Chapter 139

Li Zhi suddenly realized that Wei Xiao and Han Wenlin had probably deliberately ridden the carousel only twice back then.

With the intention of sabotaging each other, they could ask her for her answer during the voting, get one correct answer, then trick the other person into voting for the wrong answer. If the other person fell for it, they would only need to get the correct carousel answer from their teammate in the final round to eliminate the other.

Both wanted to eliminate the other.

Neither managed to.

There were no innocent fools inside a dungeon.

Han Wenlin looked very pleased with himself. "He lost to me in livestream PK popularity outside, and he'll lose to me in the dungeon too. Believe it?"

His carefree expression faded somewhat when he saw Li Zhi's face turn cold. He heard her say, "If Cheng Jiayue had been a normal player, she might have been dragged down by you two."

Han Wenlin was somewhat afraid of Li Zhi. That fear probably came from the respect one had for an expert. He said awkwardly, "But that didn't happen... When I found out she hadn't voted for Black and White Impermanence, I secretly breathed a sigh of relief."

Li Zhi tossed him the answer "Soul-Seizing Ghost" and ignored him after that.

The players went in one after another to vote. When everyone had finished voting and came back out, Wei Xiao saw Han Wenlin standing there perfectly fine, and a look of shock immediately appeared on his face.

He had acted so convincingly that Wei Xiao had really thought he had voted for Black and White Impermanence!

Han Wenlin gave him a cold smile.

The red light went out, and the doors of the certification office slowly closed. The park broadcast sounded with the system's mechanical, sinister voice:

"Congratulations to the players for finding all ten ghosts and completing the Ghost Catching achievement. You have cleared the 'Ghost Monster Amusement Park' dungeon and will now enter the popularity settlement phase. Thank you for watching. Please look forward to the next episode. Goodbye."

The amusement park began to collapse.

A familiar wave of dizziness washed over them, and Li Zhi felt the balloon string tied to her wrist loosen.

She forced herself to stay conscious and reached out to catch the balloon. Just as her hand stretched into the air, it was grasped by a pair of warm hands.

In the world collapsing into fragments, only the person before her remained clear and real.

The balloon floated in his hand. Li Jianxi gently gave her a push.

"It's okay. I caught it."

He said softly, "Go back."

Li Zhi no longer had the strength to speak. She closed her eyes and completely lost consciousness. When she opened them again, she was already in the safe house.

Everyone looked around and discovered that Wei Xiao had disappeared.

A victor's smile appeared on Han Wenlin's face, but he was wary of Li Zhi, so he did not openly gloat anymore.

Excluding Cheng Jiayue, a total of seventeen players had entered this dungeon. Now, nine had returned to the safe house.

More than half had survived. Compared with the dungeons everyone had entered before, this dungeon's survival rate was actually considered high.

Pei Hongyu could not help glancing once more at Li Zhi, who was sitting on the sofa eating fruit.

In dungeons where Li Zhi was present, the players' clear rate always seemed to be a little higher.

The furnishings of the safe house changed according to the number of players. This time there were many people, so the safe house was a little larger than before. There was an extra long sofa, and there were enough refreshments for all nine people.

Taking advantage of the fact that the popularity count had not yet come out, Tang Nanshan quietly said to Pei Hongyu, "Ayu, your popularity this episode might be overtaken by Li Zhi, and there's also the MVP..."

Pei Hongyu interrupted calmly, "I know."

Tang Nanshan was stunned for a moment and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"You're not angry?"

Pei Hongyu leaned back against the sofa.

"I wasn't as skilled as her. What's there to be angry about?"

Tang Nanshan burst into laughter.

She had been worried that when Pei Hongyu saw the rankings later, he would lose his temper. If the other teammates saw it and spread it around, he would become the target of outside ridicule. But now, seeing him looking completely detached, she could not help rubbing his slightly prickly buzz cut.

"Our Ayu has really grown up."

Pei Hongyu tilted his head away from her hand and said with a cold face,

"Don't touch my head."

Tang Nanshan sighed.

"Our Ayu has grown up. He won't even let his big sister touch his head anymore."

Pei Hongyu: "............"

Meanwhile, You Jingmeng and Owen Dong were acting like two eager lackeys, one serving tea and the other handing over fruit while "attending" to Li Zhi. Chi Yi had been squeezed out by the two of them until she didn't even have a place to stand. Speechless, she said,

"You two are just like those treacherous flatterers beside some great king!"

Owen Dong and You Jingmeng completely ignored her and fawned around Li Zhi.

"Thank you, Boss, for carrying us! Boss, have an orange!"

Chi Yi: "............"

How infuriating!

After resting for a few minutes, a flash of light appeared on the white wall of the safe house, displaying this episode's popularity rankings. Everyone heard the system's mechanical announcement:

—Voting for this episode has ended. The popularity statistics are as follows:

—First Place: Li Zhi. Total Popularity: 12,038,419.

—Second Place: Pei Hongyu. Total Popularity: 10,972,431.

—Third Place: Chi Yi. Total Popularity: 4,013,792.

—Fourth Place: Tang Nanshan. Total Popularity: 2,524,029.

—Fifth Place: Owen Dong. Total Popularity: 910,425.

—Sixth Place: Qi Yongyi. Total Popularity: 902,261.

—Seventh Place: Chen Tianran. Total Popularity: 887,319.

—Eighth Place: You Jingmeng. Total Popularity: 768,934.

—Ninth Place: Han Wenlin. Total Popularity: 568,214.

As soon as the rankings came out, before Chi Yi could celebrate for herself and Li Zhi, Owen Dong was already shouting as he jumped to his feet.

"I got nine hundred thousand popularity points!!! I've never gotten such a high popularity score before! Oh my god! Could it be that I'm actually a genius?!"

Chi Yi: "............"

You Jingmeng: "............"

This time, everyone's popularity score was fairly high.

Because several celebrity players had entered the same dungeon, and because Li Zhi and Pei Hongyu's head-to-head competition had attracted many viewers, the livestream traffic had skyrocketed.

With such a large audience base, everyone naturally received more popularity points. Even Han Wenlin, who ranked last, earned more popularity points this time than he had when he ranked third in the previous dungeon.

The advantages and disadvantages of entering the same dungeon as top players were obvious at a glance.

It was also Li Zhi's first time surpassing the ten-million popularity mark through voting alone. With the MVP multiplier added on top, both her popularity and ranking should see a major increase.

Although he had mentally prepared himself, when Pei Hongyu saw his own name appear beneath someone else's for the first time, he still felt somewhat displeased.

Tang Nanshan observed his expression and amusingly tugged at his little finger beside him.

After the rankings were announced, the system began announcing this dungeon's MVP:

"Based on the players' overall performance in the dungeon, the player receiving an S-rank evaluation this time is Li Zhi. Awarded a 1.5x point multiplier. Current dungeon popularity has been adjusted to 18,057,628.5. Ranking unchanged. Total popularity has been adjusted to 34,955,185, placing the player fifteenth on the current world's overall popularity rankings. Please continue your efforts."

"Fifteenth place!!!"

Chi Yi screamed excitedly.

"Zhizhi! You've entered the top fifteen of the overall world rankings!"

From earning only a little over five hundred thousand popularity points during her first dungeon, to now becoming a top player ranked among the world's top fifteen in total popularity, she had already become one of the rarest people in the world.

Pei Hongyu's best ranking had only ever been nineteenth.

Looking at Li Zhi, whose expression had hardly changed, his own expression became rather interesting.

Tang Nanshan smiled and said to Li Zhi,

"Congratulations."

Li Zhi also smiled and nodded.

"Thank you."

Tang Nanshan turned to ask Pei Hongyu,

"Now that Li Zhi has joined them, do players from our country make up more than half of the top fifteen on the rankings?"

Pei Hongyu gave a cold, aloof hum.

None of those people were particularly easy to get along with.

Chi Yi was far more excited than Li Zhi herself.

"What does fifteenth place matter! Our Zhizhi is going to sit on the number one throne someday! Right, Zhizhi?"

Li Zhi smiled.

"Right."

Pei Hongyu looked a little surprised.

"You also want to become number one in popularity?"

Li Zhi raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you?"

Pei Hongyu: "..."

He replied with a cold face,

"I thought you didn't care about rankings."

Li Zhi looked surprised.

"Do I really look that indifferent to fame and fortune?"

Pei Hongyu had nothing to say.

Soon, the system's voice sounded once again in the players' minds.

"Popularity settlement complete. Clear rewards will now be distributed according to each player's deepest desire."

The teammates around her disappeared, and Li Zhi arrived in her own reward space.

She calmly looked at the transparent panel that appeared before her.

The panel, which should have displayed a golden item, seemed to have either short-circuited or once again been stumped by the thing she desired most in her heart.

It flickered several times without producing anything.

After a long while, the system's stuttering voice sounded beside her ear.

"Detected... player's... deepest... desire... violates... the system's... operating... rules..."

It was rejecting her request again, but this time the reaction was different from when it had rejected her previous request to drive the system out of this world.

The lagging, short-circuit-like response indicated that this request did not actually violate the rules under their restrictions.

However, the Ghost Monster system clearly did not want to grant it, so it was resisting some higher-dimensional rule in an attempt to reject her request.

Li Zhi spoke calmly.

"Even if you reject it, I'll make the same request again next time. How many times can you reject it? If you keep resisting the rules over and over, you'll be punished too, won't you? Why don't we both take a step back? Grant my request, and I won't make things difficult for you next time."

System: "............"

How was that supposed to be both sides taking a step back???

But just as Li Zhi had guessed, trying to reject a request of hers that did not violate the rules would also subject the system to a certain punishment.

Combined with what it knew about this rebellious player, after weighing the pros and cons, the system ultimately did not reject her request completely.

Li Zhi heard its icy voice.

"Detected that the player's deepest desire is not a conventional player request. It will now be granted at the system's discretion."