Chapter 50: Completing the Main Quest, a Single Bet

“Go ahead, you two. I’ll handle what comes next here.”
“This place isn’t really meant for you, but since you’re here to protect the apartment, I won’t hold it against you.”

The old landlord pinched some tobacco, packed it into his pipe, and spoke calmly as he waved them off.

Ji Yan glanced at the Dragon Yuan on the ground, acknowledged with a nod, and turned to leave.

“Looks like that kid stole all your thunder this time?”

The landlord puffed on his pipe, speaking nonchalantly.

Dragon Yuan’s face darkened. “Old man, I didn’t expect that sly little fox to be so cunning!”

“Is it that he’s cunning, or that you just can’t outmatch cunning?”

“In this apartment, cunning isn’t a slur. Every tenant who wants to stay here has to be cunning, or they’d have been thrown out long ago.”

The old landlord shook his head, his tone mercilessly sarcastic.

Dragon Yuan’s expression was as sour as if he’d swallowed a fly. No matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t figure out how the other party had anticipated every trap in advance.

It was as if they had the script beforehand—utterly baffling!

…

At that moment, Ji Yan had already briskly exited the basement.

The oppressive air instantly turned fresh and invigorating.

Turning back to the blood-stained wall where the floor’s flesh was sewn together, Ji Yan silently thanked it.

The blood wall slowly revealed a line of crimson characters: “How did it go?”

“Pretty smooth.”

“The mastermind behind the apartment’s destruction has been eliminated.” Ji Yan hadn’t expected this main thread to be closed out by the landlord himself.

But he guessed there must have been other ways to complete it.

He had merely triggered a hidden completion route by accident.

After all, the game panel had said the landlord appeared as a hidden Easter egg within the main storyline.

In the end, it all came down to the godlike bug of [Omniscient Resolution]. Otherwise, in this labyrinth of traps within traps, Ji Yan had no idea how many times he would have stepped on mines and died.

Previously, he had only tested this talent lightly.

Now he truly understood how unbelievably powerful it was!

“Ding! This main quest has officially ended. The mastermind behind the apartment’s destruction has been eliminated, successfully resolving the instance crisis.”

“Below are the performance scores for all players involved in the main quest, along with notices of penalties and rewards:”

“Third-tier performance: Discovered the true source of the destruction located in the apartment’s underground foundation.”

“Second-tier performance: Discovered the way to the apartment’s basement.”

“First-tier performance: Exposed the underground imprisonment scheme set by the devious tenants.”

Page (1/3)

“Special-tier performance: Discovered the hidden Easter egg and completed the main quest.”

“This time’s top player is ‘Ji Yan’ with a total score of 95!”

“Corresponding performance rewards have been allocated and sent to each player’s personal mailbox.”

“Warning! The following are players who committed errors by maliciously harming the apartment’s ‘benevolent NPCs’ and will face varying degrees of punishment…”

The announcement of the quest’s end echoed in every player’s ears, and Ji Yan immediately received his reward.

He opened the reward package.

There were only two rewards: the apartment’s main door key and a Repair Gem.

[Apartment Key: First-class instance privilege. Holding the key allows players to open the main door, advance to the next instance, and mark the current instance as a save point.]

[Repair Gem: Can repair any eerie artifact below Legendary quality.]

Not many rewards, but immensely valuable.

Even more notably, Ji Yan’s personal info panel upgraded, expanding his toolbar and inventory, and providing a more comprehensive game analysis.

Additionally, 300 points of eerie power were bestowed, along with increases to various status values.

“Talent notification: Congratulations, player. You have obtained the final talent fragment, which has been automatically assembled.”

“Your F-rank talent [Omniscient Resolution] has been upgraded: The triggering method has been optimized from touch-based to gaze-based. Each gaze consumes 100 points of mental state.”

“Changing the talent trigger from tactile to visual?”

Ji Yan’s eyes brightened.

Clearly, this optimization was spot on.

In previous tasks, Ji Yan had suffered setbacks because he couldn’t trigger [Omniscient Resolution] immediately. Now that flaw was fixed, making this talent nearly perfect.

Ji Yan checked the rewards of the other players.

Huang Ran and Dragon Yuan both received rewards, but heavily discounted.

The worst off were those who attacked the Faceless Eerie; the severity of their damage determined the harshness of their penalties.

The most unfortunate was the player who landed the final blow on the Faceless Eerie—they were sentenced to permanent confinement in the basement!

All punished players were on the brink of collapse.

Who would have thought that the Faceless Eerie was the biggest landmine in the entire main quest?

Ji Yan briefly examined the situation.

Then he opened his strategy panel.

Because of this main quest, his progress immediately surpassed Dragon Yuan, placing him first!

Saving the apartment from crisis boosted all eerie tenants’ favorability toward Ji Yan by over 40%.

“The main quest is really the main quest.”

“Completing a main quest saves you from having to slave away like a mule for months like everyone else.”

He realized that Dragon Yuan’s lead over other players was because he had completed the previous main quest.

Page (2/3)

Thinking carefully, that guy’s S-rank talent was indeed formidable.

He could send others to die in his place and analyze information…

But unfortunately, Ji Yan’s talent belonged to the unruly bug-level category!

In Room 404, Liu Yitong also received the announcement of the main quest’s completion.

Upon hearing about the punishments, a chill ran down her spine.

Fortunately, she chose to trust Ji Yan’s words and didn’t join the crowd in hunting the Faceless Eerie; otherwise, her name would also be on the punishment list.

“How exactly did he do it?” Her beautiful eyes widened involuntarily.

Ji Yan didn’t return to Room 404 immediately but went to Room 801 instead.

Inside, Miss Xu was still at ease.

Cradling a watermelon and enjoying the balcony breeze, despite the eerie game setting, her presence gave off an entirely different vibe.

“You’re more powerful than I expected. You actually managed to find the landlord to solve the problem in the end.”

Miss Xu seemed to see through everything; she spoke of the landlord as if revealing a hidden Easter egg.

Looking at Miss Xu, who seemed to know all, Ji Yan felt a flicker of doubt.

Sometimes he truly wondered: the real boss of this instance wasn’t the landlord—it was this Miss Xu, the true hidden final boss…

“Miss Xu, is there anything you don’t know?” Ji Yan couldn’t help but ask.

Xu Xin smiled radiantly but evaded the question: “How are my three paper dolls?”

“If it weren’t for your three paper dolls, I definitely would’ve been done for.”

“That’s why I came straight to thank you!”

Ji Yan answered sincerely, his gratitude genuine.

She wasn’t one of his eerie family.

And despite only 20% favorability, she had given him a piece of Legendary equipment.

From the game’s perspective, this was nothing short of a bug.

From reality’s standpoint, it was illogical too.

Miss Xu seemed to sense Ji Yan’s opportunity. She smiled enigmatically and said, “Don’t be quick to thank me. I’m no saint, nor am I doing this for fun.”

“Those three paper dolls are my greatest treasure in Room 801. Countless people have coveted and schemed to get them, including that Dragon Yuan.”

“The reason I gave them to you… well, it’s a bet I’m placing.”

Page (3/3)