Online Game: My Decay Drives the Entire Server Crazy

The first player to give up and quit was the one who caused the whole server to burst into laughter.GM Xiao Zhou stared at the ”Insufficient permissions, unable to view” prompt on the screen, his entire body slumped in his chair, his eyes unfocused. He had been working for sixteen consecutive hours, his eyelids were fighting each other, his temples were throbbing, and he had drunk cup after cup of coffee, but he still couldn’t find anything in Lin Ye’s account data.

”Xiao Zhou, the boss wants to see you.” A colleague next to him patted his shoulder.

Xiao Zhou shuddered, stood up mechanically, and dragged his heavy footsteps toward the Technical Director’s office. Pushing open the door, the Technical Director was sitting behind the desk, his face livid.

”Xiao Zhou, explain to me, why can’t we process even one of the two hundred thousand reports?”

Xiao Zhou swallowed his saliva: ”Boss, that Lin Ye’s account data permissions are higher than ours, I really can’t check it...”

”Can’t check it? You are a GM! You are the official staff! You can’t check a player’s data?” The Technical Director slammed the table, ”Do you know what the higher-ups said? They said our technical department is incompetent, we can’t even manage a single player!”

Xiao Zhou lowered his head, not daring to speak. What could he say? Say that the SSS-grade Talent was inherent to the game and they couldn’t touch it at all? He had said this a hundred times, but nobody believed him.

”I’ll give you one more day.” The Technical Director said coldly, ”Within one day, either figure out his account data, or ban his account. If you can’t do it, pack your things and leave.”

Xiao Zhou walked out of the office, his legs feeling weak. He had already had his salary reduced twice; if he lost his job again, he wouldn’t be able to pay his mortgage. He gritted his teeth, returned to his workstation, opened a private message, and sent a message to Lin Ye —

[Private Message] GM001: Brother Ye, I beg you, please cooperate with our verification work. I’m really about to be fired.

Lin Ye was grinding monsters in the wild map. Seeing this private message, he raised an eyebrow. GM001’s tone was completely different from before; before it was ”Please cooperate with the verification,” now it was ”I beg you.” It seemed this GM had truly been pushed to the edge.

He replied: ”How to cooperate?”

Seeing the reply, Xiao Zhou almost cried with excitement —

[Private Message] GM001: Just... just let me take a look at your Talent data panel. Take a screenshot, don’t censor it. I guarantee I won’t leak it.

Lin Ye thought about it, a wicked smile curling the corner of his mouth. Fine, then he would play along with him.

[Private Message] Lin Ye: Fine. Come over. I’m in the wild map, coordinates (387, 256).

Xiao Zhou’s hands were shaking with excitement, he quickly called up his GM account and teleported to the coordinates Lin Ye gave. With a flash of white light, he appeared on a grassland, and Lin Ye was sitting on a rock waiting for him.

”Brother Ye!” Xiao Zhou quickly ran over, ”Thank you for cooperating!”

Lin Ye glanced at him; he was a young man in his early twenties, wearing glasses, looking utterly exhausted, with dark circles almost reaching his chin. It seemed this GM had really been put through the wringer.

”You want to see my Talent data?” Lin Ye asked.

Xiao Zhou nodded frantically: ”Just one look! I guarantee I won’t leak it!”

Lin Ye opened the Talent panel and turned the screen toward Xiao Zhou. Xiao Zhou leaned in to look —

Talent Name: Perpetual Energy Level Decay

Grade: SSS-grade

Effect: ??? (Insufficient permissions, unable to view)

Unlock Progress: ??? (Insufficient permissions, unable to view)

Xiao Zhou was stunned: ”This... why can’t I still see it?”

Lin Ye shrugged: ”I told you, your permissions aren’t high enough. I can’t help it either.”

Xiao Zhou was about to cry: ”Brother Ye, can’t you just read the Talent effects to me?”

Lin Ye thought about it: ”Fine. Listen carefully.”

Xiao Zhou quickly took out a small notebook.

”First, it can stack Decay Debuff on malicious targets, each layer dealing 1% of max HP as true damage, with no upper limit on stacks.”

Xiao Zhou scribbled furiously.

”Second, it can precisely castrate target stats, cutting attack, defense, movement speed, etc., down to 1 point.”

Xiao Zhou’s hand was shaking.

”Third, it can spread the debuff across maps and spaces, and it remains effective even after logging off.”

Xiao Zhou’s pen dropped.