In the eyes of others... the old man was a despicable, hateful old liar, but in the eyes of Ethan Brooks, the old man was the one who risked his own life to save his son's.

Ethan Brooks still remembered that after the old man was beaten, he cheerfully dragged him to the hospital and even bought him a candied hawthorn on the way. That candied hawthorn was the third sweetest one he had ever eaten in his life.

"Are you crazy? Peeping into other people's privacy is illegal, you know that?" Ethan Brooks felt as if some sand had gotten into his eyes. He sniffed hard, finally getting the 'sand' out.

"Tsk tsk tsk... Lying and deceiving since childhood, doing all sorts of things that harm others for personal gain, or even harm others with no benefit to oneself—truly the perfect candidate for my Demon King System! What a pity, you don't have any experience stabbing someone to death with a knife, otherwise you'd be even more perfect."

The shadow behind the offering table let out a smug sound. It slowly put away all the fragments, circled around Ethan Brooks a few times, then returned to the offering table and landed on the black iron hammer. With a voice full of temptation, it said, "Little Six, do you see the magic cards on the table?"

"I get a free card draw?"

A simple question from Ethan Brooks somehow turned into a massive spoiler in the shadow's mind, leaving it speechless for a moment.

The shadow was embarrassed. It regretted not just appearing as a cold, ruthless machine—maybe then it wouldn't have to deal with these awkward moments.

"As a system user, you get three free card draws the first time." The shadow's voice became tempting again. "Quick, raise your hand and draw! There's a surprise waiting for you!"

Chapter 7: SR or SSR

"I don't want to."

Ethan Brooks refused without hesitation, and the shadow was once again dumbfounded. How could someone refuse a pie falling from the sky?

"You... don't want to reconsider?" the shadow tempted hesitantly. "With one draw, you might win the ownership of a house, or become the richest person in the world, or even turn into Sun Wukong! At worst, even if you don't get anything big, you might at least get a pie falling from the sky."

Ethan Brooks shook his head repeatedly. "My dad said, pies don't fall from the sky. And if one does, it might be poisoned. Besides, if I became the richest person in the world, I might be assassinated by someone trying to steal my fortune the very next second. Not everyone can handle that much wealth."

The shadow fell silent, thinking. As the system executor, it had to get the system user to use the system. How could it get him to draw the card?

"My dad said, windfalls aren't always good luck—they can be disasters too." Ethan Brooks shrugged. "What's so great about turning into Sun Wukong? Wouldn't I just end up trapped under Five Elements Mountain for five hundred years? After getting out, I'd have to wear a golden headband and escort some useless guy to fetch scriptures from the West? In the end, I'd just become a lackey for the Buddhist sect, not even daring to take revenge for being trapped for five hundred years."

The shadow grew even more silent. It realized that even after hanging around this young man's neck for seven or eight days, it didn't understand him at all. What kind of teenager thinks like this?

Swoosh!

The sound of a card scraping against the table interrupted the shadow's thoughts. It saw that Ethan Brooks had, at some point, already raised his hand and drawn a card from the table.

What was going on? The shadow felt confused. Just a moment ago, this kid seemed so world-weary, as if he'd seen through all of life's illusions, and now he suddenly drew a card? Was he schizophrenic or something?

The magic card flipped over. There was no golden light shooting out, no exciting BGM—just the sound of the black card shattering and falling to the ground.

Ethan Brooks blew the dust off his hand, tilted his head, and looked at the shadow. "So I didn't win anything, right?"

"Right." The shadow found itself unable to keep up with Ethan Brooks's pace.

"What's the winning rate?" Ethan Brooks pointed at the nine remaining black cards. "If I draw all the rest, am I guaranteed to win something?"

Before the shadow could answer, the shattered magic card had already reformed into a new card, and the nine magic cards on the offering table once again became ten.

Ethan Brooks looked at the ten magic cards and muttered, "Looks like it's not one in ten. Maybe it's one in a hundred, or one in a thousand."

The shadow felt a bit redundant. The other party seemed to have no need for a 'beginner's village'—he already understood everything.

The second card was drawn, and again it was a shattered, empty card.

Ethan Brooks felt a bit disappointed. No matter how much you pretend not to hope for a reward when drawing cards, deep down you still want to win something.

"This is the last one..." The shadow 'floated' to Ethan Brooks's side, its voice once again full of temptation. "Choose carefully. If you draw another blank, all three free draws will be wasted."

"The third one is guaranteed to win, right? Is it an SR? Or an SSR?"

Ethan Brooks's words made the shadow, which had been floating around, pause in midair.

"For a user's first experience, if they don't win anything, it really ruins the user experience." Ethan Brooks didn't look at the shadow again, but turned his attention back to the magic cards, full of curiosity. "I wonder what it will be?"