137. The Audience’s Favorite Segment of the Abyss RPG Livestream

As soon as he stepped out of the bar, the door behind him closed automatically, causing Jon to shudder all over. He tried to turn around and push the door handle, only to find that the bar’s door had locked the instant it shut.

“Is this... part of the script too?” Jon whispered.

“Don’t worry, nothing will happen,” Chen Sang replied with a confident look.

Jon attached the filming equipment to a remote-controlled drone and began recording the surroundings along the way.

Thick, unrelenting fog hung in the air, and from time to time, eerie winds howled like ghostly wails. Decaying tombstones, covered in moss and scattered haphazardly, completed the scene—straight out of a horror film.

Yet, compared to places Jon had explored before, this so-called “Abyss” was not particularly perilous.

There were no steep cliffs, no radiation powerful enough to melt flesh, nor were there mutated creatures lurking everywhere... but for some reason, Jon’s body couldn’t help but tremble. His instincts told him this place was more dangerous than anywhere else he had been.

“Who would’ve thought the rumors were true? There really is a place like this hidden within the Wilderness Zone!” To keep the show engaging, Jon started reciting lines Chen Sang had prepared for him:

“Planner, what do you think about what that robot said earlier?”

“I think he was just babbling nonsense,” Chen Sang feigned a hopeful tone and continued, “But I do believe the rumor is true. There must be a grand treasure hidden in the Abyss!”

“So, do you think we can find this grand treasure?” Jon asked.

“I think it’s unlikely. After all, that treasure has been sought after since the ‘Great Abyss Era’ and no one has found it yet,” Chen Sang replied.

“I accepted your invitation mainly because I heard about the Abyss and became curious about it,” he added.

Jon seized the opportunity: “Exactly. From your performance in the Grand Arena, it’s clear you’re also someone who dares to take risks. That’s why I invited you to join this live broadcast.”

As they chatted according to their prepared script, a sudden howling and light footsteps echoed nearby.

Chen Sang was about to react when time around them froze. Even the live feed on their equipment was frozen in a single frame.

At that moment, a line of blood-red text appeared in Chen Sang’s mind:

“You are attacked by a pack of zombie hunting dogs. Make an evasion roll: 1d100 = ???. If the result is higher than 40, the dodge succeeds.”

A hundred-sided die materialized in Chen Sang’s right hand, and he decisively rolled it.

“1d100 = 39, failed the roll.”

Time resumed its flow. Chen Sang suddenly felt as though his feet were weighted with lead, and his arms, attempting to draw a weapon, cramped and refused to obey.

“Damn it, luck really can’t be trusted!” Chen Sang muttered angrily.

In the next instant, three hunting dogs burst out of the mist. One quickly pounced on Chen Sang, knocking him to the ground.

The other two lunged at Jon, but he nimbly dodged them.

The zombie dog pinning Chen Sang to the ground had rotted skin and an empty abdominal cavity. It bared its yellowed, decaying teeth and snapped at Chen Sang’s arm.

But instead of biting through, there was a crisp crack as its teeth shattered upon contact, as if hitting stone. Five or six of its fangs were knocked loose onto the ground.

Chen Sang considered himself an unlucky man, or perhaps he never relied on luck to win. To ensure he could defeat these monsters even in the worst circumstances, he had commissioned a priest from the black market to craft some temporary equipment designed specifically to counter low-level Abyss creatures like ghouls and zombie dogs.

For instance, the armor he wore beneath his clothes was specially made to withstand claws and teeth.

After its teeth shattered, the zombie dog hesitated. Seizing the moment, Chen Sang pulled out a portable chainsaw from his waist and swung it fiercely at the zombie dog’s head.

“After 15 attempts, the zombie hunting dog dealt you 0 damage, blocked by your armor. You dealt 22 critical damage to the zombie hunting dog.”

Watching the zombie dog he had torn apart in pieces, a string of blood-red text appeared in Chen Sang’s mind.

Once Chen Sang dispatched his foes, Jon was already swinging a multifunctional ice axe, smashing the other two zombie dogs until their brains splattered.

As an adventurer long active in dangerous areas, Jon’s combat skills might not be as exaggerated as Chu Jianlai’s, but he was certainly among the best humans.

“Planner, what are these things?” Jon asked, still shaken, wiping his hands nervously, “And that die just now... what was that?”

Chen Sang turned on his private communicator, speaking in a voice the viewers couldn’t hear: “Did you suddenly feel like time froze and a die appeared in your hand?”

“Yes, yes! I’ve never encountered anything so strange before!” Jon opened his communicator as well for a private chat.

“Words appeared in my mind telling me to make an evasion roll. After I rolled, these monsters charged out. Then my mind told me to make a sanity check…”

“You had two rolls just now…” Chen Sang nodded thoughtfully.

While rolling the dice, time around them remained nearly frozen. In theory, the person making the roll had unlimited time to consider their next move after the dice were cast.

But to others, the “dice-rolling state” was just a fleeting moment, no matter how long the roller took to think, that fact never changed. So, when multiple people explored the Abyss, no strange scenes occurred—like one person staring blankly at a die while others waited.

“As you can see, this is a feature of the Abyss,” Chen Sang said mysteriously, then switched off his private channel, signaling Jon to continue exploring forward with him.

They continued their exploration through the graveyard and soon saw many white humanoid ghosts wandering among the tombstones, emitting eerie phosphorescence.

At the same time, Chen Sang and Jon were forced into another sanity check.

Having seen such spirits before, Chen Sang’s threshold for the check was very low; he passed with ease on a casual roll.

Even if he had failed, it wouldn’t matter—he carried the blessing of the Abyss Goddess. And if the blessing didn’t hold, he could always rely on sedatives for a while.

As for Jon, Chen Sang had already instructed him to take sedatives, so unless his luck was terrible, nothing serious would happen.

“This is terrifying…” Jon muttered, shivering involuntarily. It seemed he had failed the check and lost some sanity.

Yet the ghosts did not seem to frighten the viewers in the live broadcast:

“Wow! This place is amazing — even ghosts!”

“Is there a chance these ghosts are real?”

“Don’t scare us at night, this is definitely just for the show!”

“Do ghosts need rest? If not, come work overtime at our company 24/7, we can negotiate the salary.”

Chen Sang patted Jon on the shoulder and led him around the ghosts to continue onward.

As they neared the edge of the graveyard, low growls accompanied by heavy footsteps echoed all around.

Sensing this, Chen Sang quickly gestured for Jon to be quiet and crouch down.

They hid behind a tombstone and soon heard strange noises approaching.

“It’s coming!” Chen Sang whispered.

A figure over two meters tall emerged from the mist. It resembled a werewolf, its muscles bulging grotesquely, eyes glowing crimson as it surveyed the surroundings.

Chen Sang remembered this creature was called a ghoul—the most threatening monster in this graveyard. He had struggled greatly to barely kill one last time.

Upon seeing the ghoul, Jon’s breath caught momentarily—likely another sanity check.

However, he did not show signs of panic, indicating he had passed the check.

“Everyone watching, do you see that?” Chen Sang aimed the camera at the ghoul searching for prey and quietly explained:

“This monster, like those hunting dogs earlier, wanders the Abyss to prevent adventurers from delving deeper. Judging by its powerful build, engaging it in close combat would be unwise.”

“But I’m a planner. A monster of this level is still manageable. I’m going to hunt it now!”