Chapter 84
If surrender was an art, then Lu Chuan had perfected it.
He scattered his whole team, grouped them in different numbers, sent them at different times, and even gave each a different excuse. One by one, they blended into Dongyang’s forces.
This was borrowing a hen to lay eggs.
He lost only a team’s banner, but gained free bodyguards.
Lu Chuan and his crew were like termites eating away at a building, slowly hollowing out Dongyang’s team.
Edith felt her worldview shatter.
Once upon a time, she specialized in taking down this kind of person. Now, she had become one.
And yet, deep inside, she felt a faint thrill.
“Captain, if they really integrate into Dongyang’s team, won’t all our efforts just dress them up for someone else?” Edith asked, unconsciously thinking from Lu Chuan’s perspective.
Though they hadn’t invested much in this temporary, pieced-together group, she still worried Lu Chuan would hand over all his hard-won assets.
She knew how much he valued wealth. If pushed, Lu Chuan would never let it go quietly.
At least, it was good he confided in her first.
“Edith, you’re great.” Lu Chuan praised sincerely. “In our squad, you’re the only one who worries about my fortune. Unlike Shen Li, who doesn’t care at all, or Sasha, who’s just a blockhead.”
He was gratified—finally someone in his team cared about wealth.
“Don’t worry. Did you forget the kind of people we chose? Our people aren’t good at fighting, and they hate the spotlight. Once inside Dongyang’s team, they’ll definitely be treated as cannon fodder. If they’re not idiots, they’ll realize joining them only means dying faster. They’ll stick together even more tightly and rely on me to survive.”
Lu Chuan chuckled softly. “Edith, whether in a dungeon or in reality, as long as our enemies have their own private agendas, there will be weaknesses to exploit. Whether it’s real players or NPCs, there’s no need to admire or fear them too much.”
Even so-called gods or Burial Squad had their own motives.
Only machines were devoid of self.
And machines were just weapons to be used.
The higher the dungeon level, the livelier the NPCs’ personalities. After dealing with them enough, Lu Chuan sometimes felt they were real, living people—only bound too tightly by low-level dungeons, making them seem like hollow puppets.
But in truth, weren’t they lives just like them?
NPCs could create and accumulate wealth too!
Edith fully agreed.
When it came to reading human nature and exploiting others, Lu Chuan scored full marks.
Dongyang’s team was indeed strong in its own way.
Its core was made up of players from Dongyang’s Guild. The rest were mostly recruited local NPCs or a handful of other players.
They asked who was a player, but Lu Chuan and Edith never stepped forward. After a simple registration, Dongyang let it go.
In this dungeon, most items were sealed. If powerful players showed up, Dongyang’s men would have recognized them.
That was the advantage of hiding in plain sight.
Both Lu Chuan and Edith were somewhat famous in the real world—especially Lu Chuan, whose posters and ads were everywhere. To avoid recognition, his system space carried plenty of disguises. Wigs, glasses, makeup—anything to alter their looks.
Modern players relied too much on props for disguises. Since those could be sealed in dungeons, few bothered with real makeup. But Lu Chuan never relied solely on items. He planned for when props couldn’t be used.
And so, he and Edith slipped into Dongyang’s ranks with the surrender crowd.
Dongyang’s large, wealthy team had plenty of enemies. Many wanted to swallow that fat piece of meat whole.
When facing strong foes, Lu Chuan’s group would be the first to retreat, honing their escape skills.
Against the weak, they rushed in to crush them.
And surprisingly, Lu Chuan actually improved in these battles.
The system chimed multiple times:
[Congratulations, player [Arrival of the God of Wealth], Physique +1, Combat Skill +5]
[Congratulations, player [Arrival of the God of Wealth] has mastered Basic Ranged Attack.]
[Congratulations, player [Arrival of the God of Wealth] has acquired Beginner’s Martial Arts.]
…
Edith was stunned.
Weren’t these things players normally learned in their first newbie dungeon?
Newcomers entered without items, skills, or much experience. To clear early stages, they just needed courage to face enemies head-on. In doing so, most naturally grasped fighting basics like striking or grappling, rapidly boosting their combat ability.
But Lu Chuan—loaded with powerful items, endless wealth, and once ranked first on the newcomer list (until this dungeon knocked him off)—had somehow never learned even the basics.
Absurd, yet true.
He had literally never fought bosses head-on before, so he never unlocked those beginner skills.
[Leveling up too fast makes your foundation unstable, Host,] #888 said seriously. [You’ve already fallen off the newcomer list, so why not slow down, build skills and strength first, then aim for the top player rankings?]
Always seizing a chance, 888 urged Lu Chuan to take things slower.
“You nag too much,” Lu Chuan complained. “I am slowing down.”
He multitasked, bickering with 888 while dodging enemy attacks.
Learning combat wasn’t instant. Even with system-aided comprehension, players still needed practice to internalize skills. And the gap between them and their opponents couldn’t be too wide, or improvement was impossible.
By sticking with Dongyang’s team, Lu Chuan gained more real combat experience than ever before, improving faster than in their earlier fights. While brains often trumped brawn, combat skill still needed time and practice.
But as time passed, fewer teams came to challenge Dongyang. Even some of Dongyang’s core members dwindled.
Meanwhile, Lu Chuan’s “surrender faction” made up more and more of the team.
Edith sensed something—at this rate, without losing a single man, Dongyang’s team might soon change its name… to Lu Chuan’s.
Was this the essence of “cowardly development”?
If you just outlast all your enemies, you’ll end up the leader.
Edith thought it was a brilliant tactic worth remembering: if you can’t beat a boss, just wear it down. One day, you’ll grind it to death.
Lu Chuan and Edith were living like fish in water within Dongyang’s group—utterly at ease, almost forgetting to go home.
Perhaps the Main God System didn’t want to see Lu Chuan’s life go too smoothly, because it quietly set up some new obstacles.
That night, a few people crept over to Lu Chuan’s side to complain.
“Leader, when are we finally going to take Dongyang’s team for ourselves?” one came sobbing and sniffling. “Recently, quite a few brothers have been sacrificed. The number of contestants in the second round is shrinking fast—if we don’t eliminate more opponents soon, I’m afraid Dongyang will turn on his own people next.”
Dongyang’s team now had nearly 400 members.
Lu Chuan’s people made up almost a quarter of that—a formidable force by any measure.
It couldn’t be helped: those who surrendered specialized in survival, while the loyal ones were the first to die.
Dongyang’s real core members numbered only twenty or thirty at best. The rest were stragglers and fence-sitters who had been absorbed along the way, and their loyalty to Dongyang was thin at best.
“Leader, it’s an insult that you’re being underestimated by these people.”
Late at night, a squad leader from Lu Chuan’s old team—the surrender faction—brought two trusted men to secretly meet him.
They had thought the leader would abandon them and flee, but he was still here?
“Out with it. Don’t waste my precious time,” Lu Chuan said impatiently. Surely they hadn’t come in the middle of the night just to check on him.
“There… there is something,” the squad leader admitted, lowering his head in shame, not daring to meet Lu Chuan’s eyes.
He knew their leader wasn’t ordinary and couldn’t be fooled easily—but they truly couldn’t bear it any longer.
Dongyang wanting to enter the finals and win prizes, they understood. But paving the way with their lives? Unacceptable.
“What’s Dongyang done this time?” Lu Chuan asked instead of answering. “Your squad has been absorbing a lot of people lately, right? Otherwise, I wouldn’t have heard nothing on my end. Why are you in such a rush?”
When Lu Chuan broke up the team earlier, the squad leaders he chose were all smart, ambitious, and afraid of death.
He wasn’t worried about clever subordinates outshining him—what he feared was idiots dragging him down.
In fact, these squad leaders were excellent at managing teams. Even under Dongyang’s constant high-intensity battles, their headcounts hadn’t dropped—they’d even grown.
Clearly, since joining Dongyang, these former “surrender faction” members had already begun expanding their own influence.
But their good days didn’t last long before the squad leader received grim news.
“They recently found the trail of a powerful figure—third place in the last Duel Tournament, and this time a dark horse contender. Dongyang wants to take him out first. So they told me to lead my men to wear him down.” Seeing there was no hiding it, the squad leader confessed openly.
NPCs understood the gap in strength between themselves and others far more clearly than players did.
Perhaps because NPCs had level divisions, they knew that no matter how many small fry gathered, they couldn’t kill a top-tier opponent.
Yet Dongyang still ordered them to act as cannon fodder, disregarding their lives.
Some resisted—and were immediately executed by Dongyang’s core members for “defying orders.”
The squad leader knew Dongyang’s core and their leader must be powerful outsiders—travelers.
This Blood Kingdom often saw such travelers, and the locals had heard many tales.
The stories said travelers were xenophobic, never treating natives as people. They carried strange and powerful treasures, and their true strength was hard to read from appearances.
Some looked weak but were monsters; others seemed gruff but were truly capable.
So, the locals both feared and kept their distance.
But they couldn’t avoid it when travelers actively sought them out—sometimes to attack, sometimes to use them. By now, the travelers’ reputation among natives was rotten.
This new leader, however, was different.
He cherished his own life—but also theirs.
Never before had they preserved their lives through surrender under a traveler’s command. That comparison only made them treasure Lu Chuan more.
If they had to entrust their loyalty to someone, it would be him.
Because in this traveler’s eyes, they weren’t disposable tools to be tossed aside, but living people.
Lu Chuan, of course, had no idea how the NPCs thought of him.
He had never changed: he would always defend what was his. In this dungeon, his wealth just happened to be these people.
“Alright, let me think,” Lu Chuan said after a moment’s thought. “First, give me the info on Dongyang’s target. Know yourself, know your enemy, and you’ll win every battle. I need to figure out a way to keep you all safe.”
“Leader, rest assured—I’ve already sent people to gather intel.” The squad leader brightened when Lu Chuan agreed to protect them, lowering his voice. “As soon as you give the word, we’ll back you as the new boss and take Dongyang’s team for ourselves.”
“What’s the rush? Killing the goose for its eggs won’t do.” Lu Chuan shook his head, putting on a righteous air. “At least let’s clear the second round first.”
Abandoning allies before the finals, wasting resources prematurely—such extravagance was something Lu Chuan would never do.
“Yes, yes, we understand.” The squad leader nodded.
