The moment news of this astronomical transaction broke, it stunned not only the players who lived on the forums, but also those across the various instance cities who were busy working or clearing one instance after another.
The news immediately sparked widespread discussion among everyone.
Yet Che Quan, whom everyone considered the biggest beneficiary, wore a cold, displeased expression.
Sitting on the soft, comfortable bed in pitch darkness, he asked the human customer service representative icily, "Who owns the land this Little Courtyard is built on?"
The representative immediately replied with enthusiasm, "Dear guest, the boss of our Ravine North Courtyard is named Jiang Cong, player code 001. You can verify his security information at the Player Reception Center~"
Che Quan's fangs began to itch despite himself. "..."
Of course.
Now thoroughly awake, Che Quan looked at the 36.8 million auction points credited to his account-the amount remaining from forty million after fees-and the 1.57 million points converted from the auction room's various engagement metrics.
If that 36.8 million hadn't matched the price of this house exactly, he would have made a hefty contribution to that bastard Jiang Cong's sales figures, wouldn't he?
Or had Jiang Cong calculated that number ahead of time and deliberately let him find out?
No matter how he looked at it, there was nothing about this that could put him in a good mood.
After a moment of silence, Che Quan got straight up, spent a little money at the Points Shop on a new set of clothes, changed into them, and bought some food to fill his stomach.
Then he prepared to leave this stupid Ravine North Courtyard without looking back.
Let Jiang Cong be the sucker.
I'm not using this money to buy a house from him.
Che Quan thought coldly.
But he had barely walked away from the house when his player account's private inbox alerted him to a friend request.
Che Quan had already set his account to reject all messages, but Jiang Cong had spent a hundred thousand points to bypass that restriction.
When Che Quan noticed it, he couldn't even be bothered to read it. He simply hit delete and kept walking.
Then his inbox filled with one friend request after another, all from Jiang Cong.
Just how many points does this Jiang Cong have?
These forcibly delivered friend requests didn't cost a fixed hundred thousand points each. Every new request cost a hundred thousand more than the previous one.
Che Quan could barely delete them fast enough.
His expression grew increasingly dark.
Who knew how many points Jiang Cong had burned through with this stunt? He was throwing them away as though they meant nothing.
Finally, thoroughly irritated, Che Quan stopped and opened Jiang Cong's request.
[The house is yours. Stay.]
The next one.
[Name your price. How much would it take for you to stay?]
And the next.
[There's nowhere else in the instance city that would meet your standards.]
And another.
[You promised me one condition before. Stay here.]
Fed up with the barrage of messages, Che Quan finally accepted the friend request, then blocked Jiang Cong within a second, before he could react.
If Jiang Cong could still harass him by throwing points around after this, he really would have to commend the game for being idiotic and corrupt.
Standing outside Little Courtyard, Che Quan happened to catch a faint trace of Jiang Cong's scent again.
He couldn't help pondering it.
If Jiang Cong is nearby, why doesn't he just show himself so I can beat him up and vent my anger?
He thought as he walked, and the scent gradually faded with the distance until it disappeared.
From higher ground, Che Quan glanced over the northern instance city sprawling below him. The entire landscape was unfamiliar.
A trace of aimless melancholy swept through his heart.
But it lasted only an instant.
In the next moment, he heard a notification from the Instance System.
[Attention, Player 002, Che Quan. Attention, Player 002, Che Quan! You will enter your next instance in ten minutes. Please prepare yourself. Skipping this instance requires a payment of one hundred million points.]
Naturally, Che Quan couldn't afford to skip it.
His entire fortune amounted to only around forty million points.
Besides, he had no intention of skipping it for now.
The unfamiliar, boring world outside the instances held no appeal for him. Even those stupid instances were more interesting.
Ten minutes later.
Che Quan entered the instance right where he stood.
The cyberpunk city before him, bathed in fine weather and sunshine, vanished in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, Che Quan arrived in an entirely new setting.
He slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a clean but aging Chinese-style stairwell.
Looking up, Che Quan saw that the paint on the stairwell walls had begun to peel and fade, showing the building's age.
Unlike the dark, sinister surroundings of the [Haunting] instance, warm sunlight streamed through the stairwell windows, bathing the old space in a cozy glow without the slightest eerie atmosphere.
Che Quan couldn't help taking another look.
He raised an eyebrow slightly. Is this really an escape instance?
As if in answer to his confusion, a piercing scream suddenly rang out downstairs.
Che Quan frowned in displeasure, rubbed his ears, and slowly descended to the first floor to see what had happened.
As he walked, Che Quan gradually sensed something strange about his body again-
He seemed to have become much weaker.
Not in terms of his abilities, but physically.
His body felt slightly drained of strength, and he needed to rest for a few seconds after every few steps. This constitution was completely different from his usual one.
Che Quan had a bad feeling.
Since he had turned off the live comments, Che Quan didn't see the screen filling with-
[So beautiful, oh my god, waaah. Our little beauty is as breathtaking as ever. I hereby declare black hair and red eyes the ultimate combo.]
[Is he a sickly little beauty this time? His skin looks even paler and more translucent than before. So gorgeous, like a crystal porcelain doll.]
[Aaaaah, I'm going crazy. I want to take over Boss Jiang Cong's body so badly. The little beauty looks so fragile and icy right now, it's so mesmerizing I desperately want to climb through the screen and *****.]
[Hey, hey, what kind of filthy stuff did the person above post to get censored that badly?]
[Speaking of which, Boss Jiang Cong recently entered an instance too. The Instance System announced it above every instance city. We just don't know whether he and the little beauty entered the same one.]
Inside the instance.
Che Quan had just made his slow way onto the stairs leading to the first floor when he saw a huge pool of blood outside the building's entrance. It looked as though someone had deliberately splashed it across the doorway. There was a horrifying amount, and the intense smell of blood hit him head-on.
Judging by the scent, it was human blood.
Yet there was no body in sight.
Beside the enormous pool stood a girl with glasses and long, straight hair, clutching some books. She had hunched her neck like a quail and was trembling all over. She was probably the one who had screamed.
Che Quan glanced at her, unsure whether she was a player or an "instance native."
So he didn't speak right away.
Just then, a police car's siren suddenly sounded nearby. Che Quan looked over-
The police car stopped, and two officers stepped out, one tall and one short. The tall one was as thin as a bamboo pole, while the short one was as round as a ball. Both wore grave, solemn expressions as they walked straight toward them.
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