One SSS Affix per Level: My Novice Club Can Slay Gods!

"You’re the archer who was in that couple’s party?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Did Gray Ledger send you?"

A trace of annoyance appeared on the girl’s face.

She raised a hand and pushed the baseball bat aside, then walked straight over to the sofa and sat down.

Her long, slender legs crossed elegantly. Her fair skin gleamed beneath the light, the smooth, well-proportioned lines of her legs resting directly on the table.

"Is this how you welcome a major client?"

John lowered the baseball bat.

"I’ve never met a major client who hacks someone else’s door lock."

"Get to the point."

"Otherwise, I’m calling the police."

The girl rolled her eyes.

"I sent you so many messages, and you didn’t reply to a single one."

"I had no choice but to come find you myself."

She glanced around the apartment and curled her lips.

"Fortunately, you weren’t exactly difficult to locate."

John’s movements paused.

"You’re FireRose?"

The girl waved her phone and raised her chin proudly.

"You’re not too slow."

John looked her over again.

She appeared delicate enough to be blown over by a strong wind.

She was no taller than five foot three.

Yet she had casually spent nine hundred Gold Coins to purchase a batch of equipment that no one else dared touch.

Her identity was clearly anything but ordinary.

FireRose glanced at the five suitcases on the floor.

"You’re moving?"

"Gray Ledger could show up at any moment."

John did not bother hiding it.

"This place isn’t safe anymore."

The girl sat up straight.

"It won’t matter where you move."

"Give me your gaming helmet."

John frowned, but eventually handed it over.

The girl pulled a data cable from beneath her cloak and connected her phone to the helmet.

Dense streams of code rapidly flashed across the screen.

John stared at them for a long time.

He did not understand a single symbol.

Less than two minutes later, the girl unplugged the cable and tossed the helmet back to him.

"Done."

John caught it.

"What did you do?"

"I overwrote your login address."

The girl spoke casually.

"From now on, your login signal will be redirected through multiple layers of virtual nodes."

"Ordinary tracking methods will only locate a collection of login addresses that don’t actually exist."

"A modification this simple isn’t enough to trouble me."

John fell silent for a moment.

He understood every individual word.

Together, they might as well have been an ancient scripture.

"So who exactly are you?"

"And why are you helping me?"

"For now, you’re better off not knowing."

The girl hopped down from the sofa.

"As for why I came to find you, I obviously need something."

She took another look around the apartment.

The walls were stained black.

The filtration system was old.

Metal plates had been welded over the windows, sealing them completely.

"But before we discuss business, where are you planning to move?"

John shook his head.

"I haven’t decided yet."

"Now that I have some money, I was planning to find somewhere with a better environment."

The girl’s eyes suddenly lit up.

She slapped her thigh, causing the soft, fair flesh to jiggle slightly.

"I happen to know a great place."

"Come with me."

With that, she grabbed John by the wrist and began pulling him toward the door.

John glanced at the suitcases on the floor.

"My things."

"Stop worrying about that pile of junk."

The girl did not even look back.

"Buy everything again when we get there."

"Just remember to bring the helmet."

John looked at the five suitcases he had spent so long packing.

A vein faintly throbbed on his forehead.

...

The two of them climbed into John’s old electric car.

The moment the girl sat in the passenger seat, she propped both legs up beside the front control panel.

"I can’t believe someone still drives this kind of car in this era."

"Its filtration capability is practically nonexistent."

"The fact that you’ve survived this long is a miracle."

John started the vehicle.

"First, get your feet down."

"Second, take your own car if you think mine is so terrible."

The girl waved dismissively.

"I don’t have a car."

John turned and looked at her.

"Then what the hell are you complaining about?"

"You can’t expect a poor girl without a driver’s license to have her own car."

The girl sounded completely justified.

"I’ve already totaled fifteen cars trying to pass the driving test."

John silently pressed down on the accelerator.

He was beginning to wonder which was more dangerous—

Gray Ledger or this girl.

They chatted intermittently along the way.

The girl’s name was Zoey.

According to her, she was a well-known hacker within the industry.

She was extremely familiar with computer programming, mechanical equipment, and network security.

However, Apocalypse was the first major online game she had ever truly played.

Not long after entering the game, she had been tricked into joining a party because she did not understand the mechanics.

Then she had suffered the first major loss of her life.

After resurrecting, she followed John all the way to Blackstone Mine and personally witnessed the complete annihilation of Gray Ledger’s Unit Three.

John finally understood.

"No wonder I kept feeling a chill at my back the whole way."

Zoey laughed.

"You really have guts."

"The Gray Ledger Unit Leader hadn’t even finished speaking, and you attacked him without warning."

"The look on his face must have been priceless."

As she spoke, she turned and stared at John.

"But I think you’re much more reliable than that warrior."

"Tell me. What kind of Talent did you roll?"

"It has to be a high-rank one, right?"

John kept his eyes on the road and did not answer.

[Supreme Evolution] was his greatest secret.

No matter how much the girl had helped him, he could not casually reveal it.

Seeing his reaction, Zoey did not continue pressing him.

"Forget it."

"Nine hundred thousand dollars for a spot on your friends list isn’t the worst deal."

The corner of John’s mouth twitched.

"You really don’t treat money like money."

"Money only has value once you spend it."

Zoey leaned back in her seat.

"If it stays in an account, it’s nothing more than a string of numbers."

Half an hour later, the navigation system announced that they had reached their destination.

An enormous transparent dome appeared ahead.

The dome covered the entire surrounding region. Bright sunlight shone within it, and lush green trees filled the landscape.

Compared to the cold, gray city outside, the two places seemed like entirely different worlds.

John had heard of this place before.

The Eden Dome Community.

It was one of the most luxurious residential projects approved by the United Council.

The dome possessed its own independent air circulation system, artificial sunlight system, and temperature control system.

Residents did not need gas masks.

Nor did they need to install their own filtration equipment.

To an ordinary person, this was a place they could never hope to enter in their entire lifetime.

Zoey walked into the sales center as though she were completely familiar with the place.

A member of staff hurried over to greet her.

She pointed her thumb toward John behind her.

"He wants to buy a house."

The receptionist’s smile did not change in the slightest.

"Please wait in the VIP lounge, honored guests."

Before long, a manager dressed like a private butler appeared in person.

He took the two of them around the entire community in a sightseeing vehicle.

The environment inside the dome perfectly recreated life from before the Membrane Era.

Clean air.

Warm sunlight.

Vast stretches of grass and woodland.

There was even an enormous artificial lake at the center of the community.

Every residence here was a detached villa.

Each was at least three stories tall.

Every property had gardens in both the front and rear, all professionally maintained by the community management company.

The developer would also assign a personal butler to every villa.

Eventually, the three of them stopped beside the artificial lake.

A three-story villa stood there.

Its front faced the lake, while a small woodland area bordered the rear.

The view was open and unobstructed.

Its location was also near the center of the community.

Strictly speaking, the two of them had not chosen the property together.

Zoey had unilaterally chosen it.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, she turned around excitedly.

"What do you think of this one?"

John looked around.

There was plenty of space.

The surroundings were quiet.

The church, medical center, and commercial district were all nearby.

"It’s definitely good."

He turned toward the manager.

"How much?"

The manager maintained his warm smile.

"The current asking price is 7.2 million dollars."