Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Li Yao carefully wandered through the Mogor Mountains. It was already noon time in the game.
After Li Yao had carried AdorkableTong and HundredFaceWitch to Level 5, he bid them farewell and continued his task to find a mine. Before he reached the mine entrance, he received a voice message from AdorkableTong.
“Wow, Big Bro, you have gone viral. Our boss fight clip is currently top one on the weekly hit list.” Tong said excitedly.
“Little kiddo, it’s already midnight. Why aren’t you asleep yet?”
“Why are you not excited at all, we’re talking about being number one on the weekly hit list! Our views have surpassed Ozawa’s video by three hundred million views. Many pro players thanked you for your strategy and many major guilds have invited you to join their guild. Do you have any idea how famous you are?” Tong muttered indignantly.
“Okay, okay, now I understand. Go to bed now, I still have some task to do, that’s all.” Li Yao hung up his communicator.
He knew that this would happen once he had uploaded the video. This outcome was exactly what he wanted.
In fact, some top gaming studios had already begun doing things that Li Yao wanted.
Their job was to carry other players to get medals. For capable studios, they did not farm gold the easy way, instead they relied on their skills.
The main mission of these studios, also called Gold Group, was to carry other players to grind stages.
Li Yao found out that things had been changing for the past two days. If a client were to hire three pro players to clear out a normal difficulty stage, it would cost 1,000 CPs to get a Black-iron Medal.
It cost 3,000 CPs to get a Silver Medal. The amount might seem over the top as it was equal to the monthly income of an average person.
This amount of money meant nothing to the rich or middle-class people. They had no skills, but they wanted their attributes upgraded from the medal or to show off to girls. The most convenient way to do so was by finding a Gold Group.
Before the virtual bill that was passed by the law in the early years, Li Yao estimated that these services would charge at least 10,000 CPs for a Black-iron Medal and about 30,000 to 40,000 CPs for a Silver Medal. This virtual bill helped the game to run more systematically by having a set of currency conversion basis for the pricing.
Li Yao thought of getting his first source of income by carrying other players to get medals. After some consultation, he set 5,000 CPs as the price for his service.
Besides, he was carrying three players alone, not three carrying one player. Moreover, he could carry five times per day. He could make more CPs in a day than his yearly income.
Li Yao was not in a hurry. He had a Platinum Medal and was already well known amongst players. Once it was night time in the game, he could simply make a post or use the regional channel to announce his service and have countless players lining up for it.
Li Yao hung up his voice message. Whilst scanning his surroundings, something flashy caught his eyes.
“If even I can find a treasure chest this way, looks like there is still a future for bandits.” With the use of Stealth, Bandits could walk freely amongst monsters.
“Opening treasure chest…” the system beeped.
Click.
A bright silver light flashed from the treasure chest. Li Yao had finally opened his first Silver Chest. Li Yao could not wait to see the items inside.
“You have acquired Military Heavy Crossbow.”
“You have acquired a skill book, Arrow Rain.”
“You have acquired one silver coin.”
After examining the item’s stats, Li Yao was overjoyed once again. This was the benefit of playing in areas with fewer players. Or else, he would have minimal to no chance in finding a chest here, a Silver Chest at that.
Military Heavy Crossbow
Grade: Blue (Rare)
Features: Two-handed, slow, heavy crossbow
Attack: 20-25
Strength: 14
Agility: 12
Requirement: Level 5
Weapon Class: Hunters, Warrior, Knight
Li Yao fiddled with the crossbow and put it in his backpack. The crossbow had a high damage output with crazy Stats, but the one setback was that it was too heavy. If he were equipped with the crossbow, his attack and movement speed would be significantly slower. Besides, the firing rate of the crossbow was too slow. Even to Li Yao who was a skilled, trained hunter, it would still require at least four seconds for the crossbow to fire off an arrow.
Understandably, this crossbow was meant for sniper players. It was used to lure monsters or attack in a fixed position.
Arrow Rain was the Hunters’ only AoE skill in the early stages of the game. Li Yao did not hesitate to learn the skill. Li Yao was thinking that if the skill were paired with the heavy crossbow while grinding mobs, it would be a terrific scene.
Li Yao was in a good mood when he had found the NPC. He was only given a transferral certificate. He was also told once he had recovered a mining contract that the mine would become his private property.
Li Yao bid the NPC goodbye. Just as he was about to enter via the mine entrance, he received a call from his sister. From yesterday’s call, he could sense that her sister was super happy to receive a set of high-grade equipment. She started playing the game with a bunch of her classmates.
“Brother, we got stuck. My friend and I died once.”
The expression on Li Yao’s face changed. “What’s going on there?”
“I was completing a mission with my classmates. Then, a group of players wanted to form a team with us and we refused. They started attacking us and we were killed before we even got the chance to run,” replied Li Jia drearily.
“What’s the current situation now?” Li Yao did not bother to kill any mobs and used the hearthstone to return to the city.
“We were revived once, but they are still chasing after us.” Li Jia was so distressed that she was almost having a meltdown. How could she be hunted down for minding her own business in the game?
Li Yao rushed toward the tallest building of the Sun Tower. “Which Sun Tower are you at. And tell me your exact coordinates.”
“Sun Tower No.5682, coordinates, 58256, 27568.”
“Hold on, my friend is on his way to the novice village. Wait for him.”
“Well, I kind of feel bad. Am I troubling him not?” Li Jia replied shyly.
“It’s okay, he’s my good buddy. I’ll have him contact you later.”
After saying so, he approached the administrant of the novice village. “Hi, I would like to go to No.5682 mirrored village.”
“Fifty silver coins,” the male elf replied dryly.
It required a lot of money to travel to other mirrored villages. Fifty silver coins was considered a hefty fortune, even the major guilds would not spend such an amount wastefully.
Li Yao handed over the money without any complaints. In a flash, Li Yao had arrived at the novice village where Li Jia was in.
While on his way, Li Jia had sent another voice message. “Brother, it’s better for your friend to not come over. All of the expert players Sis Bing has hired are all dead.”
“No worries, I’ll take my chances.”
“But I heard from Sis Bing that these expert players are also part of a professional squad, they even take part in A-level tournaments.” Li Jia began to worry for Li Yao.
“No worries, just believe in my friend. He’s really good,” said Li Yao. Since his rebirth, he was clear that pro players under Free Mode were not any stronger than average players. It would take some time for them to get better.
From afar, Li Yao saw a cleared-up space in the middle of the crowd. A male corpse was on the ground while a female Knight was having a duel with a Warrior. Li Yao changed his character into StarFire.
On one side, Li Jia and a female player was watching the battle. On the other side, there were four male players.
The female Knight had beaten up the Warrior into a pulp. The Warrior sprawled on the ground and died.
Li Jia cheered loudly. “Hmph, just as I thought. You guys are noobs in duels.”
The head male Mage, GloryFanatic grunted and replied in a cold hum, “You’re lucky because of your equipment.”
The little girl beside Li Jia was unwilling to give in. “Don’t say it like it wasn’t you guys that tried to outnumber and kill Brother Dragon and I.”
“I’m losing my patience. One last time, are you joining us or not? You should feel blessed that we’re inviting you into our team, you will all level up in no time. If you refuse, I will call up my brothers to kill you all one by one, until all of you have down-levelled to Level 0.”
Li Yao climbed on top of a tree. He was mad but found the entire exchange hilarious. What on earth was he trying to do? Did he want to play with them or was he trying to show off? His little sister was a beauty, and the other girls were decent-looking. The male players were obviously embarrassed after being rejected by the girls.
Moreover, they thought that they could overpower the girls in duel. Never did they think that they would be owned by the girls. Everyone could see that they were obviously embarrassed just by the looks on their faces.
At this time, the male player, DragonOfFourSeas that was laying on the ground had revived. “Bastards, I thought we agreed to a duel, you broke the rules. The reputation of Shengshi Club is ruined by you imbeciles.”
“You snitch, do you think you’re better than us after getting a contract with Qionghua Club? Don’t forget, you were trying to please my big brother few days ago.” GloryFanatic did not bat an eye at the revived Hunter. “Have you chicks thought about it?”
The female Knight, TwinkleBeauty, raised her sword with a single hand. “Next,” she replied blandly.
GloryFanatic’s face darkened. “How dare you not give face to Shengshi Club! Do you want to wage war against us?”
TwinkleBeauty scoffed at the reply. “Even your brother is not worthy enough to lead Shengshi Club, who do you think you are?”
GloryFanatic’s face turned green. He was angry for having been exposed this way. “Go, kill them all, we have people on the way. I want all of you to kill these little p*ssies back to Level 0!”
They began running with their weapons ready. Little did they know, a sheep was walking past their feet.
Boom…
-145 -142
Li Yao’s Explosive Sheep was considered a half-pet with upgraded stats. It could cause huge amount of damage toward tough-skinned elites, Level 3 players that did not have much equipment did not stand a chance.
The explosion instantly killed two players. The blast caught everyone off guard, and the players from Shengshi Guild stopped in their tracks.
“What happened?” bellowed GloryFanatic. He was covered in mud and soot.
Before him, a warrior tried to get back up on his feet. “It’s StarFire, StarFire has attacked us.”
A yellow beam penetrated through his throat just as he finished his sentence.
-45
The warrior’s eyes were filled with bewilderment, he grabbed onto the arrow on his throat and fell on the ground. His health bar became zero.
Everyone turned their attention to Li Yao who was sitting on a tree. They were horrified.
Looking at Li Yao squatting on a thick branch with a glowing bow in his hands, GloryFanatic began to panic. “Not good, everybody run!”
The bloodied Knight followed his instincts and raised the shield over his head and upper-body.
Bam…
The powerful arrow containing three bars of charged energy struck the knight’s shield with tremendous force.
Snap…
-38
Even with the shield’s damage immunity, the knight’s health dropped to zero and his body fell limply onto the ground.
The remaining players had gone pale. They did not expect their two meat shields to be killed in just seconds…