At that moment, Silver Wolf remembered what Kafka had once told her—that the only true bad ending for her would be getting stewed into soup. And now, that nightmare had really come true?!
Silver Wolf hurriedly begged for mercy: "You can stew me, but please, don't livestream it! And don't spread the footage. Just let me die with some dignity!"
Pei Guang smiled: "I'm not livestreaming, and I won't release the footage… unless you don't cooperate. You wouldn't want the whole universe to know you were stewed, right?"
Silver Wolf nodded rapidly, although with few remaining doubts: "As long as you don't post it, anything is negotiable. Wait, why does this sound so familiar? "
When Pei Guang said that, Silver Wolf immediately understood what he wanted. If she were in his shoes, she would've done the same—if someone denied her rewards, she'd absolutely leak their browsing history and teach that developer a lesson.
But now, Pei Guang was giving her a chance to avoid public humiliation, and Silver Wolf wasn't about to waste it.
Silver Wolf: "Let me go, and I'll give you all the rewards I've prepared. Every single one of them, plus my credit points."
Pei Guang: "No rush..."
At that moment, Silver Wolf noticed something—the water seemed to be heating up. She panicked: "No! Don't turn me into soup! It's getting hot—the water's heating up!"
Suddenly, whether it was her imagination or something else, Silver Wolf genuinely felt the water she was soaking in getting warmer. As the temperature rose, she envisioned her grim future.
In her mind's eye, she saw herself struggling and pleading in a pot of boiling water, but all she saw in response was the Demon Lord's sinister smile.
Seeing Silver Wolf's frantic struggle and hearing her cries, Pei Guang raised an eyebrow: "Hot? That's impossible. Wait—hold on, Stelle? What are you doing? Why are you starting a fire?"
Stelle looked at him innocently: "I just wanted to see if the whole 'boiling a frog in warm water' thing actually works. Guess I got caught~ teehee~"
Pei Guang: "Teehee, my foot! If you want to boil a frog, you need to put the lid on! That's how you do it."
Silver Wolf: "And I'm not a frog! If you put the lid on, I'll scream even louder!!!"
Pei Guang: "Alright, alright, stop screaming. I'll untie you. Just hand over the rewards. If you don't, we'll make sure this whole scene gets broadcast everywhere!"
Silver Wolf: "Don't worry, I'll keep my word! The exclusive rewards, they're all yours."
This made Herta chuckle. She had to admit, Silver Wolf's performance had been excellent. It had been ages since she'd seen someone get dealt with like this after crossing her.
At the same time, Herta found herself impressed by Pei Guang's methods. If Silver Wolf hadn't dug her own grave, this could've ended in a win-win situation. But Silver Wolf suddenly had a realization and started digging, and as the saying goes, "Don't start what you cannot finish". If this had been done online, there wouldn't have been much consequence.
But Silver Wolf just had to mess things up in person at the space station. Not only that, she decided to mess with Pei Guang directly. If she had just played out the last game properly, it all would've been fine. But no—she had to cancel it. And now, Pei Guang was going to deal with her, while a third of the galaxy, who bet on Silver Wolf, was putting out bounties for her head.
Here's a funny joke: Silver Wolf's bounty increased tenfold from just one competition. Essentially, it was the whole galaxy's way of crowdfunding her bounty after losing everything in bets, causing it to skyrocket.
Originally, her bounty of 5.1 billion credits already seemed high, but many people didn't care because the truly powerful folks didn't need money, and the weak couldn't catch Silver Wolf anyway—they'd just end up being toyed with by her.
Now that Silver Wolf's bounty had soared from 51 billion to an exaggerated 510 billion, and the number kept climbing, she had become a prime target.
Seeing how casually everyone was playing around, Herta decided it was time to share the "good news."
Herta looked at Silver Wolf and said, "Don't be so anxious. I've got some good news for you. After you hear it, you might not even want to leave."
Silver Wolf: "Not want to leave? Impossible! I can't just sit here and watch myself get stewed!"
Herta: "Really? Well, let me show you."
Herta held up her phone and showed Silver Wolf what was happening on the network. As Silver Wolf watched the discussions online and saw her rapidly increasing bounty, her expression froze.
A bounty of 51 billion? For Silver Wolf, that was just fun.
A bounty of 510 billion? Now that was a challenge, but as Herta showed her phone, Silver Wolf saw that the number was still rising.
Silver Wolf quickly did some calculations. By the time she left here, the bounty could reach 5 trillion, maybe even 1 quadrillion. Given the number of people involved, with each contributing just one credit, her bounty could easily exceed 10 quadrillion!
If it went that high, she'd be in deep trouble. Across the universe, plenty of thrill-seekers would be hunting her down. And if her bounty reached that high, she feared even the members of the Stellaron Hunters might sell her out. Forget Kafka, even Silver Wolf herself would consider teaming up with Pei Guang to sell her for that kind of money!
10 quadrillion credits… not even the wealthiest people in the galaxy could cough up that much all at once!
At the same time, Silver Wolf knew that if the bounty reached those levels, she would be in for the ultimate headache. She'd become the universe's hidden boss, someone everyone wanted to hunt down for rare, legendary loot.
"Well, that's it… I'm done."
By now, Pei Guang had cut the ropes binding her, and Silver Wolf, resting her arms on the edge of the tub, leaned back against it. "Forget it… Stelle, could you please heat the water? Just enough to stay comfortable."
Pei Guang looked at the defeated Silver Wolf. "What's wrong? Isn't this good news? As a player, I've never been worth that much. You're quite the valuable commodity."
Silver Wolf replied sarcastically, "Oh? So, are you going to sell me?"
Pei Guang chuckled, "Why would I sell you? The more valuable you are, the stronger you become, and the more useful you'll be for the next mission. There's no point in selling off a valuable NPC before completing the main quest. But after that… well, selling you might not be a bad idea."
Silver Wolf smirked, "Fine. Just let me know before you do. I'd like a share of that bounty."
Pei Guang laughed. "If you're still on the team by then, we'll split it equally. In my group, we're all about fair division—loot goes to whoever needs it."
Silver Wolf looked at him, puzzled. "And what about stuff that's not needed?"
Pei Guang replied casually, "That goes to me, of course. Whether it's useful or not, I collect everything until my inventory's full. Oh, and when I looted your stuff earlier, I found something and equipped it to your weapon."
The mention of loot perked Silver Wolf up. "What? What did you find?"
Pei Guang: "It's a simple skill effect. It adds attack and defense visuals during hacker attacks. It's more suited to you—too flashy for my taste."
As Pei Guang handed over Silver Wolf's weapon, he explained, "The effect is special. As long as it qualifies as a hacking attack, it'll trigger the visual effects."
Silver Wolf took the weapon, her face lighting up with excitement. "All hacking attacks? Every one of my attacks qualifies as a hacking attack!"