Chapter Forty-Nine: The Great Monkey’s Maneuver

As an experienced gamer, Jiuri Beibei was well aware of the pitfalls in DNF, and he knew that this horse race event was most likely just a ploy by the developers to drain gold from the players. Still, a strange confidence swelled in Jiuri Beibei’s chest. He glanced at the Primeval Relic Codex beside his hand, which recorded several of his most glorious feats as the luckiest of the lucky.

He was a king of luck! With such fortune, who could possibly compete?

“Dear viewers, this event isn’t really suitable for the unlucky. Just watch from the sidelines. For someone like me, it’s a money-making opportunity. Keep your eyes peeled!” Jiuri Beibei clicked through the event page, analyzing it earnestly for his streaming audience.

“Edward has a skill called Thrust, and another called Charge, while his opponent, Beowulf, has skills called Block and Counterattack. One is all about offense, the other leans toward defense. Offense means riding forward, obviously much faster than defense!”

“Look, the event NPC is even named Edward, so it’s clear as day—this first round is the easiest to predict. I’m betting on Edward!”

The stream chat exploded with excitement.

[Sit back and watch the prophet make his call]
[Shouldn’t you consult the Codex for a divination?]
[Brother Bei’s analysis is solid, so I’m picking Beowulf!]
[For more, add V: 134747...]
[Hey, where does your ride go?]
...

The chat quickly derailed until several rule-breakers were silenced by the moderators, and order was restored.

Jiuri Beibei glanced at his three hundred million gold in-game, thought it over, and felt confident in his wager this round.

“I’ll dip my toe in—just a small bet of one hundred million gold! I’m betting on Edward, with odds of 6.7. In just twenty minutes, my hundred million could become 670 million!”

[A hundred million just to test the waters—truly a big shot!]
[Laughing, I bet two million on Beowulf.]
[With tears in my eyes, I stare at the 230,000 gold in my storage, wondering how long until I reach my little goal...]
[All done, back to watching the stream.]
...

Xie Jing stood by the roadside, watching more and more players gather. Before his eyes, a real-time data graph appeared.

It showed the amount of gold invested in each knight by the players, along with the corresponding odds.

“It’s only been five minutes, and over three billion has already been bet,” Xie Jing thought, delighted. He did some quick calculations. If Beowulf won, with odds at 8.4, he’d only need to pay out five hundred million in gold to the players; the remaining two and a half billion would be pure profit.

With this realization, Xie Jing felt that making money was absurdly easy. The tasks set by the system seemed trivial in comparison!

As for whether Beowulf would actually win—was there any question? It wasn’t a real horse race; Xie Jing didn’t even have horses at hand. The outcome was entirely up to him—whoever he wanted to win would win.

The event was structured in three stages: quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. After twenty minutes, all players who had invested gold received a system notification.

[The horse race has begun! Go see how your chosen knight is performing!]

Casual bettors who put in a few hundred thousand didn’t care much, but those who’d bet millions or tens of millions couldn’t wait to leave the map, instantly teleporting to Xie Jing’s location, where they twitched with anticipation.

Jiuri Beibei and Da Nongbao, who had bet one hundred million and fifty million gold on Edward respectively, didn’t bother grinding dungeons. As top players, they already had the best weapons money could buy, and their daily streams were mostly about chatting and hanging out with fans.

So, they stayed put, analyzing the contestants, hoping to find some clue in the data.

“All right, folks! The critical moment is upon us!” Jiuri Beibei announced.

On screen, each group was represented by two massive swords clashing, accompanied by the sound of pounding hooves.

“I can’t take it—I have to unleash my ultimate move!” Jiuri Beibei cried, grabbing the Primeval Relic Codex in one hand, pulling his shirt over his head with the other, calculating furiously while muttering strange incantations.

“The Primeval Relic Codex is my father, my father!”
“Oguk EZ Bodhi, shwo go bu le sai #￥%……&*”
“Yes, exactly! You’re absolutely right!”
“Yes! Listen to your father!”

His antics sent the chat into a frenzy.

[The Primeval Relic Codex returns—utterly terrifying!]
[Absolutely right, Monkey—I'm your father!]
[Wishing for the Aura of Cheer, the temptation of a starlet!]

The stream was alive with laughter and joy.

At the last moment of the quarterfinals, every knight was bathed in a brilliant light. The advancing contestants appeared in the next bracket.

[Monkey, you’re done for!]
[Monkey, you’re finished!]
[Monkey, is this really the end?]
...

Jiuri Beibei kept chanting, then slyly lowered his collar to peek at the screen. When he saw Edward, his chosen knight, lose so miserably, he screamed, rolled his eyes, flopped back in his chair, and twitched a few times for good measure.

Da Nongbao got up and wandered the room, as if searching for something.

[Quick, Da Nongbao, give Master mouth-to-mouth!]
[Beige, run! Da Nongbao’s looking for a weapon to murder his Master!]
[Laughing out loud! I bet on Beowulf, and he advanced!]
[I lost a million... sob sob...]
[A million is nothing! I followed Brother Bei and lost thirty million gold! All gone!]

The stream chat was once again filled with cheerful chaos.

Jiuri Beibei slowly sat up, glaring at Da Nongbao, who obediently returned to his seat.

A hundred million was nothing to a top streamer like him, but the fact that his deduction was wrong was unbearable.

“So cunning! I’ll be damned, they’re too cunning!” Jiuri Beibei gritted his teeth at the sight of Beowulf’s victorious advance.

“My analysis must have been spotted by the developers—they must have changed the outcome on the spot. Too cunning! No, I have to call Brother Ma and complain!”

He theatrically pulled out his phone, tapped a few times, and held it to his ear.

“Hello? Brother Ma! Oh, no need to call me sir, just Bei is fine!
Let me ask you, did you secretly change the data for that horse race event?
Oh, you did? So it was originally Edward! I’m telling you, you can’t do that. If you’re making a game, do it honestly—don’t mess with the data behind the scenes.
Got it? All right, no problem, it’s just a hundred million, pocket change. Okay, okay, you promise not to do it again next time! Remember that!”

Putting the phone down with mock solemnity, Jiuri Beibei nodded seriously at the stream.

“You see? It was supposed to be Edward, but a clueless programmer saw my stream and changed the data. I’ve already had Brother Ma give him a thorough scolding—it won’t happen again!”

A wave of praise for Monkey filled the chat, making Jiuri Beibei grin from ear to ear, just like a happy monkey.