Chapter 67 - 63: Name Your Price

Chapter 67: Chapter 63: Name Your Price

[Insufficient permissions. Unable to respond.]

"Screw your permissions!"

Yin Zhen swore under her breath, then drew a long, slow breath to rein in her anger. She didn’t have the leverage to fight back yet — all she could do was keep fighting, like a beast in the arena that everyone else was betting on.

She got up and walked to the window. Her long black hair swayed in the breeze, and the cool night air gradually brought her back to herself.

Yin Zhen opened the Ancient Abyss Forum. The first thing that greeted her was a pop-up notification.

[Slaughter Event Score Rankings]

1. Blossoming Prosperity — 19,760 pts

2. Black Domain Walker — 19,755 pts

3. Naming is Too Troublesome — 3,465 pts

4. Signal Not Good — 3,350 pts

5. Want to Eat Mao Xuewang — 3,345 pts

6. Ye Se Solitary Walk — 3,275 pts

7. Xian Yu Never Idle — 3,260 pts

8. Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence — 3,190 pts

9. Winter Night Fire — 3,055 pts

10. Anonymous Player — 2,545 pts

[Congratulations, Player. You have completed the ’Slaughter’ Event and received: Silver Item ’Universal Key’ ×1, attribute points ×10, 10,000 words.]

[Universal Key (Silver Item): An aged bronze key. Can unlock any door or lock — not limited to physical locks. Also effective against spiritual power seals and certain sealing-type Extraordinary Abilities (A-level and below) and Items (Silver and below). Cooldown: 1 hour per use.]

Yin Zhen stared at that number. 19,760 points.

She had killed the aggregate core, killed the Tuner, killed countless Mutants and Fallen Species just to scrape together that score.

Second place was only five points behind — the equivalent of a single ordinary Mutant.

Black Domain Walker. A new Player. It had to be the hacker who took down the North District dome and the Blood Feeding Ground.

Nearly nineteen thousand points, all racked up from Blood Clan civilians and Clones. Under the game’s rules, they counted the same as Mutants — valid kill targets, every last one of them.

Forum headcount: 36 Players.

There were 8 before. Twenty-eight new ones had joined.

Yin Zhen scrolled down. The forum had filled up with new threads, but one immediately caught her eye — a new post from Nan Jiamu.

[I hereby declare that I will personally accept the Slaughter Event penalties on behalf of ’Naming is Too Troublesome’, ’Signal Not Good’, ’Want to Eat Mao Xuewang’, ’Ye Se Solitary Walk’, and ’Xian Yu Never Idle’.] — Winter Night Fire

Yin Zhen’s eyes sharpened. Event penalties could be transferred to someone else? Was that a team leader’s privilege, or just something only the protagonist could pull off?

Either way, that made six of them a squad.

She did the math on their combined score — 19,750. Only ten points behind her. There really was strength in numbers.

Nan Jiamu eating the penalties for the whole team was a masterclass in winning people over. And as the protagonist, he probably had no shortage of words to burn.

More new threads below.

[What is this game that just invaded my life?! Is there any way to quit? I genuinely don’t want to be part of this!] — ’I Want to Quit’

[Help! Can anyone brief me on intel about the nobles? I’ll pay!] — ’Empty-Headed’

[What kind of gods are first and second place??] — ’Anonymous Player’

Yin Zhen tapped into that thread.

[Blossoming Prosperity at 19,760 and Black Domain Walker at 19,755. I don’t even have a fraction of their scores. Does anyone know who these two monsters are?]

[Signal Not Good]: No idea, but I know Blossoming Prosperity is a veteran Player. She completed the assassination event last round too. Honestly, I’m starting to think she’s the one who killed that Player who died last round — this woman is absolutely built for combat.

[Want to Eat Mao Xuewang]: Who is Black Domain Walker? Is that the person who hacked the Night City dome?

[Naming is Too Troublesome]: @Black Domain Walker, bro? You there? Say something?

[Black Domain Walker]: That’s me.

[Naming is Too Troublesome]: Holy shit! Man, you’re ruthless. I get killing Blood Clan, but why’d you go after the Blood Feeding Ground? Those were innocent Clones — they’re human just like us.

[Xian Yu Never Idle]: (FURIOUS) Exactly!! Clones are so helpless and pitiful! They get hung up and bled from the moment they’re born!! What if there were other Players transmigrated into Clone bodies in there?! You’re absolutely unhinged!! (profanity) (profanity) (profanity)

[Black Domain Walker]: Mm.

[Naming is Too Troublesome]: ...

[Xian Yu Never Idle]: ...

[Black Domain Walker]: Who is Blossoming Prosperity?

[Naming is Too Troublesome]: My best guess is Lucia, captain of the Night City Guard Team’s Third Brigade. You didn’t see her carpet-bombing the Fallen Species — she even blew up that massive thing out at sea. If it’s her, the high score makes total sense. But then last round, Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence said Lucia is just Lucia, so now I’m not sure what to think. @Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence, any thoughts?

The rest of the replies in the thread were noise. Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence never showed up.

The other threads were more of the same — people fishing for intel, people venting their fear, people calling for help after getting into trouble in the Red Corpse World. Naming is Too Troublesome had replied in nearly every single one, clearly working to recruit people for Nan Jiamu.

Yin Zhen checked her private messages next. There were old ones from Naming is Too Troublesome and Winter Night Fire asking if she wanted to team up.

The most recent few were from new Players.

[Xian Yu Never Idle]: Hey, pro! I just awakened a Healing Extraordinary Ability. Feel free to call on me if you ever need it — I’d love to be friends.

[I Want to Quit]: Hey, pro. Just getting my face out there.

And then, mixed in with all the greetings, one message from ’Black Domain Walker’.

[Black Domain Walker]: You there?

Yin Zhen ignored it without a second thought. She had zero patience for people like that — if you have something to say, just say it. Don’t just send "you there?" and leave it hanging.

The most recent message was from ’Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence’. By now, Yin Zhen was certain — Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence was Bai Qiang · Adeline.

In some strange way, the two of them had always been oddly in sync.

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: I need you to kill someone from the Blood Clan. Name your price — I’ll do my best to meet it.

A faint smile curved Yin Zhen’s lips. "Now that," she said, "is how you communicate."

She thought it over carefully. As Adeline, Bai Qiang would have triggered ’Overture of War’ as well. She would almost certainly have chosen the human faction — which made them allies.

Bai Qiang needed her help. And she needed Bai Qiang’s...

"One million."

Yin Zhen typed out her reply. She didn’t even have money for breakfast tomorrow. She also wanted to buy training equipment, rent a space where she could actually work out, hire a proper coach to teach her hand-to-hand combat — all of it cost money.

She didn’t really want to bleed Bai Qiang that dry, but if she quoted too low, it wouldn’t be a number worthy of someone called ’Blossoming Prosperity’.

Before she could even back out of the message screen, Bai Qiang’s reply came through.

"Cash or transfer?"

"Tomorrow. Wait for my message."

Yin Zhen decided she’d go to the bank tomorrow — open an account using Ding Yi’s Fake Certificate, and while she was at it, test whether ordinary people would actually register her as Ding Yi. Bai Qiang’s million would also serve as a trial run to see whether the Ding Yi Identity could be traced back to her.

...

Bai Qiang’s home.

The moment Blossoming Prosperity replied, a weight lifted from Bai Qiang’s chest. Her Extraordinary Ability wasn’t built for direct combat — she needed backup.

Nan Jiamu’s performance earlier had left something to be desired, so she’d gone straight for Blossoming Prosperity instead.

Now the hard part was figuring out how to actually locate the Blood Clan target.

Back in the Red Corpse World, after Lucia had left, Bai Qiang had stayed behind to discuss the situation with the others for quite a while. In the end, given all the uncertainties involved, the council had decided to give that Blood Clan member an Extraordinary Ability Catalyst — the latest version, with a mutation rate already below ten percent.

Julian had refused to hand over the Blood Clan member’s Identity information, and she hadn’t pressed the issue. She had barely made it out of Old Cavendish’s probing in one piece.

What she knew for now: the target was male, already in possession of a C-level Extraordinary Ability before any intervention, and had since awakened an A-level Extraordinary Ability with the help of the Extraordinary Ability Catalyst.

On top of that, the Medicine division of the Saint Group had a range of Special Medicines capable of enhancing the target’s base attributes.

Whether those enhancements would carry over into this world, Bai Qiang wasn’t sure. The Extraordinary Abilities definitely would, though — the Blood Clan member she had hunted to obtain the forum invite code during the first round had carried Extraordinary Abilities of his own.

After laying out everything she knew on paper, Bai Qiang concluded that she had no reliable way to pin down the target quickly. She made her decision on the spot: bring in another outside ally.

She opened the forum and sent Nan Jiamu a private message.

Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence: Ten million. I’ve got intel that concerns the survival of Ancient Abyss itself.

Winter Night Fire: Cash or transfer?

Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence: Tomorrow. Wait for my message.