[Qing Power Activation, Bai Power Activation, Zhu Power Activation, and Xuan Power Activation]
Quite clearly, the organizer’s “right of final interpretation” in this Monopoly game was a pure bully clause.
If they were physically reachable, the organizers would have been beaten into sandbags by contestants from over three hundred previous seasons long ago.
“This Monopoly game is corrupt as hell…” Xiao Fei commented softly from the side. “Not only are there telecom fraud syndicates and gangs, but even the official announcements are outright deceptive.”
That was precisely the biggest problem.
In competitions like this, most people implicitly assumed that the organizers and the services they provided were neutral, showing no favor toward any side.
Yet looking at it now, this Monopoly organizer was clearly anything but neutral.
They were actively withholding information from the contestants.
“Tsk,” Xiao Tang rested her hands on her hips in frustration. “Doesn’t that mean the stuff these announcements say can’t even be trusted half the time?”
Who on earth had to filter out whether game announcements were trustworthy while playing a game?!
The announcement popped up silently: [Under normal circumstances, it’s still trustworthy! We’re just wage slaves too—what’s wrong with taking a little kickback from the gangs?]
Xiao Tang: “…Holy crap.”
She was utterly flabbergasted: “The announcement is run by a live person?!”
Wasn’t this thing supposed to be system-generated?! It was a living, breathing wage slave!
An actual human was broadcasting these announcements!
[Yeah, totally,] the announcement’s tone became significantly more down-to-earth now that its cover was blown. [College students are having a rough time finding jobs these days, you know? Creating a few extra job postings helps ease the employment crisis.]
“You’re giving me a ‘yeah, totally’?! Where do you get the nerve to act all cute…” Xiao Tang fell silent for a moment. “I swear, is there a single shred of honesty left in this city?! What kind of Capital of Fraud is this?!”
Even the game announcements were being broadcast live by actual humans taking gang kickbacks—was this game ever going to be playable?!
Announcement: [Aiya, don’t get so worked up! Opportunity often comes hand-in-hand with crisis…]
Bai Jinshu’s eyelids twitched: “Why do I see zero opportunities and only crises?”
Ever since they entered this place, just looking at the Event spaces Zone Three had encountered: the first was a scammer beggar, the second was a high-pay job scam, and the third was hidden costs. Every single one of these three Event spaces had been pure crisis.
[Haven’t you guys turned all of them into opportunities?] The announcement argued with plausible righteousness. [The first time, you robbed the beggar and got 680,000; the second time, you partnered with the telecom fraud compound to incite internal strife among the zones; and the third time, you beat four gangs into submission.]
[Opportunity favors the prepared mind, and look how prepared you guys are!] The college student behind the announcement was brimming with survival instincts. [Monopoly City is precisely a city full of challenges and opportunities, you know!]
Bai Jinshu: …
Was that them being prepared?
That was them being exceptionally good at beating people up!
If someone else had been standing here—for example, if Guan Hongyan from Zone Four had landed in this spot instead—these four unlucky gangs would have suffered the exact same fate.
The other two zones were another story. Zone Two was a wild card, but given how naive and sweet Zone One was, they might genuinely have been squeezed dry down to their last cent.
What kind of opportunity was this? At best, it was just picking on the weak while fearing the strong.
[Aiya, let’s change the subject!] The announcement rapidly pivoted. [Look, your hotel is fully built!]
As soon as these words came out, everyone’s attention was indeed partially diverted.
The structure that had been draped in green construction netting just a moment ago was now complete. On the outside, it looked no different from hotels built on other properties—though the number of checking-in guests was noticeably sparse.
Bai Jinshu glanced at the profits; as expected, it was 30/h.
Due to its special location, very few guests dared to check into this hotel. Compared to the bustling, steady stream of travelers at their previous locations, the crowd here was sparse and scattered—substantially fewer in number.
“There really are way fewer guests…” Yellow-Hair muttered in a low voice. “If someone paid over six thousand only to end up with a hotel with this few guests, that would be a total rip-off…”
Before he could finish his sentence, an extremely noisy clamor rang out from inside the hotel.
*Clatter! Smash!*
It sounded as though something had been shattered.
Exclamations of surprise echoed out, followed by what seemed to be the front desk staff speaking up: “Sir! Sir, you can’t do that here…”
Before those words could be completed, they were drowned out by an even louder sound of breaking glass: “Can’t? What do you mean ‘can’t’?! Let me tell you, you know Third Brother from the Qinglong Gang, right?! That’s my uncle! Even if I smash your hotel to pieces today, nothing’s gonna happen to me!”
“Is this… someone causing a scene in the hotel?” Li Zi’s eyes widened.
They had already opened three hotels, and this was the very first time someone had caused trouble inside one.
With a ding, the announcement updated: [Please note: Someone is causing a disturbance inside the hotel. Please dispatch personnel in a timely manner to maintain security and evict the offender. Available security teams: Qinglong Gang Muscle, Baihu Gang Muscle, Xuanwu Gang Muscle, Zhuque Gang Muscle. Recommended system combination: Baihu Gang / Xuanwu Gang / Zhuque Gang. Thoughtful Tip: Do not group muscle from all four teams into the same squad.]
[Ah, oh…] A string of ellipses silently popped out from the announcement. [You guys didn’t hire any muscle…]
Announcement: [Do you want to hire them now? Discounted rate: 80 per squad.]
Now they weren’t charging 200 anymore.
Xiao Tang flashed a gentle, genial smile: “Do I still need to hire them?”
Those naked, tattooed crew-cut men from the three gangs were still hugging each other and shouting. Xiao Tang turned her head with a cold face and bellowed loudly: “Stop screaming, quiet down!”
The crew-cut men instantly shut their mouths.
“Who is Third Brother from the Qinglong Gang?” Her gaze swept across everyone’s faces. “Are you here or not?”
“M-Me,” the burly crew-cut man who had been singled out first—the one holding hands and shouting with the Baihu Gang guy—raised his hand.
“Oho, so it’s you,” Xiao Tang looked at him askance. “Your nephew is inside causing a scene, claiming nothing will happen to him even if he smashes the hotel to pieces.”
And this nephew was most likely causing a scene under the influence.
Everyone silently looked at the reeking-of-alcohol Third Brother of the Qinglong Gang, then at the chaotic lobby, unable to help marveling at the greatness of genetics.
A whole family of crazy drunks.
“That little bastard!” Third Brother of the Qinglong Gang slapped his own thigh. “I’ll go teach him a lesson!”
Xiao Tang sized him up for a few full seconds, making the tattooed hulk’s back turn cold, before finally opening her mouth: “Mm, go ahead.”
Third Brother of the Qinglong Gang strode into the hotel. A moment later, he dragged out a man who looked inherently sly and shifty by the ear.
“Ow, ow, ow! Uncle, Uncle, Uncle!” The man tiptoed along, crying out in pain. “It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Uncle, why are you here?!”
“If I weren’t here, you’d have caused a massive disaster!” Third Brother of the Qinglong Gang kicked him down onto the ground. “Do you know who this hotel and this land belong to?! From now on, this place belongs to the Hammer Gang!”
“The Hammer Gang…?” The man wore a confused expression. “What’s the Hammer Gang? Never heard of it…”
“Heh, you’ve landed yourself in deep trouble this time.” A member of the Zhuque Gang made a sarcastic remark from the side.
“Why are you guys here?!” The shifty-looking man turned around and saw the Zhuque Gang members. As if his eyes had been scorched, he instantly shrank back. “Holy crap, what’s going on?! It’s broad daylight—can you put some clothes on before speaking?!”
“None of your business!” A flash of awkwardness crossed the faces of the Zhuque Gang members. “It’s not even certain if you’ll still have clothes on your back in a moment!”
“W-What are you going to do?” The shifty-looking man wrapped his arms around himself. “Don’t cross the line, Zhuque Gang! Stripping me in broad daylight… watch out, my uncle will… Ow, ow, ow, Uncle!”
Before he could finish his words, his ear was seized by Third Brother of the Qinglong Gang beside him.
Third Brother of the Qinglong Gang turned to face everyone from Zone Three: “Everyone, it was our failure in strict discipline that caused this to happen. Whatever damage was done inside the hotel, we’ll take responsibility and pay for it—no matter how much it costs!”
Before Bai Jinshu could open his mouth, Old Ma beside him spoke up in indignation: “You gang members only know how to bully honest folks. Now that you’ve run into tough nuts, you talk about paying money without a shred of sincerity!”
His face, etched with deep lines, was filled with indignation.
“Exactly, exactly,” Xiao Tao muttered under her breath. “If it weren’t for the fact that you can’t beat Brother Er and Sister Tang…”
…Then they would have had to hand over 4,000 and lose everything in a total scam here.
“Since when is this something money can resolve?” Seeing the situation, a member of the Baihu Gang immediately began secretly kicking them while they were down. “This big nephew of yours has been relying on his uncle in the Qinglong Gang to commit all kinds of atrocities in the West District for who knows how many years. How can you expect to settle this now just by paying money? Take a look at who the Hammer Gang is—is this something you can end just by paying money?!”
“That’s right, that’s right,” a member of the Zhuque Gang chimed in gloomily. “At the very least, you, the uncle, should be stripped naked alongside him, placed at the vegetable market square holding hands, and shouting, ‘I should not smash hotel lobbies, I must obey laws and regulations!’ Only then can this be considered settled!”
The Xuanwu Gang chimed in with tea-tinted passive-aggressiveness: “How awful~ Why is it that your big nephew causes trouble on the Hammer Gang’s turf? Unlike us—our big nephews would never do such a thing, tee-hee.”
Qinglong Gang: ???
‘Playing ‘kick them while they’re down,’ are we?!’
“Apologize, hurry!” Third Brother of the Qinglong Gang immediately slammed his hand onto his nephew’s shoulder. “If you don’t want to be stripped naked at the vegetable market, apologize!”
“Ah… what?” His nephew hadn’t reacted yet. “Why would I be stripped naked at the vegetable market…?”
“If I tell you to apologize, you apologize!” Third Brother of the Qinglong Gang smacked the back of the shifty-looking man’s head. “Quick! And pay up for the damages!”
“But why stripped naked at the vegetable market…” He still had a face full of confusion.
Xiao Tang said eerily: “It’s fine if you don’t want to be stripped. I know a mid-level boss in a Northern Myanmar compound; I have a cooperative relationship with their compound. I can contact him to pick you up and take you overseas to harvest your kidneys…”
“I’m sorry!” The man answered instantly. “I was wrong! Little sis, I was truly wrong!”
“Who are you getting informal with?! Who are you calling ‘little sis’!” Third Brother of the Qinglong Gang gritted his teeth.
“Big sis, I was wrong!”
Xiao Tang: …
Everyone: …
Never in their wildest dreams did they expect the semi-professional beggar’s identity to be this effective.
The speed of the big nephew’s total surrender beat 99.9% of his peers, preserving his final shred of dignity so he wouldn’t be stripped naked and dumped at the vegetable market square to shout that he shouldn’t act like a crazy drunk.
At the same time, however, the Hammer Gang seemed even more terrifying in everyone’s eyes.
They had evolved from a newly emerging gang that stripped people naked and dumped them at the vegetable market entrance to shout slogans into a terrifying old-money family with deep-tier cooperation with overseas fraud compounds, capable of sending people to have their kidneys harvested.
For a moment, everyone felt endangered. Several crew-cut men with bare torsos all covered the position of their kidneys with extreme vigilance, as if doing so would preserve their intact organs.
“Big sis, I know a renovation company! I’ll get them to rebuild the lobby for you—guaranteed to be spacious and bright!”
“Big bro, I know an ad agency! I’ll get them to do decoration and branding for you—guaranteed every room will be fully booked every day!”
“I have a professional team under my command. I’ll have them stand guard here for you to eliminate any blind fool coming here to cause trouble!”
Everyone scrambled to flatter them one after another.
Under the crisis of kidney harvesting, even those slashed by the kitchen knife stopped crying from pain. Forcing stiff smiles onto their faces, they crowded around the living fearsome deities of Zone Three, ushering them to sit in the lobby.
“Big bro, sit here! I’ll go clean up the fragments on the floor!” The shifty-looking big nephew was attentive to the extreme, welcoming Bai Jinshu and his group onto the sofa before trotting off eagerly to the janitor’s closet. Bringing out a broom and dustpan, he industriously swept up the shattered glass fragments he had smashed.
Bai Jinshu silently exchanged glances with his teammates around him: “I still prefer the way you guys looked when you were wild and untamed.”
“We wouldn’t dare, wouldn’t dare, wouldn’t dare!” The big nephew instantly jumped up from the floor. “Where are we wild and untamed? I’ve always been the most well-behaved one in our family!”
If his calves weren’t trembling so violently, these words would be far more believable.
“That beggar was actually this useful…” Xiao Tang muttered in a low voice. “Couldn’t tell at all…”
She felt that the semi-professional beggar and this group of gang members were about equally cowardly!
The announcement spoke up silently: [Do you guys have some kind of mistaken perception regarding the combat power of your own team?]
‘Under your iron fist, who wouldn’t be cowardly?!’
“Is that so? I think I’m doing alright,” Xiao Tang said thoughtfully. “I feel I’m merely violent at best, but Er Si is both black-hearted and ruthless in his moves. How could I compare to an old schem—a master strategist like him!”
Under Huai Jiamu’s cold glance, she smoothly pivoted her words.
As the fragments in the lobby were swept clean, a squad of unified, energetic-looking young men walked in.
“Big bro, big sis!” A member of the Zhuque Gang stepped forward subserviently. “This is our local muscle squad—a professional team. From now on, they will protect the hotel for you! Absolutely won’t allow anyone with hidden motives to step a single inch closer!”
“Approved. Go patrol outside.” Xiao Tang waved her hand.
This team of muscle departed.
“Holy crap, insidious,” a member of the Baihu Gang nearby cursed under his breath. “These Zhuque Gang guys actually sent people over so fast. Quick, let’s go back and find people too!”
“Boss, we’re from the renovation company,” a moment later, a person holding a paint bucket walked in. “Do you need this place renovated into a magnificent, lavish style, a fresh and subtle aesthetic, a heavy and classic European style, a relaxed and cozy Mediterranean style, or perhaps a traditional retro Ming and Qing style, or an exquisite and elegant Republican style…?”
“Care to introduce them?” Bai Jinshu thought for a moment. “What do all these styles actually look like?”
“Actually, we could do a sampler platter too! You’ll see once it’s done!” The person carrying the paint bucket held out his hand and counted on his fingers. “We could do a mix-and-match sampler platter of all six styles, opening six doors in different directions inside this lobby, with every door leading into a completely different renovation style!”
“…Let’s not,” Bai Jinshu thought about that scene for a moment and got goosebumps all over. “Just the fresh, subtle aesthetic will do.”
“Alrighty then!” The renovation boss grabbed his bucket and called his workers in to start working.
“Holy crap, shameless,” a Qinglong Gang member cursed under his breath nearby. “The Baihu Gang really has zero bottom line when it comes to kiss-ass behavior!”
“Hey, I say,” Xiao Tang looked around the surroundings in surprise. “How come there are suddenly so many guests?”
“Sister, it’s like this!” Everyone from the Qinglong Gang squeezed forward, gathering around with smiles blooming like flowers. “These travelers are all members of our gang! We mobilized all our relatives, friends, and colleagues to come stay at the hotel to boost your customer traffic!”
“Brother Er!” Xiao Fei gasped in surprise. “This hotel’s profit rate actually reached 300/h!”
It had increased by ten whole times!
“Yes, yes, the more people, the merrier! Look at how lively it is!” Everyone from the Qinglong Gang chimed in eagerly.
“Holy crap, vicious,” a Xuanwu Gang member gritted his teeth and cursed. “If they’ve done all that, what the hell are we supposed to do?”
“Brother Er!” A man with upright, decent features stepped out from the Xuanwu Gang and dropped onto his knees before Bai Jinshu with a loud thud. “I heard you don’t have a son, and my parents passed away early as well. If you don’t mind, I would like to care for you in your old age…”
Bai Jinshu, who was currently drinking water: “…Pfft.”
“Cough… cough cough, cough cough cough!” He couldn’t hold back a violent choke, coughing so hard it felt like his lungs were bursting.
Huai Jiamu: …
Huai Jiamu: “Scram.”
“Alrighty.” The man with upright features scrambled away smoothly.
For a time, members of the four gangs scrambled to curry favor with Zone Three, the air filled with a humble desperation born of everyone wanting to keep their kidneys intact.
Even if the semi-professional beggar himself had come here, he likely wouldn’t have received this kind of royal treatment.
Three hours passed in the blink of an eye.
Under the watchful eyes and lined-up farewells of the four gangs, everyone in Zone Three rolled a two and boarded the commercial van leaving this place.
“I’m seriously dying laughing…” Xiao Tang laughed hysterically as she got into the car. “Coming to play a game of Monopoly and ending up adopting seventeen or eighteen sons! How great—a house full of children and grandchildren!”
Bai Jinshu: “Would you like this blessing for yourself?”
Xiao Tang: “Are you kidding? That’s your son who’s supposed to care for you in your old age. What does it have to do with me?”
Outside the car window, the sons from the Xuanwu Gang were still shouting affectionately: “Dad! Come back next time!”
Inside the car was a chilling silence.
Under the terrifying aura of Er Si and the big monster, Zone Three’s commercial van finally reached the space they had rolled for.
The moment they got out of the car, everyone saw eight or nine people standing on this space.
“Huh,” Li Zi, who was the first to step down, uttered a sound of surprise. “You guys are…”
“We’re Zone Two,” the speaker was a man wearing an outdoor windbreaker jacket.
‘We bump into Zone Two?’
Everyone hurriedly pulled out the map and discovered that Zone Two had rolled a five in the previous round.
“That’s not right,” Xiao Fei felt a bit strange. “According to that dice roll, shouldn’t you be four spaces ahead of us right now?”
‘Why are they here?’
“We landed on a transit station,” someone from Zone Two explained. “We got the right to roll again, and then rolled a four.”
“Ah, I see…” Everyone from Zone Three stepped out of the car one after another.
Everyone in Zone Two appeared quite polite. Seeing them step down from the car, a representative spoke up proactively: “We’ve already checked—this is a standard vacant property space. If you want to build a hotel, feel free to build it right away.”
“Huh?” Xiao Tang was baffled. “Aren’t you guys going to build one?”
Logically speaking, when two teams landed on the same property, it triggered a bidding mode where the highest bidder won.
Even though Zone Two had lost a significant amount after their hotel was burned down, based on that route just now, they should have passed the starting point once—meaning they would have received a 2,000 influx.
In that situation, why wouldn’t they build a new hotel?
“Well…” A mix of embarrassment and anger flickered across the faces of the Zone Two members. “Before you arrived, we had an internal discussion and decided that our current financial situation is unsuitable for new investments. Therefore, we chose not to purchase.”
In other words, they were still short on cash.
‘How could they be short on cash, though…?’
Xiao Tang’s thoughtful gaze drifted over to Er Si.
‘Could it be… those two telecom fraud members who came out of Zone One had already succeeded?’
‘Then that was… ridiculously unlucky.’
First having all their hotels burned down, and then getting scammed out of a huge chunk of their funds—Zone Two truly lived up to the word “miserable.”
Even the announcement couldn’t help but pity them: [Looking at the history of the Omnipotent Commercial Challenge, a team this unlucky is extremely rare. Just now, I almost couldn’t bring myself to broadcast it.]
“Aren’t you worried they’ll notice you making sarcastic remarks?” Xiao Tang raised an eyebrow.
[Are you kidding?] The announcement was exceedingly confident. [Obviously, I switched to a private channel while chatting with you guys. Otherwise, if the boss catches me failing to play the role of an AI during work hours, I’m getting my salary docked, okay?]
Xiao Tang: …
Xiao Tang was thoroughly bewildered: “So this garbage organizer of yours fired a real artificial intelligence system to create job opportunities for college students… just to have them pretend to be an AI?”
‘What kind of utterly redundant, roundabout nonsense is this?’
‘If you’re going to hire people to pretend to be AI, can’t you just use actual AI from the start?!’
Amidst this bewilderment, Zone Three purchased the property and chose to build a hotel.
Ever since the man from Zone Two finished explaining why they weren’t purchasing the land, their team had huddled together, whispering over something unknown.
Before the renovation crew arrived, Xiao Tang and the others could vaguely hear snippets of their conversation laced with phrases like “settling accounts,” “deliberate,” “eliminated from the game,” and “Zone One.”
It seemed they had realized the scammer was from Zone One and automatically pinned all the blame onto Zone One’s head.
Back in the second round, it was precisely Zone Two who had beaten Zone One into the hospital; recognizing those two as Zone One contestants was as simple as it could be.
Er Si truly had done every wicked thing imaginable.
In an atmosphere like this, not far off in the distance, a motorcade rolled in, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Four familiar men jumped down from the vehicle: “Dad, look at the renovation crew I brought you!”
Bai Jinshu: “Call me that one more time and all of you are going straight to the Myanmar compound.”
“Brother Er… Brother Er!” They hurriedly changed their tune. “Brother, look, this is the renovation team brought together by our four gangs. The moment we saw you buy new land, we brought the renovation team right over. What kind of style do you want this time? Is it magnificent lavish, fresh and subtle ins-style, or…?”
“Alright, alright,” Bai Jinshu waved his hand, casually picking one. “European style, then.”
“Alrighty!” They waved a hand toward the back. “Get to work!”
A crowd of workers stepped out from the vehicles behind them and quickly began constructing the new hotel.
“This isn’t what we had planned…” The organizers’ renovation team, arriving late, was utterly dumbfounded.
“You’re late,” the crew-cut man from the Baihu Gang stood at the entrance, swaggering arrogantly. “The renovation business here is officially contracted to us now! Look, European style!”
He was actually acting proud of it.
Behind him, the renovation team brought in from who-knows-where had already raised a structure from flat ground, constructing a Baroque-style building shaped like a cathedral.
Swarms of worker masters were perched on the exterior facade, carrying out relief carving work!
The organizer’s renovation team: …
The organizer’s renovation team: “The salary is just a few bucks, why are you competing so hard?”
The organizer’s renovation team walked off in indignation.
“Che, no eye for quality,” the Qinglong Gang crew-cut curled his lip, turning around to instantly beam like a blooming flower. “Brother, Sister, let me lead everyone inside to take a look at this completed hotel.”
Xiao Tang: “…You call this… a hotel?”
‘Don’t just run wild just because this is a holographic world!’
‘This is a church, right?! This is clearly a church, right?!’
‘If you build a hotel like this, who would dare to stay in it?!’
“European style!” The Qinglong Gang crew-cut stated with complete justification. “Look how European it is! This is a team we specifically invited!”
The cathedral’s heavy doors opened with a loud thud. A bald old priest stood before the prayer pulpit, looking at everyone visiting the hotel: “Do you have anything to confess, my children? A room with a king-sized bed is 168 per night, a double room is 208…”
“Look,” he showcased, “An immersive cathedral-themed hotel!”
Bai Jinshu: …
Bai Jinshu: “You did great. Don’t ever do it again.”
He silently backed out from inside, stepping right into the contestants from Zone Two standing at the entrance.
“Holy… crap, man,” the folks from Zone Two felt a bit awkward being caught secretly peeking inside. The man wearing the windbreaker jacket stepped forward again and said, “What on earth are you guys trying to do?”
Everyone here knew what a hotel was supposed to look like; what was Zone Three up to?
Were they building a hotel or constructing a tourist attraction?!
Bai Jinshu: “…An immersive cathedral-themed hotel.”
“B-Badass,” the man nodded in shock. “How much money did you guys have to spend on this…”
“What? It didn’t cost a dime!” The crew-cut man from the Qinglong Gang appeared beside them out of nowhere. “All of this was built voluntarily by us for the big brothers and sisters of the Hammer Gang, just so the travelers could have an authentic experience as if arriving in Europe—completely free of any extra charges throughout!”
The Qinglong Gang crew-cut pulled out a few business cards from his pocket. “Look, these are the business cards for our renovation team! Guaranteed fast turnaround and superior quality—you just need to pay a few extra fees…”
This guy actually had business cards.
Everyone in Zone Two: “Huh?”
They were visibly baffled.
“Can this… also be done without spending money?” someone whispered softly. “Then why did rebuilding our hotel after it was burned down not only cost money, but also require us to wait through a construction period…?”
“What? Burned down!” The crew-cut man from the Xuanwu Gang suddenly materialized, pulling out a business card from his pocket. “This is our bodyguard team—a professional squad! Guaranteed to escort and protect your hotel, preventing any malicious person from approaching your land! Ordering now can get you a 20% discount for the sake of my Dad… my Brother Er!”
“This…” Everyone in Zone Two exchanged awkward glances. “Let’s pass. We currently… don’t have much money. All our money was scammed away.”
“What? Scammed away!” The crew-cut man from the Zhuque Gang popped up out of nowhere, pulling out several business cards from his pocket. “This is our Zhuque Gang’s business line, including forceful debt collection and detective tracking. If your money was scammed, you can call this hotline to order our service. As long as the money hasn’t left Monopoly City, we are guaranteed to recover it for you.”
“High success rate, full recovery of funds,” he said while handing out the cards. “It’s just that our fee is on the pricier side in the industry—it requires 20% of the recovered funds.”
“Your service…” Zone Two seemed somewhat tempted. “Can we recover the funds first before paying?”
Zhuque Gang crew-cut: “Oh, that won’t do. You don’t have any money.”
“What? You don’t have money!” The man from the Baihu Gang appeared. “This is our Baihu Gang’s business card! Our gang offers loan shark services—borrow nine, return thirteen. For Brother Er’s sake, we can lower your annual interest rate to 70%!”
“Holy crap… you guys came here to pitch business?” Xiao Tang muttered under her breath in complaint.
“How about it? Countless hotels have already been built up ahead,” the Baihu Gang crew-cut gestured with his hand. “You have no money on hand. The moment you step onto someone else’s property, you’ll go bankrupt immediately! But taking out our high-interest loan will allow you to commission the Zhuque Gang to recover your money, then have the Qinglong Gang’s renovation team rebuild your hotel, and finally have the Xuanwu Gang’s professional team serve as your bodyguards—isn’t that super worth it?!”
Zone Two: “It actually sounds kind of worth it…”
Put that way, it really did sound incredibly worth it!
“Hurry! Sign the contract right now! Don’t wait around to make money!” The Baihu Gang crew-cut pulled out a contract from his pocket. “Who is your leader? Stamp a handprint and sign. We don’t audit qualifications and release funds in seconds, escorting your competition career!”
“Then… then let’s borrow five thousand first…” The man in the windbreaker hesitated for a moment. “Do I sign right here?”
“Yes.” The Baihu Gang crew-cut nodded.
A few seconds after the man signed, a flash of joy surfaced on the faces of the people in Zone Two: “It really arrived! The money’s in our account!”
“We’re saved! We don’t have to be eliminated!”
“Thank you so much! I actually thought you were pulling a scam!” Everyone was beaming with joy.
“No, don’t thank me,” the Baihu Gang crew-cut said deeply. “You should thank my dad. He was the one who gave you this opportunity and let you meet us.”
“Thank you, Er Si!” Everyone turned their heads one after another.
Bai Jinshu: “…Don’t mention it.”
‘Better not thank me.’
He could already see Zone Two’s future of being hopelessly trapped in predatory loans.