At this moment, Jiang Ye had switched seats and noticed that the discussions around him had changed quite a bit.

"Honestly, I don't think we need to panic so much! The fact that a million duel machines are linked only means that a million veteran players can log into our duel zone, but it doesn’t mean they’ll all log in at once!"

"For example, in my apartment's duel room, there are 20 duel machines, but right now, I’m the only one actually using one!"

"So this whole situation might not even have that much impact on our duel zone!"

"That VIP player, Duoe, and Xing Xiu, who made the first announcement, are clearly working together! Their main target is obviously that bald guy who provoked them!"

"So, if veteran players do log into our duel zone, they’ll likely be focusing on the bald guy too!"

Most of these words were just self-reassurance.

But Jiang Ye took them to heart.

That’s true!

In this duel zone, getting key win streaks could earn random rewards.

So far, the only rewards he knew of were 【Announcement Card】, 【Level-Up Card】, and 【Privilege Card】.

Who knew what other useful cards might exist?

That win-streak-selling organization was ridiculously wealthy!

It was like a mega-corporation in the real world—a true giant!

An entity like that, going after someone like him with no background…

They probably had countless ways to deal with him!

So…

Jiang Ye had originally thought about waiting until the veteran players dropped into the duel zone before using his 【Privilege Card】—maybe he could make even more that way.

But now he felt…

To be safe.

Once the veterans arrived, maybe he should log out of the duel room and lay low for a while?

But if he stopped using the duel room for a while…

His income would take a huge hit!

So this 【Privilege Card】—he needed to make the most of it before the veteran players arrived and rake in as much as possible in one go!

With that in mind, Jiang Ye opened the spectating function on his control panel.

Once inside, the interface looked a bit like a food delivery app.

At the top was a search function.

It allowed users to look up a specific seat number to spectate.

Most of the screen displayed various duel arenas.

In the lower-right corner of each one, a small number indicated the current number of spectators watching that duel.

By default, the arenas were displayed in 【Default Sorting】 mode, meaning they appeared randomly.

Of course, some high-traffic arenas might be pushed to the front of the default ranking.

He wasn’t sure if the arenas at the top of the list had used a 【Traffic Card】 to boost their visibility.

Besides 【Default Sorting】, players could also sort by 【Spectator Count】, 【Combat Power】, 【Title Ranking】, and so on.

Since Jiang Ye wanted to make a big profit using the Privilege Card…

And he couldn’t determine the betting amounts of his potential opponents…

Then the best way to cash in was to focus on spectator fees.

If his match using the Privilege Card drew a massive audience, he could make a fortune from the spectating fees alone!

So he sorted the list by 【Spectator Count】 and prepared to spend some time analyzing the options.

At the same time—

Jiang Ye’s first replica, after completing 【Replica Fusion】, wasted no time leaving Room 2025 and heading toward Room 2064.

After all, the woman in white had only given him 10 minutes.

He had to hurry back and continue his cleaning job.

The hallway from 2025 to 2064 wasn’t too far, and he had already walked it twice.

But he still didn’t dare let his guard down, gripping a kitchen knife tightly in his hand.

The new skill he had gained from fighting against the black screen had only appeared on Replica One’s data panel after the 【Replica Fusion】 ended.

【Golden Cicada Shedding (D)】

【Hold a metal weapon for 1 minute, then control it remotely for 3 minutes. Range: 5 meters.】

A pretty basic D-rank skill.

Its effectiveness would depend largely on the attributes of the metal weapon itself.

This made Jiang Ye realize even more—

A skill’s strength was heavily tied to one's ability.

If he obtained more skill scrolls in the future, he should prioritize giving them to replicas with higher-ranked abilities—it would be much more cost-effective.

As he thought about this, he stayed alert.

As Replica One passed Room 2060—

He suddenly sensed killing intent!

His whole body tensed up in an instant, his palm sweating around the knife’s handle.

Instinctively, he pressed his back against the hallway wall, scanning his surroundings.

At that moment, a cocky male voice rang out from the shadows to his right:

"You’re Jiang Ye from the 20th floor, right?"

Following the voice, Jiang Ye saw a lean young man stepping out from the darkness of the hallway.

The young man had a buzz cut and a tattoo on his forehead, seemingly covering some kind of scar…

His whole street-thug vibe made it obvious—he wasn’t a fellow apartment resident!

Clearly, he was one of those two Level 3 players who had come from another apartment!

Huang Qi? Or Yu Xiangming?

On the ranking board, Liu Shun and Ke Zhengfei had both died at the hands of these two!

And they were killed instantly!

However, what made Jiang Ye’s nerves tighten even more was—

As the tattooed young man slowly approached, he gave Jiang Ye a cold glance, furrowed his brows, and muttered in confusion:

"That’s weird."

"Does your Beginner Apartment have two people named Jiang Ye?"

"Is the ‘Jiang Ye’ on the ranking board, the Level 1 one, someone else?"

Hearing this, Jiang Ye’s heart skipped a beat!

He deliberately put on a nervous and uneasy expression, staying silent.

But the tattooed young man kept approaching and continued analyzing:

"Or maybe…"

"You have an ability that prevents others from inspecting your data panel? No… even if you blocked inspection, it wouldn’t show this result."

"Could it be an ability to disguise your data panel? Does such a power even exist?"

The tattooed young man couldn’t figure it out, so he simply hardened his tone:

"Alright, buddy, why don’t you just explain yourself—"

"Why does your data panel show you as Level 0, but the ‘Jiang Ye’ on the ranking board is Level 1?"

At that moment, Jiang Ye instantly realized—

This guy had the ability to inspect other players' data panels!

Holy sh*t!

Fortunately, the only data panel the guy had inspected was Replica One’s.

If he had seen Jiang Ye’s real data panel…

That would have been a huge problem!

An X-tier ability—there was no doubt it would cause an uproar!

Thinking about it now, Jiang Ye realized that from here on out, his real body should stay behind the scenes. No wandering around.

Let the replicas handle everything.

Even though this wasn’t the absolute worst-case scenario,

Right now, he was still at risk of having his secret exposed.

He honestly had no idea how to explain why he was Level 1 on the ranking board but showed up as Level 0 on the data panel.

But then again—

Why should he have to explain anything?

This guy wasn’t his classmate. Hell, he even killed his classmates!

Jiang Ye tensed up, pressing his back against the hallway wall. On the outside, he looked exactly like a terrified Level 0 player.

But in his mind, he was considering…

Fusing with Replica Two and one-shotting this tattooed punk!

Yeah, best if he could take him out in one blow!

After all, this guy could see his data panel!

During Replica Fusion, his panel would change.

If the guy noticed and leaked it in the chat groups, that would be bad news...