"Emotional Intelligence," "Position," and "Favors"

After a brief discussion, the four of them settled on how to divide the spoils.

They would convert all the loot to its market value, then split it by percentage.

Winter and 108 had discovered the quest, so they would each get thirty percent. Mountain Dog and Evil God would each get twenty.

The quest had brought in 261 Void Abyss Coins in total. Winter took the exoskeleton; once she had the money, she would owe Evil God and Mountain Dog 27 Void Abyss Coins each.

Neither Mountain Dog nor Evil God objected. One was an assassin and the other was support, so neither had much use for an exoskeleton.

They had gained a whole level from killing one boss, plus 52 Void Abyss Coins each. It was already a huge haul.

Besides, both of them could tell that the follow-up quests from Gheros would be lucrative.

The boss was clearly close to Winter now.

They wanted a share of whatever came next.

Mountain Dog bought the last item, a treacherous little sawed-off shotgun, for 10 Void Abyss Coins. With that, the division of spoils ended on a happy note.

At noon, Su Yi returned to the company.

Ordinarily, the low-level enforcers were not at the office during the day.

The entire place was empty now, giving it a desolate air.

Clearly, word of Mad Dog's death had not arrived yet.

As Su Yi reached the second floor, he heard Aolong talking on the phone through the flimsy office door.

"I envy you. Your men know how to look after you. They bring in extra money and take you out to have fun."

"Not mine. Mad Dog lives up to his name. All he knows how to do is drink and beat people up."

"All right, I'll let you get back to it!"

Aolong hung up, envy still in his voice, then cursed.

"Damn Mad Dog. He brings me nothing, and now I've lost another 5 Void Abyss Coins from this month's pay!"

Hearing his furious complaint, Su Yi smiled.

Then he knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Su Yi walked in with a smile. "Hello, boss!"

Aolong turned slightly to look at him. "I remember you. You're the one who found the chairman's daughter, right?"

Someone at Aolong's level had no access to the details of what had happened.

Su Yi smiled and nodded. "That's right, boss."

Aolong looked Su Yi over. The young man was handsome, and far more pleasant to look at than Mad Dog.

"What do you want? Out with it."

Smiling, Su Yi pulled 50 Void Abyss Coins from his pocket and handed them over.

"Hm!?" Aolong's eyes lit up.

He immediately sat up straight.

"What's this supposed to mean?" Aolong asked, forcing down the greed in his eyes.

After all, his monthly salary was only 40 Void Abyss Coins, and performance deductions often took a bite out of it.

"I couldn't afford to before," Su Yi said with a smile. "But I recently came into a little money. You work so hard, boss, and Mad Dog only gives you grief, so I wanted to show my appreciation."

The gesture pleased Aolong immensely. He pocketed the money with a delighted expression. "Not bad. You've got a lot more sense than that damned Mad Dog."

"I remember you're capable. Tell me, what do you need?"

"Nothing," Su Yi said with a smile. "I just booked a private room at the Cloudmist Nightclub on Rust Street."

"The girls there want to meet an important man from the company."

"Hm!??"

Aolong sprang to attention—in every sense.

The Cloudmist Nightclub was expensive. He had heard a visit cost at least 30 Void Abyss Coins.

Of course, the price meant the girls were high quality too.

He had heard they were all around twenty, without a single mechanical implant between them. Completely natural.

Aolong had been here for months, and the frustration had been eating at him.

The cheap places didn't appeal to him, and he couldn't afford the expensive ones.

He hurried around his desk, his eyes burning as he looked at Su Yi.

This handsome young employee was looking better to him by the second.

"As it happens, I do have time."

Cloudmist Nightclub, private room four.

Deafening music pounded as dazzling lights flashed overhead.

Drinks and snacks had already been ordered, and three pretty young women were waiting.

Aolong stared at their revealing outfits, unable to take his eyes off them.

"Gheros... No, Su Yi, my dear Su Yi. This place is... enormous!"

"It certainly is," Su Yi said with a smile. "Enjoy yourself, boss. Don't worry about the money."

He turned and handed each of the three women 10 Void Abyss Coins. "Ladies, take good care of my honored guest, all right?"

The three women looked at the bills pressed against their chests, smiling brightly. "Don't worry, sir~~~"

The drinks, room, and extra spending came to 60 Void Abyss Coins.

To Su Yi, it was worth it.

Beside him, Aolong's eyes were already bloodshot, and he was breathing hard.

Su Yi smiled, closed the door behind him, and left the nightclub. He bought a cigarette from a vending machine for half a coin, lit it, and took a deep drag.

"Cough, cough. So much for a half-coin cigarette."

Compared with alcohol, cigarettes were something of a luxury here.

In the past, he would never have dared buy such an extravagant ready-made cigarette.

As he smoked, Su Yi ignored the flirtatious glances of the heavily made-up women around him.

He had no interest in them. His target now was Ilis, far above his station.

Su Yi had no intention of wasting the time, either. Aolong would probably be occupied for at least two or three hours, so Su Yi headed for a skill shop he remembered.

In this game, skills could be bought and sold.

Put simply, skills were like apps on a phone.

Inject flow into a skill, and it would produce various effects.

Each time a Void Abyss Projection gained a level, it could install one more skill.

It could hold ten at most.

The so-called skill shops were branches of the various churches.

If the gods were mobile carriers, the sects and organizations that worshipped them were app developers.

Skills could be developed by various scientists, or unearthed in the Void Abyss from traces the gods had left behind.

Like equipment, skills were ranked by effect and power across seven grades, from lowest to highest: D, C, B, A, S, SS, and SSS.

Even followers of different gods could learn the same skill, provided those gods' domains overlapped.

At present, four faiths dominated Rhode Star:

The White Frost Church's Goddess of White Frost mainly offered various ice abilities and short-range teleportation spells;

The Hand of the Loving Father's Loving Father of Light mainly offered various healing and poisoning abilities;

The Sisters of Delight worshipped the Twins of Pleasure and offered a range of mental and physical spells;

The Black Sun Corporation's Goddess of Black Cinders offered abilities tied to fire, darkness, and fertility.

This shop was a covert branch of the Sisters of Delight.

On Rhode Star, the Sisters of Delight had been classified as a cult for many years.

Hunting Ecstasy Witches was the one thing the Rhodes Alliance and the Black Sun Group had agreed on in all that time.

Su Yi's goal this time was an unremarkable basic D-grade skill: Self-Gratification.

It was a ridiculous skill with a simple effect:

Reward yourself once a day to gain one point of temporary maximum flow.

Almost no players used such a ridiculous skill.

There was too much to do in a groundbreaking game like this. Players weren't about to spend every day rewarding themselves.

But when version 0.5 launched and the "Hunt of Pleasure" expansion began, players discovered how terrifying the pleasure build could be.

But to play this build, they needed a max-level Self-Gratification skill.

It was one of the few skills that could level up through practice.

It had five levels in all, gaining one level for every month of uninterrupted daily rewards.

And leveling it was only the entry requirement. Doing so unlocked more NPCs associated with pleasure and let players learn other crucial skills.

After version 0.5, however, the pleasure faction turned completely hostile, making it impossible for players to learn the skill.

It was not until the version 2.0 expansion, "Ascension of the Twins," that players learned this crucial ability from another organization devoted to the Twins of Pleasure: the "Gospel of the Twins."

The pleasure build's skills were nasty and hard to deal with. Self-pleasure could greatly boost the user's attributes.

It could also exploit an enemy's pleasure to inflict all kinds of debuffs.

Because the domain of pleasure overlapped with the Goddess of Black Cinders' domain of fertility, a famous solo player known as the Reward Envoy later developed the "Adult-Film Corruption Build."

By embedding a pleasure virus in adult films, then hiding eggs of the Ember Offspring within the virus, the Reward Envoy achieved something extraordinary.

Using this method, the Reward Envoy single-handedly dealt with every cultist on an entire planet in six months, turning them into fleshy masses capable of nothing but reproduction.

The Reward Envoy became that version's unrivaled top scorer.

Su Yi was destined to become a company employee, and the Goddess of Black Cinders' blessing was close at hand.

Once he obtained the pleasure skill, he would have the strongest build currently within his reach.