【Successfully killed Level 3 Twisted Treant! Gained Energy Points +100!】

After reaching Level 2, taking down these Twisted Treants had clearly gotten a lot easier.

At this rate, he only needed to kill 10 of them for Replica No. 2 to hit Level 3 as well.

After that, the Energy Points gained from killing Treants would sharply drop again...

But if he just used 【Replica Swap】 to switch in another Level 0 replica...

He could totally turn this place into a leveling hotspot!

All his replicas could level up steadily, one after another!

Of course, the same old problem remained—

Whenever he wanted to use 【Replica Fusion】 consecutively, he needed a 30-second window to create a new Mirror Replica in between.

But now that Replica No. 2 was stronger, once it hit Level 3, it should be able to hold out solo for 30 seconds.

Plus, with 【Pocket Space】 now available, Replica No. 2 would find it much easier to use defensive items during those 30 seconds.

And don’t forget, Jiang Ye still had some good stuff from those packages he hadn’t even used yet!

So—

After confirming there was no immediate danger on Replica No. 2’s side,

Jiang Ye’s main body went back to sorting through the items delivered by courier.

First up: Skill Scrolls.

He’d already used the two Silver-Tier ones.

But he still had three Bronze-Tier Skill Scrolls!

Two of them he’d bought, and the third was a reward from a quest given by the woman in white.

Jiang Ye was already pretty calm by now, didn’t need much mental adjustment.

Still, he took a few deep breaths before slowly tearing open the Bronze-Tier Skill Scrolls one by one.

These scrolls came with a chance of failure—he might not learn anything.

But his luck was decent this time.

All three Bronze-Tier Scrolls granted him new skills!

And they were all D-tier!

【Replica Mutation (D)】

【When generating a new replica, you can choose a different name and appearance from the main body.】

This skill...

Didn’t boost combat power or anything.

But it made his replicas more diverse.

Otherwise, when he eventually got to Infinite Replication, imagine hundreds of “Jiang Ye”s running around—anyone would know something was up.

Using mutated replicas would lower the chance of being discovered by a lot.

So yeah, this was a solid skill.

But what really got him excited was the second D-tier skill.

【Replica Possession (D)】

【Designate up to 3 replicas to possess the main body. The attributes, abilities, and skills of the replicas are fully stacked onto the main body for 3 minutes.】

This skill was similar to 【Replica Fusion】, but this time the main body was the core!

Now, finally, his main body could handle emergencies too!

And if he was right...

Mirror Replicas should also be able to possess him!

The third D-tier skill was more basic.

【Detection (D)】

【Detect item info; detect player info.】

This Detection skill was one tier higher than Xiao Bing’s E-tier version.

And it was way more convenient having his own Detection—no need to rely on Xiao Bing anymore.

Especially since his own Detection could secretly probe other players.

Using Xiao Bing to do that would likely get noticed.

Plus, there were a few items from Huang Qi’s stash that Xiao Bing couldn’t scan. Time for him to give it a go.

First target: a silver-colored ribbon of light.

It looked weightless, and even felt like nothing in his hand.

He hadn’t thought much of it at first—but Xiao Bing’s Detection couldn’t ID it.

He’d fiddled with it for a while, even had Replica No. 4 wear it around the wrist, but nothing had come of it.

Now, with a second attempt at scanning, he finally got some info—

【Ring of Critical Strikes】

【Wrap it around the handle of a weapon. The next attack with that weapon is guaranteed to crit. (Uses left: 2/3)】

Ah, so it had to be wrapped on a weapon handle. No wonder wearing it on the wrist did nothing.

Still, kind of a tricky item to use.

You obviously couldn’t keep it on your main weapon all the time.

With only three charges—and likely a huge power boost—it was best saved for critical moments.

Problem was, when things got real bad, there might not be time to put it on.

Best to prepare an extra weapon ahead of time, with the ring already on—treat it as a backup trump card.

Jiang Ye stashed the ring away and used Detection on a bag of chocolate beans next.

What popped up was—

【Man-eating Plant Seeds】

【Throw hard to rapidly grow various types of man-eating plant monsters that attack all nearby living creatures.】

【PS: These monsters will attack indiscriminately. Use with caution to avoid friendly fire~】

Holy sh*t, good thing he hadn’t had a replica try one for a snack...

They seriously smelled like chocolate though -_-||

He tossed the whole bag of seeds into the shared Pocket Space.

Next, he scanned an oil lamp.

【Severing Lantern】

【Also known as the Heart-Cleaving Lamp. Once lit, dispels most low-tier illusions. (Remaining duration: 100/120 minutes)】

Illusions?

If it’s got 100 minutes left, Huang Qi already used it for 20?

Did he get caught in an illusion? Or was he just messing around?

But using it for 20 minutes doesn’t sound like “just for fun.”

So chances are, it was actually used to break through something.

That made Jiang Ye suddenly suspicious—

Was that creepy forest covered in white sheets also under the effect of an illusion?

And what about the blood mist area where Replica No. 2 was fighting? Could that be an illusion too?

No way to be sure.

But the blood mist area wasn’t dangerous for now—in fact, it was good for grinding XP.

So he decided not to use the Severing Lantern yet and tossed it into Pocket Space too.

Next up, two more unidentified items: a string of prayer beads, and a wooden ornament.

Scanning the beads revealed:

【Heartless Prayer Beads】

【If your player kill count exceeds 100, wear this at all times to purge killing intent and avoid attracting vengeful spirits.】

So if you killed over 100 players, vengeful spirits would start tailing you?

Jiang Ye stored the beads and moved on to the wooden ornament.

But once again—scan failed!

This ornament looked creepy from the get-go—

It was a sculpture of two babies hugging each other.

Usually, stuff like this would be made of translucent jade and worn as a charm for good luck.

But this was made of wood. Light, rough to the touch.

Worse yet, it had been burned black.

Two charred infants, curled up as if asleep—but the whole thing gave off an eerie vibe.

Jiang Ye knew from the first glance—this item wasn’t normal.

And sure enough, not even D-tier Detection could identify it.

He didn’t overthink it.

He just tossed the ornament into Pocket Space too.

Finally, his gaze locked onto six Silver-Tier Attribute Fruits!

Three for Stamina, three for Energy.

He immediately had his main body consume one of each.

The moment he swallowed the two Silver-Tier fruits, a wave of sheer pleasure surged through him.

Felt so good it was like every pore on his body opened up—he even let out a long, involuntary sigh.

Checking the stats panel—

Stamina and Energy both increased by 5 points!

Keep in mind: Bronze-Tier fruits only gave +1 the first time.

And even leveling up only gives +1 to attributes.

But these Silver-Tier fruits gave a whopping +5 in one go!

For five million points? Totally worth it!

Next, Replica No. 3 also took two Silver-Tier Attribute Fruits—+5 to both attributes.

He also had Replica No. 3 consume 10 Bronze-Tier and Black Iron-Tier fruits.

The first Bronze-Tier one gave +1 point.

By the fifth, it was down to just +0.2.

So about a 0.2 drop per fruit.

Which meant the sixth one would probably do nothing.

Black Iron-Tier started with +0.5 for the first, +0.1 by the fifth.

Same deal—sixth one likely useless.

So, if he extrapolated this...

The fifth Silver-Tier fruit would only give +1 point.

In other words, each tier of Attribute Fruit had a five-fruit limit.

That’s 5 Stamina Fruits + 5 Energy Fruits = 10 max per tier.

Now that he’d figured out the pattern, he’d be able to use them efficiently in the future without wasting any.

Also, the total attribute gain from maxing out each tier of Attribute Fruit could now be calculated—

Altogether, that came to 19.5 points. (1.5 from Black Iron-Tier, 3 from Bronze-Tier, and 15 from Silver-Tier.)

As for his Replica No. 3, after consuming all the Black Iron-Tier and Bronze-Tier fruits, its attributes had increased by 4.5 each.

Add one Silver-Tier fruit on top...

That was a total gain of 9.5!

Which meant Replica No. 3 had broken past 10 points in all attributes!

Even surpassing 15+!

And its Combat Power? Straight up over 100!

Once he used Replica Fusion again, the effect would only get more terrifying!

At this point, even though it was still a Level 0 replica, Replica No. 3 already had the power to hold its own.

Even in the blood mist zone, it could handle Twisted Treants solo—no fusion needed!

With that, Replica No. 3 had fully grown.

However, Jiang Ye didn’t plan to stop there!

He wanted all his replicas to be maxed out on Attribute Fruits ASAP!

Which meant—it was time to make money!

But of course, grinding for money with part-time jobs was out of the question now...

His plan? Leverage the Golden-Tier Duel Machine!

Aim for a 100-win streak while raking in cash!

That said, it was currently Replica No. 1, badly bruised and battered, who was occupying Room 2025 of Apartment 9999.

He’d tried using the Golden-Tier Duel Machine.

Only to be told—access denied!

So that meant... only Replica No. 2 could use the Golden-Tier Duel Machine?

While Jiang Ye was still frustrated about this, Replica No. 1 noticed that people in the Apartment 9999 chat group were talking about him—

【That guy jumped straight to Level 3... did he just use two Level-Up Cards back to back?】

【Does the Golden-Tier Duel Machine give out Level-Up Cards as daily rewards? I don’t think so, right?】

【Maybe he bought them himself? Dude’s already got the Golden-Tier Duel Machine—clearly loaded!】

Jiang Ye stared at the screen, mentally retorting: Loaded my *ss! I’m broke as hell! I’m still scrambling to make money over here!

With that in mind, he suddenly had a bold idea.

But he didn’t say it directly. Instead, he played it casual in the group chat:

【Hey seniors, I’ve got this item called a “Lucky Bracelet.” Detection says it can be recharged—any of you know how to charge it up?】

Most people chatting in the group were players ranked outside the top 100 on the Ranking Board.

Especially Wan Xin, who was second-to-last in the rankings right behind Jiang Ye, and super active in the group.

Since he’d also had a run-in with Jiang Ye, he was quick to chime in:

【D*mn kid, I thought you were a newbie? How’d you get a Lucky Bracelet?】

Jiang Ye: 【Didn’t I say before? I killed a veteran player from another apartment.】

Wan Xin: 【Alright, alright, you got me there—respect.】

【As for charging the Lucky Bracelet... it’s pretty much all up to luck.】

【Either bury it in soil where Lucky Flowers grow...】

【Or soak it in the blood of lucky creatures like deer or crows.】

【Thing is, those conditions are really hard to meet during the beginner phase.】

【But once you're in the official Doomsday Apartment, you can pay pro teams to charge it for you.】

Jiang Ye was a little puzzled: 【Crows are lucky creatures?】

Wan Xin: 【Of course! In the Doomsday Apartment lore, crows are considered the luckiest birds around.】

【But... some crows have already gone completely dark. If you soak the bracelet in the blood of a corrupted crow, it turns into a Cursed Bracelet instead.】

What Wan Xin didn’t say was this—

Cursed Bracelets couldn’t be identified through Detection.

They would still show up as “Lucky Bracelet” even after being corrupted.

And they could still be “successfully” charged using the same methods.

But their effect would remain cursed!

Which meant, once corrupted with dark crow blood, a Lucky Bracelet would never bring luck again.

And the user? Wouldn’t even notice.

That’s why players handled Lucky Bracelets with extra caution—to avoid getting sabotaged.

That said, it was still the newbie phase.

Corrupted crow blood? Practically impossible to come by right now.

So the chance of the bracelet getting tainted was next to zero.

Jiang Ye still had one Silver Treasure Chest and three Bronze Treasure Chests on hand.

His plan? Open them with luck on his side!

Plus, now that his main body’s attributes had improved, he could handle more replicas at once.

He was wondering—could he max out his luck and maybe roll a replica with an ability that surpasses even S-tier?

Sure, Attribute Fruits made you stronger.

But other top players could max out on fruits too!

The real gap would come from abilities!

While pondering this, Jiang Ye’s main body used 【Replica Swap】 again.

This time, switching Replica No. 2 with Replica No. 3.

And just as expected, Replica No. 3 could easily kill Twisted Treants even without fusion.

Leveling up to 3 in no time!

But just then, Jiang Ye noticed something—

The more Twisted Treants he killed, the more intense the ground vibrations became.

Which made no sense.

If those tremors were caused by Treants moving underground...

Then with fewer Treants alive, the shaking should’ve been lessening.

But now…

With fewer Treants around, the shaking was getting worse!

Originally, he’d planned to send in Replica No. 4 to level up too.

But with this weird development, he didn’t dare take chances.

He stayed on high alert, ready to use Replica Fusion at a moment’s notice to handle any unknown danger!

At the same time, Replica No. 1 continued asking in the group chat:

【Besides the Lucky Bracelet, I’ve got another question.】

【I’ve already browsed the item list from the Golden-Tier Duel Machine. And something stood out to me.】

【Why are items like Skill Scrolls and Attribute Fruits—which directly boost the Data Panel—so expensive...】

【While weapons and equipment—which don’t raise the Panel Combat Power—are relatively cheap?】

【With the Duel Room system, wouldn’t players at the same Combat Power rely more on gear to win?】

Take Silver-Tier Attribute Fruits for example—at most, one adds 5 points.

But Silver-Tier gear can boost both Stamina and Energy by almost 10 points combined.

Plus they often come with extra effects.

At a glance, they seem way better than Attribute Fruits.

Yet price-wise, gear isn’t nearly as expensive as the fruits.

This puzzled him.

In the 9999 Apartment group, it was again Wan Xin who jumped in with an answer.

Except... he didn’t answer directly.

Instead, he asked a question of his own:

【You know why Lin—the top player on our War God Ranking—has a 100% win rate, and might be the first to reach a 100-win streak?】