Lu Fang instantly realized the most broken loop this class possessed.
The stronger he became, the stronger the Money Ghosts he summoned would be.
The stronger the Money Ghosts were, the faster they cleared monsters, and the faster he leveled up.
The faster he leveled up, the more his stats skyrocketed, making him even stronger...
It was a perfect, unbeatable loop!
"Hahahaha!"
Looking at the ten golden figures surrounding him like an impregnable wall, Lu Fang couldn't help laughing out loud.
"Come on, let the storm rage even harder!"
Meanwhile, outside the gymnasium.
The massive ranking screen flickered.
Beside Lu Fang's name, the number representing his stage jumped from "1" to "2" without warning.
The change wasn't conspicuous on the densely packed rankings, but Old Zhang, who had been watching that spot all along, still caught it.
Immediately afterward, the first cry of shock erupted from the crowd.
"Holy shit? Lu Fang cleared the first stage?"
"Isn't that way too fast? He was just on the first stage. How did he reach the second in the blink of an eye?"
"Is the display wrong?"
That cry drew everyone's attention back to the screen.
The vice principal adjusted his glasses, his brows tightly knitted as he stared fixedly at the number.
"Time taken... one second?"
He estimated how long it had been since the students entered, and even his voice changed pitch.
"How is that possible!"
The teachers around him all looked as though they'd seen a ghost.
"There must be something wrong with the dungeon."
Quite a few people thought the system had bugged out. After all, clearing a stage in one second was beyond human comprehension.
Yet, while everyone was still discussing whether it was a system bug...
The number on the screen changed again.
It wasn't changing slowly, but... flashing wildly!
Inside the dungeon.
The second stage's monsters had just spawned: twenty gray wolves.
But before they could even get a clear look at their enemy, ten golden afterimages tore them apart.
Lu Fang's experience bar surged by another large chunk.
Then came the third stage, the fourth...
The difficulty rose exponentially.
Then came the fifth stage.
"Stage five challenge begins." "Monster: Jungle Leopard (level 3)." "Quantity: 50." "Experience per monster: 30."
A dense chorus of low growls filled the air.
Fifty sleek, agile Jungle Leopards sprang out of the void.
They excelled in speed. An ordinary class holder facing them would probably have been clawed bloody all over in an instant.
But Lu Fang simply stuck both hands in his pockets and stood where he was, without moving a step.
"Kill."
He softly uttered a single word.
Like ten golden reaping machines of death, the ten Money Ghosts instantly charged into the pack of leopards.
They were countless times faster than the Jungle Leopards!
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Dull impacts rang out in an unbroken barrage.
The Jungle Leopards had only just spawned. Before they even touched the ground, their bodies exploded into bloody mist in midair.
Insta-kills!
Every last one was an insta-kill!
[Jungle Leopard killed. Experience +30] [Jungle Leopard killed. Experience +30] ... [Total experience gained: 1,500]
Golden level-up light shone around Lu Fang again.
[Congratulations on reaching level 3!] [Stat increase: All stats +100!] [Current strength: 1,200] [Money Ghost strength synchronized: 1,200]
Lu Fang couldn't help grumbling about how hard it was to level up.
Supposedly, the stronger a class was, the greater its growth with each level, and therefore the more experience it needed to level up.
Presumably, his was most likely the hardest to level.
But it didn't matter. With his terrifying monster-farming speed, a little extra difficulty was fine.
The slaughter continued.
The sixth stage, the seventh...
In the blink of an eye, he reached the eighth stage.
"Stage eight challenge begins." "Monster: Ironhide Bear (level 6)." "Quantity: 100." "Experience per monster: 60."
A hundred thick-skinned Ironhide Bears charged with furious roars, making the ground tremble.
But against Money Ghosts with 1,200 strength, the defense they prided themselves on was as flimsy as paper.
The Money Ghosts didn't even need skills. They steamrolled them with their terrifying stats alone, blasting these enormous beasts to pieces with a single punch each.
[Ironhide Bear killed. Experience +60] ... [Total experience gained: 6,000]
Lu Fang's experience bar filled to bursting again.
[Congratulations on reaching level 4!] [Stat increase: All stats +100!]
Outside the gymnasium.
At some point, the noisy atmosphere in the square had turned deathly silent.
At that moment, nobody spoke, and nobody was on their phone.
Every pair of eyes was fixed on the massive screen.
Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
The row of data representing Lu Fang was refreshing at a terrifying rate.
It wasn't merely changing-it was flooding the screen!
Stage 2...
Stage 5...
Stage 8...
Stage 10...
His speed of progress completely defied everyone's common sense.
Not a single other student's name even had stage 2 beside it yet.
Meanwhile, Lu Fang was pulling far ahead of everyone, as though riding a rocket!
"Wh-what kind of monster is he?"
Old Zhang felt his legs going weak. He held on to the railing and pointed at the screen with a trembling finger.
"One stage per second??"
The vice principal had long since turned pale. His mouth hung open, and he couldn't close it for a long while.
"This definitely isn't a bug..."
He muttered to himself.
"If the system had a bug, it couldn't bug out a dozen times in a row. And each stage's clear time is slightly different. That means... he's really clearing them!"
"But how is that possible?"
Nobody could answer him.
Because the sight had already shattered their understanding of the world.
Inside the dungeon.
The consecutive insta-kills sent an enormous stream of experience surging into Lu Fang's body like rivers pouring into the sea.
In the blink of an eye, he was already standing at the entrance to stage 15.
"Stage 15 challenge begins." "Monster: Bloodthirsty Lizard (elite · level 10)." "Quantity: 200." "Experience per monster: 150."
This was already the final stage of the starter dungeon, as well as the most difficult.
Two hundred elite monsters with blood-red eyes, their bodies radiating a savage aura, surrounded Lu Fang.
But Lu Fang didn't even glance at them.
Having leveled up several times in a row, all his stats had now reached terrifying values.
[Level: 4] [Strength: 1,300] [Money Ghost strength: 1,300]
Along with him, the ten Money Ghosts had now grown to two and a half meters tall, like ten golden demon gods.
"Clean them out."
Lu Fang gave the order calmly.
Boom!
A golden storm swept across the battlefield.
Those two hundred elite monsters, enough to drive ordinary newcomers to despair, were still as easy for the Money Ghosts to cut down as vegetables.
Just three seconds.
The entire battlefield was cleared.
[Bloodthirsty Lizard killed. Experience +150] ... [Total experience gained: 30,000]
Golden light blazed around Lu Fang again.
[Congratulations on reaching level 5!] [Stat increase: All stats +100!] [Current strength: 1,400]
As the notification announcing the clearing of stage 15 faded, Lu Fang stood at the center of the corpse-strewn battlefield, quietly waiting for the teleportation light that would come with the dungeon settlement.
However, the white light he expected never appeared.
The gray sky seemed to be torn apart by a pair of invisible hands, instantly turning a shocking blood-red. The temperature throughout the space plummeted, and a strong smell of blood spread through the air.