Of course Jiang Ye didn’t know Ke Peng.

It was just that earlier, Ke Peng had asked him about Huang Qi.

And later, when Jiang Ye deduced that Huang Qi was no longer himself, he also figured Ke Peng might not be Ke Peng anymore either—

But a Eerie Player with Glyph Abilities.

According to the Blackened Replica—

Eerie Players were dark-type beings, completely countered by Light-type abilities!

So as No.6 Replica sent messages to Ke Peng, he also quickly consumed Silver-Tier Attribute Fruits, 5 each for Stamina and Energy.

That gave him +15 points in each stat!

Which meant his stats instantly jumped to 25 each!

When this Replica’s stats were still at 10 points, his Combat Power was exactly 100.

So Jiang Ye thought going up to 25 points would make his Combat Power around 250.

But on the Data Panel, it showed a whopping 332!

He’d actually broken 300!

Keep in mind, his No.3 Replica had already reached Level 3 and had maxed out on Black Iron, Bronze, and Silver-Tier Attribute Fruits.

And yet its panel only showed—

【Level: 3】

【Stamina: 28.3】

【Energy: 29.7】

【Combat Power: 249】

Clearly, No.3 Replica’s stats were even higher than No.6’s.

But its Combat Power was lower.

The gap must’ve come from Abilities and Skills.

S-tier skills provided greater boosts to Combat Power the stronger the base attributes.

And No.6 Replica’s true strength definitely wasn’t just the panel’s 【Combat Power: 332】!

This Replica that should’ve been kept in hiding now looked toward the Apartment Group Chat with a murderous gaze.

At this point, Ke Peng replied:

【If you wanna talk deal, then talk deal—what’s with the tattoo stuff? I don’t have any tattoos!】

Heh.

Jiang Ye wasn’t surprised.

The “tattoo” was just a code between them, so he continued @-ing Ke Peng:

【Drop a location, quick—I don’t have all day.】

Ke Peng: 【My room’s 3068. Come knock on the door so I can see your face and confirm if I really know you.】

This answer didn’t surprise Jiang Ye either—

Room 3068 was Ke Peng’s War God Ranking reward room.

Which meant it was a Resident Room—even a Master Key Card wouldn’t unlock it by force.

In terms of safety, it was nearly 100% secure.

People in the chat group couldn’t help but comment:

【D*mn, Ke Peng’s really something. A War God-ranked badass, and he’s still that cautious toward a Level 0 player.】

Wang Chengjin: 【He’s not wrong. Being cautious is always smart. Use the peephole to see what this Huang Bo guy looks like before doing the deal—that’s how you avoid getting burned. Y’all could learn from this!】

【Yeah, yeah, you’re right, Bro Wang! Too bad it’s a private deal, guess we can’t enjoy the drama now.】

Only three messages had been sent in the chat.

And since sending a message took just a single thought,

Barely a minute passed before the chat blew up again!

【W-w-w-what the hell?! Check the member list!】

【Holy sh*t? Ke Peng’s name just went dark!!】

【He vanished from the Ranking Board too!】

【What happened? Did Huang Bo come for revenge and scare Ke Peng into Cross-Apartment escaping?!】

【No! He didn’t escape—Ke Peng’s dead! Look at the War God Ranking! His name’s completely gone!】

【Sh*t! If he’d just Crossed Apartments, his name wouldn’t disappear from the War God Ranking!】

【And you can’t Cross Apartments and lose a duel at the same time!】

【So if his name vanished from both the Level Board and the War God Ranking at the same time… the only possibility is—he’s dead! And he died less than a minute after giving his room number!!】

【Whaaat?? How’s that even possible?! Even if Huang Bo could one-shot Ke Peng… he’d need time to reach Room 3068, right?】

【Plus, wasn’t Ke Peng inside his own room? How did Huang Bo break into a Resident Room?!】

【Then maybe we were wrong! Maybe it wasn’t Huang Bo!】

【So how did Ke Peng die? This is way too bizarre! He was chatting just a second ago!】

【Whoever killed him, it’s a fact he got one-shotted. But the guy was in the top 10 of both the Level Board and the War God Ranking! Other than Lin God, who else could possibly one-shot him?!】

【No way it’s Lin God! He’s got no motive, plus he’s in the middle of a Quick Battle match!】

【What if… it was our Apartment Administrator? I swear, the moment Ke Peng died, I felt this wave of dread hit me!】

【Dude, same! It was terrifying, like something was strangling me!】

【Wait—some of you felt that too? I didn’t feel anything!】

【Me neither!】

【So only some people felt it? Or are y’all just making stuff up?】

For a while, the chat was flooded with theories.

Some discussed whether they should go check out Room 3068.

But Ke Peng had died so mysteriously, most people figured it was best to wait until Lin Jing finished his Quick Battle and let him check it out instead.

Meanwhile, in Room 3068—

Jiang Ye quickly stripped Ke Peng’s corpse of all loot, his breath tight with adrenaline.

He honestly hadn’t expected—

This S-tier skill 【Light and Shadow Escape】, which looked so ordinary,

To be this broken in use!

In basically a blink, he appeared inside Ke Peng’s room!

Didn’t even need to knock—just materialized right inside!

Then, one cast of 【Holy Light Judgement】 and a massive Holy Light Cross came crashing down!

Under its crushing pressure, Ke Peng went stiff, eyes wide with terror, totally suppressed—he couldn’t even move!

Not that his fear lasted long.

Barely 0.1 seconds later,

He fully Blackened, and then exploded!

His death scattered brilliant, fiery Light Points like a burst of iron sparks.

And Jiang Ye, naturally, earned 1 Survival Point.

But when he used 【Light and Shadow Escape】 again to zip to the rooftop,

He unexpectedly saw the Apartment 9999 Administrator.

That middle-aged uncle,

Who had looked totally chill when manning the 1st-floor front desk—more laid-back than the one from Apartment 1010.

Now, on the rooftop, his whole body was tense, his eyes full of pure terror, like he might shatter at any second!

Jiang Ye never thought he’d see such fear in the eyes of the strongest Apartment Administrator.

So the Blackened Replica was right—he had severely underestimated how much dark-type beings feared Light-type abilities!

He thought he’d face a tough battle or get ambushed by some sneaky trick.

But nope—the moment he burst onto the rooftop, the Administrator disappeared on the spot,

Ran away faster than Jiang Ye!

Like he was afraid of catching some kind of curse…

Originally, Jiang Ye planned to use the rooftop to Cross Apartments back to 1010.

But after witnessing that, even more thoughts came flooding in—

This Light-type Replica, the moment it used a Light-type skill, could no longer be hidden.

Everyone in the chat who said they “felt dread” were probably all dark-type beings.

The Administrator must’ve felt it too.

Even the apartment’s Eerie Residents probably sensed it.

It wouldn’t be long before word spread about this Light-type ability!

Once that happened, this Replica’s situation would be extremely dangerous.

Always on the run, constantly escaping—

That might become the new normal.

It was only now that Jiang Ye truly realized why even a skill like 【Light and Shadow Escape】 was worthy of being S-tier.

Maybe this skill was the ultimate life-saving move for Light-type players!

Without it, how could you ever outrun the entire dark-type world hunting you down?!

And thinking about what might happen to this Light-type Replica,

He became even more certain—

He absolutely couldn’t let this Replica appear during the Main Body’s rescue!

The best plan was to ensure no one connected this Light-type Replica to his Main Body.

And so, with that thought in mind—

The No.6 Replica, now standing atop the rooftop—

Suddenly, he turned into light again and shot back!

What he didn’t know was—

The moment he turned back, every Eerie Resident in Apartment 9999 was shaking in fear!

Including the Apartment 9999 Administrator, who had returned to the 1st-floor lobby.

If it were purely about strength, the Administrator of 9999 wasn’t afraid of Jiang Ye.

Jiang Ye’s 【Holy Light Judgement】 wasn’t powerful enough to one-shot him.

On the contrary, if Jiang Ye dared attack him, the Administrator would instantly gain Erasure Privileges!

But the problem was…

Even if he wouldn’t get one-shot, the 9999 Administrator still didn’t dare get hit by 【Holy Light Judgement】!

Hell, he didn’t even dare get touched by it.

He was terrified that the Holy Light Cross might have too wide an area of effect and accidentally hit him.

Because if it did, and he got infected with Light Scorch…

It would mean unbearable agony followed by certain death!

So yeah, dark-type beings might hate Light-type abilities with a passion,

But that fear? It was very real.

A Light-type user like this? 100% a public enemy!

But even so, it still wasn’t 9999’s Administrator’s turn to act.

Right now, every dark-type being in Apartment 9999 only had one hope:

That this walking plague god would leave. Fast.

The 9999 Administrator was desperate for him to Cross Apartments and go.

Only after he was gone could he consider taking any further action.

But to their despair—

This plague god had made it all the way to the rooftop, looked ready to leave,

And then… turned around and came back.

The f**k?! What was he trying to pull now?!

The one most terrified right now was, of course, the 9999 Administrator.

Worried that their brief encounter on the rooftop had made the plague god target him,

He immediately issued an Emergency Promotion Announcement.

And then, every player in Apartment 9999 heard the following in their heads:

【Ding! Emergency Announcement from the Beginner Apartment System:】

【Apartment 9999 Administrator has issued a Kill-on-Sight order for player “Huang Bo”!】

【Anyone who successfully kills Huang Bo will receive the following rewards:】

【1. Madman Mask ×10】

【2. Platinum Treasure Chest ×10】

【3. Survival Points ×10,000】

The moment this was announced,

The group chat in Apartment 9999 exploded!

【WTF??? The Administrator’s gone insane?! He’s putting up Madman Masks as a reward? Ten of them?! Dude’s seriously not afraid one of us might actually pull it off??】

【Wait wait wait—an Administrator issuing a player bounty? That even legal? Sounds shady as hell!】

【I vaguely remember a similar bounty during the old game days, but that one was a server-wide kill order…】

Just as someone finished saying that—

Every single player in every numbered Beginner Apartment suddenly heard:

【DING! DING! DING!】

【Emergency Cross-Server Announcement from the Beginner Apartments!】

【26 Apartment Bosses have jointly issued a GLOBAL BOUNTY on player “Huang Bo”!】

【Any player who encounters the bounty target will receive an automatic alert.】

【Any player who kills the target will receive the following rewards:】

【1. Star-Tier Treasure Chest ×3】

【2. Star-Tier Dao Fruit ×1】

【3. Star-Tier Dojo ×1】

【4. Book of Myriad Laws ×1】

【5. Survival Points ×100,000】

HOLY SH*T?!

That reward was INSANE!

The moment Jiang Ye heard the global bounty on himself, his heart actually wavered.

This Light-type Replica that just got exposed—yeah, he was definitely on the run from now on.

So instead of running forever… maybe he should just kill himself and cash in the reward?

No joke!

He didn’t know much about the first four rewards,

But that fifth one—100,000 Survival Points?!

That was instant wealth. He could create 100,000 Replicas on the spot. Skyrocketing!

With that many Replicas, odds were high another Light-type ability would show up too!

Seriously, Jiang Ye was really tempted.

But tempting as it was, the priority right now was still saving his Main Body.

Once the Main Body was rescued, then he could think about trading this Light-type Replica for the reward.

Still, if he really did claim that reward…

His power progression would be faster than a rocket launch!

Even if his Main Body couldn’t control that many Replicas at once,

That kind of resource influx would boost his strength beyond imagination.

If he himself, the bounty target, was this tempted by the reward—

You can imagine how other players reacted.

The group chat in Apartment 9999 exploded all over again!

【W-w-w-WTF! A global bounty!!】

【I remember now! Back in the game, there was one global bounty like this—and the guy who completed it became the strongest in the entire server!!】

【So whoever kills this Huang Bo could skyrocket to the top instantly!!】

【Holy sh*t! Screw the Duels—we know Huang Bo’s in our apartment!】

Suddenly, every War God-ranked player in the apartment was going berserk!

80% of the spectators watching Lin Jing’s Quick Battle walked out immediately!

Even Lin Jing himself was struggling to stay focused—

Fk! Should he just quit and go murder instead?

But impulse aside, Lin Jing wasn’t dumb.

This reward was even crazier than that global bounty back in the game!

So whoever this Huang Bo guy was—he had to be something special.

Someone like that probably couldn’t be one-shot so easily.

Lin Jing forcefully suppressed his greed and continued the Quick Battle match.

Meanwhile, everyone else in Apartment 9999 sprang into action.

Including Wang Chengjin, who’d been playing mind games with Lin Jing.

Wang Chengjin originally thought—

If Jiang Ye accepted the “Kill the Administrator” quest,

And after he finished that, he got globally hunted,

Then as someone who fought the Administrator with him, Wang could ambush Jiang Ye and take the bounty.

With the reward, he’d surpass Lin Jing and become the strongest!

But after watching Lin Jing’s match,

He was getting less and less confident he could steal the kill from Lin Jing.

He was even thinking—maybe it wasn’t worth it?

But now…

While Lin Jing was still stuck in Quick Battle, this god-tier bounty dropped with even better rewards!

And by their apartment’s intel, Huang Bo was still only Level 0!

A target like that—and without Lin Jing competing…

Wang Chengjin was suddenly full of confidence—

Forget Jiang Ye.

That Huang Bo? He’s mine.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep