On the white-jade stage of the Hundred-Sun Treasure Pavilion, Professor Ao Man slowly staggered to his feet, dripping with brown, honey-rehydrated three-thousand-year-old wild-donkey manure.
His once-immaculate silver faculty robes were ruined. Above his head, in the chandelier’s transparent [PTA Tax-Audit Detention Cage], his sworn brother and co-conspirator Director Jin was whimpering while nursing a swollen backside stamped with the Seven-Wolves emblem.
And on the giant blood-gold scoreboard above the stage, the final ledger entry of Auction Lot #001 was still glowing in merciless ten-foot characters:
[WINNING BIDDER: PROFESSOR AO MAN — 800,000,000 HIGH-GRADE SPIRIT STONES PAID IN FULL!]
[CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE OF AO MAN: 0.00 SPIRIT STONES (VILLA & 300-YEAR PENSION LIQUIDATED)!]
[ITEM DELIVERED: 1X FOSSILIZED BLACK-HOOF DONKEY TURD!]
“Zero... my balance is zero...”
Professor Ao Man stared at his own trembling right thumb, where his Rank 8 Early System Ring. This Had once bulged with eight hundred million extorted spirit stones, luxury star-yachts, and antique jade—was now completely, echoing empty.
