Chapter 2: Falling for It Every Day, Never the Same Trick Twice

As you listened to the demands of the Scavenger Alliance staff, veins bulged on your forehead. This world was ridiculously unfair!

After careful consideration, you decided not to join the Scavenger Alliance. You suspected that, given how chaotic this world had become, the alliance was likely collaborating with battle teams—using the promise of immediate payment to freely exploit the labor of those at the very bottom of society.

So you stayed in the dungeon hall, hoping to find an opportunity for yourself.

That evening, the Dragon Fang Battle Team, clad in inscribed gear and radiating a powerful aura, arrived at the dungeon hall. Their captain boldly announced that due to the team's overall improvement, they needed to expand their ranks. They planned to recruit a few more comrades to venture into dungeons and grow stronger together.

The Dragon Fang Battle Team upheld the principle of equality: any professional, regardless of level or talent, could apply. They treated all applicants equally. Most importantly, they charged no registration fee.

For a moment, the hall swelled with hopeful professionals eager to try their luck, dreaming of becoming one of the few fortunate to join Dragon Fang.

Seeing so many people sign up, you thought, “Why not take a chance?” After all, you had little to lose.

But when they drew 800 milliliters of your blood for entry examinations, you vaguely sensed something was amiss. Was so much blood really needed for a mere medical check?

They drained you to the point of weakness, yet you still became a professional, your body strong enough to survive. Otherwise, you might never have left the blood collection room.

Eight hundred milliliters—how many tests could that possibly require?

You weren’t well-versed in the health checks for extraordinary professionals; perhaps the world had strict regulations in this area.

As expected, the unexpected happened.

After interviewing all the professionals, the Dragon Fang team vanished without a trace—taking all the collected blood with them.

Only then did everyone realize that Dragon Fang’s true purpose was not to recruit teammates, but to swindle blood for sale.

Thousands of professionals, each drained of 800 milliliters of extraordinary blood—sold in bulk to medical companies, this could yield enormous profits.

You had fallen victim to the battle team’s blood scam!

When you learned the truth, your mind went blank.

You never imagined that in an official place like the dungeon hall, a gang of scammers could operate so brazenly.

Later, when a group of professionals went to report the Dragon Fang team at the hall, the staff claimed the team had not broken any rules: recruiting members, drawing blood, sending them for exams—all complied with the team recruitment regulations.

“Without evidence, don’t spread baseless rumors here,” they warned. “Otherwise, you might be sued by Dragon Fang.”

You silently stood behind the crowd, watching the staff’s impatient demeanor, a sudden clarity dawning on you.

If Dragon Fang could pull off such a scam in Jiang City’s dungeon hall, the relevant personnel here were likely complicit.

As vested interests, they would naturally defend their own gains.

Now, you felt even more helpless—having avoided one trap only to fall into a larger one.

The reality of this extraordinary world was increasingly beyond your expectations.

Still, you refused to despair; after all, despair served no purpose except to waste your precious time and deepen your debts.

During these days seeking opportunities in the dungeon hall, you grew cautious, afraid not only of failing to earn money but of falling into others’ traps.

But society was like this—every day brought a new deception.

If you wanted to integrate into this world, you would inevitably be cheated, ensnared by carefully crafted traps laid by others or by scam groups.

New professionals coming to the dungeon hall for work were unseasoned by society’s darkness, naïve and pure-hearted.

So when they arrived, they were already seen as easy prey by certain groups.

“This world doesn’t leave a chance for those at the bottom!” Lin Xia sighed.

“Don’t even talk about the possibility of crossing social classes—this place is cutting off any chance of survival.”

“Professionals who signed awakening loans faced such terrifying interest rates that they had no choice but to keep borrowing to repay debts!”

“Could this be the real intention of those loan companies, or the creators of the ‘Favor Loan’?”

“Especially since Favor Loans and Soul Loans always come as a pair—it’s forcing the good to do evil, making all new awakeners sell their souls!”

As he pondered this, Lin Xia paused, then a spark of inspiration flashed through his mind.

For others, this situation was a dead end, but for him, it might be a way out.

As long as the version of himself in the simulation didn’t intend to repay the loan, the interest rate didn’t matter.

“There are Divine Gift Crystals for sale in the professional item mall.”

“First, take out a loan to buy some Divine Gift Crystals to boost my level, then take out more loans to buy equipment and skills, raise my combat power, and then earn money in dungeons.”

“Interest compounds quickly, but as long as my strength increases, my value rises.”

“Going like this… I should be able to borrow even more money, right?”

A mysterious thought crossed your mind across time and space, enlightening you.

After being deceived so many times with no gain in the dungeon hall, you steeled yourself and began exploring all kinds of loans.

From equipment loans to skill loans to dungeon loans…

The variety of loans in this extraordinary world exceeded your imagination and dazzled you.

But when you borrowed 300,000 to buy Divine Gift Crystals to prioritize leveling up, the intelligent network suddenly rejected your action.

According to the loan contract you signed, the money you borrowed using yourself as collateral could only be spent in the item malls partnered with the loan companies, and only for designated loan types.

In other words, equipment loans could only buy equipment, skill loans only skills.

Though the money was transferred to your account, you did not have full control—it was limited to specific malls and specific types of purchases.

When you tried to borrow other funds to buy Divine Gift Crystals, you found that all lending institutions had colluded to list those crystals as forbidden items.

Lin Xia was speechless.

To pay such exorbitant interest, even mortgaging your organs for loans, and yet you couldn’t freely use the money?

You had to shop only at malls cooperating with the loan agencies, with restrictions even on what you could buy—this was blatant exploitation!

No, “exploitation” was too mild a term for what this really was.

It was obvious how badly borrowers would be gouged when forced to buy only from those malls.

This meant the true interest rate was far higher than the advertised 80% or 120%.

Most shockingly, this collusion between loan agencies and malls to fleece customers was perfectly legal here!

From this, you could predict the debt collection methods would be extremely violent.

This was the harsh reality of this world.