Three Factions

Looking at the refreshed dice, Luo Jun felt a mix of emotions.

Three hours in the Main World, twenty days in the maze, translates to Time Flow Rate of approximately 150 to 1.

What takes a day outside is roughly equivalent to six months here.

Of course, according to the rules, the Time Flow Rate may be different in different places in the maze, but Luo Jun Crisscross the maze for the past twenty days, covering an area of hundreds of kilometers. This multiplier of 150 should be a comprehensive average value.

This also has a positive side for Luo Jun, as it means that very little time has passed outside, and the emotions of Old Yuan's family should still be stable. In addition, as long as supplies are sufficient, he can continue to cultivate here without worrying about outside disturbances.

However, this also means that each mission might only take a few hours in the Main World, suggesting that the mission might be happening more frequently than previously estimated, resulting in more deaths...

Seeing the others' worried faces, Luo Jun smiled as he held up the diary, "Don't be too down. There's actually some good news hidden in this diary."

"Good news?" Everyone was slightly taken aback. Sun Xiaowei frowned and said, "The exit has all grown legs and run away, what good news could there be?"

"You've forgotten, the diary only lost a dozen days' worth of entries," Luo Jun said. "Judging from this entry, all four of them are still alive, so it shouldn't be a very late entry. The last entry in the notebook shows them still struggling to survive, with almost no savings. It's probably less than ten days since that last entry. In such a short time, they actually managed to exchange for Exit Indicator?"

"Without the Generous Person Badge, how did they manage to save up 100,000 yuan in such a short time, while ensuring the daily expenses of four people?"

"That's right." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Indeed, we were struggling financially before, so this 100,000 yuan is definitely suspicious."

As he spoke, Luo Jun looked at the businessman with a grin. "You must know how those people made their money before, right?"

"Don't say you don't know him. You just said he was a client from many years ago, and you still remember him."

"Um... this..." The merchant hesitated for a moment, "There was indeed a group of people who made a lot of money in a very short time, saving up 100,000 in less than ten days, and then exchanged it for an Exit Indicator..."

"That's it. What's their secret?" Luo Jun continued to press.

"My dear customer," the merchant rubbed his chubby little hands together, "I think this answer is worth ten thousand yuan..."

"Three thousand!" Luo Jun held up three fingers and activated the Dice of Heavenly Secrets.

"Alright... three thousand it is." Luo Jun's confident tone and outstanding personal charm finally won over the businessman, who agreed to the price.

Luo Jun immediately used his Generous Person Badge to collect three thousand coins, and the merchant who had received the money slowly spoke.

"I remember there were four of us together at the time. We were actually struggling financially, but suddenly we were making money at an astonishing rate. I was curious, so I asked about it."

"The Old Man in charge told me that they've discovered a way to attract monsters to their doorstep!"

"Monsters coming to your door automatically?" Luo Jun frowned upon hearing this. "I remember you sold something like that, didn't you?"

"Indeed..." The merchant handed over a booklet. "Look at the Monster Attracting Incense on the third page here. It has the function of attracting monsters. However, the Monster Attracting Incense can only attract ordinary monsters, and the range is very limited, so the efficiency is not very high."

"But those people accidentally discovered that mixing the Monster Attracting Incense with something else greatly increased its efficiency in attracting monsters, and it could even attract Chaos Monster."

"Did you know that a single Chaos Monster can drop a Gold Ingot, which can be exchanged for a full ten thousand coins over there? Kill ten of them, and you can get a hundred thousand. With that kind of efficiency, how could it not be fast?"

"No!" Luo Jun shook his head, looking at the merchants. "They shouldn't have accumulated their money using Gold Ingot!"

The merchant was taken aback. "I wasn't lying. They made money incredibly fast during that period, but the amount of banknotes they exchanged with me wasn't actually that much; it was probably mostly Gold Ingot..."

Luo Jun pulled out another diary entry. "In this diary, they said they would rather avoid the Chaos Monster than hunt it to pay back the money. How come they suddenly changed their minds later?"

"I don't know either..." The merchant shrugged. "I'm telling the truth. I've already taken the money, why would I lie to you?"

"Could it be that the person who wrote this diary isn't from the same group as the people I mentioned?"

That possibility cannot be ruled out... Luo Jun asked, "What do those four people you mentioned look like?"

"The leader was an old man, who looked to be in his sixties or seventies, along with two young girls and a young man with red hair."

The physical characteristics match perfectly; how could such a coincidence be possible?

It seems something must have happened between these two pages of the diary...

Thinking of this, Luo Jun flipped through the product brochure. "What are you talking about, the stuff mixed with the Monster Attracting Incense '?"

"I don't have it here." The merchant shook his head. "It's with the black market merchants, it's the food they sell there. More precisely, it's some kind of twisted, grotesque meat in their food. Only when this stuff is combined with the Monster Attracting Incense does it become more potent!"

In the end, is it still Black Shop?

Luo Jun turned around and looked at the Ling Jian on the back of the Unicorn Rhinoceros.

To be honest, Luo Jun was quite tempted by the 10,000 Gold Ingot reward, but the key was that all the previous signs indicated that the Black Shop was problematic. So even though he had three Gold Ingot in hand, he still didn't want to get involved with the Black Shop.

However, all indications now suggest that while the Black Shop is dangerous, it may contain crucial information for clearing the level.

Moreover, Ling Jian's condition also necessitates seeking treatment from the Black Shop.

It seems I'll have to go again.

Next, Luo Jun chatted with the Fat Merchant for a while, but couldn't get any more information out of him. He could only exchange the things he had already collected for cash, and left without buying anything.

"What do we do now?" Sun Xiaowei asked. "We guess we have no choice but to go to the Black Shop." Old Yuan looked at Ling Jian: "It's dangerous, but we can't not go, not only for the child, but also for ourselves."

"But Black Shop are even rarer than White Shop, where are we going to look for them?" Mao Xintong frowned.

"By the way, didn't you exchange two maps at the Black Shop last time?" Ma Qiao reminded him.

Luo Jun nodded. "Looks like we'll have to make another sprint... Old Yuan, how fast can your Unicorn Rhinoceros run?"

"It's only a bit faster than an ordinary ox, but its endurance is excellent." Old Yuan nodded and said, "Running fifty kilometers an hour is no problem."

"Let's give it a try then." Luo Jun took out a map. "If we still can't find it in half an hour, then we'll consider speeding it up."

As he spoke, he opened the map.

"Huh?" Luo Jun couldn't help but exclaim the moment he saw the map. There was a conspicuous black dot within a three-dimensional area with a radius of one kilometer.

What a coincidence? There's a Black Shop right nearby?

Everyone set off immediately and, following the map, quickly arrived at their destination.

It was still a Dead Alley, several dozen meters long, at the end of which stood a rusty gate that exuded an ominous aura, with a dilapidated plaque hanging above it.

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"What should we do? Should we go in?"

"Let Little Luo and I go," said Old Yuan. "We've dealt with each other before, so we're more familiar with each other. You two wait at the intersection."

Luo Jun nodded, his inner energy surging and tightly binding his body. He followed his Master into the alley, while the others waited at the intersection. Only the Unicorn Rhinoceros carried the unconscious Ling Jian behind them.

Old Yuan stepped forward and knocked on the door. After a while, the iron door opened, and a head peeked out.

To Luo Jun's surprise, unlike the old and withered head he saw last time, this head was bloated and obese, with some Western facial features. The eyes were squeezed into slits by the fat. The only similarity was that this head also had many disgusting tumors growing on it.

The White Shop always has the same Fat Merchant, but the Black Shop keeps changing its owner?

"Guests?" a bloated head uttered in a shrill voice. "Why do you all smell so bad?"

"Stinky? After staying in this godforsaken place for over twenty days without being able to shower or change clothes, it's hard not to smell..." Luo Jun tilted his head and sniffed himself, finding it alright.

The enhanced attributes weren't just about being stronger and having sharper senses. Luo Jun could feel that his body had undergone some kind of fundamental change, and even the operating principles of various physiological functions were different from before, such as his metabolic capacity.

At least now, Luo Jun almost never sweats and hardly emits any body odor. This is partly because his current physical fitness level is far from requiring exercise that would dissipate heat, and partly because reducing body odor makes it easier to hide himself, which can be considered a kind of evolution in a sense.

"Not that kind, it's the kind of stench I find most disgusting!"

As he spoke, his bloated head peeked out and saw the Unicorn Rhinoceros not far behind the two of them, along with the Ling Jian on its back.

"The source of the stench!" Upon seeing Ling Jian, the bloated head's expression suddenly turned incredibly ferocious. He went berserk, suddenly smashing open the door and revealing his massive, hand-like body!

Luo Jun then saw its full appearance. Unlike the previous withered head that was on the middle finger, this monster's head was on the little finger. It had a chubby head and a thin neck, which looked somewhat incongruous.

The monster suddenly rushed out the door, catching the master and apprentice completely off guard. Realizing something was wrong, the two hurriedly retreated. The monster then opened its large hand, revealing a gaping maw with fangs and a thick, long tongue covered in slime shooting out, aiming straight for the Ling Jian on the back of the Unicorn Rhinoceros!

At the critical moment, Old Yuan waved his hand, and with a whoosh, a blade formed from Gathering Origin Protective Qi severed the monster's tongue. Luo Jun, standing nearby, even took out Gold Ingot, attempting to negotiate with the monster. However, the monster seemed to have lost its mind and was completely uncommunicative. After its tongue was severed, its entire body began to mutate. Countless tentacles and Bone Spur split off from its five fingers, growing larger and larger, constantly proliferating into a huge, disgusting mass of tissue that almost instantly filled the entire passageway and continued to expand!

At this moment, the others guarding the intersection also noticed the unusual commotion. They rushed in and were startled to see the terrifying monster. They all took out various weapons to attack, but whether it was bullets or spiritual energy, they could only shatter a limited amount of flesh and blood when they hit the monster, and could not stop its proliferation at all.

"Looks like I'll have to use some serious force..." Seeing the monster growing bigger and bigger, and possibly even bursting out of the intersection, Old Yuan frowned, put on his Eight Trigrams Finger Tiger, and prepared to unleash his Ultimate Move.

At this moment, Luo Jun suddenly pulled him, raised his hand and took out a magic wand, and waved it at the foot of the ground. A wall appeared out of thin air and blocked everyone's way!

It was that item that generated the wall; with this treasure, we completely sealed the monsters and the Black Shop into Dead Alley!

"What was that just now? What happened?" Although the monster had been sealed away, everyone was still shaken. "Where did that monster come from? Does the Black Shop have something so terrifying?"

"That's the Big Hand Merchant we mentioned before," Old Yuan said. "We could communicate with him before, but who would have thought that after seeing Ling Jian, he suddenly went berserk and attacked like that, eventually turning into that monster."

"He went mad after Ling Jian?" Mao Xintong asked in surprise. "Why? Shouldn't the shop also contain Chaos Creature? Why are they killing each other?"

"They shouldn't be working together..." Luo Jun frowned. "I should have realized this sooner. If they were our compatriots, why would the Black Shop collect Gold Ingot and encourage us to hunt those monsters? This makes sense; the Black Shop and those monsters are enemies!"

"The Black Shop are hostile to the monsters, does that mean the normal shops are on the same side as the monsters? That's why they don't want Gold Ingot?" Ma Qiao said.

"That doesn't make sense either." Mao Xintong shook her head. "If they're in cahoots with the monsters, they shouldn't have led us to the Black Shop ..."

"It seems there are Three Factions in this maze..." Old Yuan analyzed, "The Black Shop and the Chaos Monster are hostile to each other, while the White Shop is completely neutral and has no dealings with either side."

"That's why the merchant from the White Shop said that carrying Gold Ingot would prevent us from being attacked," Luo Jun said. "Because Gold Ingot signify that we killed their enemies, so naturally we should treat them well!"

"But if we bring Ling Jian with us, won't we be unable to enter the Black Shop?" Zhuge Zi looked at Ling Jian, who was still unconscious.

"Not necessarily." Luo Jun shook his head. "Black Shop are a little different from White Shop. The owners of Black Shop aren't always the same person, and judging from the reaction of that shop owner just now, he didn't recognize us... Therefore, if we go to a new Black Shop without Ling Jian, maybe we'll be fine."

"What if we get attacked again?" Sun Xiaowei asked worriedly.

"Then I can just build another wall." Luo Jun shook his head. "But I believe that if they've only come into contact with Chaos Creature, they won't be attacked. After all, the Black Shop still wants Gold Ingot."

As he spoke, he glanced at the still-functioning map. "Next, we'd better find the next Black Shop before the map expires!"

(End of this chapter)