Chapter 530: Waist Drum

Opening his eyes, he was already back in his familiar room.

"It's daytime already."

Hui Yu glanced at the sunlight outside the window; unlike script missions, this return to the real world wasn't instantaneous—the Tremor mission occurred within the killing field, where time flowed at the same rate as reality.

"I'm going to rest. Call me if anything happens."

She skillfully pulled several liters of chilled drinks and snacks from the fridge, then screamed as she picked up her phone, "Aaaah?!"

"What's wrong?"

Li Cheng turned to check on her while sorting through mission rewards, only to see Hui Yu's hand trembling as she gripped her phone; she forced a calm tone: "Nothing."

"If it's nothing, why are you sweating?"

Li Cheng narrowed his eyes suspiciously and immediately used his familiar to swap positions, snatching the phone from Hui Yu's hand and glancing at the screen.

The screen displayed multiple interfaces: virtual currency liquidated, CS skins crashed, gold temporarily parked at the summit, League of Legends S15 bet that BLG wouldn't be eliminated in the Round of 16.

Li Cheng nearly fainted from rage: "You haven't even mastered middle school math and you're investing? No—where did you even get the money to invest?"

"It's just pocket money. After buying the computer, figurines, games, there was still some left."

Hui Yu lowered her head, guilty; she knew one game coin could be exchanged for ten thousand yuan in the real world, and if she found a black-market dealer, the exchange rate could be even higher.

Dozens or hundreds of game coins? That really was pocket money.

Li Cheng rolled his eyes hard: "You're only one year old and you dare to invest? If you keep this up, at two you'll be doing quantitative trading on the A-share market, at four you'll be leveraged trading virtual currencies, at eight you'll be flying through the air and doing parkour—what if you crush some flowers and grass?"

Flying through the air probably won't kill a nanometal robot; after the Silver Wing Light Path enhancement, swimming in magma is nothing, and it won't melt into molten steel like an T800.

Hui Yu stubbornly retorted: "I've seen it all over short videos: if you don't manage your money, your money won't manage you. Who's ever heard of a kid crying all day, or an older brother always losing? In the future, you'll be drinking Feitian Maotai and driving a Hermaba, thanking your brave self right now."

"Besides, this liquidation happened because of the Tremor mission—I was stuck in the killing field and had no time to exit."

"You believe short videos? When you're old, you'll definitely buy health supplements."

Li Cheng laughed bitterly: "Thank goodness it's just pocket money—if your position were any larger and you suddenly got liquidated, would you be calling me to instantly elbow the NYSE, NASDAQ, and the CME?"

Hui Yu instantly switched her tone: "111, really? I'll short it right away."

"??? Did I give you too much rope? Let me make you fly."

Li Cheng, fully aware that young trees must be pruned to grow straight and people must be disciplined to behave properly, immediately placed Hui Yu on his lap and began pounding her buttocks like beating an Ansai waist drum.

To prevent Hui Yu from disabling her pain sensors, he specifically wore an electric shock glove.

Only when Hui Yu begged for mercy did he, panting, put her down, resolved never to give her pocket money again—he'd get her a Lujie fixed-consumption card and check her spending himself at month-end.

After scolding Hui Yu and sending her off to do homework, Li Cheng finally turned his attention to the mission log.

【Player Overall Performance: S+, Game Coins and Experience Gained Increased to 160%】

【Reward Settlement In Progress】

Although this mission was a triple combination, post-mission analysis showed the optimal path wasn't as rigidly constrained.

First, the ice pick carried by the Fungus King and others—the mission provided one, and the astronaut Will from Dreamland had another; both could pierce the dome, but lacking one ice pick required more high-pressure gas redundancy. Second, the 4D box carried by Wanli Fengdao and Batmos—known to generate an autopsy table and instantly kill the Alpha Giant Snake—

If not relying on the box, could one simply capture in Dreamland the small snake parasitizing the priest, pin it to the castle's autopsy table, and—perhaps, possibly—kill it instantly?

Or, betray and place Will on the mechanical platform, feed him to the Alpha Giant Snake to help it evolve—this, in a sense, could also count as completing the mission by installing the "Annihilation Device."

Annihilating residual personality counts as annihilation too.

Multiple completion methods exist: helping Will rebuild a mechanical civilization to fulfill Yu Tian Di's final wish would likely be the hardest and highest-completion ending—and naturally, the most rewarding.

【Mission Reward 1: 4000 Experience Points】

【Mission Reward 2: 5000 Game Coins】

With the 1.6x multiplier, this 【Reset to Zero】 granted Li Cheng 6400 experience points and 8000 game coins.

From his original Lv24 with 72/2400 experience, he leveled up twice.

Now at Lv26, 1572/2600.

Additionally, he unlocked a new trait: 【Abandoned Divine Authority: -1 Charm, +3 Intelligence】

The matching scene showed Li Cheng standing in the town center, denying he was the prophetic god of the new mechanical civilization, refusing to let mechanical life bow and worship him.

Li Cheng didn't play a charm build; -1 Charm meant nothing to him—he cheerfully equipped the trait: "Rejecting religion reduces charm, boosts intelligence—materialism truly doesn't lie."

Ignoring the fact that idealism in the killing field was, in a sense, also valid, Mission Rewards 3 and 4 were random items and random skill scrolls; given the difficulty and Tremor nature of this 【Reset to Zero】, the minimum quality was guaranteed to be Perfect or higher.

Li Cheng didn't rush to open the boxes, but turned to the final two rewards.

【Mission Reward 5: Shangcheng VIP Trial Card ×1】

【Mission Reward 6: 5 Free Attribute Points】

The value of five free attribute points needed no explanation—the higher the transcendent's level, the slower the leveling; even one point brought significant enhancement.

Unless something unexpected happened, Li Cheng would allocate all attribute points into Intelligence and Perception.

The Shangcheng VIP Trial Card was an even better item; because Li Cheng had leveled up, after using it, all twenty slots in the Shangcheng (previously fifteen) would refresh with Perfect or higher-quality discounted items.

The discount was comparable to national subsidies, Double Eleven shopping frenzy, and Pinduoduo's hundred-billion subsidies.

Even if he didn't need them, he could flip them on the auction house for a huge profit—epic items never went unsold; major guilds would pay premiums to acquire them rather than let them fall into rivals' hands.

Besides, one epic item was enough for any transcendent below Lv35 to build an entire power system around it.

"Let me first bathe and burn incense."

Li Cheng walked into the bathroom, washed thoroughly, lit incense, wore a sensual Daoist robe, tied a headscarf, hung a cross over his chest, held Buddhist prayer beads in his left hand, a bundle of spaghetti in his right, chanted the Mechanical Church's prayer, and stepped the Heavenly Eight Trigram pattern.

"With sincere devotion, even metal and stone will open—open, I command!"

He roared, and the black VIP trial card vanished into thin air; his player panel's Shangcheng slots instantly refreshed.

Looking across: fifteen Perfect, four Epic, one Legendary.