Chapter 169: Chapter 169

Did I f***ing accidentally summon the Trader??

Was I so focused on reading chat that my hand slipped or something??

There’s no way I’d make such a rookie mistake!

If I mess up, it better be a high-level mistake, not this dumb sh*t!

Jiang Ye felt a wave of disorientation.

There it was, cloaked in black from head to toe.

More precisely, a being wrapped entirely in a black robe…

Even though that robe revealed no visible features,

Jiang Ye recognized it almost instantly—

This was the eerie black shadow from the 20th floor hallway that had randomly handed him a Survival Jade Token!

The legendary Apartment Trader!!

How could Jiang Ye not tense up all over?!

After all, the Administrator chat had hinted loud and clear—

This guy was no ordinary figure!

For him, killing a player and taking the 10,000 Survival Point penalty? Probably no big deal!

Of course, if it were just a single Replica dying, it wouldn’t matter so much…

But what Jiang Ye feared the most—

Was whether this guy really could, like the rumors said, wipe out all his Replicas in one shot!

Because this Trader dude also seemed to have a powerful Replica ability...

And right as he appeared, he mentioned the Replica Reflection Mirror…

How much did he already know about Jiang Ye’s setup?

Why show up now? For what purpose?!

Jiang Ye wasn’t just physically tense—his nerves were on high alert too.

So high he was borderline losing it—and still managed to awkwardly laugh and reply:

“Yeah… it’s, uh, working pretty well :)”

“……” Even as he said it, he realized that sounded almost like a deliberate provocation.

Hahahaha, didn’t Little Bai just tell him to be careful not to provoke the Trader?

At this point, Jiang Ye’s mind was racing with one thought:

Survive. Get the h*ll out.

From the depths of that dark robe, a soft chuckle echoed.

“In that case… how about a trade?”

Sure, the Trader existed to make deals with Players.

But Jiang Ye could tell—

This guy wasn’t talking about your average Survival Points for Items kind of deal.

After a moment of thought, Jiang Ye asked cautiously, “Let’s hear it. What kind of trade?”

The Trader was blunt and to the point:

“You give me the cross, and I’ll give you the Replica Reflection Mirror. How about it?”

He must mean the cross dropped by the 4444 Administrator?

Wait—this Trader knew Jiang Ye had that cross?! Orıginal content can be found at NoveI★Fire.net

But of course, Jiang Ye wasn’t going to admit to anything.

He frowned and said, “What cross?”

“And isn’t the Replica Reflection Mirror already mine?”

He was visibly tense now.

No way this guy is shameless enough to take something he already sold to a Player and try to sell it again, right?

That’d be absolutely villain behavior.

Sure, it was Huang Qi who bought it, not him…

But if the Trader actually pulled that move, Huang Qi would probably be rolling in his grave, too angry to rest.

The Trader wasn’t that shameless.

“The Replica Reflection Mirror you own… to be precise, is actually: Replica Reflection Mirror (Incomplete).”

“The full version of the Replica Reflection Mirror is still with me.”

As he spoke, he seemed to remember something and gave Jiang Ye a little lesson:

“Do you know what ‘(Incomplete)’ means in these item names?”

“Generally speaking, items labeled with (Incomplete) are all quite powerful.”

“And each of them has a complete counterpart.”

“The complete version can produce large numbers of its (Incomplete) versions.”

“For example—Mercy of the Reaper (Incomplete), Abyssal Veil (Incomplete), Chaos Furnace (Incomplete), Fortunes Turn (Incomplete)…”

“All of these have corresponding complete versions.”

But Jiang Ye’s brain was practically buzzing!

Because those four (Incomplete) items the Trader just listed…

Were all things Jiang Ye had personally encountered!

Mercy of the Reaper (Incomplete) was a one-time-use item that Wang Chengjin used—

And it let him experience a resurrection like rewinding time!

Even the incomplete version had already blown Jiang Ye’s mind—

So how terrifying would the complete version be?!

And the other three—Abyssal Veil (Incomplete), Chaos Furnace (Incomplete), Fortunes Turn (Incomplete)…

Those were all the rewards Little Bai had given him in advance for killing the Apartment Trader!!

He knew about all three!

Plus—none of those items were simple.

Abyssal Veil (Incomplete) could create a temporary abyssal zone that sealed off all spatial teleportation—

It was tailor-made to counter the Trader.

In fact, it was extremely effective against Light-type escape skills like Light and Shadow Escape.

Chaos Furnace (Incomplete) was also incredibly valuable…

Its effect is the fusion of multiple items into one!

Take Guan He’s Special-Grade Madman Mask, for example—it was created by fusing ten Madman Masks using the Chaos Furnace.

You could say that even an incomplete Chaos Furnace is more valuable than ten regular Madman Masks combined!

The incomplete version is single-use—after one use, it’s completely destroyed.

Then there’s Fortunes Turn (Incomplete)—a top-like item etched with eerie spiral patterns.

While the top spins, the Player receives insane buffs like “Undying,” “Invincible,” and “Ultimate Luck”!

With these buffs stacked together, a Player could be even harder to kill than someone in Death-State from Apartment 4444!

Of course, being incomplete, it’s still only usable once, and the buff duration is tied to how long the top keeps spinning.

But even so—just the incomplete versions of these items are already game-breaking...

Now, according to the Trader—

All incomplete items have complete counterparts!

And the complete versions can produce their own incomplete copies—just like a main body generating Replicas…

Jiang Ye could barely wrap his mind around it.

What level of insane power must the full versions of those items have?!

But the one he cared about most was, of course—

The complete Replica Reflection Mirror!

The incomplete version Jiang Ye currently owned could only produce one Mirror Replica at a time.

But if he had the complete version, he could generate multiple incomplete versions—

Which meant multiple Replicas at the same time!

Jiang Ye couldn’t help but wonder—

Could it be that the Apartment Trader’s army of Replicas…

Wasn’t a Talent, nor a Privilege,

But a result of using the full version of the Replica Reflection Mirror?!

That made Jiang Ye want the full version so badly!!

This item—it was practically made for him!

For the first time ever, Jiang Ye felt this intensely drawn to an item.

Not even the Raven Egg—which had gotten Little Bai all worked up—had made him feel .

And now, the Trader was saying—

He was willing to trade the complete version of the Replica Reflection Mirror…

No wonder he’s the Trader. He really knows how to bait a deal!

Still, no matter how tempted Jiang Ye was—he wasn’t stupid.

He knew one simple truth:

No merchant ever makes a loss.

If the Trader was willing to swap the full Replica Reflection Mirror for the cross—

Then it could only mean one thing:

The cross is worth even more than the mirror.

That thought made him all the more curious—

What exactly is this cross?

The Apartment Boss wanted it.

Even Reincarnated Eeries like Guan He were after it…

Yet Reincarnated Eeries like the White-Clad Woman didn’t even seem to know it existed…

Jiang Ye’s mind churned. Then he probed the Trader:

“You mean the cross that dropped from the 4444 Administrator?”

“What exactly is that thing? What makes it so valuable?”

He frowned—he could sense the Trader didn’t want to explain.

“If you won’t explain what that cross actually is, then there’s no way I’m making a deal.”

The Trader remained silent for a long moment.

Then finally, he spoke—his voice deep and slow:

“That cross… among the top-tier Privilege Players, it’s known as—

The Reincarnation Key.”

“They say that whoever possesses the Reincarnation Key… can reincarnate into the next Doomsday Apartment when this one is destroyed.”

“Of course, this is only speculation among Privilege Players. No one can say for certain whether the cross really does that.”

Jiang Ye frowned. He didn’t buy it.

“You’re not even sure that’s true, yet you’re willing to trade your complete Replica Reflection Mirror for it?”

“If I’m not mistaken, that mirror is your trump card, isn’t it?”

“Aren’t you afraid that after trading it away, you won’t even live to see the Doomsday Apartment’s end?”

His doubts were genuine.

But the Trader responded with a soft, odd little laugh.

Then suddenly, in an unusually frank tone, he said:

“Your quest has three phases, right?”

“Phase One: kill the Apartment Administrator.

Phase Two: kill the Apartment Trader.

Phase Three: kill the Apartment Boss.”

The moment he said that, Jiang Ye felt… awkward.

After all, the Trader had already revealed he knew the reward items for his quest.

So knowing the quest details wasn’t a stretch.

The Trader dropped a bombshell:

“To be honest, those Reincarnated Eeries…”

“Their vision is still too limited.”

“If they had access to more high-tier privilege intel, they never would’ve designed the task chain like that.”

“Because the correct order should be—”

“Phase One: Kill the Apartment Administrator;

Phase Two: Kill all 26 Apartment Bosses;

Phase Three: Kill the Apartment Trader.”

When he said “kill the Trader,” his voice was so casual—like it was nothing to him.

And then, as if that wasn’t shocking enough, he added:

“If you accept my deal—”

“And if you’re confident in your own strength—”

“I can even grab an Apartment Boss for you to kill. Right now.”