This is obviously impossible!

After all, in the earliest days of the Doomsday Apartment, humans awakened “Abilities” while the Eerie awakened “Glyph Patterns.” This was practically common knowledge.

Humans couldn’t possess Glyph Pattern abilities, and the Eerie couldn’t possess Ability powers.

And because Glyph Pattern abilities were generally stronger than Abilities, human players had always been at a severe disadvantage.

It wasn’t until humans discovered a way to wield Glyph Pattern abilities that the tide slowly began to turn.

But essentially, humans acquiring Glyph Pattern abilities was an act of plunder from the Eerie.

However, the hidden Glyph Pattern abilities that the Eerie possessed could not be plundered.

So it was widely believed that human players could never possess hidden Glyph Pattern abilities.

Hidden Abilities, on the other hand, were possible.

So-called Hidden Abilities were those that didn’t appear on the Data Panel.

As long as one didn’t expose it on their own, no amount of advanced Detection would uncover it.

So-called hidden Glyph Patterns, on the other hand, were Glyph Pattern abilities that didn’t manifest as tattoos.

Likewise, if not voluntarily exposed, no investigative method could detect them.

And after Tong Sang said that, Zi Sang Haoyun immediately changed his tune and replied:

【So, could it be a Hidden Ability? That guy has two Abilities—one S-tier “Hard Work Pays Off” and another Hidden Ability?】

This theory, while also outrageous, at least made logical sense.

Other members chimed in with their own speculations:

【But generally speaking, during the beginner phase without strong skills as support, Abilities are usually weaker than Glyph Pattern abilities. And Wu Ying’s “Phantasm Parasitism” is a Tier 3 skill! What kind of Hidden Ability could one-shot him?!】

【And the odds of a Hidden Ability occurring are already insanely low, and you’re saying he has both a Hidden Ability and a visible one? That’s about as likely as an Eerie possessing multiple Glyph Pattern abilities! Practically zero!】

【Anyway, no matter how you explain it, it’s messed up! But isn’t there a saying—eliminate all impossibilities, and whatever remains, no matter how unbelievable, must be the truth!】

Wu Ying looked at the group’s speculations and started to doubt himself—

Could he really have run into a freak with both a visible Ability and a Hidden Ability?

To be able to one-shot him, just how overpowered would that Hidden Ability have to be?

SSS-tier Dark-type or Special-type?

If that were the case, then this guy might actually have a shot at the “Rookie King” title.

But deep down, he still felt something was off.

Just then, he saw the group admin @ him—

Duoe (Group Admin):【Bring the Memory Scroll to Floor 366 @Wu Ying】

Wu Ying quickly replied in agreement.

Then he left the Duel Machine on the 119th floor and took the elevator to Floor 366.

The entire 366th floor was filled with Apartment Rooms.

Wu Ying didn’t pick; he didn’t even look at the room numbers and just randomly entered one.

Inside, the spacious room was silver and white with a futuristic tech decor.

The whole room was empty, and even speaking seemed to echo.

At the end of the room, embedded in the wall, was a silver-white Duel Machine with a sleek tech design.

Wu Ying walked straight up to the Duel Machine and reported:

“Boss, I brought the Memory Scroll.”

The Duel Machine, originally powered off, made a “ka” sound.

Then, a shadowy figure appeared on the screen and spoke in a deep voice:

“Unroll it.”

Wu Ying knew exactly how to use the Memory Scroll.

He slowly took a deep breath, spread his arms, and completely dropped his guard.

A silver-white scroll flew out from his body.

Wu Ying then bit his finger and smeared blood on the Memory Scroll.

Images from his memory began to appear on the scroll.

Starting from when he planted the Memory Scroll,

to entering the Duel Machine and matching with Jiang Ye.

There was quite a wait during this period.

Then came the entire process inside the Duel Arena.

Then—getting mysteriously one-shotted by Jiang Ye.

And after the one-shot, came the key part.

However…

From the moment he got one-shotted, the Memory Scroll showed a full three minutes of blank footage!

This bizarre phenomenon left Wu Ying completely stunned!

Under the guidance of the shadowy figure on the screen, he replayed the moment he got one-shotted.

The next three minutes were still blank!

This time, Wu Ying’s eyes went wide with disbelief: “How is this possible?! Was I… dead during those three minutes?!”

“But when I use Phantasm Parasitism, I’m also technically in a ‘death state’! And memories from that time can still be successfully recorded into the Memory Scroll! So why are these three minutes missing?!”

His face looked like he’d seen a ghost, and he was even worried that Duoe might suspect his loyalty.

Just as he was about to pledge his allegiance again and swear he didn’t tamper with the Memory Scroll,

Duoe beat him to it and displayed another image on the Duel Machine’s screen.

It was footage of Wu Ying inside the Duel Machine.

At first, it looked just like what was recorded in the Memory Scroll.

But when the moment came—when he got one-shotted by Jiang Ye…

Wu Ying’s physical body actually disappeared from inside the Duel Machine!!

That scene shocked Wu Ying even more—it practically made him question reality itself!

He swallowed hard and stared at the Duel Machine screen in disbelief:

“Th-this??! I-I…”

“I actually disappeared during the duel?!”

“This—this can’t be some Hidden Ability!”

“Even an SSS-tier Ability couldn’t possibly affect my physical body inside the Duel Machine just through a virtual match!!”

“Besides, that kid’s in the Beginner Apartment, and I’m in the Doomsday Apartment!”

“He was able to affect my physical body from that far away??!”

“How is that any different from slapping someone on the other side of the world through a screen and a network cable?!”

“This is impossible!! Absolutely impossible!!”

Wu Ying was truly doubting his entire existence!

At that moment, he was still disguised as Jiang Ye, his entire face scrunched up—confused, horrified, even a little mentally unhinged!

After a long pause, a lightbulb went off in his head, and he reached a conclusion:

“I got it!”

“Someone must have tampered with my Duel Machine! That’s gotta be it!”

“That kid must have turned a member of the Duoe Organization, then had them tamper with my Duel Machine! That’s why I randomly disconnected for three minutes during the duel!”

But even as Wu Ying said it, he himself found it unbelievable.

After all, over here in the Doomsday Apartment, there had never been any reported cases of tampering with a Duel Machine.

If someone really had that kind of skill, why waste it helping a rookie all the way over in the Beginner Apartment?

But then again, was there any other explanation?

No matter how he tried to explain it, it just didn’t make sense!

Wu Ying was seriously questioning his life.

And the screen shifted again, returning to that black shadow.

The shadow didn’t voice any opinion and simply said in a deep voice:

“Keep matching. Use my Duel Machine this time.”

Wu Ying adjusted his mood, let out a slow breath, and said heavily:

“Third match—my goal is to get one-shotted again, right?”

“Yes.”

“……”

Jiang Ye matched with Wu Ying for the third time during his 20-win streak.

He immediately felt something was off.

Because this time, after Wu Ying returned, he had stayed in Jiang Ye’s form the whole time.

That meant the cooldown for Replica Fusion hadn’t been refreshed!

This time, if he wanted to beat Wu Ying using Replica Skills again…

He had two ideas—

One was to use 【Replica Possession】 and 【Replica Swap】.

But that came with big risks.

【Replica Possession】 would mean possessing the Main Body—he didn’t want to risk his real self.

【Replica Swap】 would bring an old player into the Beginner Apartment early, which was even riskier!

The second idea was—

To trick Wu Ying into switching to another Phantasm identity, and then replicate him again.

That way, the cooldown for 【Replica Fusion】 would reset!

But during that process, Wu Ying might notice something’s off!

Jiang Ye’s mind was racing.

This time, Wu Ying wasn’t being arrogant.

He just stared at him with a blank expression and said:

“Come on, go ahead and one-shot me again, I won’t resist.”

“……”

That line sounded both pitiful and kinda funny.

Jiang Ye thought—was this basically a free win streak sponsored by Duoe?

A 20-win streak, how much did that just save him?

But seeing Wu Ying’s attitude of “throwing the match,” another idea popped into his head.

So, his No.2 Replica in the Duel Arena pretended to “gather power.”

Meanwhile, No.1 Replica in the Apartment ruins used the Phantom Lantern to create a Mirror Replica for the Blackened Replica.

Then, he fused the Mirror Replica into the No.2 Replica currently in the duel.

And then…

The No.2 Replica raised a hand, and the whole Duel Arena was instantly engulfed in a Blood Mist Shroud!

The next moment, multiple foggy white phantoms surged directly into Wu Ying’s body!

Then, Wu Ying vanished from the stage.

Above the arena, the system announced Jiang Ye as the winner of the match!

And in Jiang Ye’s mind, that familiar notification rang out again—

【Ding! Congratulations on winning the match. You’ve received 500,000 from the Duel Wager!】

【Ding! Congratulations on achieving a 20-win streak in Random Matchmaking. Please select your win streak reward!】

That’s right! He won easily again!

He didn’t use Idea One or Idea Two at all!

He didn’t even use a Replica Skill—he fused a Blackened Replica and beat Wu Ying with sheer skill!

Of course, the key here was—

Wu Ying acted like he was throwing the match and didn’t resist at all, letting Jiang Ye one-shot him!

Even so, Jiang Ye’s legitimate one-shot win over Wu Ying wasn’t simple.

After all, Wu Ying’s 【Phantasm Parasitism】 ability made normal methods ineffective for a real kill.

Relying on Jiang Ye’s current lack of Glyph Pattern abilities, even if he killed Wu Ying, he would’ve ended up parasitized by him.

So, he fused the Mirror Replica of the Blackened Replica and used a Glyph Pattern ability to truly finish Wu Ying off.

He didn’t even give him the chance to parasite a shadow!

A kill of this level should also be enough to break through Yang Wenchao’s “Resurrection.”

Jiang Ye chuckled lightly and started choosing his 20-win reward.

Three cards appeared—he casually picked the third.

Once selected, the three rewards revealed themselves in turn.

The first card flipped over, and Jiang Ye’s eyes went wide instantly.

On it was written:

【Skill Upgrade Card】

【Upgrades a skill (no higher than A-tier after upgrade)】

Holy sh*t!

This card—he wanted it so badly!

Replica Fusion was only D-tier! How great would it be to upgrade it to C-tier?

He’d be able to fuse more Replicas at once.

The cooldown would probably shorten too!

Agh! What a pity he didn’t get this one!

Then the second card flipped—

【Ability Upgrade Card】

【Upgrades an Ability (final rank cannot exceed A-tier)】

At first glance, this one seemed even more valuable.

After all, the Ability rank capped a skill’s potential.

But think about it—

Anyone strong enough to get a 20-win streak probably already had an Ability beyond A-tier.

This card might be kind of meh for top-tier players.

But for regular players, it would be an insanely valuable treasure.

For trading, the currency would probably have to be Survival Points or Survival Stones.

Anyway, Jiang Ye didn’t get it, so he wasn’t too bothered.

Then the third card—the one he got—flipped over, and his eyes lit up—

【Bodhi Enlightenment Fruit】

【Use to potentially awaken a new Ability or gain a new skill (no higher than A-tier)】

This reward was extremely valuable to normal players!

After all, it could give them a second Ability!

But for Jiang Ye, who had Infinite Replication, Abilities weren’t a concern.

Forget a second Ability—he basically already had five!

Plus, he still hadn’t used the Survival Points he got from killing Ran Ziyi and Xing Man.

So this kind of thing that average players drooled over didn’t excite him much.

But what he did want—was skills!

The skills tied to “Infinite Replication” were practically game-breaking for him!

If he could just get a couple more powerful Replica Skills…

Like that “Replica Self-Destruct” he imagined.

Then next time he faced Wu Ying, the one-shot would be even easier.

But the probability aspect of this Enlightenment Fruit was annoying.

What if it ended up awakening an Ability instead…

Jiang Ye thought for a moment and made up his mind.

On the other side—

This time, Wu Ying didn’t vanish for three minutes. He came out of the Duel Machine right away.

He looked at the black shadow on the screen, ecstatic like he had uncovered the truth:

“I knew it! I knew the Duel Machine had been tampered with!”

“This time, after switching machines, I didn’t experience that three-minute blackout!”

“But…”

As he spoke, he suddenly froze, his pupils dilating again:

“That kid… he actually has Glyph Pattern abilities!!”

“But when I parasitized his shadow and replicated him, I didn’t sense any Glyph Pattern ability!”

The black shadow on the screen rumbled:

“Because when you replicated him, he didn’t have Glyph Pattern abilities yet.”

Wu Ying paused for a moment, then quickly deduced: “So he got them sometime between the 10-win streak and the 20-win streak?”

“But that can’t be right, can it? He was in duels the whole time—how did he get a Glyph Pattern ability?”

“And this Glyph Pattern ability… actually killed me for real! That makes no sense!”

As he kept saying it made no sense, his eyes grew more and more stunned!

Because by now, it was clear—this rookie wasn’t just “weird.”

The strength he showed was definitely enough to contend for the Rookie King title.

Just as that thought hit him, Wu Ying saw—

The Duel Machine embedded in the wall before him suddenly shifted, transforming into a humanoid mech-puppet and stepping out from the wall.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep