Golden City... The Mastermind

He immediately perked up, and his cannon-like mouth began swiveling left and right as he curiously surveyed the surroundings—his new friends Oxygen Algae and Starfruit, as well as his old friends... Puff-shroom, Cattail Cat, Chomper, and Toadstool...

"Bloop?"

Peashooter called out to Starfruit, as if greeting it.

Starfruit... slightly increased its spinning speed and sprinkled out a golden star that gently touched it.

Sixth row, second column—

All 175 sun was poured into this spot... and Magic-shroom made its entrance.

The planting plot lit up, and a mushroom in a black tuxedo emerged from the radiance.

Magic-shroom's cap... looked like a top hat worn at a crooked angle.

Its slender, straight stalk was tied in the middle with a red magician's bow tie, making it look quite dashing.

But this gentleman was anything but composed at the moment.

The instant Magic-shroom landed, there was a submarine right beneath its feet... Outside, the seawater was as black as ink, while the ghastly pale glow of the sea illuminated Magic-shroom's suddenly changing face.

Magic-shroom: Σ(°△°|||)

Its stalk stiffened, and the entire mushroom seemed nailed to the spot.

On instinct, it shifted its center of gravity toward its cap, desperately trying to stay as far away from 6-1 as possible, terrified of falling.

(Magic-shroom: It's not just heights I'm afraid of... I'm afraid of depths too...)

"Hahaha—"

Lin Yue leaned against the control console and couldn't help laughing at Magic-shroom's expression of utter alarm.

The war god of the old era was actually afraid of water.

"You're afraid of water too, little guy?"

Magic-shroom glanced at Lin Yue, its little face beneath the cap filled with grievance.

A huge bead of sweat hung from the edge of its cap, sparkling as it trembled on the verge of falling.

Magic-shroom: (◎﹏◎)

(Who's afraid? Mushrooms aren't afraid of water! I'm just... just not used to it! Right, it's an adaptation issue!)

Magic-shroom tried hard to look calm, but every time it glanced at the deep sea outside the observation window, its stalk involuntarily shrank upward.

After quite a while, Magic-shroom finally managed to adapt to the underwater environment.

It still didn't dare bounce around like it did on land—in the past, it had taken three bounding steps with every hop, but now it moved with extreme caution, probing the ground with one foot before every step.

(Magic-shroom: If I jump... won't the seawater wash me away?)

(Magic-shroom: It's fine. I'm the best "mushroom.")

While Magic-shroom was still giving itself a pep talk... Lin Yue had already finished editing its passive ability.

[Passive—Gambler—Judgment Successful]

Lin Yue trembled with excitement and immediately opened Magic-shroom's status panel.

The passive ability section had been blank before, but now text was appearing line by line, and it was even rather complicated.

[Gambler]

[Effect: Whenever Magic-shroom attacks, it randomly draws one card from a deck of playing cards. After drawing four cards in total, it summons different types of Zombies to assist in battle based on the sum of the four cards' numbers and their combination.]

[Judgment Rules—]

[The sum of the numbers on the four cards is less than 18, and there is no special combination: The effect does not activate, and the card draw for this round is void.]

[Special Combination One: Pair—Any two cards have the same number. Triggered effect: Energy +1, taking effect immediately.]

[Special Combination Two: Straight—The numbers on all four cards are consecutive. Triggered effect: The number of Zombies summoned increases by 1.]

[Special Combination Three: Four of a Kind—All four cards have the same number. Triggered effect: Summons one Gargantuar.]

[Special Combination Four: Small Joker + Big Joker—Both must appear at the same time. A single one is ineffective. When both appear together, the triggered effect is: Summons two Gargantuars and two Football Zombies.]

Lin Yue read through the entries line by line, and his eyes grew brighter with each one.

Although the system had added a safeguard... if the four cards totaled less than 18 and had no special combination, the effect would fail that time.

But... Lin Yue didn't believe Magic-shroom could be that unlucky.

The design of this passive skill was simply brilliant. It wasn't merely a powerful ability; it carried an element of gambling.

This was... the result of Lin Yue's days of painstaking thought.

Simply increasing the number of ultimate attacks or adding mobility... could never create an overwhelming advantage...

On the other hand... the greater the demand... the higher the upper limit.

The result of four draws was completely random. With good luck, it could unleash a royal bomb and clear the field in one go; with bad luck, it might fail to meet the activation conditions for several rounds in a row.

But it was precisely this uncertainty that made Magic-shroom's upper limit terrifyingly high.

At the instant the passive judgment succeeded, Magic-shroom, which had still been afraid of the seawater, suddenly shuddered.

It seemed to have realized something?

Magic-shroom's stalk straightened, its cap settled neatly atop its head, and its red magician's bow tie fluttered faintly in the current.

At the same time... the playing cards that normally appeared only when it attacked were now spinning around it.

Magic-shroom tilted its head, straightened its black mushroom hat, and tidied the red bow at its collar.

Its eyes shone. It was no longer the lively mischievous light it had possessed on land, but the calm arrogance of a gambler sitting down at the card table with a handful of winning cards.

Magic-shroom: Σ(￣△￣;)

(Heh... The bottom of the sea? What's a little water? Right now, I only want to say one thing—)

If Magic-shroom had never been born, the path of gambling would have been an eternal night.

Horizontal inscription—

"...I'm about to play a royal bomb!"

The Golden City Grand Bathhouse... The Mastermind

Reality, classroom...

The atmosphere in the classroom formed a stark contrast with the frigid darkness of the deep sea.

Yet at that moment, the students felt a strange sense of warmth, like survivors of a disaster finally returning home.

The students who had withdrawn from the activity sat in their seats in small groups. Some were drinking water, some were lying on their desks resting, and some were quietly sharing their experiences from the activity.

Although most of them looked exhausted, they were generally in decent condition. No one had been seriously injured, and no one was missing.

"Supervisor Luo is out."

Someone spoke, and several people simultaneously turned their eyes toward a corner at the front of the classroom.

Luo Chen had appeared there at some point.

He was leaning against the back of a chair, his complexion rather poor, his lips slightly pale. Damp strands of hair clung to his forehead, soaked through with sweat.

He seemed to have encountered some situation he couldn't handle...

"Big Brother Luo gave up too." A girl sitting in the front row whispered, her voice tinged with surprise.

In Happy Residential Community, everyone had always regarded Luo Chen as their backbone during this period.

He was a supervisor, kind to others... and had been everyone's role model back in high school.

Many people had even guessed that Luo Chen had awakened a talent.

So when everyone saw him in this state, they felt more or less uneasy—if even Luo Chen couldn't hold out, just how difficult had this activity been?

Luo Chen said nothing. He merely... nodded at the students, confirming it.

His fingers unconsciously rubbed a scratch on the desktop, while his mind replayed the final scene of the activity.

He had encountered a Tier Two Zombie.

Luo Chen's talent... had instead become a burden.

(Talent: Risk Hedging... The greater the risk, the better your luck in the time that follows.)

The one thing Luo Chen had never expected was that... once he entered the activity, his talent would activate automatically...

Just then, a rough voice exploded from the front row, shattering the classroom's brief silence.

"Why?!"

Everyone's attention was drawn over.

Wang Yihang stood beside the podium, drenched from head to toe, as if he had just crawled out of a water tank.

His face was flushed red, the veins on his forehead bulging. He slammed one hand onto the podium so hard that even the chalk box bounced.

"The Zombie I encountered—a Tier Three? Tier Three! Does the system discriminate based on who it's dealing with?

"I'm Tier Three... fine, but you assigned me a Tier Three Zombie? I haven't even broken through for a month... damn it!"

The more he spoke, the more agitated he became, until flecks of spit flew from his mouth.

"My poor Squash—I'd only just planted it, and before it could even show what it was capable of, that Tier Three Zombie charged over and bit it to shreds! It nearly got skinned alive!"

By the time Wang Yihang reached this point, his eyes had actually reddened.

He truly felt sorry for his Squash.

Squash had taken a great deal of resources to cultivate and was the main damage dealer in his lineup. Even one bite was painful enough.

If he hadn't... retreated in time, Squash would have been chewed raw.

The students in the class looked at their homeroom teacher like this and wanted to laugh, but didn't dare.

They had originally thought their homeroom teacher was a serious sort... but now it seemed he was a complete goofball!!!

Seeing their homeroom teacher genuinely grow teary-eyed over a single Squash somehow made them feel both a little sad and a little amused.

Luo Chen didn't laugh along. His gaze slowly swept across the entire classroom.

He looked at face after face. Most people were there.

A few had suffered minor injuries, but nothing serious.

No one had died. That result alone was a blessing.

But—after counting, he found that four people still hadn't returned from the activity.

Lin Yue, Bai Qingfeng, Zhao Lei, and Passerby A.

The seats of all four were empty.

As one of the first residents of Happy Residential Community, Luo Chen had originally thought he was the leader.

Now it seemed... these four were stronger than he was.

For the first time in the activity, he had experienced true powerlessness. It wasn't merely that there hadn't been enough sun, nor merely that the Zombies had been too strong. Rather, he had discovered that he fundamentally lacked something—luck.

"It looks like it's time to take on some low-level missions." Luo Chen told himself.

He needed more actual combat, more resources, and more tempering.

Luo Chen... wanted to become more worthy of his position as supervisor. After all, when the time came... he would have to rely on himself for the community's Zombie battlefield mode.

(War Mode: The supervisor controls the plant deployment across the entire community... and possesses top-level mobilization authority.)

First Federation—the Golden City Grand Bathhouse.

Steam billowed above the enormous bath, hot mist roiling and blurring the gilded patterns embedded in the ceiling into a hazy halo of light.

The edge of the bath was paved with milky-white natural marble. After years of immersion in the hot spring water, its surface had grown as smooth and warm as jade.

A man soaked in the pool, his long golden hair plastered wetly against the back of his head, revealing an old knife scar at his temple.

Leaning against the side of the pool, he rested one arm on its edge and held a crystal wineglass in his hand. Amber-colored liquor sloshed inside, its alcoholic scent intensified by the steam.

A subordinate in a black uniform stood beside the bath. His posture was respectful, but he couldn't conceal the schadenfreude on his face.