Chapter 152.3 The Horror Club
The player, tortured by ghost children, was restricted to a limited distance area, preventing him from attacking the ghost children when using items each time.
“Release me… I can tell you…”
Wen Shi calmly continued, “Tell us, were you hired by the bank president? Or did your guild leader instruct something similar, and you wanted to play both sides?”
Even with eyes covered by ghostly hands, one could still see the player’s face change drastically upon hearing Wen Shi’s analysis.
Xiao Hua shook her head. “Fools blinded by greed.”
That plump man just wanted to test the waters. If he succeeded, great. If not, he would gauge Second Commandment’s true stance on whether to kill or save Pei Wenwei and the others.
Wangcai Bank’s president must be quite perplexed by the outcome.
He was so accustomed to viewing everything from a perspective of self-interest that he couldn’t fathom why the Second Commandment chose to befriend Pei Wenwei.
Slowly but surely, the moisture inside the player’s body was being absorbed by the ghost children. As one-third of the player’s body suddenly shrank, he managed to mutter, “Points… transfer…”
The rest of his words were blocked by the ghost children, with his tongue nearly melting from the high temperature.
No one was foolish enough to accept points without using a contract item and making promises in exchange.
Wen Shi glanced around. There must have been many people secretly observing today. This was the perfect opportunity to show these individuals that points couldn’t buy their lives.
Xiao Hua was satisfied with his unwavering attitude. Bloodshed and violence were the only ways to make others think twice.
He watched the player transform completely into a corpse without displaying any emotion. Just before the player’s last breath, there was a gurgling sound from his throat.
Xiao Hua curiously thought that the player might have a hidden ace up his sleeve, but Wen Shi translated precisely, “He’s cursing me to go to hell and saying I won’t have a good death.”
“Why do you have so much experience?”
The assassination took some time, but it was worth it in the end. On the way back, they encountered no more trouble from the foolish ones.
Wen Shi found the Second Commandment’s attempts at friendship a bit odd. After all, logically, it would be more profitable to kill him.
As if she could read his thoughts, Xiao Hua reminded him, “Not everyone from Second Commandment is trustworthy, but Ji Yuanzhi doesn’t want to kill you. He represents the guild’s high-ranking members.”
Besides blood ties, many bonds between people were formed later in life. By leading the Big Factory team, Wen Shi had earned Ji Yuanzhi’s favor, which was a very wise choice.
They had several hours of free time in the afternoon, so Wen Shi went back to the hotel and greeted A’Yu. He was ready to rest in his room.
A’Yu looked at the group of children following him with a sly smile, her eyes glinting with a hint of coldness.
“Where did you find all these naive little brats?”
She was naturally not fond of children, except for Wen Shi.
The ghostly children were unable to explain why, but this was the second time today they had felt fear after encountering the City Lord. Quickly, they formed a line behind Wen Shi, attempting to conceal their presence like a group of little chicks, seeking refuge in the blind spots of vision.
Wen Shi pointed to the bell hanging from his waist, indicating that if he couldn’t handle it, he would call for “Mom.”
A’Yu hesitated for a few seconds but ultimately didn’t choose to physically help these ghost children pass on.
Wen Shi returned to his room with the obediently disguised ghost children.
The children had a simple idea. Even though they had a powerful master with them, they were still thinking about seizing an opportunity to escape with the specimen.
Lying on the soft bed, Wen Shi couldn’t help but admire Li Nan, who was diligently working at the casino. He was impressed by Li Nan’s perseverance.
The Yin energy made him reluctant to move. He spent the entire afternoon lying on the bed. Just as he was starting to feel sleepy, he saw one of the ghost children fiddling with a tape measure, seemingly measuring the length of his arm. It appeared they were still holding onto the idea of him gifting them an arm.
Wen Shi didn’t shatter their cheerful illusion. Time passed, and it was past nine o’clock when he finally got up from the bed.
【Rationality Bar: 65.】
At this moment, even walking felt slow to Wen Shi. He started contemplating using his transformation ability to enhance his agility.
He took the elevator down to the first floor. Day and night were entirely different in the casino. When the elevator doors opened, a rush of heat and noise hit him.
Unlike during the day, there was no available seating in the casino’s resting area at night.
Wen Shi followed the location Li Nan had sent him, navigating through the bustling casino. “Golden Plum Chronicles 5” had been relatively conservative in its depiction. The size of the casino was beyond imagination.
There were dedicated elevators leading underground, and the deeper one went, the higher the stakes became.
Pushing his mental focus to the limit, Wen Shi, dragging his weary body, finally found the place.
Li Nan was just an ordinary dealer, so his employee rest area was quite inconspicuous. A sign at the entrance read: “Unauthorized Personnel Keep Out.”
Wen Shi walked right in.
The moment he entered, the room’s temperature dropped sharply.
The ghost children had once again restlessly started wanting to make specimens.
Li Nan had just finished work and hadn’t even had a chance to change his clothes. Seeing the situation, he asked, “Came to exorcise some little ghosts?”
Wen Shi waved it off and went straight to the point. “You work diligently every day, but how’s your viewership?”
Li Nan remained composed about it. “Not much.”
Wen Shi pondered for a moment. “I’m here to confirm something with you. Is there more than one way to increase viewership?”
At any given stage, the game left a way out for players. If monsters deliberately left the livestream room, players would be doomed. So, it was certain that the game had balanced its design for instances.
Wen Shi voiced his long-standing suspicion, “If we kill monsters, would that increase our viewership?”
When he killed that leopard in the Lin family’s mansion’s ancestral hall, his viewership did increase, but Wen Shi wasn’t sure if it was related. After all, he already had one of the highest viewer counts among his fellow players.
Li Nan took a seat in a cramped wooden stool, and even though the seat was narrow, it couldn’t diminish his imposing presence. He slowly began to speak, “The death rate in Golden City is not low, yet it’s classified as an unpopular storyline, indicating it lacks excitement.” Li Nan’s analysis was always spot-on. “Taking it further, methods like stock trading can all lead to success in this game. The game won’t tamper with these aspects.”
He built connections during the day in the casino, engaged in loan sharking at night, and traded with underground organizations while utilizing high-tech weaponry blueprints in his mind.
In just a few days, he’d earned around seventy to eighty million.
Now that he had enough capital, all he needed was to choose the perfect stock and manipulate it slightly. At the latest, the day after tomorrow, he could exit the instance.
The only trouble was the viewership count.
The casino was always filled with shady activities, and his Rationality Bar would plummet quickly.
A storyline without much excitement made monsters inconsequential. So, Li Nan knew from the start that there were other methods to boost viewership. He experimented with capturing, fighting, and killing monsters, confirming that the last method could exploit a bug. Killing a monster would also count as an increase in viewership.
“The third underground floor is practically a paradise for monsters,” Li Nan had long figured out the casino’s structure. “If you want to ‘restock,’ you’ll have to go in there.”
After he finished speaking, he casually asked, “How many viewers do you need?”
The in-game conversation was heavily censored, but Wen Shi glanced at his real-time viewer count and said, “At least nine thousand.”
“……”
Li Nan furrowed his brow slightly, not asking for the reason. He only said, “If you want to kill that many monsters, you’ll definitely draw the ire of Golden Plum Casino’s owner.”
The casino had established a third underground floor, likely for other purposes. If all the monsters were wiped out, how could the owner stay put?
To enlist someone’s help, one had to use incentives. Wen Shi earnestly said, “It’s for our benefit when entering the 3S instance in the future.”
Keeping the host alive was advantageous, as it could become their trump card for survival.
Li Nan briefly pondered and then tossed a brand-new uniform at Wen Shi. He also pointed in the direction of the dressing room.
If he wanted to access the third underground level, posing as a staff member was the most convenient way.
His Rationality Bar dropped another point, and Wen Shi almost didn’t catch the uniform. From vision to action, he was severely lacking now.
“Are there monsters serving as waitstaff on the third floor?” Wen Shi asked.
Li Nan nodded. “Yes.”
Maintaining order there could only be achieved through force.
Wen Shi smirked, understanding that he could use his transformation without any reservations.
Li Nan used a talisman to temporarily keep the ghost children behind. Wen Shi entered the dressing room alone, taking less than three minutes to change clothes.
Though wearing the same outfit, it looked dignified on Li Nan, while on Wen Shi, it had a different vibe.
The top button of his shirt remained unfastened, revealing a hint of his perfect collarbone. His fair skin gave off a touch of coldness. The vest accentuated his waistline perfectly. Using partial transformation, Wen Shi regained his usual agility. His cat tail hung gently on the ground, while his triangular ears perked up, as if always alert to his surroundings.
“Let’s go,” Wen Shi finished adjusting his clothes with a slight smile and half-closed eyes. “Time to stock up.”
As the talisman’s effect wore off, the ghost children, no longer held in place, looked at Wen Shi eagerly. Mommy was undoubtedly the most attractive specimen in the world!
There’s no one like mommy!
Gently patting a ghost child’s head, Wen Shi had a soft expression, thinking he would teach them two important lessons soon.
First, never gamble.
Second, filial piety came first, and they should view him, their male mom, as capable of recklessly cutting monsters with a sword.
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