Wasn’t that just blatant teasing?

A powerhouse that strong, and his loan limit is only 500? No way.

With his level of strength, he could’ve just robbed them outright in the Duel Room!

But instead, he deliberately played along with their little act and only won 400.

That was straight-up, barefaced teasing!

And the worst part—he even put on that honest and naive face...

Unbelievable!

Xu Jingyao’s cheeks turned slightly red with frustration, but she couldn’t help commenting:

“But this guy is really ruthless...”

“Zhao Yudie had a 9-win streak, and he just broke it like that!”

“Now if she wants ten in a row, she has to start from scratch again.”

“And once veteran players drop in later, getting a ten-win streak will be even harder!”

“This bald guy, seriously... he’s just out here making enemies!”

Li Nian was snapped out of her thoughts by Xu Jingyao poking her arm, but she didn’t respond to the complaints.

After a brief silence, she suddenly muttered, “I’m really... way too weak...”

With that, she left the spectator area on her own.

Meanwhile—

Beginner Apartment No. 985, Room 2008.

Zhao Yudie returned to her private seat after her defeat, her beautiful face ashen with anger!

Her nine-win streak!

Just like that—gone!

It was such a waste!

And that bald guy—he actually had the power to one-shot her!

If it hadn’t been a one-shot, she could’ve at least realized she couldn’t win and tried to negotiate terms!

Like, maybe offer some game coins, or some Survival Points...

She could’ve worked something out—anything to protect her win streak!

But no—she lost too fast. She didn’t even get a chance to make an offer!

And the more she thought about it, the more frustrated she got!

Because Zhao Yudie had bought the ten-win streak package!

Now that she lost, not only does she have to start all over again, but she also can’t even make use of the package she paid for!

Her plan had been to finish her 9-win streak before the veteran players started dropping in.

But the opponent she got matched with for the 9th win—wasn’t his power level even more ridiculous than a veteran’s?!

She honestly doubted that even veteran players with the same Combat Power could’ve wiped her out so cleanly and effortlessly!

If she had known it’d be like this, she might as well have waited for the veterans to drop in first!

Zhao Yudie ground her teeth in frustration, completely furious and growing more bitter by the second!

Suddenly, her figure vanished from her Private Seat No. 151.

A tall figure in a tight black outfit appeared next to Seat G79-1049 in the second-floor hall.

However...

Seat G79-1049 was now completely empty.

Not a single trace of the bald guy nearby.

Dn bald b***d! He sure ran off quick!

Zhao Yudie clenched her jaw even tighter when she saw he was gone.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ye, who had already left the Virtual Duel Space, didn’t care about what came after the match at all.

When he stepped out from Duel Machine No. 2 in his apartment, he came face-to-face with a stunned Xiao Likun and Wang Qiang.

The two of them had been frozen in shock from the battle, and only snapped out of it when he emerged, stumbling back several steps in fright.

Wang Qiang must’ve been so shaken that he couldn’t think straight. He stared at him blankly and blurted out,

“Dude, you’re f***ing amazing...”

As soon as he said that, he froze in terror and stepped back a few more times.

Jiang Ye gave them a casual glance and ignored them entirely as he walked out of the Duel Room.

Sure, killing people could get you Survival Points.

But the word “killing” isn’t that simple.

It’s not like in games or novels, where death just means losing data or some paper-cutout character.

Here, it means a real human life disappearing, just like that.

Growing up in peaceful times, Jiang Ye couldn’t bring himself to randomly kill people—especially not classmates he recognized.

Maybe if it were in a different apartment, facing complete strangers he didn’t know at all...

So only then would he be able to kill as cleanly and decisively as if he were farming monsters in a game?

Jiang Ye wasn’t sure either.

Anyway, his main body couldn’t handle more Replicas for now, so there was no rush to keep killing for Survival Points.

Meanwhile, Xiao Likun and Wang Qiang finally let out a long sigh of relief as they watched the bald guy leave the Duel Room.

Xiao Likun couldn’t help but mutter with lingering fear,

“Good thing that bald guy really is one of our classmates...”

“Otherwise, if he wanted to make a move on us, we wouldn’t have had any chance to resist!”

Wang Qiang was also a bit shaken. While patting his chest to calm down, he started fantasizing out loud:

“If the bald guy turned out to be Luo Rui, that’d be perfect! I’m super tight with him—if he takes off, I can ride his coattails!”

Xiao Likun rolled his eyes: “Man, you really know how to dream. If it’s not your parents taking off, it’s your best buddy taking off.”

“If he were really a ride-or-die bro who’d carry you up, would he need to hide his identity from you?”

“My guess is, that bald guy didn’t have any deep ties with us before.”

“He didn’t have any beef with us, so he didn’t bother killing us; but he wasn’t close with us either, so he didn’t talk to us.”

“From now on, we should be extra careful with what we say in the group chat.”

“If we say something wrong and offend someone powerful, that little bit of classmate connection probably won’t save us!”

Wang Qiang nodded quickly: “I noticed it too. Fewer and fewer classmates are speaking in the group chat now, and everyone’s getting more and more cautious. Guess everyone’s starting to get scared.”

“About that bald guy one-shotting Zhao Yudie—maybe we shouldn’t mention it in the group either. If we p**s him off and he comes back to kill us...”

Xiao Likun had originally planned to post about it in the group as a warning, so nobody would mess with the bald guy.

But in the end, he agreed with Wang Qiang.

If someone did cross the bald guy, that was their own problem for not knowing better.

Better to mind his own business and make sure he didn’t offend any big shots himself.

So in the end, Jiang Ye’s actions in the Duel Room didn’t spread in the chat group.

When he went to the Apartment Administrator to repay his loan, he saw the classmates in the group were talking about food.

When they had been teleported into the Beginner Apartment, it was in-game time: 00:00.

And now, it was already broad daylight.

A lot of classmates were running errands and burning through Stamina fast.

Tired and hungry, some of them started browsing the Low-End Mall in the apartment, trying to solve their food problem.

But they quickly found out that while entertainment in the Low-End Mall was cheap, food prices were ridiculously high.

At that moment, the chat was filled with complaints about food:

【Holy crap! A bowl of plain porridge costs 10 SP! A small veggie dish is 20, meat’s 40! This is straight-up robbery!!】

【Even a bottle of water costs 10 SP! I’ve been to tourist traps that weren’t this bad!】

【At my usual spending rate, one meal here would cost me a thousand SP! And that’s me holding back!】

【F*** this! We bust our *sses to earn that money, and after rent, we can’t even afford food! Are we here just to be slaves?!】

【Wait, you already paid rent? I’ve been grinding all morning and can’t even afford that, let alone food!】

【Is there any other way to get food? Back home I could blow a thousand on a meal and not blink, but now I slave away for hours and only earn a few measly points. I really can’t bear to spend them!】

【Didn’t Sister Ling and Brother Chang go to the 3rd floor to fight monsters? I wonder if monster meat is edible? If so, that could save us a bunch of money, right? @Wang Lingling @Gao Chang @Lu Shen】

But Lu Shen quickly replied:

【No can do! When monsters die, they disappear instantly—there’s no meat left behind.】

【Then Lu-god, can’t you think of another way? I’m seriously starving here... if my parents knew how bad I’m suffering, they’d be heartbroken!】

Lu Shen: 【Stop with the “mom and dad” already! Nobody here is gonna pamper you anymore! Honestly, our parents in other apartments probably aren’t doing any better than we are!】

After that, the group went quiet for a while, the mood turning heavy and gloomy.

Until one girl finally broke the silence—

Wang Rui: 【By the way, do any of you know how those two cross-apartment players managed to move between apartments? I really wanna reunite with my family... QAQ】

No one replied for a long time.

So Wang Rui tried again, more directly:

【Yang Wenchao, do you know how to cross apartments? @Yang Wenchao】

Right after that, another girl quickly warned her:

【Wang Rui are you crazy?! Yang Wenchao already warned us not to tag him again!】

Wang Rui: 【Sorry! I forgot! I didn’t mean to! I just really want to see my parents again, waaah...】

She was probably crying already as she typed.

The chat grew heavier with dread.

But then, to everyone’s shock, Yang Wenchao—who rarely spoke—actually responded:

【Where are you? I’ll send you to reunite with your parents. @Wang Rui】

Everyone was stunned!

Did Yang Wenchao actually know how to cross apartments?

And could he really take Wang Rui to the one where her parents were?!

Then again, Yang Wenchao always gave off that “can-do-anything” vibe.

A lot of classmates didn’t think too hard about it.

Wang Rui, overwhelmed with gratitude, replied:

【Waaah thank you, Yang Wenchao! You’re such a good person! We totally misunderstood you before!】

【I’m at the Red Light Elevator on the 6th floor! @Yang Wenchao】

Yang Wenchao: 【OK, heading there now.】

His sudden friendliness felt kind of unnatural to everyone watching.

Soon, more girls also asked if he could help them reunite with their families.

Surprisingly, Yang Wenchao responded politely to each one, asking where they were and promising to help.

Several girls were moved to tears and quickly told him their locations.

Meanwhile, quite a few guys were jealous, thinking Yang Wenchao must be scheming something.

Probably lining up for some serious “romantic benefits,” right?

But then...

The tears of gratitude, and the envy and guesses—

All turned into horror.

Because before long...

Wang Rui was dead!

Then, the second girl who’d shared her location with Yang Wenchao—dead too!

Two girls, dead in a row...

The rest of the ones who had asked him for help panicked and backtracked:

【No!! I-I don’t want to reunite with my family anymore! Don’t kill me!!】

【Sister Ling! Save me! @Wang Lingling】

【Waaah I’m so scared, I wanna go home! Why am I going through this nightmare? Someone save me...】

【Help me! Lu Shen, save me! I’ve had a crush on you for three years... @Lu Shen】

Bai Ruowan: 【What do we do... Sister Ling, Brother Chang, you’ve gotta do something about Yang Wenchao!】

For a while, the dark and terrifying atmosphere took over the chat again.

Jiang Ye was watching the chat but didn’t get involved.

He was feeling a bit hungry himself. After paying off his loan, he went to the Low-End Mall and ordered four dishes and a soup to eat.

Meanwhile, Replica No. 1 followed the white-robed girl from Room 2064 to the rooftop.

Replica No. 3 stayed in Room 2025 to continue sorting the items taken from killing Huang Qi.

Jiang Ye had no intention of getting involved in the classmates’ drama.

Eventually, Wang Lingling stepped up to take control:

【If you’re one of the classmates who gave your location to Yang Wenchao, head to the 1st floor elevator now.】

【Everyone else in the Mutual Aid Group, go meet up on the 1st floor ASAP.】

【We’ve all been busy all morning—on one hand, we’ve learned more about the apartment; on the other hand, we all need to eat.】

【So during the meal, I’d like to go over plans for our Mutual Aid Group and figure out our next steps.】

【Let’s try to change our current situation through unity and cooperation.】

Wang Lingling’s message gave those terrified girls a sense of direction.

None of them dared question her—they all headed to the 1st floor.

Other classmates who found solo progress too difficult, and were also struggling with food, hesitated for a bit but ended up heading down too.

Then, Wang Lingling suddenly tagged Jiang Ye:

【Jiang Ye, how much have you earned so far? Did you find any Survival Stones while working on the 20th floor? @Jiang Ye】

Jiang Ye didn’t ignore her. He casually replied:

【I’m still on the 20th floor. Still working on the cleaning job, haven’t found a Survival Stone yet.】

Wang Lingling hadn’t expected much from him, but she reminded him again:

【No one else has found any Survival Stones, so I suspect they might only be located on floors above the 20th.】

【If you want to survive, you’ll probably have to exchange a Survival Stone for money.】

【So while you’re working on the 20th floor, keep an eye out—it’s for your rent too. @Jiang Ye】

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then replied:

【Alright, I’ll keep an eye out.】

Other classmates who saw their conversation quickly chimed in with analysis:

【We used to think using Survival Stones for money was wasteful since they’re meant for staying alive. But now, nearly ten of us have already died...】

【So with 80 Survival Stones distributed in our apartment, there should be extras! Exchanging them for money early on might not be such a bad idea.】

Just as everyone was turning their focus to the Survival Stones...

Someone in the group suddenly said:

【Actually... I found a Survival Stone.】

The whole chat went dead silent.

Even Jiang Ye couldn’t help but glance over.

After all, Survival Stones weren’t just about money—they were the key to surviving and clearing the Beginner Apartment!