As long as you have the courage, fierce ghosts go on maternity leave.

"Congratulations, esteemed Alexander, for successfully completing the instance. Instance settlement begins!"

"The fourth hidden faction task of this instance is completed. You’ve found the Abandoned Emperor Stone, raising your instance rating to S!"

"You’ve successfully made contact with the hidden fourth faction, unlocking the hidden fifth faction, altering the instance rating method! Instance rating promoted to SSS!"

"As the lord of the fifth faction, in this instance, your faction has killed 643 ghost generals, 20 ghost princes, and 1 ghost king! Instance rating raised to EX!"

"As the faction lord, your faction has successfully destroyed the crystals of three other factions and killed three faction leaders. Louis will succeed as the heir of Dark Hell in a month. You’ve achieved the final victory of the faction war! Your instance rating is already maxed and cannot be raised further. You receive the following rewards for this instance!"

"Ghost Energy +12000, Mist Instance Pass, Ghost Skill Special Effect Success Rate Increase Card, Abyss Crystal *1."

With this information flooding his mind, Alexander finds himself back in the familiar haunt of the Fierce Ghost Apartment.

"Alexander!"

"Honey~"

The moment Alexander appears, two joyous voices, one sweet and one soft, fill the air. He is immediately embraced by Anne and Su Rong.It’s been a while since Alexander has been away from the apartment. Even though they have been keeping in touch via the ghost bead, their absence is palpable.

Alexander doesn’t rush to examine his rewards; instead, he turns his focus to Anne and Su Rong.

They could have afforded a larger residence by now, especially given that Anne’s original home was much larger than Su Rong’s one-bedroom apartment. Yet, in unspoken agreement, none of them ever contemplated leaving.

Hugging Alexander tightly on each side, Anne and Su Rong are visibly elated. In his absence, they have been busy, something Alexander is aware of thanks to the ghost bead.

They have redecorated the Undead Street’s Motorcycle Club with new plugins according to Alexander’s wishes, selling off the unsuitable ones for new replacements.

"Alexander," Su Rong starts, her eyes filled with a curious wonder, "I get why you had us retrofit the motorcycle instance and mass-produce bikes and tobacco. But putting all those plugins there—don’t you think it’s a bit excessive?"

Su Rong’s confusion is understandable, given that Alexander has been ceaselessly transporting plugins through the ghost bead. The amassed number of plugins is staggering.

Don’t forget, before entering the Fierce Ghost Street Showdown instance, Alexander had already scoured hundreds of instances on the blacklist. After the showdown, he went on another spree of raids.

Had it not been for Edward approaching him early on, Alexander would have cleared more than eight thousand instances listed on his notebook. Before Edward found him, he had already cleared over two hundred instances.

The sheer volume of plugins from hundreds of instances is an alarming figure. If converted to ghost currency, it would likely amount to one hundred million ghost coins.

The motorcycle instance has a sizable area, but what Alexander has chosen to decorate is just the massive plaza at the top of the mountain and the semicircular building. Plugins worth one hundred million ghost coins squeezed into this small space yield an eerie opulence.

The ground is a tapestry of blood-stained tiles, as if the mountain’s summit has been paved with high-grade ceramics. Periodically, you’ll see a dried corpse standing there, withered and black like a mummy.

Yet their skulls are fleshless, punctuated by holes emitting cold blue or eerie green light. It’s as if the entire road has been illuminated with premium crystal chandeliers.

Then there are the unsettling eyeballs and the scratching arms emerging from the ground. The plaza feels like a slice of hell. For ghosts, however, it’s nothing short of paradise.

The dense ghost energy attracted by the plugin-induced fear field is so palpable that ripples of ghost energy appear with a mere wave of the hand.

But that’s not even the most ostentatious part. Inside the semicircular building, what you find is simply resplendent. At the center of the structure, a gigantic platform made of white bones holds a human skull table.

On the table sits a polished skull base and a small hammer made from a leg bone. Below the platform are 5,000 lavish bone chairs. Each chair is worth 2,000 ghost coins, and 5,000 such chairs amass a value of ten million ghost coins!

That’s not to mention the blood-stained tiles covering the floor or the myriad human head chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, filling every nook and cranny with eyeballs. The quantity of such plugins is simply beyond imagination.

But the most extravagant area is the second floor, partitioned into thirty private rooms designated for influential figures. Consequently, the decor here is even more opulent, but far less brutish than the exterior.

It exudes class, avoiding the clutter of too many plugins. Instead, at the entrance stands an air-conditioning ghost and, yawning in the middle of the room, a computer ghost.

This pairing constitutes the height of luxury because both of these ghosts have been forcefully upgraded by Alexander using ’ghost food’ to reach the soldier rank.

Two soldier-ranked ghosts, and of this rare electronic variety no less, exemplify the lavishness of the decor here. That’s why Su Rong finds Alexander’s actions perplexing.

"It’s simple; I plan to invite the wealthiest of Dark Hell’s upper echelons for a grand auction," Alexander explains.

"My love, what are you selling? Motorcycles? Even if you have a lot of them, isn’t this setting a bit excessive?" Annie, overhearing the conversation, inquires in confusion.

"It’s not just those. I have an array of valuable items to auction, but the true gems are these!" Alexander says, producing two items.

One is a snack transformed from Hurricane’s corpse, and even its packaging sports some crudely written letters—’Hurricane Chips.’ The other is chocolate made from HongMu’s corpse, similarly labeled with makeshift lettering as ’HongMu Chocolate.’

"This is..." Annie immediately thinks of Alexander’s special ability and exclaims, "Ghost food? You once said you’d never sell it; have you changed your mind?"

"Back then, we were relatively weak, and I feared exposing my ’Ghost Chef’ skill would invite trouble. Now it’s different. I’m the honorary president of the Fierce Ghost Association. This status can handle most troubles. It’s time for this item to shine," Alexander elaborates.

"My love, are those soldier-ranked ghost foods in your hands? Those could fetch hundreds of thousands of ghost coins at auction!" Annie asks curiously once more.

"No," Alexander shakes his head.

"Is it Fierce rank then?" Annie asks with a hint of disappointment.

It’s as if she’s trying to cushion the blow for Alexander, adding, "My love, even if it’s just Fierce rank, that’s alright! If quality can’t make it, we have quantity. You surely have plenty of this rank, right? Don’t be too disheartened!"

"These are neither soldier rank nor Fierce rank," Alexander shakes his head, smiling as he holds the two items. "These are Ghost Prince-rank ghost food!"

"Ghost Prince!" At these words, both Su Rong and Annie’s eyes widen in astonishment. They are well aware of the effects of ghost food and understand what these Prince-ranked items represent.

If a soldier-ranked ghost consumes this Prince-ranked ghost food, they have a 99% chance of being promoted directly to Prince rank.

For a moment, Su Rong’s and Annie’s heart rates accelerate. Since Alexander is willing to auction these items, it suggests he has more than one in stock. And this represents the tantalizing allure of becoming a Ghost Prince.

Unable to resist, Annie first lunges forward, hugging Alexander and cooing, "My love, I’ve missed you! Can I pamper you later? I’ve learned some new positions from a magazine recently, guaranteed to make you extremely comfortable!"

Even Su Rong hesitates, contemplating whether to act cutesy toward Alexander. The response of both women testifies to the massive allure of these items.

"Do you think I’d forget you two? You both get some," Alexander says, nodding as he retrieves items he’d prepared earlier.

These are two identical grand snack gift packs, each containing ten General-ranked ghost food, two Prince-ranked ghost food, and King-ranked ghost food made from Anlan’s corpse. Alexander evenly distributes them between the two women.

These two grand snack packs are more than sufficient for elevating their strength to the level of Ghost King.

"Darling~" Anne didn’t rush to indulge in ghost foods; instead, she sensually gazed at Alexander, saying, "I want to repay you, not just me, but my sister also wants to thank you. Let’s make love together!"

Anne in white stockings finished speaking, and Anne in black stockings also appeared in the room. She was even more direct, stripping off her clothes directly and appearing naked before Alexander. Her eyes were already filled with desire.

"Don’t fight over me, both of you. I haven’t seen Alexander in a long time, and today I must be the first. Master, please reward me generously with your whip!"

Su Rong watched silently from the side, smiling softly and looking at Alexander with tenderness. Then she knelt down, removed Alexander’s pants, and began to kiss his penis passionately.

...（I can’t be certain whether you all enjoy "lemon" content. If you do, please comment "Yes" and I’ll incorporate that into my future work. If not, please comment "No," and I’ll avoid it as much as possible in my future writing.）

Seven hours later, Alexander rose from the bed in high spirits. After a long session of passionate lovemaking, the three women were utterly drained and had fallen asleep.

Alexander felt no fatigue. He poured himself a glass of water and then began to check his system rewards. After all, the rewards from this time were substantial enough to elevate him to a soldier-level rank.

This mission was evidently unlike the low-tier instances he had participated in before. Even a Ghost Emperor had appeared, altering the nature of the rewards.

Gone were the ghost coins; instead, he received a direct reward of 12,000 units of ghost energy. Compared to the countless ordinary instances Alexander had previously completed, this was clearly a more upscale reward.

As for the item rewards, they were similarly extraordinary. Aside from the Abyss Crystal that could elevate one’s abilities to soldier-level, the other two items were invaluable.

First was the passcard for the Mist Instance—a simple white card with an equally simple description:

Mist Instance Passcard

Description: An invitation from the depths of the mist, granting you entry to a Mist Instance only accessible to Ghost Kings. In there, a step forward leads to the abyss, a step back to hell; stand still, and you find a fast-track to power.

Effect: Use it to randomly open a Mist Instance; a guiding envoy will arrive within three days.

The card was entirely unpredictable; no one could say what kind of instance would appear. Yet this was, after all, a pass to enter the Mist Instance! Edward had once flaunted a similar pass in front of him, making it clear that obtaining one before reaching King-level was no easy feat. More importantly, this was not a one-time-use paper card but a reusable magnetic card, similar to a bank card. According to the description, it also had no usage limits.

This was invaluable! Under normal circumstances, only a Ghost King could obtain entry to a Mist Instance. But Alexander needed to boost his powers rapidly; he didn’t have the luxury of time for slow, incremental growth. A Mist Instance was undoubtedly the best option.

This time, Alexander’s primary reason for heading into the Mist Instance, apart from Selena’s invitation, is to find Abyssal Crystals that will rapidly enhance his abilities.

If this approach proves effective, he could repeatedly enter the Mist Instance, which would unquestionably be a tremendous convenience.

Carefully stowing away the pass card, Alexander turns his attention to the second reward.

Ghost Skill Effect Success Rate Increase Card

Description: A magical card imbued with incredible power.

Function: Upon use, one can select any Ghost Skill Effect and increase its success rate to 100% within ten seconds.

Reading this exceedingly brief description, especially the mention of Ghost Skill Effects, Alexander can’t help but feel disappointed.

If only it were applicable to talents. His talent, Social Proof, would be far more compelling if it had a 100% chance of activating its traits—that is, any item like the Tombstone Rose that could increase favorability would work without fail.

Ten seconds would be more than enough time to turn Kind Louis’s mom into Obedient Louis’s mom.

Regrettably, this card is effective only on Ghost Skills and does nothing for talents. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Just as Alexander is about to put the card away, an idea strikes him. There’s no mention of any skill level restrictions for achieving a 100% success rate.

So, what about King-level skills, or even God-level skills? Like, for instance, his Ghost Chef skill?