Escort and Knife Run

"I didn't expect Senior Brother Lu to still remember this Zhang, I am truly flattered..."

The newcomer was named Zhang Ming.

When Lu Ze created his first illusion realm, "Demonic Cult Escape," this guy scored the highest points in one fell swoop, attracting countless inner sect disciples to compete for the high score. This brought considerable fame to the illusion realm, so Lu Ze had some impression of him.

Counting it up, he had actually played a role in his grand illusion realm enterprise.

At that time, Zhang Ming was merely an outer sect disciple, only at the Qi Condensation stage.

Now he had entered the inner sect, and his cultivation had reached the late Foundation Establishment stage. His aura was abundant, showing faint signs of an impending breakthrough to the Golden Core stage.

"About to break through to the Golden Core? Not bad, not bad."

Lu Ze smiled and nodded, taking a pill from his storage ring and tossing it to Zhang Ming.

"Take it, it will help you a bit with your breakthrough."

"The fortuitous encounter Senior Brother Lu has already bestowed upon this Zhang is something I can hardly repay in this lifetime... How can I accept more favors? I cannot take this!"

Zhang Ming hurriedly waved his hands and offered the pill back to Lu Ze.

"Me? Gave you a fortuitous encounter?"

Lu Ze looked completely baffled.

Later, after Zhang Ming's explanation, he finally understood.

Zhang Ming was a lucky one who had risen on the winds of the great era of illusion realms.

Calling him merely lucky wasn't entirely accurate either. After all, from his performance in "Demonic Cult Escape," it wasn't hard to see that this person's talent for illusion realms was quite good.

Moreover, he could endure hardship and was willing to use his brain.

In several subsequent competitive illusion realms, he was a rather renowned minor expert.

Through the illusion realms, Zhang Ming had met many high-level cultivators and accumulated some connections.

Later on, when the remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao took over the illusion realms, cultivators could comprehend the Dao within them.

He struck it lucky again and received some rewards.

An originally mediocre outer sect disciple whose whole life seemed set in stone was now actually ranked among the outstanding talents of the inner disciples.

Saying it was a fortuitous encounter given by Lu Ze was actually quite justifiable.

After "Operation Xianyuan Continent" came out, Zhang Ming's life became even more comfortable.

In other competitive illusion realms, such as "Immortal and Demon Clash" or "Naraka: Bladepoint," high-level cultivators didn't have an urgent need for ranks; they simply valued Zhang Ming's skills and wanted to have fun playing together.

But "Operation Xianyuan Continent" was different.

Money was a strict necessity!

Especially that group of high-level cultivators who were terrible at the game but loved to play—they went bankrupt at the drop of a hat!

Now, when they sought out Zhang Ming, it was driven by some profit-oriented needs.

Moreover, there was no small number of such cultivators!

Consequently, real-world spirit stones, pills, and magical treasures all began to become the payment for hiring Zhang Ming.

With these things, Zhang Ming's cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, and his path to immortality became much broader!

Cultivators even started calling people like Zhang Ming "Dao Protectors."

Just like how large sects in reality would protect the paths of their descendants, they protected their bosses so they could comfortably scoop up supplies and spirit stones.

"Dao Protectors?"

After hearing Zhang Ming's account, Lu Ze couldn't help but feel a mix of amusement and exasperation.

Wasn't this just the game companions and escorts from "Delta Force" in his previous life?

According to Zhang Ming, there were already merchant guilds recruiting Dao Protectors like him at high prices, in the process of forming Dao Protector commercial firms.

Good heavens, escort shops had opened up in the cultivation world...

"Senior Brother Lu, should I not be doing this?"

Seeing Lu Ze's exasperated expression, Zhang Ming couldn't help but feel a bit guilty.

"It's nothing, just stick to your original intentions."

Lu Ze shook his head and once again pushed the pill back into Zhang Ming's pocket.

"Going from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core is just a matter of sleeping for me, so I've never had the chance to use this pill. Don't be polite, just take it."

"...Thank you, Senior Brother Lu."

...

...

"Escorts... game companions..."

On the way back from the Spirit Moon Pavilion, Lu Ze kept thinking about what Zhang Ming had said regarding illusion realm Dao Protectors.

Was the existence of escorts and companions right?

In his previous life, whether it was escorts or companions, they were heavily flamed by ordinary players.

But right now, Lu Ze didn't plan to use a one-size-fits-all approach to ban them.

For one thing, the cultivators looking for escorts were all powerful high-level cultivators, and these people were an important source of demonic path points.

For another, the Dao Protectors in the illusion realms wouldn't heavily impact the experience of ordinary players like the escorts of his previous life did.

The reason was simple.

In his previous life, when companions and escorts took orders, they used rented accounts.

Just imagine, if two Zhou Yues entered a match where the average skill level was that of Zhong Yi, could that be fair?

But in the illusion realms, apart from Lu Ze, everyone only had one account.

The matches involving escorts were bound to be high-pressure matches, or even shadow-banned tier matches.

The interests of ordinary players wouldn't be affected.

High-level cultivators earned illusion realm spirit stones, Dao Protectors earned real-world spirit stones, and Lu Ze harvested the system's demonic path points...

With such a virtuous cycle, why wouldn't he be happy to oblige?

Once a cycle of spirit stones was formed, an industrial chain would emerge. Then the pie of the illusion realm domain would grow bigger and bigger, which was actually a good thing for his own development.

"Escorts exist now, so what about knife runners..."

Lu Ze pinched his chin, suddenly recalling another industry from his previous life.

Knife running.

From his observations, the players' demand for knife runners was actually quite high.

For example, for the routinely bankrupt Zhou Yue, Zhong Yi was always itching to personally run knives for him...

But to make the path of knife running work, account renting would be unavoidable.

If that happened, it would easily turn into the situation of his previous life, where Dao Protectors rented rat accounts to bully other rats.

"Hmm, then I'll just impose some special regulations on the rules for lending accounts..."

...

...

The next day.

"Operation Xianyuan Continent" launched a new feature—

[Comrade Mission Proxy: Possess a comrade to execute Beacon Operation missions on their behalf.]

[Note 1: While in the possessed state, missions can only be executed solo (teammates can be matched).]

[Note 2: While in the possessed state, if the number of kills in a single match exceeds 2, you will be forcibly kicked out of the match.]

[Note 3: During the execution of a mission while possessed, the original body cannot enter "Operation Xianyuan Continent" (but can enter other illusion realms).]

[Note 4: While in the possessed state, the supplies obtained from the mission will be subject to a ten percent handling fee based on their value.]

As soon as the feature went online, it immediately caused a sensation on the forums.

Overwhelming numbers of posts were all discussing this feature.

[What's going on? The spring of the rats???]

[Only deducting a ten percent handling fee, and not even requiring spirit stones to be paid? Is this still Old Demon Lu?]

[I announce! Old Demon Lu has his human status restored for a day!!]

[Is anyone helping with knife runs? A hundred spirit stones to run ten million for me!]

[I'll do it!]

[Whose young master is out experiencing life, are spirit stones this worthless now...]

[Good heavens, are you saying that us rogue cultivator players can make money through the illusion realms?]

[Who said Old Demon Lu isn't a good person? He's simply a saint!!!]

...

...

At the same time.

Zhong Yi's illusion realm world.

Zhong Yi and Zhou Qiaoling were "alleviating poverty," helping the bankrupt soldier Zhou Yue rebuild his life.

The moment she saw the new feature go online, Zhou Qiaoling's eyes lit up.

"Bro, bro, how about I possess you and help you run knives? Ten million spirit stones in exchange for ten spirit stones, how about it?"

"Really? Sure!"

Zhou Yue froze for a moment, then nodded subconsciously.

Ten million in supplies converted into spirit stones was worth far more than 10 spirit stones.

It didn't seem at all like something Zhou Qiaoling would do.

"Deal! Hand over the ten million spirit stones now, and I'll sneak in a few extra Little Blues for you later~~"

Zhou Qiaoling clapped her hands with a beaming smile.

Zhou Yue immediately realized he had been scammed. His face instantly darkened. "Get lost! I'd be better off doing the knife runs myself!!"

"Tch, when you do the runs yourself, you only ever get the [Dancing Songstress] or the [Golden Bull Horn]..."

Zhou Qiaoling twisted the knife with a wicked smirk.

"Old Zhong, why the serious face... Is there a problem with this new feature?"

Zhou Yue looked at Zhong Yi, who had been standing silently to the side, and asked out of curiosity.

"No, not at all... In fact, it's incredibly good. It's so good that I don't even know how to describe it."

Zhong Yi shook his head, his expression filled with sheer excitement.

He possessed the keen insight to realize just how invaluable this new feature launched by Lu Ze would be to countless bottom-tier cultivators.

"Junior Brother Lu, this time..."

"...might actually ascend to sainthood!!!"