Chapter 9: I am a farmer, and this is sugar beet!

“Cough, cough, cough… No… That’s not right!”

On the balcony of the seaside villa.

The hanging hammock was already empty, and in its place, a thick pool of blood had stained the pristine, expensive floor tiles. The tall, slender, strange woman lay on the ground in agony.

Her expression was hideous, as if she were enduring immense pain, and she could only mutter the words “not right” over and over.

About half an hour later, after a layer of blood scabs had already formed on her body, she finally recovered enough to support herself with trembling hands, struggling to stand up while enduring the pain that felt as if her entire body were exploding.

She picked up the phone beside her and typed—

“Bounty on Li Guoqiang, Captain of the Mingyang City Criminal Police! I want him alive, or his corpse if he’s dead!”

“Find out exactly what happened to him!”

“Set the bounty at ten million! US dollars!”

The strange woman’s fingers tapped the phone so hard it made clicking sounds, and by the time she sent the message, the once-smooth screen was covered in cracks.

She was furious! She was bewildered!

That supreme existence was obsessed with death and blood.

This sacrifice only required 50 human lives to imbue a wisp of vitality into the aura on that garment.

Yet, when she transferred her consciousness through the special spirit tablet, she had seen a projection of *Him*!

Why would He personally descend a projection?

She had pieced together and stitched the dungeon herself.

She knew better than anyone what was inside.

It was as ridiculous as Jack Ma taking a private jet to visit a cowherd boy in a remote mountain village, just to snatch away the cow dung he had picked up that morning.

Since there was nothing wrong with the items, the problem must lie with the person!

“Why wasn’t that bastard sacrificed?” The strange woman gasped violently, her proud figure trembling in a state of disarray.

The scene she saw when her consciousness entered the spirit tablet echoed in her mind—

She clearly saw a shell that had already mutated into a monster, defiantly raising its head to stare at the red sun in the sky.

Even though it would have shattered into blood foam the next second, the monster’s wild laughter still made the strange woman feel a chill in her heart.

“Could this madman have been sent by some organization to destroy the [Advent Object]?”

“The Disaster Cult? The Tarot Society? Or the Bureau of Strange Affairs?”

The strange woman’s mind was a mess right now.

The bastard who cleared the dungeon held the spirit tablet that should have been carried by Li Guoqiang, used some method to ignore the sacrifice, and attracted that entity’s projection, causing the [Advent Object] to go missing and completely ruining the plan she had prepared for so long.

Not only that, but her only substitute-death item was gone.

There weren’t even a handful of players in the entire Spirit Disaster Game who possessed such an item!

The terror of that existence was far beyond imagination; even across the chasm between the dungeon and the real world, and even though the projection He descended wasn’t even targeting her, it had still caused her to die once.

“No matter who you are…”

“I will tear you to pieces!”

For the first time, the strange woman hated someone this much.

She was also the first to loathe the livestream restrictions of the “Spirit Disaster Game.”

That was a protection mechanism for newcomers—

Because the flow of time in the dungeon differed from the real world, players watching the livestream were effectively in a state similar to time-stoppage.

Furthermore, they were unable to remember any personal characteristics of the newcomers in the livestream, such as their appearance or voice.

Therefore, she had no way to directly lock onto who the final survivor was, and she hadn’t even realized that Li Guoqiang hadn’t entered the dungeon at all while watching the stream.

Fortunately, she could narrow down the scope of the investigation.

That person held Li Guoqiang’s spirit tablet, so their location must be in Mingyang City!

“Ethan, book a flight back to the country.”

“I’m going back to dig three feet into the ground to drag him out myself!”

————

“Achoo!!”

Wu Wang, who had no idea that his head was now worth ten million, sneezed.

Rubbing his nose, he wondered, “Who’s cursing me?”

“Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!” Another three sneezes in a row.

“Damn, that’s some nasty cursing. Believe it or not, I’ll put a curse on you once I finish eating?” Wu Wang grumbled as he lifted the clumped-up instant noodles with a plastic fork, slurping them down without a hint of disgust.

He had just returned to reality.

Based on the deviation of the clock on the wall and the sogginess of the noodles, he easily determined how long he had been gone—thirty minutes.

That was the time he had spent in the dark space studying his personal panel.

In other words, as far as the dungeon world was concerned, no matter how long he experienced inside, only an instant passed in the real world upon his return.

“Is it Old Man Wang cursing me? Did he find out I replaced his square-dancing speaker’s USB drive with death-by-social-embarrassment moans?”

“It couldn’t be Auntie Li still holding a grudge after all this time because I shaved her cat’s fur to knit a sweater, could it?”

“Meow~”

Just as Wu Wang was wondering whether to curse Old Man Wang or Auntie Li, a fawning meow came from the bedroom door.

One listen and he knew it was a little sycophant, an old green tea cat.

Glancing sideways, the black-and-white cow cat raised by his second sister walked in with a light gait.

Because the white fur around its nose was shaped in an exceptionally abstract way, Wu Wang had always called it “Dick-Cat.”

Watching it slowly approach, Wu Wang pulled a tube of cat treats from the drawer.

“Meow~~”

The cow cat’s voice became even more sycophantic, staring unblinkingly at the treat, its saliva almost dripping to the floor.

But Wu Wang didn’t fall for it.

He just stared sternly at the cow cat and scolded, “Dick-Cat! Did you forget what I taught you!”

Hearing his low voice, the cow cat’s pace immediately stalled.

It tentatively meowed at Wu Wang a few more times.

Finding it useless, it compromised.

*Whoosh—plop—*

The cow cat skillfully used its front limbs to generate force, leaping into the air like a black-and-white windmill to perform a spectacular backflip, landing perfectly at the end.

After finishing this acrobatic performance, it saw a smile on Wu Wang’s face.

“That’s right! That’s it!”

“My house doesn’t raise dead weight. No pain, no gain; only cats with value get to eat!”

“From now on, I want to see you flip every time I come home before you get cat food. Understand?”

With that, he put the cat treat back into the drawer.

He never said this performance would earn a treat.

“I can even tame a cat; I’m a fucking genius.”

Ignoring the cat’s dissatisfied low growl, Wu Wang finished praising himself, tossed it into the living room, and returned to his room to lock the door.

He opened his computer.

The ghostly light reflecting on his face made him look exceptionally pale.

There were about 23 hours left until the mission time.

He needed to review his knowledge regarding the supernatural.

He clicked on a file in his browser’s bookmarks labeled “Metaphysics”—

“Encyclopedia of Occultism,” “Use of Witchcraft,” “Collection of Taoist Spells,” “…”

Not only that, but the other bookmarks on the side revealed his terrifying knowledge reserve.

From chemical material smelting to the analysis of architectural design; from literature and poetry to advanced mathematical theory; from fitness and diet planning to the breakdown of combat techniques; from astronomy and constellations to geological research; from wilderness survival skills to financial investment; from human medicine to criminal cases…

All kinds of messy and comprehensive knowledge were categorized and organized by him.

The most crucial part—he had learned it all.

A normal person would likely be unable to cover every aspect due to limited energy.

But Wu Wang was a little special…

“It really is true that a full stomach leads to lust; I get sleepy as soon as I’m full.” Not long after finishing his knowledge review, Wu Wang felt his eyelids fighting each other as a wave of drowsiness washed over him.

Subconsciously, he took a fruit knife from the drawer and skillfully aimed it at his heart.

Then, he stabbed it in hard.

*Puchi—*

He died.

In the blink of an eye, the lost blood vanished into thin air and returned to his body.

Opening his eyes, the exhaustion was gone.

After resurrecting, his body would return to its peak healthy state!

With this method, he could maintain a high-intensity learning state without needing rest; whenever he felt sleepy, he just gave himself a stab.

This applied not only to learning but also to exercising and practicing combat skills.

Whenever his muscles reached their limit from intense exercise, he only needed to resurrect once to continue, and the training effects were retained, effectively skipping the muscle recovery process and getting the results directly.

Wu Wang hadn’t slept in five years.

Just as he had said earlier—

“I’m a fucking genius!”