Yay, I won!

"The empire's top academy is not somewhere you can just walk into."

"There are so many fun things to do in the capital. Why are you all so obsessed with where I studied?"

"Let me take you to try some local specialty snacks. You can learn how to make them and enrich the guild's menu."

"Or the Royal Colosseum! The shows are fantastic, and they even sell official lottery tickets. Don't you want to try your luck?"

Peppermint chattered nonstop, but the moment the conversation edged anywhere close to the institution where she had once pursued her advanced studies, she immediately steered it away.

If coming to find Master Craftsman Garcia was purely for the sake of the Realm of Fiction and Reality, then this whole series of evasive maneuvers after returning to the capital was enough to prove her guilty conscience.

She was proud enough to look down upon the empire's greatest grand alchemists and always considered herself a genius, yet right now she was clearly running away from something.

Interesting.

Just how dark was her history at that academy that she was so resistant to anyone finding out about it?

Surely she couldn't have blown up the academy, could she?

Seeing Peppermint continually beat around the bush, the group simply humored her, adopting a slow-and-steady strategy of boiling the frog alive to ease up on the pace of their conquest.

As the gaming session drew to a close, Jiang Heyi remembered the Four Elements.

"What time do you wake up?"

The Four Elements replied immediately: "Eight o'clock. I'll still have a good half day to play."

Watching Peppermint busy brewing magic potions inside the guild, Jiang Heyi reminded him: "When you get back to the guild, you might run into a witch named Peppermint rummaging through boxes and cabinets, stealing... taking things. Just ignore her."

The Four Elements was the only member of the guild who had never crossed paths with Peppermint.

Long after Jiang Heyi and the others had logged off, he wearily activated the guild's precious jade gemstone, having spent the day hunting alone outside the city of Windpod.

Sure enough, upon arriving home, he spotted a figure wearing a large black witch's hat rummaging through the storage area.

The moment the Four Elements materialized, she gave a violent start, her eyes widening into perfect circles.

"Scallion, come quick! There's an intruder!"

"?"

What left the Four Elements utterly speechless was that Scallion and the other homunculi actually responded to Peppermint's summons...

Just who exactly was the master of this guild here?

The disgraceful witch seemed to have completely taken over the place.

Another day without needing to job-hunt, so Jiang Heyi simply stayed at home, dutifully editing his gaming footage and managing the guild's social media accounts.

Over the course of the night, the follower count for the Realm of Fiction and Reality surged by eighty thousand, reaching a total of one hundred and sixty thousand.

The awakened players' hot topic of discussion for the new day still revolved entirely around the Realm of Fiction and Reality.

The Azure Sky Raid Group, the most prominent strategy sharers under the official Stellar Community's subsection [Stellar Messengers].

Not only had they announced within the game that the Realm of Fiction and Reality was the first to arrive at Anna City, but they had also published a post in the community.

"Due to gaming hour limitations, we didn't have time to test this last night."

"If our testing proves correct, we will release a guide for the optimal route to the royal capital within the next few days."

"Note: The content of this guide was provided selflessly by the Realm of Fiction and Reality. This raid group is merely testers and porters; please make sure you thank the right people."

Players who hadn't caught the news the previous night saw the trending post and instantly blew up the discussion boards.

"Aren't the subterranean shrines of the Pure Ones keeping them busy enough? Why are they running back already?"

"How do they manage to make gains across multiple fronts simultaneously? It's too freakish."

"Is this really something a five-person guild can pull off?"

"Friendly reminder: it's not five people. Yesterday, the Realm of Fiction and Reality added a new member named [The Four Elements], though he operates primarily in the overland zone around Windpod."

"To be accepted by the Realm of Fiction and Reality, he must be some sort of heavyweight bigshot, right?"

"Wait a minute. He didn't go to the shrine of the Pure Ones, and he didn't go to the royal capital. What on earth is bigshot Four Elements busy doing in Windpod?" some players speculated. "Could there be a secret?"

Watching the players buzz with heated discussions, the corners of Jiang Heyi's mouth curled upward uncontrollably.

So this was what it felt like to be in the spotlight?

While he was browsing his background private messages, Jailer Bro started acting crazy.

"I can't spend a single second more in this reality during the day. If I can't play Stellar, I'm going to die."

Coming from a jerk whose family owned a factory and who treated his day job with the utmost casualness, this sounded thoroughly brag-worthy no matter how you sliced it.

The Four Elements' statement, however, was infinitely more relatable.

"Let's just hope I don't have to work overtime tonight."

With that, he appended a sobbing seal emoji.

However...

Upon logging in, the Realm of Fiction and Reality still saw no sign of the Four Elements.

He had worked overtime again.

Making a beeline straight for Garcia's workshop and learning that it would still take another half day, Jiang Heyi turned his gaze to Peppermint.

"You mentioned the colosseum yesterday, and lottery tickets?"

Peppermint nodded. "Run by the Anna royal family. Every player can place a bet on any single match using a ticket once every seven days."

"There's even a limit on attempts?" Zhong Zemo remarked. "The Anna royal family actually has some principles."

Peppermint let out a snort of amusement.

"What principles? It's just that the words 'royal family' carry too much weight and they care about keeping up appearances. They don't care at all if the people underneath run unbridled gambling dens with unlimited stakes; the tax money flows right back into the treasury anyway, so they're more than happy to encourage it."

Though the Anna Empire had stood for a thousand years and remained prosperous to this day, Peppermint's tone was consistently filled with disgust whenever she spoke of it.

The Royal Colosseum was not too far from Garcia's workshop. Since it was midday, a steady stream of people poured through the entrance.

To participate in the lottery betting, one had to purchase admission vouchers using two rare purple-grade materials, a price steep enough to shut the vast majority of people out.

The materials the Four Elements had painfully farmed all night wouldn't even cover the cost of a single ticket.

Had it not been for their raid on the subterranean shrine, coupled with Orange Tea's sheer good fortune, which left the coffers of the Realm of Fiction and Reality somewhat better off than their peers, the mere cost of admission would have made them wince.

Gladiator versus gladiator, gladiator versus monster, monster versus monster—the variety of matches available throughout the day was extensive.

Jiang Heyi and his group were complete laymen with zero concept of who they should bet on.

To make matters worse, the profiles of the colosseum contestants were wildly flamboyant. While fighters with previous match records could at least be evaluated based on data and past performance, those stepping into the arena for the first time had biographies bursting with second-hand embarrassment.

A dizzying array of flowery adjectives was piled on without restraint, and their titles were long enough to make someone exclaim, "Sorry, there are too many people, there's no room for you here."

Peppermint licked her popsicle while lecturing the group.

"When fighters with numerous match records battle each other, I don't buy."

"I have a kind heart; I can't bear to watch powerhouses end up either dead or crippled."

"When a veteran with multiple appearances fights a newcomer with a blank profile, I don't buy."

"Still because of a kind heart—I also can't bear to watch powerhouses steamroll the weak."

"When two fighters have faced each other repeatedly, and every single encounter ends in a narrow victory for one side or the other, I don't buy."

"I'm not stupid; I'm afraid of getting scammed out of all my money by a thrown match."

Look at this elaborate set of rules... Peppermint, you definitely haven't come here just once or twice!

What kind heart, what not stupid—you're clearly just betting based on the odds.

A powerhouse clash between gladiators with stellar records meant even odds and an unpredictable outcome, making anyone hesitant to place a bet.

A seasoned gladiator fighting a rookie meant lopsided odds where picking the safe bet yielded meager crumbs, while an upset would wipe you out completely.

As for the last category, repeated clashes where both sides could trade blows across multiple matches—who on earth would believe there wasn't something fishy going on?

"Peppermint, have you fallen for literally every single one of these traps?"

Peppermint maintained a straight face. "I've never been here before."

Yeah, and we totally believe that.

"So, how should we actually place our bets?" Recognizing Peppermint's deeply experienced nature, Jiang Heyi humbly asked for instruction.

Accepting another popsicle handed to her by Original Flavor Fries, she poked her tongue out lazily and spoke with a muffled voice.

"I'm not particularly good at this either... Anyway, steer clear of intelligent beings fighting each other. When it comes to monsters and beasts, because the royal banner is attached, the fixers don't dare make it too obvious."

Monsters and beasts fought life-or-death matches as a rule, determining not just victory and defeat but life and death, complete with post-match autopsies. Compared to the scheming match-fixing antics of intelligent races, these were much harder to fake.

There were only three life-or-death matches featuring monsters today.

A Water Slime versus a Flora Elemental Spirit, a Demon Wolf versus a Demon Fox, and a Wetland Giant Spider versus a Mud Python.

According to the official bulletin, every single matchup was evenly matched.

Seeing Peppermint hesitate endlessly while the deadline ticked closer, Jiang Heyi gave a grand wave of his hand.

"Orange Tea, you pick!"

Orange Tea's eyes blinked rapidly.

"I... I don't know how."

"Is there anyone here who would dare claim they know how to gamble?"

Jiang Heyi had always subscribed to one truth: when it comes to gambling, the house always wins everything; the moment you sit at the table, you must accept that you are going to lose.

If this weren't a video game, he'd run a mile away the moment he laid eyes on a gambling table.

"It's just a game, it doesn't matter. Just follow your gut and pick one," Zhong Zemo added.

After hesitating for a moment, Orange Tea pointed at the slime.

"If I absolutely have to pick, I'll choose this one... At least it's relatively cute."

That reason plunged Peppermint into darkness. Seeing the five members of the Realm of Fiction and Reality follow suit and lock in their win-lose bets, she nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

How was a low-intelligence creature like a slime supposed to counter an elemental spirit whose elemental attributes held a natural advantage?

Watching the ticket collector register the bets, Peppermint could only say resentfully, "Couldn't you have waited for me to analyze it a bit more!"

With that, she casually placed a bet on the elemental spirit to win.

"Don't have faith in Orange Tea's judgment?"

"I'm hedging my bets!" Mother Peppermint yelled at her hopeless children. "At least this way I won't lose everything and fail to even cover the ticket price!"

"Aren't you just going for those pitifully low odds then?" Jiang Heyi clicked his tongue.

"Who do you think forced me to make this choice?!"

Jailer Bro inched closer to Peppermint with a wicked grin, imitating her expression whenever she was cooking up a shady scheme, and began rubbing his hands together.

"If we win our bet, what's in it for us?"

"Hah, it's not my first time here, I've seen too much. I refuse to believe you guys can actually nail a trap match designed for an upset!"

The moment those words left her mouth, the jig was entirely up.

Peppermint's face flushed red, and she desperately tried to backtrack, only to be interrupted by Jailer Bro.

"First tell us what happens if you lose. Remember, you're betting with our money."

"What do you want?"

"Take us to tour your academy."

After struggling for a few seconds and seeing that the match was about to begin, Peppermint gritted her teeth hard. "Fine, I agree! But if you guys lose, everything inside the guild storage box has to be available for me to use!"

Jiang Heyi, who had never intended to lock Peppermint out of the storage in the first place, immediately slapped high-fives with her.

The oath was sealed.

Peppermint's mouth curved upward. "I finally get to use that anti-magic dust~~~~"

"Hang in there, Elemental Spirit big brother!"

Ten minutes later.

Amidst a scattered pile of shattered elemental remains, the slime hopped up and down repeatedly.

Orange Tea raised her lottery ticket high and cheered loudly.

"Yay, we won!"