Messenger of Calamity

Chapter 5: Secret Realm Instance

Yan Qing thought that he would sleep poorly in this unfamiliar cave.

He had always been the type to suffer endocrine imbalances whenever he traveled — unfamiliar environments would trigger a Hakimi stress response in him.

But unexpectedly, when Yan Qing woke up this time, he felt as refreshed as if he had put on red underwear on New Year's Eve.

It was a rare experience he hadn't had since he picked up the bad habit of working.

After a simple wash, he slightly reheated the leftover meat buns from last night — yes, the room even had a fireplace.

After breakfast, Yan Qing turned on the game console.

The Messenger, launch!

Because there were no windows, Yan Qing could only rely on the game console to judge the time.

It should be just after dawn outside, with remnants of deep blue night still lingering in the sky.

'Yan San' had already gotten up and was practicing spearmanship.

"Would you like to change the gameplay from 'Automatic Evolution' to 'Manual Control'?"

Yan Qing discovered the Automatic Evolution feature last night when he was about to log off.

After a bit of research, he realized it was essentially an idle system — but a rather smart one.

The game character would automatically deduce his next actions based on past gameplay experiences.

For example, since 'Yan San' had stumbled into the military camp and become a soldier, he would now sleep and train on a fixed schedule, obeying orders until Yan Qing logged in to take control.

Yan Qing let 'Yan San' continue idling and opened the Public Storage to retrieve a steaming bowl of pork rib soup — the meat buns were not quite enough, and a hot soup was necessary in the morning.

By the time the bell rang at the training field for assembly, 'Yan San' had already leveled up again.

This meant that even if Yan Qing didn’t manage anything, 'Yan San' could still reach level 10 within four or five days.

The soldiers gathered in the training field, and 'Yan San' quickly found his superior — the same Ghostly Knight from yesterday.

At this moment, the latter had a name floating above his head: "Hundred-Ward Captain · Wu Wanliu".

Yan Qing had learned the name from others, but once a game character obtained such information, the system would automatically match the name with the person.

Wu Wanliu said, "Today it's our Second Ward's turn to enter the secret realm. Old rules: ten archers, reward of five jades; five warriors, reward of thirty jades. You, join the warrior team!"

The person Wu Wanliu pointed at was exactly 'Yan San'.

Yan Qing didn’t understand what this was all about, so he just went with the flow.

The knight-servants helped him put on heavy armor, equipped him with a spear, a longbow, a quiver of arrows, and even emergency bandages and strong liquor.

Everyone else scrambled to sign up, but they were all vying for the archer team.

The warrior team was entirely selected by Wu Wanliu himself.

In addition to the archer and warrior teams, Wu Wanliu also named twenty people as reserves.

Once the teams were assembled, Wu Wanliu didn’t lead them outside the camp.

Instead, he brought them deeper into the military camp.

The deeper they went, the stricter the security became, with watchtowers, barricades, cheval-de-frise, and towers...

What Yan Qing had seen before was just the outer residential area of the camp.

The interior was not only more heavily guarded but also seemed to be where the army's main forces were stationed.

Under the aim of dozens of crossbows from four directions, the gates of the fortress slowly opened.

Wu Wanliu led them into the most heavily guarded area of the military camp.

Even Yan Qing couldn’t help but become curious at this point: what exactly was so important that it needed to be surrounded and protected by the entire camp?

What appeared on the screen was actually a courtyard.

Yan Qing wondered what sort of important figure lived there, needing an entire military camp for protection.

But after taking a few more steps forward, he saw faint green ripples appear on the vermillion gate of the courtyard.

Game information popped up:

"Zheng Family of Three-Mountain Town"

"Background: Zheng Shan is a widely praised philanthropist who donates money every year to repair bridges, fund academies, and care for the lonely and disabled. But no one knows that the Zheng family is actually a den of thieves. Zheng Shan robs, loots, murders, and burns in other provinces, earning him the nickname 'Three-Mountain Fiend' in the underworld. But because he acts as a kind benefactor back home, the authorities have never suspected him..."

"Challenge Level: 8~15"

"Challenge Participants: Up to 15 people"

"Objective: Kill 'Three-Mountain Fiend' Zheng Shan"

At this point, Wu Wanliu said, "Let me repeat: all loot is public property. Only I can open treasure chests. Anyone who breaks the rules, don’t blame me for being merciless! And you — stay by my side. If you make it out alive, you’ll become a Hundred-Ward Rider. But if you retreat or flee when facing monsters... then stay in there forever."

"Final weapons check. Second Ward, enter the Secret Realm!"

So that’s how it was!

No wonder Black Wolf and the others were so familiar with the Thieves' House.

No wonder Wu Wanliu had a protective token.

Turns out the people in this world could discover instances and exploit the resources within!

To the people of this world, an instance that forms its own realm truly deserved the name "Secret Realm".

When 'Yan San' entered with the team, the screen immediately changed — it was clearly morning outside, but inside the instance, it turned to night.

They arrived at the courtyard outside the residence, where many fire basins were placed, extending all the way into the house.

Five fierce and menacing servants patrolled the central path of the courtyard, their names floating above their heads: "Bandit Servant", along with visible health bars.

Wu Wanliu said, "Archer team split into left and right wings, wait for crossfire signal, warrior team stay close to me, move forward five steps!"

As he spoke, Wu Wanliu stepped forward five steps and forcefully stabbed his polearm guandao into the ground, showing no fear that the servants just ten steps away might seize the chance to attack.

Yet when all the warriors gathered behind Wu Wanliu, the servants remained completely unresponsive.

Yan Qing naturally understood why — instance monsters operated according to programmed behavior, and Wu Wanliu had positioned himself just outside their aggro range.

Wu Wanliu drew his strongbow and ordered, "Prepare!"

'Yan San' and the other teammates pulled back their bows as the archer team split into two wings and positioned themselves behind, ready to fire.

"Fire!"

Fifteen arrows rained down like water upon the five servants, each receiving three arrows on average, their health bars dropping by one-third.

But despite being hit, the bandit servants remained unaffected, instead raising their broadswords and charging forward!

Data-based!

These monsters were unlike real people — injuries didn’t reduce their combat ability.

Only when their health was depleted would they die!

"Guards, engage!"

Wu Wanliu picked up his guandao and clashed with the leading servant, while the other warriors each intercepted one enemy, perfectly one for each.

It was worth noting that besides Wu Wanliu and 'Yan San', the other warriors were all sword-and-shield bearers, focused mainly on defense.

As the servants rushed forward, the archers fired another volley from behind.

So when 'Yan San' engaged, the enemy already had only half health.

But this was an instance for levels 8–15, which meant these servants were at least level 8, higher than 'Yan San'.

When 'Yan San' landed a strike, the servant only lost about 15% health.

The battle quickly ended.

Even though Yan Qing operated diligently, he was still hit twice by a servant, losing about 10% of his health.

Yan Qing then opened his personal storage, clicked on "Meat Bun", and selected to consume it.

"Where did you get that meat bun?" asked a nearby, panting sword-and-shield warrior in surprise.

Yan San replied, "Leftover from breakfast."

After eating the meat bun, a small portion of green health began slowly recovering in the health bar.

As a seasoned player, Yan Qing instantly knew what it meant: green health represented the amount of HP the meat bun could restore, but the effect would take time to apply.

After the battle, Wu Wanliu didn’t advance immediately, instead allowing everyone to rest and relax their muscles.

At that moment, Yan Qing looked at the floating loot on the servant corpses — "Spirit Jade", "Roast Chicken", "Healing Pills", "Steel Ingot" — then glanced at the indifferent Hundred-Ward Rider, who ignored all of it.

After thinking a moment, he controlled 'Yan San' to move closer to the loot.

"You picked up Spirit Jade ×300"

"You picked up Roast Chicken ×2"

"You picked up..."

"What are you doing!" Wu Wanliu's roar seemed to pierce through the console, exploding in Yan Qing's ear.

He stood up, gripping his guandao tightly, the eyes behind his ghost mask glaring at 'Yan San'.

"Why are you stepping on these demon corpses!"

A flash of insight came to Yan Qing, and he replied, "They hit me twice earlier, I’m pissed off."

Wu Wanliu stared at him for a while, then said, "No stepping — their clothes need to be recovered later. If you're injured, apply medicine quickly. We'll be fighting again soon."

Yan Qing now fully confirmed — people in this world couldn’t see the dropped items from instance monsters!

Thinking about it, it was indeed unreasonable.

Who would carry money, food, and various materials with them all the time?

But The Messenger was still an MMORPG — instance monsters couldn’t only drop related items.

Otherwise, after a run of this kind of humanoid instance, a player’s inventory would be full of low-level weapons and gear, which only clogged up storage.

Players would just trade those junk spoils for Spirit Jade anyway — so it made more sense to drop jade, consumables, and stackable materials directly.

People of this world could enter instances, but they ultimately weren’t players of the game.

So they couldn't see, nor benefit from, these player-friendly loot mechanics.

After the break, Wu Wanliu led them into the main house.

Upon entry, they saw five more servants eating inside.

Same routine — distance control, coordinated arrow volley, then the warriors charged, with the archer team supporting through crossfire.

Because the space inside the main house was narrower, the five warriors had little room to maneuver.

Yan Qing only dodged once successfully, and lost 20% health before the fight ended.

The good news was, after two battles, 'Yan San' had reached level 7.

Just as Yan Qing was about to eat a roast chicken to restore health, a nearby sword-and-shield warrior said, "Captain, I… I can’t go on."

This sword-and-shield warrior didn’t have a visible health bar above his head, but he had multiple injuries on his body.

There was even a gash on his shoulder deep enough to expose bone, and his armor had been sliced through.

Yan Qing now realized — aside from 'Yan San' and Wu Wanliu, the other three sword-and-shield warriors were all injured and in poor condition.

It made sense that Wu Wanliu was unharmed — he had changed classes and had a protective token.

But 'Yan San' had clearly been hit several times too, so why was he also…

Yan Qing looked at 'Yan San’s' health bar in the bottom-left corner and immediately understood everything.

'Yan San', like the instance monsters, was a data-based being.

No matter how many times he got injured, it wouldn't affect his combat strength.

Only when his health bar was emptied would he die.

Real humans, however, needed to stop bleeding, disinfect, and bandage their wounds to recover.

While 'Yan San' just needed to eat a bun or roast chicken to regain health.

The data-based nature affected not just injury but combat style.

These servants charged relentlessly in battle, never dodging, fighting purely by trading injuries.

Fighting against such "fearless of death" and "unaffected by wounds" monsters meant even the most careful warrior would certainly be injured.

No wonder the warrior team's reward was six times that of the archer team — the risk was simply too great.

Thinking about it this way, it was completely understandable that the locals called instance monsters "demons".

Hard to kill, unafraid of death, exchanging blows recklessly, and reviving upon instance reset — if not demons, what else could they be?