The instant Lu Fang saw the change in the skill description, his eyes blazed with wild delight.
"The inheritance ratio increased?"
Originally, it had been 100% inheritance: however high Lu Fang's attributes were, the Money Ghosts' attributes would be just as high.
Now it had become 150%!
This meant the Money Ghosts' attributes would directly exceed Lu Fang's own by half.
Lu Fang stood on the shattered Asura Ancient Battlefield, surrounded by gradually dissipating blood-red mist.
The dungeon settlement was complete. It was time to leave.
He glanced at the ten golden demon gods loyally guarding him.
"Return."
Lu Fang willed it with a thought.
The ten Money Ghosts, which had stood like iron towers, instantly became ten streaks of light and slipped back into Lu Fang's body without obstruction.
This was a hidden feature of the [Money Can Make Ghosts Turn the Millstone] skill: as long as the summons were alive, they could be recalled at any time.
Once recalled, summoning them again would cost no additional gold coins, making them truly available at his beck and call.
As the Money Ghosts vanished, a white pillar of teleportation light descended from the sky, enveloping Lu Fang with pinpoint accuracy.
The next second, his figure disappeared from this death-filled inferno.
Jiangcheng No. 1 High School, gymnasium.
The venue had briefly fallen still because of Lu Fang's wildly climbing floor count on the light screen. Now, the air seemed to have completely solidified, becoming thick and heavy.
Everyone-the principal, vice principal, dean, homeroom teachers, and staff present-had their eyes fixed on the teleportation array engraved with intricate runes in the center of the venue.
Just a minute earlier, the number representing progress beside Lu Fang's name on the light screen had been jumping wildly, finally stopping at a number that left everyone breathless: floor 15.
Now, a word had finally appeared after that number: cleared.
Immediately afterward, the teleportation array began to hum, and brilliant light shot into the sky.
Hum!
The light receded like a tide, slowly revealing Lu Fang's figure.
His hands rested casually in the pockets of his blue-and-white school uniform trousers, his expression as calm as still water, without the slightest ripple in his deep eyes.
Most unbelievable of all, not even a speck of dust had settled on him. His clothes hung neatly, without a single crease to be found.
With that leisurely air, he looked nothing like someone who had just braved a deadly lair with almost no chance of survival. He looked more like he had just gone downstairs to buy a bottle of water from the convenience store and taken a stroll on the way back.
The entire venue was silent.
There was something eerie about that silence; they could probably have heard a pin drop.
Dozens of pairs of eyes stared straight at Lu Fang as though he were an unknown creature from outer space, filled with bewilderment, terror, blankness, and profound doubt about everything they knew.
The dean responsible for recording the data clenched a specially made timer so tightly that his knuckles had turned white, his fingers trembling violently.
He lowered his head to glance at the frozen time on the timer. His pupils instantly contracted to pinpoints, and he froze in place as though struck by lightning.
He opened his mouth, his throat seemingly blocked by a wad of cotton. His voice came out dry and hoarse, with an obvious tremor, yet he only dared whisper loud enough for the principal beside him to hear.
"P-Principal..."
"Th-this time..."
The principal could no longer bother maintaining his dignified bearing. He snatched the timer from the dean's hand, and one glance nearly stopped his heart.
His cloudy old eyes instantly widened into circles, and his sharp intake of breath sounded especially clear on the silent dais.
Gasp!
The principal jerked his head up to look at Lu Fang below, his gaze as though he were looking at a monster.
The next second, the enormous light screen above the gymnasium suddenly shuddered.
A line of golden text, as though cast from molten gold, slowly emerged at the very top of the light screen.
[First place: Lu Fang] [Floors cleared: 15 (complete)]
As this text appeared, the deathly silent gymnasium erupted as though a depth charge had been dropped into it.
"Floor 15?! He cleared it?!"
"My God! Wasn't the school record only floor 12? He cleared the whole thing?"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How much time has even passed? Even just running through the map couldn't be that fast, could it?"
Class Six's homeroom teacher clutched his head, his expression as though he had seen a ghost, muttering incoherently.
"Madness... this world has gone mad... was there a bug in the dungeon? Did it teleport him straight to the finish?"
"Are you an idiot? Dungeons are products of rules controlled by the nation, manifestations of the supreme laws! Where would cheats come from? Where would bugs come from?"
Old Zhang stood among the crowd, holding the frame of his glasses, his palms drenched in cold sweat. His lenses had fogged over, but he could not spare the attention to wipe them.
Looking at the composed young man not far away, he felt that the student he had taught for three years had suddenly become utterly unfamiliar.
Yet the shocks did not end there.
While everyone was still reeling from the number 15, the light screen changed again.
Hum! Hum! Hum!
The light screen shook violently. After "Floors cleared," the previously empty "Final rating" field suddenly burst with dazzling purple-gold light.
The light was so intense that it even overwhelmed the gymnasium's lighting, stinging their eyes until they could not keep them open.
Amid that blazing radiance, three enormous letters slowly took shape, carrying an ancient, noble, inviolable aura.
[S... S... S!] [Final rating: SSS!]
Boom!
If "floor 15" had merely been a bomb, then those three purple-gold S's were a nuclear warhead detonating directly atop everyone's skulls.
At that moment, everyone present completely lost the ability to speak.
SSS!
What did that mean?
In Jiang City's history, and even in the entire province's college entrance examination history, A ratings had been exceedingly rare, their recipients hailed as heaven's favored geniuses.
An S rating was a realm only a peerless monster of talent, one rarely seen in decades, could possibly reach.
As for SSS...
That was simply beyond everyone's understanding!
It was the theoretical limit, synonymous with absolute perfection!!!
This meant that Lu Fang had not only cleared the dungeon, but had done so through overwhelming dominance, without losses, and with the utmost perfection!
"A-am I going blind?"
"SSS? The legendary highest rating? Our Jiang City... actually produced someone with an SSS rating?"
"Is he even human? He's practically a god!"
The vice principal's lips trembled as he slumped against his chair back, looking utterly drained.
"In Jiangcheng No. 1 High School's hundred years... never before... never before..."