Player Reload

"You... I..."

The player in a straw raincoat was left speechless, realizing that they were deceived by an NPC from the Script World. Their face turned green then purple, and amid the jeers of the crowd, they silently put away the fake Li Gui and awkwardly retreated from the group.

Uh... theoretically, any artifact that players bring back from the Script World is genuine, as long as it's not fake.

However, with so many players, everyone knows it's a way to get rich, so everyone brings things out, leading the global artifact market to near saturation.

There are five Cullinan II diamonds on the British crown worldwide, seven Mona Lisas, eight Lanting Collections, and eleven Tutankhamun mummies, enough to form a soccer team.

What's more, collectors in the real world are somewhat aware of the killing field situation.

Rich people, instead of buying repeat artifacts or useless jewels at high prices, might as well buy some shares in Prometheus, GS Biotechnology, or European Heavy Industry.

At least, the latter will indeed step in to protect their major shareholders.

"Next."

The intelligent vending machine dutifully authenticated the artifacts, and Li Cheng silently gave a thumbs up, walked to the office with Gray Rain, and casually picked up a tablet for a glance.

The reservations for the Star-casting Anvil's modification surgery have been filled up until next month.

Some of the requests are bizarre, like implanting a Sharingan in an eye socket, which is considered normal,

to requests for transplanting the arm of a martial arts master;

superpower users wanting to implant cooling fins in their brains;

or even requests to implant the unborn fetus of an Ancient God into their belly—uncertain if the intention is to use the god's fetus as a weapon, or if there are other devices that can revive the fetus and complete its birth, directly acquiring an infant demigod magic pet.

Knock knock knock.

The knocking sound came at just the right time, and Li Cheng raised an eyebrow and casually opened the office door, revealing two sharply dressed handsome men and beautiful women standing outside.

They were clearly the business representatives from Prometheus Company who had previously approached Li Cheng for cooperation.

"Why is it you again?"

"Ahem, Mr. Pifu, this is a small token of our appreciation."

The handsome man and the beautiful woman knew that their repeated appearances might make them seem like insurance salespeople, so they hurriedly handed over a card with a gold LCD panel.

"Appreciation? What do you mean?"

Li Cheng glanced at the card—it was a universal bank card from the slum, containing eight thousand game coins.

"Could we come in?"

The handsome man and beautiful woman sat in the office chairs, rubbing their hands a bit nervously.

"Please, have some tea."

Gray Rain considered themselves the second-in-command of the Star-casting Anvil and, with great ownership awareness, brewed a pot for the two, "It's a 400-year-old Pu'er tea cake, from a time when Chong Zhen hadn't even climbed the old crooked-neck tree yet."

"..."

These two were indeed top company business representatives. After exchanging a glance and gathering courage, they actually took a sip of the 400-year-old tea broth, "Ahem, it's like this, Mr. Pifu, you probably remember the Noise Warrior, right?"

"I remember."

Li Cheng nodded. That gentleman was also an explorer of the Secret Realm, who ended up being plotted against and killed by the Card Emperor. He was then resurrected as a zombie, only to be killed again, and finally resurrected together with the seven personality-merged Cai Anjie through a collective Resurrection Technique.

"The Noise Warrior is a core member of our company, representing Prometheus in the Secret Realm exploration activity."

The business representative said, "From the post-event task report our company compiled and restored, it's clear that he's alive now, thanks to your assistance.

Because the essence of taking and returning was borrowed from the player, the subsequent influence is uncertain, and he cannot personally come to express thanks.

This is the thank-you video he recorded."

With that, the male business representative took out a tablet and played a video.

A rock youth covered in tattoos, with a wildly unmanageable hairstyle, dressed in a hospital gown, bowed reverently towards the camera in a hospital ward.

It's unclear whether it was the Prometheus intelligence department's psychological profiling team that was catering to Li Cheng, but the video's background music was unexpectedly "Grateful Heart."

"Grateful heart, thank you fate, the flowers bloom and fall, I will cherish them all the same~"

Li Cheng's eye twitched, unsure how to respond, "Uh... you are thoughtful."

To be honest, getting Cai Anjie to resurrect the dead player was just going along with the flow.

The main reason was White Horse Tombstone, Blood Lion Roar, and others providing support; they were indeed good teammates.

And players like Noise Warrior and Feihong Witch were fortunate enough to catch a ride on the headwind.

The business representative shook his head, "To you, it was a casual act to save someone, but to us, it truly saved families."

With that, he paused and asked cautiously, "Would you mind accepting Noise Warrior's friend request?"

"All right."

Li Cheng opened the player panel and found that aside from Noise Warrior, White Horse Tombstone, Binary Tree, Red Spider, Feihong Witch...

A bunch of players were requesting to add him as a friend, and as he accepted each connection, these players all transferred funds to Li Cheng as thanks.

Some sent several thousand game coins, while others like Blood Lion Roar sent Li Cheng ten thousand directly.

Those truly struggling financially left a message, "Dude, I owe you one."

"Hmm?"

This windfall could completely be called an unexpected fortune; Li Cheng had not anticipated it and muttered subconsciously, "Wasn't this Secret Realm exploration considered a failure?"

The male business representative saw his bewildered expression and carefully explained, "It's like this. The major guilds organizing this Secret Realm exploration signed policies and hedging agreements with many insurance companies beforehand.

The bets included the form of the Hidden Room, its final ownership, player death counts, overall earnings, and so on.

Like Feihong Witch and others, in strict terms, have technically died at least once and can thus receive compensation from insurance companies.

For them, this Secret Realm exploration not only didn't incur a loss but even made a small profit."

The female business representative timely took out her phone to show the news, "At this moment, several insurance companies have already declared bankruptcy.

Additionally, two CEOs opted to jump off buildings, but were quickly rescued by our Necromancers and are currently liaising with reality world banks to freeze their assets."

"Is this possible? All right."

Li Cheng clicked his tongue. He could probably guess why Prometheus Company's attitude was so sincerely enthusiastic.

At that time, apart from Zhangsun Yao and the witnesses Red Driver and Fuding Hualong, no one else knew the background and the ultimate ownership of the Hidden Room.

But everyone saw the Side of Truth show up on the scene, engaging in friendly banter with Li Cheng.

Everyone naturally assumed that the Hidden Room, or equivalent to its Secret Treasure, was ultimately taken by the Side of Truth who took the lion's share.

Now, the rumors of "Star-casting Anvil" being in an all-weather strategic partnership with the "Evil Science Alliance" cannot be washed away.

As the two business representatives bid farewell, they left behind the bank card as a gesture of goodwill.

At this moment, Gray Rain, who was lying on the boss's chair browsing her phone, suddenly noticed something, instinctively straightening up.

"What did you see?"

Li Cheng asked offhandedly, putting on sterile surgical gloves, preparing to have the smart AI vending machine contact reserved customers to start today's modification surgery.

"... Let me show you something, don't get excited."

Gray Rain's expression became unexpectedly serious, and her tone unconsciously took on a solemnity as she turned her phone around, displaying a short video news report.

"British London Criminal Court gives light sentence in a transnational adoption abuse case, foster parents imprisoned for only six months."

News time, three minutes ago.

The glove-clad movements of Li Cheng suddenly paused. He silently accepted the phone and pressed play at double speed.

In the real world, Cai Anjie died three years ago, and at the time of her death, she was still a minor. Her foster parents in the UK have always claimed she was depressed and died by suicide.

It wasn't until half a year ago that this couple sent a computer for repair, and the technicians found a large number of child abuse photos on it.

This case had already entered judicial proceedings in the real world, and Li Cheng was also sure that the Special Affairs Bureau gave a heads up to the UK the night before, demanding a swift and heavy punishment for Cai Anjie's foster parents.

Yet the result remained as it is.

The London Court, citing "no conclusive evidence linking Cai Anjie's suicide to parental abuse," sentenced the foster father to only six months' imprisonment without any penalty for the foster mother.

Li Cheng set down the phone and suddenly laughed.