That was downright rude!

And with Wang Chengjin’s already unfriendly attitude…

He was clearly comparing Jiang Ye to a dog on purpose!

Jiang Ye had originally planned to ask Wang Chengjin about Personal Instances and high-level skills.

Now? This guy’s just asking to die.

So Jiang Ye couldn’t be bothered to play nice anymore!

Right at that moment, on the main body’s side, the prepared Dark-type Replica stood in front of the Replica Reflection Mirror.

The Blackened Replica was positioned in front of the Phantom Lantern.

Two powerful Replicas, ready to deploy!

After all, this wasn’t the Duel Arena.

If something went wrong here, it’d be really wrong.

Naturally, he was on full alert—more cautious than when facing Lin Jing in the arena!

Still, even though he was being careful, Replica No. 2—the one actually handling the fight—looked totally relaxed.

He even shot Wang Chengjin a sudden grin:

“Yeah, even walking a dog gets you in the game.”

“So when Lin Jing originally planned to drag you on stage, what kind of cut were you getting?”

“Just the leftover zeros after a billion, like what you’re tossing to me?”

The tone sounded laid-back and friendly on the surface.

But the provocation and mockery were blatant!

He didn’t even bother calling Lin Jing “Lin Shen” this time.

Just straight-up called him by name!

And the way he said “Lin Jing” had this weird mocking undertone to it!

Right then, Wang Chengjin’s face suddenly twisted in shock.

Jiang Ye had already entered combat mode, taunting without holding back:

“Even Lin Jing didn’t dare come ask me for a cut—how the hell did you get the guts…”

At the same time, he fused his two powerful Replicas and burst forward!

In an instant, his aura turned razor-sharp, Blood Mist spreading all around!

And even though he moved this fast…

Wang Chengjin somehow reacted even faster!

The Blood Mist hadn’t even reached him yet.

The Shadow Curse hadn’t even been cast…

Then came a sudden “thud.”

Wang Chengjin slammed to his knees!

Holy sht???

He knelt???

Jiang Ye was mentally full of question marks.

Wang Chengjin’s knees might as well have been made of steel.

They hit the ground with a loud, metallic clang!

Then, he barked—literally—twice, super fast.

And frantically screamed for mercy like his life depended on it:

“Boss, have mercy! Mercy! Woof woof! Mercy!”

“I was wrong! I was seriously wrong! Woof! Woof woof! I’m a dog!”

This sudden turn of events…

Totally stunned Jiang Ye!

If he had glasses on, they’d have shattered in real life from the shock…

For the first time, he seriously wondered if maybe—just maybe—

He hadn’t seen enough sht in life.

What the actual f***??

How do you even describe this?

If someone recorded this and posted it, it’d instantly go viral as the wildest reaction plot twist of the year!

And this dude had seemed pretty normal and cocky earlier.

Now all of a sudden, what kind of mental breakdown is this?

Did he get scared?

But the Shadow Curse hadn’t even been cast yet!

Even the Blood Mist hadn’t reached him…

Why the hell did Wang Chengjin go full freakout mode out of nowhere?

Still, no matter how shocked he was inside by this insane turn…

Jiang Ye stayed super cautious, not wanting to mess up and lose Replica No. 2 in some stupid twist.

So he snapped back quickly.

Kept spreading the Blood Mist while swiftly activating the Shadow Curse!

But…

Maybe that few seconds of shock had delayed him—his Blood Mist and Shadow Curse hadn’t hit the target yet.

Suddenly, right where Wang Chengjin had been kneeling, a golden circle appeared from where his head had slammed the ground.

The circle instantly expanded into a golden, dome-shaped light shield.

It completely enclosed Wang Chengjin and blocked out the Blood Mist and Shadow Curse.

Jiang Ye tensed immediately at the sight.

His internal danger alert went off hard!

His cautious main body instantly prepped to swap Replicas to protect No. 2.

Of course, alert was one thing, prep was another.

But he didn’t panic enough to have No. 2 run away immediately.

Instead, he just narrowed his eyes, watching Wang Chengjin inside the golden shield with full caution.

Wang Chengjin was still kneeling, calling out with an apologetic tone: “Bro! Boss! God! Master Jiang!”

“I’m really a dog! I know I f***ed up!”

“12.8 billion, what Lin Shen lost to you—I don’t even dare think about touching a single cent!”

“Just let me go, and I’ll do anything you want!”

He kept slamming his forehead down, thunk thunk thunk!

From this angle, Jiang Ye couldn’t even see the guy’s facial expression.

So he frowned slightly and barked coldly:

“Quit bowing. Raise your head.”

Wang Chengjin froze mid-bow and quickly looked up at Jiang Ye.

His face was now fully visible—filled with absolute terror.

Especially those eyes, just brimming with fear of death…

It was like he wasn’t looking at a fellow player anymore, but the literal embodiment of Death itself!

And the thing was… he didn’t look like he was faking it.

Jiang Ye narrowed his eyes, stared into Wang Chengjin’s eyes, and asked in a low, testing voice:

“You… You flipped so fast it’s giving me whiplash.”

“One second you’re all high and mighty, the next you’re kneeling like a loyal mutt…”

“Possessed?”

“Got scared by my taunts?”

“Or… did Lin Jing message you something?”

Even if Lin Jing had sent a message, this reaction was way too fast, right?

Besides, if Lin Jing really cared whether Wang Chengjin lived or died, this guy wouldn’t have come running over just for a shot at that 12.8 billion, basically handing himself over to die.

So this drastic change in attitude…

It was either an act.

Or…

Jiang Ye’s eyes fixed sharply on Wang Chengjin.

Wang Chengjin didn’t seem like he was trying to hide anything.

In fact, to stay alive, he started explaining at lightning speed:

“No, I’m not possessed, and no one told me anything…”

“It’s just that I already… died once just now…”

Died once?

Jiang Ye’s gaze flickered.

Wang Chengjin hurriedly continued, “It was thanks to a totally broken life-saving item, called—Death God’s Mercy (Fragment).”

The moment he mentioned a life-saving item and the words “Death God’s Mercy,” his tone was clearly filled with pain.

Then he quickly added:

“It’s an item that looks like a piece of black paper. Its effect is—”

“When the player bound to it dies, they resurrect in the scene from one minute before their death…”

Holy sh*t!

Jiang Ye’s first reaction was that this item was even more OP than Yang Wenchao’s resurrection ability!

After all, resurrection is one thing—but this item literally lets you rewind time!!

This! This completely broke common sense!

Of course.

If you take away the time reversal part, the resurrection effect seems kind of underwhelming.

Yang Wenchao’s resurrection ability made him stronger after reviving.

Wu Ying’s Glyph Pattern ability-based resurrection could even replicate the enemy’s abilities!

But this so-called “resurrection item” of Wang Chengjin’s…

Jiang Ye asked directly, “Besides turning back time one minute, does Death God’s Mercy have any other perks?”

“For example, is that golden shield of yours a defensive effect granted by the item after resurrection?”

“No…” Wang Chengjin shook his head with a bitter smile. “That golden light shield is from another life-saving item I have.”

“I died too suddenly earlier and didn’t get to use it…”

“And the only effect of Death God’s Mercy is rewinding one minute before death…”

As he said this, Wang Chengjin’s eyes suddenly shifted, and he quickly raised his voice:

“Right! Death God’s Mercy—just like its name suggests!”

“Anyone who uses it is considered someone blessed by the Death God…”

“If anyone recklessly kills someone blessed by the Death God, they’ll be cursed by Death himself!”

Wang Chengjin sounded extremely serious.

But Jiang Ye wasn’t stupid. He snorted coldly:

“If you really wanna beg for your life, you’d better stop with those crooked schemes.”

“If I really want to find out what Death God’s Mercy does, I’ve got plenty of ways to do that.”

“And if I find out you’ve been lying to me about this…”

“Then—”

“I don’t know which one of my methods killed you just now, but I won’t mind using something that hurts more next time.”

As Jiang Ye said this, his voice was sharp and commanding, full of weight.

But in his mind, he was thinking…

Looks like even killing people in this place requires caution.

He wasn’t like some villain who liked explaining everything to give people a “meaningful” death.

But the methods he used to kill were, by nature, a form of information exposure.

If under special circumstances, he thought he’d secured the kill but accidentally leaked important info in the process—

And the supposedly-dead target revived somehow, learning and possibly even spreading that info…

That kind of situation was definitely not impossible!

Thinking of this, Jiang Ye realized again—

The dangers of this Doomsday Apartment didn’t stop at survival.

They extended to killing people, too.

He’d already had three special experiences involving killing!

The first—and worst—was when the Apartment Administrator baited him into attacking.

If he’d actually struck back then, he’d have handed over a weakness and unlocked the Admin’s authority to erase him!

The second time was in the Duel Room, when he one-shotted Wu Ying.

But Wu Ying didn’t die—instead, he copied him.

If not for the fact that Jiang Ye’s Infinite Replication ability happened to counter that kind of skill…

Any other player in that situation would’ve been screwed.

And the third time, was just now, with Wang Chengjin.

Even though, in his memory, he hadn’t actually killed Wang Chengjin…

Wang Chengjin did seem to have experienced Death God’s Mercy, rewinding one minute in time.

Granted, he didn’t seem to have picked up any critical info about Jiang Ye during that one-minute window.

But these three incidents alone were enough to set off alarm bells for Jiang Ye!

There was also Yang Wenchao’s resurrection ability…

And the mysterious Bald Guy he matched with five times against Lin Jing…

All of these things pointed to the same truth—

In the Doomsday Apartment, survival was hard enough.

But when it came to killing, that required just as much caution!

Of course, all these thoughts in Jiang Ye’s mind were unknown to Wang Chengjin.

He was already freaked out by Jiang Ye’s threatening tone. After hesitating a moment, he quickly changed his tune:

“I-I just wanna stay alive…”

“That thing about getting cursed for killing someone blessed by the Death God—I made that up…”

Then he suddenly emphasized again, “But don’t you think… what I made up actually makes sense?”

“Just think about the name ‘Death God’s Mercy’—doesn’t it sound like the person is favored by Death himself?”

“Killing someone with that kind of blessing… wouldn’t that be like slapping Death in the face?”

“So maybe what I said could be true!”

“I mean, lots of OP items do have hidden effects!”

“A resurrection item that can rewind time like this—maybe it does have that kind of hidden perk!”

It was clear that Wang Chengjin was really trying everything he could to survive.

His tone was firm, filled with conviction, like he’d actually grabbed hold of a lifeline.

Jiang Ye stared at him for a few more seconds, then suddenly asked:

“This Death God’s Mercy resurrection item—it’s a one-time use, right?”

The moment Wang Chengjin heard that, his heart skipped a beat hard.

But remembering Jiang Ye’s earlier threat, he didn’t dare hide anything and answered honestly, “Yeah… resurrection-type items are usually one-time use, and extremely rare and valuable…”

Jiang Ye nodded. “What about that golden light shield? Does it have a time limit or a durability value?”

Wang Chengjin stammered, “It—it has a time limit…”

“How long?”

“Just… a little over an hour left…”

Jiang Ye asked, and Wang Chengjin answered.

At this point, he didn’t bother begging anymore—he was fully cooperative.

Deep down, Wang Chengjin figured there was still a chance he could make it out alive.

After all, there wasn’t any deep, personal hatred between him and Jiang Ye.

It was just greed over that 12.8 billion, and underestimating Jiang Ye, that caused the conflict in the first place…

But just now, he’d already lowered himself enough.

Groveling on the ground, begging like crazy…

He’d practically crushed his own dignity with his own hands, all for Jiang Ye’s forgiveness and a chance to live…

Plus, even though he made up the stuff about Death God’s Mercy having hidden features, he actually thought it made a lot of sense.

With all those buffs stacked up…

He felt the odds of Jiang Ye killing him again shouldn’t be that high.

Of course, he figured Jiang Ye would still squeeze some benefits out of him.

Wang Chengjin was already mentally prepared to bleed him dry.

Jiang Ye, meanwhile, had his own calculations in mind.

At that moment, he casually plopped down on the living room sofa.

Looking over at Wang Chengjin, he chuckled softly:

“A little over an hour, huh…”

“Then let’s see if you can earn yourself a shot at survival during that hour.”

Wang Chengjin immediately understood—this was the part where he’d have to pay up.

He’d already braced himself, so he didn’t hesitate to respond:

“What do you want? Or what do you want me to do?”

“If it’s something I have, or something I can do, I’ll agree to it!”

After all, nothing matters more than staying alive.

Seeing that, Jiang Ye didn’t beat around the bush and said bluntly:

“Embarrassing as it is, my biggest headache right now is that I still haven’t cleared my Personal Instance.”

Wang Chengjin’s eyes immediately darted around in thought.

He wasn’t as familiar with Jiang Ye as Wan Xin was, but in an instant, he understood—

The reason Jiang Ye hadn’t cleared his Personal Instance yet must be because it was too difficult!

And that made sense. With strength like his, his Personal Instance was bound to be no joke.

Still, no matter how tough a Personal Instance was, it wouldn’t be unfairly tough.

Wang Chengjin thought it over, then tried cautiously: “Actually, you could just wait…”

“No. I can’t wait.”

Jiang Ye sat up straight and cut him off:

“You should know, I accepted the mission from the NPC to kill the Apartment Boss.”

“I’m already on the Boss’s radar.”

“Even the Apartment Administrators could be plotting against me at any moment.”

“So I need to get a private space of my own—as soon as possible.”

Hearing that, Wang Chengjin understood.

So he shifted his thinking.

But before he could come up with anything, Jiang Ye suddenly asked straight out:

“Do you have any way to help me grasp an S-tier skill?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep