Chapter 9: Clearance

Night quietly fell.

Uncle Fu hunched his back, pushed open the courtyard door, and strode into the house.

There was a hint of fatigue on his face, but his eyes were very bright.

"Young Master, everything has been taken care of."

Zhou Huai sat up from the bed and cast his gaze toward Uncle Fu.

"How is it?"

"According to your instructions, I rented five houses." Uncle Fu lowered his voice, "They are all in remote corners. The keys have been placed on the door frames everywhere just as you said."

He handed several hand-drawn simple maps to Zhou Huai, marking the specific locations of the houses on them.

"No one noticed, right?" Zhou Huai took the map and looked at it carefully.

Uncle Fu straightened his back: "Young Master, rest assured. This old servant has always handled things reliably. Everything was processed in batches under the name of ordinary tenants, which will never arouse suspicion."

Only then did Zhou Huai nod with satisfaction.

"Uncle Fu, you've worked hard."

His voice softened a bit, and then he solemnly exhorted:

"Remember, never mention this matter, nor all the special aspects of my Clone, to anyone, including… that father of mine."

"This point is of utmost importance."

A look of determination appeared on Uncle Fu's aged face, and he said decisively:

"The Young Master's secret is this old servant's life! This old servant swears to protect it to the death and will never leak a single word!"

Zhou Huai felt a slight warmth in his heart.

"Alright, it's fine now. You've also been tired for a day, go down and rest first."

"Yes, Young Master."

Uncle Fu bowed in salute and slowly retreated.

After Uncle Fu left, Zhou Huai did not rest immediately.

He picked up the tablet computer beside him and skillfully opened the official website of Professionals in Tianhai City.

After all, he now only had the perspective of Yasuo, and Yasuo was deeply trapped in the dungeon of the Trial Tower.

He had no way of knowing the challenge progress of other teams outside.

Fortunately, the homepage of the Professionals official website had real-time data updates for the challenge rankings of the Trial Tower.

The screen lit up, and the data refreshed.

[First Place: Yasuo (Individual) – Floor Nine!]

Zhou Huai's hanging heart was finally half put down.

A cliff-like lead!

The second-place Lu Qi team was still struggling bitterly on the seventh floor.

This first place was secure!

He connected his consciousness to Yasuo once again.

The alien beasts on the ninth floor were close to Rank ten, and their attack power and health points had greatly increased.

But in front of the AI-controlled Yasuo, they were still not enough to look at.

Sword light flickered, and thunder surged.

Those fierce alien beasts fell like harvested wheat.

"The smart core ai is indeed powerful."

Zhou Huai nodded secretly.

However, starting from the tenth floor, a BOSS would appear.

The difficulty would spike abruptly.

He was somewhat worried whether the AI would use the healing potions prepared by Uncle Fu.

In case it only knew how to charge in blindly, causing too much health loss and affecting subsequent efficiency, it would not be good.

He observed carefully for a moment.

The combat awareness of Yasuo under the AI's control was shockingly strong.

Facing a large group of alien beasts, it would cleverly lure the monsters and defeat them one by one.

Encountering dense attacks, it would temporarily avoid the sharp edge, and even grab the corpses of alien beasts to act as shields.

That cunning streak was even more so than when Zhou Huai controlled it himself.

Zhou Huai completely set his mind at ease.

A thick sense of fatigue struck again.

His consciousness returned to his main body, and he fell fast asleep.

…

In the wee hours of the morning.

Outside the Trial Tower, it was brightly lit, yet still bustling with noise.

Tonight was destined to belong to those young Professionals fighting through the night.

"Phew… Finally came out!"

Lu Qi breathed heavily, bringing his four team members, and somewhat disheveledly teleported out from the light gate of the Trial Tower, preparing to carry out a brief rest.

He wiped the sweat beads from his forehead and cheered on his teammates who were equally exhausted:

"Brothers, you've all worked hard! Our coordination is getting more and more tacit!"

"Everyone push a little harder and strive to pull an all-nighter tonight, rushing straight to the tenth floor in one go!"

He patted his chest and promised heroically:

"When I take first place in this Trial Tower challenge, I will reward each of you with one hundred thousand Daxia Coins!"

"Wow! Young Master Lu is awesome!"

"One hundred thousand! So powerful, Young Master Lu!"

"Young Master Lu is mighty!"

Hearing this, the four team members instantly refreshed their spirits, their sense of fatigue seemed to dissipate a lot, and they began to flatter him one after another.

Lu Qi proudly raised his chin and subconsciously looked up at the huge real-time ranking light screen in the center of the square.

However, the smile on his face froze abruptly in the next second.

He suddenly stood up, staring deadly at that dazzling line of data at the very top of the screen.

[First Place: Yasuo (Individual) – Floor Ten (BOSS battle in progress)!]

"The tenth floor?!"

"What the hell is this situation?!"

Lu Qi's eyeballs were almost popping out.

Their team fought desperately and popped countless potions just to clear the seventh floor, and came out panting like a dog from exhaustion.

As a result, that guy named Yasuo had actually killed his way to the tenth floor!

And it was even solo!

"Where did this Yasuo pop out from?"

Lu Qi was trembling all over with anger, feeling like his lungs were about to explode.

Today was truly an unlucky year!

In the morning, he was beaten up by that inexplicable middle-aged uncle, and his face was still faintly aching now.

Now, another Yasuo popped out to snatch first place from him!

Damn it!

When had he, Lu Qi, ever suffered this kind of cowardly grievance!

"Hello?!" Lu Qi took out his communicator, his tone freezing cold, like the cold wind of the twelfth lunar month.

"Immediately! Right now! Send a few people over to guard the exit of the Trial Tower!"

"When you see a man with long hair and an uncle-like face come out, detain him for me directly!"

"And there's also one named Yasuo! As long as he dares to come out, take him down for me too!"

"Don't let him enter the Trial Tower again!"

The person on the other end of the phone responded timidly, repeatedly saying yes.

Hanging up the communication, Lu Qi looked with a gloomy face at the several team members who were still resting.

"Stop resting, you mothers! Get up for me!"

"Keep rushing! Full firepower! Don't hide anything from me!"

"All the mana potions, I'll cover them all!"

"Whoever dares to slack off on me, don't blame me for being unmerciful!"

The several team members were startled into a shiver by his fierce and menacing look. How dare they say more, they hurriedly climbed up and rushed back into the Trial Tower following Lu Qi.

However, how could a huge gap be made up by a momentary burst of courage?

Four in the morning.

Zhang Mingyuan, the principal of Tianhai No. 1 Middle School, yawned and rubbed his bloodshot eyes.

The other three principals were much the same, yawning one after another with darkened eye sockets.

In order to contact that mysterious "Yasuo" at the first instance, they forcibly guarded from daytime until the late night.

Just at this moment——

"Hum!"

The giant bell at the top of the Trial Tower emitted a distant and resonant chime!

The data on the leaderboard suddenly froze!

[First Place: Yasuo (Individual) – Cleared!]

[Time spent: 19 hours 58 minutes 32 seconds]

"Cleared!"

"That Yasuo has cleared it!"

Zhang Mingyuan bounced up abruptly from his chair, all sleepiness gone!

"Nineteen hours! Cleared the novice Trial Tower in less than twenty hours!"

"Our Tianhai City hasn't produced such a Prodigy in several years!"

"Quick! Hurry to the entrance!"

The four principals rushed toward the exit of the Trial Tower scrambling for the lead.

A dazzling white light flashed past.

Yasuo's slightly vicissitudinous figure appeared outside the tower.

He had just stood firm.

Not far away, several stout men dressed in black suits who had been waiting for a long time flashed a sharp glint in their eyes.

"That's him!"

"The one with long hair!"

"Regardless of whether it is or not, take him down first!"

The few people exchanged glances, quickly dispersed, and silently surrounded Yasuo!