Chapter 224 Veteran Player Gai Qian, Wanderer

However, before he could recover from the massive surprise of the first "Ghost Body" Bond...

Another notification sound followed immediately after!

[Ding! A Goddess meeting the binding conditions has been detected!]

[Goddess Name: Ye Qingqing]

[Bond Effect Preview: If successfully bound and a Bond is established, you will obtain the exclusive Bond effect—[Assistance]!]

[[Assistance]: You can borrow any of this Goddess's base attributes at any time and apply them to the corresponding attributes of the host or any tenant in the same Dormitory (any buffs or temporary increases are not included). Duration: three hours.]

Su Ze's eyes lit up instantly.

This woman named Ye Qingqing could actually trigger a Goddess Bond too!

But honestly, she was indeed very beautiful; that sexy, capable, yet professional secretary vibe was truly unique.

More importantly, her Bond effect seemed quite excellent!

Although it wasn't as simple and crude as Qiao Yunge's [Burst] Bond, which directly doubled attributes...

The advantage of [Assistance] lay in its long duration and greater flexibility!

[Burst] only lasted for one hour and could only be used by himself.

But this [Assistance] not only lasted for three hours but could also be applied to other tenants in the Dormitory!

This meant that in the future, depending on the situation, he could borrow Ye Qingqing's attributes anytime and anywhere to shore up a tenant's weaknesses, helping them better complete the tasks he assigned.

Of course, it could also be applied to himself.

The strategic value was truly not low!

Thoughts raced through Su Ze's mind.

His pause caused the atmosphere on the scene to instantly become even more eerie.

Seeing that Su Ze's killing intent seemed to have lessened slightly, Ye Qingqing's survival instinct drove her to rush forward recklessly, spreading her arms to shield Gai Qian.

Her face was deathly pale, and her voice carried a sob as she pleaded with Su Ze:

"Mr. Su Ze! I'm sorry! I know we were wrong!"

"She... she was just completely following my orders! None of this has anything to do with her!"

"I was the one who was selfish, I was the one who was foolish, I did all of this! I'm willing to take all the blame. No matter how you want to punish me, I'll accept it!"

Behind her, Gai Qian's body had become so ethereal it was almost transparent. Her blood-red dress rapidly lost its color, turning back into a pale, deathly garment.

Her entire form looked as if it might dissipate into the air at any moment.

She weakly shook her head, trying to push Ye Qingqing away.

"No... it's my own problem... In truth, both she and Shen Jie were being manipulated by me..."

"If you're going to kill someone, kill me. The winner takes all; I accept it."

"Mr. Su Ze!"

Shen Jie, who had been knocked dizzy nearby, summoned the greatest courage of his life at this moment. He struggled to climb up and stood in front of the two women to block him.

"Our crimes are unforgivable! I am willing to take the punishment for them!"

Su Ze raised an eyebrow, watching this "deeply moving" drama with great interest.

His gaze passed over the two of them and landed on Gai Qian at the very back, who was nearly about to dissipate.

"You're quite impressive, actually able to bewitch them into dying for you like this."

"That's not it!" Ye Qingqing and Shen Jie refuted in unison. "If not for Sister Qian, we would have died long ago!"

Hearing this, Su Ze smiled noncommittally.

He slowly sat down on the front desk.

"Confess honestly. Who are you? What's going on? How did you end up here?"

Seeing that he didn't seem to intend to strike immediately, Gai Qian finally caught her breath and spoke weakly.

"I... I was originally a human player as well."

"Furthermore, I have already been through three phases of the game."

"Three phases?" Su Ze's eyebrows shot up.

A veteran player?

This was an unexpected harvest.

Gai Qian nodded and continued, "It was during the fourth phase that my entire team was wiped out."

"But when I was on the verge of death, I used a special item I obtained from the rewards settlement after the second phase, the [Ghost Path Jade]."

"That item allowed me to retain my self-awareness after death and become a... Supernatural Entity."

"But because of that, I completely lost my status as a human player and became a... Wanderer of the [Wandering Faction]."

"Wanderer?" Su Ze frowned; this was the first time he had heard this term.

Gai Qian nodded. "Correct. The entire survival game can mainly be divided into three camps."

"One is the player camp like yours, mostly consisting of humans."

"One is the monster camp, which has a vast variety of types and races."

"And the last one is the Wanderers of the Wandering Faction. These types of characters usually exist between players and monsters, and most remain neutral."

She spoke weakly and very slowly.

Su Ze didn't rush her either, waiting patiently for her to continue.

"Of course, within the Wandering Faction, a small portion will be hostile toward either the player or monster camp and help the other side."

"There is even a tiny fraction that is hostile toward both major camps at the same time. However, if we are not permitted to intervene but directly interfere with either side, we will be subjected to the punishment of the rules..."

"So all this time, I haven't directly taken action. I've only been telling Shen Jie and Qingqing some of my experiences as a veteran player."

Su Ze nodded, having a general idea in his mind now.

No wonder she couldn't just act as she pleased; otherwise, Lu Jiaming would probably have been dealt with long ago.

"Punishment? If you really do take action, what is the punishment?"

"After taking action, if I attack a player, then my attribute values will decrease by a certain amount every hour until my basic combat power is lower than the average value of that player's region."

Su Ze was enlightened.

That price was quite high, so it made sense why she wouldn't easily take action.

"Then what if you join one of the camps? It should be possible to join, right? Once you join, you can take action?" Su Ze looked at her calmly.

At this moment, Su Ze thought of that mysterious fellow, Shi Yetang.

"It is possible," Gai Qian admitted. "A Wanderer can choose to join a certain camp."

"However, whether you join the survivor side or the monster side, once you join, your strength will be limited by the rules. The maximum cannot exceed the strongest person in that region or the strongest monster of the current phase."

This intelligence was more or less consistent with what he knew before.

In that case...

That Royal Zombie Shi Yetang hiding in his Dormitory building had most likely used some similar method to first turn himself into a neutral wandering force.

And then indirectly joined his camp to circumvent the rule against taking action against him.

He suddenly thought of something and stared at Gai Qian, asking, "Then the strength you just Burst out with was stronger than any player in this building, wasn't it?"

Gai Qian sighed, a trace of bitterness appearing on her face.

"I... I didn't actually join this building's camp."

"And because of that, my strength was not limited."

"But... actually, I'm not that powerful either..."

She glanced at Su Ze with a complex look. "Your stats are too far off the charts. Even in those regions that have already cleared three phases of the game, you would be among the top existences."

"Just now... I completely relied on a forbidden skill that burns my Ghost Body to briefly boost my strength. The price is a permanent loss of my own attribute values..."

Su Ze nodded; now he completely understood.

It seemed this survival game was relatively fair.

If you don't join, you can't directly take action. If you insist on acting, you'll be punished by the rules, but your strength isn't capped.

If you join, your strength is capped, but you are allowed to take action.

Reasonable. Otherwise, if max-level big shots could easily come to the novice area to smurf... what would be the point of playing!

And she clearly knew that once she joined the building's region and became a player here, her strength would be suppressed to a total basic combat power equal to Lu Jiaming's...

A mere seventy points.

That was why she risked being punished by the rules to go all out to deal with him...