Chapter 20 Zhao Kai publicly admits defeat, confirming his status as a guinea pig.

In the Novice Village square, the corpses of over fifty Heavenly Temple elites hadn't refreshed yet. Equipment was scattered all over the ground, gleaming with gold, looking very valuable. More and more players were watching, at least a thousand of them, packing the square tightly. Everyone was looking at Zhao Kai—this once arrogant and domineering big spender, now slumped on the ground, pale and trembling.

Lin Ye stood before him, looking down at him with a wicked smile on his lips.

"Brother Kai, still want to go again?"

Zhao Kai's lips trembled; he couldn't say a word. He didn't dare to speak—if he did, the whole server would hear it. He didn't even dare to breathe loudly now, afraid of being mocked by the Onlookers.

But he couldn't not speak either. If he didn't speak, the debuff would remain on him forever: vibration when offline, social death when online, NPCs attacking him on sight, and everything he said broadcast to the whole server. He hadn't slept well for two days, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

"Brother Kai, how about I give you a chance?" Lin Ye squatted down and patted his face. "Apologize to me in front of all the players on the server. Pay the protection fee, and I'll help you clear part of the debuff."

Zhao Kai shuddered and looked up at Lin Ye. Apologize? In front of the entire server? How would he be able to show his face in the game after that?

He gritted his teeth and didn't say a word.

Lin Ye stood up and shrugged. "Fine. Then keep carrying it. It's not me who's suffering, anyway."

He turned to leave.

Zhao Kai panicked and grabbed his trouser leg abruptly. "Wait!"

Lin Ye looked back at him.

Zhao Kai's lips trembled, his eye sockets were red, and tears were about to fall. After holding it in for a while, he finally opened his mouth—his voice hoarse and tearful, transmitted to every corner of the server through the forced voice broadcast.

"Brother Ye... I was wrong."

The whole server went silent instantly.

Everyone heard that sentence. It wasn't in a private chat, not in a guild channel, but on the server-wide proximity channel—forced open, couldn't be turned off, couldn't be blocked.

"I was really wrong." Zhao Kai's voice grew shakier. "I shouldn't have snatched your BOSS, shouldn't have found people to surround and kill you, shouldn't have put a bounty on you. I was wrong, I was really wrong. Please, let me go."

The whole server exploded.

[World Channel]

[Player "Onlooker": Holy crap! Master Kai apologized?! And in front of the whole server?!]

[Player "Brick-Moving Expert": Hahaha! Hilarious! Master Kai finally admitted defeat!]

[Player "Invincible Sword God": Master Kai, you have today too, huh? Weren't you very arrogant when you bullied newbies back then?]

[Player "Yes Little Follower": Brother Ye is awesome! Beating Master Kai until he apologized in public, is he even human?]

[Player "Milk Tea Without Sugar": Master Kai's voice sounds so miserable, he's about to cry. Serves him right! Let him bully people!]

Zhao Kai watched the mockery on the world channel, and tears finally fell. He used to be a top-100 big spender on the server, with people fawning over him wherever he went. Now? Apologizing in front of the whole server, mocked by everyone, not even daring to breathe loudly.

"Brother Ye, I'm willing to pay the protection fee." Zhao Kai said, crying. "Any amount is fine. Please clear the debuff on me. I really can't take it anymore."

Lin Ye looked at him with no ripples in his heart. People like Zhao Kai were bullies who feared the strong and picked on the weak; when he relied on his money to bully newbies, he never had a soft heart. Now that it was his turn to be unlucky, he started wailing. But he still gave Zhao Kai a chance—not for Zhao Kai's sake, but to set a rule.

"One hundred thousand gold coins." Lin Ye said. "Pay it, and I'll help you clear the HP drain and social death debuffs. But I'll leave a backdoor—if you provoke me again, all the debuffs will return instantly, and they will never be clearable."

Zhao Kai nodded frantically. "Okay, okay, okay! I'll pay! I'll pay the one hundred thousand gold coins!"

He opened the trading interface and transferred the last remaining one hundred thousand gold coins. This was his last bit of savings; he had emptied everything.

[System Prompt: You received 100,000 gold coins from player [Master Kai].]

Lin Ye received the money and raised his hand to clear the HP drain and social death debuffs from Zhao Kai—the forced voice was off, the offline vibration stopped, and NPC favorability returned to normal. But he left a backdoor, hidden at the bottom level of Zhao Kai's account; if Zhao Kai dared to cause trouble again, all the debuffs would return instantly, and this time, no one would be able to clear them.

"Alright. Get up." Lin Ye said.

Zhao Kai crawled up from the ground and tried breathing—the proximity channel didn't pop up his breathing sounds anymore. He tried saying a sentence—"Thank you, Brother Ye"—and it wasn't broadcasted either. He was so excited he almost cried; he could finally speak normally!

"Thank you, Brother Ye! Thank you, Brother Ye!" Zhao Kai bowed and scraped, wishing he could kowtow to Lin Ye.

Lin Ye waved his hand. "Go. Don't let me see you in the Novice Village again."

Zhao Kai, as if granted amnesty, scrambled away. He ran to the exit of the Novice Village, looked back at Lin Ye with a complex expression—hatred, fear, and unwillingness. But he didn't dare to cause trouble again. He was scared, truly scared.

The Onlookers saw Zhao Kai's dejected back and laughed—

"Hahaha! Kai the Leek ran away!"

"Let's call him Kai the Leek from now on! He's both a noob and loves to show off, and after getting harvested, he even paid a protection fee!"

"That nickname is perfect! Kai the Leek, hahahaha!"

Zhao Kai heard these taunts, his footsteps paused, but he didn't look back and gritted his teeth as he ran out of the Novice Village.

Lin Ye watched his back, a wicked smile curling on his lips. This matter with Zhao Kai was completely resolved.

He was just about to leave when he suddenly heard crying from a corner of the square.

"Wuu wuu wuu... My materials... all gone..."

Lin Ye frowned, walked over, and saw a chubby player squatting on the ground crying, with a few empty backpacks scattered around him. His ID was "Fatty Wang", only level 3, wearing tattered novice gear, crying his eyes out.

"Brother, what happened?" Lin Ye asked, squatting down.

Fatty Wang looked up, face streaked with tears, eyes swollen from crying. "Brother... someone scammed all my materials... I spent several days saving up rare materials, they're all gone..."

"Who scammed you?"

"A profiteer from the main city, ID is 'Heartless Merchant'. He said he wanted to buy my materials at a high price, so I believed him... In the end, he gave me some fake gold coins, and before I could react, he ran away..." Fatty Wang became even sadder as he spoke. "Those materials were hard-earned, I wanted to sell them to buy equipment... now I have nothing left..."

Lin Ye's eyes turned cold. A profiteer from the main city coming to the Novice Village to scam people? And scamming a level 3 newbie? This was too shameless.

"Is that profiteer still in the Novice Village?" Lin Ye asked.

Fatty Wang shook his head. "He should be. I saw him loitering at the entrance of the Trading House just now, still scamming people."

Lin Ye stood up and said to Su Qinghan, "Let's go, let's go meet this profiteer."

Su Qinghan nodded and followed him toward the Trading House. Fatty Wang was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly followed.

The three of them walked to the entrance of the Trading House and sure enough, saw a player with the ID "Heartless Merchant" standing at the door, bargaining with a few newbie players. This person was wearing a gorgeous robe, level displayed as 15, clearly from the main city. He was holding a few pieces of trash equipment, talking up a storm—

"Look at this sword! Blue quality, +50 attack power, only 100 gold coins! Cheap, right? It sells for at least 500 in the main city!"

A few newbie players were tempted by his sweet talk and were about to pay when Lin Ye walked over.

"Wait." Lin Ye stopped the newbies. "This sword, +50 attack power? Are you sure?"

Heartless Merchant looked him up and down and sneered. "Who are you? Is it any of your business?"

Lin Ye ignored him and picked up the sword to look at it—it was indeed blue quality, but the attack power was only +5, not +50 at all. And the equipment durability was only half left; it would break in a few days.

"A +5 sword, you're selling it for 100 gold coins?" Lin Ye threw the sword back. "You're scamming people, aren't you?"

Heartless Merchant's expression changed. "You're talking nonsense! This is clearly +50! Don't talk nonsense if you're blind!"

Lin Ye laughed. "Fine. Then I'll let the system appraise it."

He raised his hand and cast a "Forced Appraisal" effect on the sword—the system automatically popped up the equipment's true attributes.

[Worn Iron Sword] (Blue · Durability 28/60)

Attack Power: +5

Strength: +2

Durability: 28/60

Effect: None

Once the true attributes appeared, the surrounding newbie players exploded—

"Holy crap! Only +5? Didn't he just say +50?"

"Durability is only 28? This will break in a few days!"

"Scammer! This guy is a scammer!"

Heartless Merchant's face turned livid, pointing at Lin Ye and cursing. "You're meddling in other people's business! You're asking for death!"

Lin Ye laughed. "Meddling? When you were scamming newbies, why didn't you think you were meddling?"

Heartless Merchant was furious and raised his hand to attack Lin Ye—but he forgot, this was a safe zone.

[System Prompt: Attacking other players is prohibited in the safe zone.]

Heartless Merchant was stunned, but Lin Ye wasn't. He raised his hand and cast a debuff on Heartless Merchant—"Mandatory Transaction Penalty".

[System Prompt: Target [Heartless Merchant] has been afflicted with [Mandatory Transaction Penalty] effect. Effect Description: When conducting any transaction, the system will automatically deduct 200% of the transaction amount as a fine and return it to the other party.]

Heartless Merchant didn't know he had been hit with a debuff and walked away cursing. He went to the Trading House, wanting to list the materials he had just scammed for sale—but as soon as he listed them, the system popped up a message—

[System Prompt: Illegal transaction detected, triggering penalty mechanism. Transaction amount: 1000 gold coins. Fine: 2000 gold coins. Deducted from your account.]

Heartless Merchant was dumbfounded. "What?! 2000 gold coins?!"

He frantically checked his account, and sure enough, it was short 2000 gold coins. He was shaking with anger, took the materials down, and wanted to list them again—but the system popped up another message—

[System Prompt: Illegal transaction detected, triggering penalty mechanism. Transaction amount: 500 gold coins. Fine: 1000 gold coins. Deducted from your account.]

Heartless Merchant went completely crazy. "What the hell is this?! Who did this?!"

He opened his status bar and finally saw the debuff—"Mandatory Transaction Penalty". His face turned pale, and he wanted to find a priest to dispel it, but the priest told him this debuff couldn't be cleared. He wanted to log off to hide, but logging off was useless—the debuff was permanently bound.

Heartless Merchant slumped on the ground, crying without tears. The materials he had scammed were all gone, his own money had been deducted, and his account was burdened with a permanent debuff; from now on, he would have to pay a penalty for every transaction.

Meanwhile, Lin Ye was returning the materials scammed by the Heartless Merchant to the newbie players one by one. Fatty Wang also got his rare materials back and was so excited he almost cried.

"Brother! Thank you! Really, thank you so much!" Fatty Wang grabbed Lin Ye's hand, eyes teary. "You are the most awesome person I have ever met!"

Lin Ye laughed. "Small thing. Be careful next time, don't get fooled by scammers like this."

Fatty Wang nodded frantically, then suddenly knelt down. "Brother! Take me as your little brother! I'll follow you from now on! I'll work like a horse for you!"

Lin Ye was stunned. "Isn't that a bit much?"

Fatty Wang cried and said, "Brother, you don't know, I've been scammed several times already. On the first day in the game, I was scammed out of equipment by a profiteer, the second day my monster was snatched, and the third day I was scammed out of materials. If I hadn't met you, I would have deleted my account and quit the game."

Lin Ye looked at him, feeling a bit soft-hearted. This fatty looked like an honest person, and although his luck was good—being able to dig up rare materials showed he had the constitution of a lucky player—he was too easy to scam.

"Fine." Lin Ye said. "Follow me from now on, I'll cover you."

Fatty Wang jumped up in excitement. "Thank you, Brother! Thank you, Brother! I will definitely work hard and not embarrass you!"

Su Qinghan watched this scene and couldn't help but laugh. "You took on another little brother?"

Lin Ye shrugged. "Can't help it, I'm just too charming."

Su Qinghan rolled her eyes. "Have some shame."

After Fatty Wang joined, Lin Ye's wicked little team was initially formed—he was in charge of causing trouble, Su Qinghan was in charge of support, and Fatty Wang was in charge of logistics. The three had a clear division of labor and worked together well.

"What now?" Su Qinghan asked.

Lin Ye thought for a moment. "First, clear all the dungeons in the Novice Village and take all the first clears. Then go to the main city and smash the Heavenly Temple's monopoly."

Fatty Wang rubbed his hands excitedly. "Brother, what can I do?"

Lin Ye looked at him. "You're in charge of picking up equipment."

Fatty Wang was stunned. "Just pick up equipment?"

"Yes. With your lucky constitution, picking up equipment will definitely yield top-tier items."

Fatty Wang's eyes lit up. "Brother, how did you know I'm a lucky player?"

Lin Ye laughed. "Guessed. If you can dig up rare materials, your luck definitely won't be bad."

Fatty Wang chuckled and patted his chest. "Brother, don't you worry, picking up equipment is on me! Guaranteed not to miss a single one!"

The three formed a team and walked toward the last dungeon in the Novice Village—the Wolf Kings Lair.

Meanwhile, at the Heavenly Temple headquarters in the main city, Qin Wentian was watching the video of Zhao Kai apologizing in public, his face gloomy.

"Trash." He said in a low voice. "You cowered for just 100,000 gold coins? And apologized in public? The Heavenly Temple's face has been completely lost by him."

His underling behind him asked cautiously, "Guild Leader, that 'Ye' is arriving at the main city soon. Should we..."

Qin Wentian raised his hand. "No rush. Let him be proud for a few days. The main city is not the Novice Village; his tricks won't work here."

He stood up, walked to the window, looked at the bustling scene of the main city, and a cold smile curled on his lips.

"Ye, welcome to the main city. This is my territory."

Meanwhile, Lin Ye was leading Su Qinghan and Fatty Wang, standing at the entrance of the last dungeon in the Novice Village.

"Are you ready?" Lin Ye asked.

Su Qinghan nodded.

Fatty Wang rubbed his hands excitedly. "Ready!"

Lin Ye's lips curled into a wicked smile. "Let's go, take the server-wide first clear, and let the whole server see what a real wicked team is."

The three stepped into the dungeon simultaneously, and the system popped up a prompt—

[System Prompt: You have entered [Wolf Kings Lair] (Highest Difficulty). Good luck.]

The next second, the howling of wolves in the dungeon shook the earth.