15: It's confirmed, I'm a supporting role

The relic program crashed, and the relic entered ownerless mode, greatly reducing its danger.

This was both good news and bad news.

The good news was that there was no danger.

The bad news was that the gains were greatly reduced, and many things preserved by the relic program might be destroyed as the relic program crashed, with knowledge-based inheritances suffering greater loss.

"Lin Chen, are you exploring the relic with us, or exploring it alone? If together, the gains will be split equally. If alone, the amount you get depends entirely on luck."

Lin Chen pondered for a moment and decided to explore the relic alone.

He was quite self-aware as a third wheel and didn't want to disturb the young couple's date here.

Exploring alone, he wasn't afraid of encountering danger, and he could freely use old dengs book, utilizing its built-in appraisal skill to check the relic's situation, ensuring his gains wouldn't be small.

This relic was vast, covering an area of thirty kilometers in diameter, with dense architectural clusters showcasing its former glory.

There were two paths before Lin Chen and the other two.

The path on the left led to several towering buildings with high architectural density, while the path on the right led to sparser buildings, subtly interspersed with green vegetation.

"Lin Chen, there are two of us, so we have an advantage. Why don't you choose the direction to explore first, and we'll explore in the opposite direction?"

"That works. I'll choose the path on the right."

"Alright then, we'll take the path on the left."

The two parties went their separate ways. Lin Chen walked alone on the path, watching Lin Fan and the other person get further and further away on the other path, feeling a bit regretful.

His innate unease crept out from the bottom of his heart.

Being alone, he was somewhat afraid.

His mind was filled with distracting thoughts, and most thoughts imagined Lin Fan and the other person as bad people, with conspiracy theories popping up one after another.

"Lin Chen, you can do this. What's there to be afraid of? Don't overthink it. It's just a relic; it can't eat you. Go boldly forward!"

"Lin Fan and Oriental Red Sleeve aren't bad people. They have no motive to harm me, and I haven't made enemies with them. This is just a normal relic exploration. They don't want to walk with me, a third wheel. There's nothing wrong with that."

Lin Chen encouraged himself, suppressing the distracting thoughts in his heart.

After a path of only a few hundred meters, he quickly reached the end.

On the other path, Lin Fan and Oriental Red Sleeve had already entered the architectural cluster, while Lin Chen had only just arrived in front of it.

Passing through the gate inscribed with "Dongting," Lin Chen continued forward and realized he had likely arrived at a residential area. This area was filled with courtyards.

Each courtyard was protected by a barrier, and the surrounding paths extended in all directions, with many leading into other architectural clusters.

Lin Chen did not act rashly regarding the unknown barriers.

He summoned old dengs book and activated its built-in appraisal skill, and soon, he had results.

Information about the barriers and even this relic was appraised.

This relic had existed for over forty-seven thousand years.

In the mid-to-late Imperial Era, a royal prince personally constructed it for the purpose of training royal descendants, similar to the Nirvana Training Camp Lin Chen had experienced.

The relic was lost when that royal prince died in battle, forty-five thousand years ago, meaning the relic had been operational for two thousand years.

The entire relic was divided into three parts: the core area, the functional area, and the courtyard area.

The courtyard area, where Lin Chen was currently located, was the residence of royal descendants and the staff who maintained the relic.

Each courtyard was expensively built, inscribed with formations to provide an excellent cultivation environment for the royal descendants living within. Occasionally, small surprises were hidden in the courtyards, obtainable only by very lucky residents.

The functional area was where the various training exercises of the relic took place.

Buildings with magical functions such as the Gravity Tower, the Sky-Reaching Tower (virtual technology), the Ancient Book Spirit Tower, and the Comprehension Tower could comprehensively hone the royal descendants and improve their abilities.

The core area was hidden on the second underground level and required a special token to enter.

The core area had only one function: bloodline refinement.

"Crack ~"

Based on the appraisal results from old dengs book, Lin Chen opened the courtyard barrier as if he were its original owner and entered the courtyard.

Holding old dengs book, Lin Chen only needed to invest his mental energy into it, and any treasures within a hundred-meter radius would have nowhere to hide, being marked one by one by old dengs book.

"Cheat, this is a cheat!"

"And I'm the one cheating, even better."

A single courtyard covered about a hundred meters in diameter, and old dengs book could instantly reveal any treasures hidden within.

In the courtyard area, there were two hundred independent courtyards for royal descendants and four rows of terraced rooms, totaling one thousand rooms, for service servants.

After the erosion of time, only eight courtyard barriers had lost their effectiveness; the remaining courtyard barriers were intact, and the treasures accumulated within them were well-preserved.

However, all the terraced rooms were in a state of collapsed ruins, with no treasures inside. Servants were not entitled to private property, which aligned well with historical descriptions of the Imperial Era.

Without stopping, Lin Chen spent a full ten hours collecting all the treasures in the courtyard area.

The main reason was that some treasures were deeply hidden and required disassembling the courtyard buildings to obtain them, which was quite time-consuming.

From 192 courtyards, Lin Chen disassembled 113 relatively complete sets of seventh-tier formation components, and 802 scattered treasures, ranging from a minimum of third-tier to a maximum of eighth-tier.

There were 360 third-tier treasures, 306 fourth-tier treasures, 90 fifth-tier treasures, 40 sixth-tier treasures, 5 seventh-tier treasures, and 1 eighth-tier treasure, with a total value exceeding two hundred billion federal currency.

If Lin Chen didn't have old dengs book, he would have certainly missed many treasures, and his gains would have been at most one-tenth of what he had now.

old dengs book was simply an external cheat.

"This time, I've eaten very well. I wonder how Lin Fan and the other person's gains are. After all this time, they haven't come to find me, so it seems they're still exploring the functional area. I wonder what their gains are."

As Lin Chen thought this, he left the courtyard area and entered the functional area. He had already lost contact with Lin Fan and the other person, and it would be difficult to find them in the densely built functional area.

Fortunately, the three had agreed to meet back at the entrance after one day, regardless of their gains.

Compared to Lin Chen's "plunder everything" style of relic exploration, Lin Fan and the other person's exploration style was much more normal. They first headed to the four high towers in the functional area.

Ten hours later, they were exploring the last high tower—the Ancient Book Spirit Tower.

The Ancient Book Spirit Tower was the only functional tower still operating among the four high towers, and the Ancient Book Spirit within it was awakened by the two.

The Ancient Book Spirit, having been scoured by time, had long since broken free from the control of the Imperial Royal Family and possessed its own thoughts. Only the core directive not to harm humans remained effective.

Thus, Lin Fan, with his overwhelming luck, gained the Ancient Book Spirit's recognition, acquiring control of the entire relic and the qualification to enter the core area.

Oriental Red Sleeve, who was with him, also obtained the most supreme royal inheritance. Coincidentally, a branch of the Imperial Era's royal family was named Dongfang. During the acceptance of the inheritance, she happened to activate her Emperor Clan Bloodline, causing a bloodline regression.

Compared to Lin Fan and the other person, Lin Chen was completely a supporting character. Although his gains seemed immense, he had actually missed the greatest opportunity, as he simply didn't seem to have the protagonist's fate or luck.

Upon entering the functional area, Lin Chen did not rush to find Lin Fan and the other person. He continued to follow the markings of old dengs book, plundering everything valuable like a wild goose pulling out feathers.

He was too short on money, and now that he had an opportunity to pick up money, he wouldn't let it go. He didn't know how long it would be until he encountered such a safe money-picking environment again.

In a way, he was also benefiting from Lin Fan and Oriental Red Sleeve's opportunities.

Another ten hours passed, and Lin Chen, transformed into a demolition captain, dismantled all buildings in the functional area except for the four high towers, collecting all valuable items buried within the buildings.

"It seems they are both in the high towers. According to the usual novel tropes, they are probably receiving an inheritance in the Ancient Book Spirit Tower, as the other three high towers don't seem like inheritance towers."

Just as Lin Chen was about to approach the Gravity Tower, preparing to dig out the ninth-tier gravity stone buried within it according to the guide provided by old dengs book.

The four high towers instantly shrunk and fell into Lin Fan's hand as he floated down from the air.

At this moment, Lin Fan, with the even more beautiful Oriental Red Sleeve in his left arm and four small, shimmering towers floating in his right hand, was too showy. Not only was his aura incredibly high, but he was also incredibly handsome.

As for Lin Chen, he was practically a nobody by the roadside.

Because he had to dismantle buildings, he was covered in dust and dirt, looking like a construction worker.

Comparing the two, the difference was immediately apparent.

"Alas, I was too slow."

Seeing this situation, Lin Chen could only resign himself.

The four high towers were clearly a matching set of buildings, inscribed with inscriptions that allowed them to change at will. With Lin Chen's current strength, even if he wanted to dismantle them, he couldn't.

As for contending with Lin Fan, he felt he hadn't lived long enough.

Making an enemy of a suspected protagonist-like entity was simply courting death for a supporting character like him.

Do not be greedy; gain and loss are all destiny.