289: Chapter 289 I'd Go Bankrupt to Buy You Three Seconds

The entrance to the Edge World was even more inconspicuous than Lin Chen had imagined.

In the deepest part of the mine, behind a pile of discarded ore, a rusty iron door was hidden. On the door, a line of blood-red words was carved:

"Entrants must pay 10,000 game coins/hour. Enter at your own risk."

Li Mo looked at those words and swallowed hard. "Boss, ten thousand an hour... this is way too much of a rip-off."

Lin Chen didn't speak and directly transferred the money.

The iron door slid open silently, revealing a patch of pure darkness.

The moment he stepped inside, the door behind him disappeared. Before him was an infinite void, with countless points of light floating within it. Each point of light contained a piece of information—real-time footage of players, hidden game rules, and walkthroughs for various competition sectors.

A raspy voice came from the darkness: "A new face? What do you want to buy?"

Lin Chen looked toward the source of the voice, and a hunched figure emerged from the darkness. It was an old man without facial features; his face only had a constantly squirming mouth.

"Who are you?" Lin Chen asked.

"The guardian of the Edge World." The old man smiled. "You can call me 'Faceless'. Everything here has a clear price, and I cheat neither the young nor the old."

Lin Chen asked directly, "I want Arrogant Dragon's real-time location and combat footage."

"10,000 game coins."

Transfer completed.

Faceless opened his mouth and spat out a point of light.

Inside the point of light, Arrogant Dragon was standing in a shattered starry sky, covered in blood, with the immortal emperor long sword in his hand already covered in cracks. Opposite him stood a man entwined with causality law threads; every time that man waved his hand, Arrogant Dragon's attacks would mysteriously deviate from their path.

"Causality Law Controller," Faceless introduced. "Ranked 6th, his ability is to modify causal relationships. Arrogant Dragon wants to slash him, but every time the sword falls, it misses due to 'causal disorder'. They've been fighting for three days; Arrogant Dragon has over three hundred wounds on his body, yet he hasn't landed a single hit on his opponent."

Lin Chen frowned as he watched the footage. "Is he just enduring it like that?"

"He's tried various methods." Faceless brought up the combat replay. "World-Breaking Sword Intent, Immortal Emperor Domain, even burning his origin... but causality law is the most fundamental rule. Unless he can jump out of causality, he'll never hit."

"Jump out of causality?" Lin Chen repeated.

"Yes. For example, making causality law temporarily lose effect for three seconds." Faceless smiled. "I can sell you an item that can pause the Causality Law Controller's ability for three seconds. Three seconds is enough for Arrogant Dragon to kill him a hundred times."

Lin Chen's eyes lit up. "What's the price?"

"500,000 game coins."

Li Mo gasped beside him. "500,000?! Boss, we only have 120,000!"

Faceless said slowly, "I know it's expensive, but it's only available here. In the entire True Game, there are no more than three items that can interfere with causality law. Take it or leave it."

Lin Chen was silent for three seconds.

Then he smiled.

That smile made a chill run down Li Mo's spine—although he didn't know what it meant, his intuition told him the boss was about to pull off another wild maneuver.

"Faceless," Lin Chen spoke, "can I take out a loan?"

Faceless was stunned. "A loan? I'm not a bank."

"But you have information here." Lin Chen pointed at those points of light. "Information is an asset. I'll mortgage all my earnings from the Novice Village for the next 24 hours to borrow 380,000 from you. In 24 hours, I'll pay you back 500,000, principal and interest. Calculate the annual interest rate yourself; it's definitely more than you'd make as a loan shark."

Faceless fell silent.

Lin Chen continued, "You have two choices now: one, accept my loan proposal and get a fixed return of 500,000; two, refuse me, watch me leave because I have no money, and then continue guarding a pile of unsellable information here."

The mouth on Faceless's face squirmed a few times before he finally said, "...You're the best bargainer among players I've ever seen. Deal."

The 380,000 loan arrived.

Lin Chen added his own 120,000 to make up the 500,000 and bought that black point of light.

Inside the point of light was a palm-sized metal plate covered in runes, emitting an eerie glow.

"How to use: just crush it," Faceless said. "Effective range: within 100 meters. Duration: three seconds. Void after expiration. A reminder—this thing can only be used once, and it cannot be transmitted across planes. You must deliver it to Arrogant Dragon's side yourself."

Lin Chen put away the metal plate. "Where is Arrogant Dragon now?"

Faceless pointed to a large point of light in the distance. "The Karma Arena. But you can't enter right now because you're still in the Novice Village trial period. You cannot leave the Novice Village until the trial ends."

Lin Chen frowned. "Then how do I give it to him?"

"There are two ways." Faceless held up two fingers. "First, wait for him to be killed and eliminated, then wait for him at the respawn point. However, according to game rules, an eliminated person's right of existence will be erased; all you'll be waiting for is a fragment of data."

"And the second?"

"Second, you complete the trial early," Faceless said. "The goal of the Novice Village trial is to become the holder of the largest assets within 24 hours. You've already monopolized all assets, with a total asset value exceeding 1 million, far surpassing the second place. According to the rules, you can apply for 'Early Settlement'."

Lin Chen's eyes lit up.

"What's the cost of early settlement?"

"The cost is that your trial score will be reduced by 10%," Faceless said. "But you don't care about the score, do you? You only care about that person."

Lin Chen nodded, opened the system on the spot, and clicked "Early Settlement."

System prompt:

[Detected player "Lord of Capital" current total asset value: 1.032 million game coins, far exceeding the second place (3,000). Meets the conditions for early settlement.]

[Do you confirm to end the Novice Village trial early? Upon confirmation, 10% of the score will be deducted, and you will directly advance to the Elite Sector.]

[Confirm/Cancel]

Lin Chen clicked "Confirm."

A golden light flashed.

His vision blurred, and he had already disappeared from the Edge World, appearing in a brand-new space—the entrance to the Elite Sector.

Before him was a massive teleportation array leading to various competition sectors. One of the light gates was labeled: "Karma Arena (Rank 6-10 War Zone)".

Just as Lin Chen was about to step in, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him:

"Boss Lin? How did you get up here so fast?"

Lin Chen turned around and saw a thin man wearing glasses—it was Li Mo.

Li Mo walked over quickly, looking surprised. "I just heard someone settled early; I didn't expect it to be you. It's only been a few hours for you. Isn't the Novice Village clearance record 24 hours?"

"Broken." Lin Chen answered simply, then asked, "How did you get up here too?"

"Me?" Li Mo smiled bitterly. "After you left, those people in the Novice Village started infighting, robbing each other's assets, and it became a mess. I thought it was boring, so I applied for early settlement—but I had few assets, so I barely met the standard after a 50% score deduction."

Lin Chen nodded and was about to continue walking when Li Mo suddenly called out to him:

"Boss, are you going to the Karma Arena?"

Lin Chen stopped. "How did you know?"

"Guessed it." Li Mo pointed at his expression. "You've been in a hurry ever since you came out of the Edge World. And there was just a system announcement that the battle in the Karma Arena has reached a fever pitch; Arrogant Dragon's HP is down to only 15%."

Lin Chen's expression changed slightly.

He wasted no more words and stepped directly into the teleportation array.

Light flashed.

He stood in a shattered starry sky.

In the distance, Arrogant Dragon was on one knee, his wounds still bleeding. His immortal emperor long sword was broken in two, but his gaze remained unyielding.

Opposite him, the Causality Law Controller floated in mid-air, entwined with faint causality law threads. He looked down at Arrogant Dragon as if looking at a dying ant.

"Give up." The Causality Law Controller's voice was as calm as water. "Your fate is already sealed. No matter how much you struggle, you will eventually die under my causality. This is the conclusion of three thousand simulations, without exception."

Arrogant Dragon spat out some blood. "Bullshit."

He struggled to stand up and raised his broken sword.

The Causality Law Controller sighed and raised his hand, preparing to end the battle.

Just then, Lin Chen's voice came from the side:

"Arrogant Dragon, catch!"

He threw the black metal plate.

Arrogant Dragon caught it subconsciously, and after seeing what it was, his eyes instantly lit up.

" Crush it！ Crush it！ Crush it！" Lin Chen shouted.

Arrogant Dragon didn't hesitate and crushed the metal plate with force.

Buzz—

An invisible ripple spread out.

The Causality Law Controller was suddenly stunned; all the causality law threads on his body had disappeared!

"This... how is this possible?!" He looked at his hands in horror. "Where is my causality law?!"

Arrogant Dragon smiled.

He picked up the broken sword and walked step by step toward the Causality Law Controller.

"You just said three thousand simulations without exception?" Arrogant Dragon raised his sword. "Then this strike is the exception."

The sword fell.

The Causality Law Controller didn't even have time to scream before his body was split in two, dissipating into countless points of light.

The system prompt sounded:

[Player "Arrogant Dragon" defeated "Causality Law Controller" and obtained all of the opponent's chips. Rank has risen to 3rd place.]

Arrogant Dragon stood in place, panting heavily.

Then he turned and looked at Lin Chen.

"Boss, how did you get here?"

Lin Chen walked over and looked him up and down. "I'm here to collect a debt."

"Collect a debt?"

"You owe me 16 quadrillion. If you die, who am I supposed to ask for it?"

Arrogant Dragon was stunned for a moment, then he laughed.

There was blood and sweat in that smile, the relief of surviving a disaster, and a little bit of... embarrassment.

"Boss, thanks."

"Enough talk." Lin Chen patted his shoulder. "There are more tough battles ahead. Morgana is still frozen, Alpha is still calculating, and Zhang Hao is still ranked 98th. Recover first, and when you're better, come with me to bail them out."

Arrogant Dragon nodded.

The two stood in the shattered starry sky, surrounded by the remnants of the recently dissipated causality law threads.

In the distance, more points of light were flashing—those were other players' battles, more arenas, and even more brutal eliminations.

Lin Chen looked at those points of light and said softly:

"This game is more thrilling than I imagined."

Arrogant Dragon asked: "So what do we do?"

Lin Chen smiled.

"Thrilling is what makes it fun. Let's go, first let's find a place to have a drink."