23: Chapter 23 Taotie: Even Jesus wouldn't have helped, I'm telling you.

Leaving Xu Yuyan's home, Zhao Xiaoshuai still felt a lingering sense of unfulfillment; the last time he had "turned in his homework" to Chu Ziqing was last month.

Although his victory today was a bit unearned, he had already seen a glimmer of hope.

Before, even when he used external aids, it was only for twenty minutes.

But this time, it was a full double the duration, and it only ended in regret because his waist couldn't take it anymore.

This proved that his recent strengthening was effective, it was just that his physical fitness couldn't keep up yet.

As long as he stuck to his fitness routine, in the long run, he would soon be able to abandon external aids and return to his peak.

He might even far surpass his past self, reaching that supreme realm every man dreams of.

Besides the physical aspect, he had gained quite a lot today at Xu Yuyan's place.

With her beauty, as long as he carefully set the trap, it wouldn't be difficult to expose Lei's true colors; it could even be considered doing justice on behalf of heaven.

And Cheat Dad had finally cleared the suspicion of cheating for him in his love life; he had not become a human XX.

He and Xu Yuyan had already had two intimate encounters, and this time, he had even satisfied her several times over.

Coupled with his money-throwing behavior that hit the nail on the head, he could clearly feel Xu Yuyan's gratitude and happiness.

But her favorability was still only 177 (Acquainted).

Nearly 30 of those points were gained from the 70,000 bonus he gave before leaving.

By comparison, Meng Yawen was truly a very easy girl to pursue; just helping her with some small favors could raise her favorability by 80 points.

He really didn't know how her previous boyfriends had managed things to let her remain a virgin to this day.

Another key gain was that he now knew how to unlock new slots.

On the way home, he opened a few illustrated guides as usual, but as the number of unfamiliar characters decreased, his efficiency in opening the guides had also dropped.

Perhaps he should consider trying different time slots; that way, he could effectively avoid people whose guides he had already opened.

He already had a preliminary plan for how to use the new slot.

He returned home and first sent an email to the official mailbox of "three generals kill" to lay the groundwork.

Lying in bed, he launched the game "three generals kill" again.

It was just at the tail end of the evening event.

Activities in this kind of game were a bit like clocking in for work.

There was a boss for both lunch and dinner, and there were also activities like sieging cities at night.

Based on the damage output, number of participants, and final ranking of each guild, the system would distribute a corresponding amount of resources.

These rewards would be auctioned within the guild, and players would use gold ingots to purchase them.

However, constant bidding would cause the same resources to consume more gold ingots, which was detrimental to the group's development.

Therefore, organized guilds would actively distribute resources, allowing everyone to purchase them at the starting bid price.

For those who really had too much money and couldn't get a turn, they could only go to the world auction and snatch up what other guilds had released.

But this presented a problem: who gets it first?

In the Brotherhood, they had argued about this many times, and a few people had even left the guild because of it.

Moyu Society didn't have this problem; the highest bidder got it first.

Although constant bidding in guild auctions would drive up prices, the gold ingots obtained from the final auction would be split equally among all players who participated in the activity.

Zero-spending players wished that every item would be bid up to the highest "buyout price" so that they could get more gold ingots.

And resources would always be available; once everyone had "graduated," there would inevitably be a large amount of resources on the server that no one wanted.

Buying them then would be cheap and affordable; "Only fools with too much money are in such a rush to buy!" was the sentiment of the zero-spending players.

Zhao Xiaoshuai was now that fool with too much money.

It was only at this moment that he realized why so many people would buy things the moment they came out, even when it was certain that the prices would plummet in a few years.

Enjoying something early versus late was a completely different experience, and the thickness of one's wallet ultimately determined one's mindset.

Recently in the game, because the Brotherhood had absorbed almost all the paying players in the entire server, various guilds were feeling sluggish and had no heart to participate in activities.

A laid-back guild like the Moyu Society had instead achieved decent results and obtained many resources.

The currency for top-ups was called Jade Discs, and it could naturally be exchanged for gold ingots, though the exchange rate was hardly cost-effective.

But cost-effectiveness was not a factor in a tycoon's considerations.

He bought out all the auction items in the guild at the buyout price, sweeping the board.

Buying at the buyout price would trigger a guild-wide notification, so everyone online in the guild at that moment saw this scene.

[Boss is generous!] [Which idiot is this?] [**, my official seal.] [This guy is crazy, is he quitting the game?]

Ignoring these people, he opened his private chat records again.

First was a bunch of starred messages from Renyi Wushuang, but the time was from this morning.

It was also worth noting that as Renyi Wushuang didn't have time to deal with him—or rather, couldn't beat him—others in their guild began to make their moves one after another.

He simply took out a small notebook and recorded the names of those people.

He couldn't beat them yet, but that time wouldn't be too far off.

After recording his grudges, he gathered his provisions, locked onto Renyi Wushuang, and charged over; the kill report rang out across the entire server once again.

He didn't forget to leave a question mark in a message for Renyi Wushuang again.

After clearing his daily tasks, he turned off his phone and quickly drifted off to sleep.

Fatigue and satisfaction were the best sleeping pills.

...

At this moment, the Brotherhood group chat was very lively.

"@Renyi Wushuang, you got slashed to death by that kid again."

Renyi Wushuang: "Damn it, all my money went into buying event materials. If it weren't for rushing the event, I could have killed him!"

"Renyi, what were you doing last night? Did you get caught?"

Renyi Wushuang: "Hey, last night I booked a really top-notch technician—both wholesome and seductive. I did it seven times in one night; let's not talk about it."

Taowu: "Brothers, I have a party tomorrow, so I won't be around in the evening. Guild leader, keep an eye on things during the final settlement."

"Are you serious, Big Brother? What about the event? Or are you just going to dump materials today?" "Yeah, we agreed not to lose first place; everyone came here for this." "Dumping them directly will alert the enemy; that's not good."

The group chat was suddenly flooded with messages.

Currently, the other 39 people in the guild had each contributed at least one 648, totaling 60 of the 648s.

They remembered that Taowu had promised that as long as they reached 50 of the 648s, he would make a big splash with his spending and give everyone a surprise.

Facing the skepticism, Taowu said nothing more; big shots had to maintain their air of superiority at times like this.

Naturally, someone else stepped in to explain for him.

The guild leader immediately took over the conversation: "I just logged into Big Brother's account. Don't worry, tomorrow is definitely in the bag. I'll just give you a number."

Then, he sent an emoji showing five fingers.

"Big Brother topped up five thousand this time?" "I heard that to take first place, the cake needs to be upgraded to level nine or ten. So isn't our guild not stable?" "Stop keeping us in suspense, just tell us!"

The guild leader then calmly sent a voice message:

"You guys, your outlook is too narrow. Big Brother topped up 50 of the 648s."

"Holy shit!" "Big Brother is mighty!" "Boss is generous!" "This is what a real tycoon is!"

Compliments poured in, and in an instant, the chat reached 99+ messages.

With a 200-yuan big red envelope from Taowu, the Brotherhood began their revelry for the night.

When the atmosphere quieted down, Taowu finally made his concluding declaration for the day:

"First place is definitely our guild. Even Jesus can't fix this, I said so."

The group went wild again; no one doubted these words.