“Hss——”

“Hss——”

“Whoosh——”

When one of the "black water snakes" shot out from above the woman in white and suddenly wrapped around Jiang Ye’s neck,

he was already prepared to give up this No.1 Replica.

However...

That long, slick "black water snake" only coiled around his neck but didn’t tighten any further.

And the woman in white, who had lost control of her emotions, had now turned into the woman in black.

Her white bathrobe slipped off, and her strands of black hair transformed into a black robe, billowing in the wind atop the rooftop even though there was no breeze.

This contrast between black and white instantly reminded Jiang Ye of Lan Longkui and Hong Longkui from Chinese Paladin 3.

One was gentle and quiet, the other manic and violent.

Clearly, this woman in black was the violent one.

Even her eyes had become more aggressive and sharp. As she swept her gaze over Jiang Ye, she left him with one sentence:

"Pray I survive."

"Otherwise, you’ll die with me!"

As she said this, she disappeared from the spot in a flash.

Left behind, Jiang Ye still had that black water snake wrapped around his neck.

His body was stiff, and he didn’t dare to lift a hand to touch it.

While cursing in his mind, he suddenly realized—

Could it be that this Apartment Fusion brings catastrophic risks to the NPC tenants?

The woman in white—no, the woman in black now—could she possibly die in this Apartment Fusion?

Just as he was thinking this, someone in the chat group brought up a similar situation.

Wang Hengyi: 【Holy sht! I found that after the Apartment Fusion, those NPC tenants suddenly got super aggressive!】

【I spent the whole day delivering packages. The NPC tenants I met were all easy to talk to. When I asked for five-star reviews, most of them gave it, and I even leveled up my Errand Badge to Level 3!】

【But just now, after the fusion, when I went to ask another tenant for a five-star like usual, that guy just snapped at me and even gave me a one-star review on the spot!】

【F**, that’s my first bad review! No idea how many good ones I’ll need to cancel it out!】

Wang Hengyi was the grind-heavy type of top student, the kind teachers would call “a Peking/Tsinghua hopeful”!

Since entering the Apartment, he’d never spoken in the group before.

So his first message instantly caused an uproar among the others:

【Holy sht?? Hengyi’s Errand Badge is already Level 3?! How the hll did that happen?】

【D*mn! A true study god! Doesn’t matter where he is, still ahead of everyone!】

【If comprehension ability really relates to IQ, then Hengyi must’ve gotten a really strong starting skill like Lu Shen, right?】

【Not necessarily! Lu Shen usually doesn’t study, just plays games all day, and still scores perfect in math. Hengyi’s the hard-working type. His IQ might not be as high as Lu Shen’s!】

【What good is a high IQ! Lu Shen’s ability is only C-tier! Maybe Wang Hengyi has a higher-ranked ability?】

【Heh, if he really had a higher ability, wouldn’t he be on the Ranking Board by now? If you ask me, a Level 3 badge isn’t that impressive. He’s just a high-level workhorse. In this Apartment, survival only comes from leveling up and getting stronger. Working jobs leads nowhere!】

【Tch! Are you for real? Jobs are pointless? Then who’s paying your rent—Sister Lingor Brother Chang?】

【Yang Wenchao never did any jobs and still showed off like a boss, crushing all those former top students!】

Suddenly, the whole group was in a pointless argument again.

Some still kept their old mindset, believing top students would stay ahead no matter the environment.

Others thought survival in the Apartment depended on ability and strength.

No matter how glorious a top student once was, without power now, they'd still fall from grace like everyone else.

But strangely enough, no one really focused on the point that Wang Hengyi raised—

that the Apartment’s NPC tenants were getting more aggressive.

Jiang Ye thought about it, and simply sent a message to the group too:

【The NPC tenants really are more aggressive! Right now, I’m trapped on the rooftop by the tenant I was serving!】

That message finally shifted the group’s attention.

Even Wang Lingling replied:

【The rooftop?? How’d you get up there? @Jiang Ye】

Jiang Ye had planned to establish a “normal guy” persona for his No.1 Replica, so he didn’t hide it and replied directly:

【The tenant’s cleaning request was for me to sun-dry her hair, so she brought me to the rooftop.】

Then Wang Lingling asked more about the rooftop, and Jiang Ye shared everything he saw without holding back.

He also expressed that he was stuck up there and hoped others could help come up with a plan.

But honestly, no one really had any useful advice.

They all just told him to pray the woman in white survives and comes back to release him.

Wang Lingling, though, used the info from Jiang Ye and Wang Hengyi to guess that the Apartment Fusion might be affecting the NPC tenants too.

She couldn’t hold back and tagged Yang Wenchao:

【Yang Wenchao, do you know what exactly the NPC tenants are facing during the Apartment Fusion? @Yang Wenchao】

But Yang Wenchao didn’t even respond.

However, Jiang Ye—who was right next to Yang Wenchao at the time—asked him the same thing in person.

Yang Wenchao shook his head and said:

“To be honest, I know about the Apartment Fusion, but I’ve never experienced it myself, so I’m not sure what the NPC tenants will go through.”

“But once the fusion is complete, we can ask the Administrator.”

Jiang Ye wasn’t sure if he genuinely didn’t know or was just hiding something.

He didn’t press further, but continued speculating:

“According to what Jiang Ye said, the woman in white didn’t kill him directly—just trapped him…”

“And in the group, no one has mentioned any players being killed by NPC tenants.”

“So does that mean the NPC tenants can’t kill players?”

Yang Wenchao nodded and followed up with his own guess:

“Sounds about right.”

“Under normal conditions, NPC tenants can’t take the initiative to kill players.”

“But during the Apartment Fusion, their own lives are at risk. So naturally, they won’t care if players live or die.”

“The woman in white clearly meant—if she dies, Jiang Ye dies with her.”

At this point, Yang Wenchao couldn’t help but frown:

“This Jiang Ye’s got guts.”

“He doesn’t seem like a Game Player, yet he dared to go straight to the rooftop.”

“……”

It was Jiang Ye’s first time discussing himself with someone while pretending to be someone else.

The feeling was… strangely amusing.

But he really didn’t want to give up on No.1 Replica, so he tried probing Yang Wenchao a bit:

“Does Jiang Ye’s situation really come down to betting on whether that woman in white survives?”

“You said before that our first step in cooperation is helping me cross Apartments, and you’d also tell me how to get to the rooftop.”

“If I go up there, is there a chance to save Jiang Ye?”

Yang Wenchao was surprised at first, blurting out, “You want to save Jiang Ye?”

But then he remembered—this bald guy hadn’t killed anyone, and seemed to genuinely care about classmates.

So after a moment of thought, he speculated:

“The black water snake trapping Jiang Ye is probably a special item.”

“It’s an object, but has sentience. It must’ve been given a command—if the woman in white dies, it’ll strangle Jiang Ye…”

At this point, Yang Wenchao paused, then his eyes lit up and his tone suddenly sharpened several notches:

“I can’t guarantee we’ll save Jiang Ye, but if we’re lucky, we might be able to subdue that black water snake!”

Subdue the black water snake?!

Jiang Ye was shocked and about to ask more.

But Yang Wenchao quickly said at lightning speed:

“If you’ve really made up your mind, there’s no time to explain! We have to act now!”

“And I mean right now, because we’re almost out of time!”

Jiang Ye wasn’t saving some random classmate—

he was saving his own Replica.

So of course, he didn’t hesitate and immediately said:

“Alright! Just tell me what to do.”

That instant, decisive attitude made Yang Wenchao seriously suspect—

maybe the “girl” behind this bald guy had a crush on Jiang Ye and was just a big ol’ love-struck fool?

Don’t say it—Jiang Ye really was kind of handsome.

It wouldn’t be that surprising if a cute girl had a crush on him.

Yang Wenchao didn’t think too much about it and simply raised his hand, swiping several times across the operation console on the right, then shook his head and said:

“Nothing!”

“Then we’ll have to buy it from the mall.”

As he spoke, he quickly started weaving through the display cases in the High-End Mall.

At the same time, he called out to Jiang Ye:

“The item we need will cost about 300,000.”

“And saving Jiang Ye or subduing that black water snake isn’t guaranteed to succeed.”

“Are you willing to take that risk?”

300,000...

Jiang Ye only had just over 560,000 on hand, and this would blow through more than half of it in one shot!

And based on the exchange rate for Survival Points,

300,000 equals 3 points—enough to create three more Replicas!

Maybe he should just forget it? Let the No.1 Replica die?

If he used Survival Points to create a new one, it might even come with a better ability than No.1!

But soon, Jiang Ye realized—it wasn’t that simple.

1 Survival Point could indeed be exchanged for 100,000 coins.

But 100,000 coins couldn’t be exchanged back into Survival Points!

Like when veteran players block win streaks—they ask for Survival Points.

But when new players use Privilege Cards to block streaks, what they receive is game currency.

According to Yang Wenchao, during Jiang Ye’s duel with Zhao Yudie,

he could’ve gotten several million coins from her!

And a ten-win streak only costs 10 Survival Points.

So by that math, wasn’t a nine-win streak more expensive than ten?

But actually, that’s not how it works.

No amount of game currency could compare to Survival Points!

To veteran players, game currency might be worthless—

only Survival Points are truly valuable!

So from that perspective...

Jiang Ye didn’t feel as bad about spending 300,000.

The Replica was still more important!

So, he said firmly, “I can take the risk of spending 300,000!”

“Alright!” Yang Wenchao continued looking through display cases.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ye took the chance to check out the Player Trading feature on the console.

His main reason for entering the High-End Mall was to buy Attribute Fruits.

Attribute Fruits could directly increase stats—

which meant his main body could handle more Replicas!

But after searching, he found that there were no Attribute Fruits for sale in the Player Trading section!

So he turned to Yang Wenchao and asked: “Do you know where to buy Attribute Fruits in the High-End Mall?”

Attribute Fruits?

Yang Wenchao was a bit surprised.

After all, at the same Bronze level, Attribute Fruits gave smaller stat boosts than Bronze-tier items.

Also, any Combat Power gained from Attribute Fruits would be directly shown on the Data Panel.

Once your panel stats went up, your matchmade opponents would probably be stronger.

On top of that, Attribute Fruits were way more expensive than gear of the same tier.

So most players would rather buy Bronze equipment than consider Attribute Fruits.

Of course, that only applied to regular players.

Players like Yang Wenchao—Game Players—naturally knew the true value of Attribute Fruits.

Because they were the only Survival Point items that could be bought with game currency!

Granted, the ones that could be bought with coins were limited to lower levels.

But this bald guy wasn’t a Game Player...

He probably hadn’t even seen the Survival Point exchange list.

Yet he still made this kind of decision.

In Yang Wenchao’s mind, this mysterious bald guy became even more of a threat.

Still, he quickly gave directions: “Attribute Fruits are on the northeast display platform.”

Jiang Ye immediately headed toward the northeast corner to search.

Sure enough, he soon found a small, elegant display case with Stamina Fruits and Energy Fruits.

There weren’t many.

And they only came in Black Iron, Bronze, and Silver grades.

What surprised Jiang Ye was how ridiculously expensive these things were!

A single Black Iron Attribute Fruit cost over 10,000!

Bronze ones were over 100,000 each!

And the Silver-tier ones? A whopping 5 million each!

F***, that was just absurd!

But by then, Yang Wenchao had already found what he needed and started rushing him.

So Jiang Ye gritted his teeth and bought 1 Bronze-tier Stamina Fruit and 1 Bronze-tier Energy Fruit, plus 2 of each in Black Iron tier.

In one go, he blew through 240,000!

Then the two items Yang Wenchao picked out burned through another 300,000!

From 560,000 to just 20,000 in an instant...

As he followed Yang Wenchao, rushing out of the High-End Mall, Jiang Ye couldn’t help but ask:

“These 300,000—this piece of grass and tube of water—what exactly are they for?”

They were in a stairwell.

Yang Wenchao was sprinting ahead, replying casually:

“You’ll find out when we face that black water snake. No time to explain now!”

“If the woman in white survives, then we’ve still got time.”

“But if she’s already dead...”

“Then that means she died during the Apartment Fusion.”

“So right now, we’re seriously pressed for time!”

This was fing urgent as hell!

Because more than 8 minutes had already passed since the Fusion Announcement!

That meant they had just over 1 minute left!

F—would they even make it?!

But right as they were thinking they still had a minute left—

the moment they entered the stairwell, a voice rang in their heads: [Apartment Fusion Complete]

Yep! The earlier announcement said “Fusion will complete within 10 minutes.”

Not “at exactly” 10 minutes!

So this round ended 1 minute early, and that still counted as within 10 minutes!

Yang Wenchao immediately realized he’d misunderstood the wording—

his face instantly turned grim.

But he quickly sent a message in the group chat:

【Jiang Ye, are you still alive? @Jiang Ye】