No More Laughing

With ten minutes left before the start of the second main quest, the alarm the fatty had set in advance went off.

Startled, he gave a violent jerk, tumbled off the side of the table with a thud, and scrambled back up while clutching his backside, only to see the great Ye still sitting in the same posture as the night before, completely motionless.

"Grandpa Ye, you spent the whole night pulling for loot..."

The fatty's question was cut short when he noticed the look on the other man's face, and he hurriedly changed his tone in a panic, "You, what's wrong with you?"

He followed the man's gaze and saw a pitch-black box containing a shard of a mirror. "...What is this?"

"Archmage Staff Fragment," Wen Nan said in a somewhat hoarse voice.

The fatty's eyes went wide; he looked as if he had seen a ghost—no, even seeing a real ghost yesterday hadn't shocked him to this degree.

"Th-th-th-this, is this really... really... a Golden Legend?!"

"Mm."

Wen Nan leaned forward, reached out to take the mirror shard, and held it in his palm.

Whether obtained from the shop or the gacha wheel, items and equipment usually didn't need to be handled physically; they could be sent directly into the system's built-in inventory.

But this time, Wen Nan decided to take it out by hand—who wouldn't want to feel the texture of a Golden Legend?

The touch was slick and icy cold; it didn't feel like a mirror shard at all, but rather like holding a block of ice.

The system's voice rang out in his mind—

[Archmage Staff Fragment:

The noble Archmage Aghanim is one of the three creator gods of this world. Before the fall of the Holy Ruins, his staff shattered into twelve pieces. He entrusted one fragment to his son, Rubick, who refined the fragment and imbued it with the Replication skill.

By using this equipment, the contestant can replicate any single skill, piece of equipment, or attribute from any map and make it their own, with no level restrictions.

The replicated skill, equipment, or attribute will be permanently effective.

This equipment can only be used once. After a single replication is completed, the Staff Fragment will disappear forever.]

[Accept?]

[Accept] [Decline] [Resell]

[Contestant detected touching the equipment; contact is considered acceptance.]

[Equipment has been bound to your account.]

[To retrieve the equipment, please shout the command at any time—Soul of Replication!]

Wen Nan: ...

Wait, does using this equipment really require shouting such a chuunibyou slogan? Couldn't he just notify the system in his mind?

"Staff Fragment! Soul of Replication!"

The fatty exclaimed in Wen Nan's ear.

Wen Nan: ...

This guy next to him didn't seem to find it embarrassing at all.

Wen Nan turned to look at him. "You know this?"

The fatty nodded like a pecking chicken. "An item this overpowered? Anyone who's read even a little bit of the game guides would know it. It definitely deserves the Golden Legend rank!"

After a moment of thought, the fatty couldn't help but feel a bit regretful. "But this is the novice trial map; there won't be any overpowered skills or attributes here for you to steal. If you were in a high-level or special-level map, you'd be invincible, Grandpa!"

Wen Nan: "...Is it really that exaggerated?"

The fatty waved his hand. "I'm definitely not exaggerating this time. Your replication is permanently effective, which means for those one-time or short-duration skill attributes, the version you replicate will be permanently active. That is just insanely broken.

"For example, I know that among those nine legendary big shots, one has a skill called Time Stop, but its duration is extremely short—only 0.5 seconds per use. If you used this Staff Fragment to replicate his Time Stop, you could keep this world in a state of permanent time stop!

"Tell me, is that invincible or what?"

As the fatty spoke, he patted his chest hard, looking proud as if he were the one who had achieved it.

"What's invincible?"

"Who's invincible?"

Huang Tao and Shao Ling climbed down from their beds one after the other. Hearing the fatty's words, they both looked toward Wen Nan, and upon seeing the fragment in his palm, they let out simultaneous gasps.

"Th-th-this, this couldn't be..."

"Staff Fragment?! Soul of Replication?!"

Wen Nan narrowed his eyes and looked up at the three of them—

So, was he the only one who didn't know what this was?

Wen Nan suddenly began to feel out of place for not having a strong enough sense of chuunibyou.

At that moment, the familiar "clang-clang-clang" alarm sounded overhead, accompanied by a blinding red light.

On the floating screen, scarlet numbers began to tick down—

[00:00:59--]

[00:00:58--]

[00:00:57--]

It was the final one-minute countdown before the start of Main Mission 2.

"Mommy!"

A shriek rang out by their ears.

Trapped in a horror survival game, the players were already on edge. Startled by the scream, the athlete Huang Tao leaped straight onto the bed, while Shao Ling, who wore glasses, lacked such agility and could only scramble under the table. Only Wen Nan remained standing where he was, his eyelids lowered as he looked at the fatty.

"What's wrong?" Wen Nan asked him.

The fatty only then realized his behavior was a bit inappropriate. He gave an awkward laugh and waved his hands at the two men on the bed and under the table. "Nothing, nothing. It just seemed like a cockroach flew by."

Huang Tao and Shao Ling looked speechless, grumbling as they returned to the floating light screen.

The fatty sidled up to Wen Nan and lowered his voice to ask, "Grandpa Ye, the items in my equipment backup slot... did you send them to me?"

So that was why? There was no need to scream so loudly...

Wen Nan shrugged and replied casually, "Yeah, I happened to have extras, so I just passed them on to you."

The fatty could hardly believe his own mind. He re-entered his equipment backup slot and saw his system notifications clearly—

Xiaoxiao: [Received items gifted by another player: Sleep Capsule x 10]

Xiaoxiao: [Received items gifted by another player: Nutrient Supplement x 10]

Xiaoxiao: [Received items gifted by another player: Safety Bubble x 10]

Xiaoxiao: [Received items gifted by another player: Attribute Trial Card x 4]

Xiaoxiao: [Accept?]

[Accept] [Decline] [Forward]

Looking at that row of gift notifications, the fatty's eyes welled up with tears.

He hadn't slept for a day and a night, and he was both hungry and exhausted. When he first woke up, he had been debating whether to buy a [Sleep Capsule] and a [Nutrient Supplement], but thinking of his pitiful account balance—which he needed to save for a [Safety Bubble] in case of an emergency—he couldn't bring himself to do it. He decided to endure it; after all, he had a thick layer of fat and could hold out.

But then...

Forget about the [Sleep Capsule] and [Nutrient Supplement], he now even had [Safety Bubble]s! And there were ten of them! A full ten! Mommy never has to worry about my butt again!

Happiness had arrived too suddenly; it felt just like a dream.

His Grandpa Ye was truly the God of Wealth himself!

Thinking of this, the fatty gazed at Wen Nan with deep affection, wishing he could transform into a mount-type female ghost the next second and let Wen Nan enslave him ruthlessly!

"My lord..."

The fatty was brimming with tears, but the moment he opened his mouth, he was interrupted by the prompt above his head.

[00:00:03--]

[00:00:02--]

[00:00:01--]

[Beep!]

[New player mission has arrived, please check it!]

Main Mission 2 had officially begun, and a new darkness unveiled its curtain; there was no more room for laughter.