79: Chapter 79 Abyss Operation

Time quietly arrived in mid-December. With the arrival of winter, neon lights for Christmas and New Year's had been hung up one after another on the streets of major cities across Blue Star, and the festive atmosphere began to spread throughout the real world.

However, the aftermath of the Seventh Singularity—Absolute Demonic Beast Front—was still fermenting wildly on the internet.

Just as countless players were still immersed in the sorrow of Tiamat, the dissipation of Ereshkigal, and the death from overwork of Gilgamesh, and were frantically posting on forums wanting to send blades to Old Thief Gu...

At 6:00 PM, without any warning, a ten-second countdown suddenly popped up in front of all players globally who were inside their "FGO" game pods.

When the countdown ended, accompanied by a crisp system prompt, everyone's vision went black, and they were safely and smoothly force-quit from the virtual game by the system.

"What the f*ck? Did the internet cut out?!"

"Did Old Thief Gu's potato server explode?!"

Just as players across the entire network were bewildered and preparing to flood the official forums to vent, a blockbuster version update announcement was suddenly released in the most prominent position on the official "FGO" homepage:

[Chaldea Version Update Maintenance Announcement and Final Battle Preview]

"To all honorable Masters: In order to prepare for the upcoming final battle, the Chaldea Control Room needs to undergo an 'epic' system upgrade. Therefore, the entire server will undergo a two-hour maintenance shutdown.

During the long preparation period for the final battle, so as not to let the Masters' combat skills grow rusty, after this version update, we will launch the [Final Battle Special Training Program]. This special training will be implemented in [two phases]:

Phase One (starts immediately): [Spiritron Calculation Labyrinth · Abyss]

This mode is a permanent, hardcore trial.

Sheba has extracted the extreme despair factors from the Sixth Singularity and Seventh Singularity to generate multi-wave, comprehensive high-pressure challenges. Clearing them will grant the Miracle Instrument [Holy Grail] and Etched Badge rewards!

Phase Two (implemented one week after Phase One starts): [Alaya · Pruning Protocol (Origin Season)]

This mode is a periodic, rotating, limited-time seasonal event.

Facing the interference of the Pan-Human History's survival instinct, Masters must freely combine [Malicious Modifiers (Counter Force interference)] in the 'Permanent Main War Zone' and 'Daily Rotating War Zone' to conduct extreme challenges.

Completing the protocol allows you to collect exclusive tokens to exchange for massive amounts of enhancement materials, QP, experience fodder, and even saint quartz in Da Vinci's Secret Shop!

All your combat progress and Servant data have been safely saved to the cloud.

As compensation for the maintenance shutdown (and as a condolence before the final battle), after the server reopens, we will distribute the following items to every Master on the entire server:

[30 saint quartz]

[10 Golden Fruits]

All Chaldea staff are currently rushing to move code for the server and kowtowing to expedite repairs. Masters, please take a short break; in two hours, we will see you in the Abyss.

— The Producer who loves you, sincerely, Chaldea."

Looking at this segmented update announcement, the expressions on the faces of the players, who were angry just a second ago, instantly underwent a brilliant transformation.

The official forum, which had been full of hostility and dissatisfaction, changed its tone in an instant:

"Holy sh*t?! 30 saint quartz?! A free ten-pull for nothing?!"

"Old Thief Gu... oh no, Father Gu! You're too kind! It's just a maintenance shutdown; I'd be willing to wait for a whole day!"

"Brothers, getting rich depends entirely on maintenance! Quick! Pray that Old Thief Gu's code has bugs and extends the maintenance by another two hours so we can scrape together enough for two ten-pulls, how about it!"

As for the "Abyss High Difficulty" and "Pruning Protocol" mentioned in the announcement, they were completely ignored by the players, who were immersed in the joy of getting thirty free saint quartz.

In their view, since even the arrogant "Mother Goddess of Creation Tiamat" and the "Lion King" had been flattened by them in the main storyline, what kind of waves could a mere special training event during the content drought cause?

Real world, Chaldea Studio.

Gu Yi sat in front of the screen, watching the comical scene of players instantly suffering collective amnesia under his "money offensive," and even defecting to call him Father, and leaned back in his chair with satisfaction.

"Go ahead and pull." These 30 saint quartz were the most sumptuous final meal he had prepared for this group of players about to step into hell.

...

Two hours later, the server reopened right on time.

Tens of millions of players worldwide flooded into the game like hungry wolves, and after immediately claiming the 30 compensated saint quartz, they charged in droves toward the newly unlocked content—[Spiritron Calculation Labyrinth · Abyss].

The whale PD was so excited he slapped his thigh hard:

"Brothers! Phase One Abyss battle, right? Today, I'm going to use my fully-equipped golden team to take down this so-called Holy Grail and Abyss Medal, and warm up for our Phase Two Pruning Protocol!"

Following the system's guidance, PD reopened the star map of the main storyline stages.

The moment he clicked the confirm button, the UI interface did not switch directly as usual; instead, Da Vinci's communication screen popped up.

She put away her usual nonchalant smile and looked seriously at the player in front of the screen.

"Wait a moment, Master. Before you enter this module, as Chaldea's technical advisor, I must give you some advice."

Da Vinci pulled up a dense set of red data streams and explained:

"[Abyss] is not an ordinary combat simulation."

"Sheba has extracted the most extreme environmental data from the Sixth Singularity and Seventh Singularity, blending them into a high-pressure desperate situation that far exceeds reality. The enemies inside have broken through conventional logic and reason in terms of both stats and mechanics."

"Please make sure your Servant team is armed to the teeth, otherwise you're going to suffer greatly~~"

As Da Vinci's advice ended, the communication screen faded out.

A short and striking line of red system text appeared in the center of the screen: [High-risk simulation environment generated; please proceed with caution.]

"Making it sound so mysterious, watch me smash through it with money!" PD curled his lips in disdain.

When PD swiped across the holographic screen, passing the clear nodes for the Sixth Singularity and Seventh Singularity, several sets of brand-new stages emitting an ominous red light appeared like ghosts at the end of the star map.

There was no explanation of the enemy lineup, nor any indication of who the Boss was; there were only cold and cryptic stage codes:

[Sixth Singularity (Divine Realm of the Round Table) Abyss Addition: H6-1, H6-2, H6-3, H6-4]

[Seventh Singularity (Absolute Demonic Beast Front) Abyss Addition: H7-1, H7-2, H7-3, H7-4]

"Not even a monster bestiary or introductory explanation? Why act so mysterious."

Looking at this minimalist UI, PD postured for the camera in the live stream, let out a pretentious cold laugh, and boasted wildly,

"I thought it would be hard; it's nothing more than dragging out those trash mobs from the main story and piling up some stats! Brothers, watch closely, and see how my maxed-out team clears this with their eyes closed!"