Chapter 50
Lu Chuan finally laid his cards on the table.
Sanity Points mattered to most players. But not to him.
He’d always been this way—perfectly normal, even if the Main God System insisted his sanity was “low.” He couldn’t refute it, so he played along. But deep down, Lu Chuan was sure of himself.
I’m normal. The world is what’s insane.
So, he’d generously cut the price for the landlords.
And that almost never happened with him.
Unfortunately, blinded by greed, they failed to recognize how valuable his concession was—and tried to push for more.
“As expected, all this scheming just to learn the secret of becoming an official resident.” The old landlady sneered. “I won’t tell you. What can you do about it?”
The old landlord tugged at her sleeve, anxious.
Talk tough if you want, but we still need the smoke!
“So, you don’t want it? Fine. We’ll just burn some of it right now. Lilus, go ahead.” Lu Chuan ordered without hesitation.
Lilus pulled some leaves from his storage and set them alight.
The rich aroma of Smoke of Transmutation spread through the air.
The old landlord’s face twitched violently.
Even Mei Xue and the others looked stricken—those few leaves were worth dozens of Sanity Points, gone up in smoke!
“When you run a monopoly, you can’t afford a heart.” Lu Chuan’s voice was cold. “Some dairy companies would rather dump milk than sell cheap. Wasteful, shameful even. But if you push us, who knows what we’ll do with the last of our stock? Worst case, we die here as your prey. What’s there left to fear?”
The old landlady was struck speechless.
She hadn’t expected him to be so ruthless.
“No response? Keep burning, Lil.”
“Wait, wait! We can talk! Don’t burn it!” The old landlord broke first. “We’ll take it. Five hundred points, fine!”
“No. Now it’s six hundred.” Lu Chuan smiled. “Haggle again and it’s seven. I’ve shown plenty of good faith already. If you don’t like it, buy elsewhere—assuming you don’t attract some unwanted attention first.”
The old landlady tried to speak, but her husband stopped her.
“Fine! Six hundred! We’ll pay it!” he ground out between clenched teeth. He could see now—this tenant really would burn it all. And worse, raise the price while doing it. He wasn’t even human.
Only then did Lu Chuan smile in satisfaction.
Hah. Some people only learn the hard way.
Talk nicely, they won’t listen. But twist the knife a little, and suddenly they understand.
Damn it, Smoke of Transmutation is expensive as hell—he burned it and felt the pain, okay?
But with that move, Lu Chuan still managed to get things done.
In Mei Xue and the others’ eyes, their evaluation of him went up another notch, and at the same time, their suspicions were confirmed.
This guy Lu Chuan—his sanity value might be low, but it’s a kind of low that follows its own logic. He was already a lunatic in a league of his own. Best not to provoke him if possible.
Of course, they had noticed something was off about him.
Not only was he unafraid of dying himself, he didn’t seem to mind dragging others down with him.
If all players had that kind of mentality, it would be a nightmare.
The four players Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an had brought with them all decided that in the rest of the run, they’d steer clear of Lu Chuan, just quietly finish the dungeon and get out alive.
Then, the landlord couple explained the reason for becoming formal residents of the apartment.
“When you first came in from outside, your assigned role was that of tenants. In truth, you were tricked.” The old landlady spoke slowly. “You’ve trapped yourselves inside the shell of being tenants. Each time you paid us rent, you only reinforced that identity. The more times you pay, the more you can only remain as tenants—you’ll never become the apartment’s true owners. And only by becoming owners of a unit can you gain the status of official residents. So, what you were meant to do was never to follow the rules, but to break them. You need to find the source of the apartment’s rules.”
“The source?” Lu Chuan froze for a moment, his mind racing. “Wait—are you talking about the room cards?”
Reminded like this, Mei Xue and the others immediately realized the importance of the room cards.
Not only did the cards display the rules, they also locked them firmly into the role of tenants.
Yet somehow, they had all subconsciously ignored the strangeness of the cards themselves, turning their attention elsewhere.
Now, with the landlord couple pointing it out, they immediately reacted and saw the abnormality of the cards.
“That’s right. The very existence of the cards is itself a rule,” the old landlady said slowly. “I can’t tell you directly, but if you can find a blank card and write your own rules on it, then you can become owners of the apartment.”
This dungeon wasn’t one that players had never cleared before.
With thirty players, the design allowed plenty of room for trial and error.
As long as someone could unite others, split into groups to sweep different floors, and discover the apartment’s rules during the first few days to renew the lease, they’d find that the third floor and above were just ordinary empty rooms. Hidden in a few of those rooms were blank cards.
Once they discovered one and tried writing rules on it, they would realize the uncanny nature of the cards themselves—and thereby discover the method to break the dungeon.
But there were two key difficulties in a normal clear.
First, successfully sweeping through the many empty rooms upstairs. Not every room had a card—only a few did, and they only appeared around midnight. So careful timing and selection were critical.
Second, evading the attacks of the landlord couple and the monsters. If the landlords didn’t take “kickbacks,” they’d show up at midnight as monsters themselves. During the sweeps, they’d play hide-and-seek with the players along with the other monsters. The monsters could only steal the cards from players, while the landlords could forcefully break into players’ rooms. Together, they spelled death for the tenants.
But in truth, none of this was impossible to handle.
Because the street vendors outside the apartment sold goods that could be used against monsters—or even tools to investigate the empty rooms and hallways.
Smart players needed only to pay a small price to complete the dungeon strategy.
Last time, Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an had come very close to success. Unfortunately, the landlords loved their kickbacks and refused to act like proper NPCs. And once Mei Xue’s group discovered the existence of the [Astrologer], they dropped all concern about clearing the dungeon, obsessively searching for the [Astrologer] instead.
The second time around, though, Lu Chuan had thrown out all common sense.
He only made a token effort to explore the apartment rules.
As for the empty rooms upstairs? Too many monsters—he didn’t bother.
Instead, he went for a direct strike at the root, and now he finally had all the clues in hand.
Yes, they’d taken plenty of detours, but his clear time was still fast.
The landlord couple had spent 600 sanity points buying out all the Smoke of Transmutation.
Meanwhile, Lu Chuan and the others split into two groups: one to find the blank room cards and break the dungeon’s rules to escape, the other—Lu Chuan and Lilus—to find the Loan Shark and repay their borrowed sanity.
“You’re back already? Let me make this clear up front—I’m not giving you a second loan. That’s not how this works.” The Loan Shark thought they had failed. It had only been three days; he didn’t believe Lu Chuan’s team had pulled it off so quickly.
“We’re here to pay our debt.” Lu Chuan smiled and set down a bottle containing several hundred sanity points. “We borrowed 400. Today’s the fourth day, but it’s not yet the same time as when we borrowed it, so that’s only three days of interest—36 points. Total, 436. Correct?”
“Wrong. We loan sharks don’t calculate by time like that. Once midnight passes, it’s a new day. You owe 448.” The Loan Shark rattled off the number instantly. “I’m already being generous. Otherwise, I could’ve skipped setting up my stall these past few days. You wouldn’t have found me, and the interest would’ve kept piling up. Charging you thirty percent would’ve been easy. But I didn’t.”
After all, he couldn’t be sure if Lu Chuan would play along—or what ties he had with the Burial Squad.
Besides, he hadn’t expected Lu Chuan to show up to repay so soon. He’d planned to do more business here before leaving.
A miscalculation.
“Fine.” Lu Chuan didn’t argue—long-term gains mattered more. The Loan Shark and the company behind him had to be a colossal force.
Honestly, Lu Chuan was very, very interested!
So he decided to maintain a good relationship for now. If he ever wanted to do business with them later, at least he wouldn’t be shut out of the company’s doors.
“You really are efficient.” The Loan Shark pocketed the sanity and returned their loan contract. “Lu Chuan, right? Ever thought about joining our company as an agent? I could write you a recommendation letter. You’d shine with us. If you became one of our top agents, you could even become a resident here. Our company can handle your identity problem.”
He truly admired Lu Chuan.
Players who could clear dungeons were everywhere, but ones who could do business and had financial sense? Rare.
In all his time working, he’d only ever met one Lu Chuan.
And not everyone was good enough for their company. Many players schemed to become agents, just for the chance to live permanently in their world.
In their NPC cities, some remote ones still had thriving economies and skyscrapers. One could live comfortably there, without ever worrying about being dragged back into a dungeon.
“I don’t have the energy right now. Maybe if I’m ever short on cash, I’ll give it a try.” Lu Chuan didn’t close the door completely, but he politely declined for now. Who knew what the future would hold?
The Loan Shark wasn’t in a rush. He figured there would be chances later.
Lu Chuan and Lilus returned safely, already calculating profit shares.
“Six hundred minus four hundred forty-eight leaves 152. Eight of us total, so 19 points each.” Lu Chuan sighed. “The old me would never have split it evenly. I’d have taken at least half.”
But this time, Mei Xue’s group really had done a lot.
Without them stealing the pipes, without them taking the sanity loan, Lu Chuan and Lilus wouldn’t have been able to move forward.
That loan alone would’ve trapped the two of them.
“Even recovering 19 sanity points is something countless people would envy.” Lilus couldn’t help but say. “There’s no way you’re taking a bigger cut. If anything, we should be worrying whether Mei Xue’s group might try to backstab us now that the dungeon’s almost cleared. Thank goodness for the binding contract, or things would be much messier.”
“Not necessarily.” Lu Chuan waved it off. “If they really did attack, it’d just be the snipe and clam fighting while the fisherman profits. That’s why I chose equal shares.”
Sigh. What a loss.
#888 also thought the host had taken a huge loss—though that was only because his level was still low. Otherwise, he could’ve cleaned up big time.
The blank room card was soon found.
Lu Chuan wrote his name on it, and instantly, the rules took hold.
[Congratulations, player Arrival of the God of Wealth has successfully become the owner of Room 401 in the Flesh-and-Blood Apartment. Dungeon cleared.]
[Dungeon anomaly detected. Exit point unstable. Please remain where you are and await rescue.]
[Warning, repeating: Dungeon anomaly detected. Please exit immediately and await rescue.]
Lilus and the others also wrote their own rules on the blank cards, receiving the same dungeon-clear prompts.
But what followed immediately was a series of warnings from the game system.
Lu Chuan looked toward the landlord couple.
“We’ve waited this long and spent so much sanity value, but finally we’ve managed to digest all that flesh and sanity.” The old landlady’s face seemed to have shed many wrinkles, now stiff as though she had undergone cosmetic surgery. “At last, we can break through our previous shackles and stop being stuck in this rotten place.”
The old landlord laughed along with her. “Old woman, didn’t I tell you? As long as we get the rest of the Smoke of Transmutation and level up first, taking revenge is nothing difficult.”
Mei Xue and Gu Quan’an rushed forward, and the other four players also brought out their bargaining skills, unwilling to give up so easily.
“Be careful.” Mei Xue was calculating her cooldown times. “They’ve already broken through their old levels. Normally, high-level NPCs don’t change levels inside their own territory, because players can’t be expected to face opponents who suddenly level up mid-dungeon. But if a key NPC inside a dungeon mutates, then the dungeon itself mutates as well. That’s one of the most common types of dungeon mutation—I’ve run into it plenty of times.”
The intelligence of living beings is unpredictable.
Not every NPC wants to live their lives according to the rules.
But most NPCs, even if they level up, don’t cause too much trouble—they just quietly leave their territory. As long as they don’t cause major disruption, they won’t attract the Executors.
Of course, the landlord couple didn’t want to draw the Burial Squad either. But these travelers in front of them were far too much of a threat.
These travelers knew the couple had taken kickbacks, exploiting the apartment’s foundations to boost their own levels. If they were let go easily, word would get out, and the couple would definitely end up on the Executors’ kill list. At that point, not even the heavens could save them.
Better to strike first and kill these players.
After all, there were only eight of them—hardly a powerful force. Silently kill them, stall for a bit, and with only eight dead players, the Main God System wouldn’t bother digging too deeply.
The landlord couple had already weighed the risks and chosen the lesser evil. They were prepared.
Lu Chuan obediently hid behind Mei Xue and the others. If things got too dire, he could try his new skill, [God of Wealth’s Currency], which #888 had just unlocked for him, to defend himself.
“You let us go, and we won’t say a word about this dungeon. We can even form a contract.” Gu Quan’an was still trying to negotiate.
“Heh, we don’t believe you.” The landlord couple sneered. “You lot already extort and monopolize entire services—why should we trust you?”
That was Lu Chuan’s doing! The rest of us are innocent and honest!
Gu Quan’an felt utterly drained.
It was like being a eunuch falsely accused of fathering children—completely powerless.
“Behave yourselves, and we’ll give you a clean death!” The landlord couple sneered as they lunged forward.
[Absolute Stasis]!
At that moment, Mei Xue activated her most crucial ability.
“Don’t stay in the apartment—run! They won’t dare enter the fog.” Mei Xue urged quickly.
The others didn’t hesitate, bolting toward the front door. As long as they reached the boundary of the white mist, the landlord couple would be forced to hold back.
As for when the mist faded at night…
The game system should notice the anomaly, and once the mutation was repaired, they’d probably be able to exit the dungeon.
For now, the only option was to stall for time!
Lu Chuan felt a pang of frustration. He pulled out his golden coin, planning to secretly strike at the landlord couple.
[Detected mutation in dungeon “Flesh and Blood Apartment.” Assigned to Executor No. 196 for disposal.]
[Executor No. 196, please proceed to dungeon location immediately.]
The Main God System’s prompt quickly reached Executor No. 196.
At that moment, he was swinging a giant blade, cutting down every mutated NPC in another dungeon who dared resist the Main God System, eliminating all mutation factors there.
“You lapdogs—you’ll meet the same end!”
“What’s wrong with resisting?”
“Why should we blindly obey the Main God every time? I’m sick of playing house with travelers in dungeon after dungeon—what’s wrong with that?”
These NPCs clearly felt no guilt. Even on the brink of death, they raved about freedom.
Heh. Fooled by those travelers who chant “freedom” every day, no doubt.
Resist the Main God?
Forget these NPCs—even powerful Executors like him weren’t the Main God’s match.
If you don’t have the strength but still rebel, then you pay the price.
“‘Flesh Apartment’? Oh, a rules-based dungeon. Shouldn’t be prone to mutation.” Executor 196 checked with his privileges. “Whatever. I’ll head over and have some fun killing anyway.”
He always believed that as long as he wiped out every mutation factor, the job was done.
Once he finished his task, his body began to transform—he would fly straight to the Flesh Apartment.
But just as 196 completed his transformation and was about to take off, a massive monster’s tail smacked him out of the sky.
Boom.
A huge crater opened in the ground.
[Executor 196: -0.01 Merit Points]
[Executor 196: Limb restoration in progress. Complete in 10 minutes.]
196 didn’t dare curse. At this moment, he was no different from the NPCs he had just slaughtered, trembling as he looked up at the monstrous being blotting out the sun.
“Number… Eighteen?” 196 was stunned. He hadn’t done anything wrong lately—why would such a top-ranked Executor deal with him personally?
“Abandon your mission. Transfer it to me.” No. 18’s voice pierced directly into his skull, nearly splitting his head apart.
“Y-yes, right away.” 196 immediately transferred the mission.
When he finished, No. 18 had already vanished without a trace.
Huh?
196 sat dumbfounded, waiting for his body to finish repairing. He felt awful.
Had No. 18 nearly killed him just to snatch his mission? Why not just say so? You’re No. 18—I’d never dare defy you!
“Senior, I’ve carried out your orders.” No. 18 wagged his tail happily, transferring the mission to Number 9. “No. 196 was being disobedient, so I disciplined him a bit.”
Number 9 opened his eyes, glanced at the mission prompt, and nodded. “I’ll take this one.”
“Senior, this task is really simple, maybe—Senior? Senior?” But No. 18 discovered that Number 9 was already gone.
So eager?
On the hilt of Number 9’s sword, a golden coin swung wildly.
———
Author’s Note:
Number 196: “All that for just a word? Almost cost me my life QAQ.”
Number 18: “Wasn’t my fault—Number 9 does the same to me.”
Number 9: “…You all need to keep your sanity in check. Use your brains.”
PS: Interest rises after ten days. If not, it’s a flat 30%. But if you repay early, you only pay interest for the days used. Ten days is 30%—so 120 total. One day is 3%, so just 12 points.
