Chapter 96: Chapter 96

Just as the Light-type reached Apartment 1010 and started causing chaos.

Over at the White-Clad Woman's location, within the ruins of the Beginner Apartment that could only be reached through two spatial portals.

Replica No. 1 was too weak and didn’t personally go to find the Main Body.

After all, he was worried that if he couldn’t find the Main Body, he himself would get wiped out too.

So, rescuing the Main Body was mainly Replica No. 6’s job.

Replica No. 1 knew the whole operation.

From far away, he was also nervously rooting for Replica No. 6.

Especially once Replica No. 6 reached Apartment 1010, he got even more anxious.

Afraid Replica No. 6 might carelessly fall into some illusion, and then lose contact with the rest of the replicas…

That’s why Replica No. 6 went so crazy, tossing out skills like he didn’t care about the cost.

He was trying to seal off the eerie abilities with his skills, in case he also got caught in an illusion.

And just as Replica No. 1 was sweating bullets for Replica No. 6.

The Blackened Replica next to him was literally drenched in sweat!

Seriously! Jiang Ye had never seen the Blackened Replica look so nervous!

Even that creepy smile he always wore at the corner of his lips was stiff now!

In that instant, he seemed to be standing only by sheer instinct.

But it was obvious he could barely hold on.

He looked at Replica No. 1 with a complicated expression, his voice urgent and trembling:

“I don’t want to run either…”

“But… it’s too terrifying…”

“I have to get out of here…”

“If I survive, I’ll come back!”

As he spoke, the guy turned into a puff of white mist, trembling as he swiftly burrowed into the ground and vanished!

Replica No. 1 was dumbfounded.

So this is how Light-type suppresses Dark-type?

Look how scared the kid got, he couldn’t even talk straight!

No wonder even that super strong Apartment 9999 Administrator was like that…

Jiang Ye couldn’t help thinking—

If they found the Main Body and ensured safety, maybe Replica No. 6 should go swing by the Apartment 1010 Administrator too?

Serves him right for using Ding Deng to scare him earlier.

Let Light-type scare him back—just returning the favor!

Though Jiang Ye didn’t see it, he could imagine—

Right now, the Apartment 1010 Administrator was probably scared shtless.

This kind of fear didn’t just come from knowing the effects of things like “Light Scorch” or “Light Curse.”

It also carried a kind of instinctual fear—Dark-type’s natural fear of Light-type.

Just as he was thinking that, Jiang Ye suddenly saw a terrified face pop up right in front of him!

It was the White-Clad Woman!

At this point, not only was she wearing white, but her face had turned even paler, completely bloodless.

As soon as she appeared, she snapped at Jiang Ye with rapid-fire words:

“What’s going on?! This freak—do you have anything to do with it? Don’t tell me you brought him here?!”

Jiang Ye hadn’t even opened his mouth.

The White-Clad Woman glared at him fiercely, then barked in panic:

“If you really did, you fix it!! Kill him now! Kill! Kill!”

Her last two “kill”s clearly sounded unhinged.

And not just her tone—her whole demeanor was out of control.

After that, not waiting for Jiang Ye to react, a flutter of white fabric suddenly fell.

Jiang Ye almost thought he was about to get lucky.

Turned out to be a swarm of black snakes slithering rapidly into the ground.

Welp, the White-Clad Woman got so scared she bailed too.

Jiang Ye really didn’t expect…

Dark-type beings would react this strongly to Light-type.

The Blackened Replica had acted pretty chill when talking about Light-type earlier.

The explosion from Room 2064 caught Replica No. 6’s attention.

His Light-type skills didn’t usually cause explosions.

When he killed Ke Peng earlier, Ke Peng’s body did explode into light particles.

At the time, he thought that kind of bursting effect looked a lot like a firework show.

But that kind of detonation didn’t make any sound.

Even afterward, when he was tossing out skills killing eerie beings and Dark-type players, there wasn’t much noise.

So the explosion from Room 2064 naturally drew his attention.

He quickly discovered—

The thing that exploded was the White-Clad Woman’s Personal Assistant Robot!

Jiang Ye remembered Xiao Bing saying it had a self-destruct program.

It could do some damage to players with Combat Power under 20.

Back then Jiang Ye’s Combat Power was still in the single digits.

So he figured Xiao Bing’s self-destruct could be a hidden trump card.

But now, a mere 20 Combat Power meant nothing to him.

Looking at the exploding Personal Assistant Robot, his first reaction was that it had self-destructed.

But soon, he sharply sensed—

There was a trace of dark-type energy hidden in that robot!

But that energy vanished in a flash, disappearing with the explosion.

Replica No. 6 was puzzled.

What he didn’t know was…

Far away, deep in the Doomsday Apartment’s 666th floor, within the Dead Sea Mist.

Inside a luxurious conference room.

Almost at the same time, another explosion went off!

This explosion was even more intense than the one in Room 2064 heard by Replica No. 6!

And the target of the explosion was the mech puppet that had previously stepped out from the wall in front of Wu Ying, formed from a Duel Machine!

After the mech puppet exploded, the other 26 people in the conference room looked even more grim.

Suddenly, one person spoke in a low voice:

“Looks like agreeing to Duoe’s request to unlock Apartment 0000 early was the right call.”

Another voice agreed: “But we need to shift our target now.”

Then another voice raised the pitch: “We?”

The low voice said: “Of course not us. In the hive at the bottom of the Apartment, there should be plenty of non-Dark-type players.”

“With their identity as veteran players, dealing with a Light-type newbie is more than enough.” Dıscover more novels at novel·fire·net

Another voice brought up: “But the problem is—this Light-type newbie isn’t stupid. Would he go to Apartment 0000?”

“So, we need to figure out a way to lure him there.”

Just as those few words were exchanged.

Another mech puppet, looking just like the one that exploded earlier, walked into the conference room again.

Twenty-six pairs of eyes landed on the mech puppet.

And they actually saw an extremely unpleasant expression on a face that shouldn’t have had any emotions.

Twenty-six pairs of eyes suddenly darkened.

Sure enough, they then heard that usually emotionless mech speak, in a faintly trembling voice:

As it spoke, it raised its mechanical arm, changing its form.

As the arm transformed, it made a clacking, grinding sound.

In the end, it exposed a fingernail-sized dark crystal embedded deep in its mechanical skeleton.

But inside what should have been a pitch-black crystal, there was a faint glimmer of light!

And that light, to the more than twenty people present, was blinding!

So much so that with just a glance, they instinctively looked away, deeply unsettled.

A long while later, after calming down, a deep voice spoke toward the mech puppet:

“So all the mech puppets are infected?”

The mech puppet retracted its mechanical arm, its voice stiff and odd: “Yes…”

Just that one word caused several people in the powerhouse-packed conference room to suck in sharp breaths.

In the end, seemingly the most authoritative among the twenty-six, said in a low voice:

“If you don’t want to get tainted by this thing…”

“Then, until that Light-type ability user is confirmed dead.”

“None of you should be overreaching.”

That didn’t even need to be said—everyone here already understood.

And back at the Beginner Apartment.

Jiang Ye’s main body had been discussing countermeasures with the “Blackened Replica” to escape the illusion.

While secretly thinking about testing whether this “Blackened Replica” was real or fake.

But before he could figure it out.

The “Blackened Replica” who was just chatting with him suddenly exploded!

And the scene before his eyes, just like when he killed Teacher Zhou earlier, faded like a thin fog clearing from his vision!

It was also at this moment that Jiang Ye’s main body regained his memory.

Not just his missing memories.

Even the memories from the replicas during his absence synced instantly to the main body.

And the flood of new memories left him completely stunned—massively shocked!

The originally shelved Replica No. 6 didn’t just get exposed—he went wild all over the place?!

Not only was a kill-on-sight order issued against him across the entire server, he even caused quite a stir in several Beginner Apartments?!

That reward from the server-wide bounty is insane?!

He wouldn’t have dared dream of doing that!

Could something this ridiculous even be real?

Was he still stuck in the illusion?!

Of course, that was just a stunned emotional outburst.

He could still tell whether he was in an illusion or not.

The reality was even more absurd than the illusion!

And the moment the main body sensed reality, the six replicas also sensed him and all let out a sigh of relief.

Especially Replica No. 6, once he felt the main body return, immediately used Light and Shadow Escape to flee toward the next Apartment.

He hadn’t stayed long in Room 2064.

So the entire move, and the action that followed, looked completely seamless.

Exactly like the chaotic show he’d put on in other Apartments.

No one noticed anything unusual.

If the news got out, people would just say the Light-type Replica was out there stirring things up again.

No one would specifically mention what happened in Room 2064.

And Jiang Ye’s main body, once he regained focus, immediately realized—

When he entered the second layer of the illusion, what the Blackened Replica said might have been true.

The thing that trapped him in the illusion… was that Personal Assistant Robot!

And that robot seemed to be under the control of a top-tier Glyph Ability user with the power to manipulate machines.

The Blackened Replica’s analysis might’ve been right.

The one who used a high-tier illusion to trap him likely had at least Tier 5 Glyph Ability!

That level of powerhouse…

Was probably on the same level as the Apartment Boss.

Once he figured this out.

Jiang Ye, who had originally been thinking of killing Replica No. 6 to claim that luxurious bounty, quickly abandoned the idea.

Sure, the bounty was tempting.

But whoever actually claimed it would probably end up with a massive target on their back!

And if a Light-type ability user was actively roaming around the Apartments like a maniac…

Those Dark-type bosses might not dare reach too far.

So, Jiang Ye ultimately decided—

Don’t kill Replica No. 6 for now. Let him keep wreaking havoc outside!

Of course, during all this chaos, he’d need to keep an eye on him, in case No. 6 slipped up.

As he thought about it, Jiang Ye’s main body also quickly made his way to the Beginner Apartment ruins where the White-Clad Woman was and regrouped with Replica No. 1.

Meanwhile, after scaring the Administrator of Apartment 1010, Replica No. 6 swiftly left again.

Once he was gone, the Apartment 1010 group chat came back to life.

【Whew—scared me to death! He finally left! Hope he never comes back!】

【But Qu Xing’s still alive!】

【Is there really a bounty feud between Huang Bo and Qu Xing? Or are they secretly friends? Maybe Huang Bo just came to say goodbye before leaving?】

【Ugh, enemy or friend, what did our Apartment do to deserve this? Why’d we have to go through this mess…】

The regular students were just venting normally.

But Wang Lingling suddenly popped up with:

【When that Huang Bo stirred up trouble, did any of you feel a weird, unexplained sense of fear?】

Xiao Likun: 【I did! I totally did!】

Chen Yuchen: 【Me too me too!】

Wang Lingling was just about to ask the two to talk privately.

But then the other students chimed in:

【It’s only natural to feel scared when such a strong guy shows up in our Apartment, right?】

【Yeah, I couldn’t help being scared either. Guess I need to work on my guts.】

Seeing this, Wang Lingling realized the others had misunderstood.

Their fear… was not the same as hers.

She sighed and continued explaining in the group:

【I’m talking about a kind of uncontrollable fear. Not from knowledge, but instinct.】

【Like, even if you didn’t know Huang Bo was a big shot, you’d still feel afraid—anyone else feel that way?】

Only then did the others realize they’d misunderstood.

That kind of fear… they really hadn’t felt.

But then, Yang Wenchao—who rarely spoke in the group—suddenly piped up:

【Jiang Ye, did you feel that kind of fear? @Jiang Ye】

That sudden @ mention stunned everyone.

Why specifically Jiang Ye?

They suddenly remembered—

Wasn’t Jiang Ye’s rise due to that Blood Mist Guy who looked just like him backing him up?

After Huang Bo’s chaos…

Was Jiang Ye’s Blood Mist Guy still around?

That was probably what Yang Wenchao was really trying to probe.

Jiang Ye noticed the @, of course.

And honestly, he was a bit confused too—

When Replica No. 6 used Light-type skills.

Jiang Ye’s main body had been possessed by Replica No. 5.

Technically, the main body should’ve been a Dark-type being at the time.

Even if he wasn’t, Replica No. 5 certainly was, right?

But whether it was the main body or the Dark-type Replica No. 5, neither had felt a thing.

Not even a hint of Light Scorch, not even fear.

And when Replicas 5 and 6 were first created.

There hadn’t been any resistance between them either.

The Blackened Replica still hadn’t returned.

So Jiang Ye directly asked Yang Wenchao in the group chat:

【If a Light-type ability user and a Dark-type ability user are just standing together, and neither uses a skill, will there still be that fear? @Yang Wenchao】