Chapter 48
There were so many stalls outside the apartments—it wasn’t easy to find the one selling Smoke of Transmutation.
And even if he found it, why would the vendor give up a steady client like the landlord couple for him?
To monopolize the trade in Smoke of Transmutation, he’d need real connections.
And who could have better connections than a moneylender NPC?
Otherwise, why would the moneylender have his own stall here?
The lender hadn’t expected to see Lu Chuan again so soon—two days in a row. Clearly, this guy was stubborn as a mule.
“Six people isn’t much.” The lender frowned. “If I wanted, I could just shout outside your apartment, wait till most of you were half-dead, and they’d all come to borrow from me.”
“But good business should be long-term.” Lu Chuan nodded, agreeing in principle. “Yesterday at this time, I only had one partner. Neither of us had much credit. But after just one night, I can bring you six clients. I’m a player—you call us Travelers. We Travelers have our own groups. If in the future, everyone in my group came to you for loans…” Lu Chuan trailed off.
He trusted the man would understand the size of the market.
The lender hesitated. “Even if you have a group, you’re not their leader. I can tell you haven’t been in this dungeon long—I can see it in your aura. And with your sanity so low, who knows when you’ll mutate and bring the Burial Squad down on us? I won’t risk a losing deal.”
“The Burial Squad, are they really untouchable?” Lu Chuan suddenly sneered.
“They have the Main God of the whole world behind them—what do you think?” The lender thought his words childish. “They can do as they please. Us? We’re just lenders. That’s already enough. Even your leaders fear them.”
Without warning, Lu Chuan tossed out a gold nugget.
It was irregular in shape, but the purity was excellent.
“Gold means nothing to me…” The lender started, but the moment his eyes fell on it, he leapt from his stall in shock.
The surrounding vendors also sensed something, and stares converged from all directions.
“Quick, hide it!!!” The lender’s voice nearly tore the sky as he shouted, twitchy with panic.
Only then did Lu Chuan tuck the nugget away.
“Now we can talk properly, right?” He rubbed his nose and smiled casually. “You said your sunglasses are special—they can even see my sanity. Then you must also see where this gold’s aura comes from, don’t you?”
This irregular gold nugget was from the melted remains of a statue once possessed by Executor Number 9.
Lu Chuan had tried to re-melt it into a neat shape, but failed. Later, he used an appraisal item, which revealed the nugget carried lingering power from the Executor. That was why no external force could alter it. For certain highly sensitive NPCs, it might trigger extreme reactions—most likely leading to NPC bloodshed.
After all, most NPCs loathed the Burial Squad.
Any other player would have quickly discarded or traded such a deadly item. But in Lu Chuan’s hands, it was a perfect weapon.
In negotiations, incentives alone weren’t enough—you also had to apply pressure.
Since Lu Chuan’s own combat ability wasn’t strong—at least not physically—he needed something threatening to back him up.
And now, just like a pillow delivered when he needed a nap, it had fallen right into his lap.
“You… how do you have something like this? Judging by the aura, it must be from a top-ranked Executor.” The loan shark NPC hurriedly took off his sunglasses—the lenses were already flashing red warnings. This gold ingot had definitely once contained a fragment of an Executor, though for some reason it had melted into this shape. With an Executor’s blessing, this thing was no different from a relic bestowed by the gods—if anything, it was even stronger.
And to these NPCs, such an item was both terrifying and repulsive.
“Lending money doesn’t include investigating where my possessions come from.” Lu Chuan smiled at him. “I just want to know—will you agree to my proposal, or not?”
“Alright.” The NPC agreed immediately. “I can introduce you to a channel for Smoke of Transmutation, just consider it a favor. Since you have something like this, it means an Executor has marked you. If you’re lucky, maybe one day you’ll even become a reserve member. Fine, I’ll consider it an early investment.”
Lu Chuan only smiled without replying.
He hadn’t expected that Executor’s item to be so useful.
He decided that when he bought that person from the Main God System later, he could afford to treat them a little more politely.
“Senior, your coin keeps swaying,” No.18 pointed at the sword tassel hanging from No.9’s hilt. “Aren’t you going to take a look?”
“It’s just a slight tremor.” No.9 recalled that player’s earlier actions, and could easily guess the other must be charging through new dungeons again.
When he’d left Li Family Village, the statue should have remained behind.
If nothing unexpected happened, it must have ended up in that player’s hands.
He was actually rather curious how someone would use an item infused with his aura and power.
In this endless cycle of dungeons and battles against players, it was rare to see such fresh blood—full of vitality, ambition, and desire.
Even those ranked on the Great God leaderboard—though their bodies were still young—their hearts had long since grown old.
Placed in such withered hands, even treasures turned to dust. But in the hands of those who strive forward, even worthless scraps were just misallocated resources.
With that player’s skill and speed at clearing dungeons, it wouldn’t be long before they met again.
Following the loan shark’s directions (he still wouldn’t give his name), Lu Chuan found a street vendor selling pancakes.
Without that tip, finding this person would have been nearly impossible.
It was said that Smoke of Transmutation was scarce even in the NPCs’ world, usually only used by powerful figures. But the rarer it was, the higher the demand, so naturally no one admitted to selling it openly.
Otherwise, why would the landlord couple be so desperate to reclaim their pipe? Pipes could be replaced, but the smoke inside diminished with each use, and they hated wasting even a wisp.
“Hello, I was sent by the loan company. If I buy up all the Smoke of Transmutation you have, what’s the price?” Lu Chuan stepped straight to the stall, blunt and direct.
“I don’t sell that. You must be mistaken, sir.”
“You know very well I’m not mistaken.” Lu Chuan smiled. “If I could find you, then of course I have the connections. I also know you’re meeting the landlords of the Flesh Apartment soon to make a trade, aren’t you?”
[Host, how do you know they’re about to trade?] #888 piped up, as always.
“Because the landlord couple haven’t left the Flesh Apartment these past two days, and their pipe passed through Mei Xue’s group. Even if they aren’t worried about the pipe’s secrets being discovered, they’ll worry we might tamper with it. The safest solution is to replace it with a new batch of smoke.”
Anyone with a bit of caution knows: if a drink you’ve had goes through strangers’ hands, you never drink it again.
And if that stranger is an enemy, then all the more reason.
With how stingy that landlord couple was, not buying new smoke would’ve been stranger.
“What exactly do you want?” the vendor muttered. “I didn’t bring much this time. If you really want to buy, I can spare a little. But the landlords’ order is already reserved—I can’t sell that to you.”
“But that’s exactly what I came for.” Lu Chuan sighed. “I want to buy the batch reserved for the landlords. And for the next ten days, I’ll buy every shipment you get. Don’t sell a single wisp to anyone else. I’ll even pay you extra.”
“That’s not—” the vendor hesitated.
Lu Chuan once again pulled out the gold ingot infused with Executor’s aura.
“Look, the landlords pocket rent and secretly convert it with this smoke. If I report it to the Burial Squad, who’s to say you as the supplier won’t be implicated? You’re just doing business—no ties to them. No need to risk yourself for one customer, right? I’m honestly saying this for your own good.”
The vendor gave a dry laugh.
He wasn’t convinced at all.
Truthfully, he didn’t believe this traveler would really bother reporting such a small matter. Burial Squad weren’t the type to answer random reports. But the aura on that gold ingot was unmistakable. If the traveler was indeed marked by an Executor, then things could get troublesome.
If the Burial Squad marked someone, they could find that person in any dungeon.
For the stingy landlord couple, it wasn’t worth such risk.
“I can sell to you,” the vendor finally conceded. “But even at market price, it won’t be easy for you to afford.”
“How much?”
“I only take sanity value from players.” The vendor named a price. “I can supply daily, about 30 sanity points’ worth per day. Ten days is at least 300 sanity. Do you have that much?”
For a player, even with 100 sanity, they could only spare about 20. Below 80, weak-willed players were as good as dead.
Three hundred sanity was roughly equal to 15 players’ lives.
But this dungeon capped at 30 players total, minus rent and food costs.
No way they’d have enough.
“Three hundred isn’t much. Let’s not play games—I’ll give you 350. But I’ll need you to sign a short-term contract. For the next ten days, you must not sell even a wisp to the landlords, and you can’t reveal our deal. Otherwise, I’ll be very angry.” Lu Chuan smiled.
The vendor agreed, signing the contract.
Lu Chuan promised to deliver 350 sanity points by tomorrow night, and in return, the vendor would supply him all the Smoke of Transmutation for the next ten days.
Lu Chuan left looking satisfied.
[Host, 350 sanity split among just six of us—that’s about 60 each! Isn’t that too much?] #888 fretted over whether the group could borrow that much.
Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an might manage, but the other four probably couldn’t.
“I can borrow too, can’t I?” Lu Chuan said casually. “Repayment isn’t all at once. Borrow extra now, use the surplus to pay off interest first. Judging from the situation, though, those landlords won’t fold quickly—we’ll probably need at least three more days of interest.”
Thirty percent interest—that wasn’t small.
“Our loan interest is settled per dungeon. Less than ten days is 30%. More than ten, it increases. Average comes out to just 3% daily.” That’s what the loan shark had said earlier.
For 350 sanity, ten days’ interest alone was 105. Total repayment: 455. That meant they’d need 10.5 each day just for interest.
No wonder lending was the most profitable.
Even in Lu Chuan’s home world, major corporations weren’t content with industry—they all dabbled in loans, credit lines, micro-lending apps. Competing with banks, practically.
Back at the apartment, Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an had barely pulled through—though at the cost of serious injuries.
And the landlords had started watching them more closely, making further schemes harder.
Lu Chuan pulled Lilus along to Mei Xue’s room, where everyone was gathered.
First thing, he laid out the contracts signed by the other four players.
Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an glared at their recruits, disappointed.
“Why would you sign these?”
They themselves had only signed with Lu Chuan for cooperation. But these contracts left no escape, binding the recruits completely to Lu Chuan.
He was from the Star Guild—not an ally of theirs!
“Enough, the time for regrets has passed.” Lu Chuan cut them off. “Let’s move on. I’ll report the results of my work with Lilus and our next dungeon strategy.”
Lu Chuan first explained the situation with the “Smoke of Transmutation,” then talked about the agreement he’d reached with Shark Loan Brother, and finally laid out the next step of his plan to squeeze the landlord couple.
Each step he mentioned made the others’ faces turn pale.
“Wait a minute.” Gu Quan’an felt like he was about to be petrified just by listening to Lu Chuan, without even using any abilities. “Did you just say you plan to take out a loan of how many sanity points with the six of us?”
“Let’s round it off—400 points. The daily interest is 12 points, so we’ll need to prepare three days’ worth of interest in advance.” Lu Chuan said it with complete indifference.
“When the dungeon ends, we have to pay it back immediately. If we can’t pay back 400 sanity points, then killing ourselves on the spot is still better than suffering a huge sanity deduction and mutating into monsters.” Gu Quan’an snapped. “How is this any different from courting death?”
It only cost 20 sanity points to leave this dungeon, but now they were talking about borrowing 400 points. Split among eight people, that was 50 points each.
Did they even have that much sanity to begin with?
“We’re already in a rule-type dungeon like this—it’s basically seeking death anyway.” Lu Chuan remained perfectly calm. “We can’t just refuse to make progress just because there’s a fallback option, right? Clearing a dungeon like this is supposed to be hard. What, are we supposed to just sit quietly in the apartment? Every day it’s exhausting enough just trying to figure out the new rules. We might as well jump out and gamble.”
At least with a loan, if they died, it would be quick and clean.
Staying in the apartment meant being slowly whittled away, step by step, until they became food for the building.
“Four hundred points… can we even get that much?” Mei Xue actually thought Lu Chuan made sense. Reaching this stage, how could they possibly clear the dungeon without taking risks? And his words did sound plausible, even workable.
“Of course. They already agreed.” Lu Chuan nodded. “And I’ve secured the channel for the Smoke of Transmutation too. Everything’s ready, just waiting for the east wind.”
“I should add something.” Lilus spoke slowly. “Lu Chuan can’t take out a loan—his sanity is already too low, so he doesn’t qualify. As for me, only my flesh and blood have some value, but at best, I can only borrow flesh for flesh.”
Lu Chuan wasn’t angry at all about Lilus exposing him.
Well, when the time came to actually take out the loan, they’d all realize only six people could borrow, not eight.
“That’s exactly right. Which is why the fact that I could still negotiate this deal shows my ability.” Lu Chuan said seriously. “Do you have any idea how much effort and how many tricks I had to use to get those NPCs to agree? I paid quite a price, and I’m not even asking you to reimburse me. That’s because I can’t borrow sanity myself—this is my way of compensating.”
Hearing this, both Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an were at a loss for words.
To be fair, forcing NPCs to agree to such a deal when you yourself couldn’t take out a loan must have cost him dearly. Neither of them could imagine what they would have done in his shoes.
But Lu Chuan and Lilus both had sanity levels so low they couldn’t even borrow. Could their words really be trusted?
After all, when sanity dropped, it manifested in a player’s mind.
The weak-willed would be seduced by the dungeon, unable to resist their inner frailty, ending in suicide or mutation. The strong-willed, on the other hand, would become overly self-absorbed, trapped in their own world. If their hearts were even slightly malicious, they’d turn into pure trouble.
Which is why players with low sanity were almost never good news.
Everyone knew you had to keep your distance from them—you never knew when they might suddenly snap and stab you.
But Lu Chuan and Lilus…
Forget it. If even their own guilds didn’t care about them, what did they care about?
“Fine!” Mei Xue had far more resolve than Gu Quan’an. “As long as you can negotiate this, we’ll take the loan.”
“No way, are we really going that far?” Gu Quan’an sucked in a breath of cold air. “At this rate, even suicide might end up being a luxury.”
“Since this is already our second time entering this dungeon, do we really need to say more?” Mei Xue waved her hand. “My only thought is: no matter the cost, I want to clear this dungeon. Otherwise, we won’t survive the next one, and we’ll never learn the truth about the God-Tier Ranking.”
If they couldn’t make it onto the God-Tier Ranking, they’d never find their guildmaster.
“I don’t see the problem. If sanity isn’t enough, I can use my flesh instead.” Lilus continued. “And Lu Chuan will contribute his flesh as well, right?”
Lu Chuan gave a slight smile. “Of course. As newcomers, we should take the lead. Even if we can’t borrow sanity, we have to contribute what we can. Otherwise, how are we supposed to clear this dungeon?”
“The seniors should be able to understand us, right?” Lilus turned the gun back on Mei Xue and the others.
“Of course. If we newcomers can go this far, surely the seniors won’t just sit back and watch us fail? I don’t believe they’d do something like that.”
In the end, aside from Lu Chuan and Lilus—both players on the Newcomer Ranking—all the others present were veterans.
In experience, level, even age, they far outstripped the two of them.
Mei Xue, Gu Quan’an, and even the remaining four players were all pressured into silence, not knowing what to say.
If they spoke up, it would sound like they were shirking responsibility. If they stayed quiet, then it meant they agreed.
Backed into a corner, there was no way out.
Lilus watched their faces turn pale and green in turns, secretly taking note.
So this was what moral black-mailing meant. He’d learned something new. It really worked well—he should try it himself sometime.
“Noah Guild really is straightforward!” Lu Chuan gave a thumbs-up. “No time to waste—let’s hurry up and go get that loan.”
“…It’s almost dawn. Tomorrow.” Mei Xue, though she had already made up her mind, felt they still needed to slow down a little.
Careless—next time she brought people into a dungeon, she’d better ask about their sanity points first.
———
Author’s Note:
Lu Chuan: Number Nine, I’ll spend more money on you in the future.
Number Nine: No need to spend money.
