Delta: Mandel Bricks drop right at the start!

Awei saw Lin Rui's withdrawal record in the game's friends list.

"Rui, you played a whole game solo?? Fourteen million HAF coins??? How did you even do that???"

The message popped up with more than a dozen question marks.

Lin Rui did not reply; he was sorting through today's spoils in the warehouse in the safe zone.

Eight Mandel coins, one Mandel etching modification blueprint, one fully modified M4A1, several high-grade armor plates, and various ammunition and accessories.

Gold coins and blueprints can be exchanged directly through the exchange channel, while M4A1s and accessories can be listed on the auction house.

While I was playing, a message from a stranger popped up in my in-game private message list.

Sender ID: "Valley God of War".

The profile page shows that he is ranked third on the overall kill list for Dam Zero, level 37, and belongs to a medium-sized guild called "Iron Curtain".

"Brother Lin Rui, hello! I've heard so much about you. I'm 'Valley War God,' the vice president of the Iron Curtain Guild. I've seen your impressive achievements these past few days. Are you interested in joining Iron Curtain? Our guild has stable gold-farming routes and tactical systems at Zero Dam and Longbow Valley. We share resources, and profits are distributed according to contribution. With your skills, joining us would be very rewarding."

Attached is a guild introduction document, which lists information such as the number of members, average weekly income, and resource distribution system.

Lin Rui glanced at it twice and then turned it off.

The second private message came from another ID: "Nightwalker Ice".

The profile page shows that the player is ranked 11th on the Longbow Valley kill leaderboard, level 41, and is not in a guild.

"Hello, I'd like to discuss a collaboration with you. I have a few exclusive safe routes in Longbow Valley, but I can't open two of the confidential safes that require two people to work together. If you're interested, we can team up to open the safes and split the profits 50/50."

The words "50/50" made Lin Rui stop scrolling through the messages.

Lin Rui had a rough idea of ​​how valuable those two boxes were, considering that a high-ranking player would willingly give up half of their profits.

He marked the message, but neither replied nor deleted it.

The third private message came from a verified account, with a gold "Official Partner" logo next to the ID.

"Hello Mr. Lin Rui, I am a staff member from the official tournament department of Vertex Interactive. In view of your recent outstanding performance on the Zero Dam map, we would like to invite you to participate in the online qualifiers of the upcoming 'Zero Dam Elite Challenge'. Please see the attachment for tournament details. If you are interested, please reply to this message."

Official tournament invitation.

Lin Rui opened the attachment, which contained the competition rules, participation requirements, and prize details.

Entry requirements: Level 15 or above, 60% or higher success rate in evacuating from Dam Zero, and at least 50 kills. He met all the requirements, and far exceeded them.

The competition format is a single-player evacuation points race, with 32 players competing on the same stage. The scores are based on the combined value of the evacuation supplies and the number of kills, and the top eight players advance to the offline finals.

The total prize money is 20 million HAF coins, with the champion taking home 8 million.

But Lin Rui didn't react much to the prize money.

The list of pre-registered participants on the last page of the attachment contains fourteen names with a rating of 30 or higher, three of which are marked with the prefix "professional team".

The top 100 players on the leaderboard are all concentrated in one match.

The target pool for term plundering.

As he was looking through the list, Ah Wei's fourth message popped up.

"Rui, did you receive an invitation from the Iron Curtain Guild? They posted on the forum saying they want to recruit you. A lot of people are talking about it."

Lin Rui switched to the forum interface, and sure enough, the official account of the Iron Curtain Guild had posted a high-profile message: "[Major Recruitment] The Iron Curtain Guild officially extends an olive branch to the recently rising newcomer 'Lin Rui'! Details are as follows..."

The comments section below the post has already reached over three hundred posts.

"Iron Curtain is trying to snatch people? So soon?"

"That guy alone farmed more gold than your entire guild produces in a week. Why should I join you?"

"Exactly, joining a guild takes a cut of your profits. Aren't people making a better living by working solo?"

"What are the conditions offered by the Iron Curtain? It's not like they're just making them thugs, is it?"

"Everyone knows the Iron Curtain's distribution system: the vice president gets 40%, the president gets 30%, and the remaining 30% goes to the henchmen. What are they getting out of signing a contract with you?"

The comments section was overwhelmingly negative, with most people not optimistic about Lin Rui joining the guild.

The implication is clear: given his current abilities and gold-farming efficiency, joining any guild would be a losing proposition, as it would mean having his profits taken away.

Lin Rui shut down the forum.

He went back to his private message list and typed two words in response to the Iron Curtain Guild's invitation: "Not going."

send.

Then I switched to "Nightwalker Ice's" message and typed: "We'll talk about Longbow Valley later, there's no rush now."

send.

Finally, the message switched to the official tournament invitation.

He stared at the fourteen high-ranking names on the pre-registration list of participants, his finger hovering over the reply box for a few seconds.

"Confirm participation."

send.

After exiting the private message interface, he cleaned up all the unused equipment in his warehouse, selling what needed to be sold and dismantling what needed to be dismantled.

The decomposition yielded another batch of enhancement points, with the dynamic vision points increasing from 3 to 5.

He did not choose to inject.

We can wait until before the competition to strengthen our skills; we should keep some cards up our sleeve.

Ah Wei's fifth message arrived: "Brother Rui, did you turn down the Iron Curtain group? The forum is flooded with messages saying you replied with just two words, 'Not going.' Their vice president even posted three question marks."

Lin Rui switched to the equipment interface in the game lobby and pulled out the tactical knife he had obtained underwater that day.

The blade has special red-quality patterns and is estimated to be worth over 500,000 Haff coins.

He hung the knife on the character's belt.

Ah Wei sent another message: "Brother Rui, are you going to participate in that elite challenge? The registration list was just updated, and your name is on it. There are so many top players in there, including three professional players' practice accounts."

"understood."

"Are you playing alone? Do you need me to analyze the playstyles of those professional players for you? I studied their game videos when I was in the youth training team, I can..."

"Compile the information you have and send it to me."

The other side paused for two seconds.

"Roger that! I'll organize it right now! I guarantee it'll be even more detailed than what the coaching staff did!"

Lin Rui quit the game.

When I took off the VR headset, there were five bank deposit notifications on my phone.

Today's solo run's resource exchange, combined with previous auction house sales, resulted in an additional eight million in revenue.

The cumulative balance is approaching 43 million.

He put his phone on the table and walked to the window.

In the darkness outside the window, the residential building under construction in the distance is brightly lit, and the outline of the tower crane draws an arc under the searchlight.

The words "City Center Grand Flat" on the GG sign were brightly illuminated by the lights in the night.

He stood there for a few seconds, drew the curtains, returned to the table, and opened the first document that Awei had sent him.

The title is: "Analysis Report of Key Participants in the Zero Dam Elite Challenge (First Edition)".

The documents were well-organized and formatted, with each player on a separate page, including their historical records, commonly used weapons, preferred routes, tactical styles, and known weaknesses.

This report is far more professional than the analysis posts on the forum.

Lin Rui turned to the third page, and a name made his finger stop.

"ID: 'Mr. Turret'. Level 42. Ranked #1 on the Zero Dam kill leaderboard. Team: KZ Esports Club (current substitute). Preferred weapon: PKP machine gun + full level 6 gear. Tactical style: Heavy firepower suppression, skilled in holding positions and blocking enemy fire."

Ah Wei added a note in red below this name:

"This guy is a monster, Rui, be careful."

Lin Rui finished reading the line of red text and turned to the next page.