novelraw Chapter 133 : “Undercover” Teammates and the “User Experience” of the Ten Thousand Souls Cavern
Chapter 133 : “Undercover” Teammates and the “User Experience” of the Ten Thousand Souls Cavern
Chapter 133: “Undercover” Teammates and the “User Experience” of the Ten Thousand Souls Cavern
Deep within the zen monastery, inside a meditation chamber without windows.
Chu Feng met the abbot of the Nirvana Zen Monastery.
It was an emaciated old monk, so thin that he seemed nothing but bones, seated cross-legged upon a ritual altar piled high with countless wailing skulls.
His cultivation was unfathomably deep. He was clearly a late–Nascent Soul Ancestor-level grand cultivator, his entire body shrouded in dense deathly qi and soul power, more terrifying than any demonic overlord Chu Feng had ever seen.
The abbot wasted no words. He merely gave Chu Feng a deep look, then pointed to a young man standing in attendance beside him.
“His name is ‘Kong’. He will enter the cavern together with you.”
Chu Feng’s gaze fell upon the young man called “Kong”.
The youth looked to be a little over twenty, with an utterly ordinary appearance, the sort who would vanish forever once tossed into a crowd.
He wore the same gray monk’s robe as the reception monks, his aura restrained to the extreme, like a stone, with no sense of presence whatsoever.
From beginning to end, he did not utter a single word, his eyes hollow, as if nothing in the world could draw his attention.
Chu Feng sneered inwardly.
A disciple hanging around for cultivation credits?
More likely, he was sent to monitor him—or perhaps, at a critical moment, to seize the star chart and silence witnesses. A “foreman”, no doubt.
However, on the surface, he showed no reaction at all and instead smiled pleasantly.
“Abbot is truly compassionate, sending us a guide. Many thanks. Senior Brother Kong, we will be relying on your guidance from here on.”
“Kong” merely nodded slightly, still without speaking.
Zhao Wuji, on the other hand, was naturally sociable. The moment they left the monastery, he slung an arm over “Kong’s” shoulder and said enthusiastically,
“Kong, brother, from now on we’re family!”
“Let me give you a little ‘pre-job training’ first. The core of Ascension Group’s corporate culture is—”
“Kong” expressionlessly shifted one step to the side, causing Zhao Wuji to grab nothing but air, then walked forward on his own.
Zhao Wuji ran into a wall, but he did not get angry. Instead, he jotted something down in his little notebook:
“New colleague has an introverted personality and lacks team integration awareness. Recommend strengthening corporate culture immersion in later stages.”
Led by “Kong”, the five of them soon arrived before a gigantic cavern whose depths could not be seen.
At the cavern entrance, black mist churned violently. The sounds of ghosts wailing and wolves howling rang without end, like a massive maw leading straight to hell.
“Dormant phase. Storm weakened. Entry possible.”
“Kong” spat out a few words sparingly, then took the lead and stepped into the black mist.
“Let’s go! Family Members, the gates of the ‘new market’ have opened. It’s time to go in and conduct ‘due diligence’!”
Chu Feng waved his hand with high spirits and led the group closely behind.
The moment they stepped into the Ten Thousand Souls Cavern, a cold, violent soul storm filled with resentment and despair surged straight at them!
Even though everyone was prepared, their souls still trembled, and countless bloody, terrifying hallucinations instantly flooded their minds.
Walking at the very front, Zhang Daniu bore the brunt of it!
He let out a muffled groan, his eyes instantly turning vacant.
Before his eyes, the rolling black mist transformed into a familiar small mountain village. A gentle, kind-looking woman held a steaming bowl of noodles and beckoned to him.
“Niuer, you must be hungry. Come quickly, mother made your favorite egg noodles…”
“Mother…”
Zhang Daniu muttered under his breath and unconsciously walked toward the illusion.
Within the illusion, the corners of the woman’s mouth curled into a bizarre smile. Behind her, a ferocious resentful soul projection opened its bloody maw, ready to swallow Zhang Daniu’s soul in one bite!
“Ha!”
At this critical moment, Chu Feng let out a cold shout, like a thunderclap exploding within Zhang Daniu’s mind.
At the same time, he flicked his finger, and a yellow talisman precisely slapped onto Zhang Daniu’s back.
There were no abstruse talismanic patterns on it. Instead, stamped in cinnabar was a large, golden, glittering “Ascension Group” logo, with a line of small text beneath it—
“Clear the heart and illuminate the spirit. Produced by Ascension Group. Serial No. SJT007.”
The moment the talisman attached itself, golden light burst forth!
Zhang Daniu shuddered violently. The illusion before his eyes shattered like bubbles, and he broke out in a cold sweat, only then realizing that half his body had already stepped out over a cliff, with churning soul mist beneath his feet.
“Th… thank you, President!”
Zhang Daniu was shaken to the core, his face deathly pale.
“This is the Ten Thousand Souls Cavern’s ‘newbie welcome ceremony’.”
Chu Feng patted him on the shoulder. His expression showed not the slightest tension. Instead, he surveyed the surroundings with keen interest.
He took out a specially made recording jade slip, activated its recording function, and muttered to himself as if hosting a product launch conference.
“Family Members, we have now successfully entered the on-site environment of the S-level project ‘Ten Thousand Souls Cavern’.”
“As you can see, the ‘user experience’ here can only be described as extremely poor!”
“The resentment concentration is seriously over the limit. The soul attack methods are monotonous—basically all illusions of loved ones used for entrapment. There’s no innovation, no novelty at all.”
“Moreover, there’s not even a ‘newbie guide’ or ‘safety warning’. This is extremely unfriendly to first-time ‘users’. Bad review!”
Wu Hao and Zhao Wuji were already used to this and even chimed in from the side.
“President is absolutely right. This product design completely ignores user retention!”
“I suggest adding a ‘newbie protection period’ and ‘fun guided missions’ to enhance user stickiness!”
Only Zhang Daniu and “Kong” standing nearby listened with their mouths agape.
Zhang Daniu felt that the President’s heart was truly enormous.
At a time like this, he still had the mood to do all this?
As for “Kong”, within those perpetually hollow eyes, a trace of barely perceptible ripples appeared for the first time.
He had seen countless cultivators enter the Ten Thousand Souls Cavern—greedy ones, fearful ones, mad ones—but someone like Chu Feng, who treated this place of near-certain death as a “product” to critique, he was seeing for the very first time.
What kind of structure did this man’s brain have?
At that moment, Chu Feng put away the recording jade slip and took out the black star chart that had already merged into one.
The instant the star chart appeared, it emitted a faint,幽幽 glow, as if responding to some kind of call.
Light flowed across the surface of the chart, finally converging into a weak beam that pointed in a certain direction.
That direction was pitch-black and profound, completely opposite to the relatively safe “official route” with traces of predecessors that “Kong” had indicated!
“Kong’s” gaze locked tightly onto the star chart in Chu Feng’s hand. Deep within his hollow eyes, for the first time, a clearly visible trace of incredulous shock surfaced.