Not long after, the woman returned with three members of the city security authority team. All three of them looked shocked when they realized the person standing before them was Ethan.

Ethan was still in the narrow alley, with two men kneeling on the ground, surrendered, their faces covered in bruises.

"They are charged with suspected theft and attempted rape. Take them to headquarters for detention," Ethan said.

"Yes, Sir Ethan."

The three officers took the two men away from the scene. With the situation now under control, Ethan and the woman stepped out of the alley.

"Thank you for your help, Sir Ethan," the woman said.

"I am the ruler of this city. Of course I must protect my people," Ethan replied.

"You may go."

The woman nodded, finally able to breathe in relief as she walked away. Ethan remained in the area and continued patrolling other places around Ring 1's city center.

As the night grew later, the number of players crowding equipment shops gradually decreased. Many of them left to rest after purchasing the items they needed.

Among the many shops, Ethan found one that was relatively quiet. He entered the store, which belonged to one of the guilds in the city.

"Sorry, we're out of items. You can come back another time," the female clerk said.

Ethan stepped inside and saw that the equipment usually displayed on the walls was mostly gone, leaving only a few low-quality items behind.

Not only equipment, but weapons and spirit crystals were also largely sold out, especially rare and epic-quality items.

The female clerk, who was busy tidying up the scattered equipment, turned her head and looked at Ethan.

She froze in shock when she realized the person visiting her shop was Ethan, the Vice Guild Master of LionArk.

"S Sir Ethan?" she said in disbelief.

"It seems the Guild War event has brought you quite a profit," Ethan said, still observing the shop walls.

"Our sales have never been this high. If you ask whether the event has an impact, I can say it definitely does," the woman replied.

She paused her work and walked back to the counter to attend to Ethan. Ethan stopped in front of the glass display, clearly seeing that many spirit crystals had already been sold out.

"Do you have any epic-tier spirit crystals left?" Ethan asked.

"Sorry, Sir Ethan. They were all bought earlier," the woman answered.

Ethan nodded, finding it understandable. His attention shifted to several bottles of pet essence that were still available.

"You have pet essence?" Ethan asked. The woman nodded.

She explained that her shop had 15 bottles of level 1 pet essence and 12 bottles of level 2 pet essence.

The difference between the two levels lay in the amount of essence contained in each bottle.

Level 1 pet essence contained 1,000 essence, while level 2 contained 2,000 essence. Pet essence was clearly useful for increasing a pet's level.

"How much for level 1 and level 2?" Ethan asked.

"Level 1 pet essence is 15,000 gold, and level 2 is 25,000 gold."

"I'll take all of them," Ethan said, surprising the woman, though she was clearly happy to see him shopping at her store.

The payment was completed. She received the gold from Ethan, while Ethan obtained 27 bottles of pet essence.

He stored the pet essence in his inventory and left the shop.

It was already midnight. Many item shops had closed, replaced by brothels that began offering women for pleasure.

The chaos in the city center left many men frustrated, irritated, and angry. The brothels profited from this, with many men renting NPC women for the night.

Ethan had no interest in it at all, but he also had no intention of shutting down their businesses. After all, brothels were profitable and brought significant revenue to the city.

There was nothing left for him to do in the city center. Ethan decided to return and rest.

He arrived at LionArk headquarters, climbed the stairs to the third floor, and entered his room. When the door opened, Ethan saw Ashley already asleep, wearing her pajamas.

"Hissy," Ethan called softly.

The venomfang snake, Hissy, emerged from Ethan's sleeve and rested on his palm. Ethan walked over to the sofa table and took out all the pet essence he had purchased.

Hissy looked excited. She could smell the sweet scent of food coming from every bottle of pet essence arranged on the wooden table.

She leaped and landed beside the bottles. Ethan smiled faintly.

"I'm going to rest. You can drink all of this pet essence and level up," Ethan said quietly. Hissy turned her head and responded with a nod.

Ethan changed into his sleepwear, climbed onto the bed, and lay down beside Ashley.

Elsewhere in the room, Hissy began opening the pet essence bottles one by one. She drank them slowly, her body glowing purple each time she consumed one.

Hissy continued until morning, until every bottle of pet essence was completely emptied.

***

The next day.

"E Ethan… who is she?"

The voice rang out early in the morning while Ethan was still sound asleep. Ashley saw a naked woman sleeping in Ethan's arms, which was clearly shocking for Ashley, who was Ethan's wife.

"ETHAN?!" Ashley screamed.

Hearing Ashley's shrill voice startled Ethan awake. He rolled to the side and fell off the bed.

His eyes were still heavy with sleep as he forced himself to wake up because of Ashley's unusual outburst.

"What's wrong, Ashley?" Ethan asked.

"Who is she?!" Ashley shouted furiously.

"Who? I don't understand what you're talking about."

Ashley roughly pulled back the blanket, revealing the figure of an eighteen-year-old woman sleeping curled up.

She was naked, green-purple horns decorating her head, with patches of purple scales covering parts of her skin.

Ethan froze in shock, his eyes widening as he scrambled to his feet. Ashley was clearly furious, and Ethan could see it plainly on her face.

"I-I don't know who she is," Ethan said.

Slowly, the purple-scaled woman woke up, yawning and stretching. She opened her eyes and looked toward Ashley and Ethan.

The moment she saw Ethan, she smiled brightly with her eyes gently closed.

"Good morning, Master Ethan," she said softly.

"Master?!" Ashley exclaimed in shock.

Ethan turned his head and saw that all the pet essence bottles on the table were empty.

"Wait… Hissy?!" Ethan said in disbelief.

"Thank you for the pet essence, Master Ethan."

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