Jiang Ye had only asked jokingly.

But what he saw—

The Blackened Replica’s Adam’s apple clearly moved up and down.

Wait, what? Bro??

Just as he was stunned, he noticed—

Not only did this guy secretly swallow, even his eyes had gone red!

He was staring straight at him with burning intensity.

He even had the nerve to say:

“No need for you to draw blood. I can just bite directly.”

???

Excuse me?

F**k!!

What are you trying to bite directly??

Suck my blood?!

What the actual hell, are you a freaking vampire?!

Jiang Ye was instantly creeped out, cursing in his heart—

I thought you were my replica, and now you wanna suck my blood?!

Unbelievable! Out of line! No respect for your creator! Straight-up betrayal!

Jiang Ye was furious!

He rolled up his sleeve and clenched his fist.

Staring at his veins, he said angrily:

“This isn’t gonna cause any problems, right?”

“Definitely not,” the Blackened Replica vowed, looking dead serious. He even explained, “No need to bite the wrist either, just the fingertip is fine.”

“Then…”

Jiang Ye looked serious and asked, “Should I wash my hands first?”

“No need, no need.”

“Then…”

Jiang Ye gave in: “Alright, let’s try it.”

As soon as he reached his hand out to the Blackened Replica, the guy just went in for a bite.

Jiang Ye was so startled he had to shout again: “Just testing, alright?! Don’t drink too much!”

“Mm…” the Blackened Replica hummed to show he got it.

Sure enough, he only took one or two sips, the whole thing felt like a regular finger prick.

Jiang Ye himself barely felt anything.

He looked curiously at the Blackened Replica and asked, “Well? Feel anything?”

The Blackened Replica’s pitch-black eyes were sparkling as he nodded seriously: “Feels great. I got stronger. A little.”

“If I could drink a bit more, it’d be even better.”

“……” Like hell it would!

Jiang Ye didn’t let him drink more, just looked suspicious: “Didn’t you say earlier there’d be dangers and side effects?”

The Blackened Replica paused, then quickly corrected: “That was for Blackened Crow Blood—that’s dangerous and has side effects.”

“You’re not a Blackened Crow.”

Then the Blackened Replica thought for a moment and came to a conclusion he felt was completely logical:

“You’re my master.”

“So your blood has a nourishing effect on me.”

Jiang Ye blinked: “Just because of that?”

“Of course, not just that.”

The Blackened Replica paused for a moment, then said in a low tone, “Your blood has strong energy.”

“And it seems to be… a special kind of energy that surpasses both light and dark energy.”

Knew it—Jiang Ye’s blood was special.

But: “Isn’t that Blackened Crow Blood?”

The Blackened Replica gave him a look like he couldn’t follow Jiang Ye’s train of thought, then after a brief silence, said helplessly: “You’re not a Blackened Crow. How could you possibly have Blackened Crow Blood?”

Uh…

So Jiang Ye’s blood was pure human blood?

Just… a little different from normal?

So this difference—was it brought about by the [Infinite Replication] X-tier ability, or was it something he’d had all along?

Jiang Ye thought, maybe it had something to do with his own personal traits?

Like how his initial awakening failed—maybe that too was caused by something unusual in him?

But what exactly could that be?

He’d always lived like some nameless NPC, never had much presence.

Could he have some rare blood disease that had just never flared up?

Or was he… some vampire noble’s long-lost prince left among the common folk?

Wait! He remembered he had a birthmark!

Actually, he wasn’t sure if it was a birthmark or an old scar from bumping into something as a kid.

Because that “birthmark” was very faint, shaped like a crescent moon.

It looked more like when some spiteful adult had scratched him secretly with a fingernail when he was a kid.

Kids have soft skin, so it left behind this tiny, crescent-shaped scar.

Thinking of this, Jiang Ye quickly reached for his upper back.

Even though it was shallow, he could usually feel it.

But this time…

He kept touching, but couldn’t find it!

The Blackened Replica didn’t know what he was doing and was just about to ask, when Jiang Ye stopped the suspicious action.

After thinking for a moment, he asked the Blackened Replica: “You just said a replica drinking the master’s blood is highly nourishing.”

“So if my other replicas drank my blood, it shouldn’t cause problems either, right?”

The Blackened Replica nodded: “Generally speaking, no problems.”

Then added: “It should be like drinking your own blood.”

“In the Doomsday Apartment, no matter the attribute or the type of eerie being, there’s never been a case of someone having issues from drinking their own blood.”

Good.

That meant Jiang Ye could run his experiments without worry.

He immediately stretched out his hand and let Replica No. 5—the Dark-type one—take a big bite.

And yeah, it really did feel like pricking your own finger and sucking your own blood.

But to his surprise and disappointment—

Replica No. 5 drank the blood and felt… nothing special.

Just like the Light-type one had no reaction to his blood.

No talent mutation, no power-up—nothing.

This hit Jiang Ye’s confidence again. What was going on?

Before he could ask, the Blackened Replica took the initiative to explain:

“Generally speaking, no matter how eerie the being, they can’t grow stronger by drinking their own blood.”

Afraid Jiang Ye wouldn’t get it, he added a simple example:

“It’s like trying to ascend to heaven by stepping on your own foot.”

“Getting stronger by drinking your own blood is like trying to grow up by eating your own flesh—it just doesn’t make sense. So it doesn’t happen.”

Fair enough.

So much for that.

But from this logic, one thing was clear—

Jiang Ye’s self-generated replicas were essentially the same as “himself.”

Which also explained why the Light-type and Dark-type replicas couldn’t sense each other.

And why his blood had no effect on them.

Whereas the Blackened Replica, despite being loyal, wasn’t actually “him.”

Still an outsider.

So only that outsider could get stronger by drinking his blood.

Thinking that, Jiang Ye was a bit disappointed.

But then he had a sudden flash of insight—

With just a thought, Replica No. 5 summoned the nurtured Shadow Puppet.

Since it had only been nurtured for a short time, the entire Shadow Puppet was very weak.

Its stats were pretty pathetic, with just enough energy to reach 1.1, and stamina not even at 1, only 0.8.

This was after getting an accelerated nurturing speed thanks to the dark-attributed environment around the apartment ruins.

And after energy broke past 1, growth got even slower.

That’s why Jiang Ye was so eager to speed up the Shadow Puppet’s development.

Right now, he reached out his finger again and let the Shadow Puppet take a bite.

The Shadow Puppet had no consciousness and had to be controlled by a replica.

Its facial features were also somewhat blurred.

Even its mouth wasn’t quite like a normal human mouth.

When it bit Jiang Ye’s fingertip, there wasn’t the warmth of a real mouth—instead, it was chillingly cold.

He felt like once this thing latched onto his blood, his whole body started to go cold.

Made him want to grab a jacket.

But cold as it was, the surprise was—

While the Shadow Puppet was drinking blood, its stats soared!

In that extreme dark-attribute environment, its stat growth had been crawling—barely a 0.1 increase in ages.

But now during the blood-drinking process, the stats were shooting up like crazy!

In just two or three short minutes, both Stamina and Energy hit 10 points!

But Jiang Ye noticed—

After the Shadow Puppet’s stats hit 10, the rate of growth slowed down by at least tenfold!

With a thought, Jiang Ye took out the Silver-Tier Attribute Fruits he’d bought earlier from a trade with Cheng Qun and hadn’t used yet—ten in total.

Five for Stamina and five for Energy.

The effect: +15 to both stats!

After the Dark-type Replica’s attributes got boosted, the Shadow Puppet’s stat growth during blood-sucking finally picked up again.

From this, it was clear—

The puppet’s nurturing speed progressed in phases.

When its stats were lower than the Dark-type Replica’s, it grew the fastest.

But once its stats exceeded the Replica’s, growth would slow down.

And when it exceeded the Replica’s stats by 1x or 2x, the growth speed would probably hit a cliff.

So in theory, the Shadow Puppet could reach 10,000x the stats of the Dark-type Replica.

But realistically, that’d be insanely difficult to achieve…

Jiang Ye wasn’t aiming that far for now. As long as the Shadow Curse could be effective, that was enough.

He didn’t plan on using the Shadow Puppet for combat in the current stage anyway.

Its purpose was to act as the cost for Shadow Curse, to be consumed and re-nurtured repeatedly.

Thinking that, Jiang Ye waited until the Shadow Puppet’s stats matched the Dark-type Replica’s 25 points, then pulled his finger back.

Losing blood like this definitely wasn’t great for the body.

Unless it was really urgent, better not to overdo it next time.

With that thought, Jiang Ye started thinking about fighting Lin Jing.

He wasn’t sure how long a 25-stat Shadow Puppet could seal Lin Jing’s Glyph Pattern ability.

But if that ability got sealed, beating Lin Jing shouldn’t be too hard.

And even if he lost—it wouldn’t matter.

He could just keep challenging like Bald Guy did.

As he was thinking—

Replica No. 2 started preparing.

He was about to leave the spectator stands to go claim the daily Privilege Cards from the Golden-Tier Duel Machine, and then use one to match with Lin Jing.

But before he could leave, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar figure in the audience.

His eyes widened, and he patted Wan Xin: “Brother Wan Xin, look! Over there, doesn’t that guy look a lot like our Lin Shen?”

Before Wan Xin could see who he meant, Ouyang Fan had already nodded: “Yeah! They do kinda look alike, especially around the eyes.”

“Where?” Wan Xin squinted and mumbled, then suddenly his expression changed, “That’s not just similar—that is Lin Shen!”

“What?” Jiang Ye and Ouyang Fan were both stunned.

Wan Xin explained, “I came to Apartment 9999 early, so I’ve seen what Lin Shen looks like.”

“Apparently, Lin Shen doesn’t need disguise items—he can just change his appearance on his own.”

As he said that, the figure who resembled Lin Jing in the eyes was already walking straight toward them.

When he was close enough, Wan Xin lowered his voice: “Lin Shen, what brings you here?”

Jiang Ye was curious too.

Then Lin Jing looked straight at him and explained, “During Quick Battle’s halftime, I can appear anywhere in the Duel Arena—including the spectator stands.”

“But since I’m the main fighter, showing up directly would cause too much of a stir, so I kept it low-key.”

He shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

Wan Xin nodded quickly, then asked, “So Lin Shen, you came to the stands specifically to find us?”

“Is it about the global Kill-on-Sight Order? Got any updates?”

“Or is it about…”

His tone weakened, a bit awkward: “…that Bald Guy you just fought?”

Yeah, it was a little awkward.

After all, the entire spectator section had been speculating that Lin Jing might actually lose to that mysterious Bald Guy.

Wan Xin had that same worry deep down.

So he felt like saying it out loud might bruise Lin Jing’s ego.

But Lin Jing was a strong-minded powerhouse.

He didn’t seem embarrassed at all about possibly losing.

On the contrary, he nodded openly: “It’s about that Bald Guy.”

“That guy is just too weird.”

“It’s like… no killer move can take him out a second time.”

“If my techniques can’t deliver a sufficiently high-level death…”

“Then if I keep matching with him, losing is inevitable.”

He said it all very calmly.

Even Jiang Ye was a bit surprised—he hadn’t expected the guy to be so straightforward.

Whatever else you say, this mindset—was truly a strong one.

Like no setback could shake his confidence, let alone defeat him.

Wan Xin also admired Lin Jing and quickly tried to explain:

“It’s only because you’re doing Quick Battle that Bald Guy had a chance to exploit it.”

“If it were a normal match, once you saw something fishy, you could just stop.”

Ouyang Fan nodded from the side: “Yeah, it’s the Quick Battle rules that trapped Lin Shen in this no-win situation…”

But Lin Jing didn’t make excuses. He remained composed: “I chose to do Quick Battle myself, so whatever comes with it—I take full responsibility.”

Then he suddenly changed the subject: “Still, now that the situation’s gotten this tricky, I’d like to minimize the losses.”

He said it all so openly.

Jiang Ye instantly had a hunch—

Could Lin Jing be about to…

And sure enough!

Just as he thought it, Lin Jing turned to him, raised a brow, and said in a friendly tone:

“I remember the Golden-Tier Duel Machine gives out 3 Privilege Cards as a daily reward.”

“So you could match with my Quick Battle… three times.”

As soon as he said that, Wan Xin, Ouyang Fan, and other members of Apartment 9999 all widened their eyes.

They clearly had the same thought.

Wan Xin couldn’t hold it in and blurted out:

“Lin Shen, are you seriously thinking…”

“…of staging a fake match with an insider to break your Quick Battle streak?!”

Ouyang Fan swallowed hard, but added logically:

“Even though doing that would still count as an incomplete streak and result in heavy losses for you…”

“…it’d still be better than letting that mysterious Bald Guy steal the whole prize pool.”

Jiang Ye had been thinking the same thing.

But seriously, he was speechless!

Was he born to play the fake match role or what?

Why did everyone want to rig matches with him?!

The first time was that Bald Guy scammer trying to con him in the Duel Room—he saw through it instantly;

The second time was Duoe’s Three-Win Streak package—it shocked him;

The third time was Wan Xin offering him a War God Ranking deal…

The fourth time was Wu Ying surrendering at a 30-Win Streak…

Now the fifth time!

Lin Jing’s “minimize losses” talk was clearly just another fake match excuse—to hand the Quick Battle prize pool off to a “trusted insider.”

Jiang Ye was really at a loss. He just wanted to scream—

With strength like mine, why the hell would I need to throw a fake match?!

Who do you think you’re looking down on?!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep