Madman or Genius?

As for jewelry, he hadn't bought any—the depreciation was too severe.

Those were commemorative gold bars the bank pushed to clients with net deposits over a million.

Back then, it was 400 yuan per gram, and he'd bought two kilograms—two kilos' worth.

Now he needed to confirm whether one gold coin in the game equaled how many grams of real gold.

He got out of bed, pretending to look for something to eat, and ambled his way to the kitchen.

Yes, his gold was hidden in the kitchen, not in a safe.

The safe held cash.

He reached the kitchen, opened the fridge, and found a golden ham. Two kilograms of gold was actually very small in volume—about the size of three standard ping-pong balls.

The gold was hidden inside the ham, which was starting to go bad.

Even a thief wouldn't eat it.

Then, with a thought, he collected all the gold into his Game Backpack.

Immediately, the system prompted: [Top up?]

[Top up]

[Ding! Congratulations, player, on successfully topping up 2000 gold. You have received the First Charge Gift Pack, recharge rewards, a Purple Talent, and Noble Privilege!]

[You have received 20,000 Skyfall Stones.]

[You have received 60+6 First Charge Skyfall Stones. You can claim the First Charge Gift Pack for 3 consecutive days. Logging in on the third day will grant an exclusive limited-edition Purple Pet!]

[You have obtained the Purple, growable talent "Absolute Dodge" (Beginner), granting a 5% chance to dodge all damage, including physical and mental damage. Accumulating 6480 gold in total recharges will upgrade it to Intermediate, increasing the dodge chance to 7.5%!]

[You have grown to Noble 5, enjoying privileges: Force Quit only deducts 10% experience, +50% experience from killing monsters, +50% pet breakthrough chance, danger warnings on the Minimap 5 minutes in advance, and one free death penalty exemption per day.]

So one gold coin in the game equaled one gram of real gold.

Damn, he had to top up, top up, top up right now!

Gao Linzhi was instantly hooked.

But reason told him he couldn't top up anymore.

Because there was no more gold at home.

And going out to buy more was too risky.

Xu Corporation's people were still watching him from outside.

He had four million in savings on hand, but if he moved a large amount, the company would definitely detect the account change.

If he were fearless, he could buy a full ten thousand grams.

Originally, he could have topped up another ten thousand gold.

But now, he had to consider safety. Even with money, he couldn't go out and spend it.

He had to get stronger immediately—only then could he safely use his real-world funds!

Buy all three pets outright!

Then buy a full set of Green Quality equipment!

After that, Gao Linzhi pretended to go to the bathroom and slipped into the master bedroom's restroom.

[Purchase pets Corpse Vine, Gray Wolf, Brown Bear, and store them in the Game Backpack.]

[Ding! The player is only level 1 and can only purchase one pet. Please choose which one to buy.]

[Corpse Vine.]

[Ding! Congratulations, player, on successfully spending 6480 Skyfall Stones to purchase the pet Corpse Vine. The pet has been sent to your Game Backpack and can be summoned into the game or the real world at any time.]

Gao Linzhi breathed a sigh of relief.

He checked the Corpse Vine's stat panel.

[Constitution: 25]

[Spirit: 2]

[Level 1 (Green Quality, max level 10)]

Sure enough, it was much tougher than a human. No wonder—it was a plant with Green Quality.

Next, he bought the Green Quality equipment set for 328 Skyfall Stones.

[You have spent 328 Skyfall Stones and obtained the Green Helmet, Green Armor, Green Gloves, and Green Boots.]

[You have obtained a Green Weapon Free Choice Chest.]

After a round of spending, He still had 13,258 Skyfall Stones left.

He immediately equipped everything and summoned the Corpse Vine.

Now, covered head to toe in green, he suddenly felt a surge of security.

But this was just too flashy.

[Hide the set effect?]

[Yes.]

The game set quickly vanished, but the protective effect was clearly still active.

Gao Linzhi sensed it with perfect clarity.

There was also a green vine with a ferocious maw coiled inside the bathroom.

But Gao Linzhi wasn't afraid, because it felt like an extension of his own body.

Then he opened the equipment treasure chest and chose a bow and a quiver of arrows.

[A quiver holds 30 arrows. Can be refilled by paying 1 Skyfall Stone.]

Rip-off. A real rip-off.

Still, as long as you had money, that meant unlimited ammo—that was impressive.

Then he put away his pet, went back to bed, and logged in again.

The moment he logged in, the familiar scene appeared before him.

Towering trees, shrubs, thick undergrowth.

Before he could even adjust, a volley of javelins came flying in.

Though Gao Linzhi had been on guard, his body simply couldn't react in time.

He was instantly skewered like a hedgehog!

A burst of raucous laughter rang out.

"Hahaha, what an impatient fool!"

"Yeah, we thought he'd at least wait a few weeks before showing up cautiously."

"Who'd have guessed he'd be back in less than an hour!"

"Too bad the game pass he dropped is gone—who knows who got lucky."

Gao Linzhi looked up and saw the cavalrymen from before emerging from the bushes, javelins and ropes in hand, walking toward him.

In their eyes, he was clearly already a dead man.

Yet the next moment, Gao Linzhi realized he hadn't lost any HP!

[HP: 50 (Constitution x10)]

He understood instantly—this was the effect of the green equipment!

Spending money had its perks!

The enemy's javelins were all Whiteboard Weapons, possibly not even recognized by the game system.

Under these circumstances, failing to break defense was only normal.

Gao Linzhi then grabbed his bow and shot an arrow at the cavalryman laughing the loudest.

The arrow flew a few dozen paces and fell weakly to the ground.

Not only did it fall short, it missed entirely!

Damn, how embarrassing.

Sure enough, trying to show off and save face wasn't that easy.

But the cavalrymen were already stunned.

"Impossible, he took at least a dozen javelins and can still fight back?"

"Could his talent be retaining one last point of HP?" someone else guessed.

"One more volley—I don't believe we can't kill him!"

"Where did he get a bow?"

The Cavalry Leader immediately shouted.

Then another dozen javelins came flying in.

Many cavalrymen quickly threw four or five, so dense that Gao Linzhi had nowhere to dodge.

He turned into a hedgehog again.

[The "Absolute Dodge" talent triggered. You are exempt from this damage.]

Gao Linzhi relied on the 5% Absolute Dodge chance to evade one javelin—better than nothing.

Clearly, the game was pushing him to spend more.

Then he fired another arrow, still missing by a wide margin.

Just then, a game prompt suddenly appeared:

[Detected player's combat posture. Though handsome and elegant, none of your attacks hit.]

[Recharge 2000 gold to increase noble experience to 4000, reaching Noble 6. Unlock basic auto-mode, capable of handling three targets simultaneously. Become a skilled operator in no time!]

[Cumulative recharge of 10,000 gold increases noble experience by 10,000, reaching Noble 7. Unlock intermediate auto-mode, capable of handling ten targets simultaneously. Instantly become a combat master!]