A certain base, a mysterious department.

"Has the signal source not appeared yet?"

A middle-aged man in military uniform approached the monitoring station, staring at hundreds of surveillance screens, unable to help himself from asking impatiently.

"Not yet, sir. The moment this player goes offline, they won’t escape our tracking!"

The young man confidently assured, gripping the signal receiver tightly in his hand, afraid of missing any useful information.

"I hope we can make it in time, time is running out..."

The officer sighed and immediately issued an order, "Increase manpower, monitor in shifts 24 hours a day, don’t relax for a moment!"

"Yes, sir!"

After the officer left, the young man started complaining quietly, "Why did the Dream Seeking Pill have to appear on Lunar New Year’s Eve? Now, there’s no going home for the holidays; just my luck!"

...

"Achoo!"

Su Ran appeared in Skeleton Village, sneezing loudly just as he materialized.

"Who’s talking about me?"

Looking around suspiciously, Su Ran noticed nothing unusual about his territory and relaxed. He then became spirited and burst out, "Who says gradual paralysis is incurable? Hahaha, I’ll live just to prove them wrong!"

Having found the right path to cure his terminal illness, Su Ran’s strong confidence surged. Without the threat of death, the world seemed colorful to him. This feeling of being reborn was something not everyone could appreciate.

And now, with his left leg healed, could spring be far behind?

Su Ran looked forward to that day because he had a reason to live.

At that moment, Su Ran had secretly decided that if he ever encountered a Divine Secret Elixir, he must not let it slip by!

He was full of anticipation about what surprises the Skill Elixir might bring. Once he got the Divine Secret Elixir, he would immediately identify it!

If it granted a summoning skeleton skill, that would be awesome. Summoning a skeleton in the real world and taking it for a walk at night would surely shock a few people!

Imagining that terrifying scene, Su Ran could not help but want to laugh.

However, what he most desired was a protective skill that would allow him to defend himself in the real world, so he wouldn’t be bullied by Zhang Meng. Even if his ID were exposed, he wouldn’t have to worry about being targeted.

From this experiment, it was evident that the Divine Secret Elixir was an indispensable magical aid!

Only, how to obtain it had become a challenge.

Su Ran knew this was a matter of fate.

"Phew, time to exchange for wealth points, haha, the Human Race contributed a lot of equipment this time; the sooner I exchange, the sooner my mind is at ease!"

Feeling quite cheerful, Su Ran hummed a tune as he walked toward the internal affairs hall. To exchange for wealth points, he needed to go through the butler Liu, who specialized in this service.

The exchange process was no different from before. Under the surprised gaze of butler Liu, Su Ran completed the exchange of wealth points and walked out of the internal affairs hall feeling fully satisfied. After trading a large batch of spoils of war, he felt much lighter.

"I never expected this haul to bring in 120,000 wealth points!"

Su Ran was pleasantly surprised. This was even before exchanging over thirty pieces of golden equipment; he wondered how many wealth points he would have if he traded all the golden equipment too.

Roughly calculating, Su Ran felt his heart turn soft.

However, this golden equipment was extremely rare, and Su Ran was not going to let the system recycle it easily. After a bit of pondering, he summoned Wang Cai.

This picky Artifact Beast was truly an ancestor of squandering; ordinary equipment barely caught its eye, so only golden equipment could satisfy this little guy’s belly.

"Woof woof!"

As soon as Wang Cai appeared, it scanned its surroundings. After finding no dangers, the wariness in its eyes disappeared, and it wagged its tail while waiting for Su Ran’s favor.

"All this is yours, if you don’t finish, you’re not allowed to return to the pet space, understood?"

Su Ran tossed more than thirty pieces of golden equipment at Wang Cai’s feet, feeling his heart twitch. This golden equipment was worth a lot of money, and it would be strange not to feel the pinch!

If Wan’er knew about this, she would definitely scold him for squandering.

There was no choice. A child can’t catch a wolf without risk, and a husband can’t catch a rogue without being daring; only by being willing to pay could Wang Cai become more formidable, and the benefits Su Ran would receive would be even greater!

If this pile of golden equipment could make Wang Cai evolve directly, then this expenditure would be worth it.

"Woof~"

Seeing such a pile of ’delicious food’, Wang Cai let out a soul-sapping bark and pounced directly into the pile of golden equipment, devouring it with all its might.

"Ah, what a waste! This is just blatant squandering!"

Housekeeper Liu watched from a distance as the pile of golden equipment was ruined by Wang Cai, feeling so pained it was almost as if he were bleeding. His skeleton face contorted as if he were constipated.

However, Housekeeper Liu knew he could not influence Su Ran’s decisions, and could only vent here without choosing to intervene.

The main reason was that this Artifact Beast named Wang Cai was the lord’s beloved pet and was quite formidable; Housekeeper Liu didn’t want to mess with such fate...

"Grandpa, what does blatant mean?"

Little Shi looked up at Housekeeper Liu with a dazed face, his eyes brimming with a thirst for knowledge.

"Cough cough, you’ll understand when you grow up."

How could Housekeeper Liu explain such a phrase prone to misinterpretation? He dismissed it offhand, simply shutting the door to out of sight, out of mind.

...

"With such a wolfish devouring method, can his little belly handle it?"

Su Ran was surprised to see Wang Cai gobbling down the equipment haphazardly. Most of the pile had disappeared in a moment, and it seemed that the toughness of the golden equipment was no match for Wang Cai’s sharp teeth as they tore through the equipment like paper. At this rate, the pile of equipment would soon be completely gone.

Indeed, Su Ran had greatly underestimated Wang Cai’s eating speed.

Before even a minute passed, the equipment on the ground had been completely devoured by Wang Cai. His belly had now become a round ball, which would be quite a spectacle if pricked with a needle.

However, even stuffed to such capacity, Wang Cai still wasn’t satisfied. It eagerly looked at Su Ran, its tail wagging non-stop, almost as if it had the look of ’Help me up, I can still eat’.

Damn, did you starve to death in your past life?

Be careful not to eat yourself to death!!!

With a grim face, Su Ran threw it back into the pet space, letting it digest on its own. It would probably be a while before Wang Cai could even think about joining the battle again.

After completing all this, Su Ran did not stay in the game long, logging off immediately. Today was Lunar New Year’s Eve, and he needed to reserve time to watch the Spring Festival Gala with his mom and enjoy the New year’s Eve dinner. As for setting off firecrackers and the like, that had been banned long ago, making the entire New Year’s Eve particularly cozy.