Chapter 56

Finally dead, huh? Leon, whose legs were trembling slightly as he looked down at the giant toad below that was shattered beyond recognition, could only let out a long breath sitting on the Gold-Silver Mountain to avoid showing his weakness.

Though he’d said it many times already, right now he really wanted to say it again… This job at the Clearing Bureau ain’t something humans are supposed to do!

By relying on a belly full of idealistic nonsense, Leon managed to talk a Holy Spirit to death, and with shaky hands and feet, he slowly descended from the mountain of gold, taking a glance at the badge system’s record along the way.

[With outstanding eloquence and acting skills, the false persona you created, “a poor bastard who doesn’t love money,” successfully twisted the cognition of the Money-Exchanging Golden Toad towards the world, thoroughly destroying its foundation for existence. You have activated the Silver Rank Badge “Elite Performer.”]

[Performer: A great script, an appropriate stage, and you can complete an excellent performance.]

[Wearing Effect: With the support of superb dialogue and acting techniques, you can immerse yourself in the “character” during performances, making the portrayed personality and figure extremely convincing.]

[Advancement Path: After performing ten wonderful shows in a large theater with over two thousand audience members and receiving the approval of more than 90% of the audience, this badge will automatically advance to the Gold Rank Badge “Performance Master.” Current Progress: 0/10.]

[Hidden Attribute (No Need to Wear): An outstanding performer always stands out like a firefly in the dark, your aura has been greatly enhanced.]

“…”

Although it was directly a Silver badge, but… it seemed to be useless? After reading the effects of the [Elite Performer], Leon sighed disappointedly, thinking he would get something like a [Holy Spirit Nemesis] badge. He then glanced at the badge panel’s situation.

[Materialist Soul (Red)]

[Martyr of Liquor (Gold)]

[Demon’s Friend (Silver)], [Elite Performer (Silver)]

[Shooter (Bronze)], [Trustworthy Brother (Bronze)]

[Unemployed Youth (Iron)], [Probationary Worker (Iron)], [Parkour Rookie (Iron)]

So far, he had obtained nine badges in total, but there were only five badge slots.

Among them, [Materialist] locked one slot, [Liquor] which broke fear occupied another, while the remaining three were [Demon] which enhances the effect of degenerate anomalous items, [Shooter] which strengthens shooting abilities, and [Probationary Worker] which directly increases work efficiency.

As for the equally useful [Parkour], because the five badge slots were already full, it had to be set aside temporarily until complex terrain was encountered, and then switched ahead of time. The newly acquired [Performer] should receive the same treatment, likely to be left unused in the badge warehouse…

Hmm… Luckily, besides the badges, there were other gains.

Looking at the still quite impressive huge toad lying shattered before him, Leon’s mood improved significantly. He then reached out and touched the toad’s massive brain.

[Encounter… Materialism… Information…]

[Name: Holy Spirit Remains (? , ?)]

[Appearance: Shattered corpse of a giant toad]

[Ability: ?]

[Cost: ?]

[File: Due to extreme cognitive shattering, unable to continue bearing concepts such as money, currency, dominance, and trade, the Holy Spirit collapsed on its own. It cannot be used until repaired and re-refined.]

[Taint Value: ?]

Indeed, this thing had enormous potential.

After reading the explanation provided by [Materialism], Leon couldn’t help but nod in satisfaction.

Even though it seemed a bit pathetic to be killed by mere words, the golden toad was at least a Holy Spirit-level existence, so any anomalous item crafted from it would definitely be extraordinary.

Additionally, according to the rules of the Clearing Bureau, since this was an opponent he personally… personally talked to death, after completing the recovery and submission, he would have absolute first priority in claiming any anomalous items made from it.

Even if the final product didn’t suit him well, he could exchange it for other usable anomalous items like the Witch’s Broom, so although this unexpected event was extremely dangerous, the harvest was also quite substantial…

…

“Hey kid! We’re over here!”

After waiting for a long time without seeing Leon come find him, instead pacing around the shattered toad, the sheep head stuck under a pile of golden wheels couldn’t help but stretch his neck to urge, “Hurry up! Stop touching that toad and quickly dig us out!”

Leon, who was checking his gains, followed the sound and dug for quite a while before finally uncovering the buried sheep head from half a mountain of golden wheels toppled by the toad.

Seeing Leon, who was almost unharmed except for some torn clothes, the black goat couldn’t help but excitedly exclaim, “Quickly! Quickly tell us how you won!”

“You must’ve heard it all, right? I just chatted with it about worldviews, life philosophies, values, and then it realized its understanding of the world was off, so it self-destructed…”

“Speaking of which, will these people be okay?”

Not wanting to tell the black goat about the existence of the badge system, nor to boast as a saint who sees money as dung, Leon mumbled a few responses and then stood up, looking around the square where people lay unconscious, asking worriedly:

“I remember that although the duration wasn’t long, many people were affected by the toad’s ability and aged quite a bit. Can the things they exchanged be restored? Also, when the toad started spewing out countless golden wheels earlier, many people fainted immediately and haven’t woken up yet…”

“Oh, don’t worry if they haven’t woken up, that’s actually a good sign!”

After Leon lifted him up a bit higher to take a look at the shopping plaza, the black goat said nonchalantly, “After being stimulated by you, that toad tried to gather enough money to buy you, so it took back the money it gave to these people and returned the forcibly bought lives.

See? The golden wheels near them disappeared, proving the transaction was canceled by the toad itself.

As for why they all fainted… If a large amount of life is taken away and then brutally poured back, anyone would faint!”

After answering Leon’s question, the still puzzled black goat fixed his gaze on him, not blinking, and said,

“Kid! Don’t try to fool us with those words! That toad didn’t know you well, so it got tricked, but we’re different! You wouldn’t spend two extra copper coins for a standard cabin ticket rather than endure an hour of foot odor, you ultimate miser, there’s no way you could resist the charm of money! Spit it out! Did that red-haired woman give you some kind of protective… Whoa! Watch out! Get away!”

Watch out? Could the toad resurrect? Hearing the black goat’s warning, Leon couldn’t help but tense up, then abruptly turned around. However, the pieces of the toad remained motionless on the ground; the golden toad didn’t perform a sit-up, but…

The mountain of golden wheels collapsed! In this small landslide, an incalculable number of metallic currencies surged towards him like a flood of gold!

(The chapter ends here.)