Chapter 49
“Brother Loan Shark, I’ve brought all your customers. I want to borrow 400 sanity points. Hurry it up.” Lu Chuan cheerfully led Mei Xue and the other six, with Lilus following behind.
Just past midnight, none of them renewed their rent. Instead, they all rushed out together.
What a joke—once they finished their business, it’d be the landlord’s turn to pay them rent. Paying rent now would be as pointless as taking off your pants to fart.
“…I have a name,” Loan Shark couldn’t help but say.
“You never told me, so whatever. I don’t care, just like you don’t care what my name is.” Lu Chuan shrugged. “Anyway, let’s get on with the loan business.”
Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an froze.
The other four players were even more incredulous.
One of them couldn’t hold back and asked Lilus, “Do you guys always talk to such a high-level NPC like this?”
This NPC was clearly extremely powerful.
His shadow twisted constantly around the little stall, and behind him black tails writhed and lashed violently.
Both wore glasses, but while Gu Quan’an’s glasses gave him a gentle, scholarly air, the NPC’s glasses were terrifying—like a second pair of eyes growing from his face.
Even in a high-level dungeon, this NPC would absolutely count as a boss-tier figure.
For players with normal sanity, even a glance at him felt like it would drain points. Yet Lu Chuan spoke to him as if he were an ordinary person. And Lilus didn’t look the least bit shaken either.
“We always talk to him like this,” Lilus replied.
“You really don’t feel the power on this NPC?” Surely that wasn’t possible. Even he could feel it—was Lilus just a calf unafraid of tigers?
“Of course I do.” Lilus nodded. “But if he can do lending business like this, then if he weren’t strong, he’d never survive. Power is a good thing, nothing to worry about. I’m used to it.”
Right—Lilus wasn’t ordinary either.
The legendary half-human, half-NPC hybrid, raised from childhood by the top players of the Resurrection Guild. What’s more, Lilus’s sanity points weren’t high either, giving him some resistance against sanity-draining monsters.
But why could Lu Chuan resist?
Could it be tied to his class abilities?
The players puzzled over it endlessly, and in the end could only conclude that this year’s crop of new players was simply more abnormal than usual.
Lu Chuan, of course, paid no mind to their pointless speculation.
He was still bickering with Loan Shark.
“Four hundred points? With this lot you’ve brought? Other than these two, the rest are mediocre. At most I’ll lend you 200 points—100 each for those two, and the other four together get 100.” Loan Shark’s expression softened a little for Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an, but for the other four players it turned downright sour.
All moneylenders had their own evaluation standards.
The only good clients were those who could repay their loans and had unlimited potential, bringing repeat business. On that front, Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an barely qualified. The other four? One look told him they were one-time customers—useless to cultivate.
And in this world, loan sharks never lacked for clients.
“No way. You’re cutting me in half? It’s 400, treat it as a grand opening bonus.” Lu Chuan refused to back down. “What use is such a small amount of sanity points?”
“Two hundred isn’t enough for you? You could escape this place with just twenty!” Loan Shark snapped. “It’s just a bit of Smoke of Transmutation—you’ve already got more than enough. And that landlord couple will give you information once they’ve accepted your gift.”
It was obvious that Loan Shark had misunderstood.
He thought Lu Chuan wanted to buy the Smoke of Transmutation to curry favor with the landlord couple, hoping to clear the dungeon that way.
But Lu Chuan had never once considered that.
It wasn’t that he refused to give gifts to bosses—but the gifts had to be valuable, and the recipients had to be high-level figures who could actually help.
That landlord couple? All they thought about every day was skimming off the top. Their business probably wouldn’t last long anyway. Giving them gifts would just be like throwing dumplings to a dog—never to be seen again.
Not worth it!
“I’ve brought the people.” Lu Chuan folded his arms. “Four hundred points. I’ll pay you back as soon as I clear this dungeon.”
“No way!” The tail-like appendage behind Loan Shark whipped about, stirring up massive gusts that left the nearby players struggling to breathe.
Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an were already bracing for a fight.
But their hearts were pounding. Could they really win?
If they ended up wiped out just because Lu Chuan argued with this NPC, they’d never forgive him—not even in death.
What a humiliating way to go that would be.
Lilus recorded every move Lu Chuan made, planning to study his behavior patterns with her sister later.
What a shame—if only Lu Chuan would agree to join their Resurrection Guild, it would be even better.
“If you keep refusing, I’ll have to use my trump card.” Lu Chuan looked at him calmly, casually fingering his golden pendant—a hint that if Loan Shark didn’t agree, he’d escalate things to the Burial Squad.
“…You didn’t say you wanted to borrow this much before.” Loan Shark’s aura weakened.
He compromised.
“I can lend it, but tell me—what exactly do you need so much Sanity Value for?” That was his only condition.
“The principle’s simple: monopoly.” Lu Chuan briefly explained his plan. “That landlord couple is clearly taking kickbacks from the Flesh Apartment. Players should’ve been probing the apartment’s rules and leaving their lives behind there. Honestly, I doubt there was even a rent rule at first. Just entering was already the price. And the food the landlords sell directly conflicts with little stalls like yours. It makes no sense.”
Normally, players should have to test the rules in the Flesh Apartment, then buy food from stalls, gradually draining their lives.
But once the landlord couple interfered, everything changed.
In rule-based dungeons, the rules are supposed to be paramount.
Yet in this dungeon, the landlords were scarier than the rules themselves.
It didn’t fit the dungeon’s design.
“Even if you monopolize the Smoke of Transmutation, they don’t have to buy it.” Loan Shark hadn’t expected such a scheme. He was even tempted to recruit Lu Chuan to work with him.
And if Lu Chuan was a Traveler? So what? Their company was wealthy enough to afford him.
“No way. Kickbacks are addictive. Once they’ve been skimming, they start seeing the profit as theirs by right. Even losing a little feels like a loss—let alone giving it up entirely.” Lu Chuan sneered. “I doubt they have the self-control to stop when they should.”
Why don’t you learn when to stop yourself?! Mei Xue and the others couldn’t help but scream silently at him in their hearts.
“Fine. Four hundred points it is. I like you.” Loan Shark clicked his tongue. No wonder this man held the Burial Squad’s token—he really did have ability. “Here’s our company’s membership card. Take it, and you’re now a valued client. If you ever can’t make it as a Traveler, you’re welcome to come work with us.”
[Congratulations, player “Arrival of the God of Wealth” has obtained an S-rank Identity Card: Extreme Evil Loan Company Member.]
[This identity card cannot be transferred or canceled. You are now a valued client of the Loan Company.]
“Sign this contract, and I’ll give you the Sanity Value. Don’t worry, the Main God System approves this—it won’t harm you.” Loan Shark produced a stack of contracts.
One glance from Mei Xue was enough: thirty percent interest, calculated every ten days. Failure to repay meant bounties and being hunted across ten dungeons.
Lu Chuan signed first, then Lilus.
They weren’t the borrowers, but they signed as guarantors.
If the loan wasn’t repaid, they’d share the consequences.
With two young people signing, Mei Xue couldn’t just stand by.
She stepped forward, accepted the pen Lilus handed over, and signed.
Her hand trembled, but she couldn’t back down now.
Even if the others had doubts, Mei Xue set the example, and Gu Quan’an followed closely. The rest had no room to object.
Luckily, nothing seemed amiss when signing—though Mei Xue felt deep down that defaulting would be disastrous.
“Captain Shen was right—Sister Mei Xue, you’re tough-mouthed but soft-hearted. I’d love to team up with you again in the future.” Lu Chuan beamed.
What a perfect partner! Willing to grab smoke pipes, take out loans, sign on the spot.
Definitely worth recruiting later.
But the moment Lu Chuan mentioned Shen Li, Mei Xue’s suppressed anger flared.
Once she cleared this dungeon, she was going to have a serious talk with him about what “easily embarrassed” really meant!
“Here.” Loan Shark handed Lu Chuan a pitch-black bottle filled with hundreds of flickering light points.
[Wow, Host, that’s four hundred Sanity Points! This company’s impressive—they actually materialized soul fragments!] #888 exclaimed.
Sanity Value was intangible, but “soul fragments” made it sound even stranger.
Yet they existed.
The Main God quantified Sanity Value by measuring the weight of players’ souls. For the Loan Company to solidify it meant there was a big shot behind them.
[Definitely a god, Host. A high-level one too.] #888 declared firmly. [Only a god could solidify Sanity Value. No wonder they dare run such a business.]
Lu Chuan frowned. “System, aren’t there too many gods in this Infinite World?”
Shen Li had already said the higher the dungeon, the more gods were involved.
Still, Lu Chuan felt like he was running into them a bit too often.
[That’s because you’re also a god candidate, Host. Inevitably, you’ll keep crossing paths with them. Ordinary mortals could never withstand so many encounters.] #888 explained earnestly. [Back in the Peaceful World, forget gods—you probably wouldn’t even meet a skilled feng shui master.]
Lu Chuan thought it over. Fair point.
He took the bottle, bid Loan Shark farewell, and led Mei Xue and the others straight to the stall that disguised itself as a pancake stand but actually sold the Smoke of Transmutation.
“Three hundred fifty Sanity Points, here.” Lu Chuan slammed the bottle down before the boss. “Give me all your Smoke of Transmutation. Oh, and since we came all this way, throw in a pancake combo for each of us.”
The boss nodded, greed flashing in his eyes as he stared at the full bottle.
Three hundred fifty Sanity Points.
That was about as much as he earned in a whole year doing business with the landlords.
A single bulk purchase? Even better.
And Sanity from the Loan Company was higher quality too—he could trade it for more back home.
“Deal, deal.” The boss’s eyes crinkled with delight.
*
Flesh-and-Blood Apartment.
By morning, Mei Xue’s group finally showed up, making no move to renew their lease. Instead, they prowled upstairs, asked questions, then pinpointed a newly added rule—saving themselves rent.
For them, the early rules weren’t difficult. They just refused to be lulled by the dungeon’s initial leniency.
The landlord couple, however, grew suspicious.
These tenants had been here days already. Other renters were mostly dead, yet this group lingered, calm and secretive.
“Wife, who cares what they’re up to? We’re out of smoke—we should restock.” The old landlord toyed with his pipe. “Even if they don’t pay rent, it’s fine. We’ve already got the flesh and Sanity of twenty-two tenants this round. Once we finish converting it, we’ll be strong enough to leave.”
They had been trapped here so long. If they’d been mindless NPCs, staying wouldn’t be so bad. But they had thoughts, knew the world outside. How could they be content to remain in this tiny apartment forever?
“By rights, the smoke seller should’ve delivered yesterday. Maybe something delayed him. Go check today. Careful—don’t let the tenants follow you.”
“Relax.” The old landlord nodded. For just a quick trip, the tenants wouldn’t notice.
Besides, more rules were piling up in the apartment. The tenants would soon be too busy scrambling to keep up.
The landlords had no idea how dire the situation really was.
That night, when the old landlord went to the smoke-seller’s stall—he discovered it was gone.
“You’re too late. A big client already bought out all the smoke. Not a single bit left. The stall owner said he won’t be restocking anytime soon—he’s completely out.” The loan shark “kindly” reminded them.
“How’s that possible?” The old landlord nearly snapped his smoking pipe in half. “Smoke of Transmutation is insanely expensive. Who could afford that much?”
“Your tenant.” The loan shark chuckled. “He even took out a loan from me to do it.”
“You—!” The old landlord was so furious smoke nearly came out of his seven orifices. He wanted nothing more than to smash the loan shark with his axe.
“Oh? You want to fight?” The loan shark tilted his head. “You sure about that?”
The old landlord swallowed down his rage.
He couldn’t win. He couldn’t make a move.
“You’d better figure out how you’re going to buy your smoke. My client borrowed a good chunk of Sanity Points—he can afford to drag this out.” The loan shark propped his chin on one hand, smiling. “But if you don’t hurry up and convert the flesh and sanity you’ve collected, they’ll dissipate. And then you’ll really have a problem.”
Players were the Main God System’s property. Their flesh and sanity even more so.
Players could die in dungeons—that was within the System’s rules. But that didn’t mean their flesh and sanity could be allowed to vanish outside those rules.
If you paid closer attention, you’d notice it everywhere: high-level NPCs in the infinite worlds, and even those so-called “travelers” the NPCs whispered about—as long as they had intelligence, they had their own agendas, and they’d find loopholes by any means necessary.
That was the nature of sentient beings.
From that perspective, NPCs weren’t all that different from players.
The Burial Squad Squad had built its fearsome reputation exactly by locking horns in this endless game of wits and survival against both players and NPCs.
The landlord stomped off, seething.
Worried sick, but with no idea what to do.
Back at the Flesh Apartment, when the old landlady questioned him, he could only spill everything.
“There’s nowhere else to buy Smoke of Transmutation?” she raged. “Are we really being played by a measly tenant?”
“Nowhere. It was rare to begin with.” The old landlord gave a bitter laugh. “And since our pipes were seized, they must have discovered their secret. I’ve no idea how they pulled it off, but they somehow found the loan company and bought out every last bit in one go.”
“Then we won’t buy. Let’s just wait. When the tenants die in this apartment, all their belongings will be ours anyway!” the old landlady snapped.
Lu Chuan and his group weren’t worried.
All they had to do was live in the apartment and uncover new rules each day.
And honestly, when it came to tackling dungeons properly, Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an really did show the caliber of high-level players. Their info analysis and reflexes were terrifying—attacks Lu Chuan himself wasn’t sure he could dodge, they avoided with ease.
Lilus’s abilities were equally invaluable.
Three days slipped by in peace for Lu Chuan’s group.
But the landlord couple was already cracking.
The flesh they’d collected was rotting, and the Sanity Points were dissipating.
Which meant all their work had been for nothing.
For them, it was a disaster.
“Well, well, you two landlords look awfully troubled. Out of smoke, are you?” Lu Chuan sighed, clicking his tongue as he strolled in with Lilus, Mei Xue, and the others behind him. “I happen to have plenty. I could even give you a discount. Interested?”
The landlords knew perfectly well Lu Chuan was behind this, and in that instant, they wanted to tear him apart.
“What price are you asking?” the old landlady sneered.
“Oh, not much. Cost me about 400 points. I’ll sell to you for just 800.” Lu Chuan heaved a theatrical sigh. “Can’t help it. Too many partners wanting a cut. I can’t just give it away cheap.”
Mei Xue glanced at him in disbelief. How had someone so arrogant—and so good at making enemies—not gotten himself killed already?
She’d originally planned to cause trouble for Shen Li once she got out, but now she thought maybe she should bring a gift instead. With a disciple like Lu Chuan, Shen Li was probably shaving years off his life.
Outside the dungeon, Shen Li really was restless. His back prickled with cold sweats, as though haunted.
Could Lu Chuan be causing trouble inside again?
No… it’s a rules-based dungeon, and Mei Xue’s with him. He should behave.
No, wait—he never behaved when he was with me either.
Shen Li shook his head. He really couldn’t trust Lu Chuan’s judgment. If the guy wanted to be President, what was he not capable of doing?
All he could hope was that Lu Chuan remembered—it was him who got him into this dungeon. Maybe don’t drag so much aggro?
Meanwhile, Lu Chuan had just pulled every ounce of aggro onto himself.
“Why don’t you just rob us outright?” The old landlady’s hands trembled with rage.
Eight hundred points—how dare he!
A single player only yielded about 20 Sanity Points. Eight hundred meant forty players’ worth!
And that wasn’t counting early deaths and other losses.
On average, every thirty players brought in maybe 200 Sanity Points for the landlords. From that, after buying Smoke of Transmutation, they’d profit at most 80 to 100 points.
And Lu Chuan had the gall to demand 800—basically their entire fortune!
Even Lilus was wide-eyed. People said Sanity Points were nearly impossible to recover, with few methods available. But clearly, recovery wasn’t hard at all.
Eight hundred points? That was practically easy money.
Maybe he really ought to study economics.
“Robbery’s nothing compared to a monopoly. That’s just how it works—we call doubling our profit a loss.” Lu Chuan sighed. “Don’t want to buy? Fine. We’ll keep paying rent, and when all your flesh and Sanity rot away, maybe the Burial Squads will start paying attention to you instead.”
The landlords wanted to devour him alive.
Now he was threatening them, too?
If it really came to that, the old landlady swore she’d drag him into the Burial Squads’ hands with her.
“In fact, I’ll step back.” Lu Chuan put on the air of making a grave concession. “Give me 500 Sanity Points, plus the secret of becoming an official resident of this apartment, and we’ll sell you the Smoke of Transmutation.”
