"Damn it, do those filthy bugs have the noses of hound dogs? They're here again?"

The next instant!

Chen Jiang’s figure vanished from the spot in a blink, appearing right in front of the doorframe almost simultaneously.

He wasn't embedded in the wall as he had imagined, but stood steadily on the ground just before the entrance. One could choose the landing spot nearby before teleporting; if someone were stubborn enough, they could theoretically embed themselves directly into the doorframe, though it might hurt a bit.

His fingers twitched slightly.

Retrieving the playing card, Chen Jiang began to savor the teleportation process he had just experienced. There was no dizziness at all—while the rapid shifting of the visual field could cause a slight sense of vertigo, he was entirely capable of ignoring it.

His master’s training regimen had been nothing short of monstrous.

He was required to maintain absolute calmness under any circumstances; for instance, memorizing the clothing colors of all surrounding spectators while bungee jumping from a high altitude—a training exercise assigned to him when he was just eleven years old.

Glancing around, the corners of his mouth hooked upward in a satisfied smile, his eyes filled with contentment.

He had once deeply envied the skill known as "Pink Temptation," but now he possessed a teleportation ability of his own, and his version was even stronger.

This deck contained a total of fifty-four cards.

Fifty-two standard cards and two jokers.

Having used one teleportation opportunity just now, he still had fifty-one chances remaining.

...

Only then did he sit down at his desk to continue sorting through his spoils from this venture. The green-tier item, "Fate Playing Card," was the most valuable among the eleven items acquired this time.

His third gain was the "Zombie Lineage," which, once activated, granted immense strength and invulnerability to blades and firearms.

All lineages, such as the "Hulk Lineage" or the "Vampire Lineage," essentially boosted a player's four core attributes while granting certain special effects. They were equivalent to purchasing a bundle of unallocatable attribute points with exceptionally high cost-effectiveness.

The trade-offs were being ostracized by certain deities, suffering a noticeable impact on one's physical appearance, and losing the ability to purchase any free attribute points.

It served as a cost-effective method to rapidly boost immediate combat effectiveness in the early stages. In the mid-game, players could choose to purge the lineage or continue upgrading it to higher tiers. However, provided one had sufficient Paradise Coins, purging the lineage in favor of purchasing free attribute points yielded a higher potential ceiling.

The "Zombie Lineage" and the "Fate Playing Card" were relatively high in value.

The remaining gains were essentially pure bonuses.

Eight items in total.

One "Guild Creation Token," three "First-Aid Bandages," three "First-Aid Potions," and one "Domain Fragment."

The first three could all be purchased within the player store. The Guild Creation Token and the first-aid bandages shared the same price of two hundred Paradise Coins each. Since he had intended to buy a Guild Creation Token anyway, it saved him a tidy sum.

Combined with his previous purchase, he now possessed a total of six first-aid bandages and five first-aid potions—more than enough for entering another instance dungeon.

First-aid potions were limited to a single usage per dungeon.

As for the "Domain Fragment," its description was extremely vague, stating merely that it was a mandatory component for forging a domain. Clearly of no current use, it was consigned to his spatial pouch to gather dust.

Along with nine free attribute points.

These constituted the entire harvest from this dungeon run.

The gains this time surpassed the sum of all his previous dungeon clears combined.

"..."

---

Chen Jiang cast his gaze toward his four core attribute panels.

-
[Player Name]: Chen Jiang
[Player Strength]: 17
[Player Agility]: 29
[Player Constitution]: 13
[Player Spirit]: 21
-

Without even needing to ponder, these nine free attribute points were low-tier attribute points, which could only be applied when a given attribute was at or below 20. Only two of his attributes fell below this threshold.

He allocated three of them to his "Strength" attribute.

His Strength attribute rose to 20.

He then allocated six of them to his "Constitution" attribute, bringing his Constitution up to 19.

Once he entered the Paradise of Gods and purchased one more low-tier free attribute point, he would achieve the milestone of having all four core attributes break through the threshold of 20. Before entering his first official instance dungeon, he planned to raise the four core attributes of both Dumb Snake and Xu Kun to 20 as well.

This would significantly enhance the overall combat strength of their team.

The effects were immediately noticeable.

Though Chen Jiang's posture standing in place remained unchanged, he could clearly sense that his strength had grown a fraction stronger than before, and he could perceive an increase in his endurance.

"Hoo..."

Exhaling lightly as he felt the changes within his body, he noted that once an attribute reached 20, the cost of a mid-tier free attribute point would jump to one thousand Paradise Coins—a tenfold price increase.

If the deity he worshipped happened to be the "Hunger Artist," any free attribute points he acquired would yield double the effectiveness.

His Strength would reach 20.3, and his Constitution would reach 20.5.

Having completed all of this,

he stretched his arms in a long yawn and walked into the inner room to sleep. Having stayed awake the entire time in the dungeon, drowsiness was finally catching up with him.

...

"This guy..."

Beneath a highway overpass in Zhaoge City.

A middle-aged man sitting beside a stinking ditch frowned slightly as he looked over the intelligence report in his hand. The report indicated that Chen Jiang, a freshman at Zhaoge University—who was also the newly emerging magician and the candidate they had selected—

had practically never set foot on campus since the start of the semester on September 1st,

save for the opening ceremony and that single magic performance.

This could hardly be classified as merely skipping classes anymore...

They had attempted to contact Chen Jiang, but failed to even catch a glimpse of him. They tried bribing university administrators to obtain his home address or contact information, only to discover for the first time that people could possess such unyielding professional ethics; not a single word was leaked.

---

The organization then hired a hacker in an attempt to breach Zhaoge University's intranet and retrieve Chen Jiang's enrollment records directly.

Then came the astonishing plot twist.

The firewall rating of Zhaoge University's intranet was S-class.

To put that into perspective, the firewall rating of the Zhaoge City municipal government's intranet was C-class.

What more could be said?

Ultimately, the only piece of intelligence they managed to acquire was that Chen Jiang had donated a library building to Zhaoge University.

Ah, that explained it.

Bolstered by the almighty power of money, everything suddenly made rational sense.

His initial resentment toward the school administrators transformed into genuine admiration. He sincerely respected anyone who genuinely delivered results when paid; it just felt so reassuring to deal with professionals.

Right at that moment—

"So damn annoying!"

Sensing an aura rapidly approaching from the distance, the middle-aged man’s expression turned grim instantly. "Are these damned sewer rats blessed with dog noses? Again?"

Without a moment of hesitation, he leaped directly into the drainage ditch before him and vanished.

Several minutes later.

A middle-aged man clad in casual attire roared in on an off-road motorcycle, coming to an abrupt, screeching halt. After pulling out a camera to photograph the scene as evidence, he muttered in a gloomy, hoarse voice, "Can't these brain-dead bastards belonging to the 'God-Desecrator' faction ever change their base of operations?"

"Why do they always have to hang out under the overpass in my jurisdiction?"

"Every single time, it forces me to run over here. Are they doing this just to disgust me on purpose?"

Just then—

A voice suddenly chimed in through his earpiece.

"One of the candidates for the 'Thirteenth Deity' selected by the organization is about to enter Zhaoge University as a freshman. He will be within your jurisdiction, and you are assigned to keep watch over him covertly. Return to the bureau immediately to receive your mission details."

"Wonderful," the middle-aged man spat out flatly with a blank expression. "Instant fatherhood."

"If you people keep torturing me like this, I'll end up betraying the organization sooner or later."

"To hell with the Natural Bureau."

"Agent 729, you forgot to turn off your open mic."

"Forgot. My apologies."

"Don't mention it."