Chapter 78: Chapter 78

The Blackened Replica nodded, seriously outlining his plan:

“I plan to perfectly disguise myself as a human player and lure all kinds of powerful Eerie to invade me.”

“That way, it won’t be long before I become the strongest, greatest Eerie in existence!”

He said this with such heroic pride, like he was talking about a bright and promising future.

Jiang Ye was actually inclined to believe him—

this guy would definitely become a particularly powerful Eerie someday.

After all, other Eerie could only have one glyphmark ability, but he could have multiple.

Yeah, let’s not go that far.

Jiang Ye didn’t rain on his parade and simply looked at the three tattoos on him:

“Let’s take a look at your three glyphmark abilities then.”

“This red foggy one—is that a tattoo too? It’s probably tied to a Blood Mist ability, right?”

“Yes.” The Blackened Replica nodded. “This is the glyphmark I mainly developed during my time pretending to be human—Blood Mist Shroud.”

“The main reason I picked it is because it doesn’t come off as too eerie when used.”

“And its effect is straightforward and brutal——”

“Under the Blood Mist Shroud, enemies’ attributes are weakened, while my own attributes increase.”

“That’s just the second-tier effect. Once I reach tier three, any injured unit will start bleeding.”

“And at tier five, if the mist envelops a wounded player, they’ll instantly turn into a dried-up husk!”

This glyphmark ability was seriously badass!

Jiang Ye had relied on Replica Fusion to crush his matched opponents in duels.

He used to think such overpowered abilities only belonged to him.

But to his surprise, glyphmark powers could do the same!

Under the mist, his stats would skyrocket while the enemy’s plummeted—

a total stat domination!

And that guy he met in his Ten-Win Streak match—

his glyphmark ability was also insane, able to copy Jiang Ye’s stats directly!

If not for his own broken-tier replication talent, he probably would’ve lost back then!

Thankfully, now he pretty much had a glyphmark ability himself.

He then turned to look at the second glyphmark on the Blackened Replica.

It was just a simple smiling face, two eyes and a mouth. (^v^)

Looked like something only a little kid would get as a tattoo.

The Blackened Replica proactively explained:

“This glyphmark can change.”

As he spoke, the tattoo morphed into a pair of eyes.

Then into a hand. Then into a mouth...

And the most absurd part—the mouth could move, like it was actually talking!

“This is one of the most common glyphmark abilities. It’s called Fleshweaving.”

“The effect is the reconstruction of flesh and muscle into different organs.

Like those nine extra hands of mine—that’s how I made them.”

“Besides hands, I can weave other parts too, like eyes...”

As he spoke, several eyeballs floated around him, blinking and staring at Jiang Ye.

The eyeballs turned into mouths, smiling at Jiang Ye.

Some even changed expressions, twisting into creepy grins.

“Or even something larger—like heads.”

All the mouths gathered together and formed a head identical to Jiang Ye’s,

which the Blackened Replica held in his hands.

“This is Fleshweaving.”

“This ability’s first tier isn’t that strong—it’s mainly good for scaring people.”

“At tier two, eyes, noses, mouths and other organs can evolve into different abilities.”

“At tier three, the flesh can be woven into weapons and items like swords, spears, shoes, gloves—pretty powerful stuff.”

“But for now, mine’s still just tier one, so it’s pretty basic—not really viable for serious combat.”

Fair enough, kind of mid-tier.

Jiang Ye glanced at the head in the Blackened Replica’s hand, then suddenly asked:

“I saw a knife once—covered in eyeballs. When used, it made the enemy act like they were mind-controlled.”

“Do you know what glyphmark ability that was?”

He was talking about Lin Jing’s power.

The Blackened Replica stroked his chin thoughtfully, then guessed:

“Probably also Fleshweaving.”

“Yeah. This glyphmark ability is so common it’s practically everywhere—but it has huge potential.”

“The tier two range of Fleshweaving is really broad——”

“Some are insanely strong, others not so much.”

“It depends on which organs—eyes, noses, mouths—you evolve, and what kind of powers they unlock.”

“My own Fleshweaving could already be upgraded to tier two,

but I’ve held off so I can ensure every organ evolves into a powerful ability at the next tier.”

“The one you described, using eyes for mind control—that’s probably a case where the eyes evolved into a psychic-type power.”

That explained a lot...

Jiang Ye was absorbed and couldn’t help asking:

“So tier two of Fleshweaving lets each organ evolve into a different power?”

“In theory, yes. But actually doing that takes too much time and effort.”

“So most Fleshweaving users you’ll meet will focus on one organ.

Some might have two, but more than three? That’s super rare.”

“But my goal is to evolve every organ into a powerful ability!”

As he spoke, the Blackened Replica got proud again.

Jiang Ye thought it made sense. If it were him, of course he’d want every organ to have powers too.

The only question now—

if Lin Jing’s glyphmark really was Fleshweaving,

did he evolve any other organs besides his eyes?

At that moment, Replica No. 2 had already arrived at Lin Jing’s duel arena to spectate.

The number of spectators had clearly increased.

A rough estimate put it over ten thousand!

Maybe even more than twenty thousand!

But this spike in viewership probably had to do with a change in the pricing model.

Last time, Jiang Ye paid 10,000 Survival Points just to watch one of Lin Jing’s duels.

At the time, he thought it wasn’t worth it, so he only watched one and left.

However, upon returning this time, he noticed a new option had been added to the spectating fee system——

One match was still 10,000;

but paying 40,000 in one go let you watch five matches in a row.

Paying 60,000 let you watch ten matches straight!

Of course, if Lin Jing lost early, and those who bought the ten-match package didn’t get to see all ten matches,

then that was the spectator’s own loss—no refunds.

Still, with Lin Jing’s War God Ranking #1 strength,

if he really did lose, it would be an absolutely thrilling match.

Getting to witness something like that, most viewers probably wouldn’t mind the extra cost.

Under this kind of package system, it became much easier to keep spectators around.

That included Jiang Ye—this time, he came back to spectate and directly paid 40,000 to watch five matches in a row.

After watching just the first of the five-match streak, he realized——

Lin Jing’s Quick Battle Card strategy was clearly being countered!

Because his opponent this time was clearly much harder to deal with than the one in his first Quick Battle match.

The guy showed up on the duel stage blindfolded.

As a result, he wasn’t controlled by Lin Jing’s eye-covered knife.

He got a real chance to go head-to-head with Lin Jing.

But even in a fair fight, he still lost.

Lin Jing’s attributes and combat instincts were both very strong.

And he probably still had trump cards he hadn’t revealed yet.

Jiang Ye returned to his seat next to Wan Xin and probed,

“Lin God’s opponents now should all be War God-level players from other zones, right?”

Wan Xin saw him again, unsurprised, and snorted,

“Not yet. These opponents aren’t from other zones’ War God Rankings.”

“Those guys are probably waiting for Lin God’s Quick Battle pool to build up more prize money.”

“Then they’ll show up in the final few matches, beat Lin God, and walk away with the whole pot!”

“Hmph! A bunch of vultures waiting to swoop in at the last second!”

Wan Xin sounded extremely disdainful.

It made Jiang Ye feel a little awkward.

Because... he was thinking the exact same thing, haha…

He rubbed his nose to hide the awkwardness, then remarked,

“Still, Lin God’s opponent in this match is clearly stronger than in the first match.”

“And it looks like he figured out a way to deal with those red eyes of Lin God’s.”

“Just avoid looking at them, and you don’t get mind-controlled?”

Wan Xin shrugged indifferently: “So what if he figured it out? He still lost to Lin God.”

“These current matches are just trial rounds.”

“Those eyeing the Quick Battle jackpot are just using these small fries to force Lin God to reveal more trump cards,

then look for a way to counter them.”

Jiang Ye silently analyzed it all, then guessed,

“These small fries must be using Privilege Cards to match Lin God, right?”

“Exactly.” Wan Xin nodded. “Because of Quick Battle’s nature,

any player in the whole server can match with Lin God without restriction.”

“But there are so many in the matchmaking pool—relying on random chance makes it almost impossible to get him.

So if they want a guaranteed match, they have to use Privilege Cards.”

Confirmed that you can match with Lin Jing using Privilege Cards—that was good news for Jiang Ye.

After all, his Golden-tier Duel Machine still had two Privilege Cards to claim.

So matching with Lin Jing later would be easy for him.

Still, he needed to watch out—

if someone beat Lin Jing first, the prize pool could be scooped up by a powerhouse from another zone.

Hopefully… that wouldn’t happen.

If Lin Jing dared to go all-out with Quick Battles so publicly,

he must be confident in his victory. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn noⅴelfire.net

Jiang Ye mulled it over.

Right then, during the 3-minute intermission between two matches,

Wan Xin suddenly asked,

“You left earlier—were you doing a win streak run?”

“How’d it go? How many wins?”

Jiang Ye didn’t hide it: “Just hit Ten-Win Streak.”

He even grinned smugly and said,

“Ten minutes, ten wins—easy.”

Truthfully, if not for a minor hiccup in the tenth match,

he could’ve done it in five.

Wan Xin said nothing, didn’t even comment.

After all, this guy had already earned Lin God’s admiration,

so Ten-Win Streak in ten minutes wasn’t even that impressive anymore.

“What did you get as your Ten-Win reward? Which one did you pick?”

Jiang Ye didn’t hide it: “Phantom Lantern.”

Wan Xin frowned and asked,

“Was Distorted Box one of your three choices?”

Jiang Ye nodded: “Yeah, but I didn’t pick it.”

Wan Xin went speechless for a moment.

“The Ten-Win reward pool is super rich—not everyone gets Distorted Box as an option.”

“The fact that it even showed up in your selection means your performance was top-tier.”

“But the fact that you didn’t pick it? That just means your luck... might be a bit lacking.”

“At this rate, even if you hit a hundred-win streak, you might never draw Madman Mask.”

Jiang Ye thought getting Phantom Lantern, something so tied to his replica powers, meant he was lucky.

Turns out that’s considered bad luck?

Still, one thing was clear——

The reason his Ten-Win reward options were so good was because his own performance was excellent.

Players who bought their win streaks probably didn’t get rewards this good.

Items like Phantom Lantern and Eye of Death were definitely not common drops.

Thinking that, Jiang Ye felt a bit better.

Wan Xin even tried to comfort him:

“Still, maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t get Distorted Box.”

“If some freak Eerie popped out of it, you might’ve died on the spot.”

Seeing how well Wan Xin knew Distorted Box, Jiang Ye couldn’t help but ask,

“Wait—Lin Jing’s Ten-Win reward… was it Distorted Box?”

“Yup.” Wan Xin nodded. “That eyeball-covered knife of Lin God’s came out of Distorted Box.”

It came from Distorted Box?

But weren’t the eyeballs on that knife part of a Fleshweaving glyphmark?

Or... was Lin Jing hiding his glyphmark ability on purpose?

As he was thinking, Wan Xin kept rambling:

“Lin God’s luck is ridiculous!”

“Our Apartment 9999 has others who tried using Distorted Box,

but basically no one got anything good.”

“That poor guy Cheng Qun even pulled out an Eerie and lost two fingers.”

Seeing how chatty Wan Xin was, Jiang Ye intentionally gossiped,

“So did you ever try Distorted Box? What’d you get?”

Wan Xin, who had been talking up a storm, suddenly went quiet.

Then he shook his head and sighed:

“My dumb luck is even worse than yours!”

“Did you think I’m ranked last in Apartment 9999’s leaderboard,

and spend all day chatting in group chats, because I’m lazy and unmotivated?”

Heh—Jiang Ye really had thought that.

But Wan Xin shook his head again:

“It’s not that I lack ambition—it’s that my luck is garbage.”

“There’s a saying in Doomsday Apartment——”

‘If you’re unlucky, don’t try too hard—trying harder just brings more misfortune!’”

“That’s why I gave up and just enjoy chatting in the group.”

“You and I are pretty much the same—so you’d better stop trying too hard too. Just chill with me.”

Jiang Ye cursed him in his heart: Who’s like you?! My luck’s great, thank you very much!

“So you haven’t even used Distorted Box because your luck’s that bad?”

“But if you really want to try, you can ask Lin God.”

“Lin God’s pretty easygoing. In Apartment 9999, pretty much everyone has tried Distorted Box—

except me, the cursed one.”

Jiang Ye was honestly kind of curious about using Distorted Box.

But he also thought——

If he disrupted Lin Jing’s Quick Battle streak…

would Lin Jing still let him use Distorted Box afterward?

Any normal person with pride probably wouldn’t.

But if it were a fake-friendly, profit-focused guy...

Like if Lin Jing still wanted to team up with him to kill an Apartment Administrator,

then wait for Jiang Ye to get hit with a server-wide bounty afterward...

Then maybe Lin Jing would keep up a friendly façade.

But if Jiang Ye really did break Lin Jing’s win streak—

would Lin Jing still be confident he could kill him after the bounty was issued?

Jiang Ye mulled it over.

On the arena, another of Lin Jing’s duels began.

And the opponent who stepped onto the stage made his eyes light up.

Wan Xin noticed his expression and raised a brow: “What, you know her?”

Jiang Ye shook his head: “No. Just seen her duel before.”

Wan Xin grinned: “You might not know her, but I do.”