Chapter 159: Clearance Settlement

The ferocious villagers charging at them with weapons vanished before their eyes. Consciousness blurred momentarily, and when they opened their eyes again, the eight of them were back in the pristine white safe house. Realizing they hadn’t been eliminated, a few players with average performance let out relieved sighs, grateful to have survived.

Nie Miao slumped onto the sofa, her usually well-maintained, delicate face now showing traces of exhaustion. She whined coquettishly, “I’m exhausted, this was more tiring than military drills.”

Guan Xiaoxing gnawed on some fruit from the coffee table, the sweet juice soothing her parched throat. She revealed a satisfied expression. “But we survived!”

Everyone was drained. Out of all the dungeons they’d been through, none had required this much physical exertion. Even Xu Yan, with her military background, looked worn out. Usually, players in the safe house would be lively, but this time everyone just sat on the sofas in silence, too tired to speak, waiting for the ranking results.

Li Zhi rubbed the sunflower jade pendant in her hand, her mind already occupied with how she was going to calm her brother’s anger after getting out of here.

As for the upcoming clearance rewards…

Before, she dared to walk the edge of the rules and peek into secrets because she had nothing to lose. But once you have a weakness, it’s hard not to be controlled by others.

She didn’t want Li Jianxi to suffer any further punishment because of her.

This time, he had merely been turned into a monster. What about next time? If she kept pushing, would the punishments escalate? Would he eventually be erased because of her?

Li Zhi let out a quiet sigh.

Her brother was right. Losing a casual friend and losing someone you love were two entirely different things.

But since she had made her choice, she would take responsibility for it. That kiss in the dungeon wasn’t driven by hormones—it was a deliberate decision.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a teammate’s excited shout: “The rankings are out!”

Li Zhi looked up at the screen on the wall as the system began announcing the popularity rankings for this round:

—Voting for this session has ended. Popularity ranking is as follows:

—1st place: Li Zhi. Total popularity: 21,031,906.

—2nd place: Jiao Shen. Total popularity: 8,782,316.

—3rd place: Xu Yan. Total popularity: 7,924,732.

—4th place: Han Wenlin. Total popularity: 4,241,699.

—5th place: Nie Miao. Total popularity: 401,035.

—6th place: Yao Lang. Total popularity: 400,129.

—7th place: Guan Xiaoxing. Total popularity: 321,503.

—8th place: Cui Zehui. Total popularity: 210,344.

They had all more or less expected this ranking, but when they saw that Li Zhi had amassed over twenty million popularity points, Nie Miao and the others couldn’t help feeling envious. They’d never even reached a million, while Li Zhi raked in tens of millions with ease.

That amount of popularity… it would probably take them a lifetime of dungeon runs to reach.

As rankings climb, veteran players naturally gain more and more popularity each time they enter a dungeon because the global audience can see the overall leaderboard. When a ranked player enters a dungeon, their name is marked with a “LIVE” tag, making them the obvious choice for most viewers.

That’s the prestige of the global leaderboard.

Following the announcement of rankings, the system immediately announced the MVP selection: “Based on overall performance within the dungeon, the player receiving an S-rank evaluation this round is Li Zhi. Reward: 1.5x multiplier on points. Current dungeon popularity updated to 31,547,859. Global ranking unchanged. Total global popularity now 64,403,044, currently ranked 10th in the world. Please continue your efforts.”

Jiao Shen glanced at Li Zhi, unable to conceal his envy.

Tenth place globally. What did that mean? He’d studied the leaderboard players—none of them had ever risen so steadily with every dungeon like Li Zhi. He had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before the top position was claimed by someone new.

That spot had been occupied by a foreign player for a long time. Players from around the world had taken their shots at that throne, but none had succeeded. Jiao Shen looked at Li Zhi’s calm expression and suddenly felt eager to see that day come.

Whether heartfelt or just for show, the safe house was soon filled with congratulations. Li Zhi smiled and accepted the well-wishes from her teammates. Then the system voice came again: “Popularity settlement complete. Clearance rewards will now be distributed according to the player’s most desired wish.”

Players were drawn into their individual reward spaces. Li Zhi looked at the translucent panel in front of her, where a golden item had appeared: the Sun-Moon Crystal.

She reached out to tap it, and the usage instructions instantly imprinted themselves into her mind:

Sun-Moon Crystal: Upon consumption, it can greatly enhance the player’s mental strength to its utmost limit. However, caution! Enhancing spiritual power through external means is extremely dangerous. Slight carelessness could result in mild insanity or instant death. Upon consumption, the player’s spiritual world will undergo destructive impact. If successful, it will be reborn stronger; if unsuccessful, the spiritual world will be severely damaged, possibly beyond recovery. Please use cautiously.

This was exactly what Li Zhi wanted—to maximize her spiritual power.

Her spiritual power was already top-tier among players. Whether it was the illusions of the amusement park dungeon or the spiritual attacks of the boss in the Yucai Middle School dungeon, nothing had been able to shake her. Even the system might be puzzled why someone already this strong would risk enhancing it further.

Unfortunately for the system, Li Zhi had only made her request within the bounds of the rules. Why she wanted it, or what her goals were—it couldn’t see her thoughts.

The system could instinctively tell that this kind of enhancement wasn’t a good sign, but since Li Zhi’s request didn’t violate any rules, all it could do was attach enormous risks as a deterrent.

Yet from the calm way Li Zhi pocketed the item, it was obvious she didn’t care about the warnings at all.

In fact, she even smiled with satisfaction once she obtained it.

[Ghost System]: …This is bad. Feels like she’s coming for me.

After pocketing the clearance reward, the next random items floated onto the panel:

• Confusion Bracelet: Single-use item, usable in both the real world and dungeons. After wearing it and making contact with someone, the user will appear as that person’s closest relation for three minutes. Works on both ghosts and humans. Requires 899 points.
• Five Thunder Talisman: Single-use talisman, usable in both the real world and dungeons. Causes complete annihilation of ghosts. Requires 599 points.
• Bottomless Nutrient Solution: Usable only in dungeons. Provides all necessary nutrients for the human body. Usable every 12 hours. Requires 599 points.

All three items were fairly practical. Li Zhi exchanged 2.1 million popularity for 2,100 points and bought all three. The system’s real-time broadcast announced: “Detected total global popularity adjusted to 62,303,044. Global ranking unchanged. Please continue your efforts.”