Chapter 18: The Lucky One
Inside the dim "Unseen House," the World Shop was located here. The native inhabitants of this world, such as the Vine Clan, could not enter this place. Even if they opened the door and stepped inside, what they would find was an old, abandoned tavern.
The Unseen House was about fifty square meters in size, with a triangular lamp on the ceiling serving as the only light source.
A trail of blood slid down the lamp's surface, dripping from the downward-pointing tip. Illuminated by the light, this drop of blood shimmered with a faint radiance.
As this drop of blood fell through the air, its properties began to change. Or rather, it transformed from a liquid into a form of energy known as blood energy. Then, a complex structural framework formed within it, shaping it into a needle-like projectile. Under the controller's command, it pierced through a faint sonic boom and shot straight into the right eye of a scarred, burly man.
A muffled grunt escaped the scarred man as he instinctively tilted his head back. The world, once clearly defined in his right eye, suddenly turned a bloody red. He subconsciously covered his eye, but immediately experienced what it felt like to have his skull explode from within.
Buzz!
The scarred man only felt as if a membrane had formed between him and the surrounding world. Sounds and smells from the outside were largely cut off. The only thing left was the ringing in his ears.
The scarred man struggled to lift his head and saw his enemy, wielding two serrated short blades, with five blood spears floating behind him. One of his teammates, Dorilai, was kneeling with his back to the enemy, both hands clutching his spurting throat, impaled by one long and one short blood spear. That teammate was beyond saving.
Breathing heavily like an ox, the scarred man shifted his gaze to his other two teammates. One was pinned to the ground, while the other had taken a direct kick from the enemy and was now evenly distributed across the wall. Forget prying him off; he could only be scraped off.
The scarred man watched the enemy approaching step by step. Under the dim light, the faint red glow in the enemy's eyes filled him with terror. He deeply realized that his strength and the enemy's were on completely different levels.
"I can tell you about the Gray Gentleman's plan..."
Bang!
Darkness consumed the scarred man's vision.
After shaking the blood off his serrated blades, Su Xiao clicked them together, forming a single-handed serrated sword. The blade looked wider and thicker than before. This was a weapon he had obtained from the Sun God Cult in the World of Paintings.
Su Xiao walked to the large iron door and knocked, signaling Bubu Wang, Baha, Kaiser, and Aidoer outside to come in.
Bubu, Baha, and Aidoer all entered smoothly. But as soon as Kaiser took a step, he was blocked by a layer of light membrane.
This made Kaiser's eyes widen. The World Shop was right in front of him. All kinds of schemes were galloping wildly through his mind like a runaway wild donkey, yet he couldn't enter the Unseen House. The reason was that his Void Tree reputation was too low, and he wasn't a combatant.
Blocked outside the door, Kaiser pulled out a shit-yellow hood and put it over his head, holding a worn-out POS machine. Two of the "Three Divine Artifacts," [Endless Greed] and [Deceiver's Headwrap], appeared simultaneously.
Ignoring Kaiser's antics for now, Su Xiao signaled Aidoer to transfer the special overlord status.
Without any visible action from Aidoer, two crown-shaped dark gold halos appeared above her head. One of the dark gold crowns transferred to the scarred man.
A blood spear shot out, ending the scarred man's life. Su Xiao didn't gain any kill merits. Instead, he saw a card appear beside the enemy's corpse, similar to a Scarlet Card.
[You have obtained a Kill Merit Card (100 points).]
Su Xiao had obtained one of these Kill Merit Cards before when opening a supply crate. That one was worth 20 points.
[Announcement (Void Tree): The special overlord unit has been killed.]
[Random selection for special overlord unit in progress...]
[Due to special verification, this random selection has been terminated.]
[The current special overlord unit is: Aidoer Papa.]
...
The combatants who saw these announcements sensed that something was wrong. The special overlord unit had been killed, but instead of a new random selection, it was still Aidoer Papa. It was simply unbelievable.
Su Xiao opened the World Contact Platform. As expected, it was already in an uproar.
Carrollo (Apocalypse Paradise): "The special overlord isn't changing? Someone must have done something to keep Aidoer Papa as the special overlord unit."
Guozu Laosan (Reincarnation Paradise): "Aidoer Papa, if you've been captured, say something."
Carrollo (Apocalypse Paradise): "The kill ranking hasn't changed. This means killing the special overlord unit gives Kill Merit Cards."
Alec (Death Paradise): "This was done by a violator."
Guozu Laoer (Reincarnation Paradise): "Do we even need to analyze this? Even thinking with my toenails, I know this must be the violators' doing."
Shenyin (Holy Light Paradise): "Violators, come out and take your beating!"
Wuyi (Sanctuary Paradise): "Do we even need to analyze this? If it wasn't the Gray Gentleman, I'll chop off my own head on the spot and give everyone a live demonstration of dying on the spot."
Bee: "┌(。Д。)┐"
Anonymous (Apocalypse Paradise): "Let's report the Gray Gentleman to the Void Tree!"
Guozu Laoda (Reincarnation Paradise): "How did the brother upstairs go anonymous?"
Anonymous (Apocalypse Paradise): "My name is Anonymous. Didn't expect that, did you?"
Bee: "o((⊙﹏⊙))o."
Wuyi (Sanctuary Paradise): "Report the Gray Gentleman!"
Anonymous (Apocalypse Paradise): "Already reported."
Gray Gentleman (Overlord · Reincarnation Paradise): "This blame is quite unexpected."
Anonymous (Apocalypse Paradise): "Heh, if it wasn't you, the leader of the violators, who did it, could it be a hunter or a battle angel?"
Bee: "(*￣︿￣)"
...
Seeing these comments, Su Xiao felt deeply gratified. The Gray Gentleman taking the blame was exactly what he wanted to see.
In Su Xiao's view, the reason for this trend of comments was twofold. First, the Gray Gentleman had the identity of the violator leader. Second, too many violators had entered this Treeborn World.
The entry qualifications of these violators were of dubious origin, almost certainly arranged by the Gray Gentleman. This naturally caused discontent among the contractors who had obtained their entry qualifications through normal means.
Now that this incident had occurred, of course, a big pot was being placed squarely on the Gray Gentleman's head.
Inside the Unseen House, Su Xiao had Baha clean up the corpses. He walked to the innermost wall and activated the World Shop, which looked like a vending machine. It had an old-fashioned screen. Although it didn't look advanced, it was exceptionally sturdy. Su Xiao estimated that even if he kicked it directly, he wouldn't be able to budge it in the slightest.
[Prompt: You have activated the Treeborn World · World Shop.]
[Current Kill Merits: 147 points.]
[The following items can be exchanged using Kill Merits.]