Chapter 199: There's an Inside Story!

"That is an excellent opportunity for a free session of training in the Gravity Room." Li Zonggui muttered to himself, feeling unreconciled.

He had joined the Association over two years ago, and during that time, he had entered the Gravity Room to train a few times.

Every time he practiced in the Gravity Room, the improvement it brought far exceeded his expectations; the results were better than he could have imagined.

This month, having finally caught a glimmer of hope to break into the top three, he truly was not willing to give up so easily.

"If the gap with the third-place person wasn't so large, I could discuss it with my partners.

If that fails, I'll just spend more money to buy it from them; we've been cooperating for such a long time, they should at least give me that much face." Li Zonggui pondered.

In the Association, Contribution Points can be purchased with money, though there is a limit on the top-up amount.

Take a One-Star Member, for example: they can only top up a maximum of 100,000 yuan per month, which means they can exchange for at most 100,000 Contribution Points. The limit for a Two-Star Member is slightly higher, reaching 200,000.

But in reality, the things one can buy with a 200,000 limit are truly limited; buying ten Superior Blood Qi Pills would leave almost nothing left.

From this point, one can see that the Association does not actually encourage this behavior of buying Contribution Points with money, but they still left this channel open.

It is precisely because of this that cash is not particularly popular among the Martial Artist community.

Having made up his mind, Li Zonggui picked up his phone, skillfully entered the Association system, found the Contribution Points leaderboard, and clicked it open.

"This guy Wu Jin, his cumulative Contribution Points for this month have reached 12 million? I remember it was only 10 million yesterday, right?" Li Zonggui looked at the leaderboard, his eyes filled with envy.

Not counting today, there are two days left until the end of the month; at this rate, Wu Jin taking first place is almost without suspense, as stable as Mount Tai.

Of course, there is a reason why Wu Jin's Contribution Points could grow so rapidly.

First, this guy has strong personal strength; among the hundreds of In-Jin Martial Artists in the Jiangnan Branch, he can definitely rank in the top three, and it is even highly likely he is the undisputed first place.

Secondly, he also formed a three-person Martial Artist squad.

The other two members in the squad are also not to be underestimated in strength, and they are loyal to Wu Jin; every time they hunt, Wu Jin alone takes half of the Contribution Points, which is the most astonishing part.

"Sigh, it's really not something to be envious of." Li Zonggui shook his head helplessly.

It is said that those two team members were both personally trained by Wu Jin, and their characters are quite good.

In the past, many people tried to imitate Wu Jin and form similar squads, but without exception, they all ended in a falling out.

Looking at second place, the Contribution Points are 9 million. Li Zonggui only took a hurried glance; there was no change since the last time he checked.

He also knew clearly that he didn't have the ambition to rush to second place; as long as he could rush into third place and hold the position, he would be satisfied.

"Hoo..." Li Zonggui took a deep breath and continued to look down; at this look, he was suddenly shocked and widened his eyes.

"This guy Jiang Xiong, his Contribution Points actually rose to 8.8 million?" He simply couldn't believe his eyes.

Stunned for a long while, a bitter smile appeared on Li Zonggui's face.

Originally, he was secretly happy that his own Contribution Points had increased by 600,000 and he was one step closer to third place, but he didn't expect that while he was progressing, Jiang Xiong was progressing even faster and taking larger strides.

"That said, is it really still possible for me to catch up to this guy?" Li Zonggui smiled bitterly, and deep in his heart, he couldn't help but feel deep doubt toward himself.

"Forget it, let everything follow fate." After a moment, he shook his head helplessly.

After all, the premise for his companions being willing to give their Contribution Points to him is that everything goes smoothly in the next two days and they can successfully hunt enough prey.

If there isn't even any prey, what would they have to give?

"I should see my name next." Li Zonggui sighed and continued to browse the leaderboard.

The mood that was originally not bad vanished without a trace the moment he saw the Contribution Points for third place.

"Ah?"

Immediately after, he suddenly exclaimed, his eyes staring fixedly at the Contribution Points displayed on the far right of the phone screen; he was completely stunned.

7.5 million Contribution Points? When did his own Contribution Points become so high?

According to common sense, shouldn't it be 5.6 million? Could it be that the Branch registered it wrong for him?

At this moment, Li Zonggui's heart was a mixture of five flavors; he was both filled with joy and vaguely uneasy.

If it really was a registration error, that would be great.

Suddenly having nearly two million extra Contribution Points out of thin air is just like a pie falling from the sky; he could buy so many more cultivation resources!

And this way, the gap with third place would no longer be unreachable; if he worked hard, he might really be able to reach it.

However, he also understood in his heart that the staff at the Headquarters are not just sitting around doing nothing, even if he could temporarily pull the wool over their eyes.

If the matter were exposed one day and the Headquarters sent people down to investigate, not only would he have to return the extra Contribution Points, but he might also face a fine.

It's not like similar things haven't happened in the past.

"What should I do? Should I report this error to those above, or pretend I know nothing?" Li Zonggui was incomparably conflicted in his heart; his gaze inadvertently swept forward, and in an instant, he was completely dumbfounded.

Because the name on the leaderboard was not his name at all, but—Lu Yu.

Li Zonggui instantly sobered up and hurriedly continued to look down, finally finding his own name in the fifth-place position.

"I actually dropped to fifth place?" He opened his mouth in disbelief.

He remembered clearly that when he went out hunting in the morning, he was still firmly occupying the fourth-place position; how could his ranking drop when his Contribution Points had increased?

What puzzled him most was, where did this Lu Yu pop out from? He had absolutely no impression of this name before.

Li Zonggui was full of resentment; he repeatedly exited the leaderboard and re-entered, refreshing it several times, but the result remained the same, and in the end, he could only extremely reluctantly accept this reality.

In other words, this was not his hallucination; fourth place was indeed snatched away by this person named Lu Yu.

Li Zonggui suddenly felt his heart turn to ash. Any thoughts of rushing into the top three had vanished into thin air; he couldn't even keep fourth place now.

"Damn it, who exactly is this Lu Yu? How could he have so many Contribution Points?" Li Zonggui couldn't help but curse as he continued to check.

"Transformation Energy Martial Artist, Yongan City Branch? Yongan City Branch?" Seeing this, Li Zonggui was shocked once again.

The Yongan City Branch is quite famous in the Headquarters, but it is famous for being in the bottom three year after year.

"This Lu Yu is actually from the Yongan City Branch? How is this possible? With that Branch, how could such a formidable figure emerge?"

Li Zonggui was full of confusion and bewilderment, and he continued to look further. When he saw the column for the number of Fierce Beasts killed, he was completely stunned.

Number of Fierce Beasts killed: 2

"???"

"Could the system have glitched?" Li Zonggui's face was filled with extreme shock.

He looked at the Contribution Point count again carefully; 7.5 million, the same as what he had seen before.

This meant that this guy named Lu Yu had killed only two Fierce Beasts, yet his Contribution Points reached as high as 7.5 million? The implications of this were self-evident.

Firstly, these two Fierce Beasts must both be Advanced Fierce Beasts; secondly, at least judging by the statistics, he had hunted them all by himself.

"Impossible, this is absolutely impossible!" Li Zonggui came back to his senses and shook his head frantically.

How could an In-Jin Martial Artist, or even a stronger Transformation Energy Martial Artist, kill an Advanced Fierce Beast single-handedly?

Even if it were good luck once, could he really have such heaven-defying luck twice?

There must be some inside story here! That's right, there definitely is!

The more Li Zonggui thought about it, the more wrong it felt. He guessed it was highly likely that the Yong'an City Branch had recorded the hunting credits of everyone in a squad onto Lu Yu alone. And this kind of behavior was explicitly prohibited by the Association.

"Well played, Yong'an City Branch!" Li Zonggui was so angry he was fuming.

If he were truly inferior in skill, he would be convinced and accept defeat, just like with the first-place Wu Jin, to whom he sincerely bowed in defeat.

But this Lu Yu had been completely silent before, then suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Moreover, this data was handled too sloppily; just writing a '2' so bluntly, wasn't that obviously making people suspicious?

Thinking of this, Li Zonggui took a screenshot of the leaderboard and rushed impatiently into the In-Jin Martial Artist group chat of the Association.

Just as he was about to send the screenshot to expose the matter, he discovered that the group was already in an uproar, with everyone heatedly discussing this incident.

"Brothers, who exactly is this Lu Yu? How did he suddenly charge into fourth place? I remember when I checked the top 100 leaderboard earlier, this person wasn't there at all?"

"That's right, that's right. I was outside the top 100 at the time, and my Contribution Points were only over 2 million. I remember clearly that this Lu Yu was definitely not in the top 100."

"Need you ask? Just look at his Branch and you'll understand. In these two years, has any Martial Artist from the Yong'an City Branch ever made it into the top 100?" Someone sent an emoji with a sneer.

"Could it be some kind of trickery the Yong'an City Branch pulled?"

"I know who their Branch President is."

The person speaking said this while simultaneously tagging Song Tian in the large group. Seeing this, others followed suit, and some even tagged everyone.

"Is anyone from the Yong'an City Branch here? You have someone named Lu Yu in your Branch who suddenly charged to fourth place. Don't you plan to come out and explain this to everyone?"

Seeing this scene, Li Zonggui clenched his fists tightly in excitement.

That's right, it should be like this; the Yong'an City Branch must be made to provide an explanation.

Soon, a long message appeared in the large group.

"I am Song Tian, President of the Yong'an City Branch. Brother Lu Yu did indeed kill two Advanced Fierce Beasts alone: one Violent Bear and one Grey-spotted Snake, for a total of 7.5 million Contribution Points.

We have already reported this matter to the headquarters for the record. If you don't believe it, you can go ask Director Pan; he can testify for us."

At this moment, Song Tian, sitting in front of his office desk, was responding to the doubts in the group with a face full of anger.