Great O City.
This is the most unique place in all of Dragon Country—the only place where gambling is legally permitted. A paradise for countless people, yet also a hell for just as many.
Right in the center of the casino stands a golden tree, crafted entirely of pure gold, rumored to be a wealth-attracting talisman.
It seems to align with some feng shui arrangement.
The richer people are, the more they believe in such things.
The casino spans a vast area, equipped with all kinds of facilities, nearly everything one could find in the market available here. As long as you have money, anything you desire can be yours.
The Gambling King has many heirs, and his youngest daughter has just turned twenty.
As the youngest child, the family's doting and favoritism go without saying—even plucking a star from the sky wouldn’t be a problem.
And now, this beloved youngest daughter of the family lay sprawled on a large bed, her cheeks flushed red, looking utterly defeated.
A petite figure, pink hair, an unremarkable childlike frame…
Her large eyes were already misted over, a tiny trail of snot dripping down.
With a pitiful expression, she stared at the phone in front of her.
Black screen again. A full minute of respawn time—this was her 23rd death in this single match.
And the game had only been going for less than twenty minutes. In other words, she was either dying or on her way to dying.
Sniffling, she resumed controlling the little "braised egg" character that had just respawned at the fountain.
This time, she sold all her equipment to buy a revival armor and a life-saving dagger, all for the sake of surviving. Her tiny finger trembled as it hovered over the Flash skill, shaking from sheer tension.
The pink-haired girl’s gaze was locked onto the screen, not daring to slack for even a second.
Suddenly, as she approached a nearby bush, a warning indicator appeared above her head!
Her pupils shrank. Her thumb, poised over Flash, jerked away—
Flash!
But in her panic, instead of flashing into the safety of the tower, she dashed straight into the enemy bush.
The warning signal, which had been fading, instantly maxed out.
Ambush!
A familiar figure appeared before her. Before she could even react, a smooth combo sent her straight back to the grave. The revival armor and dagger only delayed the inevitable—her corpse simply relocated before the screen darkened again.
This death was the final straw.
With a loud wail, the girl burst into tears.
The dangling snot at the tip of her nose finally dropped.
"Waaah! Why?! Why are you doing this to me?!"
"I-I was trying so hard… Waaah—!!"
She cried so hard she could barely breathe. Outside, a maid, startled by the commotion, hurriedly knocked on the door.
"Young Mistress, are you alright?"
"Waaah—!! I-I’m fine… Waaah—!!"
The maid: "…"
The girl’s heartrending sobs echoed from inside. The maid didn’t dare barge in, but leaving her mistress alone wasn’t an option either. Gritting her teeth, she ran off to fetch help.
After crying for a while, the pink-haired girl seemed to calm down slightly. She picked up her phone, ready to fight again.
She hadn’t lost yet. She could still turn this around. She would redeem herself!
Respawn timer—zero!
The screen lit up again, only for another massive warning signal to appear above her head.
She froze, then desperately tried to retreat into the fountain, wishing she could burrow into its depths. But no matter how pitifully she begged, the enemy showed no mercy.
Spawn-camping!
The moment the warning signal maxed out, the familiar sound effects played—mark, stab, another seamless combo. Her little "braised egg" was erased from existence.
Her screen had barely lit up for three seconds before going dark again.
Boom!
The moment her character died, her team’s Nexus exploded—along with her sanity.
Like a lifeless doll, she mechanically tapped through the defeat screen, entering the stats page.
[0-25-2]
That glaring scoreline stared back at her. The girl gaped at it, utterly dumbfounded.
Quietly, she curled into a ball on the bed, hugging her knees, as if her soul had left her body.
She had been beaten into a daze.
Ding.
A game notification chimed, snapping her back to attention.
[Player "No. 1 Raider Grandpa Bull from Flip-Flop Garden" wants to add you as a friend!]
Opening the friend request, she saw the attached message:
"No. 1 Raider Grandpa Bull from Flip-Flop Garden: If you suck, practice more. If you can’t handle losing, don’t play. The past is the past, crab pincers are crab pincers…"
A spark finally returned to her vacant eyes.
This sounded familiar… Wait, wasn’t this the support from the last match?!
She hurriedly checked the match history—sure enough, this guy, the one who had killed her thirty times, was the same jerk who had ruined her game!
"JERK!!"
"BIG JERK!!"
"SUPER MEGA JERK!!"
Her soft, squeaky voice screeched in fury, startling the woman who had just arrived outside the door.
"Tongtong, are you okay? Can Mom come in?"
"AAAHHH—!! JERK!!!"
The woman: "…"
Unable to bear the distressing noises any longer, the woman threw caution to the wind and forced the door open.
What she saw left her speechless.
There, the pink-haired, child-sized girl sat with disheveled hair, tear-streaked cheeks, snot dripping—and most shockingly, her phone clamped between her teeth.
Yes, in her rage, she had resorted to physical violence.
Or rather, she had redirected all her fury onto her phone, as if gnawing on it could somehow ease her hatred.
This undignified display was abruptly witnessed by her mother and the maids. The girl’s brain short-circuited, and the phone fell from her mouth with a clatter.
As it hit the floor, it accidentally played a voice message from Ye Cheng:
"If you suck, practice more. If you can’t handle losing, don’t play. The past is the past, crab pincers are crab pincers…"
The mocking tone was dripping with sarcasm, the verbal equivalent of a critical hit.
Overwhelmed by fury, the girl’s face turned beet red. Her legs stiffened, her eyes rolled back—and she fainted on the spot.
She had been angered into unconsciousness.
"Tongtong! Quick, someone help!!" The woman’s panicked screams echoed through the villa.
Meanwhile.
Great Sea City, Great Sea City Noble Academy, Boys’ Dormitory, Room 502.
It's worth noting that the numbers on the door had been altered, with clear signs of movement between the three digits.
The previous room number was 249, and the next one was 251.
"Whew, what an exhilarating match! That was satisfying—time to sleep!"
Ye Cheng turned off his phone, tossed it aside, and closed his eyes to drift off.
Late at night, faint murmurs of Ye Cheng's sleep-talking could be heard from the room...
"Trash talkers should practice more..."
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
