5: trade

Xu Le was about to bend over to pick up the Secret Manual when his body paused, freezing in place.

"Brother Le, I'm already leeching experience points from you; I wouldn't dream of leeching your Secret Manuals and Materials even if you killed me. What are you dazing for?"

Li Yang spoke very seriously; this was his bottom line.

Regarding the Materials like antlers and ivory collected earlier, he planned to give all the Credits to Xu Le after selling them back in town, as a form of compensation for being an assistant.

Brothers didn't need to be overly calculative, but one couldn't just take everything while being carried.

"Oh, Huang Desheng has exited the dungeon. The Dawn Mainframe notified me that I won the bet, and the Credits have already been deposited into my card."

"Hahaha, awesome! I've hated that idiot for a long time. I really want to see his expression right now!"

Li Yang jumped up in excitement, as if he were the one who had won the huge sum of money.

"Brother Le, quick, check what Secret Manual dropped! It's a double blessing!"

Xu Le picked up the Secret Manual, and a mechanical notification sounded in his ear.

[Congratulations to the player for obtaining a Rare-grade skill — Tigers Roar]

[Skill] Tigers Roar

[Quality] Rare

[Learning Requirements] Melee class, Strength ≥ 60, Physique ≥ 70

[Skill Description] Consumes 80 mana. Vibrate the chest cavity and let out a loud roar, dealing (Physique + Strength) points of damage to non-allies within a 1-meter radius and stunning them for 0.5 to 2 seconds. Cooldown: 180 seconds.

The damage of this Secret Manual was secondary; the key lay in the stun effect. Being able to control monsters made this a core skill for melee classes.

Without any hesitation, Xu Le tossed it to Li Yang.

Li Yang was about to refuse, but as his eyes scanned the skill description, he couldn't look away, letting out a bitter laugh:

"Brother Le, this skill is too perfect for me, I want it! However, I've looked into it; similar skills have a market price of around 300,000 Credits, and even then, they're often unavailable."

"I'll take the advantage and give you 300,000. If you don't accept it, I won't take the skill."

Xu Le saw the determination in his expression and knew he wasn't lying at all. Skipping the whole "refusing three times" routine, he agreed directly.

Li Yang accepted it with a chuckle. Currently, he was only Level 8 and lacked the necessary attributes; he needed to level up twice more to learn this skill.

Ten minutes later.

"Brother Le, look at this."

Confused, Xu Le took Li Yang's phone and found it was a video in the class group chat.

Huang Desheng appeared outside the dungeon. Though his group looked disheveled, they had successfully cleared the Nightmare difficulty Goblin Camp.

His face was full of joy, which suddenly turned to shock, then disbelief, and finally vacancy.

The surrounding crowd was busy congratulating him on winning the bet.

His smile turned bizarre as he waved goodbye to everyone... "Hahaha, that idiot must have just come out of the dungeon and received the Dawn Mainframe's notification. That's why his face changed so much."

"In the end, the oblivious crowd even congratulated him. Look at that pained face, like he's smiling while eating shit. The more I look, the funnier it gets, hahaha..."

Li Yang was getting more and more amused. He took back his phone, intending to reveal the truth in the class group chat.

Xu Le stopped him: "Don't rush."

"Why?"

"You'll know in a bit."

Xu Le pulled out his phone with a profound look... *Bam!*

Huang Desheng had also seen the video and smashed the ashtray from the coffee table onto the floor.

Thinking about how his classmates would react once they knew the truth, he grew more panicked. He hurriedly sent Xu Le a friend request.

The other party didn't respond for a long time.

Just as he was so anxious he wanted to call, Xu Le finally accepted the request: "What is it?"

It was obvious he was extremely impatient.

"You cheated!!!" Huang Desheng typed furiously, nearly poking through the screen.

"Oh?"

"Oh? You're not going to explain?"

"Idiot!"

Being cursed at made Huang Desheng snap back to his senses. Under the monitoring of the Dawn Mainframe, no one could cheat.

Stifled, he typed again: "Don't tell anyone about the outcome of the bet."

"Benefits!"

Those two short words broke his mental defenses again.

He instantly drafted a huge block of text: 'You've already won 568,000 from me, what more benefits do you want? Don't be too Xu Le!!!'

But in the end, he deleted the entire draft and gritted his teeth to type a number.

"2,000 Credits!"

"Too little! I just made a fortune; I don't care for small change," Xu Le replied, holding back a laugh.

'I f*cking...'

Huang Desheng kicked the coffee table away and roared in rage: 'That fortune you made was given by me! Given by me! Ah—this is infuriating!'

Finally, he gritted his teeth and sent another number: "20,000 Credits."

"That doesn't match your status as Young Master Huang!" Xu Le replied again.

Huang Desheng's eyes were bloodshot; he wanted nothing more than to tear Xu Le to pieces.

After several rounds of torment, the two finally reached an agreement.

After tearfully transferring 80,000 Credits, Huang Desheng felt a sense of relief.

Just as he was about to do the delete-and-block combo, another message flew in: "Thanks, Boss!"

"Boss, he called me Boss!" The corners of Huang Desheng's mouth couldn't help but curl up, but then he saw the second message: "I can guarantee I won't leak it, but I can't guarantee Li Yang won't. You understand..."

Understand my foot!

This is going too far!

This is absolutely going too far!

Huang Desheng picked up the coffee table from the floor and started smashing things randomly. He had coughed up all his New Year's money, only to end up with this result.

Trembling, he applied to add Li Yang as a friend.

Li Yang received the notification and saw it was Huang Desheng. He was about to reject it without hesitation when he remembered Xu Le had been playing with his phone, and he mentioned it on a whim.

Xu Le smiled and showed his phone to Li Yang.

Looking at the brief text, Li Yang could already imagine Huang Desheng's expression on the other side, and he let out a series of cackling laughs.

The Little Yellow Chicken glanced at Li Yang with a look of disdain before spitting out a fireball at a Devil Wolf.

Li Yang trotted over to collect the Devil Wolf's teeth, taking a moment to reply to Huang Desheng, making the latter so angry he almost smashed the walls down.

Ten minutes later.

Li Yang cackled loudly: "That idiot Huang Desheng actually gave me 100,000."

Xu Le had expected this.

This was called the sunk cost fallacy.

If he didn't agree to Li Yang's "friendly negotiation," the 80,000 he paid earlier would be wasted. He had to double down, or all his previous efforts would be for nothing.

Li Yang prepared to give the "hush money" to Xu Le, but Xu Le firmly refused: "We're brothers, don't be so calculative."

Only then did Li Yang drop it.

Another pillar of white light rose as the two reached Level 9.

Xu Le opened his attribute panel:

[Name] Xu Le

[Class] Contractor

[Rank] 9 (180/25600)

[Talent] Innate Divinity

[Strength] 905

[Agility] 905

[Physique] 904

[Spirit] 910

... (Collapsed)

"The army cleans this place periodically; there are still too few monsters!" Xu Le looked deeper into the Pollution Zone.

The two of them spent more time looking for monsters than actually fighting; the actual combat time was less than one percent.

"Brother, let's not!" Li Yang was so scared he broke out in a cold sweat.

Xu Le was just thinking about it. In the true Pollution Zone, not only were monsters as numerous as cow hairs, but the level of Devilish Qi pollution was higher, and their strength was many times greater.

At least until he contracted his second contracted beast, he didn't plan to take the risk.

"Do you feel like something's a bit strange?" Li Yang suddenly spoke.

"Yeah, it seems we haven't run into a monster for half an hour."

With a thought, Xu Le commanded the Little Yellow Chicken through the contract to fly high into the sky. Suddenly, a gust of wind struck.

The Little Yellow Chicken nimbly dodged. The wind hit a tree, snapping one the size of a bowl; it turned out to be a stone.

Through the images sent back by the Little Yellow Chicken, Xu Le finally discovered they were surrounded by a dense pack of monkeys.