LWGP - Chapter 144
Chapter 144: 0 Reputation
Wang Jiu felt no guilt whatsoever about the 18,000 gold she'd acquired. She didn't bother explaining to the others how she had seen through Diao Guang's deception. She wasn't keen on socializing—if the other party couldn't provide her with useful information, or if she simply didn't have the time, she wouldn't waste her breath.
In the end, the others pieced together the clues and worked it out backward once the culprit was identified.
1. After Diao Guang colluded with Hao Ze's group to flank them, only to be counter-killed, Wang Jiu led her people away. Neither Diao Guang nor Luo Sheng gave chase. Luo Sheng didn't pursue because she was sharp enough to analyze the situation on multiple levels. Diao Guang's behavior, however, was suspicious. He wasn't that clever—at least, not enough to see through the deception—yet he didn't follow. This didn't prove everything; perhaps he was simply afraid of Lao Wang's ruthlessness. But Lao Wang hadn't been particularly merciful before, and he had always tagged along. At the very least, it showed his persona was inconsistent, especially when compared to how he was completely fooled by Luo Sheng's disguise as the Mistress. If a persona is contradictory, the person cannot be trusted. Luo Sheng was the one who pointed out this suspicion.
2. Regarding the slowing effect: after the fierce battle with the Lycanthrope, Chi Mantou's true strength was revealed. He possessed no means of concealing a slowing skill. The other three were not very strong and had died on the spot several times. According to the drop rules upon death, items from one's inventory usually drop first. This allows players to organize their resources and hide things. However, after several consecutive deaths, equipped gear is bound to drop, and a significant amount at that. If those three had been the culprits, their real equipment would have eventually dropped, exposing them. But the gear they dropped was what they were wearing, consistent with their attributes. With all four ruled out, it meant the culprit had the ability to conceal their attributes and skills. This, in turn, made everyone else a suspect, including Diao Guang.
3. Diao Guang's damage output was normal, as he could control it himself. However, the data from the damage he took and the feedback when healed by Holy Light was incorrect. There was a discrepancy with the actual calculations, as if some layer of power was interfering. This was Lin Guiwan's discovery; as a priest, no one understood everyone's status better than she did.
4. The way he vomited was wrong.
"That scumbag. He doesn't know that when someone is truly weak and nauseous, their stomach churns. He was just dry-heaving; his neck didn't even bulge. Trust me, no one has seen more people vomit than I have. Back when that manure truck exploded, I... ah!"
Hit on the head by a pinecone flicked by Wang Jiu, Wang Shu rubbed his scalp sheepishly and hid behind Qiao Xuejing.
"Sister Qiao, you have to protect me."
Qiao Xuejing, who was wrapping her palm with a tactical bandage, smiled faintly. But then she caught Luo Sheng's profound gaze from a short distance away.
She lowered her gaze, the corners of her lips curling up as she returned a faint, knowing smile.
Zhong Qing asked, "Is she provoking you?"
"No," Luo Sheng replied. "She's showing me what 'striking first gains the advantage' means."
Being your own boss offers more freedom in the present, but a captain far stronger than yourself can ensure a longer future.
When it came to trade-offs, this woman—who had lain low, staged a comeback, eliminated all her clansmen, and seized control of the Qiao family—had forsaken the power of leadership for the security of following someone else.
As things stood, her decision seemed to be the correct one.
But that didn't necessarily mean her own choice was wrong.
Thinking of the Luo family, Luo Sheng, who had been competitive since childhood, raised an eyebrow and responded with a dazzling smile of her own.
"Why are those two smiling at each other like that?" Wang Shu poked Dao Dao's rear.
Dao Dao rolled its eyes. "Don't you know fake smiling is a required skill for a socialite? Although my Jingjing is a latecomer to the game, full of a certain unspeakable, story-filled mystique."
But she was still a mainland socialite—reserved, but with an occasional sharp edge.
Wang Jiu paid no mind to the group's discussion. She sat resting on a rock in the corner, transferred the party leader role to Yan Guanqi, and without waiting for a response, began making her selections based on her first-place 38% participation rate.
The 20 silver mini-bosses dropped a huge amount of loot, thousands of items in total. The most valuable were as follows:
1. Horn of Wolf Pack Summoning (Special Item, one-time use, summons 20 silver mini-bosses to fight for you).
2. Two gold-grade items (a weapon and boots), one set of silver growth jewelry, and two sets of level 30 Silver Wolf attribute gear (attribute: Wolf Spirit Possession, boosts stats by 30% and grants the Half-Moon Armor skill for 10 minutes).
3. 12 Upgrade Scrolls, one crate of Spirit Power Fruit (bananas, one restores 500 Spirit Power, 20 total).
4. Silver-grade recipe: 《Low-Grade Stamina Pill Crafting Recipe》.
5. A total of 18 class skill books, including the recovery skill book 《Medium Spirit Recovery Array》, the rare AoE lightning magic skill book 《Six-Pointed Thunder Light》, and the AoE class skill books 《Dollhouse》, 《Rakshasa Shadow Staff》, 《Floating Light Blade》, 《Bamboo Creek Sword Art》, and 《Basic Sword Mastery》.
6. One Deluxe Bathroom set (total 1500 permanent Spirit), 18 pieces of homestead furniture (total 3500 permanent Spirit).
7. One electric scooter vehicle, one Elegant Toilet Set, and three non-attribute cosmetic outfits.
8. 58 other miscellaneous silver-grade items, including 10 non-growth silver jewelry pieces.
9. Three sets of bronze growth jewelry.
10. Three single-person short-range teleportation scrolls.
11. 15 medium treasure chests and 50 small treasure chests.
12. One case of Mist Potion (50 vials).
Additionally, there were many other miscellaneous items and materials (including some alchemy ingredients), such as various Puppet Cards.
If those rewards were already stunning, the loot from the Lycanthrope was even more heart-stopping.
1. Ghost Shadow Armament (Rare Armament, permanent item, gold-grade).
2. Gold-grade Wolf Fang Badge (Growth-type).
3. Mutated Mob Pet Egg (unhatched, can be devoured), three White Wolf Arcane Sprites (Gold, Light, and Black Witch types).
4. Three Basic Skill Upgrade Scrolls.
5. Three top-tier gold weapons (Golden Chicken-Sniper Rifle, Lycanthrope's Edge, Wolf-Slaying Staff), 16 pieces of gold defensive gear.
6. Gold jewelry: Ring of the Wolf Fang, a necklace, and a jade pendant (the Ring of the Wolf Fang is growth-type).
7. One set of Lycanthrope silver growth jewelry (set effect: increases critical damage by 30%).
8. One Clear Shadow Floating Hook Bridge (high-grade furniture, +2000 permanent Spirit), one medium-grade alchemy laboratory (+3000 permanent Spirit), 20 pieces of homestead furniture (+8000 permanent Spirit).
9. 24 Upgrade Scrolls, 25 medium chests, 50 small chests, one four-wheeled sedan, and a Dual Spirit Cultivation Bed (+1000 permanent Spirit, accelerates stamina and Spirit Power recovery).
10. 25 class skill books, with the seven strongest being: 《Black Witch Grimoire》 (Black Witch exclusive, critical damage type, useless to others), 《Ghost Blade (Basic)》, 《Anesthesia》, 《Triple Blade Force》, 《Absolute Silence》, and 《Assassin's Feather》.
11. Two group teleportation scrolls (one long-range, one short-range).
12. Three Goblin Trader's Invites.
13. Three cases of explosive potions.
Below that was another pile of silver equipment, various basic recipes and materials, manor materials, and so on. Wang Jiu looked through all the resources. Each item was marked with its required participation rate. As the player with the highest rate, only she could see the specific stats and information for these items. After reviewing everything, she picked out what she wanted.
Ghost Shadow Armament, the gold-grade Wolf Fang Badge (growth-type), the Black Witch Arcane Sprite, 40 Upgrade Scrolls, the crate of Spirit Power Fruit (bananas, one restores 500 Spirit Power, 20 total), and the three Basic Skill Upgrade Scrolls.
The Clear Shadow Floating Hook Bridge (high-grade furniture, +2000 permanent Spirit), the medium-grade alchemy laboratory (+3000 permanent Spirit), the 20 pieces of homestead furniture (+8000 permanent Spirit), the four-wheeled sedan, 《Black Witch Grimoire》 (Black Witch exclusive, critical damage type), 《Ghost Blade (Basic)》, 《Anesthesia》, and 《Absolute Silence》.
She also picked one other inconspicuous piece of gold equipment.
And that was it.
She didn't pick items like the Garden Fields, as those could be bought at the auction house. In this situation, participation points were more valuable than gold coins.
In a way, Wang Jiu's choices were unexpected. She had ignored many items that others would have considered extremely popular and top-tier, such as the Lycanthrope pet egg, the gold jewelry (including the priceless growth-type pieces), the silver jewelry set that boosted critical damage, the three top-tier gold weapons, the 《Medium Spirit Recovery Array》, and the summoning horn. She had passed on all the items that could provide an immediate and significant power boost.
And yet, she had decisively taken the most incredible items—the Ghost Shadow Armament and the Wolf Fang Badge.
Even though the others didn't know their specific attributes, they could vaguely sense how powerful they were.
Aside from the Upgrade Scrolls, she hadn't taken anything from the silver mini-bosses, only from the Lycanthrope.
She had focused specifically on the furniture that added permanent Spirit and the alchemy laboratory. These were indeed precious, capable of adding 13,000 permanent Spirit when placed in a homestead. The problem was, they couldn't be used right now and couldn't be converted into immediate strength. They also required a sufficiently large homestead. That bridge alone would need a homestead of over 1000 square meters, because the Garden Fields took up the most space!
Wang Jiu took them as part of a long-term plan. After all, she had three homestead plots from Hao Ze's team, totaling 390 square meters.
Among Diao Guang's dropped items, the bastard had a fixed 600-square-meter homestead and an unused 200-square-meter plot. This meant that once she left the dungeon and used these plots, her homestead could be expanded to 2000 square meters—enough to accommodate all this furniture and many Garden Fields. If she hadn't run out of participation points, she wouldn't have minded taking all the furniture dropped by the silver bosses, too.
That bastard Diao Guang hadn't actually dropped much. He had likely used a Goblin Trader's Invite to convert his excess resources. What remained, however, was top-quality, like the homestead plots. But what Wang Jiu found strange was that he hadn't dropped any Reputation.
If he had owned a territory, it would have broken down into Reputation and resources upon his death, but he didn't. Even his personal Reputation was zero.
That seemed impossible. Someone with such high attributes couldn't have failed to gain any Reputation.
Once gained, it would either remain as personal Reputation or be converted into territory Reputation.
If he had neither, it meant his Reputation had been taken from him, or perhaps traded away to someone else.
Wang Jiu checked her own Reputation stats. Her territory Reputation was 3100, and her personal Reputation was 2480.
Her territory could be upgraded to level 3, but since she hadn't returned, she couldn't actually do it.
She craved a large territory even more.
In theory, her main reason for killing Diao Guang so ruthlessly was the intent to plunder.
She could guess that she hadn't been the first to clear the dangerous-level dungeon, just like the simple and normal ones. Otherwise, the system would have already made an announcement. That meant no Reputation.
To clear three dungeons and not get a single point of Reputation... while it wasn't enough to make her fly into a rage, she was still displeased.
She was only 520 personal Reputation points short of what she needed for a large territory. This outcome was a real headache.
Therefore, killing Diao Guang had been her unorthodox method of getting what she needed.
Who would have thought she'd come up empty-handed.
There was definitely something suspicious about him.
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