“Soul-Calming Bell? I should still be able to one-shot him, right?”

“I’ve watched that kid’s fight with Wu Ying over and over, and I still couldn’t figure out what item he used to one-shot Wu Ying!”

“I think it definitely wasn’t an item. It had to be some powerful ability Wu Ying couldn’t replicate with his Phantasm Duplication! And that bell probably won’t work against it either!”

“What do you mean it won’t work? The Soul-Calming Bell is a top-tier Eerie Item! If the kid’s ability is any kind of mental control or soul attack, then the bell has to be effective!”

“I’m telling you, this time, there’s no way he’s beating Wu Ying again!”

That’s right—Jiang Ye’s 11th match was also drawing quite a crowd from the 119th floor of the Doomsday Apartment.

However, at this point, a big chunk of the viewers’ attention had already shifted to Lin Jing’s Quick Battle.

In fact, the entire Duoe Organization had launched a massive betting pool centered around Lin Jing’s Quick Battle performance.

People could bet on whether he would successfully complete the run or wager on exactly which round he would lose.

The odds for completing the full Quick Battle were very low.

Even if you won that bet, you wouldn’t make much.

On the other hand, guessing the exact round he’d lose in had insanely high odds.

If you nailed that, you’d make a killing!

As a result, a whole bunch of “bike-to-motorcycle” gamblers were taking the risk, betting on the specific round Lin Jing would fail.

By comparison, Jiang Ye’s fight still had viewers,

But nowhere near as many as Lin Jing’s.

After all, Lin Jing was the first Human Player to upgrade his Glyph Ability to Tier 2 on the very first day!

And Jiang Ye… he was just kinda weird and mysterious.

He didn’t even have Glyph Abilities yet.

People were watching him mostly for fun, like browsing online gossip.

They were just waiting to see what the real story turned out to be.

Still, gossip always comes with anticipation.

Right now, a lot of spectators were busy speculating whether Jiang Ye’s one-shot of Wu Ying was done with a skill or an item.

And now that Wu Ying had the Soul-Calming Bell, could Jiang Ye still one-shot him?

Plenty of viewers were recording the fight this time,

Afraid they’d miss the key moment of the kill like last time.

On the battlefield, Jiang Ye looked at the exact same opponent from his ten-win streak and could only sigh.

He honestly wasn’t sure if he could still one-shot Wu Ying this time.

Not because of the Soul-Calming Bell.

From what he could tell, that bell had no defensive effect against his Replica Skill.

The real issue was—

Replica Skills have cooldowns!

It hadn’t been that long since he last used Replica Fusion!

What he was most torn about now was this—

In cases like this, where the opponent changes into his appearance, then reverts, then changes back into him again…

There’s a stretch of time where they’re not in Replica state.

Would that break the cooldown the same way the Replica Reflection Mirror did?

As long as cooldown wasn’t a problem,

One-shotting this guy would be no issue.

But thinking further, another scenario crossed Jiang Ye’s mind—

What if, after the 3-minute Fusion, this guy just stays in Jiang Ye’s form and never switches back?

Then wouldn’t the cooldown never reset?

And if he got matched with this guy again later, what then?

Use Replica Possession? Replica Swap?

But Replica Possession targets his main body! Jiang Ye didn’t want to risk his main body at all!

As for Replica Swap…

Once they switch places, there’s no switching back!

That’d be like letting a veteran player enter early!

And once the swap happened, the opponent—and the whole Duoe Organization—might catch on!

So even if he managed to one-shot his opponent this time,

Being stuck with this guy long-term…

Could get tricky.

Jiang Ye’s thoughts spun rapidly, mind racing with scenarios.

Facing the still-cocky Wu Ying, he didn’t go for mockery.

Instead, he responded seriously:

“To be honest, I’m not sure if I can one-shot you again.”

“But it looks like you’re volunteering to help me test it…”

“So, I’ll go ahead and test it with you.”

He said it lightly.

Wu Ying relaxed a little too.

Yeah, it was just a duel.

Win or lose, he’d complete his mission for the organization by gauging this guy’s strength.

That was enough.

Winning or losing didn’t matter.

Thinking that, Wu Ying looked even more relaxed and cocky, grinning confidently:

“Alright, try again if you want.”

Jiang Ye didn’t fuse right away—it looked more like he was gathering power.

But in reality…

His No.1 Replica and Blackened Replica had just arrived at the safe space the White-Clad Woman had prepared.

“This is the ruins of a destroyed Beginner Apartment.”

“The environment’s bad, but as long as you stay out of the fog, there’s basically no danger.”

Then she added: “During the time between one Beginner Apartment’s destruction and another’s birth, I hid here.”

Jiang Ye could vaguely see it—it really did look like the wreckage of a destroyed Apartment.

From the ruins, he could almost visualize how the place had been wiped out…

Like a giant hand had pressed down on the rooftop.

The entire building had been reduced to dust.

What had been a tall tower was now flat ground—a three-dimensional space turned into a two-dimensional one!

Even on the flattened ruins, you could still vaguely see remnants of what was once the rooftop:

A central area of some unknown black material, and an outer ring like a long corridor with marble floors.

Inside the ring, there were even traces of destroyed Operation Consoles.

Jiang Ye couldn’t help but ask, “In these Apartment ruins, there shouldn’t be any rule restrictions anymore, right?”

The White-Clad Woman nodded, “Of course not. No one manages this place. It’s my private space now.”

Jiang Ye then looked at the fog beyond the ruins. “What’s inside that fog?”

She shook her head, “No idea. It’s too eerie—I didn’t dare explore it.”

“But while I was waiting out my cycle here, I used to wonder—”

“What if a real player from the Doomsday Apartment found their way here?”

“But sadly, no one ever did. Not once.”

That got Jiang Ye asking again, “How many times have you reincarnated?”

But this time, the White-Clad Woman shot him a glare and snapped, “None of your damn business!”

“…” Jiang Ye awkwardly scratched his nose and quickly changed the topic: “Ahem, well, I’ll go with this place then.”

The White-Clad Woman nodded without emotion, then said a bit impatiently:

“I’ve brought you to the safe space. How and when your main body gets here—none of my concern.”

“Sometime before 00:00, I’ll come pick you up.”

With that, she didn’t even wait for Jiang Ye’s response. With a flash, she vanished from the space.

Only Jiang Ye and the Blackened Replica remained, as if trapped in the surrounding fog.

Jiang Ye wasn’t worried.

He didn’t even bother exploring the ruins.

Instead, he turned straight to the Blackened Replica and said:

“I remember you saying earlier—you can still be invaded by an Eerie, right?”

The Blackened Replica nodded eagerly, eyes pitch-black with a faint red glint of excitement:

“Yes, I can.”

Truth was, Jiang Ye still wasn’t sure if his idea would actually work.

But he still gave the Blackened Replica a heads-up:

“In a bit, I’m going to fuse something into you…”

“I’m not even sure if it’s an Eerie or not…”

“But you can try and see if you can… emmm, completely and totally fuse it!”

The Blackened Replica blinked, seeming a little confused, but mostly just excited.

At the same time, over at the Duel Arena of No.2 Replica—

Jiang Ye finally finished “charging up” and looked at Wu Ying with a steady gaze: “Alright, I’m ready.”

Wu Ying, seeing how long this had taken, started to wonder—

Was it possible that last time, he got one-shotted because he talked too much?

If he hadn’t babbled on and on with all that useless chatter, maybe he could’ve taken this kid out?

Anyway, from the looks of it, this kid’s one-shot move wasn’t instant-cast!

That piece of information was key.

Next time he fought this kid, no talking—just a Quick Battle.

But for now, it was an experiment.

Wu Ying looked relaxed, the Soul-Calming Bell still in hand.

And then, the very next second…

Spectators from Floor 119 once again witnessed—

Wu Ying vanished from the battlefield in an instant!

At the same time, the duel result popped up on screen!

Wu Ying lost again!

The Soul-Calming Bell was completely ineffective!

The crowd erupted in an uproar!

Those who guessed right were smug.

Those who guessed wrong all started making after-the-fact analyses.

This time, there was no Win Streak Reward, and No.2 Replica didn’t fuse with Wu Ying.

He simply jumped straight into the next match without missing a beat.

Since Wu Ying was in a fused state,

He obviously wasn’t the opponent for the upcoming 12th win match.

In fact, due to Wu Ying’s temporary disappearance, even the Duoe Organization hadn’t reacted yet.

Jiang Ye’s 12th win wasn’t targeted at all—just a normal opponent.

And so, from the 12th to the 15th win, he speedran them all!

And in just that short 3-minute span, over at the Apartment Ruins—

The Blackened Replica did indeed sense something different.

He blinked and said to Jiang Ye, “I got stronger.”

Jiang Ye tensed up and quickly asked for confirmation:

“What about it? That thing I fused into you—can you completely absorb it?”

The Blackened Replica raised a hand, and a severed hand floated in the air before him.

This time, a new Glyph Pattern appeared on the hand!

This glyph looked like three bold strokes from a calligraphy brush.

One vertical stroke in the center, and two slightly curved strokes to the sides, pointing downward.

Overall, it resembled a bizarre downward-pointing arrow.

The Blackened Replica’s eyes lit up slightly as he spoke slowly:

“Phantasm Parasitism, Tier 3.”

“Upon being killed, parasitize the opponent’s shadow, replicating their full strength.”

“Tier 3 allows you to store up to six phantasms, which you can switch between at will.”

“It’s like having six different identities, each with unique power and skills.”

“Of course, the weaknesses are obvious—”

“First, you have to be killed by the target to parasitize their phantasm.”

“If the opponent has a lethal move, you might just die outright—no parasitism possible.”

“So every death-for-parasitism attempt carries the risk of true death.”

“Second, the process of parasitizing and replicating a shadow varies in time depending on the opponent’s strength.”

“If the replication takes too long, you might get taken out mid-process.”

“All in all, it’s a high-risk, high-reward glyph ability with decent practicality.”

As he explained, he seemed pretty satisfied.

As for Jiang Ye’s question, he added a beat later:

“Completely absorbed? I thought it was fully fused just now…”

But before he even finished that sentence,

He suddenly froze, then blurted, “Ah—wait.”

“Just a second ago, I really thought it was completely fused. The ability felt totally mine.”

“I even had full control over all six stored phantasms from that glyph.”

“But now… suddenly it’s all gone. All of it…”

“……”

The Blackened Replica looked at Jiang Ye with a genuinely wronged expression.

Jiang Ye was speechless.

Unwilling to give up, he asked again:

“What does it feel like when you’re being invaded by an Eerie? Didn’t you feel anything like that during the fusion?”

Now the Blackened Replica seemed to get what Jiang Ye was thinking. But he shook his head helplessly:

“It’s different.”

“Fusing with that thing felt nothing like being invaded by an Eerie.”

“During the fusion, I felt no discomfort whatsoever. I couldn’t sense anything ‘off’ or ‘partial’ about it.”

“In my perception, it was a full fusion. There was no resistance, no weirdness.”

So in the end, Jiang Ye’s wild idea had just been wishful thinking—

It couldn’t actually be done?

Then what should he do about this opponent that kept clinging to him?

From his main body’s perception,

This opponent hadn’t canceled the replication.

He was still in Jiang Ye’s form.

Which meant—

If he matched with this guy again,

His Replica Fusion cooldown probably wouldn’t refresh!

Meanwhile, Wu Ying had no clue what Jiang Ye was thinking.

He thought he’d successfully completed his mission for the organization.

When he regained consciousness, the first thing he did was report:

[I’m still in that kid’s form. The data panel is perfectly visible.]

As he said that, he directly posted Jiang Ye’s Data Panel in the group chat:

[Jiang Ye]

[Level: 3]

[Stamina: 8.2]

[Energy: 8.2]

[Combat Power: 80]

[Survival Points: 0]

[Ability: Hard Work Pays Off (S)]

[Skills: Absolute Focus (A), Combat Stance (A)]

The panel immediately sparked a wave of discussion among the Duoe Organization members:

Xing Xiu:

[Are you kidding me? That guy should’ve had an Ice-type ability!]

[This panel’s way too average. There’s no way it’s real!]

[If this garbage statline can become Rookie King, I’ll take my head off and let you kick it around like a soccer ball!]

It’s true—the stats were way too ordinary.

Wu Ying quickly followed up:

[When I was copying him, he briefly had dual abilities, and his Combat Power spiked to over 400. But that must’ve been some kind of item effect—only lasted three minutes!]

[And that item seems reusable. That’s probably how he keeps his win streak going, and how he one-shotted me so cleanly.]

Xing Xiu:

[If that’s the case, that’d have to be a top-tier Eerie Item, right? But he doesn’t even have Glyph Abilities—how’s he using something that strong over and over?]

[Also, if he has such an item, why hasn’t any Eerie latched onto him yet?]

Wu Ying:

[I think it’s weird too, but based on my duplication, he definitely doesn’t have a Glyph Ability.]

Zi Sang Haoyun:

[Could it be a hidden Glyph Ability?]

Tong Sang:

[What nonsense is that? Hidden Glyph Abilities don’t transfer through Eerie transformations! Unless you’re telling me this guy somehow awakened a hidden glyph while only having an S-tier Ability?!]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep