The Hidden Tower Master Mechanism

“Strange, very strange…”

Zhong Yi stared at the detailed information on the party panel in disbelief.

Ever since leaving the base, his bond value with Zuo Yi had been steadily increasing.

They had clearly done nothing. So why was their bond value continuing to rise?

Zhong Yi turned around and looked at Zuo Yi, who was walking not far behind him with her head bowed very low.

For some reason, he thought he saw the corners of her lips curl upward, as though she were secretly snickering.

“A date… A date…”

“Miss Zuo seems happy?” Zhong Yi asked curiously, stroking his chin.

He began secretly analyzing the mechanism behind Zuo Yi’s rising bond value.

“Hmph! As if this young lady would be happy spending time with trash like you!”

Zuo Yi immediately shook her head and denied it, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks.

“Trash… Am I really that weak?” Zhong Yi’s mouth twitched when he heard the insult. He was deeply dissatisfied with being called “trash.”

Never mind the other Illusory Realms. In the Palworld arena, he was at least a fairly well-known expert.

“Hmph, of course! If you weren’t so pitifully weak, this young lady wouldn’t have taken pity on you and come out with you.”

“From the way you’re talking, Miss Zuo, it sounds like you hate being with me.”

“I hate you more than anyone.”

That answer dealt Zhong Yi a heavy blow.

He couldn’t understand it. In Palworld, he was quite capable, and he was also a handsome and dashing man. Why did Zuo Yi insist on putting him down like this?

“Damn it. Even the Pals are better than me…”

Angry, Zhong Yi directly recalled Zoe and summoned a Frostallion instead.

After Li Moran had subdued that super Frostallion carrying a great opportunity, the Frostallions they encountered afterward were no longer unbeatable opponents. By now, everyone had one.

With the Frostallion in his party, battles became easier, and he no longer had to listen to constant nagging. Zhong Yi was in an excellent mood.

However, when he opened the party panel, he saw that Zuo Yi’s bond value had not increased at all.

Zhong Yi was immediately at a loss.

The purpose of this outing was to raise Zuo Yi’s bond value to Level 8 and unlock her Partner Skill.

The Tower Masters operated differently from the Pals. Each person had different capture requirements, and the methods for increasing their bond values varied as well.

For Pals, simply having them travel with the party would gradually increase their bond value. The Tower Masters, however, each had their own conditions.

For example, increasing the bond value of Lily, the Second Tower Master, required the player to repeatedly rescue imprisoned Pals from cages in Syndicate camps.

Axel, the Third Tower Master, increased his bond value as his level rose.

Marcus, the Fourth Tower Master, based his bond value on accumulated wealth.

As for Li Wei, the Fifth Tower Master, the condition for increasing his bond value was raising a specified number of Pals on the farm in Peiyin.

With no other choice, Zhong Yi summoned Zuo Yi again.

The moment Zuo Yi appeared, her bond value began shooting upward.

“I understand now!”

Zhong Yi suddenly slapped his palm with his fist.

“Zuo Yi’s bond value increases when she fights on the front line!”

With that, he looked toward the young woman in the distance. The moment she noticed him looking at her, she quickly turned her gaze away.

“How strange… She doesn’t look like the type who enjoys fighting…”

…

…

“Pfft!”

Lu Ze, who had been watching the livestream while drinking tea, couldn’t help spitting it out.

His Senior Brother Zhong Yi was clearly brilliant whenever he analyzed anything else. His guesses about the mechanisms and conditions of the other Tower Masters had been completely accurate.

But the moment Zuo Yi was involved, what Zhong Yi said was simply…

Completely wrong!

When creating the Illusory Realm, Lu Ze had not entirely recreated the original game from his previous life.

Of the eight Tower Masters who had been immensely popular with players in his previous life, only Zoe, the Tsundere Tower Master, could be captured, and she had little practical value.

Now that he was in the Illusory Realm, with all its powerful functions and extraordinarily high limits, Lu Ze had simply created an entirely new Tower Master system.

Just as Zhong Yi had guessed, every Tower Master had a hidden mechanism. Whether it was capturing them or increasing their bond value, everything depended on crucial hidden conditions.

Zuo Yi’s hidden condition was favorability.

According to Lu Ze’s design, players only needed to chat with Zuo Yi repeatedly, complete her requests, or give her foods she liked. Her favorability would gradually accumulate, after which she could be captured.

Increasing her bond value worked the same way. Put simply, it was all about raising her favorability.

But even Lu Ze had not expected Zuo Yi to have such a high opinion of Zhong Yi.

When they first met, Zhong Yi had not needed to do anything at all. One Pal Sphere had been enough to capture her.

Now, simply staying by Zhong Yi’s side made her bond value rise nonstop…

And yet, his steel-hearted, hopelessly oblivious Senior Brother had not noticed a thing.

“Wait! Could it be…”

Lu Ze suddenly realized something.

As the saying went, unusual circumstances were bound to have an unusual cause.

It was just like that Frostallion, which had surpassed all reason and the original settings.

It had not been created by Lu Ze. It had been affected by the great opportunity left behind by the remnant of the Heavenly Dao.

In other words, the Zuo Yi beside Zhong Yi might very well be concealing a portion of Heavenly Dao fortune.

“But why does Senior Brother Zhong’s world have so many opportunities?”

Lu Ze couldn’t help sighing.

Then he thought about it again. With someone like Zhou Yue, a peerless constitution favored by the Heavenly Dao, perhaps it wasn’t difficult to understand after all.

For a moment, Lu Ze couldn’t even tell whether Zhou Yue was the Ultimate Unlucky Bastard or the Child of Fortune…

“An outwardly sharp-tongued but inwardly honest woman paired with a jinx spiritual root… Hm, they actually make a pretty good match?”

Lu Ze immediately burst out laughing.

With that, he exited the livestream and arrived in the main server world.

“You want to know whether this woman is hiding a great opportunity? Hah, mortal, you truly are insatiable… Do you know what it means when they say the secrets of Heaven must not be revealed?”

The remnant of the Heavenly Dao let out a cold laugh and flatly refused to answer Lu Ze’s question.

“Fine, fine. I won’t ask.”

Lu Ze spread his hands. The answer to this question was not important to begin with.

He had never intended to interfere with who gained or lost the opportunity.

“However, if this person really does obtain an opportunity, exchange that opportunity for this cultivation technique.”

As he spoke, Lu Ze handed the Ten Cross Formula, which he had obtained long ago, to the remnant of the Heavenly Dao.

The remnant of the Heavenly Dao did not reject the proposal.

If an opportunity truly was obtained, it did not care what form that opportunity took.

With Lu Ze providing one, it would save itself the trouble of bestowing a gift.

“From a mortal’s perspective, this cultivation technique should be considered high-grade… Are you really willing to hand it over?”

The remnant of the Heavenly Dao couldn’t help feeling puzzled.

“It’s no big deal, no big deal. I can just have it drop from him later.”

Lu Ze nodded with a sly smile.

Cultivating the Ten Cross Formula was closely connected to the Great Dao True Words Formula.

That jinx-like cultivation technique, the Great Dao True Words Formula, had been abandoned by him for a long time. He couldn’t be bothered to cultivate it anymore.

It would be better to find an opportunity to make the skill drop from Zhong Yi.

“?”

“Oh, right. Then can you give me the opportunity that originally belonged to him…”

“Get lost.”