126: Chapter 126 The Beautiful Black Market Merchant and... the New Satellite?
However, it was only when he truly stepped into the Deathmatch stage that he understood the meaning of true malice.
The enemies in this stage weren't slow-moving skeletons at all, but a pack of Shadow Hounds moving so fast they left afterimages, plus an elite Giant Wraith!
"Wang-chan! Hold the line for me!"
Cu Chulainn stood in the middle of the path with his spear, barely managing to stab two hounds to death.
But in the face of the Giant Wraith's unreasonable, ultra-high attack power, the three-star Servant's fragile body was like papier-mâché.
Accompanied by a heavy, powerful blow, Cu Chulainn, his Evasion exhausted, let out a scream and exited the field in a burst of golden light.
The defensive line collapsed instantly, and the remaining hounds, like a passing gale, charged straight through the goal line.
[Sanity: 0/5]
[Mental Defense Line Collapsed, Exploration Failed.]
[Current Exploration Floor: Floor 1. Rating: Atrocious.]
The screen gradually dimmed, and The Count of Monte Cristo's mocking laughter echoed in his ears once more.
PD stared blankly at the large "Exploration Failed" before him, took off his VR headset, and rubbed his aching temples.
"Brothers, I'm done playing."
PD took a deep breath and spoke into the microphone with a face full of grief and indignation, "This mode is purely designed to mess with your head! Not being allowed to bring your own Servants is one thing, but the card dealing is totally RNG-dependent. If you don't draw good cards, you just wait to die! Trash game, refund my money!"
Just as he was about to force-quit the game, the results screen in front of him suddenly flickered.
Based on his recent clearance experience, the system converted it into Potential Points, lighting up a permanent buff called "Subconscious Reconstruction."
[Permanent Buff Unlocked: Gain one free chance to refresh the Initial Recruitment Vouchers.]
PD's finger stopped above the exit button.
His brain worked rapidly, frantically flashing back to those three sickly green Caster Recruitment Vouchers from the start.
If he had this free refresh chance, he could definitely wipe away those three unlucky Mage vouchers and replace them with powerful melee DPS!
With melee, he wouldn't leak mobs and lose health in the first stage. If he hadn't lost health, he could have tanked a few more hits during that Deathmatch just now...
A perfect logic of "as long as I can refresh the cards well next time, I can definitely clear it" formed in his mind.
"...Uh, brothers."
PD withdrew his hand from the exit button without changing his expression and cleared his throat. "I wasn't in the zone just now. Now that I have a buff bonus, as long as the dealer acts like a human, I can definitely make it to the third floor! Watch me go again!"
He smoothly clicked the [Restart Dream] button.
One minute later.
"Oh for god's sake! Why is it all Caster vouchers again! Old Thief Gu, I'm not done with you!" PD's pig-slaughtering scream echoed through the dungeon.
Despite the cursing, PD decisively used "Subconscious Reconstruction."
The three unlucky Mage vouchers dissipated in a blue light, revealing three brand-new class cards: [Saber], [Archer], and [Lancer].
"We're taking off! A Three Knights start, this run is as solid as an old dog!" PD was overjoyed.
He'd learned his lesson this time. To maximize his early Hope points, he spent 2 points to grab the Lancer [Cu Chulainn] as his frontline tank, then got the one-star F2P AoE powerhouse, the Archer [Arash], for free.
Finally, he spent 3 Hope points on the Saber voucher to claim the four-star God of War with a terrifying AoE Noble Phantasm—[Artoria Pendragon (Alter)] (Saber Alter)!
With Saber Alter's overbearing output as a safety net, combined with a reasonable "Lancer-Archer" lineup, the trash mobs of the first floor were like clay chickens and pottery dogs before PD.
Soon, he smoothly pushed to the special node at the end of the first floor—[The Black Market of Grudges].
As the scene shifted, PD thought he would see that familiar profiteer Da Vinci standing behind the counter selling things.
However, when the dark red mist dissipated, the figure appearing behind the dungeon's black market bar was a brand-new character who had never appeared in any main story or event plot!
It was a woman with a hot figure and dazzling long pink hair.
She wore a dark pink, high-slit qipao that perfectly outlined her seductive curves, and a pair of semi-rimless glasses rested on the bridge of her nose, exuding intellect and shrewdness.
Even though the low growls of monsters still echoed in the corridor outside, elegant jazz music played inside this black market. The woman sat on a high stool with her long legs crossed, nonchalantly swirling a glass of red wine in her hand.
Seeing the player's arrival, her narrow, fox-like charming eyes narrowed slightly, and her red lips slowly curled up into a signature wicked smile.
It was a lethal smile—a mix of high-and-mighty pleasure, unabashed mischief, and a hint of sadistic "spectator" amusement. One look at it made people instinctively shout "this woman is so trashy" in their hearts.
"My, my, welcome, Master of Chaldea. Looking at your disheveled appearance, you must be working very hard exploring the deep dreams, aren't you?"
The woman put down her wine glass, stood up gracefully, and handed over a business card with a professional posture:
"I am the CEO of NFF Service—Koyanskaya. This is our company's franchised black market in the dream domain."
"As long as you can afford enough Mana Prisms, we can provide you with everything from god-slaying arms to Authorities with both hands. Of course, we offer fair prices to all, and no credit is allowed~"
Looking at this new character who was bursting with presence, written all over with "danger" yet so glamorous that one couldn't look away, PD was completely dazed.
"Holy crap... Old Thief Gu's modeling! This figure! Those long legs!"
PD swallowed hard in the livestream room, his eyes wide as saucers. "Who is this woman?! We've never seen her in the main story! She's actually a hidden black market merchant?!"
The bullet chat in the entire livestream room also exploded instantly.
"Wife! No, Madam CEO! Step on me!"
"Old Thief Gu is too good at making female characters! This pink-haired qipao is exactly my type!"
"Wait, the main story never mentioned any 'NFF Service'! This is definitely a huge new Satellite! Gu Yi is secretly stuffing new characters for future plots into the Roguelike mode!"
"This aura... she's clearly no ordinary NPC. Feels like a dangerous oligarch dealing in arms, so cool!"
Facing such a top-tier beauty, PD originally wanted to go up and strike up a conversation, but when he clicked on the [Collection] shelf behind her, his brain, which had been dazed by beauty, was instantly snapped awake by the exorbitant prices.
The collections here were varied, and all had powerful effects that could change the tide of battle, but the prices were also ridiculously high.
"[Tentacle Slice of a Demon God Pillar]: After a battle ends, there is a 50% chance to drop 1 extra Mana Prism. This thing is a financial management god-tier item, but this pink-haired fox actually dares to sell it to me for 16 Prisms?!"
"[Merlin's Internet Scam Terminal]: Permanently reduces the price of all items in the shop by 50%. Good grief, Merlin is doing telecom scams even in dreams?"
While complaining about Koyanskaya's black-hearted prices, PD locked his gaze on two eerie collections.
"[The Magus Killer's Broken Pocket Watch]: An antique pocket watch stained with the residual magical energy of 'Time Alter'. Gives all [Assassin Class Servants] a 30% chance to inflict 'Stun' for 2 seconds on enemies with normal attacks."
"[Redundant Magic Circuits]: Every time a Servant attacks an enemy, there is a 20% chance to randomly reset the cooldown of one of their skills."
"Brothers, I have a bold idea..." Looking at these two collections, PD's sharp intuition smelled the scent of a "cheese" strategy.
Without hesitation, he went broke, handing over all the Mana Prisms he'd saved from killing mobs to this smiling fox, taking both collections into his inventory.