.

John Carter tried logging in again and again, but always got the same merciless system prompt. Feeling a bit depressed, he took off his gaming helmet. Just then, the dorm door opened and a tall guy, about 1.85 meters, walked in. This guy had a high nose bridge, thick eyebrows, and big eyes—at first glance, he looked pretty decent. At the moment, he was spinning a basketball in his right hand, holding a boxed meal in his left, wearing a red basketball jersey and yellow athletic shorts, with his hairy calves exposed.

This person was named Henry Clark, nicknamed "Mule." He was John Carter's best friend from elementary school all the way to college. The two of them applied to Lingnan University's Chinese Department together, and later were "coincidentally" assigned to the same dorm. "Coincidentally," because there were only three boys in their class, and all of them were put in the same dorm, which still wasn't full...

"Amazing, you're actually not playing 'Gods and Demons'? Isn't today dungeon day? I even skipped basketball just to come back and watch you." Henry Clark casually put down the boxed meal—this was John Carter's dinner. For the past few months, he'd been so focused on the game that all his dinners were bought by Mule.

John Carter shook his head helplessly and explained what had happened.