Chapter 103: It’s So Itchy There, Please Help

Wen Nan was taken aback.

Instinctively, he pulled up the guild members’ information from the system—

[Name: Yang Mingzhong]
[Level: lv2]
[Strength: 101/200]
[Agility: 23/200]
[Armor: 16/200]
[Charisma: 1/200]

This was a player who had barely reached lv2 by maxing out his strength attribute. The performance wasn’t poor, but it certainly wasn’t outstanding either.

He then checked the equipment Yang Mingzhong had contributed to the guild’s inventory: all were ordinary, low-level items like [Safety Bubble], and the total coins deposited into the guild’s public account amounted to only a few thousand.

In every respect, Yang Mingzhong was just an average middle-aged man.

So…

“Mr. Yang, why did you receive the extra reward for this ring?” Wen Nan couldn’t help but ask.

Yang Mingzhong smiled, a simple, honest smile tinged with a bit of bashfulness. “I don’t know either. It’s probably random, like a lottery. I just got lucky this time.”

Wen Nan wanted to ask more, but above his head, the floating screen quickly switched to the next player’s settlement interface.

In the end, Wen Nan raised his hand and took the ring, saying softly, “Thank you.”

Yang Mingzhong withdrew his hand. “No problem. It’s what I should do.” With that, he returned to the wall, resuming his role as the somewhat out-of-place middle-aged guild member.

The next two players to settle were Guo Xiaofu, lv1, and Hu Jiayao, lv2.

As expected, both had completed the task right at the 60-point passing threshold. Guo Xiaofu’s contribution to the public account was even less than Yang Mingzhong’s, under five hundred coins. Hu Jiayao did slightly better, with a little over two thousand.

After them came Gu Jingxing.

Besides the blond, Gu Jingxing was currently the highest-level member in Wen Nan’s guild.

When he first joined [Sure Win] Guild, Wen Nan had paid attention to his player attribute panel—

[Name: Gu Jingxing]
[Level: lv3]
[Strength: 12/500]
[Agility: 489/500]
[Armor: 12/500]
[Charisma: 98/500]

Though he was lv3, the same level as the last member Zhang Tianyu, Zhang Tianyu had barely scraped into lv3 by maxing out 200 points in agility; in fact, his total attribute points were lower than Hu Jiayao’s at lv2.

But Gu Jingxing was different—

His agility had reached 489 points; just 11 more, and he could easily advance to lv4.

In other words, he could, like the blond, break through to lv4 in a single trial—he simply chose not to level up.

What surprised Wen Nan even more was that, aside from agility, Gu Jingxing’s highest attribute was charisma.

This was the first time Wen Nan had seen, besides himself, a player who invested in charisma.

Not only in points; during this main task, Gu Jingxing’s judgments and behavior often matched Wen Nan’s.

Wen Nan made a silent decision—if he could confirm Gu Jingxing’s loyalty to the guild, he would groom him as vice president. That way, if Wen Nan was ever trapped and unable to give timely instructions, the vice president could cover for him, avoiding such a passive situation as this time.

While thinking, Gu Jingxing’s task settlement panel appeared—

[Player Gu Jingxing, main task settlement as follows:

Completion status: Completed;
Task score: 60;
Task rating: Ordinary;
Extra reward: None;
Chosen target: None (Soul Puppet transferred);
Target strategy: n/a;
Live stream popularity settlement: 9,983 coins;
Live stream betting settlement: 8,736 coins;
Live stream reward settlement: 8,000 coins;
Account balance: 0 coins (all credited to [Sure Win] Guild account).]

Although he didn’t earn as many coins as the blond, he still gathered over twenty-six thousand—a substantial guild fee.

However, Gu Jingxing did not receive any extra reward.

Was this extra reward, as Yang Mingzhong claimed, simply luck—a lottery win?

As Wen Nan pondered, the screen flashed his own name. Holding that soft pink bundle, he stepped forward and successfully activated his settlement panel—

[Player Night Nine, main task settlement as follows:
Completion status: Completed;
Task score: 72;
Task rating: Good;
Extra reward: None;
Chosen target: The fresh-faced junior sister with cheeks you could pinch
Target strategy: 80%;
Chosen target: The fierce young wife next door
Target strategy: 92%;
Chosen target: The fallen girl who refuses to leave after being rescued
Target strategy: 89%;
Chosen target: The wealthy woman desperate for a child
Target strategy: 85%;
Chosen target: The imposing, cold-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside CEO
Target strategy: 30%;
The little sister next door whom you watched grow up
Target strategy: 85%;
Live stream popularity settlement: 92,816 coins;
Live stream betting settlement: 591,886 coins;
Live stream reward settlement: 28,766 coins;
Account balance: 721,662 coins.]

Staring at his settlement panel, Wen Nan’s face darkened.

72 points?

Only a “Good” rating?

Didn’t even qualify for the lottery draw?

He had completed so many tasks before, but this was the first time he’d received such a low score!

Except for the CEO, his other character strategies were all notably high…

9527: [Due to the presence of the Soul Puppet item, character strategy in a single main task no longer factors into the task scoring system. Whether the task is completed depends solely on whether the player achieves 100% task completion within the allotted time.]

9527: [Because the player obtained the g.point key item after entering settlement countdown, the overall score is 60. Considering the player provided all critical clues for finding the g.point, an extra 12 points is awarded. Total score: 72. Please note.]

Alright, it seemed next time he couldn’t afford to finish the task at the last possible moment.

Wen Nan was a little helpless, but he accepted the score.

Looking at his account balance, he was about to check the system store for any useful purchases, when he noticed several members staring at him wide-eyed.

“What’s wrong?”

Guo Xiaofu’s throat bobbed as he pointed at the account balance on the overhead screen, struggling to speak:

“President, are you some kind of money-making machine? You earned over seven hundred thousand coins from a single task?!

“If you put that much in a savings account, the daily interest alone is more than I earn in a whole task!”

He knew he’d latched onto a big shot, but he hadn’t realized just how big. Suddenly, Guo Xiaofu felt his luck had exploded—he’d boarded a luxury express!

On the other side, Gu Jingxing looked at Wen Nan with a gaze that, amidst astonishment, showed genuine admiration—

Truth be told, although he’d pulled Hu Jiayao into the [Sure Win] Guild, he never expected the new president would actually succeed.

They didn’t even dare to confront a single Soul Puppet, yet the other had taken on all of them—a reckless move that, in any other scenario, would trigger a catastrophic reversal before the second task even ended.

But…

He never expected that, after the first task, the other triggered only one soul thread!

Meaning, if he continued at this pace, after all five main tasks in this map, he’d likely clear it smoothly.

A newcomer, entering the highest-difficulty beginner instance, artificially raising the difficulty sixfold, and after his first task… emerging unscathed?

Why was this man so formidable?

As the roomful of guild members reeled in shock, the screen overhead rapidly flashed new prompts—

[Congratulations to all players! Main Task 1 is officially complete!]
[Now entering countdown for Main Task 2—]
[00:00:03—]
[00:00:02—]
[00:00:01—]
[Beep!]
[New player task delivered, please check!]

Wen Nan: ?!

This instance had no rest period between main tasks?

It transitioned seamlessly into Main Task 2?

As he thought this, the screen’s prompt jumped—

[Main Task 2: It’s so itchy, please help]

(End of this chapter)