175: Chapter 175: A 50% Greed Buff

Golden Toad City, City Lord's Hall.

The carpet was soaked in thick blood.

The smell of blood spread through the hall, mixed with the scent of expensive spices, creating a nauseatingly sweet and greasy sensation.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao sat on the throne made of pure gold.

The iconic black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose had long since been thrown away.

Her eyes bloomed with a bewitching, aggressive beauty.

She had changed into a floor-length gown with a dark gold base, embroidered with crimson silk threads.

The hem of the skirt spread out, its edges stained with mottled blood.

The luxurious fabric clung tightly to her body, creating the image of a teenage tyrant.

In the center of the hall, more than twenty well-dressed native merchants knelt.

These were the wealthy merchants of various races that were automatically refreshed every day by the Rubiks Cube World mechanism and attracted to Golden Toad City.

"Lord City Lord! I am willing to hand over half of the chamber of commerce's profits! Please spare my life!"

A pot-bellied Fox-clan merchant kowtowed until his forehead made a thumping sound, leaving his forehead a bloody mess.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao supported her chin with one hand, watching him.

There was no pity in her eyes, only monstrous violence.

"Half?" Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao parted her red lips slightly and sneered: "In my territory, even your life belongs to me. What are you using to negotiate with me?"

She raised her right hand, her slender jade fingers flicking lightly.

Nano-filaments flew out, piercing the Fox-clan merchant's glabella.

The Fox-clan merchant's eyes widened, and he fell backward, bright red blood gushing out.

The remaining merchants were frightened to the point of Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, letting out terrified screams as they scrambled toward the hall entrance.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao watched this scene coldly, too lazy to even move a finger.

The mechanical deities standing on both sides of the hall moved.

Fifth-tier Demigod level deities rushed into the crowd, severed limbs and warm blood splashing everywhere.

In just over ten seconds, there were no living people left in the hall.

"Strip all the Storage Rings off their bodies." Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao leaned back against the chair, her tone as flat as water:

"Send people to raid all their chambers of commerce, strongholds, and warehouses outside the city."

"Not a single gold bar is to be left."

"As you command." Two mechanical Puppets knelt on one knee and left to carry out the order.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao looked at the corpses all over the floor, her eyes indifferent.

She had to seize every moment to accumulate strength.

Lin Yuan's Yuan Blood army was ravaging the Central Plains, and she didn't have much time left.

To fight that monster, she had already fallen into madness.

Every day, the refreshed merchants, dignitaries, and rangers who entered Golden Toad City were directly detained by her.

Those who agreed to hand over all their assets became slaves.

Those who dared to say a word of refusal were killed on the spot.

The massive resources obtained from ransacking houses were poured into the altar by her.

Coupled with the identity altars of other deities, the military strength of Golden Toad City was growing rapidly.

"Report the current combat power." Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao looked at Sun Ying standing at the very front.

Sun Ying stepped forward, speaking in a flat, synthesized mechanical voice.

"Reporting to the City Lord. After three days of resource conversion and forced summoning, the total troop strength has exceeded 200,000."

"In addition, the infection and assimilation plan has made progress."

"Currently, thirteen classmates have been successfully converted into mechanical deities and incorporated into the Imperial Guard."

200,000 troops, thirteen Fifth-tier Demigod level mechanical deities.

This result would be enough to make any newcomer proud.

But after hearing this, the expression on Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's face turned gloomy.

"Bang!"

She grabbed the priceless jade wine cup by her side and smashed it at Sun Ying's feet.

"Just this much?" Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao stood up, her dark gold skirt dragging on the steps as she walked down the throne and came to Sun Ying.

"200,000, thirteen deities."

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's voice was shrill and harsh, "You bunch of trash!"

"In three days, this is the trashy answer you give me!"

Sun Ying stood in place, motionless, letting Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's spit spray on his face.

Mechanical Puppets had no fear, nor shame.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao watched his unbothered expression, and the nameless fire in her heart burned even brighter.

"Not enough! It's not enough at all!" Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao paced back and forth in the center of the hall, grabbing her soft long hair with both hands, ruining her superior queen temperament.

"That guy Lin Yuan can raise an army in half a day! What is 200,000? I want one million! I want ten million!"

She turned around and pointed at the thirteen mechanical deities standing in the hall.

"Twenty-eight people in the whole class! Except for that pervert Lin Yuan, where is everyone else?"

"Why are there only thirteen? Is your brain just for decoration!"

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's face looked somewhat hideous due to anger.

"I want you to go and catch them all back! Make them all my dogs!"

"Only by integrating them all can I have the capital to fight Lin Yuan to the death! Do you understand at all!"

The hysterical roar of Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao echoed in the hall.

The mechanical deities below stood in place, the red light in their eyes steady as usual.

They would not be moved by Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's beauty, nor would they be intimidated by her anger.

They only followed the lowest-level logic code.

"City Lord." Zhao Kuo stepped forward.

His slightly chubby body had now become a mobile fortress.

"The laying of the intelligence network is blocked." Zhao Kuo stated the facts, "The itinerant merchants in the Central Plains have been slaughtered by Lin Yuan's army."

"The intelligence peddlers around Golden Toad City are deliberately concealing key information, so we cannot precisely locate the coordinates of the remaining deities."

"Secondly, the remaining classmates are all Fifth-tier Demigods, and most of them have already established Elementary defensive positions."

"The difficulty of capturing them alive and performing mechanical assimilation is extremely high. Forcing an attack will lead to severe attrition of our troops."

Zhao Kuo's analysis was reasonable and well-founded, based entirely on precise calculations of battlefield data.

But these words fell into Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's ears like adding fuel to the fire.

"Shut up!" Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao glared at Zhao Kuo, her eyes bloodshot, "Not enough intelligence? Hard to capture deities? Is this the excuse for your incompetence?"

She strode up to Zhao Kuo, raised her head, and looked directly into his mechanical eyes.

"Those intelligence peddlers are deliberately concealing it? Are you pigs!" Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao gritted her teeth and questioned: "This is a world simulated by the Rubiks Cube World! The natives here are flesh and blood with desires!"

"They like to hide something, can't you force them to spit it out?"

"What's the use of relying solely on interest bribes? Is interest more important than life!"

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao extended her finger and poked Zhao Kuo's hard metal chest forcefully, making a clanging sound.

"They have wives! They have offspring! They have properties outside the city!"

"They have private money hidden in the cellar! Go check! Dig all these things out for me!"

"If they don't speak, catch their wives and children, and in front of them, cut the meat off one by one!"

"Burn their houses! Steal all their money!"

"Use the things they care about most to threaten them! Destroy their psychological defenses!"

"Can't you even utilize this basic human weakness? Do I still need to teach you how to do things?"

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's breathing was rapid, her chest heaving.

She looked nothing like the top Prodigy of Starry Sky University now.

She was completely a slave dominated by power and greed.

In the hall, the brains of the mechanical deities were rapidly processing the new instructions issued by Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao.

Just then, Zhou Yan, who was standing in the corner, spoke up.

"City Lord." Zhou Yan's rock-metal body made a sound of gears rubbing.

"Excessive killing and intimidation will lead to the total collapse of the commercial system in and around the city."

"The resource output rate is expected to drop by 75%, which does not conform to the development logic."

"It is recommended to stop extreme looting and restore partial commercial order."

Zhou Yan was only fulfilling his obligation to remind, performing calculations for the optimal solution.

But this sentence touched the inverse scale that Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao could not touch in her heart.

She could not tolerate any rebuttal.

Anyone, anything, as long as they dared to defy her will at this time, had to die.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao turned her head and looked directly at Zhou Yan.

"Are you teaching me how to do things?"

No extra nonsense.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao raised her right hand and opened her five fingers.

Divine Art: [Silver Thread Decisive Kill · Overload].

Hundreds of nano-filaments, several times thicker than before, sprayed from her palm, covering Zhou Yan's huge body.

Zhou Yan stood in place, without making any defensive or dodging moves.

"Chi chi chi —"

The sound of metal cutting echoed in the hall.

Zhou Yan's rock-metal armor, which was comparable to a high-tier defensive Divine Artifact, was as fragile as tofu in front of the overloaded nano-filaments.

The filaments crisscrossed and cut.

Zhou Yan's huge body disintegrated, turning into countless equal-sized metal fragments, scattered on the ground.

The mechanical Divine Fire hidden deep in the metal shell was directly cut off by the filaments.

The red light flickered twice, then quickly extinguished.

A Fifth-tier Demigod level mechanical deity, without even uttering a scream, died in the hands of the City Lord he was loyal to.

The hall returned to calm.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao stood in place, maintaining the posture of raising her hand.

Looking at Zhou Yan turning into a pile of fragments, looking at those red mechanical eyes dimming.

An indescribable pleasure rushed to her head.

This power of dominating others' lives, where those who follow me prosper and those who defy me perish, made every cell in her body cheer.

She even wanted to laugh out loud.

Screw the credits! Screw the bottom line!

Here, she is the Empress!

A wild smile appeared on Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's face.

However, this smile froze as soon as it appeared on her face.

Zhou Yan's extinguished red mechanical eyes, lying in the pool of blood, reflected the lights from the top of the hall.

That light stung Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's eyes.

An abrupt chill swept through her whole body.

The pleasure receded like a tide, replaced by deep fear.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao shuddered.

She slowly lowered her head, looking at her blood-stained hands.

Looking at the native corpses lying across the hall, hearing her own rapid heartbeat.

"What... am I doing?"

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao muttered to herself, her voice trembling.

The rage was diluted by the sudden fear, and reason regained the high ground.

She realized how abnormal her recent actions were compared to her usual self.

The usual Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao was calm, wise, and composed.

She was skilled in calculation, accustomed to treating everyone as pieces on a chessboard.

She was ruthless in her heart, and could use any means to win.

But she always had her own bottom line.

She only killed high-value targets, and she tortured enemies to obtain key information.

She wouldn't be like a crazy woman, yelling in the hall, pointlessly slaughtering those powerless native merchants.

She wouldn't kill her hard-assimilated Demigod combat power just because of a fact-based suggestion.

This wasn't cold-blooded; this was insanity that had lost its reason.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao stumbled back two steps and fell onto the blood-stained throne.

She breathed heavily, replaying everything that had happened over the past few days in her mind.

When she killed those randomly refreshed merchants, what she thought about wasn't how to obtain resources, but purely wanting to take their wealth as her own.

When she ordered the raids, seeing those boxes of gold and silver jewelry being moved into the treasury, the joy that welled up in her heart wasn't the increase in combat power, but a morbid sense of satisfaction.

She was dominated by emotions.

Dominated by greed.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao closed her eyes, recalling the text displayed on the golden light curtain when she entered the Rubiks Cube World.

[Identity Special Effect: In the vault scene, your own Divine Power recovery speed increases by 300%, but Greed value increases by 50%, making it easy to be motivated by wealth.]

Greed value increases by 50%.

She originally thought this was just a simple negative status.

As long as she stayed vigilant, she could suppress it with her willpower.

She was too arrogant.

The corruption of the deity's spirit by the Rubiks Cube World wasn't just surface-level emotional fluctuation.

It was subtle, a logical tampering that directly acted on the Origin of the Divine Fire.

As she possessed more wealth and her military strength grew stronger, the 50% Greed value was like a tumor rooted deep in her Soul.

It drew on her stress and anxiety as nutrients, growing wildly.

It amplified her desire for victory and blurred her perception of resources.

Eventually, it turned her into a monster blinded by greed, knowing only how to take.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao opened her eyes, her gaze falling on the Fox-clan merchant she had just killed.

The Fox-clan merchant died with his eyes wide open.

In his widened eyes remained an extreme desire for life, as well as deep resentment toward her, the City Lord.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao felt cold all over.

She finally understood why the look in those merchants' eyes before they died made her feel inexplicably irritable.

Because in the eyes of those natives, she was just a greedy beast that could never be satisfied.

"Damn it..."