Resource Predation

"Many people will send their children in, or go in themselves."

The Doppelganger repeated it to Zhu Yan.

"Do you know what this means, demon?"

Zhu Yan briefly explained it to the Doppelganger, and in the next second, a stiff, cruel smile stretched across the Doppelganger's face.

"That's great!" it said. "What instance is it? I want to go in and take a look too. Little demon, are you going?"

Of course Zhu Yan wanted to go.

He always felt there was some part of it he didn't know about.

The more he thought about it, the more he could feel a subtle weirdness.

"After [Carnival Paradise] descended, the old order was shattered, and humanity should be governed by the law of the jungle." Zhu Yan stared at the backs of that group of people and said slowly, "How can these people tolerate such a severe skewing of resources?"

The players sent to protect the young man in the middle couldn't possibly be weak.

So why were they following the rules so strictly?

"Special items, special abilities, who knows?" The Doppelganger shook its head and asked again persistently, "A month from now, are you coming in with me?"

"Yes," Zhu Yan said, forcing himself to focus on business first. "By the way, I got five new skins, but without the left hands. Since it's our first trade, I'll give you the same price. Do you want them?"

He wasn't sure if this Doppelganger could produce 1,000 Bone Gold Coins.

If it couldn't, he would find another Doppelganger to sell to.

"I want them!" The Doppelganger's eyes lit up. "I took the skins of seven players, so I have plenty of their Bone Gold Coins. Without left hands, I can just go to the [Lazy Man's Craft Shop] and sew on silver gloves."

"Oh..." The Doppelganger smiled stiffly. "That would be so cool!"

Damn, right.

Zhu Yan almost forgot.

The human skins stolen by the Doppelgangers also had player marks on them.

They could steal these people's money at the same time!

Twenty minutes later.

Having finished the transfer, the Doppelganger stuffed its pile of new human skins into its body and waved goodbye to Zhu Yan cheerfully.

"See you next month!"

Zhu Yan sat in the swivel chair in front of the glass counter, letting out a long sigh of relief in his heart.

The confidentiality work at the [Hall of Mourning] was pretty good; the puppets behind the counter didn't expose the fact that he was using a player account.

With the 1,800 Bone Gold Coins beautifully arriving in his account, Zhu Yan also breathed a fierce sigh of relief.

He actually didn't like spending money much, and his consumption level was always the same.

But in such an order, having money always brought peace of mind.

"I need to deposit some more money."

Only after the Doppelganger's figure vanished from sight did Zhu Yan start stuffing the left hands from his ring into the counter one by one.

"Transfer all the money from these accounts to me. Oh, right, I also want to exchange some human currency for Bone Gold Coins."

He might as well exchange all of that 1.5 million!

This transaction took longer, so long that the group of people crowding around that young man who wanted to curiously explore had already left.

The puppet behind the counter finally returned the card to Zhu Yan, its glass-ball eyes staring at him without emotion.

"It is done, sir."

"The total account balance is sixty thousand Bone Gold Coins. Would you like to upgrade your VIP card now?"

The amount of money in Feng Qiang's account still far exceeded Zhu Yan's expectations.

Sixty thousand Bone Gold Coins.

Just how many people's cards had this guy secretly pickpocketed from afar to get this much money?

"Not for now."

Zhu Yan shook his head.

He still remembered that VIP customers of the [Hall of Mourning] could get qualifications to rent or buy houses in places like [Bird Flock Street] and the [Golden Cage District].

He felt that buying a house in [Carnival Paradise] was a waste; buying wasn't as good as simply robbing.

The puppet said nothing more.

"See you next time, sir."

The time was already approaching five in the afternoon.

Zhu Yan hadn't eaten since morning and was now famished.

He pulled out his chair, stood up, and turned around to ask, "Excuse me, how do I call the [Monster Tram]?"

"Keep walking straight through the plaza outside; there is a platform at the edge."

An hour later.

The [Monster Tram] stopped at the [Xishan University] station.

The mouth opened, and Zhu Yan hurriedly climbed out of the vehicle, rushing toward the security guard.

He was truly starving to death. He had plenty of food in his ring, but he couldn't exactly start eating on the [Monster Tram], could he?

"Yo, yo, you're back." The zombie guard said sarcastically, "Hehehe, the dean of discipline has already informed me of your identity, little Hunter."

It stretched out a skinny hand and opened the gate.

"If you make fun of me again, I'll announce your identity to the world."

"Overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming," Zhu Yan said expressionlessly, striding inside.

What kind of ghost threat was that? He didn't believe it at all.

The zombie screamed behind him.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. The messages, which had been delayed by the campus network's garbage speed, finally poured into Zhu Yan's phone with a crackle.

"Zhu Zeyu, are you still alive?"

"Are you coming back for dinner tonight?"

"..."

"It's been almost ten hours. I'm so sad, you must be dead!"

"We went to the cafeteria. Have a safe journey, bro."

"Sigh, brought you some food. If you're not back by eight, we'll just have to set up a memorial tablet for you."

Zhu Yan scrolled down one by one, feeling dizzy and his head throbbing.

Why were they saying he was dead again?

"Meow."

A soft, squishy cry came from the gray mist.

It was the tuxedo cat—

It came over and affectionately rubbed against Zhu Yan's leg, its round, big eyes full of a desire for food.

"Got it," Zhu Yan said, bending down to pick it up.

"I'll take you back to the dorm right away. I'm going to tell others you're a reward from an instance, so please cooperate."

"Woof-meow," the tuxedo cat said.

Zhu Yan twisted and turned through the gray mist and finally saw the lit-up dormitory building.

But he felt something was wrong.

In the middle dorm room on the first floor, a person seemed to be hanging. The shadow swayed back and forth through the thin curtains.

What was going on?

Suicide?

Zhu Yan couldn't help but look a few more times.

He walked around to the main entrance of the dormitory, only to see a figure suddenly stand up from the steps, startling him.

"Zhu Zeyu!"

It was Yang Zhanbai.

He hurried down the steps, his gaze sweeping over the cat in Zhu Yan's arms, and then looked at Zhu Yan's mental state.

"Something happened."

Yang Zhanbai's face was a bit serious.

"We didn't dare message you, afraid you were in an instance. Did you level up?"

Level up?

This time the female voice hadn't broadcasted his player level, and Zhu Yan himself hadn't had the time to check yet.

There was also a pile of loot and supplies in Feng Qiang's ring that he hadn't had time to count.

"I don't know," Zhu Yan told the truth. "There was no broadcast notification this time. But my reward is a cat and some supplies."

The two walked into the dormitory one after the other.

When passing the first floor, Yang Zhanbai looked at the corridor with extreme disgust.

The corridor was mottled with rust, and the large patches of bright red made Zhu Yan's heart jump as well.

"What exactly happened?" he asked. "So much blood?"

"Three people died," Yang Zhanbai said with a dark face. "There's a guy on the first floor, a pure resource-plundering type."

"He formed a small group and killed the three people who resisted the most."

"Let's talk while we eat. We've also managed to find some useful information regarding that [Metabolism Module]."

"By the way, does this cat know how to use a litter box?"