Chapter 71: Chapter 71
When the darkened Replica pointed at him, Jiang Ye felt an inexplicable wave of amusement.
Not far off, Yang Wenchao's gaze was complicated.
And as for Xing Man, lying in the Blood Mist, he had completely given up hope—
His Blood Mist Big Bro had really betrayed him!
If he’d known, he never would've brought that thing back!
Or rather, if he’d known it would come to this, he should’ve taken out Jiang Ye from the start!
Xing Man was stewing in his own regret, but there was nothing he could do.
All he could do now was—
Those who understand the times are wise!
When the Blood Mist Big Bro pointed at Jiang Ye and said the apartment belonged to this “me,”
Xing Man finally saw the light.
No matter how much hatred or unwillingness he felt, he quickly adjusted his mindset.
He no longer tried to accuse the Blood Mist Big Bro, but suddenly turned toward Jiang Ye, voice full of flattery and submission:
“Classmate J-Jiang Ye…”
“What the Blood Mist Big Bro said is true—this apartment is yours now!”
“I—I’m yours too! Whatever you say, I’ll do! I’ll listen to whatever you tell me!”
In Xing Man’s mind, there was still a chance to survive.
After all, a lot of these classmates had never actually killed anyone.
This Jiang Ye—sure, he one-shotted Ran Ziyi…
But he didn’t look like the bloodthirsty type.
And now that he’d voluntarily surrendered… Orıginal content can be found at novel★fire.net
Wouldn’t it be better to keep him as a lackey than to kill him?
A thought struck Xing Man, and his eyes lit up—his tone became steady, even a bit confident.
He started pitching himself to Jiang Ye:
“I know now that you’ve got the Blood Mist Big Bro on your side, you can basically strut through the apartment unchecked. Naturally, you probably don’t care for a small fry like me.”
“But, you have to understand—the world of the Doomsday Apartment is huge! It’s not just our one little apartment!”
“The Blood Mist Big Bro is strong, yeah, but he’s definitely not invincible!”
“And if someone figures out how to counter that Blood Mist ability… well, then his power is only so-so.”
The moment he said that, the darkened Replica clearly wasn’t happy—those pitch-black eyes flicked toward Xing Man.
Xing Man felt a chill run down his spine.
But seeing that the Blood Mist Big Bro just shot him a glance and didn’t make a move, he relaxed a little.
He looked back at Jiang Ye and continued:
“As the saying goes, two fists can't win against four hands.”
“If you really want to survive and grow stronger long-term in the Doomsday Apartment, having more allies is always better than more enemies.”
“And my value doesn’t lie only in my strength!”
As he spoke, Xing Man shot a glance over at Yang Wenchao.
After a moment of silence, he leaned in close and lowered his voice: “You want to know why Yang Wenchao and I are stronger than most of the others?”
Jiang Ye already knew—
They were Game Players, right?
But Yang Wenchao had only shared info about Game Players with Bald Guy, not “Jiang Ye.”
So technically, this No.1 Replica of Jiang Ye wasn’t supposed to know about that.
Since No.1 Replica Jiang Ye was already level 3,
He wasn’t planning to play dumb anymore.
So he glanced at Yang Wenchao too, then lowered his head and said to Xing Man:
“Because you and Yang Wenchao are Game Players?”
Xing Man’s eyes instantly went wide: “You! You know?!”
Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow: “So what you’re trying to say is, your value also lies in your identity as a Game Player?”
“Then let me ask you—”
“Do you know what the requirements are for killing an Apartment Administrator?”
Xing Man had just been full of confidence, thinking his Game Player status could save his life.
But now, he was starting to panic.
Still, he quickly answered: “If a player attacks the Apartment Administrator, they can be directly erased on the spot!”
“And the reward for 100 straight wins in the Duel Room, the Madman Mask, grants three minutes of immunity against that kind of erasure.”
“Also, once the Administrator dies, the tenants in the apartment won’t be able to pay rent normally.”
“The apartment they manage will automatically be destroyed at the next midnight after their death.”
“So, after the Administrator dies, players have to either leave the apartment through cross-apartment travel, or use a Survival Stone to clear the Beginner Apartment ahead of time.”
So, you could actually clear the Beginner Apartment early.
The big shots in Apartment 9999 were probably aiming for that, huh?
But if Jiang Ye wanted to kill the Apartment Boss, then most likely he wouldn’t be able to clear early—
He’d have to stay behind through cross-apartment access,
and keep working on the follow-up quests to kill the Apartment Wandering Merchant and the Apartment Boss.
A sudden thought hit Jiang Ye—
If killing the Apartment Administrator would cause the apartment to be destroyed early…
Then what about the White-Robed Woman?
He had thought the apartment’s destruction would cause her some kind of trouble.
But if he kills the Administrator, wouldn’t her “trouble” just arrive ahead of schedule?
Maybe the White-Robed Woman assumed he was planning to kill the Administrator of Apartment 9999,
so Apartment 1010 wouldn’t be destroyed early?
No… that can’t be it.
Jiang Ye clearly remembered the White-Robed Woman specifically saying—
Once he killed the Apartment Administrator, she’d give him a “surprise.”
And the tone she used when she said “surprise” was… quite meaningful.
Jiang Ye turned back to Xing Man and asked, “Besides that? Any other consequences of killing an Apartment Administrator?”
Xing Man instinctively shook his head: “Shouldn’t be…”
But then he froze mid-sentence.
As if he suddenly remembered something, his face changed and he corrected himself:
“Actually, I think I remember there was one… not sure if it counts as a result of killing an Administrator, but—it was a game incident.”
Jiang Ye was intrigued and motioned for him to continue.
But Xing Man took this chance to bargain: “I’ll tell you—but only if…”
He hadn’t even finished saying “but”—
When Yang Wenchao walked over and said seriously, “It really was a pretty strange game incident.”
“Back then, none of us Game Players realized the game would eventually invade reality.”
“So at the time, that incident was just seen as a coincidence.”
“But now that we’ve actually entered the Doomsday Apartment, it all feels… a bit suspicious.”
Jiang Ye pressed, “Give me the details—what exactly happened in that incident?”
“It wasn’t anything crazy. Just that back then, a newbie team used Pay-to-Win Mode to challenge the Apartment Administrator.”
“But for some reason, after that team successfully killed the Administrator…”
“The game suddenly issued a server-wide announcement.”
“The content was a server-wide kill order targeting one of the whales from that team.”
“That was probably the only time a server-wide kill order ever happened in the game.”
“The announcement made a big stir at the time, but it didn’t last long.”
“Because within two or three minutes of the kill order going out—”
“That whale got backstabbed and killed by another whale from the same kill-admin team.”
“After that, the guy who completed the kill order got the bounty.”
“And that player later became the strongest player in the whole game!”
Up to this point, it didn’t really sound like a full-blown “game incident.”
But then Yang Wenchao added:
“If it had just happened inside the game—kill order, betrayal, strongest player—it wouldn’t have been that special.”
“What makes it a ‘game incident’ is…”
“That whale who got the kill order? He was later found dead at home—sudden death.”
“Of course, dropping dead from gaming all night isn’t exactly rare.”
“So no one thought much of it at the time. Players just assumed it was coincidence.”
“But now, with the game becoming real…”
“That changes things. It suggests that game… wasn’t just a game.”
“So now I’m seriously wondering—”
“That whale’s sudden death… what if it was caused by the server-wide kill order?”
Yang Wenchao raised a brow at Jiang Ye: “You’ve read those game-invasion novels, haven’t you?”
Yang Wenchao continued, “In those novels, the main character always gets some cheat skill before the game invades reality!”
“So I’m seriously suspecting—”
“That guy who completed the server-wide kill order and became the strongest…”
“He’s probably got some kind of powerful cheat skill now!”
Well, it did make a lot of sense!
Jiang Ye quickly asked, “Do you know who that strongest player is?”
Yang Wenchao shook his head: “Everyone used nicknames in the game—no way to tell who was who.”
“But he must’ve been loaded. He P2W’d up to level 25, probably dropped close to 300k on the game.”
Dropped 300k on a game?!
F***! Rich people are the worst!
Still, with only 300k, probably not someone who knew about the game invasion in advance, right?
Jiang Ye remembered those game-invasion novels—the protagonists who knew ahead of time usually dumped at least a few million.
The really hardcore ones were spending in seven figures like it was pocket change!
Jiang Ye thought, maybe that “strongest player” didn’t even have a cheat skill.
“The whale who got the server-wide kill order—why him specifically?”
Yang Wenchao shook his head: “That was debated a lot in the forums, but no one ever figured it out.”
“People said it was because he killed the Apartment Administrator, but the whole team killed the Administrator—there were more than ten of them.”
“But it’s true—he was only targeted after the kill.”
“So maybe something got triggered when he delivered the finishing blow…”
Yang Wenchao was thinking aloud, trying to piece it together.
And in Jiang Ye’s head, one idea came straight to the surface—
That unlucky whale who got the kill order and died IRL…
Could it be that he had accepted the Kill the Apartment Boss quest?!
And the first step of that quest was to kill the Apartment Administrator…
He did it—then got the kill order, got betrayed by teammates, and died right there.
Jiang Ye suddenly understood what Lin Jing was planning when he asked him to help kill the Administrator!
That guy must’ve remembered the game incident too and figured:
Once Jiang Ye accepted the Kill the Apartment Boss quest, he’d get hit with a server-wide kill order too.
And Lin Jing just needed to kill him right after it triggered to collect the bounty—and maybe even become the next “strongest player”!
So the “surprise” the White-Robed Woman mentioned…
Was that the kill order too?!
F***! What a twisted woman!
If she really wanted him dead, why bother with all this complicated setup?
She even gave him the Golden-Tier Duel Machine reward early.
She probably does want him to succeed in the Kill the Apartment Boss quest.
The kill order must just be an added difficulty—
A built-in challenge.
And for other players, a juicy bonus!
Still… Jiang Ye couldn’t help but wonder—
This server-wide kill order…
Could he just kill himself and claim the bounty for himself?
And anyway, the bounty probably isn’t worth more than the actual rewards for killing the Apartment Boss.
Now that Jiang Ye had a general grasp of the situation, he didn’t stress over it too much.
He turned to Yang Wenchao and asked, “So what kind of strength are we talking about for the Apartment Administrator?”
This time, it was Xing Man shouting from inside the Blood Mist, eager to answer:
“Different apartments have different strength levels for their Administrators!”
“Even the whales in the game, with all the guides and stuff, still had to rely on luck… aagh—”
Before he could finish, Yang Wenchao gave him another kick.
Then Yang Wenchao picked up:
“Generally speaking, if your luck isn’t garbage, a team of ten top-tier fighters with Combat Power 500 has a good shot at taking down an Apartment Administrator.”
“Combat Power 500?!” Jiang Ye looked stunned, completely in disbelief.
Before he could even fully react—
Yang Wenchao jumped in with a question: “How do you know about Game Players and killing Apartment Administrators?”
Jiang Ye had already prepared his explanation: “Because back on the rooftop, didn’t you suggest I hide out in the White-Robed Woman’s apartment?”
“I actually did go there, and I ran into Bald Guy again.”
“He helped me level up to 3.”
Jiang Ye pointed to the darkened Replica.
“This guy who looks just like me—I don’t know exactly where he came from, but the place where Bald Guy and I fought monsters was a space full of red mist.”
Yang Wenchao’s mouth twitched.
That guy, who got pursued across apartments by an NPC, was still alive?!
The more he thought about it, the more unbelievable it seemed!
Surviving an NPC cross-apartment hunt?
How the hell did he manage that??
But he didn’t ask Jiang Ye.
Instead, Jiang Ye, smug as hell, volunteered the info:
“Bald Guy told me he crossed apartments to Apartment 9999, and it’s packed with top-tier pros over there!”
“He didn’t just blend in with them—he even got an NPC quest from the White-Robed Woman.”
“He’s thriving in 9999 Apartment—killing it!”
As he bragged, Jiang Ye watched Yang Wenchao’s expression.
At first, the guy looked like he’d seen a ghost. Then he started looking like he was super constipated!
Jiang Ye was so satisfied watching it, he couldn’t hold back—
He burst out laughing:
“Man, this is too good!”
“My No.1 backup is the awesome Bald Guy!”
“Then I’ve got this Blood Mist Big Bro as backup No.2!”
“And you, Brother Chao! You’re my backup No.3!”
“Man, when you think about it like that—I’m so damn lucky hahahaha…”