Chapter 82: Missing Half

    "Bingo!" The Broker made a gun gesture with his hand, causing Shen Nianzu’s mood to go sour.

    When Jin Jiuchi still could not comprehend the severity of the matter, Shen Nianzu explained to him, "The leaderboard is a testament of the player’s capability and prowess. Only the top 100 players are shown in the App, meaning that you have literally become a new celebrity. Many people take it as a life-long goal or a great achievement to rise into the top 100. For as long as I can remember, Dance of the Wind had always occupied the bottommost rank. Nonetheless, the tail of the tiger is still mightier than a mouse. They must be feeling resentful to be kicked out of the top 100. It’s not even exaggerating to say that they are out to kill you."

    "It’s that bad?" Jin Jiuchi clicked his tongue in mild annoyance. He had never planned to become so famous to the point of gaining an enemy before he even did anything. He only wanted to go on a vacation and get free food along the way, so how did everything turn out to be so complicated? "Can I drop out of the leaderboard?"

    "You can. First, wait until someone new rises to the ranking and kicks you out like you did to Dance of the Wind, which I doubt will happen anytime soon. And second," Shen Nianzu continued in a deadpan tone. "Just let them kill you. You will automatically disappear from the leaderboard by then."

    Jin Jiuchi clutched his chest and gasped, "Nian’er, how can you be so cruel?!"

    Watching the scene in front of him, the Broker could not help but burst out into laughter. "He is an interesting character, isn’t he?" he asked Shen Nianzu, eliciting a cold harrumph from the jade doll.

    "How much did they offer you?" Shen Nianzu asked him. "I will double the price. Do not tell him anything about JJ and in exchange, tell me everything you know about them."

    The Broker raised two fingers.

    "Twenty thousand points?" Shen Nianzu guessed.

    "Two thousand," the man corrected helplessly.

    "Ha!" Shen Nianzu barked out a mocking laugh. "Two thousand mere points, and they want you to find out about JJ?"

    The Broker offered a weak protest in the face of this domineering rich tyrant, "Hey, two thousand points are already a lot for some of us, okay?"

    Hearing that, Jin Jiuchi nodded wholeheartedly. Two thousand! He only had 1000 after going through one Cycle, and it would decrease once he bought props. If he had these two thousands, he would be one step closer to upgrading his skill card! Jin Jiuchi could not help but cast a curious look at the jade doll. Exactly how many points had he gathered so far? For him to take two thousands as nothing but dirt, he must have had a lot, right?

    Once again, Jin Jiuchi deeply felt the woe of the poor.

    "So?" Shen Nianzu raised a brow.

    The Broker did not even need to think twice before coming to a decision. Hell, compared to Dance of the Wind who had been kicked out of top 100, of course he would choose to side with Nian, this rich and powerful player who had sat stably in the top 50 position. Not to mention, he and JJ were even closely acquaintanced with each other!

    "Deal!" The Broker said decisively. "I will prepare the material for you after this. Now, let us see what you have come here for."

    "As usual, we need your help to translate JJ’s skill card," Shen Nianzu said. He then extended a hand to Jin Jiuchi and crooked his fingers, "Where is your phone? Show your skill cards to him."

    "Nian’er..." Jin Jiuchi scooted closer to whisper into the jade doll’s ear. "Is it okay? Didn’t you say that it will be dangerous for others to know what my skill card is?"

    "Don’t worry," Shen Nianzu said out loud on purpose, not only for Jin Jiuchi to hear but also the Broker himself. "His skill card can only be used to assist the players with no combat ability whatsoever, so he’s obliged to tell the truth if he still wants to live. Not only that, he is also tied with a confidential agreement with the Nightmare. He’s not allowed to spread hoaxes or share the player’s skill card with the others, or else he will receive the consequences in his next Cycle."

    "Ah, yes," the Broker was not offended at all that Shen Nianzu dug out his black history. He even lamented over it with a nostalgic look, "I have learned the lesson the hard way. So please be rest assured. No matter what kind of skill card you have, I can’t expose it to others."

    Jin Jiuchi let out an intrigued hum, curious as to what kind of consequences the man had gone through. But under Shen Nianzu’s insistence, he could only shelve the question for the time being and took out his phone, handing it over to the jade doll.

    Shen Nianzu gave him a warning look when he saw that Jin Jiuchi still had not set a password to his phone, to which the man replied with a sheepish look, "I forgot..." Both to set the password and how to do it, even though the jade doll had gone through the length to explain it to him last night.

    But Shen Nianzu merely thought that it had slipped out of Jin Jiuchi’s mind, especially after everything the man had just learned last night. So he graciously let him off with a mild warning, "Set it up as soon as we return." He navigated the Nightmare App with familiarity and showed Jin Jiuchi’s joker skill card to the Broker.

    As soon as the Broker saw it, he let out a delightful whistle, "I should have known that there is a reason why you can kick Dance of the Wind out of the top 100. So it turns out that you have a Joker skill card! Ohoho, this is the first time I have ever seen one face-to-face! Okay, let us see what’s the deal with this skill card..." He closed his eyes and placed his palm on top of the phone screen.

    Seeing that the man remained motionless like this for five full seconds, Jin Jiuchi turned to the jade doll in confusion.

    "He’s using his skill card to translate," Shen Nianzu explained and when Jin Jiuchi showed a surprised look, he nodded, "Yes, what you are thinking is right. His skill card has already reached the Queen level, enabling him to use it in real life. He is someone from the top 100 too, after all. To be exact, he’s ranked 89."

    "Oh...!" Jin Jiuchi’s eyes went wide in wonder. He couldn’t help but regard the thin and unkempt man in front of him in a new light. It was a little hard to believe that this man was more powerful than him.

    "Okay!" The Broker snapped his eyes open, and in that split second, Jin Jiuchi seemed to see a crimson glow in his pupils which receded to normal in a flash. "This is the first time I have ever attempted to read a joker skill card, so the information I can share with you is a little limited."

    "Anything is better than nothing," Shen Nianzu said. "What have you seen?"

    "Chaos," The Broker grinned. "Oh, there will be so much chaos. Look at his SAN value. Normal people will have 100 when they first start, but JJ’s is only 62."

    Indeed, Shen Nianzu had briefly wondered about it when he saw Jin Jiuchi’s SAN value last night, but he had assumed that it was because the man had a few loose screws on his head that resulted in his crooked sanity. Wasn’t it understandable that his SAN value was a little low from the start?

    But from the way the Broker said it, it seemed like there was more meaning to this number than what meets the eye...

    Jin Jiuchi and Shen Nianzu shared a glance, then Shen Nianzu asked, "What about his low SAN value?"

    "This can be a good and bad omen." The Broker elaborated. "The good omen is, JJ will be able to activate his joker skill card easier as the threshold has already been lowered. Whereas the bad omen..." he paused for a moment before asking Jin Jiuchi, "Have you ever felt like something is different about you?"

    Jin Jiuchi was startled when he heard that, then he scratched his head awkwardly, "This question... is a bit hard to answer." Not because there was nothing, but on the contrary, there were so many weird traits about him that he did not even know where to start.

    "How about you?" The Broker turned to Shen Nianzu. "Have you ever sensed that he is a little—"

    "Childish, annoying, clingy, perverted, lacks common sense, a little not right in the head?" Shen Nianzu tried to help, and beside him Jin Jiuchi let out an affronted ’hey!’.

    "—unstable," the Broker finished his sentence with a helpless look on his face.

    "Ah..." Shen Nianzu exclaimed softly with a thoughtful nod.

    "Nian’er, am I really that horrible in your eyes?!" Jin Jiuchi cried out, aggrieved.

    Shen Nianzu ignored him, of course. "Yes, he might be a little unstable sometimes," he said, recalling the instance where the sinister Jin Jiuchi appeared in front of him. He reckoned that the joker skill card’s transformation must be referring to that side of Jin Jiuchi. "Are you saying that there’s a reason why he is like this?" He narrowed his eyes sharply.

    "Uh-huh," the Broker nodded as he told Jin Jiuchi with a serious look, "You, my brother, are missing half of your soul. That’s the reason behind your instability."