Chapter 198: Recent Updates and Statement

"How about it, Cousin?"

Yan Yan looked at Yan Jing with a smile.

Yan Jing's gaze remained completely calm.

He knew of this cousin—specifically from Mu Rao, the man who had died at Yu Ling's hands.

Back then, Mu Rao had personally mentioned that this cousin had asked him to teach Yan Jing a lesson.

"Sure,"

Yan Jing replied with a faint smile.

"Then we'll settle it at the 55th-floor training ground. See you downstairs in ten minutes."

Yan Lei spoke up, unable to hide her impatience.

"Prepare well, Cousin. A spar means going all out."

Yan Yan smiled meaningfully.

With that, the group turned and walked away.

"Old Yan, your sister has already reached the Second Tier..."

Xu Weizhou muttered.

"Mr. Yan, I can resolve this,"

Fan Jue offered from the side.

"It's fine. There's no need to trouble the Public Security Association."

Yan Jing chuckled.

Beside him, Shen Youran leaned in and whispered into his ear:

"Your Yan Family only has two Third Tier members, and neither of them are scheduled for a Dungeon right now. So, the Yan Family's Yan Yan chose to ally with the Mu Family and the Lin Family."

"Understood."

Yan Jing nodded.

Soon, the group arrived downstairs. Yan Lei had already changed into a tight training suit. Holding a giant hammer, she stood in the center of the training ground's fighting ring.

The ring was massive, covering two to three hundred square meters. It was elevated a few meters off the ground and cordoned off with ropes.

Watching Yan Jing approach, Yan Lei's gaze turned icy.

Ever since Yan Jing pierced her abdomen the last time, she had engraved her hatred for him deep into her heart. To her, being defeated by a younger brother who had been a piece of trash since childhood was an absolute humiliation.

This time, she would wipe away that shame in front of everyone and viciously trample Yan Jing underfoot.

"Come up."

She beckoned to Yan Jing.

Yan Jing smiled and stepped into the ring.

By now, quite a few people had gathered around to watch.

"I hope you've improved a bit, Sister. Last time, it seemed you couldn't even last two minutes."

Yan Jing laughed.

Having her humiliating previous defeat exposed by Yan Jing in front of everyone, Yan Lei's eyes instantly filled with rage.

"Stop talking nonsense!!!"

Trembling with anger, she swung her giant hammer. A dazzling light bloomed behind her. Seeing the yellow-green and yellow-purple combination of her Rituals, the spectators below nodded repeatedly.

This was the foundation of a great family. A Yellow Date-Selection Gift was extremely rare, after all. The fact that she possessed a yellow-green Day Selection Ritual was enough to prove Yan Lei's excellence.

However, when the crowd looked at the other side, they found that no light bloomed around Yan Jing. He hadn't even... released any weird energy.

What was going on?

The crowd was baffled.

"Could he be scared stiff...?"

"She's at the Second Tier, after all, so it's normal. He only finished entering the ranks two months ago..."

"Isn't he doomed, then?"

"They're real siblings, so she'll probably go easy on him."

Seeing this, Yan Lei let out a cold sneer. In her eyes, her younger brother was being overly arrogant just because of her previous defeat.

Did he think this was like last time?

Yan Lei raised her hand and activated her Eye-Eating ability, directly stripping away the vision in one of Yan Jing's eyes.

Immediately after, violent weird energy surged from her fingertips. An ugly, gaping mouth full of sharp teeth appeared above her, dripping foul-smelling saliva onto her head.

This was one of her calming rite abilities: Hunger Craving.

The saliva would stimulate the power within her body. The hungrier she felt, the more saliva it produced.

The other ability of her calming rite allowed her to devour a portion of her opponent's weird energy, weakening their attacks.

One offensive, one defensive—this was exactly why she had gradually climbed into the upper echelon of the Yan Family's younger generation.

But right at that moment, Yan Jing spoke:

"Three, two..."

What did that mean?

Her heart tightened for no reason. However, seeing that Yan Jing wasn't making any major moves, she quickly steadied her mind, fully ignited the power in her body, and hefted the giant hammer as she charged at him.

Yan Jing merely continued counting:

"...two, one."

The exact second "one" dropped, Yan Jing moved.

His figure left a blur on the ring. Like teleportation, he used a blink to appear directly in front of the shocked Yan Lei, then buried a punch into her abdomen.

"Pfft—"

Along with a massive spray of blood and saliva, Yan Lei's body flew backward like a cannonball. She crashed heavily into the ropes at the edge of the ring, flipped right over them, flew out, and slammed into the wall.

A deafening crash echoed out.

"You only lasted three seconds this time."

Yan Jing smiled. "That's a far cry from last time. I hope you aren't slacking off, Sister."

With that, Yan Jing turned and casually walked out of the ring.

Behind him, Yan Lei was slumped on the ground in disbelief, completely unable to move a muscle. The agonizing pain in her abdomen caused her to uncontrollably vomit gastric fluids. Because of the way she was slumped over, the fluids spilled all over her body.

"Urgh... Bleugh..."

In order to defeat Yan Jing, she had specifically taken a digestion potion earlier. Her stomach was completely empty now, so all she could do was throw up continually.

Yan Jing stepped out of the ring and looked toward Yan Yan not far away, smiling.

"The spar is over. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Cousin."

"..."

The smile on Yan Yan's face almost shattered.

He never imagined that Yan Lei would lose so miserably.

"You were too heavy-handed, Cousin..."

His expression gradually darkened.

"A spar means going all out."

Yan Jing smiled. "Isn't that what you taught me, Cousin?"

"..."

Yan Yan took a deep breath. "You'll be joining this team Dungeon, right?"

"Of course."

Yan Jing nodded with a smile.

"Then I'll see you inside."

Yan Yan said in a low voice.

He turned around and was just about to leave when, to his surprise, Yan Jing laughed.

"There's no need to go to all that trouble, Cousin."

He reached out and forcefully patted Yan Yan's shoulder. Then, he opened his arms, gave Yan Yan a hug, and turned to walk away.

Having been hugged by Yan Jing, Yan Yan stood there with a blank expression, all the color draining from his lips.

Chen Dalang walked up just then and chuckled.

"It seems Brother Yan's careful calculations didn't quite pan out."

"Eh? Why aren't you saying anything?"

He had originally come to mock the strongest member of the Yan Family's previous generation. He didn't expect Yan Yan to simply ignore him.

Sensing something was wrong, he instinctively gave Yan Yan a push. Unexpectedly, Yan Yan immediately spat out a massive mouthful of blood, staggered a few steps, and collapsed to the floor. Trembling violently, his eyes rolled back in his head. His chest looked as if a large piece of it had caved in.

"Holy shit! Are you trying to frame me?!"

Chen Dalang's eyes went wide. Panicking, he immediately pulled out his phone.

He took a photo of Yan Yan's current state.

...

...

Shen Youran lowered the handheld Video Camera from her eye, her face brimming with excitement.

"That was so cool, Xiao Yanzi!!!"

Facing the emotional validation Shen Youran was providing, Yan Jing chuckled. "Did you actually record it, Teacher Shen?"

"I'm going to send it to some people to see,"

Shen Youran said.

Yan Jing smiled and didn't say anything.

It was just a minor interlude.

He had already made up his mind last time: if he had to interact with the Yan Family again, he shouldn't rely on any special tricks anymore.

As they said in Minhu, a big fist was the only hard truth.

Just now, whether it was the 'collision' with Yan Lei or the hug with Yan Yan, he had merely used his newly enhanced physical strength.

Looking at it now, the results were pretty good.

To the side, Fan Jue and Xu Weizhou walked over.

"Old Yan, you're awesome!"

Xu Weizhou gave him a thumbs-up, then whispered, "Have you already reached the Second Tier?"

"Close enough."

Yan Jing laughed.

"Mr. Yan is as impressive as ever..."

Fan Jue couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

He had originally thought that now that he had reached the Second Tier, he could pay back some of the favors he owed Yan Jing in their upcoming Dungeon. Looking at it now, it was hard to say who was stronger.

You had to remember, Yan Jing had only finished entering the ranks two months ago!

This meant his Dungeon completion rate was terrifyingly high.

"The conference starts in half an hour. Should we go grab our seats?"

Fan Jue suggested.

"Sure."

Yan Jing looked at Shen Youran, who had pulled out her Computer and was typing away happily.

"Let's go, Teacher Shen."

"On it!"

Shen Youran looked at the contents on her screen, curled her lips into a smile, hit the send button, and closed her Computer.

In a certain group chat.

Several dim profile pictures began flashing continuously after seeing the video Shen Youran had sent.

One user, whose profile picture was a bald old man and who went by the name 'Wealthy Life', spoke up:

"Holy shit! You figured it out! You're going to let this kid take the 'Self' faction route, aren't you?!! I knew it! I knew it!"

Immediately following that, a user with a folding fan profile picture said:

"...Is he a monster? How is he so much stronger than last time?!! Did you pump him full of drugs?!"

Next was a user with a lollipop loli profile picture:

"That's her big treasure, what did you expect... But... he really is a lot stronger than before..."

After that was a user with the profile picture of the Rainbow Newspaper:

"Your camera work really sucks, Shen Youran!"

"Who is this guy? How come I've never heard of him..."

"I just want to ask one thing: did this group chat come back from the dead...?"

Faced with the growing number of questions, Shen Youran smiled radiantly and put away her constantly pinging phone.

A bunch of people with no eye for talent. Let them guess.

She knew that soon enough, people would be contacting her to start supplying resources.

No matter what, she had to help Yan Jing snag an item that could be used for synthesizing his Chaos Gloves to make this worthwhile.

...

...

Before long, inside a grand hall on the 99th floor of the Tower, the attendees began to take their seats.

Yan Jing and the others found seats in the middle-back rows toward the right. At the very front of the hall, there were a dozen or so seats arranged from left to right.

Corresponding nameplates were already placed upon them.

Fan Jue introduced them to Yan Jing one by one:

"On the far left is the mayor of our Ling'an City, then the General President of Rainbow City's Public Security Association, then..."

When he got to the five seats directly in the middle, his expression turned a bit grave:

"The one right in the center is the Vice Domain Chief of our Fifth Ring Domain. He belongs to the Federation. Rumor has it that he crossed into the Sixth Tier many years ago..."

"On his left is the President of the Fifth Ring Domain's Public Security Association. Fifth Tier."

"Further left is the patriarch of a hidden Clan in the Fifth Ring Domain. It's said he's almost at the Sixth Tier too."

"Two seats to his right is the President of the Fifth Ring Domain's Inner World Research Association."

"But the one directly to his right..."

He lowered his voice a little:

"That person is supposedly a Marquis-level figure from the Fourth Ring Domain."

"He was personally invited by the Domain Chief."

"I see."

Yan Jing nodded.

He didn't expect that such a small place like Ling'an would attract so many big shots.

Soon, as those mighty figures took their seats one after another, the conference officially began.

The person who spoke was, naturally, the Vice Domain Chief sitting in the very center, an uncle with a buzz cut who looked to be in his forties:

"I'm pressed for time."

"I'll keep this brief."

"The theme of this Surface and Inner Worlds summit mainly revolves around the Super-Large Dungeon that's about to appear in Ling'an."

"Because a Super-Large Dungeon will have a massive influx of players, if we do things right, we can cause a certain degree of impact on the Inner World. If we do it poorly, it could be a devastating blow to us. Therefore, before every Super-Large Dungeon, we arrange for high-tier individuals to enter the corresponding Dungeon and communicate with key figures in the Inner World."

Hearing this, Yan Jing's eyes flickered.

Sure enough. With the Inner World System having been around for so many years, people from the Surface World had already found ways to communicate with the Inner World. However, the Vice Domain Chief's next sentence was even more astonishing:

"We will even collaborate with factions in the Inner World, attempting to induce changes in the Dungeon's rules."

Under the Vice Domain Chief's explanation, a suspicion that Yan Jing had harbored for a long time was gradually verified.

From the Order Management Bureau issuing a search for the murderer in his first Dungeon at Rotten Vegetable Village, to protecting VIPs in the Sun-Swallowing Tower, all the way to the Lake giving Yan Jing a ballot.

All of these things proved one point.

The Inner World's reactions to some of the human players' actions—or rather, their expectations—could induce alterations in the Dungeon quests.

But it wasn't a guarantee.

The Vice Domain Chief explained that this kind of induction also required judgment from the Inner World System. For example, trying to make the next batch of human players die upon entry would be impossible.

Any quest that was issued was guaranteed to have a possibility of completion.

Of course, there were still many things that the Surface World was only in the stage of verifying.

"However, no matter what, we must be thoroughly prepared for this upcoming large Dungeon."

The Vice Domain Chief extended a hand toward a woman seated to his right and said:

"Therefore, we have specifically invited the Vice President of the Fourth Ring Domain's Precognition Society to foresee for us which Dungeon, as of right now, is the most likely to be selected as the Super-Large Dungeon."

"So that we can better prepare for it."

Let's talk about how things have been lately.

First of all, thank you all for your love and support for this book.

The book's performance has hit a bottleneck, with average subscriptions in the mid-one-thousands. I chatted with my editor, who believes the title and synopsis are the issue, and I chatted with the readers in the group, who think the problem is the update rate.

Let's talk about the updates first.

I understand everyone's desire for more updates, and thank you for your support, but I simply can't churn out any more chapters. It isn't just empty talk about lacking inspiration. My typing speed is 1,500 words an hour. If I turn my brain off, it can reach 2,000 an hour, but when I actually have to think, I need to write for about five hours a day (including some editing) just to hit a 6,000-word daily update.

For an engineering PhD student, this is an unbelievable level of intensity. In the words of my senior classmates and friends, I'm keeping this up purely out of passion.

Here is my current daily routine: I start work at 9:00 AM and finish around 11:00 PM (the reader group can testify to this, as I occasionally post videos). I basically don't slack off at work at all. When I get home, I write until 3:30 in the morning, get up a little after 9:00 AM, and take a one-and-a-half-hour lunch break.

This high-intensity schedule has actually caused some health issues. I'm not trying to throw a pity party here; I just want to state the simple fact that I cannot squeeze out any more time.

For instance, when I sometimes post at 5:00 in the morning—that means I genuinely kept writing until 5:00.

I apologize for the lack of updates.

Moving on to the title and synopsis. The current title is highly fitting for the book. The reason I'm changing it is that our daily growth in favorites is just too low, even worse than books with a five-hundred average subscription count.

Many people like this title, but the results are plain to see, so I've decided to try changing it. The new title is also very ordinary; I'm just taking a gamble.

The book is called My Ghoulish Life Role-playing Game.

If it doesn't work out, I will just keep writing the book as usual. I truly do love writing.

Finally, regarding the plot. Because the Inner World and the Surface World follow different routes, some people prefer the Inner World. Of course, there are also readers in the group who have been looking forward to face-slapping moments in the Surface World. I know my writing for the Surface World has been lacking in some places, but it is what it is. To make the story complete, I have to write it. This is already a revised version of the outline, and it is the story I want to write.

Overall, the story revolves around the Inner World's plot, while the Surface World adds posturing and slows down the pacing.

If you dislike certain parts of the content, I apologize. My abilities are limited.

That is how things stand. Everyone, these are my true feelings and the most honesty I can offer. Everything above comes straight from the heart.

Thank you all for liking this book. I wish you happiness every day.

Wishing you joy.

(End of this chapter)