Lucky billion players, you've never seen one before / I can accumulate my own luck

This is also why he dared to temporarily separate from Sakura.

"How was the harvest?" Fan Xiao asked.

"A ring." Ying asked, "Did you go looking for that Yao Tianli?"

"You know her?" Fan Xiao asked in surprise.

“It seems so. You two seem to have a special connection.” Sakura said, “In the simulated world, when you were testing the feasibility of the doomsday mode at the school, she was the first person you saved. Now you’ve approached her for the third time… You wouldn’t actually have fallen for her, would you?”

"This is the second time. The one in the simulated world wasn't really me."

Fan Xiao said, "The first time was a coincidence, the second time... we confirmed in the simulated world that she had the Ring of Love, so I approached her again, it's that simple... never mind, why explain this?"

He changed the subject, saying in a slightly wistful tone, "As expected, having high looks makes a difference. The same method doesn't work in the simulated world, but it works in this normal world."

"The same method...you didn't kill someone again, did you?" Sakura asked instinctively.

“The people here have no grudge against me, why would I kill them?” Fan Xiao said speechlessly, “When I said the same method, I meant creating fear to complete the old-fashioned story of a hero rescuing a damsel in distress.”

"Won't this alert the law enforcement team?" Sakura asked.

“First, I didn’t hurt anyone,” Fan Xiao said. “Second, simply scaring someone doesn’t violate the law… unless you scare them to death.”

Upon hearing this, Sakura felt a pang of envy.

Fan Xiao's psychic powers, which allow him to manipulate flesh and blood, can create bizarre scenes that cause people's sanity to plummet at any time, making them perfect for scaring people.

Most other players targeted the ugly students, but he alone set his sights on the beautiful Yao Tianli and managed to win her over in just two hours.

Instead of joining the competition among unsuccessful students, he pioneered a new path.

It's not that ugly people are more likely to like others.

It's mainly those who are good-looking... They have too many choices, their mindset is on a different level, they all put on airs, and they're not so easy to win over.

“You can also try using the ‘blood outfit’ to scare people at night,” Fan Xiao said. “It’s still very useful in saving people at crucial moments.”

“It’s not a good time to act at night,” Sakura said. “The students have all gone home, and breaking into a house is illegal, unless we target groups other than students.”

“It’s pointless,” Fan Xiao reminded him. “Think about why we’re at the school in the first place, and why we were assigned the identity of students. At this stage, the Ring of Love can probably only be obtained from students at our school. Further changes… I estimate they will come soon.”

"Change?" Sakura asked thoughtfully, "You mean...our identities will change?"

"According to Professor Chen's theory, a person's life can be roughly divided into two stages."

Fan Xiao said, "The student stage and the social stage."

"Love during student years is pure, based solely on looks. In the adult world, the factor of the provider comes into play; even people with average looks can gain favor with the opposite sex by leveraging their superior social resources."

"We will most likely go through a social phase, at which point it won't just be about looks anymore, and the difficulty of obtaining the Ring of Love will increase further."

"The difficulty of the social stage has increased... Is that why you proposed cooperation?" Sakura understood: "Cooperation is the real solution to clear the stage."

"No, do you think other players can also conduct simulations and obtain information about the entire instance?"

Fan Xiao shook his head: "The real way to pass the level is to follow the steps and slowly collect the Rings of Love."

"Finding a way to improve appearance stats isn't difficult. After all, Professor Chen often gives lectures at the library. As long as players go to the library to gather information and notice the connection between Professor Chen's theories and the background information of the dungeon, it's not hard to deduce a solution to actively distort perceptions."

"The real challenge lies in collecting the Rings of Love! The difficulty of a Rank B dungeon will most likely be reflected in this process."

"At the beginning, you might be able to get one or two rings, but it gets more and more difficult as you progress. To clear the game... you'll probably have to use mental methods to kill other players and steal the Ring of Love."

He shook his head: "Let's go back to school and ask the other players if they've collected all 10 rings yet."

Sakura nodded.

……

The collection of the Ring of Love did not go as smoothly as Van Chau had anticipated.

Although the players with good looks quickly collected their first Heart Ring, the second one... well, the holders of the Heart Rings in the Ugly Student group probably used them all up. Even a player with good looks like Melissa has been unable to collect the second one for a long time.

Left with no other choice, they had to change their target group and focus on good-looking students in the school.

In an instant, the competition among players transformed into a competition on an equal footing for everyone—good-looking students were also being pursued by other residents in the instance, with many "simps" around, making it significantly more difficult to obtain rings from them.

This caused a buildup of negative emotions among the players, leading them to harbor the desire to kill all these sycophants who were disrupting the love market.

Those simps deserve a terrible death!

Boiling Sheep deserves to be so shameless!

And so, with the difficulty of the challenges gradually increasing, the third day arrived quickly, and half of the challenge was soon over.

To the surprise of both Fan Xiao and Ying, the "phase change" occurred on the afternoon of the third day.

A burst of white light swept across the entire City of True Love.

When Fan Xiao realized what was happening, he found himself in a new, spacious classroom.

Sakura and the other players were also there, surrounded by a number of new students—who looked older than the previous students… roughly the difference between college students and high school students.

Just then, after-school activity time arrived.

Many students stood up, either to go to the toilet, to gather together to discuss the topic, or to casually move their bodies, which had become stiff from sitting for so long.

Fan Xiao and the others exchanged glances and went to the corridor, where they gathered in a corner at the east end.

"A white light teleportation... We encountered it once before the dungeon started, and now it's happening again?" Malfoy asked in surprise. "Our identities have changed, it seems... we've become university students?"

“College students have already begun to experience society,” Melissa frowned. “College isn’t just a simple ivory tower anymore. Collecting the Heart Rings won’t be as easy as it used to be. Besides good looks, we’ll need a certain amount of money. Otherwise, we won’t even have money for dates, and it’ll be difficult to find love. And…”

She said in a serious tone, "If this pattern continues, we might experience another white light teleportation and enter the third stage, which is officially entering society. At that time, I suppose only the major donors will be able to thrive."

“What kinds of perceptions have been distorted again today?” Élissée murmured. “I don’t feel like there’s anything wrong with me.”

"Without a reference point, there's no point in dwelling on this."

Melissa turned her gaze to Fan Xiao, who hadn't spoken, and said, "The cooperation plan must begin immediately! We've collected five Heart Rings; how many do you have?"

"Five?" Fan Xiao scoffed. "Does everyone like cute little girls with adorable faces and figures?"

"……What do you mean?"

Melissa said, rather displeased.

Loli... is that an insult to her height?

"It's nothing, just saying," Fan Xiao laughed. "I have one here, and Ying has one too. That makes two in total."

“I have two here too,” Ai Yuan said.

"Lang Mo and I only managed to collect one."

The smiling man stepped forward and said something.

Tai'an, standing in another direction, also joined the conversation: "I have one here."

“That makes 11 rings, that’s enough,” Melissa said. “In that case, let’s start voting and elect representatives to complete the third mission as soon as possible. We need to make this city safe.”

“You can vote for anyone, right?” Tai’an said. “But don’t let someone deny it after the representative is chosen by vote and it’s not them.”

“Let’s all work together to get rid of those who refuse to admit their mistakes!” Melissa said. “This instance doesn’t prohibit mental attacks.”

"That's good."

Tai'an looked relieved.

Fan Xiao suddenly glanced at him, a slight smile playing on his lips.

They've actually started using this kind of tactic... Interesting!

The Tai'an he was looking at was fake!

He could sense that the other party had flesh and blood creatures that he had placed on their body.

He only deployed flesh-and-blood monitoring devices on the two cannibalistic players.

"A switcheroo... This time, the cannibalistic player isn't stupid. I reckon they've already taken control of Ai Yuan, and with Tai An added in, they have four votes."

As Fan Xiao pondered in his mind, he glanced at Lang Mo and Ma Da.

As expected, one of the two should be Tai'an in disguise... Lang Mo doesn't have any flesh and blood, so Tai'an is impersonating Lang Mo.

As for the plot... roughly, Tai'an and two cannibalistic players controlled Ai Yuan together, and then... the two cannibalistic players then controlled Tai'an?

Unexpectedly, in just one night, the four of them came up with so many tricks.

"Once the appearance stats are restored, the disguise ability will be removed... The cannibal players know they can't get past Melissa, so they disguise themselves as others... It seems they also want to be the first to try something new."

Fan Xiao sneered inwardly.

He had originally planned that if these people voted for him honestly, he would stop taking action in the instance.

He is not someone who enjoys indiscriminate killing.

Many times, he only took action when he had no other choice.

Just like now.

Why... why did you have to force him to take action!

Voting begins!

Melissa raised her voice.

As soon as she finished speaking, she pointed at Fan Xiao.

At the same time, Malfoy and Élischer also pointed to Van Shaw.

Lang Mo, Ma Da, and Ai Yuan pointed to Tai'an.

"..."

Sakura paused slightly, slightly taken aback, as she watched this scene.

what's the situation?

She thought they were going to take action, so she had already activated the props long ago.

As a result, Melissa and the other two all voted for Vancho...?

Without time to think about the reasons, she silently raised her right hand and pointed at Fan Xiao.

Fan Xiao: "..."

Oh...oh?

None of you guys understand, he was all set to show off, but the other side just knelt down and greeted him with a smile... How could he possibly keep up the act now?

He can't force everyone else to kneel down while he has to go through the proper procedures, can he?

Fan Xiao suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

Can't these people...be a little more disrespectful to him?

He still preferred Melissa's rebellious nature.

Sigh... With a complex mix of emotions that tasted nothing like victory, Fan Xiao smiled and looked at Tai'an, saying, "I voted for myself, five votes... I won, give me all your Rings of Love."

"impossible!"

Taian looked at Melissa in disbelief and questioned, "Why did you give up? Why did you vote for someone else? This shouldn't be happening... What were you thinking?"

"Hmm?" Melissa suddenly scrutinized Tai'an upon hearing this: "You actually dare to have a problem with me... This is not like you."

"Ring of Love! Hurry up!" Fan Xiao was impatient... and he wasn't pretending, he was genuinely impatient: "I'm in a hurry to clear the level, don't force me to do it."

"...Who knows if you'll just run away after getting the 10 rings and abandon us?" Tai'an said. "You've been lying from the very beginning of the dungeon. You're a bad person and not trustworthy!"

"This means they're going to take action, right?"

Fan Xiao's mood gradually improved.

"..." Taian looked at Melissa, his face grim, and said, "Your Highness, do you really... believe him?"

“My thoughts are none of your business,” Melissa said, her gaze toward Taian growing colder. “But you… you were so timid before, yet now you’re so resentful. Your personality and style are contradictory… Who are you?”

"...Who else could I be? I just lost a vote and I'm not happy about it."

Upon hearing this, Tai'an dared not say anything more and quickly threw the love ring in his hand to Fan Xiao.

Seeing this, the others also threw their rings at Fan Xiao.

Despite his dissatisfaction, Fan Xiao had no choice but to accept the rings one by one, quickly collecting 10... He didn't take the one that Ying was wearing.

The next second, he received a game notification.