Don't Engage in Netherworld Activities in the Mortal World!

"Curfew?" Jiang Lu was taken aback, "I haven't heard of this setting. If they forbid late-night snacks, what am I going to do if I get hungry?"

"Are you really illiterate? Curfew means martial law!" Heavy Cannon wished he could punch him in the face, "Also, we haven't eaten anything since we've been here, but you simply don't get hungry in the Spirit Realm, alright?"

Time was of the essence, and Ghostface Fox didn't even have the mind to mediate, urgently saying, "We have only one minute left, let's quickly get into a room."

"I'll sleep in this one, the door is pink."

Jiang Lu once again dashed ahead. Heavy Cannon, just having finished listening to Ghostface Fox, turned around only to see Jiang Lu had somehow already slipped to the doorway of a room.

"When did..." Heavy Cannon was stunned.

A bang came from behind, and upon turning back, Pu had already entered his room and closed the door.

"Isn't it you..."

Ghostface Fox reminded from the gap in the door, "What are you standing there for?"

Another bang.

Heavy Cannon had no choice but to grab his bracelet from the coffee table with a gloomy expression and hurriedly enter the only remaining room.

As he closed the door, the bracelets of all four individuals began broadcasting simultaneously:

[Supervisor log has been updated.]

[Total souls redeemed: 1]

[Total successful attempts: 0]

[Performance below standard, please keep striving.]

[Goodwill points deducted: 10]

[Time till next target refresh: 6 days]

Up to this point, the broadcast content was the same for everyone, and for Ghostface Fox and Pu, this was where their broadcast ended.

But Jiang Lu's and Heavy Cannon's broadcasts continued.

Heavy Cannon: [Your goodwill points are detected to be 49, below 50, your supervisory powers have weakened, not absolutely suppressing the prisoners anymore. You may encounter rebellion or even threats from prisoners during redemptions. Please take caution.]

Jiang Lu: [You blasphemed against Jesus during redemption, and the God of Redemption is very pleased. Your goodwill points have been recalibrated to 89, please keep striving.]

Heavy Cannon: "What?"

Jiang Lu: "What?"

Heavy Cannon: "F**k!"

Jiang Lu: "F**k?"

Although they were not in the same place, at that moment, both men said in unison.

"The God of Redemption is sending people to heaven, but he's actually not on the same side as God?" Jiang Lu was very surprised, "What kind of double-crosser?"

Compared to his playful spirit, Heavy Cannon seemed much more solemn.

"To think there's such a setting..." But then thinking of Jiang Lu, he calmed down a lot, "Even nailing is possible, so even if there's a random threat, I should be able to handle it, as long as there's sufficient firepower."

Ghostface Fox stared at his goodwill points, now reduced to 58, and fell into deep thought.

Would there be a problem with the goodwill points dropping?

Is 60 the passing score? Or is it 50?

The broadcast didn't mention anything...

How are the others doing?

They must have changed as well, right?

Exorcists can't use their panel to contact each other in the domain... This insecurity due to lack of information...

Damn it, I'm so anxious!

I can only wait until the curfew is lifted before asking in detail.

Pu glanced at her goodwill points, now at 53, and first felt a trace of confusion similar to Ghostface Fox.

But then she thought that someone probably had a lower score than her, and she felt relieved...

Although the four rooms varied slightly in size, their interiors didn't differ much.

A round wooden table, a wooden chair, a single bed, a window overlooking the boundless sea shrouded in fog outside the Black Tower, and without even a bathroom, this was all the setup here.

Compared to the opulence of the grand hall, the rooms were modest and simplistic, highlighting a style reminiscent of a construction site dormitory.

Jiang Lu searched around but didn't find anything special.

It seemed to be just an ordinary rest area, no better than digging a hole and placing a bed in Minecraft by much.

"At this point, let's just go to sleep," he said.

Jiang Lu peeled back the somewhat stiff bedding and sat down directly.

He usually slept naked, so he took off his supervisor's robe.

But just as he was taking off his overcoat, he suddenly realized something very serious—

In the Spirit Realm, the "Silk Sleeping Robe with Warmth" he had equipped had materialized!

"Hehe."

Jiang Lu finally chose not to sleep naked, but rather to try wearing the pajamas, satisfyingly closed his eyes.

...

Six o'clock in the morning.

Even though the dark tower was still enveloped in darkness, the bracelet began its broadcast on time.

[Curfew has been lifted, you have regained your freedom permission]

The four of them came out of their rooms one after another and sat down in the hall.

Jiang Lu and Liu Dao looked radiant and well-rested, Heavy Cannon had a serious expression because he and Ghostface Fox came out the earliest, almost as soon as the bracelet finished broadcasting, so they had already exchanged information about the deduction of ten points of goodwill before the others came out.

As for Ghostface Fox, his face was haggard, and it couldn't be said that he hadn't rested well; he looked like he hadn't slept all night.

"We've got trouble."

As soon as he saw the two enter the hall, Ghostface Fox said solemnly to Jiang Lu and Liu Dao:

"After the goodwill drops below fifty during the redemption period, we may encounter emergencies. Although we don't know what exactly they are, it's probably some kind of mechanism to stop our actions."

He didn't ask about the others' situations.

Because none of the four had completed the redemption the previous day, they had all certainly been deducted goodwill points.

However, only Heavy Cannon had fallen below fifty, the others had not yet been affected for the time being.

So, without being specifically cued, Jiang Xin quietly turned the side of the bracelet that showed goodwill points towards his wrist before sitting down next to them, "There's such a thing?"

Heavy Cannon was not originally so panicked, but after hearing a night of deep analysis from Ghostface Fox, he finally realized the severity of the issue, and his expression also turned grim, "Yesterday went so smoothly, and we were just a step away from completing the redemption. Today is likely to be even harder."

"If the subtraction continues like this, where we could have redeemed a prisoner in two attempts, now we might need three or even four..."

Ghostface Fox sighed, "And we still don't know how much goodwill will increase after a successful redemption. If it's too little, trying to redeem later will only get harder.

Our choices yesterday were already the easiest, and we still didn't succeed. If one person didn't succeed, it might just be a coincidence, but if everyone failed, we have to suspect it's the mechanism.

Meaning, according to the worst-case scenario, at best it would take two redemptions, totaling three days, to meet a single target.

But by the third day, our goodwill would have been deducted by twenty and fallen below fifty points, which means the efforts of the first day might be greatly discounted due to this debuff, or even wasted."

"So, this 'fastest in three days' number might even increase.

In the meantime, as our goodwill continues to decrease and the difficulty increases, it's very possible that we'll find ourselves unable to meet even a single target after a week as our goodwill is completely deducted.

Therefore, we don't have much time left. We must conquer this Spirit Realm before our goodwill is exhausted."

"These are all the worst-case scenarios; it couldn't be this unlucky..." Liu Dao suddenly felt the setting for goodwill was full of malice after understanding the logic.

"This is an S-level Spirit Realm," Ghostface Fox enunciated, "We have to prepare for the worst."

Jiang Lu pondered for a long time and finally understood the stakes involved.

"I suddenly remembered someone... oh no, I should say, a real event in history which highly coincides with what we're experiencing now."

The few of them, sunk in low spirits, all looked at Jiang Lu.

Jiang Lu took a deep sigh, "Have you ever heard of Pinduoduo?"

"Pinduoduo?" Liu Dao and Heavy Cannon obviously had not heard this term before.

But Ghostface Fox's expression changed, realizing something.

Jiang Lu revealed an expression of deep hatred, "I also stumbled upon it in ancient texts and learned about it; it is an evil enterprise that played numbers in the palm of its hands, claiming that by inviting friends and family to 'slash a price', you had the chance to get a red packet or an irresistibly high discount.

But no matter how many people you called, no matter how much you 'slashed', the progress bar was always at 99.99%. Those who were being fooled did not know that this was a cursed number, it could be 99.9, or 99.99, or even 99.999; you would never know how many digits followed the decimal point.

You just had to know, it would never turn 100.

If everything is as Ghostface Fox analyzed, then this is no different from our current situation. We'll always be on the verge of full redemption, but we'll never succeed until our goodwill is depleted.

We don't have to think about what happens when goodwill is depleted. It means that before we complete the task of conquering the Spirit Realm, we'll be eliminated by the messengers!"

"Although the situations are similar, why do you seem so deeply resentful?" As he was reminded by Jiang Lu, Ghostface Fox finally remembered that company which had briefly flourished many years ago. He found it strange; so many years, almost half a century had passed. By all accounts, it wasn't even from the same era. Why would Jiang Lu display such behavior?

"Don't you understand?"

Jiang Lu shook his head:

"The dark tower plays with numbers, Pinduoduo plays with numbers.

The dark tower gave the overseers an impossible mission; Pinduoduo gave consumers an impossible mission.

The dark tower gave pie in the sky to the overseers; Pinduoduo gave pie in the sky to the consumers.

Most importantly, the dark tower and Pinduoduo have never appeared together.

So, I seriously suspect that the dark tower is the reincarnation of Pinduoduo from impure earth!"