172: Chapter 172 The "Surprise" of the 100th Day

Two o'clock in the morning.

The wind from the wilderness construction site poured in through the broken windows.

Zhao Tiezhu huddled in the corner of the second-floor living room, wrapped in a moldy, tattered quilt.

Due to the lack of water and electricity, he hadn't washed his face or had a drink for over thirty hours.

His throat felt as if it had been scorched by fire, and every swallow tasted of blood.

In the Void Realm before his eyes, a pale golden System panel was flickering frantically.

[Check-in progress: 99 days, 23 hours, 58 minutes.]

[120 seconds remaining until obtaining the "Earth Immortal Divinity".]

Zhao Tiezhu stared intently at the seconds counting down.

He only needed to hold out for two more minutes.

He would no longer be that looked-down-upon nail house owner.

He would be a god.

The only True God in this world.

By then, Gu Changan down below, along with all those workers operating the excavators, would all have to die.

He would turn this entire highway into his altar.

Downstairs.

Gu Changan was leaning against the hood of the black command vehicle.

He was timing it with a stopwatch.

Chen Xiaobei was typing on the Keyboard nearby, the data stream on the screen displaying the energy bands of the house above.

"Director Gu, one minute left."

"The shield's energy has reached a critical point; once the time is up, a qualitative change will occur."

Chen Xiaobei reported in a low voice, a hint of nervousness in his tone.

Gu Changan spat out the cigarette butt in his mouth.

He picked up the wireless megaphone beside him and adjusted it to maximum power.

"Zhao Tiezhu."

Gu Changan's voice pierced the silence of the night sky, echoing in the twenty-meter-deep giant pit.

"I know you are listening."

Zhao Tiezhu upstairs let out a hoarse, cold laugh.

"Gu, don't waste your effort."

"In sixty seconds, I will achieve Ascension."

"If you kneel and beg for mercy now, maybe I'll leave your corpse intact."

Gu Changan ignored his provocation.

He looked down at his phone.

"Zhao Tiezhu, I just received a call."

"It's from the Donghai City Lottery Management Center."

Zhao Tiezhu was taken aback.

As a shut-in, his only hobby was buying lottery tickets.

"What do you mean?"

Gu Changan's voice was unhurried.

"That Double Color Ball ticket you bought at the Wang Family Village convenience store last week? It won."

"The jackpot, fifteen million."

Zhao Tiezhu's heart clenched violently.

Fifteen million?

That was a number he had never dared to dream of before.

"You're lying to me!"

Zhao Tiezhu roared at the window.

"Lying to you?"

Gu Changan sneered.

"The winning numbers are 05, 08, 12, 17, 22, 31, and the Blue Ball is 09."

"Check for yourself if that's the set of numbers you always play."

Zhao Tiezhu froze.

That was the combination of his late mother's birthday; he had been playing it for five whole years.

Besides him, no one knew this set of numbers.

"Due to the demolition of Wang Family Village, the lottery center couldn't reach you."

"Today is the last day to claim the prize."

"At 2:05 AM, if you don't claim the prize, this fifteen million will be treated as an abandoned prize and donated directly to the social welfare fund."

Gu Changan held his watch up under the streetlamp.

"It is now 2:01 AM."

"You have four minutes left."

Zhao Tiezhu was going insane.

The countdown to godhood on the System panel had only thirty seconds left.

That was Divinity.

But that was an ethereal, intangible Divinity.

While fifteen million was hard, cold cash.

That was a huge sum of money that would allow him to live in luxury for the rest of his life.

If he became a god, what if this System was fake?

What if it was just a hallucination?

But the lottery numbers were real.

Every digit Gu Changan spoke struck him right in the heart.

"The prize claim point is at the temporary office at the south gate of the construction site."

"The lottery center staff is waiting there for your signature."

Gu Changan delivered the final blow.

"If you miss these few minutes, you can just spend the rest of your life in that dirt pit."

The greed in Zhao Tiezhu's eyes completely overwhelmed his last shred of reason.

He thought that in these last few seconds, it should be fine to walk out early.

Anyway, the System check-in had been going on for over ninety-nine days.

Missing a few dozen seconds wouldn't cause the sky to fall.

"My money!"

Zhao Tiezhu let out a beastly roar.

He threw off the quilt, didn't even bother putting on shoes, and rushed toward the front door like a madman.

He yanked open the heavy security door.

[Warning! Host is about to leave the homestead area!]

[Warning! Check-in not completed, stepping out of the house is strictly prohibited!]

The System's alarm sounded in his head, nearly exploding.

But Zhao Tiezhu couldn't hear it anymore.

His mind was filled only with those red banknotes.

He leaped, directly crossing the threshold.

The moment his toes touched the air outside the door.

Time seemed to freeze.

The golden panel in the Void Realm shattered with a bang.

Countless tiny specks of light scattered in mid-air like shards of glass.

[Ding! Check-in interrupted!]

[Task failed!]

[System is detaching, reclaiming all defensive buffs!]

Zhao Tiezhu stood stunned at the doorway.

He felt that invincible power that had previously filled the surrounding area recede like a tide.

Crack.

A crisp cracking sound.

That was the sound of his small building's foundation shattering.

Without the support of the System shield, this house, suspended twenty meters in the air, instantly regained its proper physical properties.

The hundreds of tons of brick and stone structure began to disintegrate under the force of gravity.

"No!!!"

Zhao Tiezhu let out a scream.

He turned back, wanting to reach out and grab the shattered golden light.

But it was too late.

The entire small building, like a shattered porcelain vase, fell vertically into the dark giant pit below.

Rumble—!

A massive cloud of dust rose from the ground.

Soil, bricks, and prefabricated slabs slammed into the steel rebar frame at the bottom of the pit, making a deafening sound.

Zhao Tiezhu fell down along with the shattered balcony.

He landed heavily in a pile of soft debris.

Before he could even crawl up.

Over a dozen beams of powerful searchlights hit his face precisely.

Gu Changan, with the Special Police, walked down along the construction slope.

Zhao Tiezhu was covered in blood, his face covered in dust and grime, lying in a pile of broken bricks.

He looked up at Gu Changan, his eyes unfocused.

"Money... where is my money?"

"Where are the people from the lottery center?"

Gu Changan walked up to him.

In his hand, there was no lottery winning notice, only a pair of cold, silver handcuffs.

"Zhao Tiezhu, I forgot to tell you."

"I don't buy lottery tickets, but I can recite the winning numbers from previous years."

"Those were last year's winning numbers."

Zhao Tiezhu's pupils contracted violently.

He opened his mouth, a strange rattling sound coming from his throat.

"You... you tricked me?"

Gu Changan squatted down and clicked the handcuffs onto his wrists.

"This isn't called tricking; this is called a psychological test."

"The facts prove that your nature is greedy and insatiable."

"Want to become a god? You can't even be a qualified citizen."

Zhao Tiezhu looked at the completely collapsed house around him, then at his own injuries.

He had worked hard and endured for a full hundred days.

Yet in those last few seconds, he had ruined everything.

"My Divinity... my invincibility..."

He collapsed in the mud, weeping heart-wrenchingly.

Chen Xiaobei walked over and glanced at the tablet.

"Director Gu, the residual energy of the System has been captured."

"All supernatural fluctuations within the homestead area have returned to zero."

Gu Changan stood up and dusted off his hands.

"Notify the construction team to close it up."

"Since Old Man Zhao dug such a big pit here, the roadbed needs to be reinforced again."

"Might as well not fill it; turn it into a scenic tunnel and put up a sign."

"I've already thought of the name: 'Immortal-Seeking Pit Legal Education Base'."

The Special Police pulled up the limp Zhao Tiezhu and dragged him toward the hanging basket like a dead dog.

A crisp notification sound rang in Gu Changan's mind.

[Detected that host has dismantled the "Shut-in Check-in System", maintaining the Laws of reality.]

[Reward obtained: Domain Solidification.]

[Function Description: Can instantly lock down space within a one-kilometer radius, prohibiting any form of unnatural teleportation, invisibility, and penetration; lawless lands end here.]

Gu Changan looked toward the distance of Donghai City.

The horizon was already showing the white of dawn.

A large number of road rollers and pavers had lined up, emitting a dull roar.

That major traffic artery, blocked for months, was finally about to be completely opened at dawn.

"Let's go, back to the bureau."

Gu Changan boarded the helicopter.

"It's time to wake up from the dream of wanting to rule the world just by sitting still."