Chapter 50: Completing the Main Storyline, A Bet

Chapter 50: Completing the Main Storyline, A Bet

"Go on upstairs. I’ll handle the rest here."

"This isn’t a place you should’ve come to, but since you were trying to protect the apartment, I’ll let it slide."

The Landlord pinched a bit of tobacco, stuffed it into his pipe, and spoke indifferently before waving them off.

Ji Yan glanced at Long Yuan on the ground, gave a curt response, and turned to leave.

"Seems like you’ve been completely outshone by that kid this time, huh?"

The Landlord puffed on his pipe, his tone casual.

Long Yuan’s face darkened. "Old man, I never expected that little schemer to be so cunning!"

"Is it that others are cunning, or that you’re just no match for their cunning?"

"In this apartment, cunning isn’t an insult. Every resident who wants to stay here has to be cunning—otherwise, they’d have been thrown out long ago."

The Landlord shook his head, his mocking tone merciless.

Long Yuan’s expression twisted as if he’d swallowed a fly. No matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t figure out how the other party had anticipated every trap in advance.

It was as if they’d gotten their hands on the script beforehand—utterly unbeatable!

Meanwhile, Ji Yan had already stepped out of the Basement.

The stifling air instantly gave way to freshness.

As the fleshy seams on the floor stitched themselves back together, Ji Yan turned to thank the Bleeding Wall.

The wall slowly formed a line of bloody words: "How did it go?"

"Fairly smooth."

"The culprits behind the apartment’s destruction have been dealt with." Ji Yan hadn’t expected the Main Storyline Task to conclude with the Landlord’s intervention.

Still, he could guess there were other ways to complete it.

He’d just accidentally triggered the hidden completion method.

After all, the game panel had mentioned that the Landlord only appeared in the Main Storyline as an Easter Egg.

In the end, it all came down to the absurdly broken power of [Omniscient Understanding]. Without it, Ji Yan would’ve stepped into countless traps in this layered scheme, dying over and over.

Before this, he’d only used the Talent sparingly.

Now, he truly saw just how overpowered it was!

Ding! The Main Storyline Task has officially concluded. The culprits behind the apartment’s destruction have been eliminated, successfully resolving the Instance crisis.

Below are the performance ratings for all Players involved in the Main Storyline Task, along with Punishments and reward notifications:

Third-Class Performance: Discovered the true source of the damage at the apartment’s Foundation.

Second-Class Performance: Discovered the method to reach the Basement.

First-Class Performance: Exposed the Eccentric Residents’ scheme of imprisonment underground.

Special-Class Performance: Discovered the hidden Easter Egg and completed the Main Storyline Task.

This round’s highest-rated Player: "Ji Yan" with a total score of 95!

Corresponding rewards have been distributed to each Player’s inbox.

Warning! The following Players committed violations by maliciously harming the apartment’s "benevolent NPCs" and will face varying degrees of Punishment…

As the announcement echoed in every Player’s ears, Ji Yan immediately received his rewards.

He opened the reward package.

Only two items: the Apartment Key and a Repair Gem.

[Apartment Key: A First-Class Instance privilege. Holding this Key allows the Player to open the gate, proceed to the next Instance, and Mark the current Instance as a Base for future access.]

[Repair Gem: Can complete the repair of any Supernatural Artifact below [Legendary] quality.]

The rewards weren’t plentiful, but they were of exceptional value.

More notably, Ji Yan’s Information Panel had undergone an upgrade—his Toolbar inventory expanded, and the game’s analysis became more comprehensive.

Additionally, he gained a boost of 300 Specter Power and an increase in all his stat values.

"Talent Notification: Congratulations, Player, for obtaining the final Talent Fragment. It has been automatically pieced together for you."

"Your F-Level Talent [Omniscient Understanding] has been upgraded: The trigger method has been optimized, changing from touch activation to Gaze Trigger. Each gaze activation consumes 100 Mental State."

"Switching the talent trigger from tactile to visual?"

Ji Yan’s eyes lit up.

This optimization was clearly spot-on.

In previous Missions, Ji Yan had suffered precisely because he couldn’t activate [Omniscient Understanding] immediately. Now that this flaw had been fixed, the talent could be considered nearly perfect.

Ji Yan then checked the rewards of the other Players.

Huang Ran and Long Yuan had also received rewards, but theirs were significantly diminished.

The worst off were those Players who had attacked the multi-faced supernatural entity—the severity of their actions determined the intensity of their Punishment.

The most tragic was the Player who had landed the final blow on the multi-faced supernatural entity, receiving the Punishment of permanent confinement in the Basement!

Every punished Player was on the verge of collapse.

Who could have guessed that the faceless supernatural entity was the biggest trap in the entire Main Storyline Task?

Ji Yan skimmed through the details briefly before opening his Strategy Panel.

Thanks to this Main Storyline Task, his progress had directly surpassed Long Yuan’s, propelling him to the top of the rankings!

Resolving the apartment crisis once had instantly increased his Favorability with all Eccentric Residents by over 40%.

"The Main Storyline is the Main Storyline for a reason."

"Completing one Main Storyline Task saves others months of grueling effort, sparing them the need to toil like beasts of burden."

He had figured it out now—the reason Long Yuan had been so far ahead of the other Players was precisely because he had completed the previous Main Storyline.

On reflection, that guy’s S-level talent was indeed formidable.

Being able to find substitutes to die in his place and analyze information…

But unfortunately, Ji Yan’s talent was an unreasonable, bug-tier ability!

In Room 404, Liu Yitong also received the notification of the Main Storyline Task’s completion.

Hearing about the Punishments sent a chill down her spine.

Fortunately, she had chosen to trust Ji Yan’s advice in the end and hadn’t joined the others in hunting the multi-faced supernatural entity—otherwise, her name would have been on the Punishment list too.

"How on earth did he pull it off?" Her beautiful eyes widened in disbelief.

Ji Yan didn’t return to Room 404 immediately. Instead, he headed to Room 801.

Inside, Miss Xu remained as relaxed as ever.

Holding a slice of watermelon and enjoying the breeze from the balcony, she painted a completely different picture from the usual tone of the Supernatural Game.

"You’re more impressive than I expected. I didn’t think you’d actually find the Landlord to solve the problem in the end."

Miss Xu seemed to see through everything, immediately mentioning the Landlord—the hidden Easter Egg.

Staring at Miss Xu, who appeared omniscient, Ji Yan felt a moment of disorientation.

Sometimes, he genuinely wondered—was the true boss of this Instance not the Landlord, but this very Miss Xu, the real hidden final boss?

"Miss Xu, is there anything you don’t know?" Ji Yan couldn’t help but ask.

Xu Xin smiled brightly, answering evasively: "How did you find my Three Paper Figures?"

"If it weren’t for Miss Xu’s Three Paper Figures, I’d definitely be done for."

"That’s why I came to thank you right away!"

Ji Yan’s reply was sincere, his gratitude coming straight from the heart.

She wasn’t one of his Supernatural Entity family members, and according to that measly 20% favorability guide, she had given him a [Legendary]-grade artifact.

From a gaming perspective, this was practically a bug.

From a real-world perspective, it defied all logic.

Miss Xu seemed to sense Ji Yan’s confusion. With a faint, knowing smile, she said, "Don’t thank me yet. I’m not some naive do-gooder, nor am I doing this for fun."

"Those Three Paper Figures are the most valuable treasure in my Room 801. Countless people have coveted them, scheming to get their hands on them—including that Long Yuan."

"As for why I chose to give them to you… well, let’s just call it a bet."