Chapter 79
“Hahaha, I got it! Little Fang, you can go to the player academy now!”
“What? I finally won the lottery—this house is our family treasure. No way I’m selling it!”
“Damn it! I clearly had a luck-boosting item—why doesn’t it work here during the lottery?!”
On the day of the Golden Luxury Estate housing lottery, the crowd was a sea of emotions—every kind of reaction imaginable was on display.
Some were clinging to blind hope, trying to use props to defy fate and hit the jackpot in this one-in-a-thousand chance. Others brought incense, prayed to their ancestors, and even carried ancestral tablets with them. A few went so far as to bow in front of Lu Chuan, hoping their sincerity would win his blessing for a lucky draw.
Lu Chuan, of course, had turned the whole thing into a fiery livestream. Every time a number was drawn, he had reporters give the winner the spotlight with interviews and coverage.
In such a feverish atmosphere, even those who had managed to stay calm at first couldn’t hold on to their composure.
Lu Chuan brought out the item known as “Divine Loan.”
It looked like a blank contract. As the user, Lu Chuan would fill in the terms of each loan, repayment deadlines, and any other restrictions.
The Golden Luxury Estate Homeowner’s Code was also written into the loan contract as an appendix, to ensure that both players and ordinary residents of the community could coexist peacefully.
Every player or ordinary person who drew a number and qualified to purchase a unit had to sign their name on the blank pages of the contract.
“Your name is fake, so the contract doesn’t count,” Lu Chuan said with a look. Immediately, another player beside him grabbed the person who had tried to sign with a false identity.
“Name forgery—qualification revoked. Put this housing slot back on the market,” Lu Chuan waved, and his men promptly dragged the offender away.
Honestly, there were always people who wanted to test the authenticity of an S-rank item.
But props—these unreasonable forces—were simply too convenient.
Back in Lu Chuan’s old world, it was impossible to defend against scalpers, and nearly impossible to control people buying homes under borrowed names. But here, in this infinite world, as long as props existed, things that would normally take huge amounts of manpower and resources could be solved with a single item.
This world is wonderful. I really love it here.
Lu Chuan sighed once again.
“…Really, I can’t help you. There’s no way I can give you a house.”
“Believe it or not.”
While Lu Chuan’s housing sales were booming, things were rough for Shen Li.
Everyone assumed Lu Chuan was acting on Shen Li’s orders, that the real big boss behind the properties was Shen Li. It wasn’t enough that Shen Li had spoken a few kind words earlier—now people were leaning on their long acquaintanceship with him, trying to pressure him into handing out housing slots.
No matter how much Shen Li explained, it was useless. In the end, he just turned his phone off.
“You’re on the Master-Rank list, can’t you at least show some authority?” Lu Chuan teased. “If anyone bothers you, just beat them up and throw them out.”
Shen Li was simply too easygoing.
Even though he was now on the Master-Rank list, he still acted the same way as before. Naturally, people tried to guilt-trip him.
“…And whose fault is that?” Shen Li’s hands trembled with anger. “If I didn’t have a good temper, I would’ve killed you back when you first joined the Star Guild.”
“Well, hard to say who’d have killed who.” Lu Chuan thought about it and admitted Shen Li had a point—but not an absolute one.
Shen Li didn’t want to continue the topic.
He pulled up a chair and sat next to Lu Chuan. Watching the desperate crowd outside, trying every method for a shot at the lottery and a house, he couldn’t bear to keep looking.
Were these really the people who carried the future of the Star Guild? He found it hard to believe.
“When the houses are sold, what do you plan to do?” Shen Li finally asked. “If you want to hit the Master-Rank list, even with S-rank evaluations in every dungeon, you’ll need at least ten of them.”
“Yeah, about that,” Lu Chuan thought for a moment. “I plan to try going solo. They say if you can get the highest evaluation in a solo S-rank dungeon, the main god system will shorten the time it takes to reach Master-Rank.”
Player rankings were assessed comprehensively by the game system.
Take Shen Li as an example: after so many years, he had definitely accumulated more than ten S-rank evaluations from high-level dungeons. But he still hadn’t broken onto the Master-Rank list. Why? Because besides his S-ranks, he also had plenty of A and B evaluations. On top of that, whether a dungeon was cleared solo or as part of a team, what role you played in the team, how far you’d developed your abilities, whether you had fought gods head-on—all of it factored into your evaluation.
Over the years, players had figured out some general strategies.
To take a steady path to Master-Rank, it was best to go with a team.
To level up quickly, you needed to clear dungeons solo.
But soloing varied too. Confrontational dungeons required you to choose a faction, while competitive ones pitted you against elite players from other guilds. There were plenty of formats.
“What you’re missing now are front-line combat dungeons,” Shen Li said thoughtfully, drawing from his experience. “When the system evaluates someone for Master-Rank, it weighs intelligence, stamina, combat ability, and playstyle. For example, if your previous dungeons didn’t include many direct boss fights, making up for that later will boost your score.”
Most of Lu Chuan’s dungeon clears relied on manipulating rules or exploiting NPC greed. His role was usually to stir the waters and take advantage.
It was fast, but it lacked a certain blood-and-thunder element.
Of course, there were also players who relied on raw combat power and combat sense to smash their way through, especially those with sword-wielder abilities.
“My advice: take Edith with you,” Shen Li suggested. “First, she’s never gone into a dungeon with you alone—you need to build real synergy. Second, Edith is a classic sword-wielder. Running a dungeon with her will help raise your combat evaluation.”
Shen Li really did play the nagging parent role well.
Lu Chuan accepted his advice.
“Alright, we’ll do it your way. I’ll team up with Edith next dungeon, pick one more combat-focused. Better to train up my own fighting ability anyway. Skills cost money—if I can take hits myself, I’d better do it.”
#888 agreed with Shen Li, too.
Though Lu Chuan was clever, he loved shortcuts too much and hated detours. That was exactly when someone like Shen Li, who was thorough and thoughtful, was most needed.
Seeing Lu Chuan accept his suggestion so readily, Shen Li thought maybe Lu Chuan wasn’t so bad after all.
Even if Lu Chuan became guildmaster one day, as long as he wasn’t autocratic and could listen to others, it could work.
“Your housing sales are booming. Even the vice guildmaster asked for my opinion—whether we should use our sibling status to set up a housing project too.” Cynthia called, taking the initiative to ask about Lu Chuan’s plans.
They were all aiming for Master-Rank. Sharing information would help them improve while avoiding running into each other in the same dungeon too early.
If two top players clashed and one had to die, it would be troublesome.
“Haha, doesn’t matter. If you really want to build housing, just send me a red envelope and I’ll send you the do’s and don’ts,” Lu Chuan said generously. After all, it wasn’t like he could monopolize the world’s money. He was happy to share the methods.
“I don’t have the time for that,” Cynthia shook her head. “What type of dungeon are you planning next? Should we cooperate?”
“Mm, Shen Li gave me some advice I liked… so I’m planning to try a combat-heavy dungeon with Edith.” Lu Chuan explained the reasoning, including the evaluation factor.
Cynthia agreed.
“Yes, the system does evaluate comprehensively. Having strong results across the board will shorten the time to Master-Rank significantly.” She nodded. “My next dungeon will be a sci-fi type. Looks like we won’t run into each other.”
“Good—I’d rather not meet you yet.” Lu Chuan said it sincerely.
He believed he was destined to become the God of Wealth, but among his peers, only Cynthia and Messiah gave him a real sense of threat.
As for Lilus—well, as long as it wasn’t a pure combat dungeon, Lu Chuan could toy with him with ease.
“Actually, I’ve been researching a lot of data lately, trying to find the fastest way to break into Master-Rank,” Cynthia said with a light laugh. “The Evil World Game has run for centuries, so there’s endless information. But about Master-Rank players? Always a huge mystery. We can only speculate, never confirm. They say only by becoming Master-Rank can one learn the true secrets of the Evil World.”
“Mm. Shen Li won’t say it outright, but we all have some guesses,” Lu Chuan replied.
“Yes. I don’t want to keep blundering in ignorance either,” Cynthia nodded. “Our guildmaster hasn’t appeared in a long time. We’re worried. Among the five major guilds, only the Queen of Ocean Heart Guild occasionally shows up in the real world. The other leaders vanish into dungeons for decades. What in the Evil World game is worth such long stays? I’m so curious.”
Lu Chuan didn’t respond. Cynthia’s curiosity for the Evil World game was boundless—she didn’t need him to say anything. She only needed someone to listen.
“You’ve gone off-topic again. The reason I called isn’t just for this,” Cynthia pulled the conversation back. “While I was researching, I discovered something. Fifty years ago, there was an ordinary A-rank player—not even S-rank—who entered a dungeon and didn’t return for ten years. Supposedly, those ten years he was trapped in a bizarre dungeon with no way to clear it. And in that dungeon, time flowed three times faster than in reality. He said he actually spent thirty years inside.”
“Oh?” Lu Chuan realized what Cynthia was about to say must be important.
“But that’s not the key part. The key part is, when this player finally came out, he was immediately promoted to S-rank. So far, still reasonable—maybe his performance in that dungeon was extraordinary, enough to make up for his earlier mediocre evaluations, and the system rewarded him,” Cynthia continued. “The strange thing is, less than a month after becoming S-rank, he suddenly appeared on the candidate list for the Master-Rank.”
Lu Chuan became intrigued. “You mean this player discovered a shortcut to becoming Master-Rank?”
“Probably. But he quickly died in that same ranking challenge,” Cynthia went on. “From his promotion to his death, barely a month passed. So even though people thought it odd, since he died so fast, nobody bothered to investigate further.”
“But I found data related to him—even the dungeon he said he was stuck in for ten years. That dungeon, according to him, was actually the final stage of a series. And when I checked all the records, I found that at the same time, a Master-Rank player was also in that series of dungeons. The names differed, but cross-referencing multiple sources, I’m certain they entered the same dungeon.”
Just like in their last dungeon: for players on the Pro-God faction, the system tweaked things, classifying it as only A-rank. But for those on the Anti-God faction, it was a genuine S-rank experience.
Clearly, that long-dead player had run into the same situation as them.
“That Master-Rank player vanished after that dungeon, and soon after the system announced a replacement for the Master-Rank list. With timing so precise, I don’t think it’s coincidence.”
“If that quickly-dead player spent thirty years in that dungeon world, succeeded in clearing it, while the Master-Rank player inside failed, the connection makes perfect sense.”
“I believe the fastest way to become Master-Rank is to enter the same dungeon as a Master-Rank player.”
“As long as we kill them inside, or sabotage their mission until they fail and are erased, then as the victors, we’d take their place as candidates.”
On the other end of the line, silence fell.
#888 practically collapsed with a thud, wanting to grovel at Lu Chuan’s feet.
[Please, Host, give me some time to upgrade!]
[I don’t want to face the Main God System this soon!!]
Author’s note:
#888: This is targeted at me!
