Chapter 381: Selection Game 11

The moment the two groups met, before any introductions could be made, the imposing figures behind Reina Quinn stepped forward and surrounded Perry Yates.

Three men and two women, each wearing a perfectly measured smile.

"You must be the legendary owner of The Card Tavern," a woman with a chic, short haircut said with a smile. "When are you holding another auction? I wasn’t fully prepared last time, but I’ve brought plenty of cards with me this time."

As she spoke, her fox-like eyes stared intently at Perry, as if they could see through anything.

Seeing that someone had broken the ice, the others, not to be outdone, chimed in. "I heard you signed a contract with Reina Quinn, ma’am. I was wondering if I might have the honor of doing business with you as well? The same terms as Reina’s would be just fine."

...

Perry looked at them one by one and couldn’t help but take two steps back.

This was exactly why she didn’t want to reveal her identity. She simply couldn’t handle situations like this.

"Stop!"

Perry held up a hand to stop them, and the voices around her instantly fell silent.

The voices might have vanished, but everyone’s gazes remained fixed on her.

Perry took a deep breath. "Right now, the most important thing is to deal with the Executors outside as quickly as possible. As for everything else..."

"Talk to him!"

Perry’s finger suddenly shot out, pointing at Dylan Adler, who was standing to the side.

"Me?" Dylan Adler froze for a second.

But Perry gave him no chance to refuse, quickly adding, "That’s right, talk to him. He’s my agent now. If you have anything to discuss, talk to him. Don’t come to me!"

Without giving anyone time to react, Perry activated her Silver Cross and vanished from sight.

Just like that, all the pressure instantly shifted to Dylan Adler.

Facing the scorching gazes coming from all directions, Dylan broke out in a cold sweat.

He knew, however, that even though Perry had just pointed at him because she couldn’t be bothered to deal with all this, it was also proof that she actually trusted him.

Perry: ’Of course I trust him. The others aren’t from my planet, so if they ripped me off, it would be a pain to track them down and settle the score. But Dylan is different. He’s from my world. And even though he’s a Croupier, if anything goes wrong, dealing with him would be child’s play.’

Of course, Dylan had no idea what Perry was really thinking. If he did... he probably still wouldn’t be willing to give up this juicy opportunity that had just landed in his lap.

Fortunately, while they were eager to discuss the card business with Dylan, they also understood they had more pressing priorities.

After getting a promise from Dylan that they would discuss the details later, all the players joined forces to deal with the Executors outside.

It was only then that Dylan realized that what had just been destroyed was merely the bunker’s outer layer.

Furthermore, the reason they had let the bunker be attacked wasn’t that they were powerless to fight back—they were fishing.

They planned to lure more Executors in so they could wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

However, they worried that killing all the Executors now would get them teleported out of the game, causing them to miss this opportunity. So, they temporarily abandoned that plan.

After all the Executors outside were eliminated, the mission progress reached thirty percent.

"Tsk, only thirty percent," Amber Sheridan said, pursing his lips as he looked at the number on the mission panel.

Perry was sitting across from Amber, a freshly opened can of ice-cold cola on the table before her.

"So," Amber asked conspiratorially, "are you really planning to help those people Concrete their game instances?"

Perry nodded. "They pay, I do the work. It’s perfectly fair."

"But I heard you handed over all the instances you control to your country’s government to manage."

"I did," Perry nodded again. "I’m on my own, so I can’t possibly manage them all by myself. And I don’t trust hiring strangers—what if they try to screw me over?"

Hostile takeovers weren’t unheard of, after all.

As for the Survival Game Administration having its own agenda, Perry was well aware. It was only human nature, after all. As long as they didn’t touch her share, she couldn’t be bothered with the rest. It wasn’t her business anyway.

Seeing that Perry didn’t seem to be getting his point, Amber Sheridan gave up and changed the subject.

"Master Ford just told me that if we can clear this game successfully, our planet will be able to enter the era of survival games. So... seeing as we’re so familiar with each other, do you think you could give us a little discount on the price?"

Looking at Amber Sheridan’s fawning smile, Perry’s own smile grew even more brilliant.

But while she was beaming one moment, her expression changed in a flash the next.

"No. I can’t set that precedent."

Besides, she didn’t even think she was that close with Amber. At most, they’d known each other for a while and had been through a few games together.

’Oh, right. I think I joined some organization of his, too. Whatever, I forgot. It’s not important.’

In Perry’s view, her relationship with Amber Sheridan and Ethan Fuller was based more on mutual benefit. As for any actual friendship, there might have been a little, but not much.

Seeing Perry’s decisive refusal, Amber’s expression seemed to say, ’I knew it.’ "Alright then. If you can’t give us a discount, can we at least cut in line? Let us go before those other people."

After all, each game instance could only be Concreted once. If someone Concreted a particular instance, another person who had also cleared that same instance would no longer be able to Concrete it.

They were already a step behind everyone else, hadn’t cleared as many instances, and would have to give up some of their cleared instances as payment. They had to seize every advantage they could get.

Hearing this, Perry considered it. She hadn’t signed contracts with anyone yet, so she was the one who decided the queue. She nodded decisively. "Okay."

"Great! I’ll go get Master Ford to sign the contract with you." Amber started to get up as he spoke.

"No rush. You haven’t even cleared the game yet. Any contract signed now would be invalid. Let’s talk about it when we get back."

The Any Door had vanished before, and Perry hadn’t re-fused with an Any Door card. The passages that had existed because of it had all disappeared. She had since used other items to establish new, more stable passageways.

These allowed players from the two planets to travel back and forth.

Just then, another furious roar echoed from the distance, followed immediately by the sound of someone swearing.

"HOLY SHIT! What the hell is that thing? It’s so disgusting! Is that a maggot?"

The person’s words were immediately followed by the sound of retching, as if they had been disgusted to the point of throwing up for real.