Zhou Qiaoling's actions left Zhong Yi and Zhou Yue frozen in place.
Not only them, but even the viewers in Zhong Yi's stream had their jaws drop.
[Is the sun rising from the west? Smart Little Zhou actually bought gear!!]
[And it's full gear!! Full gear starting at a million!!!]
[Was she possessed?]
[Something's wrong, something is very, very wrong.]
[What's wrong with it? She's just encouraging True Disciple Zhou, they are biological siblings after all!]
[Junior Sister Zhou geared up. Are True Disciple Zhong and True Disciple Zhou really going to just go in and leech? Don't they want to save face?]
...
Zhong Yi was completely dumbfounded.
Who exactly was Zhou Qiaoling?
In the half-month since Operation Xianyuanzhou launched, Zhong Yi had never seen her equip gear worth more than 1,000 Spirit Stones!
When entering the Top Secret zone, the most expensive thing on her body was always a 20-slot chest rig.
Spirit Stones were her life.
Zhong Yi had even imagined that one day he might beat Zhou Yue in a one-on-one duel through hard practice, but he never dared to imagine Zhou Qiaoling putting on full gear to protect them in a raid so they could eat.
He looked blankly at Zhou Yue beside him, only to see the other man staring back with an equally bewildered expression.
Zhou Yue was even more confused than Zhong Yi!
He knew his own sister's behavior better than anyone.
Zhou Qiaoling restrained herself a bit with others, but with him, she completely lacked any boundaries.
For a moment, the two looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
Wearing a Tier 6 set and holding a divine weapon, Zhou Qiaoling gently bit her lip and softly shouted:
"The brother in my memory is not like this."
"The brother in my memory, no matter how hard or difficult it is, would face the difficulties head-on and walk out of the predicament..."
"He is definitely not like this!"
"So what if you're bankrupt? So what if you failed to extract 14 matches in a row?"
"The brother in my memory, even if he only had one last Spirit Stone, would choose to bring out his best gear and face the strongest enemies!"
"He would never just wear a bunch of rags and resign himself to fate!!!"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Yue's pupils shrank slightly, and his breathing suddenly hitched.
The resentment from the consecutive extraction failures was swept away.
All his tangled thoughts instantly cleared up.
"Sis! You..."
Zhou Yue's nose tingled, a myriad of emotions welling up in his heart.
"Old Zhou, Junior Sister Qiaoling has geared up, how can we back down!?"
Zhong Yi was also moved by this deep sibling bond. He instantly opened his stash, took out his long-treasured Tier 6 set, and put it on.
"Yeah... if my sister is willing to part with her wealth, why should I be reluctant!?"
Zhou Yue laughed heartily, entering a wondrous state of mind.
Spirit Stones?
Just fleeting clouds!
Thinking this, he opened the shop and directly chose to buy a Tier 6 armor!
A gleaming silver [Tier 6 Hafk Dragon Scale Armor] instantly appeared on his body.
This scene immediately stunned the viewers in Zhong Yi's stream.
[Holy crap!? The Young Master Armor!?]
[He's crazy!!! Losing one of those hurts more than losing a big red item!!!]
[True Disciple Zhou is really going all out this time...]
[I remember Old Zhou only has 3 million on his account, right? One piece of armor cost half his net worth...]
[Oh no, this has really become his "last dance"!]
[I can't help but feel that this Smart Little Zhou is acting a bit too hard...]
...
"Old Zhou, aren't you going a bit too hard? You could have just let me bring it for you..."
Zhong Yi was startled by Zhou Yue's action.
In Operation Xianyuanzhou, most gear and spirit ammo above Tier 6 were unsellable and could only be crafted by players themselves.
Therefore, Tier 6 helmets, armors, and red spirit ammo were incredibly overpowered!
The only sellable Tier 6 armors and helmets were the Hafk series.
You couldn't craft these yourself; they only dropped from fighting the boss Witch Mulan in the Top Secret Ascension Base, so their prices were astronomically high!
In the early days of the server when players were generally tight on money, a brand-new Tier 6 [Hafk Dragon Scale Armor] cost a whopping 1.7 million!
Thus, it was jokingly called the "Young Master Armor" by players.
Only rich young masters could afford it!
"Haha, it's rare to see my sister being so sensible... I'm in a good mood, so I'll splurge a bit! Spirit Stones are just worldly possessions anyway!"
Zhou Yue explained with a smile, then began preparing his other gear.
Soon, with the appearance of the [Insufficient Spirit Stones] prompt, he looked at Zhong Yi with an awkward expression.
"Ahem, Old Zhong... how about you bring a gun for me?"
"Tch, trying to show off when you don't have the capital! Haha!"
Zhong Yi cheerfully prepared a weapon for Zhou Yue.
Not to mention a fully modded [Heavenly Soldier 14], he even brought a [Reaper] fully loaded with red ammo for Zhou Yue.
"Old Zhong, what's that gun in your hands? I haven't seen you use it before!"
Looking at the short and sturdy gun in Zhong Yi's hands, Zhou Yue couldn't help but be a little curious.
"[Giant Wave], a recent discovery. It's super strong."
Zhong Yi explained casually.
The three finished their preparations.
Before starting the matchmaking, Zhou Yue glanced curiously at Zhou Qiaoling again.
Having calmed down, he couldn't shake the feeling that Zhou Qiaoling was the type of person who would swap her gear for a hatchet-runner loadout at the speed of light right before the match started...
Unexpectedly, Zhou Qiaoling really went in wearing that Tier 6 set and the [Heavenly Soldier 14].
'My sister really has changed...'
Zhou Yue sighed emotionally to himself, feeling incredibly gratified.
...
The trio's spawn point was the dormitories.
The dormitories were a very magical location; a blitz attack could come from anywhere.
So spawning here meant they had to be ready to engage the enemy at any moment.
Because the geographical location was so tricky, Zhong Yi had actually posted a dedicated dormitory offense and defense strategy guide on the forums.
This time, with the head coach holding the fort, the three immediately set up their defenses at the start. Sure enough, they caught a team that spawned at the West District Gate and was just about to attack the dorms.
All three entered the map with Tier 6 sets and fully modded guns; their combat readiness was ridiculously high, so naturally, the enemies they matched with were no slouches either.
The opponents also had two players with Tier 6 sets and dual guns, coming at them aggressively.
Fortunately, Zhou Yue's marksmanship was superb, and with a cheat-level weapon like the [Reaper] in hand, he instantly one-shot one of the Tier 6 guys, immediately breaking the stalemate.
The battle situation was now very clear.
Zhong Yi had a Tier 4 guy in his face, Zhou Yue had a Tier 6 guy in his face, and Zhou Qiaoling had an Ascension Loot Box in her face.
"Old Zhong, we take one each, no problem right?"
"No problem! Watch my invincible jump peek!"
"Delicious, hehe... delicious..."
"Three, two, one... go!"
"Old Zhou, I'm going in!"
"Old Zhou, I'm down!"
"He's one-shot! Just one more bullet!!"
...
After a chaotic skirmish, Zhou Yue ended up taking down the enemy squad one against three, his clothes barely getting dirty.
As the enemy squad wipe icon appeared, Zhou Qiaoling, who had been prone in Building 1 gobbling up loot, trotted over with quick little steps.
"Nice shooting, bro! One bag for each of us!"
Zhou Qiaoling greeted him with a grin and immediately buried her head into looting the bags.
"You take two... I'll just have the leftovers."
Zhou Yue replied with a rare tone of gentleness, then looked with disgust at Zhong Yi, who was lying on the ground drooling.
"Always 'he's one-shot, he's one-shot'... I shot him twice and he still didn't die!"
"Uh, maybe he had backup armor? Hehehe..."
Rescued and getting up, Zhong Yi's old face flushed red.
Zhou Yue laughingly scolded him a few times and didn't continue arguing with him.
He walked over to the loot box that Zhou Qiaoling had rummaged through, preparing to grab some leftover medical supplies.
As soon as he opened the loot box, Zhou Yue's eyes immediately went wide.
A Level 6 helmet and armor set with a maximum durability of exactly 1 point, bearing a teammate's marker, lay quietly inside the enemy's death box.
And that wasn't all.
Aside from the armor, there was also a Hornet-14 inside the box, also bearing a teammate's marker.
This was a Level 3 novice semi-automatic sniper rifle, in the exact same tier as the Bizon and the Uzi.
Because of all the attachments slapped onto it, it looked strikingly similar to a bizarrely modified Celestial-14.
But the price difference between the two was worlds apart.
What made Zhou Yue's blood pressure spike the most, however, was that the gun was loaded with basic green ammo...
"Zhou!! Qiao!! Ling!! Is this what you meant when you said you were going fully geared to protect me???"
"Just tell me if it's a Level 6 armor set or not..."
"Bullshit!! And to think I was actually touched by your words!!!"
"What's the matter? I did it to stimulate your fighting spirit. Just look at how energetic you are right now!"
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
