The Walk-in Closet Safehouse CH24
Chapter 24: Tear Down His Roof
[Bullet of Justice: Witness a crime in progress, shout your declaration of justice, and ensure the perpetrator receives their due punishment!]
This item, valued at a steep one hundred gold coins, could only be deployed a grand total of five times. Qiu Ke had initially assumed that a simple dispersal of spores would be more than enough to dispose of this arrogant newbie.
Who could have anticipated that she would sense the danger early, using an old-looking umbrella to completely shield herself from his lethal spores?
Qiu Ke let out a heavy sigh. To prevent the situation from spiraling into further complications, he was forced to expend this high-tier item to "pull the weed out by its roots". The fact that this absolute nobody had dared to make a fool out of him—subjecting him to a three-day recovery cycle in a hotel room where he couldn't move a single muscle—meant allowing her a painless execution was honestly letting her off far too easily.
Then again, the girl was still carrying an item belonging to Mr. Rabbit. He could only pray it possessed a few uses remaining, which would comfortably offset his losses.
[Eliminated Players: Qian Yi, Qian Er, Qian San. Kill count updated. Leaderboard rankings updated: Rank 9,982.]
Qui Ke: "?!" Why are there only three names registered on the log?!
Before the words "Oh, shit" could even register in his mind, a lethal wave of suffocation slammed into him. An invisible restraint coiled violently around his throat and cinched tight.
Qiu Ke's facial veins bulged as he thrashed frantically, his thick, stubby fingertips clawing desperately at the cord wrapping his neck. Yet, outside of tearing deep, bloody lacerations across his own flesh, his struggles proved entirely useless. With a sharp snap of his neck, his massive, near-three-meter frame crashed heavily onto the concrete.
The rooftop dissolved back into a dead silence.
Cui Ye, who had been flawlessly playing dead after being "struck" by the bullet, casually shook the rainwater off her clothes. Angling her umbrella forward, she reached up to adjust the fit of the green beanie resting atop her head.
In reality, she had been acutely aware that someone was lurking the perimeter the very instant she stepped out of the ticket office.
Initially, she had worried that the theatrical mother-and-son duo had sniffed something out and followed her here to stir up trouble, and she had fully intended to sprint straight out of the zone.
However, [Friendly Tip] had been exceptionally considerate, printing the target's exact username directly into her mental overlay. This prompted her to orchestrate a brief pit stop on this roof, calmly waiting for her targets to deliver themselves right to her door.
It only proved that the habit of loudly introducing oneself to the server was a fatal mistake. If an opponent happened to hold a high-tier item mirroring the mechanics of a Death Note or a Registry of the Dead, they could simply write your username onto the parchment, and you would be dead before you even realized what hit you.
Gazing down at the "corpse" sprawled at her feet, Cui Ye extracted the bone blade from the hollow of her umbrella shaft, winding up to drive the weapon home. Yet, moving faster than her physical blade could travel was [Plushie Collector]. The instant the item activated, the colossal "corpse" before her ballooned like an over-inflated tire and abruptly detonated.
An absolute ocean of white spores erupted, bleaching the entire surface of the roof. If the previous spore drizzle was nothing more than a light flurry, this display earned the title of a catastrophic blizzard. The dense, suffocating volume of spores blasted outward, physically painting the entire exterior facade of the building a uniform chalk-white.
As the central target of this lethal blast, Cui Ye logically should have melted into an organic slurry the exact second the spores triggered. Yet, Qiu Ke failed to receive a kill notification from the server log.
His physical form having withered down to a fraction of its original size, Qiu Ke didn't dare hesitate. He instantly whipped out a dagger pulsing with a sinister crimson hue and executed a blind lunging thrust toward where Cui Ye had been standing. The anticipated sound of tearing flesh and a subsequent agonizing shriek failed to manifest; instead, his ears captured the sharp, metallic clang of weapons deflecting.
A crisp, ringing echo immediately rippled through the air. Qiu Ke's mind fractured into absolute shock—not only had this girl managed to survive a point-blank spore detonation, but she had also comfortably deflected his maximum-output ambush. This reality completely shattered his competitive confidence.
Without a shred of delay, he deployed his Safe House directly onto the concrete and dove inside.
His build had never been optimized for raw offensive combat. He had funneled the vast majority of his accumulated gold coins into reinforcing his fortress. Although his tenure as a player wasn't exceptionally long, his Safe House had scaled into a formidable Level 5 structure, packing a massive defense rating of 1,600. Even if he encountered an exceptionally problematic opponent, he could comfortably turtle up inside and systematically bleed them dry by flooding the outside world with continuous spore clouds through the exhaust vents.
What was the point of being an invincible combat god? The entity that survived until the extraction phase was the sole victor! Those arrogant fools who had mocked him for being "a turtle that shrinks its head into its shell"— hadn't every single one of them ended up rotting inside the previous servers anyway?
[Your Safe House is currently under attack.]
[Safe House Durability: 10% Damage Sustained.]
Inside the Walk-in Closet, Cui Ye listened to the steady stream of system prompts chiming in her ears, utilizing the three-sided fitting mirror to get a flawless, panoramic view of the chaos unfolding outside.
How could a low-tier stunt like playing dead possibly work twice against the exact same target? Furthermore, Qiu Ke's performance was utter trash. She internally recommended that if he harbored a genuine desire to study the art of acting, he should migrate over to Building 7 and register for a masterclass with that woman who loved to cosplay as the Holy Mother; perhaps he could achieve a shred of believable acting in his next life cycle.
Ever since their first encounter, she had picked up on multiple anatomical anomalies all over his body—the localized vocalizations vibrating directly out of his midsection, the missing facial features that could be casually wiped away and reconstructed upon sustaining damage, and specifically, that overwhelming, unnatural vibe that spiked the closer one got to him.
With the steady growth of her physical stats and senses, her ability to perceive microscopic details had spiked several tiers. Re-encountering him tonight, that non-human aura radiating from his frame had become completely unmistakable, forcing her to prepare a contingency plan just in case things went sideways.
Granted, she had factored in the reality that [Plushie Collector] might simply fail to trigger. After all, she had only tested it against a baseline Level 1 water monster, and a veteran player packed with a diverse inventory of items was hardly a static target. Yet, logically calculating a variable was one thing; physically watching her absolute trump card fail to deliver an instant kill was an entirely different emotional experience.
The very instant the spore cloud erupted, her vision clearly captured a shriveled, emaciated dwarf tearing out from inside that massive meat suit. The creature had gripped that dangerous crimson dagger and executed a lethal thrust against her mirror door, colliding squarely with the spiked mace extending from the reflection.
Clearly, the dagger in her opponent's grip wasn't a standard-issue weapon. The instant the weapons clashed, her [Spiked Mace] snapped cleanly in half, and the glass surface shattered into fragments. Her Safe House durability instantly took a ten percent hit. Yet, Cui Ye didn't exhibit a trace of panic. Forcing her opponent to retreat into his own Safe House was the perfect setup she needed; it made pulling the weed out by its roots infinitely cleaner.
The torrential downpour rapidly washed the thick layers of spores off the concrete, though the fungal residue clinging to the outer walls began blooming into dense clusters of mushrooms. These fungi were actively creeping toward the perimeter of Cui Ye's Safe House, prompting another update to her status log:
[Your Safe House is currently under attack. Current Durability: 15% Damage Sustained.]
At this point, the physical gap separating their respective Safe Houses was less than two meters. Through her mirror's reflection, Cui Ye could clearly discern the face plastered tightly against the windowpane opposite her—a dark, emaciated visage, shriveled flesh, and bulbous, protruding eyeballs.
As if sensing her eyes on him, the entity's gaze locked directly onto Cui Ye's position across the narrow gap. His withered lips pulled back into a grotesquely exaggerated grin, the raw murderous intent vibrating in his eyes practically spilling over the glass.
If thoughts translated into actual combat damage, she would have likely died a triple-digit number of times by now. However, the moment he abandoned the physical fight to crawl inside his bunker, the outcome of the match was already decided.
She fished out the official stamp she had purchased back at the convenience store.
[System has detected an equippable structural modification: Demolition Office.]
[Would you like to initiate installation?]
Inside the Mushroom House, the grin splitting Qiu Ke's face grew progressively feral as he monitored the primitive closet structure across the gap being steadily consumed by his fungal colony.
The moment that pathetic structure hit the fifty percent damage threshold, the spores venting from his Mushroom House would comfortably drift straight inside, converting the girl into raw fertilizer. It was simply a matter of time.
He had executed this exact "cheese strategy" countless times; not a single target he locked eyes on had ever evaded total liquidation. Even if an opponent attempted to "discard the chariot to safeguard the king" just to preserve their core, he could easily track their coordinates utilizing the parasitic spores anchored in their system, ensuring a clean wipe.
Granted, dealing with a mere newbie who had dared to insult him had cost him an entire premium item, forced the total deconstruction of his [Flesh Tai Sui] husk, and robbed him of that bizarre rope. The sheer fury and shock burning through his system was immense.
He forcefully blocked out the faint trace of regret flashing through his consciousness. At this stage, his singular goal was to stomp this glitch-tier newbie into absolute dust right here on this roof. He wouldn't let her slip through his fingers a second time!
Convinced that victory was firmly in his grasp, Qiu Ke popped the seal on a premium potion and downed the liquid, preparing to savor the spectacle of her agonizing demise.
Suddenly, a system notification flashed across his interface:
[Your Safe House has been officially approved for demolition. Current Phase: Roof Removal.]
"?????"
Before his mind could even process the prompt, a torrential deluge of rainwater crashed straight down from the heavens, drenching the potion-chugging Qiu Ke until he resembled a drowned rat. What followed was a relentless barrage of frantic system alerts: structural failure warnings, infection threshold updates, and interior degradation logs—a literal onslaught of "triple happiness arriving at his doorstep".
Cui Ye eyed the newly bald mushroom cabin across the gap, barely containing her laughter. Truly, "joy was a finite resource in this world; it never vanished, it merely transferred from one face to another".
[Demolition Office: Draw a red circle with your pen, stamp the word "Demolish" right in the center, and watch it dismantle the targeted structure. (Durability: 2/3)]
Roof, walls, flooring—dismantled layer by layer. Although it was limited to a baseline of three charges, Cui Ye was exceptionally satisfied with its tactical utility.
In the blink of an eye, the opponent's defensive walls ceased to exist. Qiu Ke was completely exposed to the driving rain, throwing an absolute temper tantrum on the spot. Yet, very quickly, he didn't even have a single floorboard left to stomp his feet on. A five-tier Safe House had vanished into thin air, leaving him zero status window to perform structural repairs.
Qiu Ke knew exactly what losing a Safe House meant. Stripped of the structure, the passive defensive buffs tied directly to the unit—[Flesh Tai Sui]—evaporated from his character profile. He could no longer command the [Spores], nor did he possess a sanctuary to mask his location. For a player who lacked an innate talent and whose entire toolkit was carried by his Safe House, the sudden reality nearly stopped his heart.
The first terrifying thought that hit him was his guild. If the Guild Master caught wind of the fact that his Safe House had been completely wiped out, he would be instantly purged from the roster. Those faction members who had always despised him would make damn sure he didn't leave the server alive. His remaining items and gold reserves would become his literal execution warrant!
Terror completely consumed his sanity. Driven into a manic frenzy, Qiu Ke crushed his remaining potion vial between his fingers, his brain entirely locked onto the flashing alerts of his impending doom. Letting out a feral screech, he lunged bodily toward the closet structure across the gap. If he was destined to sink into the dirt, he would make absolutely sure the architect of his ruin suffered the exact same fate!
Through the one-way fitting mirror, Cui Ye watched the target cram some bizarre object down his throat. His frame rapidly ballooned from a sub-1.2-meter dwarf into... a heavily muscle-bound dwarf?
"..."
Cui Ye unequipped [Demolition Office], sliding [M-Family High-End Luxury Vintage Linen Necklace] into the mirror's line of reflection. It took a single second for the noise to cut out completely.
She didn't even need to activate [Plushie Collector] a second time. The target was rapidly converted into a pathetic Teru Teru Bozu doll, suspended limply in mid-air. His frantic roars vanished the millisecond his neck went slack, and the crimson dagger slipped from his grip, clattering onto the concrete.
[Eliminated Player: Qiu Ke. Kill count updated: 1. Server Kill Leaderboard has been officially unlocked.]
A massive kill leaderboard listing tens of thousands of players materialized across her interface. Sitting at the absolute top of the board was the user occupying the number one rank, his kill count leading the entire server by a catastrophic margin—[Mr. Rabbit].
She carefully counted the digits; it was an actual eight-figure sum. The guy shouldn't even be called Mr. Rabbit; he was the literal incarnation of the Grim Reaper. Combining the kill count of the remaining nine players trailing behind him didn't even scratch a fraction of his singular contribution.
Cui Ye felt her knees go completely weak, harboring a deep desire to drop to the floor and thank him for his previous policy of non-lethal punishment. The absolute best five gold coins she had ever spent in her life was undoubtedly that "harassment fine."
Having accidentally unlocked a brand-new interface panel, Cui Ye only recognized the entity occupying the number one slot. However, compared to analyzing the thousands of other serial killers lining the board, sweeping the aftermath of the battlefield was a far higher priority. If her gold coins ended up being swept away by the rainwater, where on earth was she supposed to file a claim?
As she carefully logged her spoils, Cui Ye remained entirely oblivious to the reality that because Qiu Ke had abruptly dropped off the leaderboard, over a dozen players stacked directly behind his previous rank simultaneously received a system notification that their ranks had shifted.
Granted, the tail end of a ten-thousand-man leaderboard shifted constantly—a player getting eliminated wasn't an anomaly anyone would typically bat an eye at.
They were well aware that Qiu Ke had infiltrated a highly specialized game server under the explicit directives of the Guild Master. The server's difficulty was locked at a low tier, and Qiu Ke was universally renowned for prioritizing his personal survival above all else, dumping an absurd amount of gold into upgrading his Safe House to a massive Level 5. For a cockroach like that to drop dead inside a low-tier server... could it be that an assassin from a rival guild had executed a targeted strike?
Chapter Notes:
[Bullet of Justice: Witness a crime in progress, shout your declaration of justice, and ensure the perpetrator receives their due punishment!]
This item, valued at a steep one hundred gold coins, could only be deployed a grand total of five times. Qiu Ke had initially assumed that a simple dispersal of spores would be more than enough to dispose of this arrogant newbie.
Who could have anticipated that she would sense the danger early, using an old-looking umbrella to completely shield herself from his lethal spores?
Qiu Ke let out a heavy sigh. To prevent the situation from spiraling into further complications, he was forced to expend this high-tier item to "pull the weed out by its roots". The fact that this absolute nobody had dared to make a fool out of him—subjecting him to a three-day recovery cycle in a hotel room where he couldn't move a single muscle—meant allowing her a painless execution was honestly letting her off far too easily.
Then again, the girl was still carrying an item belonging to Mr. Rabbit. He could only pray it possessed a few uses remaining, which would comfortably offset his losses.
[Eliminated Players: Qian Yi, Qian Er, Qian San. Kill count updated. Leaderboard rankings updated: Rank 9,982.]
Qui Ke: "?!" Why are there only three names registered on the log?!
Before the words "Oh, shit" could even register in his mind, a lethal wave of suffocation slammed into him. An invisible restraint coiled violently around his throat and cinched tight.
Qiu Ke's facial veins bulged as he thrashed frantically, his thick, stubby fingertips clawing desperately at the cord wrapping his neck. Yet, outside of tearing deep, bloody lacerations across his own flesh, his struggles proved entirely useless. With a sharp snap of his neck, his massive, near-three-meter frame crashed heavily onto the concrete.
The rooftop dissolved back into a dead silence.
Cui Ye, who had been flawlessly playing dead after being "struck" by the bullet, casually shook the rainwater off her clothes. Angling her umbrella forward, she reached up to adjust the fit of the green beanie resting atop her head.
In reality, she had been acutely aware that someone was lurking the perimeter the very instant she stepped out of the ticket office.
Initially, she had worried that the theatrical mother-and-son duo had sniffed something out and followed her here to stir up trouble, and she had fully intended to sprint straight out of the zone.
However, [Friendly Tip] had been exceptionally considerate, printing the target's exact username directly into her mental overlay. This prompted her to orchestrate a brief pit stop on this roof, calmly waiting for her targets to deliver themselves right to her door.
It only proved that the habit of loudly introducing oneself to the server was a fatal mistake. If an opponent happened to hold a high-tier item mirroring the mechanics of a Death Note or a Registry of the Dead, they could simply write your username onto the parchment, and you would be dead before you even realized what hit you.
Gazing down at the "corpse" sprawled at her feet, Cui Ye extracted the bone blade from the hollow of her umbrella shaft, winding up to drive the weapon home. Yet, moving faster than her physical blade could travel was [Plushie Collector]. The instant the item activated, the colossal "corpse" before her ballooned like an over-inflated tire and abruptly detonated.
An absolute ocean of white spores erupted, bleaching the entire surface of the roof. If the previous spore drizzle was nothing more than a light flurry, this display earned the title of a catastrophic blizzard. The dense, suffocating volume of spores blasted outward, physically painting the entire exterior facade of the building a uniform chalk-white.
As the central target of this lethal blast, Cui Ye logically should have melted into an organic slurry the exact second the spores triggered. Yet, Qiu Ke failed to receive a kill notification from the server log.
His physical form having withered down to a fraction of its original size, Qiu Ke didn't dare hesitate. He instantly whipped out a dagger pulsing with a sinister crimson hue and executed a blind lunging thrust toward where Cui Ye had been standing. The anticipated sound of tearing flesh and a subsequent agonizing shriek failed to manifest; instead, his ears captured the sharp, metallic clang of weapons deflecting.
A crisp, ringing echo immediately rippled through the air. Qiu Ke's mind fractured into absolute shock—not only had this girl managed to survive a point-blank spore detonation, but she had also comfortably deflected his maximum-output ambush. This reality completely shattered his competitive confidence.
Without a shred of delay, he deployed his Safe House directly onto the concrete and dove inside.
His build had never been optimized for raw offensive combat. He had funneled the vast majority of his accumulated gold coins into reinforcing his fortress. Although his tenure as a player wasn't exceptionally long, his Safe House had scaled into a formidable Level 5 structure, packing a massive defense rating of 1,600. Even if he encountered an exceptionally problematic opponent, he could comfortably turtle up inside and systematically bleed them dry by flooding the outside world with continuous spore clouds through the exhaust vents.
What was the point of being an invincible combat god? The entity that survived until the extraction phase was the sole victor! Those arrogant fools who had mocked him for being "a turtle that shrinks its head into its shell"— hadn't every single one of them ended up rotting inside the previous servers anyway?
[Your Safe House is currently under attack.]
[Safe House Durability: 10% Damage Sustained.]
Inside the Walk-in Closet, Cui Ye listened to the steady stream of system prompts chiming in her ears, utilizing the three-sided fitting mirror to get a flawless, panoramic view of the chaos unfolding outside.
How could a low-tier stunt like playing dead possibly work twice against the exact same target? Furthermore, Qiu Ke's performance was utter trash. She internally recommended that if he harbored a genuine desire to study the art of acting, he should migrate over to Building 7 and register for a masterclass with that woman who loved to cosplay as the Holy Mother; perhaps he could achieve a shred of believable acting in his next life cycle.
Ever since their first encounter, she had picked up on multiple anatomical anomalies all over his body—the localized vocalizations vibrating directly out of his midsection, the missing facial features that could be casually wiped away and reconstructed upon sustaining damage, and specifically, that overwhelming, unnatural vibe that spiked the closer one got to him.
With the steady growth of her physical stats and senses, her ability to perceive microscopic details had spiked several tiers. Re-encountering him tonight, that non-human aura radiating from his frame had become completely unmistakable, forcing her to prepare a contingency plan just in case things went sideways.
Granted, she had factored in the reality that [Plushie Collector] might simply fail to trigger. After all, she had only tested it against a baseline Level 1 water monster, and a veteran player packed with a diverse inventory of items was hardly a static target. Yet, logically calculating a variable was one thing; physically watching her absolute trump card fail to deliver an instant kill was an entirely different emotional experience.
The very instant the spore cloud erupted, her vision clearly captured a shriveled, emaciated dwarf tearing out from inside that massive meat suit. The creature had gripped that dangerous crimson dagger and executed a lethal thrust against her mirror door, colliding squarely with the spiked mace extending from the reflection.
Clearly, the dagger in her opponent's grip wasn't a standard-issue weapon. The instant the weapons clashed, her [Spiked Mace] snapped cleanly in half, and the glass surface shattered into fragments. Her Safe House durability instantly took a ten percent hit. Yet, Cui Ye didn't exhibit a trace of panic. Forcing her opponent to retreat into his own Safe House was the perfect setup she needed; it made pulling the weed out by its roots infinitely cleaner.
The torrential downpour rapidly washed the thick layers of spores off the concrete, though the fungal residue clinging to the outer walls began blooming into dense clusters of mushrooms. These fungi were actively creeping toward the perimeter of Cui Ye's Safe House, prompting another update to her status log:
[Your Safe House is currently under attack. Current Durability: 15% Damage Sustained.]
At this point, the physical gap separating their respective Safe Houses was less than two meters. Through her mirror's reflection, Cui Ye could clearly discern the face plastered tightly against the windowpane opposite her—a dark, emaciated visage, shriveled flesh, and bulbous, protruding eyeballs.
As if sensing her eyes on him, the entity's gaze locked directly onto Cui Ye's position across the narrow gap. His withered lips pulled back into a grotesquely exaggerated grin, the raw murderous intent vibrating in his eyes practically spilling over the glass.
If thoughts translated into actual combat damage, she would have likely died a triple-digit number of times by now. However, the moment he abandoned the physical fight to crawl inside his bunker, the outcome of the match was already decided.
She fished out the official stamp she had purchased back at the convenience store.
[System has detected an equippable structural modification: Demolition Office.]
[Would you like to initiate installation?]
Inside the Mushroom House, the grin splitting Qiu Ke's face grew progressively feral as he monitored the primitive closet structure across the gap being steadily consumed by his fungal colony.
The moment that pathetic structure hit the fifty percent damage threshold, the spores venting from his Mushroom House would comfortably drift straight inside, converting the girl into raw fertilizer. It was simply a matter of time.
He had executed this exact "cheese strategy" countless times; not a single target he locked eyes on had ever evaded total liquidation. Even if an opponent attempted to "discard the chariot to safeguard the king" just to preserve their core, he could easily track their coordinates utilizing the parasitic spores anchored in their system, ensuring a clean wipe.
Granted, dealing with a mere newbie who had dared to insult him had cost him an entire premium item, forced the total deconstruction of his [Flesh Tai Sui] husk, and robbed him of that bizarre rope. The sheer fury and shock burning through his system was immense.
He forcefully blocked out the faint trace of regret flashing through his consciousness. At this stage, his singular goal was to stomp this glitch-tier newbie into absolute dust right here on this roof. He wouldn't let her slip through his fingers a second time!
Convinced that victory was firmly in his grasp, Qiu Ke popped the seal on a premium potion and downed the liquid, preparing to savor the spectacle of her agonizing demise.
Suddenly, a system notification flashed across his interface:
[Your Safe House has been officially approved for demolition. Current Phase: Roof Removal.]
"?????"
Before his mind could even process the prompt, a torrential deluge of rainwater crashed straight down from the heavens, drenching the potion-chugging Qiu Ke until he resembled a drowned rat. What followed was a relentless barrage of frantic system alerts: structural failure warnings, infection threshold updates, and interior degradation logs—a literal onslaught of "triple happiness arriving at his doorstep".
Cui Ye eyed the newly bald mushroom cabin across the gap, barely containing her laughter. Truly, "joy was a finite resource in this world; it never vanished, it merely transferred from one face to another".
[Demolition Office: Draw a red circle with your pen, stamp the word "Demolish" right in the center, and watch it dismantle the targeted structure. (Durability: 2/3)]
Roof, walls, flooring—dismantled layer by layer. Although it was limited to a baseline of three charges, Cui Ye was exceptionally satisfied with its tactical utility.
In the blink of an eye, the opponent's defensive walls ceased to exist. Qiu Ke was completely exposed to the driving rain, throwing an absolute temper tantrum on the spot. Yet, very quickly, he didn't even have a single floorboard left to stomp his feet on. A five-tier Safe House had vanished into thin air, leaving him zero status window to perform structural repairs.
Qiu Ke knew exactly what losing a Safe House meant. Stripped of the structure, the passive defensive buffs tied directly to the unit—[Flesh Tai Sui]—evaporated from his character profile. He could no longer command the [Spores], nor did he possess a sanctuary to mask his location. For a player who lacked an innate talent and whose entire toolkit was carried by his Safe House, the sudden reality nearly stopped his heart.
The first terrifying thought that hit him was his guild. If the Guild Master caught wind of the fact that his Safe House had been completely wiped out, he would be instantly purged from the roster. Those faction members who had always despised him would make damn sure he didn't leave the server alive. His remaining items and gold reserves would become his literal execution warrant!
Terror completely consumed his sanity. Driven into a manic frenzy, Qiu Ke crushed his remaining potion vial between his fingers, his brain entirely locked onto the flashing alerts of his impending doom. Letting out a feral screech, he lunged bodily toward the closet structure across the gap. If he was destined to sink into the dirt, he would make absolutely sure the architect of his ruin suffered the exact same fate!
Through the one-way fitting mirror, Cui Ye watched the target cram some bizarre object down his throat. His frame rapidly ballooned from a sub-1.2-meter dwarf into... a heavily muscle-bound dwarf?
"..."
Cui Ye unequipped [Demolition Office], sliding [M-Family High-End Luxury Vintage Linen Necklace] into the mirror's line of reflection. It took a single second for the noise to cut out completely.
She didn't even need to activate [Plushie Collector] a second time. The target was rapidly converted into a pathetic Teru Teru Bozu doll, suspended limply in mid-air. His frantic roars vanished the millisecond his neck went slack, and the crimson dagger slipped from his grip, clattering onto the concrete.
[Eliminated Player: Qiu Ke. Kill count updated: 1. Server Kill Leaderboard has been officially unlocked.]
A massive kill leaderboard listing tens of thousands of players materialized across her interface. Sitting at the absolute top of the board was the user occupying the number one rank, his kill count leading the entire server by a catastrophic margin—[Mr. Rabbit].
She carefully counted the digits; it was an actual eight-figure sum. The guy shouldn't even be called Mr. Rabbit; he was the literal incarnation of the Grim Reaper. Combining the kill count of the remaining nine players trailing behind him didn't even scratch a fraction of his singular contribution.
Cui Ye felt her knees go completely weak, harboring a deep desire to drop to the floor and thank him for his previous policy of non-lethal punishment. The absolute best five gold coins she had ever spent in her life was undoubtedly that "harassment fine."
Having accidentally unlocked a brand-new interface panel, Cui Ye only recognized the entity occupying the number one slot. However, compared to analyzing the thousands of other serial killers lining the board, sweeping the aftermath of the battlefield was a far higher priority. If her gold coins ended up being swept away by the rainwater, where on earth was she supposed to file a claim?
As she carefully logged her spoils, Cui Ye remained entirely oblivious to the reality that because Qiu Ke had abruptly dropped off the leaderboard, over a dozen players stacked directly behind his previous rank simultaneously received a system notification that their ranks had shifted.
Granted, the tail end of a ten-thousand-man leaderboard shifted constantly—a player getting eliminated wasn't an anomaly anyone would typically bat an eye at.
They were well aware that Qiu Ke had infiltrated a highly specialized game server under the explicit directives of the Guild Master. The server's difficulty was locked at a low tier, and Qiu Ke was universally renowned for prioritizing his personal survival above all else, dumping an absurd amount of gold into upgrading his Safe House to a massive Level 5. For a cockroach like that to drop dead inside a low-tier server... could it be that an assassin from a rival guild had executed a targeted strike?
Chapter Notes:
- "cheese strategy": In gaming, a "cheese" strategy is a highly effective, repetitive trick that is hard to counter once you're caught in it.
- "Flesh Tai Sui": In real-world folklore, Tai Sui is known as the "Flesh Lingzhi" or the "earth chrysalis." It is a mythical, fleshy mass discovered underground that supposedly grants immortality if eaten. In modern Chinese internet fiction and web novels (especially urban fantasy, cultivation, or horror), a Tai Sui is often depicted as a creepy, biological mass of undulating meat, teeth, and eyes—a sort of Eldritch, Lovecraftian meat monster.
- "To pull up the weeds and eliminate the roots.": A classic Chinese idiom heavily used in Wuxia (martial arts) and cultivation web novels. It signifies completely destroying an enemy and wiping out any trace of their existence so they can never return to seek revenge or cause future complications.
- "A turtle that shrinks its head into its shell.": A classic, deeply insulting Chinese idiom used to call someone an absolute coward. In modern gaming culture, it refers to a player who refuses to fight fairly and instead hides or camps in a secure defensive position.
- "Discard the chariot to safeguard the general/king.": Derived from Chinese Chess (Xiangqi). It is an idiom that means to make a tactical sacrifice—giving up a valuable piece, asset, or limb—in order to preserve one's ultimate survival or core objective.
- "Triple happiness arrives at the doorstep.": Traditionally used during festivals to celebrate three consecutive fortunate events. On the internet, it is used heavily as a form of dark, biting sarcasm to mock an enemy who has just been hit by three massive disasters all at once.
- "Smile/Joy doesn't disappear; it merely transfers from one person's face to another's.": A massively popular Chinese internet meme that parodies the scientific Law of Conservation of Energy. It is used to describe a zero-sum situation where your profound satisfaction comes directly from witnessing someone else's absolute misery.
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If you find any mistranslation or grammatical errors, feel free to let me know so I could fix it right away. Thanks for reading so far!
(Update Schedule: Atleast 2 chapters every Fridays.)
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