Translator: AnubisTL
"Strictly prohibited?" Scar Dog stared at the words, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Strictly prohibited? Good. The stricter, the better."
It was common knowledge that the more strictly something was prohibited, the greater the underlying profits were likely to be.
Since Xiaoyu was being so cautious with the star coins, it was clear they offered substantial benefits to players.
Chen Jiang understood this as well, carefully choosing his words.
[Xiaoyu, I'm not stupid. Why would I give star coins to players? I genuinely need them urgently. Don't you trust me?]
[Xiaoyu: I just don't trust you. When you get infatuated, you're capable of anything.]
[Xiaoyu: Fine, fine, you've worn me down. How many star coins do you need?]
[How many do you have?]
[Xiaoyu: What kind of question is that? I have 20,000 star coins. You're not planning to borrow all of them, are you?]
[Just lend them to me, okay? I promise I'll pay you back later.]
[Xiaoyu: Did something happen? Why do you need so many star coins?]
[Just tell me if you'll lend them or not.]
Xiaoyu: "Fine, fine, I'll lend it to you! My dear young lady, you're so assertive even when borrowing money!"
Moments later, another notification popped up on the tablet:
[Contact Xiaoyu has transferred 20,000 star coins to your account. Please verify receipt.]
This time, there was no white circle, just the notification itself.
Chen Jiang hurriedly opened the messaging app's personal page to see if he could withdraw the star coins.
To his surprise, he quickly found a withdrawal button.
A friendly reminder appeared:
[Space bracelet already linked. Do you want to change the linked bracelet?]
[Changing the linked bracelet requires a 10 star coin fee.]
"Pay!"
Instantly, 10 star coins were deducted from his balance, and another notification popped up:
[Please link a new space bracelet.]
"Come here," Chen Jiang said to Scar Dog. "Hold out your space bracelet."
"Yes, sir."
Given the sheer volume of items stored in his own space bracelet, Chen Jiang couldn't risk losing everything in case of an accident.
The linking process was completed swiftly.
This time, when he tapped the withdrawal button, there were no issues.
[31,239 star coins withdrawn. Balance: 0 star coins.]
Of these 31,239 star coins, 20,000 had just been... borrowed from Xiaoyu, while the remaining 11,239 were already in the account.
Scar Dog pulled a coin from his space bracelet, slightly larger than a game coin, and handed it to Brother Jiang, who looked puzzled. "This is a star coin," Scar Dog said.
Chen Jiang took the coin from Scar Dog and hefted it in his hand. It felt heavy, with a noticeable weight.
The front was engraved with the number 10,000, and the entire coin was silver-white. The back featured a relief of an old man.
A panel popped up before his eyes:
[Item Name: Star Coin]
[Item Star: Rankless]
[Item Details: The most solid hard currency in the universe. You can use it to purchase anything you desire!]
[Item Effect: Face value: 10,000]
[Item Description: "Can you smell it? The unique fragrance of a star coin."]
"Uh..." Scar Dog's face flashed with confusion. "It only said this thing is valuable. But it doesn't seem like we can actually spend it anywhere."
"Then..." Li Hao hesitated, "does this thing have no use for us?"
"What kind of talk is that!" Scar Dog's expression turned serious. "We just don't know its use yet. One day, we'll find a way to use it."
"Hurry, Brother Jiang, don't stop! Keep borrowing until you've emptied all the star coins from her contacts."
Chen Jiang pocketed the star coin without pausing, immediately clicking on the next contact's chat window.
He shared Scar Dog's mindset: regardless of immediate utility, any valuable item should be grabbed first. Sooner or later, it would prove useful.
Freebies were never to be refused.
As the saying goes: "Heaven's gift refused brings retribution."
Soon, he had borrowed from every contact in the list.
The haul was impressive:
One three-star item Thirty-one two-star items Seventy-six one-star items Over 90,000 star coins
In total, they had amassed 126,554 star coins.
Remarkably, the woman seemed to have decent connections. At least a third of her contacts were willing to lend star coins. Some people might scour their entire contact list without finding a single willing lender.
However...
For now, these star coins were utterly useless.
For now, they could only collect them.
Even if they couldn't use them immediately, the feeling of having so many star coins was still comforting. Moreover, the items—including the three-star one—were quite pleasing.
"Not bad at all," Scar Dog said, nodding in satisfaction after contacting all his contacts. "This is quite the unexpected windfall. I wonder what we can use these star coins for."
Chen Jiang remained silent, continuing to scroll through the chat logs in the messaging app.
Based on these records, he could vaguely discern some information:
The woman was indeed an employee of the Ten Thousand Races Arena.
However, other details remained unclear. The chat logs revealed little beyond that; he couldn't even determine her race.
The hosts of the amusement park rides, on the other hand, were not employees.
Their exact nature remained unknown.
All that was certain was that these hosts were confined to their respective rides, possessing only the ability to guide players through the attractions. Beyond that, they seemed to lack any other powers—like trapped ghosts.
Just then, a notification popped up on the tablet:
[Your messaging app, Starlink, has been logged in from another location.]
"Did I get kicked out?"
Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow, clicked his tongue, and dismissed the thought. After all, he'd already withdrawn everything he needed and seen everything he wanted to see.
Even if he'd been kicked out, it didn't matter.
Still, if nothing went wrong, the woman would likely have a mental breakdown when she logged back in and saw the mess he'd left behind.
This kid clearly hasn't been tempered by the Ten Thousand Races Arena, Chen Jiang thought. Anyone who had would never be so careless as to leave something this important behind.
Satisfied, Chen Jiang continued tapping other buttons.
"Huh?"
He soon found an interface that allowed him to control the amusement park's rides.
Chen Jiang glanced at the Pirate Ship icon swaying on the screen, hesitated briefly, then tapped it with his index finger, attempting to rotate the ship 360 degrees.
The next moment—
"Ahhhhhh!"
In the distance, the massive Pirate Ship, originally swinging back and forth like a pendulum, suddenly accelerated and spun a full 360 degrees!
The players strapped into the ship screamed in terror.
"Heh, this is fun."
A glint flashed in Scar Dog's eyes as he tapped the Pirate Ship icon and began frantically swiping across the screen.
Immediately, the Pirate Ship started spinning faster and faster, rotating wildly in a full 360-degree circle.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
The piercing screams threatened to shatter the surrounding mist.
One by one, items were flung from the players on the Pirate Ship, scattering across the ground.
Chen Jiang and the others' eyes lit up.
While players were forbidden from attacking each other directly, there was no rule against picking up items dropped by other players, right?
Chen Jiang and Scar Dog exchanged a quick glance and immediately began coordinating their efforts.
Chen Jiang took control of the Pirate Ship, while Scar Dog used energy blocks to collect the scattered items.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
As Chen Jiang's fingers moved faster and faster, the massive Pirate Ship in the distance spun even more violently.
In an instant, not only were countless items being flung off, but vomit filled the air, and the three-meter-tall greenfolk player's brain matter began oozing from his nostrils.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The Pirate Ship had transformed into a colossal fan, spinning relentlessly.
Below, Scar Dog was having the time of his life collecting the scattered items with energy blocks.
The race players watching the Pirate Ship from the sidelines had turned deathly pale.
This is a fucking Pirate Ship?!
They had prepared for this global event to be challenging, but they never imagined it would be this extreme.
Could anyone even survive a ride on that thing?
To be fair, the Pirate Ship was remarkably well-built.
Despite the violent forces, its axles hadn't snapped, preventing it from being flung apart.
Finally, the Pirate Ship slowly came to a stop.
The players watching from below stood solemnly on either side, their faces grave as they gazed at the slowly halting Pirate Ship, their eyes filled with reverence.
A single glance revealed the truth:
Not a single player could stand.
All of them were slumped in their seats, vomit staining their clothes and hair. Some were even twitching slightly. It was fortunate they had been strapped in securely; otherwise, they would have been flung out like ragdolls.
After what seemed like an eternity, one player struggled to unfasten his chest harness, staggered to his feet, and stumbled off the Pirate Ship.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
The watching players erupted into applause, acknowledging his tenacious will to live.
Soon, a second, then a third player emerged.
More and more players struggled off the Pirate Ship, rushing to nearby tree pits to vomit uncontrollably.
But in the end, they all survived.
Only the few greenfolk players, with their three-meter-tall, inverted-cone-shaped faces, never made it down, forever slumped on the Pirate Ship.
Brain matter had oozed from their nostrils, trickling down their chests—they couldn't have been any more dead.
Their once-green heads had turned a vivid crimson, strangely beautiful in a macabre way.
After this group disembarked, the remaining players exchanged nervous glances. No one dared to board the Pirate Ship; even if you survived the ride, you'd be crippled for life.
Standing nearby, Chen Jiang and his companions watched the descending players with mixed emotions. "You have to admit," Chen Jiang said, "these guys have incredible resilience."
"Absolutely," someone agreed.
By now, they had figured out what this global event, the Mist Paradise, truly was.
It was indeed an amusement park ride, just as the woman had claimed.
And as she'd said, there was virtually no real danger—just a heightened sense of tension and excitement.
You could leave the Paradise by spending all your game coins.
Alternatively, you could exit after experiencing all thirteen amusement park rides.
The woman had hung that ominous sign at the entrance purely for her own amusement, to heighten the tension within the park and make things more interesting for her.
Of course, there was virtually no real danger.
As for the few greenfolk players, their sheer size meant they couldn't properly fit in the chairs. Their upper bodies, heads included, swayed violently in the air like reeds in a gale.
Of course, they had no idea how to handle titan race players if any arrived, since none of their group belonged to that race.
Just then—
Chen Jiang and the others saw over a hundred players boarding the drop tower.
"Heh heh," Scar Dog said, rubbing his hands together. "Brother Jiang, I'm ready."
The next moment—
The towering drop tower, its peak piercing the clouds, instantly activated!
With a deafening sonic boom, it accelerated skyward.
Then, it plummeted back to earth at an even greater speed!
Just before hitting the ground, it shot skyward again!
This time, however, there were no screams.
The players on the drop tower seemed to have all fainted.
Their heads lolled to the side, motionless.
But at that very moment—
A message popped up on the tablet in Chen Jiang's hand:
[Your tablet has been remotely activated for self-destruction.]
[3, 2]
Without hesitation, Chen Jiang flung the tablet away.
[.1!]
BOOM!!
A dazzling fireworks display erupted in the sky.
"Why'd it stop, Brother Jiang?" Scar Dog asked, his head popping out of a phantom gate nearby.
"It exploded," Chen Jiang said, regretfully licking his lips. "That woman remotely detonated the tablet."
"I see," Scar Dog replied, fully emerging from the phantom gate with a sigh. "That's a shame. We didn't even get to ride the roller coaster over there."
"Forget it, forget it," Chen Jiang said, glancing at the amusement park ride nearby. "Let's go. Since this global event is supposed to be about relaxation and entertainment, let's relax a bit ourselves."
Soon after...
"Woo-hoo-hoo!!!"
The roller coaster echoed with the exhilarated shouts of Scar Dog and his group.
They were likely the only ones in the entire amusement park having this much fun.
After all, they were the only four on the roller coaster.
Clearly, the players who had witnessed the Pirate Ship and Drop Tower unleashing their full firepower were now hesitant to try any of the amusement park rides.
For a brief moment...
The entire amusement park was deserted, save for Scar Dog and his group, who were enjoying the rare opportunity to relax and indulge in the entertainment they usually never got to experience.
Before long...
Scar Dog and his group had spent all their game coins.
(End of the Chapter)
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