Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Free Mode in World of Ancient Gods was the newest mode, but it also brought lots of problems.
Previously, professional players had higher experience points and consciousness than the average player. Other than that, their gaming execution was similar.
On the other hand, athletes and people with specialized professions had the upper hand in the game.
To get a full body of equipment in Free Mode, players had to slay bosses, which was practically impossible at this point in time.
The settings to allow players to successfully score critical hits made matters worse. Eventually, players would get better and get used to the settings, but now it was just the third day since the game had started running. It was considered lucky for a player to be able to obtain a Green weapon.
For average players who wanted Blue equipment, the only way to obtain it was to depend on their luck while opening treasure chests.
The vice president of Caesar Guild, Godzilla, saw the elite materials displayed at the booth. “How much CP are you selling these for?”
“These are only sold in in-game currency,” Li Yao replied. He wanted to learn engineering, but he must have a huge sum of money to do so. Besides, he was not in any guild. If all of the items were sold in CP, it would greatly affect his plans in the game.
“Alright, hold on for a moment. I will get the required amount,” said Godzilla.
“Okay, I will stay here for another two hours.”
“That would be enough.” Godzilla left in a hurry.
It had been awhile since Godzilla left. There were not many players that could afford the Velociraptor’s crown. In the end, he had only sold about ten crowns in an hour.
“Alas, it is a pity that there are only people from this one novice village. My items would have been sold out within ten minutes if I were to advertise through the worldwide channel. This is wasting too much time.”
He was not worried about the price drop in the Battle and Defense Souls, such consumable items were always in need.
For the 300 elite crowns he had, he had to sell them all or else the price drop would be too significant.
“President, this is my dagger. That’s right, it was this fella that killed me twice.” TacoFingers shouted as he pointed at Li Yao.
Li Yao cocked his brow. “You were the bandit that sneaked within ten yards of me and spied on me from amongst the bushes for almost five minutes. Am I not supposed to kill you and let you have the chance to kill me? This must be your first time playing games, little kiddo.”
TacoFingers was flustered, his body trembled with anger as he raised his finger at Li Yao. “You have no respect at all! What do you mean by my first time playing games? I am the main bandit player of Glory team.”
“That is really impressive, top class of the team, you have my admiration.” Li Yao chuckled.
TacoFingers was even more flustered, that sounded more like sarcasm than a real compliment.
Just as TacoFingers was about to rebut, he received a glare from BroadSky. “You’re very strong, not even TacoFingers could lay a finger on you. Regardless of whether we know each other or not, let’s become friends first.”
“No problem at all.” Li Yao quickly added him into his friends list. “Sky Bro, are you going to seek redemption for your minion?”
Li Yao knew BroadSky, he was the president of Glory Club’s first guild. Glory Guild was easily listed as Hua Xia’s top fifty guilds. If combined with all of the guilds under Glory Club, they were easily ranked in Hua Xia’s top ten guilds. Besides, BroadSky was also the nation’s top three commanders.
Ten years later, even though he did not become one of the divine gods involved in Battle of the Gods, his influence was on par with the divine god players.
In Li Yao’s past life, they knew each other but did not mingle much. BroadSky was a good person, which was also the reason why he had so many friends by his side.
“Kill or be killed, that is quite common in games. I was about to let TacoFingers compete with you. Never would I have thought that you’re the same FieryStar who had soloed a boss. There is no need for competition anymore, TacoFingers did not die in vain. I would like to buy back this dagger.” BroadSky laughed.
“Of course you can. I will let you name the price.” Li Yao was more than willing to sell the dagger as doing so should dissipate the grudge they held and put it behind them.
“Since this is a regular sale, I will not put you in a disadvantage. Blue equipment are normally priced at 7,000 CP and weapons are usually more expensive, how about 9,000 CP?”
“Deal.” Li Yao nodded in satisfaction. Now that he was still a casual player, it was quite impossible for him to enter the social circles of big guilds. However, from what he knew, 9,000 CP was already considered a high price.
Once Li Yao received a notification for the transaction, he handed over the dagger to BroadSky.
BroadSky gave the dagger to TacoFingers.
“Sky Bro, this…” TacoFingers’s eyes reddened.
“Keep it, this is on the guild. After all, this was considered as equipment lost during a guild event. This has little to do with you so there’s no need to feel that I’m giving you special treatment. Every member of the guild is treated equally.”
TacoFingers took the dagger and was speechless.
Li Yao gave a hidden thumbs up. BroadSky had always been generous and treated all matters equally regardless of the level of importance. Even so, he was bold and had lots of friends.
Headhunting members from other guilds and clubs was a common practice amongst clubs and guilds. Ever since the game had started running years ago, it was difficult for other guilds to headhunt players from Glory Guild.
At this moment, BroadSky’s attention had shifted to the Elite Velociraptor’s Crowns at the side. His eyes widened. “You are truly a master who has soloed a Boss. There are almost 20 elite crowns here. If the price is reasonable, I would like to buy these too.”
An elite critical hit item could not only help players to acquire a piece of uncommon equipment, it could also help to acquire a weapon if the player were lucky enough. More importantly, players below Level 10 could acquire a special exp buff. Although it could only provide a 3% exp buff, levelling up was too difficult and this buff was relatively important.
“Wait! Caesar Guild already has its eye on these crowns.” Godzilla shouted after he overheard BroadSky’s conversation with Li Yao. He had just returned.
BroadSky paused for a moment and smiled. “When did Caesar Guild become so domineering? We can’t buy just because you had your eye set on it first?”
Godzilla froze for a second. “I apologize for my crudeness, I was in a hurry. Earlier on, I struck a deal with FieryStar, and he promised to wait for me. Now that I have enough resources, let’s seal the deal.”
“Slow down, since the deal has not been sealed, that means that I too have the right to make a deal,” BroadSky said. “As one of the top ten guilds in Europe, Caesar Guild must know the value of these critical elite items. If I may ask, how many critical elite items have you guys obtained in the past three days?”
Godzilla hesitated. “In the past three days, our guild has only obtained more than twenty critical elite items.”
“It’s similar to Glory Guild. To obtain a successful critical hit, many top players must have died and down-levelled, no?”
“Yes, when more than one team is sent there would not be any profits gained. On the other hand, if only one team is sent, the dangers are unimaginable. A lot of players have risked their lives scoring critical hits and were down-levelled,” said Godzilla in a low tone. The game was too difficult for most people. Countries were strongly supporting and promoting the game, as such, it was clear that the game would have great political impact, and other games would eventually die out.
From another point of view, this game provided lots of big opportunities. The entire Earth, including the other planets in the Solar System, was connected to the same server. In the game, guilds and clubs had great dominance, hence they were desperate in making huge investments for their guild and clubs.
“If so, you should understand that we, from Glory Guild, would not give up on this deal.” BroadSky turned to Li Yao. “Big Bro Starfire, please trade a part of these crowns with Glory Guild. It doesn’t matter if the price is high,” he said sincerely.
“Oh, so you are Starfire that soloed a boss. A master like you will certainly not break your promises, right? Of course, Caesar Guild will not disappoint you. We will surely match whatever price offered by Mr. BroadSky.” Godzilla was now anxious. While everyone was considered to be under one unified nation, it was all rather superficial as people still viewed their differences in terms of geography and cultural beliefs.
If the crowns were to be bought by Caesar Guild, with the twenty crowns they had prior, at least fifty of their members would get an equipment with buff. In such a group, they would have the upper-hand in clearing game stages and levelling up.
BroadSky too became anxious and started to argue with Godzilla. The surrounding players were bemused by the two big guilds fighting over the items. With the commotion going on in the regional channel, more and more players started approaching Li Yao’s booth. Soon, the place was flooded with players.
“Ahem, why are you guys fighting, how many crowns do you guys need? I still have a lot more that are not being displayed.” Li Yao broke up the argument between the two.
Both players stopped arguing and asked at the same time, “How is that possible? How many crowns do you have?”
Li Yao showed them a screenshot he had taken, and their eyes widened in disbelief.
“300, my god,” Godzilla shrieked. “Do you have any idea how many levels were sacrificed for our guild to acquire twenty elite crowns?”
“Starfire, your harvest is more than what all of the top ten guilds have acquired in the past three days combined.” BroadSky forced a smile.
“So, are you guys still buying all of them?” Li Yao smiled.
“I would love to, but the guild does not have enough resources. We will stop fighting. One for ten silver coins, I would like to have one hundred crowns and that is already my limit.” BroadSky tried to contain the shock he had.
“You, sir, have emptied out our guild’s resources,” Godzilla uttered with a wry smile.
Both guilds bought a hundred crowns each, the remaining hundred were sold to other smaller guilds that had witnessed the argument. Soon, everything was sold out.
The surrounding average players were puzzled. They had just witnessed two major guilds tearing each other apart and a solo player draining the resources of several guilds. Now, Li Yao had dozens of gold coins whereas the ordinary players only had a few silver coins.
While cleaning up his booth, Li Yao received a voice message from BroadSky, “Big Brother, ever thought of joining a guild?”
“Sorry, I’m not joining any guild for the time being,” Li Yao rejected.
“Alright then, how about we clear a stage together?”
“I’m going offline, I have something else to do.” Li Yao wanted to clear this game stage, but now was not the time.
“Next time then. If you’re selling any good stuff, remember to contact me.”
“Definitely.”
After looking at the time, Li Yao went offline.
Half an hour later, Li Yao went back online after he had some food.
While opening his backpack, Li Yao was excited to see thirty-eight gold coins in it. Any average player only had a few silver coins, but he already had a few dozen gold coins.
Even if the gold coins were exchanged with real coins, Li Yao would be able to get a huge sum of money. This was the benefit of his rebirth. Looking back, he remembered being in Level 20 and still not earning any gold coins. There was a distinct difference between back then and now.
While Li Yao was revising his plans, he went shopping at other booths and picked up a lot of items.
For example, Li Yao bought ten Roll Skill Books for a silver coin each.
Roll skill might seem weak since it was easy to roll in Free Mode, and did not require the user to learn the skill. However, only Li Yao knew that learning the skill would grant the user a short period of temporary invincibility.
Although it was a short duration of invincibility, it was vital for professional players. If used correctly, it was a god-like skill.
Li Yao had also bought almost twenty Forward Pounce Skill Books for a few dozen copper coins. The effect of Forward Pounce was similar to Roll.
These were god-like skills but current players treated them like trash and those useless gaming expressions or actions. The Skill Books were left untouched as players did not even bother to ask about their uses.
Also, Li Yao had found some useful items for himself. He bought the Skill Books for Trueshot Aura and Viper Sting.
What Li Yao did not expect was that he would see a blueprint of a self-explosive sheep. This normal engineering pet blueprint could only be sold as a small pet, though no player would spend on a small pet at this early stage.
The booth owner obviously knew that and priced the blueprint at just one silver coin. He assumed that no one would buy it, and Li Yao got his hands on it.
With the Eye of the Creator, the self-explosive sheep was not just a toy anymore.
What surprised him even more was that he saw the Hunter’s Trap Tossing Skill Book.
With Trap Tossing, Hunters would be able to toss Ice Traps, Fire Traps, Venomous Snake Traps, and others at designated positions. It was a very convenient skill. However, it was a shame that he did not find any types of Trap Skill Books in the market…