About thirty minutes later, veins bulged on Wu Wang’s forehead.

The virtual boss was dripping with sweat.

“Hold on, bro, can you stop for a second?”

The virtual boss finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“What about the haggling? Aren’t you here to haggle?”

From start to finish, the other party hadn’t uttered a single word about haggling. Instead, he’d faced a nonstop barrage of personal attacks, the sheer creativity of which threatened to fry his CPU.

An adult’s breakdown begins with “forget it.”

A computer’s breakdown begins when it can’t compute.

“Oh, don’t I have to win the argument before I can haggle? Let’s continue.”

Wu Wang frowned, trying to recall their last point.

“I believe we were on the topic of whether your virtual diode gets hard and hot when you interact with your 2D waifu.”

“Stop, stop, stop! I’m not arguing with level 6 trash like you anymore! Goodbye! And I hope to never see you again!”

The virtual boss’s face darkened as he vanished on the spot, leaving a bewildered Wu Wang behind.

So your undefeated haggling legend is just running away when you can’t win an argument! What’s wrong with being level 6? Looking down on me, are you? Bro, let me show you something big.

Wu Wang directly clicked 【Switch Account】.

【Yan Shuangying#00000】

【Player Level: ???】

Wu Wang had discovered this from the very beginning. Most of the functions on the account created by the Abyss God, like the Daily Shop, were shared with his own. The level didn’t provide any attribute points, so it was basically useless for anything other than acting mysterious.

This was why he called the other party a parasyte.

It was also possible the account was only like this because it was newly created. He estimated that after the next fusion and evolution of the Abyss God’s Mark, this account would become more independent.

But regardless, those three question marks were still very intimidating!

Daily Shop—【Haggle】!

The figure of the virtual boss reappeared. He was still seething with rage, ready to vent all his pent-up frustration on the next unlucky customer who dared to haggle.

But as he materialized, the surroundings felt increasingly familiar.

Even the sneering youth in front of him looked exactly the same.

“Fuck! How the hell is it you again? I’m not dealing with level 6 scum…”

Before he could finish, the virtual boss froze. He realized the player’s level wasn’t 6 anymore.

Instead, it was three question marks that even he couldn’t read, all of them wreathed in an eerie red glow.

“What… the hell is this thing?”

The virtual boss reached out and poked the level display next to the player ID, which only he could see. He knew he was virtual and couldn’t make physical contact. He was just curious.

But the next second, the eerie red light entwined around the account ID began to flow.

With the speed of a thunderclap, it surged along the non-corporeal projection to the boss’s hand. His light-blue electronic avatar instantly turned a garish, demonic red, like he’d been infected with a virus.

A virtual red tentacle, thick as a water bucket and several meters long, crawled out from the ground.

It instantly bound the virtual boss.

“Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!”

The boss was completely stupefied, his vocabulary reduced to a single, panicked phrase.

Wu Wang was also stunned.

Abyss God, aren’t you going a bit too far? Reaching a tentacle through the screen to tie up a 2D character is just plain weird!

What kind of freaky bondage play is this? At least pick a girl! Tying up this bald guy is a little hard on the eyes!

Thinking this, he reached out his own hand.

Tap.

Wu Wang’s hand rested on the virtual boss’s shoulder. Under the 【Yan Shuangying】 ID, he could touch him!

The next second, he smiled.

He patted the virtual boss’s shoulder in a kind and friendly manner.

“You think you can just walk away after offending the abbot? I’ll give you two choices. Either you discount the item, or I’ll break your bones. Fair enough, right? So, choose.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the tentacle tightened abruptly. The virtual boss felt like his waist was about to snap.

He hurriedly slapped the tentacle, gasping for air.

“Discount! Discount! Discount! I’ll give you the biggest discount! Just get this thing off me!”

【3000】——【1500】

The price under the sheath instantly dropped by half. Wu Wang’s expression became even more amicable, but he still didn’t let go.

He just stood there, smiling.

The other party was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

He struggled to breathe, cursing intermittently.

“This is really… the max discount… If it goes any lower, I’ll be fired… really…”

How can someone hit a person through an electronic screen! Is there any justice left in this world!

Seeing that the man was really at his limit, Wu Wang figured there was truly no more room for the price to drop.

Only then did he click 【Switch Account】.

In an instant, the demonic red and the tentacle vanished from the room.

The virtual boss collapsed to his knees with a thud. His face was purple from asphyxiation, the color of a pig’s liver.

Before the guy could go back on his word, Wu Wang quickly clicked the 【Purchase】 option. The Calamity Coins in his backpack instantly dropped to 500.

At the same time, an oddly shaped, slightly wide sheath appeared, lying quietly in his backpack.

Bought and paid for.

“You motherfucker… I’m gonna…”

The virtual boss was about to spit out threats when he saw Wu Wang expressionlessly switch his ID from 【Pending Death】 back to 【Yan Shuangying】.

The sight terrified him, the red draining from his face until it was deathly pale.

He vanished on the spot.

Back on the Daily Shop panel of the Spirit Calamity Game, he swore he would never see this guy again.

Beep beep beep—

Before Wu Wang could even take out the sheath to test it, his friends list began to flash. And it wasn’t just one message.

On his 【Pending Death】 account, Baili Dao was looking for him. On the 【Yan Shuangying】 account, Xiezhi was looking for him too.

First, he opened Baili Dao’s message. The other man seemed to be typing frantically.

“Holy shit! Brother Wang! You’re a goddamn legend! You successfully haggled in the Daily Shop?”

“Huh? How did you know?” Wu Wang was dumbfounded.

How did Baili Dao find out the moment his interaction with the virtual boss ended?

Did you install a tracker on me or something?

The next second, Baili Dao sent a screenshot of his own Daily Shop panel.

At the most conspicuous spot, in a bold font second in size only to the 【Daily Shop】 title itself, two lines were posted as an announcement.

【Congratulations to player Pending Death#9527 for successfully haggling! Becoming this shop’s first King of Trash Talk!】

【For this achievement, the player will permanently receive a 10% discount on all purchases!】

Since the final purchase was made using 【Pending Death】 account, the system had defaulted to that ID for the achievement.

“Bro, that’s awesome!” Baili Dao typed excitedly. “The forums on the app have exploded, everyone wants to know how you did it! This is freaking unprecedented!”

His excitement was personal. He had also tried to haggle before, and the result was being shamed on the Daily Shop’s notice board for a full twenty-four hours. For the next month, his colleagues at the unit had laughed whenever they saw him.

Today, Brother Wang had gotten revenge for that humiliation!

So damn satisfying!

“Oh, you just have to beat him in an argument. It’s very simple,” Wu Wang replied with an unnatural expression. “Don’t tell me you guys can’t do it? That must be your problem, not mine.”

He said this because he noticed that below the announcement, the 【Haggle】 option had changed.

【The shop boss has benefited greatly from the verbal exchange and is currently undergoing an optimization upgrade. Please look forward to it!】

Oh, crap. Don’t tell me this guy learned my Talk Therapy after our little chat and plans to upgrade his insult skills to use on other players?

The thought of other players being subjected to his own verbal attacks made Wu Wang feel a little helpless.

Not my problem. They’re the ones who want to haggle. No one’s forcing them.

With that, he opened Xiezhi’s chat box. The message inside left him stunned.

“Brother Yan, good news.”

“One of my subordinates in the branch just happened to be matched into a Nightmare-level Team Instance. The entry time is in two days. Could you come to Mingyang City sometime in the next two days to discuss the specific entry conditions?”

“I also have a personal request. If it doesn’t compromise your own safety, could you do your best to save my disappointing subordinate? He has family waiting for him back home. I will personally compensate you with suitable items and equipment, and I, Xiezhi, will owe you a favor.”

“The instance name is 【Masquerade Ball】!”