Chapter 365: The Antique Dealer's Gift

「The next day, 4:00 PM.」

The free time period was over. After hearing what Duan Fei had done, Lone Ranger fell silent.

After processing the information, he said with a sigh of resignation, “You always manage to pull off the most outrageous stunts. Still, it’s a good thing. At least we know their location now. What’s our next move?”

“During tomorrow’s free time, you, Flora, and the Maid will go harass the other company. You can use a frontal assault or dirty tricks, it doesn’t matter. I don’t even care if you die. As long as you can take out three or more of their employees, we’ll call it a success. President Wang, how much funding do we have?”

Wang Er adjusted his gloves and reported, “After deducting equipment costs, employee wages, and advertising fees, we currently have 11.11 million in funds and thirty action points. The new locations we discovered today are a restaurant, a gym, and a cleaning company. Spending three thousand yuan at each location daily will boost employee morale. Higher morale grants more action points and unlocks more functions.”

“Nine thousand total, then? That’s not too high. Let’s max them all out. Does anyone else have anything to report?”

“I do,” Jinghong said, raising her hand. “I think it’s related to the hidden Charm attribute. I met a mysterious merchant who gave me a card. He said if I need anything, I can go to him to spend money or buy things you can’t find anywhere else.”

“That sounds a little shady. Are you sure he’s legit?” Duan Fei asked.

“He should be fine.”

“What does he look like?”

“He has a huge head, and his hands are round with no fingers. He’s blue and has a strange pocket on his stomach. He’s about one-point-five meters tall and weighs one hundred fifty kilograms.”

“Isn’t that Doraemon?! The lore in this Virtual World is so ridiculous! But if it’s Doraemon, then he’s definitely not a problem. He’s probably just trying to earn money for some dorayaki. Okay, next up, how should we use today’s action points?”

“How about we boost our defenses?” Flora immediately suggested. “There’s an option to enhance our defenses in the action point menu. It doesn’t cost any extra funds, and the effect is permanent.”

“We don’t need to,” Duan Fei said, shaking his head. “They haven’t discovered our location yet. We can use these action points for more important things, like expanding our network and making contact with new rulers.”

“What about upgrading the office equipment?” the Maid asked, producing a special Action Card. “I found this special Action Card while I was exploring the office building today. For just ten action points, we can replace all the equipment here, but there’s a chance of failure. If it succeeds, though, we’ll get a 20% bonus to both our income and our action point generation.”

A bonus like that was very tempting. Duan Fei’s company currently had a daily income of 60,000. With this bonus, they’d be getting an extra 12,000 for free.

Plus, that number would scale with their income, making it an excellent bonus for both the early and late game.

“What’s the success rate?”

“An 80% success rate and a 20% failure rate. However, failure will reduce our efficiency, and our net income will drop by 40% for three days.”

Weighing the pros and cons, Duan Fei felt the risk was worth taking. But Jinghong suddenly stood up and, as everyone watched, took the card from the Maid.

She ran her fingers carefully over the card, then looked at the Maid. “No, there’s something wrong with this card. It’s a guaranteed failure.”

“Oh, really? In that case, I’ll trust your judgment,” the Maid said with a hint of disappointment.

“It can’t be helped,” Duan Fei sighed as well.

Seeing them give up so easily, Yue Hua, who was lazing on the sofa, asked in confusion, “Why did you all give up just like that?”

“Because Jinghong said so,” Duan Fei replied.

“Don’t say it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world! I don’t get it!”

Jinghong gave Yue Hua a troubled look. “With your level of intelligence, it would be difficult to explain.”

“Please, just dumb it down for me.”

“Hmm… To put it simply, it’s intuition.”

Yue Hua wanted to retort, but after seeing the look in Jinghong’s eyes, she inexplicably found herself believing her.

Jinghong’s eyes were bright and full of confidence, giving the impression that what she said was true—that she had made her judgment based on pure intuition.

As Yue Hua glanced at everyone in the room, she realized something. ‘Every single person in this group is weird, but they’re also really interesting.’

‘Every day with them is strange, but it’s so much fun. And they seem amazing at making money.’

‘If every day could be like this, why would I ever want to stay cooped up at home?’

‘Too bad. A Servant has to leave eventually. The thought of staying together forever is impossible…’

Yue Hua, the veteran shut-in, sighed wistfully.

After vetoing the Maid’s proposal, Duan Fei simply gave all the Action Cards the players had collected during their free time to Jinghong, letting her decide how to spend their action points.

Jinghong’s intuition was absurdly powerful, especially when it came to probabilities.

It was as if she could see the probability of any given event. She was in her element when dealing with Action Cards that had a chance of success, and it didn’t take long for her to pick out the few cards the players had acquired that were guaranteed to work.

Their action points were finite, but the things they needed to spend them on were infinite.

Furthermore, each player could only use one Action Card, meaning they could play a total of five, so they had to choose carefully.

Although the Action Cards Jinghong selected had a stated probability of failure, with her intuition, it was as good as zero.

After carefully comparing the cards and a lengthy discussion, the five players and two representatives finally selected four of them.

“‘Secret Corner.’ Costs 5 action points. Upon use, you have a chance to discover a special location: the Black Market. At the Black Market, you can hire special talent and engage in illegal activities. The closer the user of this Action Card is to the darkness, the more likely they are to attract the attention of the Black Market’s master.”

“‘Motorcycle Rental.’ Costs 5 action points. Upon use, you have a chance to acquire a fleet of used motorcycles. The higher the user’s Charm, the better the motorcycles’ stats.”

“‘High-Level Connection.’ Costs 10 action points. Upon use, you have a chance to meet an important figure. The field this figure belongs to is random. The higher the user’s Charm, the higher the figure’s initial affinity will be.”

“‘Mysterious Antique Dealer.’ Costs 10 action points. Upon use, you receive a mysterious antique from a mysterious antique dealer. The antique’s effect is random; the higher your intelligence, the better the antique. Note: The acquired antique cannot be discarded or destroyed and has a chance of having a negative effect.”

The four cards used up all their action points, driving home just how precious the resource was.

Laying out the four cards, Duan Fei distributed them to the others, keeping the “Mysterious Antique Dealer” for himself. Then, he chose to use it.

An instant later, his companions vanished. A man appeared before him, dressed in a gray suit and carrying a briefcase. His face was twisted, and he had four eyes.

Giving Duan Fei a faint smile, he pushed the briefcase toward him. “Thank you for receiving me,” he said, still smiling. “Are you willing to accept my gift?”