Volume 1, Chapter 47: A Massive Fortune of Forty Million

Clack!

Right at that moment, the elevator arrived at the third floor.

The doors slid open, and Qin Shang silently followed behind the two bigwigs as they stepped out.

"Look, that's room 3102 right ahead. Chen Muzi is locked up in there."

The Cardsharper spun the room card between his fingers, twirled it a couple of times, and pointed toward a door not far away.

The Scarlet Pope nodded.

"Open the door!"

Without a word of nonsense, the Cardsharper obediently took two steps forward and unlocked the room.

Creak—

Instantly, a heavy reek of alcohol hit Qin Shang's nose, mingling with the stench of spoiled, rotting food.

A nauseating foul odor assaulted them; instant spicy noodles, vegetables, takeout boxes—various smells collided and rushed out of the room the moment it opened. Without even looking, Qin Shang knew what kind of environment lay within.

It was undoubtedly a room resembling a garbage dump.

The corners of his mouth twitched, and his expression involuntarily froze.

"Chen Muzi is inside!"

Hearing this, the Scarlet Pope pursed her lips for a long while.

Seeing the pile of delivery boxes stacked all the way up to the threshold, she still couldn't bring herself to take that step. Turning her head to look at Qin Shang instead, she said with a peculiar expression,

"Why don't you go in and pass the message to him..."

Qin Shang avoided the Scarlet Pope's gaze and pretended not to hear.

Who the hell would want to step into such a slob's room for no reason?

A trace of irritation flickered across the Scarlet Pope's brow and eyes.

"You!"

She probably wanted to use the tone of a superior commanding a subordinate—something like, *I order you to go in, xxx.*

But the very moment the first syllable left her lips, the Scarlet Pope froze.

She didn't even know this man standing before her!

Today was the first time the two of them had met, and he had only mentioned his Divine Path ID once.

In the eyes of the Scarlet Pope, a newbie player was no different from an adult looking down on a three-year-old child whose mind had just begun to awaken.

Qin Shang's ID wasn't memorable enough for the Scarlet Pope to actively commit it to memory. However, if she had just told the Cardsharper that he was a member of the House of a Thousand Treasures, only to turn around and ask him his name right in front of the Cardsharper—

Wouldn't that be a bit awkward?

One had to know that the number of members in the Scarlet Pope's House of a Thousand Treasures was limited.

According to external rumors, every single member of the House of a Thousand Treasures was a player personally screened and selected by the Scarlet Pope layer by layer.

They were her trusted confidants through and through...

Now she had backed herself into an awkward corner. If she asked Qin Shang for his ID on the spot, wouldn't she essentially be slapping her own face?

The Scarlet Pope took a deep breath, cast a resentful glare at the young man, and then shouted into the room,

"Chen Muzi!"

It was easy to tell that she herself was extremely reluctant to enter that room.

After an intense internal struggle, she opted to yell the person out instead.

That shout seemed to carry a strange quality. Although Qin Shang clearly sensed the woman hadn't strained her throat or put on a fierce posture to scream at the top of her lungs, it felt as though something had detonated right beside his ears.

The Scarlet Pope's voice was crystal clear, yet it hummed and buzzed, making his head ache.

The next moment, a faint movement came from within the room.

It was accompanied by the groans of someone waking up from sleep, and the sound of feet stepping on plastic takeout bags.

A moment later, a deep *bang* echoed, as if something had fallen heavily to the floor.

That then triggered a series of chain reactions, and a clattering cascade of crisp crashing sounds echoed throughout the entire room.

During this process, the Scarlet Pope's expression grew increasingly grim.

Meanwhile, the Cardsharper stood to the side like an uninvolved spectator, arms crossed and leaning silently against the wall.

After a short while, a disheveled and decadent young man finally appeared before them.

The man was young, around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, exuding an aura of utter despair. He was scruffy with a thick stubble. His hair wasn't as messy as the Cardsharper's, but that was entirely thanks to him tying it back into a rather feminine medium-length ponytail, leaving only a few stray, unruly locks dancing wildly across his forehead.

Aside from decadence, he also carried a sense of disoriented panic and the lingering blankness of someone who had just woken up...

"Huh? Who's looking for me? Is it time? Are they serving food again?"

He leaned against the doorframe as he walked over, rubbed his sleep-heavy eyes, and directed the first of his four questioning glances straight at Qin Shang.

Perhaps because the young man was facing the main entrance, Chen Muzi's gaze naturally fell upon Qin Shang first.

Clearly, this guy was probably the older brother of 'Grandpa Niu' in the real world...

"Eh, who are you?"

"Normally, it's that greasy-faced errand boy who brings me my food, isn't it? Did the Cardsharper fire the errand boy..."

Only after saying this did he let out a yawn and glance past Qin Shang toward the scene outside the door.

The moment he saw the Cardsharper, Chen Muzi's expression froze.

He instinctively took a step back, failing even to notice that the slipper had slipped off his foot, and stammered in terror,

"Cardsharper, h-how did you get here?"

"I told you, my sister has money. The money I owe you—once my sister comes out of the Divine Path, she'll pay you back in full."

"Besides, isn't there still three days left until our agreed repayment deadline? Why are you coming to find me today?"

Panic was vividly and visibly written all over Chen Muzi's face, as if the Cardsharper were some terrifying, ferocious beast.

The Divine Path?

This guy knew about the Divine Path?

Qin Shang frowned.

He had assumed that 'Grandpa Niu's' older brother was merely an ordinary person unaware of the existence of Divine Path players.

He hadn't expected this fellow to be quite knowledgeable about the community of Divine Path players.

The next moment, the Cardsharper said indifferently,

"Tsk! If I hadn't bought into that pie-in-the-sky promise of yours, do you think I would have kept you alive this long?"

"I'll give you three more days. If your sister still hasn't shown up to pay your debts by then, you brat can just wait to be chopped into pieces and fed to the dogs."

Having said that, the Cardsharper gestured toward Qin Shang and the Scarlet Pope.

"I'm not the one looking for you today; it's them!"

"You guys?"

Chen Muzi's bewildered look slowly faded, and he slapped his thigh in pleasant surprise.

"I get it, you guys are friends of my sister?"

"Is it that my sister found it inconvenient to show her face, so she gave the money to you guys and sent you to get me out of here?"

The Scarlet Pope sneered.

"Don't dream."

"We're only here to pass along a message."

"Chen Muxin committed a crime and fled the country. You two probably won't ever see each other again. Forget about her—that's the message she asked us to deliver!"

The Scarlet Pope's cold voice dropped, devoid of a single shred of emotion.

Hearing this, Qin Shang's mouth twitched slightly.

Even if someone asked you to pass along a message, surely that didn't mean you had to deliver it completely devoid of emotion, did it?

If you say it like that, would 'Grandpa Niu's' older brother ever believe it?

Clearly, 'Grandpa Niu's' brother seemed to be a desperate, unhinged gambler, and one who apparently had entanglements with the community of Divine Path players.

The Cardsharper was a Level 5 Trickster; no doubt he had plenty of methods to make someone lose everything they owned at the gambling table.

As the saying goes, nine out of ten gamblers lose.

Qin Shang didn't want to voice any opinions on such matters, but he couldn't help feeling a sense of injustice for 'Grandpa Niu'.

The brother whom she kept on her lips and in her heart right up until her dying breath turned out to be this kind of person in the real world.

It was naturally far beyond Qin Shang's expectations.

Judging by the massive gambling debts Chen Muzi had accumulated and the Cardsharper's remarks, it wasn't hard to deduce.

Chen Muzi probably didn't have many days left to live...

As for his ultimate fate—gambling addicts never meet a good end.

Without even needing to guess, Qin Shang could imagine it. Owing over forty million to the Cardsharper with no way to pay it back, his end would undoubtedly be extremely violent!

"What?!"

Meanwhile, Chen Muzi was also struck with horror.

"What kind of nonsense are you spouting, woman? How could Chen Muxin wash her hands of me?"

"She's my sister, my own flesh and blood sister! I'm her only family left in this world, how could she ignore me?"

"She's a Divine Path player. Don't Divine Path players make money really fast?"

"Points can easily be exchanged for massive amounts of RMB, and she gathers wealth faster than a printing press. Why would she commit a crime?"

"I—I don't believe it. I don't believe Chen Muxin would commit a crime..."

"Are you lying to me, trying to swallow the money Chen Muxin left behind all by yourself?"

"Let me tell you, I've got nothing left to lose. Drive me to the edge and I'll do anything! Hand the money over right now, or contact Chen Muxin in front of me."

"Unless I hear it with my own ears, I refuse to believe she'd just abandon me like this..."

Contact 'Grandpa Niu' in front of him...

She had already returned to the Divine Path, her body perished and soul scattered—how could anyone contact her?

Qin Shang sighed, his gaze toward Chen Muzi carrying a growing hint of disgust.

This fellow was worlds apart from the gentle, neighborhood-big-brother image he had imagined. He had originally thought Chen Muzi was the reason 'Grandpa Niu' remained so deeply attached to him before her death, perhaps because he was a doting brother in reality.

Now, witnessing this gambler's true colors, Qin Shang could only offer a single review: utterly disappointed.

Right at that moment, the Scarlet Pope turned her head with an expressionless face and said indifferently to Qin Shang,

"The message has been delivered. We can leave now."

Qin Shang was stunned for a moment.

Just leaving like this?

At that exact instant, Chen Muzi suddenly lunged forward and grabbed the Scarlet Pope's sleeve, a fierce look flashing in his eyes.

"You're not going anywhere! You bitch, make things clear right now—are you planning to swallow the money my sister left me?"

"Even if my sister fled abroad to hide, she would never ignore me..."

"Get your hands off me!"

Bang!

The next instant, with a flick of her wrist, the Scarlet Pope slapped Chen Muzi right across the face, sending the one-meter-seventy-five-tall grown man flying backward through the air.

Watching from the side, Qin Shang felt his eyelids twitch wildly. *This woman is so violent.*

*Good grief, her strength is this terrifying, and she still claims Divine Path players don't get much of a physical stat boost?*

Meanwhile, the Cardsharper stroked his chin and pondered for a brief second, finally piecing together the true purpose of their visit, and his face darkened.

"So, Scarlet Pope, you know her sister?"

"And her sister fled abroad and abandoned him... In other words, this bastard has lost any ability to repay his debts?"

Hearing this, the Scarlet Pope raised her chin by an imperceptible fraction.

"That's right!"