Chapter 267: Chapter 267
Zhang Jintian swallowed hard, thinking to himself that he had truly never seen such a "bear the consequences yourself" performance before.
However, just as he was marveling at the corpse puppet's shocking actions, something else happened that truly opened his eyes—
[Warning! Warning! This apartment is under unknown attack!]
[Warning! Warning! This apartment is under unknown attack!]
This sharp alarm might not be unfamiliar to players who experienced 4444 Apartment's devastating destruction.
But Zhang Jintian had been in Apartment 1010 at that time.
So this was the first time he was hearing such an alarm!
The crucial point was—along with the alarm, he could clearly feel—
At the same time, a terrifying pressure engulfed everything, making his legs tremble uncontrollably!
This sudden turn of events left Zhang Jintian utterly dumbfounded and completely stunned!
Now when he looked at that corpse puppet again, what he felt was genuine soul-deep terror!
He also noticed the corpse puppet's hollow gaze directed back at him—cold, authoritative, contemptuous...
Like a supreme deity looking down upon an insignificant ant!
Zhang Jintian's entire body trembled uncontrollably.
This time, without needing any further threats from the corpse puppet, he frantically began sending messages to Administrator 4444 with shaking hands!
Inside Room 2064 of 4444 Apartment, Zhou Yuling and Jiang Ye's Clone No. 1 naturally heard the warning alarms too.
Zhou Yuling remained calm.
Her eyes flickered slightly as she thought for a moment before saying to Jiang Ye: "This 4444 Apartment is truly no place to stay for long."
"Since you're going to capture Qu Xing alive, I'll go investigate the ruins of the Void Mirror Palace."
"Let's keep in touch via the voice transmission bead. If we need to meet again, we'll do so at Apartment 9669."
Jiang Ye showed no expression outwardly, but inwardly he was experiencing rare genuine anger!
His anger wasn't about 4444 Apartment being attacked.
But rather—his true body was still inside the exclusive instance!
After 1010 and 4444 merged, it was equivalent to being in the exclusive instance connected to Room 2025 of 4444 Apartment!
And his true body was his reverse scale!
That corpse puppet attacking the entire 4444 Apartment was equivalent to attacking his true body!
If the apartment's destruction time being moved up affected his true body completing the exclusive instance...
Then that corpse puppet and the Administrator 0000 behind it deserved to die ten thousand times over!
Clone No. 1 Jiang Ye unusually didn't respond to Zhou Yuling.
With a flash, he disappeared on the spot.
Zhou Yuling didn't dwell on it either, similarly vanishing in a flash.
As she said, she directly crossed over to Apartment 9669.
After the warning alarm sounded five full times in 4444 Apartment, just like during the previous destruction of 4444 Apartment, the warning content changed—
[Warning! Warning! This apartment is under unknown attack! Apartment destruction time will be moved up by 2 hours!]
Almost simultaneously with this warning...
Clone No. 1 Jiang Ye appeared in the first floor lobby.
From afar, he could see that the last remaining corpse puppet had actually levitated into the air!
It hovered high up, arms stretched stiffly forward.
Its two palms seemed to be pressing down on two deep blue "eyeballs" on the ground.
Meanwhile, its empty eye sockets that had lost their eyeballs took a moment to glance in Jiang Ye's direction.
That glance—despite having no eyeballs and thus no actual gaze—
Somehow carried an overwhelming, imperious aura looking down from above.
That arrogant, naturally superior attitude was extremely reminiscent of Administrator 0000!
Clone No. 1 Jiang Ye locked eyes with those empty sockets from a distance.
He didn't launch any attacks.
Instead, he directly flipped his hand and took out the authority token of the Rookie King.
After quickly binding his Rookie King identity...
He immediately—summoned the Nomadic Merchant!
The moment he summoned the merchant...
The atmosphere in the shaking first floor lobby suddenly transformed!
A black shadow seemed to tear through space itself, solidly manifesting in 4444 Apartment's first floor lobby!
As soon as its feet touched the ground—
The entire apartment's shaking abruptly stopped.
The sharp, piercing alarm also ceased.
As if the previously massive "unknown attack" had been completely suppressed in this instant!
Even the levitating corpse puppet suddenly dropped stiffly from the air.
As if slapped down by an immense force...
Now the corpse puppet seemed to have lost its soul.
Though its appearance hadn't changed, all its previous dominating aura was gone.
Instead, the newly arrived black shadow radiated an overwhelming superior presence.
Along with the black shadow's arrival came an openly angry voice:
"What kind of nonsense dares to summon me?"
But soon, as the shadow landed and its gaze fell upon Jiang Ye,
It seemed to pause briefly before impatiently adding:
"Do it again and I'll slap you to death!"
Wait what? Buddy? If I don't summon you how can I trade with you?
Jiang Ye felt slightly speechless inside.
The shadow seemed to read his thoughts and retorted bluntly:
"If you want to trade or see me, just call out."
"Among all Rookie Kings, you're the only one who's ever used the summoning privilege."
Jiang Ye got the sense this implied—you're the only one who used it and lived...
Fine, his bad for not knowing the rules.
Jiang Ye's gaze quickly swept over Zhang Jintian in the lobby and the soulless corpse puppet on the floor.
He said firmly to the shadow: "I want to trade with you."
A seemingly simple statement, but his glance at Zhang Jintian and the puppet carried hidden meaning.
As if mind-reading, the Nomadic Merchant understood perfectly.
With a casual wave of its hand—
Jiang Ye felt everything around him instantly darken.
He knew it wasn't the environment changing—
He and the shadow had simply moved to another space.
Other Jiang Ye clones in 4444 Apartment noticed the alarms didn't resume after the spatial shift.
Jiang Ye sighed in relief internally as the shadow addressed him directly:
"Moving up our 12 o'clock trade?"
Without hesitation, Jiang Ye nodded: "Because the current situation is special..."
As he spoke, he produced the talisman-sealed Administrator 4444.
The inch-long wooden doll fit entirely in his palm.
The shadow didn't seem surprised, merely murmuring: "Ah, special circumstances... Administrator 4444 is sealed..."
After what seemed like a glance at Clone No. 1 to confirm his intent, it casually raised its right hand, flicking and hooking with its index finger.
Then Jiang Ye witnessed—
The talisman on the wooden doll fluttered off like worthless paper,
Burning to ashes mid-air as it fell!
Simultaneously, the doll-form Administrator 4444 rapidly returned to normal!
Both Clone No. 1 and the administrator clone's eyes widened in shock!
What Jiang Ye didn't know was—
The moment that talisman burned,
Far away in Apartment 0000, Lin Ling—
Facing her giant chessboard—
Suddenly lost control of her mind and spat out a mouthful of blood!
Her face turned deathly pale in that instant, her expression dazed, eyes swirling with disbelief!
Jiang Ye was unaware of this, but seeing how easily the merchant removed Lin Ling's talisman—
Without even using any "talisman knowledge"—
He suddenly realized with crystal clarity—
Why players in that card game liked saying "Enough with the fancy tricks!"—
Because before absolute power,
All elaborate methods were indeed just fancy tricks!
With this thought, Jiang Ye mustered his courage to ask:
"Um, great one, there's another special situation...wondering if you could help...?"
Before he even specified what it was,
The shadow seemed to read him again, replying directly:
"You want to ask if I can completely remove Lightburn effects?"
Jiang Ye's eyes lit up instantly.
Because the shadow's tone sounded completely relaxed, as if Lightburn meant nothing to it!
But before Jiang Ye could speak,
The shadow seemed to catch something from his excited look and added bluntly:
"Complete removal is impossible."
"But I can transfer your Lightburn to myself."
"..." Chapters fırst released on novel•fire.net