Chapter 64: There Are Still Experts!!!

The original 132/10000 became 135954/135954.

It instantly increased by over a hundred thousand people, or rather, it went from a ten-thousand-person district to a massive district of over a hundred thousand.

And the original channel name also changed from 'Abandoned Forest' to 'The Abandoned Land', while District 666 remained unchanged.

As expected, this should be a normal region, right?

Lan Qingyou complained again.

"Hahaha, the server merge finally happened!"

"Hey, isn't this Yang Wei? I remember this guy had his entire family killed for embezzling hundreds of billions in funds, and only escaped by hiding in prison, right?"

"That news, I have some impression of it. From a few years ago, wasn't it?"

"Good grief, another bunch of criminals?"

"A hundred thousand or so people? That's a bit too few, isn't it? The Federation should have at least hundreds of millions of free individuals."

"Who stipulated that there can only be one villain's valley like ours?"

"...What you say makes a lot of sense."

"I was previously in the middle section of the Abandoned Beach in District 668. New friends from the merged districts, if you encounter someone named Yasuda Naeko greeting you, absolutely do not interact with him. That animal is a pervert who likes to cross-dress. He'll scam your trust, go to your home, kill you, and then steal your supplies!"

"Everyone beware of a beast named Sherlock Claude. When buying his goods, it comes with a manual you absolutely must not sign—that's a loan shark contract! That guy's talent is signing contracts!"

"When trading with someone named Aditi Singh, you absolutely must read the item names clearly. This guy loves using similarly named goods to scam your goods."

Pfft!

Lan Qingyou, who was just about to drink some water, nearly choked when she saw these new messages released right after the area merger.

"Holy shit! There are still experts!?"

And those from the original District 666 who were preparing to make public the affairs of Lan Qingyou, Shang Chuan, and Xin Tianle were even more furious upon seeing this.

Originally, they wanted to expose the 'evil faces' of those three.

But now, look at this. It turns out it wasn't just our district that was like this; your districts were just as spectacular?

Thus.

An inexplicable 'competitiveness' suddenly arose in the hearts of these 'tattletales'.

What cross-dressing scams, what loan shark contracts, what trading frauds...

Unacceptable!

Even if it's 'evil', the villains of our Abandoned Forest must be even more evil!

Hence, this group began a massive propaganda campaign against Lan Qingyou, Shang Chuan, and Xin Tianle.

To be fair, setting things straight, they were speaking the truth at first.

Whether it was Lan Qingyou looting a burning house, Shang Chuan's profiteering ways, or Xin Tianle's sheer shamelessness, they were pretty spot on. Even Lan Qingyou, who was watching the show, didn't refute them.

After all, she didn't feel she was looting a burning house; she merely asked for a price 'proportional' to the potions.

But as time went on, in order not to be outdone by people merged from other districts, these guys started fabricating rumors.

And each one was bigger than the last.

"What's your thing even count for? Isn't it just passing off seaweed flowers as sea morning glories? That's because you didn't read it clearly. If you read clearly, you wouldn't be scammed. Look at us! Taking a lantern meant for a week—once it went out, that girl Lan Qingyou immediately brought out the Luminous Potion, selling it so expensively that many people later could only burn firewood to illuminate the dark."

"That's not right. I looked at her shop, and fifty Healing Potions for a book is very generous."

"Generous my ass! Do you know how much a book cost back then? 5 basic units! I foolishly sold two books, it's a massive loss."

"What! There are potions! I'm hurrying to buy some."

"It's already over. They sold out ages ago. That profiteer Shang Chuan doesn't have any left either."

"I really envy you guys. Your starting point actually included an alchemist."

"Go ahead and envy. It was exchanged with lives. What the world's will said earlier about 'a certain area left with only a little over a hundred people' was specifically talking about our District 666. Still envious?"

"Not envious anymore. I suddenly somewhat regret being merged into District 666."

Isn't that right?

Ten thousand people in a district, and their 666 only had a little over a hundred left.

A one-percent survival rate—who wouldn't shake their head and feel terrified doing the math?

"Ah well, it's just a bit more expensive, but at least you can buy them. Look at that Sherlock. Right now, at least a fifth of the people in our district have become his slaves because they carelessly signed their names."

"Did I kill too many protected animals in my past life to be assigned to a place like this?"

Some people directly began to doubt their life choices.

Good grief.

On one hand was a one-percent survival rate, and on the other was a one-in-five chance of being enslaved. How could you ask a poacher to choose?

Just perform a sudden death on the spot?

"I'm telling you all, Shang Chuan is the true profiteer. He can sell you a single plank for the price of ten planks. As long as he can earn the price difference, he couldn't care less if you live or die."

"Hey, you there, come out! Talk a bit about Xin Tianle's matter. You're the sole survivor after all."

"Talk my ass. That person just said he found Xin Tianle's new Shelter, and I reckon he's probably blocking the door right now. He can't even see you calling him."

"Alright, anyway, that's how things are. Don't mess with the Tower Witch, and try to avoid direct interaction with the profiteer."

"Alright, anyway, that's how things are. Don't mess with the Tower Witch, and try to avoid direct interaction with the profiteer."

"You guys as well. It's best not to trade anything with that merchant named Sherlock, and absolutely never casually sign your name on anything, otherwise, you won't even know when you've been sold."

"Also, be careful of that guy Yasuda Naeko. Though I suppose people from the original District 666 probably don't need the warning. Having fought so heroically, you guys shouldn't be fooled by his 'honey trap'."

"Hard to say."

"Hard to hold it together."

Originally, everyone was here, flaming each other, arguing about exactly who was the greatest villain.

But as they talked and talked, the victims ended up huddling together and comforting each other.

Watching this unfold, Lan Qingyou, one of the parties involved, was completely dumbfounded.

"Good, good, good, I've seen misery comparison contests, but this is the first time I've seen an evil comparison contest like yours. Has District 666 evolved from a villain's valley into a sea of villains?"

Lan Qingyou complained rather indignantly.

It was the truth, wasn't it? She had merely followed the basic principle of equivalent exchange in alchemy. Could she be blamed for that?

She could not.

Thus, Lan Qingyou sulkily stopped paying attention to these matters.

After all, she still had rewards she hadn't collected. Wasn't collecting rewards far more exciting than watching this drama?

Taking the brunt was naturally the book; that much required no thought.

However, though it was called a reward, the books were practically the same books. Other than functional books carrying the prefix 'Basic', they were a bunch of random essays and musings.

But this time, Lan Qingyou's choice paralysis didn't flare up; she directly selected "Basic Golemancy".

She essentially had a preliminary grasp of the disciplines required for Golemancy, and she could slowly compile the rest.

Moreover, during the three days of the Mana Tide, she had come to clearly understand something. If she encountered a similar emergency situation again, she might just have to run around exhaustedly like before.

But if she managed to research golems and acquire a helper, wouldn't things be much easier?

At the very least, she could hand over many repetitive tasks like 'sorting herbs', 'grinding', and 'stirring', liberating her hands to research more things.

Through this incident, she had completely seen the light.

As expected, if she wanted a way out, researching potions, magic potions, and the like was the best choice. It was also the choice containing the greatest uncertainty and highest returns.

After redeeming the book, Lan Qingyou suppressed the urge to skim through it and continued onto selecting her magic.