"Whale, you gotta step it up!"
"Seven Hundred Million Bro, I'll even call you Daddy! Just please stop messing around!"
"Big Bro, please stop running dungeons! Can't you just increase your Combat Power!?"
Another week passed. In the world channel of *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms*, countless people were spamming complaints.
This past week, the number one spot on the Combat Power leaderboard was still held by "Skyrocketing," and his Combat Power remained miles ahead of second place. But what made numerous players lose their minds was that they were losing money hand over fist.
A week ago, that bookie who had supposedly gone bust—the one getting flamed on the forums and in the game—had started taking bets again. This was Brother Kaipan, who was rumored to have debt collectors after him in real life. Moreover, Brother Kaipan went all-out with the betting this time, setting the various odds to an unbelievable level. What surprised everyone even more was that Brother Kaipan had also appeared on the game's Combat Power leaderboard. By looking at the increase in his Combat Power, some people deduced that he had recharged at least two million.
Because of the enticing odds and Brother Kaipan's massive Combat Power increase, and because they heard he had paid off all his previous debts, many people placed bets again when faced with his new betting pool. And then, everyone discovered that Brother Kaipan really did pay out on the high-stakes wagers. In response, hordes of people followed suit and placed their bets.
However, for the next six days, everyone was completely wiped out. All of the bettors were wiped out!
It wasn't that Brother Kaipan had rigged their bets. It was that "Skyrocketing," the number one player on the Combat Power leaderboard, was completely unpredictable. His Combat Power increases were baffling. One day it would increase by 10,000, the next by 9,000,000, and the day after it would drop by 30,000. He was utterly unpredictable. No one could bet correctly!
The result was that all the chips were won by Brother Kaipan, the bookie. This made many people lose their minds. Some even clamored about reporting him to the authorities. Of course, some were shouting that Brother Kaipan was a shill for "Skyrocketing," specifically hired to scam everyone out of their money. But this argument quickly fell apart. The guy had already recharged hundreds of millions in the game; would he really care about scamming them out of a few million? You've got to be kidding, man!
The drama failed to gain traction, so the many players who had bet and lost several times could only scream randomly in the Game World channel.
Shen Fei, who had been lazing at home for a week playing games every day, took a deep breath and logged back into the game. Seeing all the megaphone messages directed at him on the screen, he simply ignored them. He'd seen plenty of this kind of talk.
He had spent the entire week running various dungeons. He had farmed the Heaven-Reaching Tower over and over again. He also used Acceleration Scrolls to clear thousands upon thousands of the highest-level Secret Realms. Some of the two-player and party Secret Realms were farmed with Sun Yu.
The slightly chubby Sun Yu had now returned to Qing City and would come over to hang out whenever he was free. In real life, Sun Yu knew Shen Fei's daily plans in advance and would estimate his daily Combat Power increase. Shen Fei also knew about him going to the game forums to take bets, but he couldn't be bothered to care.
After Sun Yu came back, he even advised Shen Fei not to recharge so much money into the game. But after Shen Fei recharged five million into Sun Yu's game account, Sun Yu immediately dropped his protests and ecstatically sang its praises. A day ago, Sun Yu paid him back six million, all of which was won from taking bets on the game forums.
Over the past week, Shen Fei had already recharged the entire one billion into the game. However, he hadn't spent it all, having only used a little over seven hundred million so far. This week, he was mainly focused on running dungeons and farming Tower Master skills.
At this moment, he had already selected the five skills he wanted to learn from the massive number he had farmed:
[Ten Thousand Linked Bonds: Different Defense Towers can create Bond effects. No limit on quantity or distance.]
[Enlarge and Reduce: Allows items, including but not limited to Defense Towers, to shrink or grow in size.]
[Damage Sharing: Damage taken by a Defense Tower is shared among all units.]
[Skill Cloning: Allows cloning a skill from Defense Tower A onto Defense Tower B.]
[Flying Skill: Grants the Tower Master the ability to fly.]
Shen Fei had selected all five of his new skills. The descriptions looked simple, but their effects were anything but. These were the ones he had handpicked from tens of thousands of skills.
Take "Ten Thousand Linked Bonds," for example. After learning this skill, all the Defense Towers under his command would produce complex Bond effects, with the number of possible effects reaching into the tens of thousands. For instance, the Ghost Tower and the Canglang Summoning Tower could form the "Ghost Howl Wolf Cry" Bond, increasing their respective Comprehensive Combat Power by 10% and damage to soul-type enemies by 30%. The Canglang Tower could also form the "Myriad Beast Stampede" Bond with the Black Tiger Tower, Cheetah Tower, and others, increasing Combat Power while enhancing damage against beast-type enemies. The Stone-Throwing Tower could form the "Ceaseless Cannonfire" Bond with the Flame Tower, increasing their respective Comprehensive Combat Power. His 612 Defense Towers, through various combinations, produced several thousand types of Bonds. The effects of these Bonds could increase the overall Combat Power of his Defense Towers several times over. Among them were also many Bonds that didn't add Combat Power but produced special effects. For example, the Zhongkui Tower and the Mist Tower could produce a dream-like enthrallment effect, while the Zhongkui Tower and the Red-clothed Female Ghost Tower could produce a Devouring Ghosts and Controlling Souls effect.
And this was just the effect of the single skill "Ten Thousand Linked Bonds."
The second skill, "Enlarge and Reduce," was even more powerful. This skill could change the size of anything he owned. It could make his Defense Towers grow from three meters tall to three thousand meters tall or shrink them down to a size of three centimeters. Not only could the skill alter the size of his Defense Towers, but it could even enlarge and reduce his Tower-Carrying Beast, the Black Tortoise. With this skill, the Super Holy Beast Xuanwu could grow to become tens of kilometers in size or shrink down to fit in his palm.
In any case, the five rare skills he had carefully selected were all extremely powerful.
I've learned the skills. Now all that's left are the Homestead and Gemstones! Shen Fei thought, clicking rapidly to learn the five skills while planning his next moves.
A week had passed. Now, there were only two days left until April Fools' Day, 2024. And he still had two major areas where he needed to continue spending money.
WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH.
After clicking to learn the five Skill Books, Shen Fei's Combat Power began to skyrocket once again. The effects of these powerful skills pushed his Combat Power straight past 200 million. At this moment, the Combat Power of the second-place Taiyi Zhenren was only 9 million.
Facing his soaring Combat Power, Shen Fei, who had long expected this, smiled faintly and turned his gaze to his homestead. Over the past week, he had given all the miscellaneous items obtained from running dungeons to his homestead's steward—Sky Control. Sky Control, at this moment, had also been completely transformed. With Shen Fei infusing tens of millions worth of resources into him, his Combat Power alone had reached 20 million. An NPC Hero's Combat Power was higher than that of Taiyi Zhenren, who was second on the Combat Power leaderboard. After the NPCs invade the real world in the future, Sky Control would be a powerful ally.
[Name: Sky Control]
[Race: Fox Ming Race]
[Talent: Orange (max)]
[Loyalty: Diehard (max)]
[Tier: Eighth Tier, Seven Rank]
[Skills: Sky Control, Fox Charm, Defense Tower Series, Rapid Fire, Check for Gaps and Fill Them]
[Innate Talent: Eye of Insight]
[Crystal: Rainbow Carrot (Special Type)]
[Defense Towers: Tenth Tier Defense Tower x11, Ninth Tier Defense Tower x23, Eighth Tier Defense Tower x171, Seventh Tier Defense Tower...]
[Combat Power: 21,394,677]
[Note 1: If the Crystal shatters or the Master dies, Sky Control will die instantly!]
[Note 2: Aura-type skills can be shared between the Tower Master and the steward.]
He opened Sky Control's Attributes panel and slowly examined it. Shen Fei saw that his level had already reached the Eighth Tier and he had maxed out all five skills. Besides his innate skills "Sky Control" and "Fox Charm," he had also learned three skills related to Defense Towers. Although he couldn't intervene in Sky Control's leveling, Defense Tower construction, or skill selection, with the massive pile of resources, Sky Control's Combat Power had already reached 20 million. A Hero-like steward with a Comprehensive Combat Power higher than "Taiyi Zhenren," the second-place player on the leaderboard—that was just buggy.
Additionally, Shen Fei also saw that he and Sky Control could share Aura-type skills, such as "Range Aura," "Attack Power Aura," and so on.
Just as he was about to test Sky Control's Combat Power, Shen Fei paused. His gaze snapped to the system text that had suddenly popped up...