Free Web NovelChapter 43: Chapter 25: The Results Are Out
Amid everyone’s playful banter, time slowly ticked by.
Soon, night fell.
As the clock passed 11:00 PM, midnight drew ever closer.
The leaderboard was in turmoil as the lords’ scores began to change rapidly.
Lords would suddenly gain a huge amount of prosperity, instantly surpassing several or even dozens of others.
Then, just as quickly, they would be overtaken by other lords, dropping several ranks.
The competition was especially fierce around the 10,000th, 5,000th, 1,000th, 500th, 300th, and 100th place milestones, as crossing these thresholds meant leveling up to the next tier of rewards.
In the chat channel, people constantly howled in frustration over dropping a tier while others cheered for breaking into a higher rank.
「11:30 PM.」
[World Chat Channel (789654)]
Yun Qihao: "Brothers, watch me make my move!!"
Lin Yu: "Go for it, big shot!"
Ding Dong: "Go for it!"
Zhang Lv: "Go for it!"
...
Amid a chorus of cheers, Yun Qihao’s prosperity instantly increased by 1,000,000, rocketing him past Qian Duoduo and into first place.
The World Chat Channel immediately erupted.
"Lord Yun made his move!!"
"Everyone, chant with me: Lord Yun is a badass!!!"
"Lord Yun is a badass!!!"
"Lord Yun is a badass!!!"
...
"Don’t get too excited. Lord Yun has played his card, but Lord Qian hasn’t made his move yet! Lord Qian might just reclaim first place in a bit."
"You can’t be sure about that. Lord Yun is backed by the Divine Hall and could produce a super-building like that, worth 1,000,000 prosperity from a single structure. Lord Qian is just rich; it doesn’t mean he can get his hands on a super-building."
"That’s right. The building blueprint I sold to Lord Qian was only worth 100,000 prosperity."
"Me too. The blueprint I sold was worth 80,000 prosperity."
"Mine was 75,000."
"Mine was 30,000."
...
The lords who had sold blueprints to Qian Duoduo were lining up to report the stats. Although the prosperity from each individual building wasn’t outrageous, the sheer number of blueprints was staggering.
In a corner of the continent, beside a golden hall, the excited look on Yun Qihao’s face gradually turned frosty. He finally let out a helpless sigh.
He did some quick mental math and realized that the prosperity values reported by the lords who sold blueprints to Qian Duoduo already totaled over 5,000,000. And that didn’t even include the lords who sold blueprints but hadn’t spoken up. The total prosperity from the blueprints Qian Duoduo had acquired could only be higher, not lower.
Sure enough, at 11:40 PM, Qian Duoduo’s territory prosperity increased by 130,000, putting him exactly 10,000 points ahead of Yun Qihao.
This was clearly a deliberate move by Qian Duoduo. Such a display of effortless superiority made Yun Qihao give up the struggle.
The time reached 11:50 PM. Qian Duoduo’s territory prosperity hadn’t changed, still holding steady at 5,130,000.
Lin Yu pulled his focus from the Lord’s Core and issued an order to Xia Luo, who was overseeing the Urban Construction and Planning Bureau.
"Begin the final phase of construction."
"Remember, increase the number of completed buildings gradually. Don’t finish all of them until the final minute."
"Don’t make any mistakes. Losing a golden building would be a huge waste."
At this moment, all 250 staff members of the Urban Construction and Planning Bureau were in position. (An additional 50 sprites had been added later to prevent the bureau from shutting down if staff members took leave.)
After receiving the order, Xia Luo immediately directed the bureau’s sprites to act according to plan. The sprites sat down at their workstations, projected their consciousness into the small orbs of light there, and connected to the urban construction system to initiate the final build.
"It’s moving, it’s moving!!"
"Quick, look! ’Anonymous 1’s’ prosperity is starting to rise."
"Hahaha, I knew it! ’Anonymous 1’ was definitely holding back a massive play."
"Lord Qian better watch out!!"
"Go, ’Anonymous 1’!"
...
Seeing Lin Yu’s territory prosperity begin to change, the people in the chat channel went wild, all guessing how high ’Anonymous 1’ could climb and whether he could dethrone Qian Duoduo.
At that moment, a strange scene unfolded. Unlike other lords whose prosperity jumped by thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands at a time...
...Lin Yu’s territory prosperity was only increasing by 1 point at a time, sometimes 100, but almost always just 1.
On the leaderboard, this meant the number for ’Anonymous 1’s’ prosperity was constantly spinning and increasing. Although the number changed rapidly, each individual increment was tiny. It was unclear if this was intentional.
This situation left everyone staring, dumbfounded.
Qian Duoduo: "Hahaha! Scared me for a second. I really thought ’Anonymous 1’ was about to pull something big, but it’s just this."
Qian Duoduo: "Looks like this ’Anonymous 1’ really is just some commoner who got lucky. He doesn’t even have a single high-value building. To think I considered him a rival... he’s not even on Yun Qihao’s level. Ptooey! What a letdown!"
Yun Qihao: "(￣▽￣") ..."
Qian Duoduo: "Now, watch this!" fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
As soon as Qian Duoduo finished speaking, his territory’s prosperity took a triple leap: "+300,000," "+200,000," "+250,000."
In an instant, his prosperity hit 5,880,000.
Qian Duoduo: "How about that? Are you blown away?"
"The lord is a badass!!!"
"Lord Qian is the real deal!!"
"The lord has so many aces up his sleeve!!"
...
In the World Channel, a stream of flattery sprouted like mushrooms after a spring rain. Behind the scenes, Qian Duoduo was immensely pleased. He felt victory was in his grasp, as he still had other buildings under construction that would provide him with several hundred thousand more prosperity upon completion.
As far as he was concerned, first place was a sure thing.
However, Lin Yu paid no mind to Qian Duoduo’s boasting in the World Channel. ’After all, first place is mine for the taking.’
He even posted a message in the chat.
Lin Yu: "Lord Qian is a badass plus!!"
On the leaderboard, ’Anonymous 1’s’ prosperity continued its unwavering climb, soon surpassing 12th place, 11th, 10th... all the way to 3rd.
After breaking 3,000,000, its rate of increase didn’t slow in the slightest. In fact, it began to gradually accelerate.
The compliments in the chat channel died down. Everyone was stunned by the situation, their eyes glued to the changing prosperity score.
At 11:55 PM, ’Anonymous 1’s’ prosperity reached 4,000,000.
At 11:59 PM, ’Anonymous 1’s’ prosperity broke 5,000,000.
At 11:59:15, ’Anonymous 1’s’ prosperity surpassed 5,120,000, officially taking second place.
At 11:59:55, ’Anonymous 1’s’ prosperity reached 5,800,000. At this point, Qian Duoduo’s prosperity had reached 6,300,000.
Just as Qian Duoduo was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the growth of ’Anonymous 1’s’ prosperity suddenly accelerated.
At 11:59:59, ’Anonymous 1’s’ prosperity reached 6,000,000.
The next moment, just as Qian Duoduo’s worries were easing and the crowd of spectators assumed the dust had finally settled, the leaderboard flashed.
12:00:00. "Anonymous 1" Prosperity: 56,789,114. "Anonymous 1" had officially claimed the top of the prosperity leaderboard.
