Chapter 40: Chapter 39: 1-Hour Countdown to the Game’s Advent into Reality...

"Master!"

"This is what I obtained from the Secret Realm!"

Of course, Shen Fei knew nothing about the Emergency Security Bureau; he didn’t even know such a department existed. At this moment, all of his attention was focused on his steward, Sky Control.

Sky Control seemed to have truly gained self-awareness. After communicating with her via text for a while, Shen Fei discovered that Sky Control could now interact with him just like a real person.

The game invasion has already begun?

The NPCs are already starting to gain self-awareness?

Sky Control suddenly being able to speak gave Shen Fei a huge shock. He knew, of course, that in the future, once the game’s abilities were fully inherited, the NPCs and high-level bosses would all descend upon the real world. After their arrival, the NPCs’ intelligence would be no lower than that of humans. What he hadn’t expected was that the NPCs seemed to have gained sentience even while still inside the game.

What shocked him was that not only could Sky Control communicate with him, but more importantly, she even offered him advice. And she made perfect sense.

"Respected Master, you only need to upgrade a small portion of your remaining Gemstones to reach the max level. Max-level Gemstones will grant powerful abilities! I suggest you raise all the remaining Gemstones to Level 9."

Shen Fei stared, dumbfounded, as Sky Control offered him advice. He could even vaguely see, through the game screen, the very realistic micro-expressions on her pure, bright face.

"Respected Master, I have three ’Gemstone Maze’ Secret Realm Scrolls on me! In the Heaven-Reaching Tower, on floors ending in the number 3, like 93, 83, 73, and 63, you can also farm Gemstones!"

Not only was Sky Control suggesting that Shen Fei continue upgrading his Gemstones, she was even providing him with the methods.

WHOOSH!

A surprised Shen Fei didn’t rush to respond. Instead, he immediately called Sun Yu.

"Yu, check your steward. See if she can talk to you!" Shen Fei asked directly as soon as the call connected. Sun Yu’s steward was a four-armed member of an Alien Race who was exceptionally skilled at rolling dice.

"Holy crap! Bro, text just popped up over my steward’s head! She says she wants to teach me how to roll dice! What’s going on!?"

At Shen Fei’s instruction, Sun Yu had interacted with his steward, and he was just as startled when she spoke on her own.

CLICK!

Hearing Sun Yu’s feedback, Shen Fei immediately hung up.

It’s starting!

Although the inheritance of game abilities was set for 12:00 AM tonight, the game invasion event had, in reality, already begun. The NPCs actively communicating within the game was just the tip of the iceberg.

SWOOSH!

A pensive Shen Fei immediately logged into the game forums. This time, he didn’t just log into the *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* forum but all major game forums.

"Holy hell! I was just fighting the final boss, and its lines were wrong! Its dialogue suddenly changed. Did the game company update the data?"

"The hell?! In my game, *City Flower Young Master*, the secretary in the tight skirt suddenly stripped... What the hell is this! I didn’t even click anything! Don’t you have to raise the intimacy level for her to strip? Besides, there was never an option for her to get completely naked before. Because of the no-lewd-content policy, weren’t they not allowed to get fully naked...?"

"Bros, I think I’m getting weak! I used to be able to run from the classroom to the cafeteria in just three minutes, but today it took me three and a half..."

On the game forums, Shen Fei quickly found some unusual posts. These posts weren’t trending, but he easily found what he was looking for within them. Indeed, some games were already undergoing strange changes, and NPCs were becoming intelligent. Even the expansion of the Earth had already begun.

WHOOSH!

Now that he knew the game invasion had started, Shen Fei returned to the game.

Having lived through the three-year apocalypse in his past life and witnessed all kinds of human evil, he didn’t have the slightest inclination to save the world or anyone else. In this life, ensuring his family and friends could survive was his greatest goal.

The chaotic era had already shown its first signs. He had to use the remaining time to accelerate his progress. He originally thought today would just be a relaxing wait, but Sky Control’s sudden reminder filled him with motivation to upgrade his Gemstones to their maximum level.

Sky Control was the only max-level super steward in the game, with a Combat Power several tiers higher than other players. He had to listen to her advice. He had to upgrade the dozens of remaining Level 8 Gemstones to Level 9.

"Give me everything in your inventory! We’re going to clear Secret Realms together next!"

Without another word, Shen Fei got busy. He was out of money himself, but Sky Control had plenty of items she’d obtained from running dungeons. After reaching max level, she could no longer improve, so everything she got from dungeons was stored in her inventory. Now, she gave it all to Shen Fei.

"312 Level 5 Gemstones, 24 Level 6 Gemstones..."

Sky Control also had Gemstones in her inventory, they were just a bit low-level compared to the max level of 9.

She still has this many pets left! There are still two million of them...

In Sky Control’s inventory, besides Gemstones, Orange Secret Realm Scrolls, various Defense Towers, and Status Scrolls, there were also two million pets. Previously, when Shen Fei had hatched pet eggs and obtained the Black Tortoise, he had bought ten million pet eggs in one go. At the time, he only took the Black Tortoise and a few Divine Beasts, giving all the rest to Sky Control. He hadn’t expected that after all this time, she would still have a fifth of them left.

This... This... This was fantastic!

"Help me sell all of this! Sell it all before 11:00 PM tonight! And aggressively buy up all kinds of Gemstones and Gemstone Secret Realm Scrolls!"

After briefly organizing the items from Sky Control, Shen Fei gave them all to Sun Yu. He planned to use these items to buy Gemstones directly from other players. Because of last night’s announcement, most people had logged into the game with a "better safe than sorry" attitude, wanting to get one last boost. The volume of item trading was huge, and he would have no trouble selling the large batch of items Sky Control had.

"Okay!" As a qualified subordinate, Sun Yu quickly got to work.

RIIIIP!

While Sun Yu went to sell the items, Shen Fei tore open an orange-quality Gemstone Scroll. With a bright-eyed Sky Control in tow, he began to clear a Secret Realm. He had to keep grinding mobs and obtaining materials to upgrade his Gemstone levels.

WHOOSH!

Upon entering the Secret Realm, the scene on Shen Fei’s screen instantly changed. His little Tower Master avatar was standing on a long, ochre-colored stone bridge. Ahead were two paths of colored squares: one increased his numbers, the other decreased them.

"Please select a combat Defense Tower..."

"Countdown: 5"

"4"

"3"

While Shen Fei was studying the Secret Realm’s rules, a text prompt had already popped up.

"Great Sawblade Defense Tower!"

Looking at the stone bridge scenery, Shen Fei made his choice before the countdown ended.

SWOOSH!

The moment he made his choice, the Tower Master avatar on the screen transformed into a large sawblade. Then, the sawblade began to move forward rapidly.

"x3!"

Reaching the colored fork in the road, Shen Fei controlled the large sawblade and entered the path that increased his numbers. As the sawblade passed through the "x3" zone, its quantity instantly went from one to three. The sawblades continued forward, slowly accelerating. The path ahead soon presented another choice: "+10" on one side, "x4" on the other.

To the left!

Shen Fei quickly chose "+10". The game continued. Immediately after, the two choices ahead were "-3" and "÷2."

SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

Familiar with the rules, Shen Fei rapidly controlled the sawblades as they moved forward. Elementary school math problems. Too easy!

A few minutes later, after passing through a dozen or so choices, his initially thin, single sawblade had become a thick, toothed cylinder formed by a stack of fifty huge, high-speed rotating sawblades. And there were dozens of columns of these cylinders lined up on the stone bridge!

BOOM!

The path of choices ended. Ahead appeared a dense swarm of bugs, large and small. Shen Fei controlled the massive number of sawblades and slammed them viciously into the swarm.

CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

The sawblades spun at high speed, instantly grinding the bugs in their path to dust. At the same time, the number of sawblades also rapidly decreased from the high-speed impacts.

[DING!]

[You have cleared the Secret Realm ’Stone Bridge Charge’!]

[Reward: 61x Level 5 Gemstones..., Reward...]

A minute later, after controlling the great sawblade to slice apart a giant longhorn beetle boss, Shen Fei received 61 Level 5 Gemstones from the Secret Realm’s clear summary.

"Again!"

Sky Control had plenty of Secret Realm Scrolls. Having gotten a good start with Gemstones in the first run, Shen Fei chose to continue. A few hours later, after clearing all the Secret Realms from Sky Control’s scrolls, he took her and cleared all the floors in the Heaven-Reaching Tower that awarded Gemstones. Afterward, he gave the other materials he obtained to Sun Yu to continue selling. He then started grinding the new Secret Realms that Sun Yu had acquired.

Just like that, he mindlessly ground through round after round. The number of Gemstones in his possession rapidly increased.

Time flew by. Soon, it was 11:00 PM.

After grinding all day to the point of wanting to puke, Shen Fei finally had enough Gemstones. Besides the Gemstones, after clearing a huge number of Secret Realms, he had also obtained another unexpected treasure.

One hour left. I’ll upgrade the Gemstones first...

Glancing at the new item in his hand, Shen Fei began to quickly upgrade his Gemstones.

[DING!]

[All Defense Towers have been detected to be socketed with Level 9 ultimate Gemstones!]

[Reward Ultimate Trait—Gem Star Array!]

[Level 9 Gemstones can transform into stars, forming the Array of Celestial Stars...]