My lord, spare his life!

Guan Sihao took a while to recover his thoughts.

"You're saying you're willing to give me your human skin?"

"Yes, of course I'll give it to you, but you have to agree to my demands." Zhang Yang laid it all out upfront, as she was quite worried that Guan Si would turn on her after taking the human skin. It wasn't that she lacked the ability to take it back, but rather that she couldn't bear the shame—being scammed by an NPC was far too humiliating.

For some reason, Guan Si fell silent again.

Zhang Yang leaned forward slightly.

"Give me a straight answer, Easter Egg Bro."

Guan Si swallowed the fried bun: "I promise, as long as you personally peel off your own skin and give it to me intact, I'll agree to everything except the matter of me personally slaughtering the Hundred Ghost Guards!"

Zhang Yang let out a series of even "hahahaha" laughs.

"Alright, great! Are you going to take just this one, or two? How about I give you an extra human skin for free?"

It is known that one piece of [Zhang Boyuan's human skin] increases the capture success rate by 50% and grants Guan Si 30 points of favorability. What if Zhang Yang gave him two pieces of [Zhang Boyuan's human skin]?

Wouldn't that mean a 100% success rate?

Even a 50% success rate is not reliable.

What if the [Zhang Boyuan's human skin] fails to capture Guan Si? Wouldn't that human skin be wasted? Zhang Yang had seen other observation samples try their luck with various synthetic gems in a lottery. Each time they failed, the gems were destroyed, making all their previous efforts futile.

Only 100% certainty brings true peace of mind.

Zhang Yang's mind was racing with calculations.

Guan Si: "..."

Every word Zhang Yang uttered was unexpected to him.

Finally, he blurted out, "Don't talk, just eat!"

Zhang Yang looked down and realized that three more of her pan-fried buns were missing.

Left with no other choice, she had to order another half pot of pan-fried buns from the stall owner. The stall owner smiled and agreed to her shameless act of cutting in line. When the other diners heard the news, some couldn't wait and chose to leave, some remained silent, and some were furious and cursed the unfairness of the act, but they calmed down the moment they saw her.

Guan Si glanced at the man and said, "Aren't you going to kill him?"

Zhang Yang: "Kill whom?"

Guan Si pointed at the man: "He insulted you."

Zhang Yang's attention wasn't on that; she only saw the diners' conversation as noisy white noise: "Why are you cursing at me?"

Guan Si: "You cut in line and stole half a pot of their fried buns."

"When did I cut in line?"

Aside from certain quest items having extremely slow respawn rates, forcing the observational sample to queue to collect them, there's absolutely no issue of cutting in line. Buying from NPC vendors is even less of a problem; human players can simply approach the vendor and buy what they need – that's only fair! If you had to queue to shop with NPC vendors, wouldn't this game be doomed?

The adopted grandson of the scavenging old woman had a peak online user count of 300 million.

Even if only one in ten thousand people talk to the merchant NPCs, that's still thirty thousand people. If they line up one by one, it will take forever.

The entire purchasing process involved her talking to the vendor to buy pan-fried buns, the vendor handing her the freshly baked buns, and her paying the bill.

Guan Si suddenly broke into a smile.

"Yes, he slandered you. You don't kill the person who slandered you?"

Zhang Yang asked in bewilderment, "Was your family of origin so high-pressure?"

Guan Si doesn't understand his family of origin, but he understands family.

That hint of a smile transformed into a sinister and menacing expression, like that of a vengeful ghost.

His mother is someone no outsider can touch!

Zhang Yang said seriously, "Given a mother's tolerance, she wouldn't harbor murderous intent over a child's slightest nonsense, let alone beat someone to death. His comment about me cutting in line is just innocent childish talk."

That's why she said that Eggman came from a high-pressure family.

Look what they've done to the children!

"...You're right, Mother is indeed forgiving."

Zhang Yang nodded in satisfaction.

"That's right."

The pan-fried buns had just come out of the oven when the vendor placed half a pan of them onto a plate and brought them to Zhang Yang. Her eyes lit up. She had previously felt that eating food from the side map of her homestead was like torture, but as she relaxed the regulations on doing business, the variety of ingredients available in the market increased, and all sorts of tempting foods sprang up like mushrooms after rain, tantalizing her taste buds. Although the variety of food was still somewhat limited due to a lack of seasonings, the taste had caught up, making it barely edible.

Guan Si's appetite was well-matched to his physique.

He devoured the fist-sized fried buns in one bite.

This made Zhang Yang eat more and more urgently.

Before leaving, Zhang Yang asked for another pot of fried buns.

Pack it up and stuff it into your game inventory.

The neighboring stall owners looked on with envy.

This is the fourth day that the Prefect has visited this pan-fried bun stall. The stall owner doesn't need to do much advertising; word spreads quickly, and customers line up in droves. These are pan-fried buns that even the Prefect loves; who wouldn't want to try them if they had a little money?

only--

The only downside is that it's too expensive.

The flour used is finely milled wheat flour made from hulled wheat, and the meat used is fresh meat purchased and slaughtered the day before. You should know that the easiest meat to obtain now is from sheep; the meat of wild animals is actually harder to come by and more expensive.

How could a pan-fried bun vendor dare to add cheap meat to their pan-fried buns?

Wouldn't that increase the cost of raw materials?

Therefore, the pan-fried buns sold here are also expensive.

Guan Si followed Zhang Yang all the way to the temporary prefectural government.

Midway, they ran into Guan Zong, who looked constipated. Zhang Yang gave him a brief greeting and walked past him, while Guan Si didn't greet him, only giving Guan Zong, this good-for-nothing, a look of utter contempt. Guan Zong watched their retreating figures, his face darkening further.

What does Guan Si want to do?

My lord, didn't you see someone following behind you?

He followed after them, worried that they might not be safe.

Watching Zhang Yang take out fried buns from his game inventory and distribute them, he then winked at Guan Si: "Come on!"

Guan Si followed with a cold smile.

He wanted to see how Zhang Boyuan would peel off the human skin.

Zhang Boyuan did not possess any of the "Stars Descending to Earth" attributes, so he could not possibly be a "Painted Skin Ghost"! It's impossible to peel off one human skin and still have another! This was Guan Si's true inner monologue three breaths ago.

Three breaths later, he changed his mind.

Zhang Yang, right in front of him, tore at a piece of flesh from the side of her neck. Under Guan Si's gaze, the skin rippled like flowing water, displaying incredible suppleness and elasticity. As her arm stretched out, the skin grew longer and longer!

Zhang Yang muttered, "Where's the opening again?"

She groped around in that area with both hands.

After groping around blindly for a while, he exclaimed, "Hey, I found it!"

In a short while, she removed a human skin.

While described as human skin, it's more like a scalpless mask, only thin and painted in a human skin tone. Once put on, the edges extend downwards until it covers the entire body, altering its shape.

Guan Si: "..."

He looked down at the human skin Zhang Yang handed him, and felt a chill run down his spine.

Zhang Yang said, "This is the human skin I used. The appearance is based on my initial model, but the age has been reduced."

She prefers to use her original character model. The few character creations she uses most often are just minor adjustments and some trendy makeup, such as changing the age to be younger/older, adjusting the philtrum to make the body shape more age-appropriate, but the base is still her original character model.

"Or do you want a different style?"

Zhang Yang took out another human skin from his game backpack.

In order to successfully blend into the observation sample group without being discovered that she was not human, she had all the popular character creation apps that other players admired, but she didn't wear them often, and most of them just gathered dust in her game backpack.

"I've used this human skin before."

The name and title are comparable to the face of the guy with the Easter Egg.

However, it was the champion of the character creation contest two years ago! It was so popular that when Zhang Yang went out, he met a hundred female players, more than half of whom used the same character creation style or made minor adjustments to it!

Why is it so popular?

Because this face belongs to the absolutely cold, aloof, domineering, and mature woman type, she can whip someone's buttocks with a leather whip and make that person feel good.

Zhang Yang thought it was an exaggeration.

Because when she went out to rob someone, she hit the target player, but that player didn't feel satisfied; instead, he lay on the ground cursing her entire family's household register. This also shows that some human players are old, don't tell the truth, and their words can't be entirely trusted.

[I really hit you, and now you're upset.]

Zhang Yang handed both human skins to Guan Si.

Seeing that he was hesitant to accept it, she became annoyed: "Are you going to back out?"

Guan Si: "..."

Guan Zong, who was anxiously watching from outside the door, remained silent.

Guan Si's voice sounded eerie and suppressed, as if he were grinding his teeth: "What I want... isn't your skin!"

Zhang Yang hesitated, "But all I have is this kind of human skin."

Guan Si's defenses have been breached!

Guan Si erupted!

Guan Si felt like he had been tricked by Zhang Yang!

"What I want is the human skin on your flesh, the bloody human skin peeled off, the skin that leaves you nothing but a bloodied man, the only human skin you have left!" Guan Si's expression was sinister, his gaze fixed on the doorway, and he sneered, "If you don't understand, I can peel off this piece of trash's skin and give you a sample!"

A murderous intent arose!

Black mist surged from his body, transforming into a huge wolf head.

"Good heavens, what does this have to do with me!"

Guan Zong's muscles were tense, his shoulders slightly heavy, as if an invisible mountain was pressing down on him, rendering him unable to move his limbs; only his eyes could still move. Just as Guan Zong was thinking of using his strength to break free, Zhang Yang spoke.

"I don't think I have that kind of human skin."

Guan Si suddenly lost his temper: "What did you say?"

Zhang Yang: "I said, I don't have the kind of human skin you're looking for. Most likely, the initial model will still have human skin underneath."

What's underneath the modeled skin?

Is it a humanoid data stream composed of a string of numbers?

Guan Si's facial muscles twitched, as if he had suffered some kind of contamination.

Zhang Yang forcefully shoved two human skins of Zhang Boyuan into Guan Si's hands, saying, "A gentleman's word is his bond! You're a man of some standing, you wouldn't be trying to renege on your promise, would you?"

With a 100% capture success rate, you still want to escape?

As expected, Guan Sixian stared blankly down at the two strikingly different human skins, then looked up at Zhang Yang's face, which held a mixture of wariness and expectation. He felt countless words stuck in his throat, unsure how to express them. After a long while, he said, "I will not break my promise."

Zhang Yangchong and Guan Zong raised their eyebrows in a show of arrogance.

See, we've successfully captured it!

Guan Si laughed, hastily rolled the two human skins into a ball and stuffed them into his clothes, panting heavily, "What do you want me to do?"

He must kill Zhang Boyuan!

He must kill Zhang Boyuan!

He must kill Zhang Boyuan!

He killed her with his own hands, and skinned her alive with his own hands!

Zhang Yang, unsure where to begin, pulled out his notebook and opened it to a schedule: "I need you to cooperate with me. Guan Zong told me you have a hidden trade route leading to the other side of the Dongfan Mountains, to the mountains of China. I need it."

Guan Si said irritably, "That trade route is not in my hands."

"I know it's not in your hands. What I want is for you to get your hands on it, and then we can cooperate so I can use it." Zhang Yang said this with a straight face, as if it were her right to use it. "Getting the Shangdao is your problem, not mine."

Guan Si choked for a moment.

Zhang Yang: "You can't even do this?"

If Guan Si can't even do this, what's so great about him? And every time we meet, he always has this arrogant "mortals get out of my way" expression, as if even the King of Heaven himself would have to call him "father."

"What do you mean I can't even do this?" Guan Si hadn't been this angry in many years. "Do you think you can?"

Zhang Yang nodded very naturally.

"I just can."

They're just a bunch of low-level, red-named minions, not even elite monsters. Zhang Yang could easily clear them out if he wanted to. However, since the quest hasn't reached that stage yet, these monsters will keep respawning, making them impossible to eliminate completely. Conversely, if Guan Si, as the NPC leader in the quest, were to occupy the strongholds of other Eastern bandits and make those territories his own, wouldn't that perfectly avoid this problem?

Zhang Yang thoughtfully offered a way out.

"If you can't do it, I'll do it for you."

Being bossed around by NPCs is the fate of every observation sample.

Players are even more useful than donkeys.

As soon as the NPC who issues the mission speaks, whether it's reaching for the moon in the heavens, plunging into the deepest oceans to catch turtles, or even venturing deep into the mother insect's lair or fighting invading alien races, the observation samples can single-handedly confront them head-on and always manage to survive.

Guan Si closed his eyes, suppressing his surging emotions.

Guan Zong, standing to the side, broke out in a cold sweat and dared not breathe.

What horrified him even more was that Zhang Yang had actually managed to subdue Guan Si, this living ancestor, forcing him to speak: "Of course I can."

His eyes held a lingering resentment.

Give me three months.

"One month."

Guan Zong felt his scalp tingle and almost wanted to call Zhang Yang an ancestor in his heart. Guan Si had already made concessions, and she was adding fuel to the fire?

Zhang Yang explained the reason: "The natural disaster that disrupted the seasons is about to end. After the cold winter, the seasons will return to normal. I need to restore Tianyue's economic exchanges with the outside world as soon as possible; three months is too long."

A month is enough for Zhang Yang to resolve the internal troubles of Tianyue.

Guan Si kindly reminded him, "Using the trade route once incurs enormous costs, which you'll need to prepare yourself. If you don't prepare enough goods to cover your expenses, you'll lose money even if you go. Tianyue has them?"

"It will come in a while."

Those ATMs are already itching to be robbed.

Zhang Yang promised Puyang Kui that he wouldn't completely eliminate these ATMs, but he was certain that more than half of them would suffer. Zhang Yang used several wealthy households in Weiyin County as sample data to calculate the economic benefits; after this operation, he figured he could improve his children's living conditions.

She had already planned how to spend the money once she got it.

Guan Si lowered his eyelids: "That's good."

Having said that, he turned to leave.

Incidentally, it knocked Guan Zong, who was blocking the path, to one side.

Guan Zong's shoulder was sore and numb.

"Revenge for wrongs, grievance for grievances, what kind of hero takes it out on his own brother after being humiliated by his lord?"

???(′?`?)

Save up a chapter...

Everyone still wants a 10,000-word update all at once _(:3」∠)_

Guan Si: Your human skin is not the human skin I want.