Chapter 164: Chapter 164

This time, that round black head didn’t turn, it simply replied:

“If your friend can get the Trader to make a move, then naturally he’ll know whether the Trader meets the requirements.” ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel·fire·net

But the problem was—Jiang Ye had taken on the mission to kill the Apartment Trader.

Back when he first accepted the Kill the Apartment Administrator mission, the 1010 Administrator immediately came up with a trap for him.

Now that the mission had moved on to the Apartment Trader, there was no telling whether the Trader was already preparing to go after him too.

Under such circumstances, how could he possibly convince the Apartment Trader to help him devour the Entropy Scythe?

Wouldn’t the Trader lose face over that?

Even if Jiang Ye and the Administrator weren’t the same identity, and the Trader wouldn’t target his Administrator Replica...

Now suddenly, the Administrator Replica wanted to use it for devouring—how could the Trader not get suspicious?

Even just the suspicion that the Administrator and Jiang Ye were working together...

That alone would be enough reason for the Trader to refuse help.

Besides, the 4444 Administrator was so unique.

A bunch of top players wanted him dead.

Just because of that identity, the Trader probably wouldn’t help.

And even if he did agree, there was a good chance it’d be a trap!

So whether the Trader was willing to help or whether Jiang Ye was willing to accept that help...

This path through the Apartment Trader seemed blocked on both ends.

A sudden idea flashed in Jiang Ye’s mind—

If the Trader disguised himself as Jiang Ye...

Then Jiang Ye fused with the Trader, and used the Trader’s top-tier spatial ability himself?

Would that give him the three minutes needed to devour the Entropy Scythe?

Also, would he be able to manipulate the Trader into disguising as him before the Entropy Scythe’s time limit expired?

If the Trader really had tons of Replicas...

If just one of them disguised as him, could Jiang Ye only control that one disguised Replica, or would he gain control of all of the Trader’s Replicas?

In short, this path seemed workable...

But actually pulling it off probably wouldn’t be so easy.

Jiang Ye sighed inwardly and even let out a sigh on his face, then said to the pitch-black scalp:

“Forget it. My friend didn’t have much hope to begin with. Since it’s not meant to be, let’s just let it go. No need to force it.”

As he said this, his gaze drifted to the nearby bookshelf.

The bookshelf had a creepy aesthetic—designed like a traditional Chinese medicine cabinet, with rows and compartments.

Jiang Ye glanced over, then looked back and said to the head:

“Either way, thanks for your guidance on my friend’s matter.”

“As a token of appreciation, I’ll support your business a little—buy one or two little eeries to play around with.”

The pitch-black scalp still showed no emotion. After knocking on the bar counter a couple of times, an aged and calm voice replied:

“Same old rule—leave it to fate, random selection.”

Wu Ying knew the rules.

Back when he came to this old guy to wash his Glyph Pattern and awaken a new ability, he’d also been forced to pick his little eerie randomly.

At the time, Wu Ying had felt—

Awakening a Glyph Pattern Ability was a life-changing event. There was no such thing as overthinking it. How could you just close your eyes and pick randomly?

But no matter how much he reasoned, he couldn’t get the old guy to change the rule.

In the end, he had no choice but to compromise.

Luckily, Wu Ying had pretty good luck and ended up with a decent little eerie.

It really was fate—he managed to awaken Phantasm Parasitism smoothly.

And that Glyph Pattern Ability not only had solid development potential, it was also fairly rare.

In the entire Doomsday Apartment, players who had Phantasm Parasitism probably didn’t even fill up one hand.

Of course, no matter the rarity, strength was still what mattered most.

No matter how rare, a trash ability was still trash compared to a common powerful one.

But common abilities were easily replaceable.

Rare ones? Irreplaceable.

That’s why top-tier organizations were often willing to be flexible with rare abilities.

This was also a key reason why Wu Ying, despite being stuck at Tier 3, had still been able to join the Duoe Organization.

Jiang Ye had enough Replicas, and could own a huge variety of Glyph Pattern Abilities—just like his Talents, he could have as many as he wanted!

In fact, he was kind of looking forward to it—

For most players, Eerie Transformation meant death, meant having their identity taken over by an eerie.

But Jiang Ye’s situation seemed... different.

If his Replicas underwent Eerie Transformation during ability awakening...

Would the Replicas truly lose consciousness?

After all, even transformed, they were still his Replicas!

So Jiang Ye had some doubts—

Even if his Replicas transformed from Human Player to Eerie Player...

Under the influence of Infinite Replication, they might still be under his control.

At most, like Blackened Replicas, they’d stop sharing his consciousness but still be loyal to him.

In any case, Jiang Ye just wanted to experiment with awakening a Glyph Pattern Ability.

As for the ability’s strength—that wasn’t his focus for now.

So, of course, he had no problem following the Eerie Nurturer’s rules—random selection was fine.

He scanned the entire wall of shelves and went with his gut—pointed at two nearby compartments, then asked the pitch-black scalp:

“How about these two?”

With that, the scalp knocked twice on the counter again.

The two selected compartments opened on their own.

Inside the left one was a teacup, half-filled with clear water, and a nearly invisible, rice-sized water bug swimming inside.

It looked kind of like a jellyfish—surprisingly pretty.

The right one held a rusted pushpin, its tip bearing a tiny, trembling red dot.

Jiang Ye waved his hand and pulled out a white jade container from Wu Ying’s Spatial Item.

He carefully transferred both little eeries inside.

Then, the pitch-black scalp reminded him:

“That white jade box can only store them for half an hour. Any longer will affect their vitality.”

Jiang Ye nodded and asked, “Same old price?”

So Jiang Ye pulled out Wu Ying’s Survival Jade Token and handed over 22 Survival Points to the old guy.

He still felt a bit of a sting in his heart—

Just two little eeries cost 22 Survival Points?!

That was enough to generate 22 Replicas!

Jiang Ye thought—once he figured out how to awaken Glyph Pattern Abilities properly, he’d stop wasting money and try catching some wild little eeries for awakening.

With that in mind, and after exchanging a few polite words with the pitch-black scalp, he left the Eerie Nurturer’s shop.

As he stepped out, he let out a breath of relief.

At the very least, his first action under Wu Ying’s identity had gone smoothly.

He glanced again at the room number plate—T-2025—then took a winding path and left on his own.

Back inside the Nurturer’s shop, the pitch-black scalp started spinning again, like a broken-down machine—left turn, right turn.

Then it knocked on the counter a few more times.

This time, the sound that came from the round, black head was no longer the aged voice Jiang Ye had heard.

It was a cold, mechanical tone.

And what it said was a quote from Einstein—

“God does not play dice...”

But as that line echoed out,

A faint dice projection suddenly appeared above the round black scalp, spinning wildly and endlessly.

Jiang Ye knew nothing of this. It wasn’t until he returned to Wu Ying’s staff dorm that he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He placed the two jade boxes into his Replica Shared Space.

So now, even Replicas back in the Beginner Apartment could directly retrieve them.

Logically, since this was just an experiment, it was safest to use a disposable Replica.

But he had a feeling—

The little eeries bought from the mysterious Nurturer might not be so simple.

So he didn’t want to waste them on a disposable Replica.

In fact, right at that moment, a wild, crazy idea popped into his head—

Could a Light-Type Replica truly not awaken a Glyph Pattern Ability?

What would happen if he forced one onto Light?

There was no danger to the Light Replica.

But the invading little eerie might get purified by light instantly.

Meaning the Light Replica wouldn’t even get the chance to awaken—the little eerie would die first.

Jiang Ye wondered whether this kind of issue could be resolved through Replica Fusion or some other Replica Skill...

But in any case, he had bought two little eeries.

So he decided to test the waters with a Dark-Type Replica first.