The system is very short on money.

 

As a player from the advanced world, Qian Daniu naturally knew that melee worlds had surface endings and true endings. But because true endings were very hard to achieve, she had only managed to reach two or three of them—and only when she was extremely lucky.

In fact, most players made it through the melee worlds in the same way, and many people were still struggling in those chaotic worlds. Even those who had reached the advanced worlds could fall back into the melee world if they lost in their first advanced world.

There were very few people like Xing Ye, who rose through the ranks like chopping vegetables and melons. So most players in the advanced world weren't necessarily much better than those in the melee worlds—some were simply lucky.

However, those who managed to survive in the advanced world for a long time generally had high emotional intelligence, even if their IQ couldn’t match someone like Xing Ye.

Qian Daniu froze for a few seconds before asking, “So, where are we going next?”

She quickly made a decision. Why bother thinking when you can follow a high-level player and coast along? The most important thing was staying alive. Obey while protecting yourself—that was the key!

Qian Daniu was quite tactful. Cao Heihei gave her a once-over and said calmly, “Relax. We won’t kill you. The mountain god requires five sacrificial offerings. Before we figure out the truth about the mountain god, you’re safe. Of course, if you plan to betray us—if you leak our abilities and findings to Qin Xiao’er and Wang Si Pang without Yang Xiaomao’s permission—then I’ll…”

Cao Qian raised an eyebrow at whatever she was thinking (though because of her dark skin, the expression went unnoticed) and said, “...then I’ll trade you for points.”

In the advanced world, killing other players also earned points. But this time there was no player protection policy—you didn’t just get 1,000 points. Instead, you got half of the killed player’s points. Very profitable.

Of course, killing here didn’t mean actual death. It just meant that the player failed the task and would be sent back to the melee world to try again.

That was probably the harshest threat Cao Qian could make.

Huh? It won’t erase consciousness? Qian Daniu patted her chest. After experiencing the threats of Qin Xiao’er and Wang Si Pang, who wanted to erase her consciousness and turn her into an object, she suddenly found these two players kind of...nice.

Having threatened Qian Daniu, Cao Qian turned to Xing Ye and asked, “Where are we going?”

“To my house—and to find your house,” Xing Ye replied.

He was very interested in Yang Dazhuang, who had been hacked up and dumped at the village entrance. He also wanted to know if Xiaomao’s mother’s curse had actually taken effect.

And he was even more curious about what exactly paper dolls were, and how they reproduced. Was Qian Daniu the child of two paper dolls—or one paper doll and one human?

Why had Cao Heihei appeared in the big house right after waking up, with no known family? Also, since the owner of the severed hand didn’t attack Cao Qian, she was probably human too. Could it be that there were hidden secrets in Cao Qian’s unknown family background?

After the world was generated, the system identified Xing Ye’s player identity as “human.” That term could mean a lot: living human, dead human, or paper human. So what did the system really mean by “human”?

Most importantly—what were the rules of this world?

In the melee worlds, the goal was to find the true ending. In the advanced world, it was to break the rules of the world. For example, in the ancient Roman coliseum with Yan Hebi, if both teams had chosen to escape and become free people, that would’ve been breaking the rules. On the cruise ship, when Xing Ye used the outer ring to bankrupt the casino, that too was breaking the rules. But in this world—what was the rule? The mountain god?

Everything was unknown and needed to be explored.

“We should put Qian Daniu in the middle,” Cao Qian suggested. “That way, if something in the dark tries to hurt her, we’ll have time to save her.”

But Xing Ye shook his head. “I have a theory I want to test. Don’t you think that constantly avoiding the people in the dark might make us miss some clues? I think we should use this opportunity to interact with them and understand why they attack paper dolls. Another important question is: how are paper dolls made? Do they need the bodies of living people?”

He analysed the possibilities calmly, as if he were solving an advanced math problem rather than facing monsters in the dark.

Cao Qian thought over Xing Ye’s words and realized she was still too green. Her way of thinking didn’t match his depth or perspective—she still had a lot to learn. Unfortunately, she had no notebook, and phones didn’t work in this world. She could only memorize things with her brain, and she was seriously afraid she couldn’t keep up with Xing Ye.

“You’re saying... let Qian Daniu get caught, and we follow them?” Cao Qian asked. “I tried earlier—they didn’t attack us. That means we might not be able to follow them.”

“There’s still a way,” Xing Ye said. “I found an interesting QR code in this world. It’s the second one I’ve ever discovered using only my own abilities.”

The first QR code was in the school world, after he used the “Piano” skill to help Lin Jingxue pass on, and he received the rare QR code Requiem. All the rest had been found with Little Mirror’s help.

Qian Daniu was stunned. Only two QR codes? How did he make it to the advanced world?

Cao Qian, seeing Xing Ye’s expression, knew this QR code had to be special.

Xing Ye used the Repainting Brush, and a pen appeared in his hand out of thin air. He started drawing a QR code in the air. Qian Daniu could only see him waving the pen around—she couldn’t see what he was drawing.

After he stopped, a small piece of paper appeared out of nowhere and stuck to Cao Qian’s back.

Paper Substitute, a delayed-effect multifunction QR code, had two abilities: Disguise and Substitute.

• Disguise: When stuck to the back, it allows a living person to disguise as a paper doll, gaining acceptance and infiltration into the paper doll group. Costs 10 points per 10 minutes. With Redraw, costs 10 points per 1030 seconds—i.e., 20 minutes.

• Substitute: Can transform into a clone of the user, capable of speaking and eating, but cannot use starting skills or QR codes. Only serves as a stand-in. Costs 10 points per 10 minutes. With Redraw, costs 10 points per 1030 seconds—i.e., 20 minutes.

After hearing the QR code’s abilities, Cao Qian’s first reaction wasn’t that the QR code had two functions—it was shock that a QR code could consume points, and so many at that. Even more than using a skill!

According to the Repainting Brush’s point conversion, 20 minutes cost 40 points per person. One hour of disguise would cost 120 points. Two people: 240 points. Ten hours would be 2,400 points. This QR code was really useful, and Xing Ye would definitely use it often—for disguise or substitution. A conservative estimate would be 20 to 30 hours of use. Add in Yan Hebi’s team, and the total cost would be 72,000 to 100,800 points.

Cao Qian had risked her life in the villa escape world just to earn 30,000 points. Just thinking about this enormous point drain made her heart ache.

But Xing Ye casually said, “It’s nothing. Just tens of thousands of points.”

Cao Qian: “…”

Qian Daniu: “…”

Qian Daniu asked, “Is this really only your second advanced world?”

“Yes,” Xing Ye replied calmly. “I just earned a lot of points in the last world.”

To avoid scaring his teammates, Xing Ye had never told Cao Qian and Guan Ling exactly how many points he earned in the cruise ship world. He only said that defeating the system would grant unimaginably high points.

Cao Qian had always thought that “unimaginable” just meant a few hundred thousand—but who would’ve thought the boss’s point stash was bottomless!

Xing Ye actually found it amusing. He believed that this QR code was deliberately given to him by the system—specifically to help burn through his points. Given his current point total, even if it were halved, then halved again, and again, it still wouldn’t be enough to knock him back into the melee world anytime soon. The system probably understood this, which was why it sent him this QR code to drain his points.

He kept getting the feeling that the system was like a company on the brink of a financial crisis, with a frantic CEO trying every possible method to reclaim funds.

Xing Ye figured the system must be genuinely afraid that he’d suddenly cash out 3 billion RMB in rewards, which would completely break the balance and disrupt its rules.

Sure enough, once power reaches a certain level, even rules have to give way.

After applying the “Paper Substitute” QR code to both himself and Cao Qian, Xing Ye’s points started ticking down at a rate of -20, -20 in the background—but to him, it was just a minor inconvenience.

Xing Ye said to Qian Daniu, “We might encounter combat soon. It’s best if you share your starting skills and how many QR codes you have. That way, we can coordinate better.”

He didn’t phrase it as a request—he was certain Qian Daniu wouldn’t refuse.

And of course, Qian Daniu wouldn’t oppose the idea, not when Xing Ye and Cao Qian had just demonstrated overwhelming strength. In fact, she even needed to appear enthusiastic—that was the only way to make them see her as a teammate, and thus earn herself a share of the points.

She said, “I have six QR codes. Honestly, back in the melee world, I was always trying to accumulate more, but every world required a lot of QR codes, so I was never able to save many. My two starting skills are ‘Steady Stream’ and ‘Quit While You’re Ahead’.

“Steady Stream is a healing ability. I can heal two people a day for one hour each. It can’t fully recover serious injuries, but during combat, it lets people ignore minor wounds—it’s kind of like a healer in an online game. Actually, I was playing an MMORPG when a QR code suddenly popped up on the screen, and I just couldn’t help scanning it. At the time, my game character was a healer, and Steady Stream was basically that healing skill.

“Quit While You’re Ahead works in tandem with Steady Stream. Anyone I’ve healed is considered to have received a favour from me and can’t harm me in any way for the next 24 hours. It’s a self-protection skill.”

 

Translator : DarNan