Chapter 90: Chapter 90

To be honest, Jiang Ye hadn’t really planned on trading for any guide.

He’d just said that to squeeze some more free info out of Wan Xin.

But after hearing that “tiny fraction” Wan Xin revealed, he was genuinely tempted!

If it was really like Wan Xin said…

that there were all kinds of power-boosting locations in special-numbered apartments,

and that there were even different training routes to follow so players could plan their Beginner Phase’s 10 days clearly—

then this guide really was, just like Wan Xin claimed, priceless!

So this time, Wan Xin wasn’t just drawing pie in the sky?

Either way, Jiang Ye was truly convinced.

“I’ll agree to this deal, but I have two conditions.”

“First, your guide has to be complete—it must list all the special features of each special apartment, and clearly detail every training route for each type of build.”

Wan Xin nodded, “That might take a bit of time to organize. But no big deal, I was already sorting the guide while spectating Lin Shen’s match.”

“But I also have one condition—”

“After I give you the full guide, you can’t resell it to anyone else.”

Jiang Ye nodded and agreed to Wan Xin’s last-minute term.

Then he stated his second condition:

“The second condition is about that part of the deal where you throw the match to let me get on the War God Ranking.”

Wan Xin raised an eyebrow: “What, don’t tell me your pride won’t allow a rigged win, so you don’t want this fake honor?”

Jiang Ye smiled, “Of course not.”

“I’ll absolutely go along with a rigged match if it’s the right time.”

“But here’s the thing—”

“What if I can beat you fair and square?”

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“Beat me? Fair and square? Bro, are you still dreaming, or do you really think I’m just some useless scrub?”

“You think just because I’m being nice, the lower ranks of the War God Ranking don’t mean anything?”

Wan Xin looked at him suspiciously, but deep down, a trace of caution flickered in his eyes.

Because he vaguely sensed—

this guy wasn’t joking!

Jiang Ye smiled calmly: “Whether I win or not isn’t certain. But I’d like to change the terms of the deal a little.”

“For this match, I’ll fight with my own strength.”

“But as compensation, you’ll need to pay me five hundred million.”

Five hundred million…

Wan Xin’s expression darkened.

Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow again: “You were the one who said the War God Ranking rewards and honor are worth way more than five hundred million!”

“So now, if I choose to fight you head-on, I’m giving up the value you were offering me. Asking for five hundred million in return isn’t unreasonable, right?”

But in Wan Xin’s case, it wasn’t so simple.

After all, he already had a feeling—

he wouldn’t be able to hold onto his War God Ranking spot much longer.

A ranking he couldn’t keep anyway—if he just handed it to Jiang Ye through a rigged match, it wouldn’t be much of a loss.

But if they followed Jiang Ye’s terms…

he’d have to fork over five hundred million himself.

And this guy was freakishly tricky—if he really did win…

then not only would he lose his ranking, but he’d be five hundred million short too!

Thinking that, Wan Xin flat-out refused: “No way! I don’t have five hundred million!”

He even started regretting agreeing to Jiang Ye’s challenge in the first place.

Jiang Ye knew he was kind of at fault when it came to the challenge.

So he offered a new proposal: “How about this?”

“I haven’t hit thirty wins in a row yet.”

“So let’s revise the deal —”

“After this match, regardless of the result, we sign a Contract.”

“When we sign it, you give me the part of the guide you’ve already organized, as a show of good faith.”

“When I reach thirty wins in a row, I’ll give you the Thirty-Win Streak Reward as my part of the deal.”

“But you must finish compiling the entire guide and hand it over to me by the end of today.”

“Also, for the five hundred million, you’ll pay me one hundred million each day for the first five days of the Beginner Apartment, as an installment plan.”

“Fair enough, right?”

“You’re taking on the risk that I might not get thirty wins.”

“And I’m taking on the risk that you might not survive the next five days.”

“Strictly speaking, my risk is higher. After all, you said it yourself—your luck’s pretty bad. You might not even last five days.”

“Pfft, pfft, pfft!” Wan Xin spat a few times and glared hard at him, “Who the f**k said I can’t last five days?”

“I’m super steady, alright? Forget five days—I’ll definitely clear the whole Beginner Phase!”

Then he straightforwardly agreed to Jiang Ye’s terms: “Fine, we’ll go with your five-day payment plan.”

“But the installments have to be interest-free, and I don’t have anything to use as collateral.”

Jiang Ye nodded with a smile: “This deal is a total loss for me. But I’ll take it as a thank-you gift for letting me in through the backdoor.”

Wan Xin rolled his eyes again: “Wait till you see the guide I put together—you’ll realize you’ve actually hit the jackpot!”

As he spoke, Wan Xin suddenly fired a hidden weapon straight at Jiang Ye’s neck—without even a warning!

But Jiang Ye had already triggered Replica Fusion the moment the deal was settled.

And not just any fusion—he fused Mirror Replica No. 3 with the Phantom Replica of the Blackened Replica!

The fusion of these two powerful replicas sent Replica No. 2’s attributes soaring to over 900!

And the Blackened Replica had Glyph Pattern abilities!

Within the Blood Mist Shroud, Wan Xin’s stats were instantly suppressed!

While Jiang Ye’s stats surged even higher within the Blood Mist!

His Combat Power instantly broke into four digits!

Wan Xin didn’t even have time to react before the pale fog invaded his body—his pupils rapidly dilated!

At the same time, an announcement rang out above the Duel Arena:

And in his mind, a series of notification chimes echoed—

[Ding! Congratulations on winning this duel. You’ve received 1,000,000 in wagered Survival Points!]

[Ding! Congratulations on defeating the No. 96 ranked player on the War God Ranking! Your rank has been updated to: No. 96!]

[Ding! Congratulations on making your first appearance on the War God Ranking. You’ve earned the following rewards:]

[1. One Apartment Room on the 20th Floor of Apartment 9999 (Nameless Black Iron tier)]

[2. One full set of the War God Outfit (Nameless Black Iron tier)]

[3. One Announcement Card (claimable daily)]

[4. One Privilege-Exempt Card (claimable daily)]

[5. Exclusive War God Version Duel Arena (comes with special permissions like setting spectating fees and spectating blacklists)]

At the same time, the War God Ranking of the entire A985 Duel Zone automatically updated its 96th position to:

[Rank 96: Jiang Ye (Nameless Black Iron, 100%)]

Nameless Black Iron was the title, and 100% was the win rate.

His win rate didn’t stand out much on the War God Ranking.

But that title—was completely unique on the list!

So almost instantly, in the first-floor lobby of the Duel Zone, a ton of players took notice—

“Holy sh*t! The 96th spot on the War God Ranking just changed!!”

“Pfft! It’s normal for the tail-end ranks to change. It’s happened plenty of times!”

“No, this one’s different! The new Rank 96 actually has the title Nameless Black Iron, can you believe that?!”

“What? No way! How did Nameless Black Iron make it onto the War God Ranking? Didn’t you see the next four down—Ranks 97 to 100—are all Stubborn Bronze?”

“If I had to guess, someone probably used Challenge Mode to defeat a ranked War God and replaced his position!”

“That usually means some Whale paid for a rigged match! But if you’re gonna rig it, at least try to make it look good—upgrade your title or something!”

“I bet he didn’t meet the Ten-Win Streak requirement to promote to Stubborn Bronze!”

“Still, this dude must be nuts. Even if he bought his way onto the War God Ranking, so what? The matches you get on the ranking are cross-zone against other ranked War Gods! His next match is basically guaranteed to be a loss!”

“But if his combat power’s too low, can other zones even match him with someone appropriate?”

“Why not? The forest’s big—you’ll find all kinds of birds! I’m sure the other zones have rigged matches too!”

“Ugh, I really don’t get what these people are thinking…”

Sure enough, Jiang Ye making it onto the War God Ranking caused a stir.

But it was nothing like how Wan Xin had described it.

Most players took one look and assumed it was obviously a rigged match.

And most of the chatter was full of sarcasm, mockery, and cold ridicule.

Still, none of that reached Jiang Ye through his Private Duel Machine.

And even if it had, he wouldn’t have cared.

While Replica No. 2 was organizing the War God Ranking rewards,

over on the Main Body’s side, the Dice of Fate hadn’t been unlucky enough to roll [Skull] for instant death.

Instead, it landed on the [Crown].

Which meant a temporary Luck boost.

The Crown symbol lit up on the dice, and its glow turned into shimmering particles that merged into his body.

Visually, it looked kind of eerie.

But afterward, Jiang Ye didn’t feel any major changes.

So like… did the Luck boost actually do anything?

The White-Clad Woman had warned him before not to rely on Luck-based items.

But it’s not like he aimed for Crown this time either.

Still, now that the boost was in effect…

plus the fact that he had just maxed out on Silver-Tier Attribute Fruit, gaining +15 to both Stamina and Energy—

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then created a brand-new Replica.

And this time, he used the Replica Mutation skill during creation.

Soon, a fresh face appeared in his vision—a youthful, delicate-looking teenage boy.

This was his fifth replica!

Looked about fourteen or fifteen years old, clear eyes, well-defined features, total model student vibes.

Jiang Ye felt a bit weirded out by the appearance, so he switched to Replica No. 5’s perspective and checked the Data Panel:

[Ability: Dark Element Affinity (SS)]

[Skills: Shadow Form (S), Shadow Puppet (S), Shadow Curse (S)]

This Luck boost actually worked?!

This fifth replica started with high base stats and even came with an SS-tier Ability!

And three S-tier skills right out of the gate!

And all three were solid too!

[Shadow Form (S): Transform the body into shadow. In Shadow State, immune to all detection methods; immune to all physical attacks; Dark resistance +80%; Light resistance -80%.]

Immunity to physical attacks was nice, but total immunity to detection? That was insane!

With stealth effects like that, you could go wherever you wanted without being found!

But wait, what’s with -80% Light resistance?

Getting hit by Light abilities means taking 80% more damage?

So this skill’s basically countered by Light abilities!

Actually, not just this skill—

the whole Dark Affinity ability seemed countered by Light.

Even the next skill, Shadow Puppet, had that weakness.

[Shadow Puppet (S): Nurture a Shadow Puppet in darkness. Can be summoned at any time to assist in combat.]

[The puppet’s strength is based on its nurture time; maximum attributes can reach 10,000 times the main body.]

[If exposed to sunlight or Light abilities, nurture time resets and must begin anew.]

[Extreme dark environments or eerie zones accelerate puppet nurture speed.]

A puppet that could reach 10,000x the main body’s stats?

But think it through—

this skill’s like one of those legendary techniques in cultivation novels, like the Draw Sword Technique.

The beauty of Draw Sword lies in storing sword intent over time—the longer the charge, the stronger the strike.

Same thing here—how long would it even take to reach 10,000x stats?

That cap might be there, but reaching it is a whole different story.

Luckily, it seems the puppet can still be summoned during nurturing—

as long as it’s not exposed to sunlight or hit by Light skills, the timer won’t reset.

That’s actually pretty reasonable.

Then there was the third skill—Shadow Curse, which worked in tandem with Shadow Puppet.

[Shadow Curse (S): Burn Shadow Puppet’s attributes to cast a curse. Curse effects as follows—]

[If target’s stats are lower than the burnt puppet’s, curse becomes “Shadow of Death.”]

[Shadow of Death: Target will die at the next midnight (Priority: S).]

[If target’s stats are not lower than the burnt puppet’s, curse becomes “Dark Shadow.”]

[Dark Shadow: Target loses all abilities (up to S-tier) and Glyph Pattern abilities. Duration depends on puppet’s burnt stats.]

These curse effects are busted!

Just outright seal someone’s Ability?!

Sure, it only affects up to S-tier Abilities.

But it looks like Glyph Pattern abilities aren’t limited!

That’s… that’s kind of nuts, right?!

What if the opponent has a ninth-tier Glyph ability? Can this curse still seal it?!

If so, that’s straight-up broken!

Feeling this Shadow Curse was a bit too wild, Jiang Ye had Replica No. 1 ask the Blackened Replica about it.