Chapter 251: Net Worth

"Condition one: give me all the information you've collected."

Li Cheng's expression turned serious as he said, "That includes data on other players, as well as any notable anomalies within Toy City itself."

The Whale Song Guild's hacking technology was far ahead of the curve, granting them an unparalleled advantage in this modern urban environment; Bat Mo Si definitely had plenty of material on hand.

"Alright."

Bat Mo Si agreed, pulling out a tablet computer.

Li Cheng tossed it to Gray Rain; the vast majority of that little brain's intelligence was dedicated to researching modern entertainment, so she was extremely proficient with tablets.

She scanned the document's contents, nodded to Li Cheng, and said, "This batch of goods is fine."

"Condition two,"

Li Cheng smiled and said, "Give me the 【Millennium Bug】."

"What? Impossible!"

Bat Mo Si rejected it outright, stating in a deep voice, "This is a consumable item of perfect quality, comparable to nearly half an epic-tier piece of equipment! I couldn't even afford it myself; I applied to borrow it from the Guild!"

For this mission, he had not only applied to his superiors for an advance on his salary but had also borrowed a large sum of money from fellow guild members and lending platforms—

Even Shabby Street had micro-loan companies; low-level players lacking confidence before undertaking missions could go to these companies to rent equipment and props.

And those shameless advertisements posted by the small loan companies on the player forums were classics among classics,

including but not limited to: "I'll fund your demonic ascension";

"Big Brother bought you this gene-modification injection; take a shot when you're feeling down";

"Even when a family of three budgets carefully, a magical pet's birthday must be celebrated properly—A 37-year-old trainer uses Huabei to celebrate their magical pet's birthday";

Bat Mo Si had already wagered his entire fortune; if he gained nothing from this mission and also lost the Millennium Bug,

then upon returning to the real world, he would only be able to take on outsourced work, coding in a basement twenty-four hours a day to repay his debts. Or, more drastically, he could directly use his own brain to mine Bitcoin.

"Disagree? Then use your two hands, two feet, two eyes, and two ears to repay the debt. I've been wanting to change my look recently anyway."

A devilish smile appeared on Li Cheng's face as he first popped out his own eyeball, spinning it on his fingertip like a basketball.

?!

Bat Mo Si's eyelid twitched violently; he had originally thought that as an E/accist he was already quite abnormal, but who could have expected to meet a genuine pervert.

The other party possessed some sort of skill or prop capable of arbitrarily twisting and altering their body. No wonder the image didn't match the photo Joker had produced.

If he resisted, he might end up having his tendons plucked and skin peeled, turned into some sort of decoration like a Jewish leather sofa...

Gulp.

Bat Mo Si swallowed hard, his heart pounding with increasing terror the more he thought about it.

That was right; judging from the information provided by Stack Qibing, this Master Pi Fu leveled up at an absurdly fast rate, undoubtedly an unscrupulous, evil-path transcendent who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

Perhaps they had long since abandoned humanity, morality, conscience, and integrity.

"Look on the bright side; the fact that you aren't dead yet means you've already profited," Li Cheng said leisurely. "Give me the Millennium Bug, and I'll return these three pieces of equipment to you."

'These three pieces of equipment were originally mine?! You're using my own property to bargain with me, are you?'

The muscles in Bat Mo Si's face twitched; the VR glasses, wristwatch, and crystal chip were all personally bound equipment, useless to Li Cheng even if he obtained them, like chicken ribs—tasteless but a pity to discard.

But for Bat Mo Si, they were as vital as his life's root; without them, he wouldn't even qualify to be a code slave.

"Accept your fate," the personality backup with the large green head said indifferently. "If you're noob, just practice more; if you can't afford to lose, don't play."

What right does a personality backup like you have to mock me? Do you believe that once I'm back, I won't overwrite you?

Watching Li Cheng detach his left leg, swing it gently back and forth, and perform a tap dance on the ground with ever-changing expressions, Bat Mo Si finally gritted his teeth and nodded. "Fine."

He released the binding on the Millennium Bug, gently placed it on the ground, and asked, "Can you let me go now?"

"Don't rush; there's one last thing,"

Li Cheng said. "Cancel the contingency measures you set up against me online." Upon hearing this, Bat Mo Si's expression changed; after a moment of silence, he nodded.

The terms were settled; money in one hand, goods in the other.

"Goodbye, Boss Ba."

Li Cheng returned the three pieces of equipment to Bat Mo Si, who gave Li Cheng a deep look before activating the emergency disengagement function, vanishing into thin air and returning to the real world.

The surroundings were silent, as if nothing had ever happened.

Only at the spot where Bat Mo Si had stood did a brass key, serial number 2, hang quietly suspended in mid-air.

Li Cheng casually stuffed his eyeball back into its socket, reattached his thigh, picked up the Millennium Bug, and held the brass key high above his head.

Toy Factory Key, get☆daze!

"Hmm..."

Gray Rain rubbed her chin, not quite having processed it yet. "What do you mean by 'contingency measures'?"

"Traps that were laid in advance."

Li Cheng put away the key and said casually, "With Boss Ba's cunning and abilities, when he failed to kill me in Chengnan Park, he likely already planned his follow-up strategy.

For instance, setting up a timed program online to send my data to advertising screens across the entire city, framing me as Joker's accomplice in a terrorist attack, prompting Toy City's official forces to arrest me."

"Oh, is that so?"

Gray Rain pondered thoughtfully. "Then why didn't he do that from the start? If our identities were exposed, our subsequent activities in Toy City would be very troublesome, wouldn't they?"

"That's because he still harbored illusions back then, thinking he could defeat me and turn me into a controllable puppet. Therefore, he needed to preserve my reporter identity."

Li Cheng said casually, "This is also the reason I insisted on hunting him down and eliminating him—the existence of hackers seems a bit too modern."

"I see."

Gray Rain nodded in agreement. "However, could he go back on his word, claiming to delete the contingency measures while actually just delaying the program's activation time?"

Li Cheng chuckled lightly. "There's no need to worry too much about that. Just now, when I extracted brain entropy, I read his past memories. 'Boss Ba' is what his friends in the real world call him.

He knows that I read his memories and learned his true identity.

And I know that he knows.

To avoid me hunting him down in the real world, he'd better do exactly as agreed.

"So complicated."

Hui Yu scratched his head; players all had eight hundred scheming tricks—nothing as satisfying as just killing, killing, killing.

"Where there are people, there is the jianghu."

Li Cheng said casually, laughing as he patted Hui Yu on the head, "Not bad—you're even using idioms like 'break a promise' now. Reading classical Chinese?"

"Hehe."

Hui Yu grinned proudly, hands on hips, showing off his literary prowess: "O ancient heaven, why have you been so cruel to me? Shatter the enemy ranks, as if heavenly light breaks through clouds! Tread the spearhead, scale the blade—what harm if my corpse is wrapped in horsehide? Whoever violates the Great Wu's territory shall surely be crushed by Sheng."

"Alright, alright, alright—so it's classical Chinese now? I'll go give Three Kingdoms Kill a five-star review on Steam later."

Li Cheng's expression turned odd; he put away the key and glanced at the tablet. "Huh? Gouchen and Frankenstein are fighting?"