Chapter 129: The Power of Spending Money

“Huff… huff…”

Chen Yu’s chest heaved violently.

He could only hear his own heavy breathing; the world before his eyes began to spin and blur. The pale light of the ceiling split into countless flickering spots, stabbing his eyes with pain.

He could no longer make out the blood-red timer on the wall.

His right knee bent involuntarily, the bones creaking loudly in the deathly silent warehouse.

He was about to give out.

“Chen Yu! Chen Yu!”

Li Qing’s voice wavered with tears.

She called his name anxiously, trying to pull him back from the edge of unconsciousness.

“Wake up! Look at me! Chen Yu!”

“Bang! Bang!”

Two gunshots rang out nearby.

But Chen Yu’s ears no longer heard them; the gunfire, the screams—all faded into distant background noise.

Am I about to die?

I crossed over just to die in this ridiculous and twisted game?

Damn it, I even activated the system! The Detective System!

I thought I was the chosen one, the world’s only bug!

But the system… What help can it offer now?

Rewind how I fell?

Use Insight Eye to see Li Qing’s purity value clearly, then die with no regrets?

Screw that!

Wait!

Chen Yu’s dilated pupils suddenly contracted sharply without warning.

The system…

The system store!

A function he had almost forgotten in the chaos of his thoughts.

In the system store, he could redeem rewards!

Usually, he rarely checked the store—

Because he was broke!

He had too few skill points, and this system leaned more on his own abilities.

So, from start to finish, he had never thought of this existence!

Body Enhancement!

I need strength!

Now! Immediately! Right now!

This thought sprouted wildly like weeds in his mind, instantly occupying all his consciousness.

“System! Open the store!” Chen Yu roared roughly in his mind.

The next second, a translucent blue screen, visible only to him, unfolded before his eyes.

[System Store]

[Body Enhancement]

[Various Items]

[Passive Skills]

[Skill Experience]

Chen Yu’s focus stabbed fiercely at the [Body Enhancement] option.

A new list popped up.

[Strength: 10 skill points / 1 attribute point (Permanently increase base strength by 10%)]

[Agility: 10 skill points / 1 attribute point (Permanently increase base agility by 10%)]

[Intelligence: 10 skill points / 1 attribute point (Permanently increase base intelligence by 10%)]

[Mental Power: 10 skill points / 1 attribute point (Permanently increase base mental power by 10%)]

…

Below was even a small line of text.

[Kidney Function Enhancement: 100 skill points / once (Restore your vigor; seven days and nights are no dream!)]

“Screw that!” Chen Yu cursed fiercely inside, “What I need now is strength, not swagger!”

His gaze locked tightly on the [Strength] column.

Give it to me! I want to redeem strength!

How many skill points do I have now?

Damn it, all in!

No, wait! That’s not right!

If I redeem too much, will I turn into the Hulk?

“Redeem 100 skill points worth of strength!”

[Ding! Host order received!]

The system’s prompt sounded like heavenly music.

[Strength attribute increased by 10 points.]

[100 skill points consumed.]

[Strength attribute has been credited!]

Buzz—

At the instant the system prompt sounded, Chen Yu’s mind blanked momentarily.

Then, an indescribable, violent heat surged explosively from his heart, instantly sweeping through his entire body!

It felt as if a jet engine had been forcibly installed into a tractor on its last legs!

His muscles, aching and cramping from exhaustion, seemed injected with boiling lava, swelling visibly by the second.

Every muscle fiber greedily absorbed this newfound power.

The knee that had bent suddenly snapped straight.

His bulging veins on his arms tensed, muscles knotting and swelling with endless strength.

Is this… what it feels like to pay for power?

It’s freaking awesome!

According to the system, each redeemed attribute point increased the base attribute by 10%. Redeeming ten points meant his strength had doubled!

This was beyond human limits!

“Ugh…”

A muffled grunt came from Chen Yu’s embrace.

Li Qing, who had been despairing as Chen Yu’s body sank, suddenly felt a tremendous force rising from below, lifting her body effortlessly.

She was stunned.

She looked down in shock at the man beneath her.

His face, which had twisted just moments ago, now bore a roguish smirk.

“What… what’s going on?” Li Qing asked incredulously. “Weren’t you out of strength?”

“A man must never say he’s powerless!”

Chen Yu grinned, radiating explosive power.

He fixed his gaze on the timer on the wall.

[00:02:30]

Two and a half minutes left.

For him now, this was a mere drizzle.

He even had the leisure to sneer silently: with his brute force now, if he sparred with Li Qing, a martial arts master, no fancy moves needed—he could just pin her to the ground and grind her!

Absolute power makes all technique trivial!

Thinking this, he instinctively tightened his arm around Li Qing’s waist.

Yeah, the feel was pretty good.

…

The final two minutes were hell for the survivors in the warehouse.

But for the global livestream audience, it was an adrenaline-fueled carnival.

“Resurrection bro is back! Didn’t he just about collapse? Now he’s like he’s injected with steroids!”

“Didn’t you see? His muscles just bulked up! Is this guy a Saiyan? Can he transform?”

“Tsk tsk, those muscles, that frame… tip the streamer more! Absolutely tip more!”

Countless comments scrolled wildly across the screen.

They were excited, speculating, placing bets, treating this bloody challenge as the most thrilling show.

…

Inside the warehouse.

The crackle of rifles fired intermittently.

Each shot meant two lives lost, and two more taken down with them.

Chen Yu and Li Qing had grown numb.

Once, a single death before them was a catastrophe.

But now, watching others struggle for survival like them be discarded like trash, their hearts stirred no emotion.

Not cold-bloodedness, but that hellish scene had exceeded the limits of normal human feeling.

All they could do was hold each other tight, focusing every ounce of attention on staying alive.

Time ticked away, second by second.

The timer on the wall finally reached its last mark.

[00:00:01]

[00:00:00]

“Ding—”

A piercing electronic sound echoed throughout the warehouse.

“This round of the game is over!”

Shen Feng’s voice, laced with amusement, spread into every corner.

At this moment, the spot beside Chen Yu thudded several times.

The two nearest pairs of teammates collapsed backward simultaneously, falling stiffly to the ground, completely unconscious.

Their stamina held till the end, but their spirit was utterly broken.

Chen Yu’s gaze swept across the scene.

In the empty warehouse, besides him and Li Qing and the two pairs who had fainted—

No other participants remained alive.