Chapter 211 - Significant Improvements
Gu Fei ran through many streets first before looking backward and sighing in relief when he did not spot any of his students chasing after him. He saw that he was not far from Ray’s Bar, so he decided to just head over there.
Inside Ray’s Bar, some members of Young Master’s Elite had gathered earlier than usual to boast to one another about their equipment acquisition through yesterday’s earnings.
Exceptional gaming skill and first-rate equipment were two things that players must have to become peerless experts in online games, and those who only had either of these could only call themselves as prospective experts. The goal of these players currently occupying the room was to become the so-called one-in-a-million experts, but although they had managed to adapt their exceptional gaming skills to Parallel World’s full-immersion environment, they had been quite stumped on how to acquire first-rate equipment.
Acquiring first-rate equipment through farming was not really ideal as it was entirely dependent on luck. Meaning, there was no guarantee that what the player needed would actually drop. Although a portion of the players claimed that the possibility of looting good equipment was what made farming attractive, some of them were simply saying that to justify the effort that they had put into farming for equipment, while others were people who could not afford to buy equipment to begin with and could only stick to grinding for it. They were the sort of people who complained about sour grapes when they saw others having the means to acquire them.
These few gaming experts knew that the only sure way to acquire first-rate gear was to purchase them, but despite the market already having those pieces of equipment that they coveted, these experts just did not have the money to purchase them, so they could only content themselves with checking the items every day to see if they had already been bought by others. Thanks to yesterday’s business venture, they finally saw their accounts hold several thousands of gold coins at once, which made them become pickier on choosing equipment. In the end, they had to practically spend the whole of last night browsing through the online gaming catalogues for the best pieces of equipment for their job classes and buying them.
“Look at my armor! Isn’t it a beauty?” War Without Wounds’ burly figure had on a full-body armor that gleamed in obsidian black and he happily displayed it to the others present by turning around in front of them.
While the armor was indeed very exquisite, War Without Wounds’ bulky frame was just not meant to look beautiful. And since the equipment in the game would fit its user’s body, War Without Wounds’ armor only gave off a sense of oppressiveness that completely lacked beauty.
“This armor has high defense and additional traits that provides Defense Enhancement, it adds 15 points to Strength, 15 points to Endurance, and increase my Rage generation by 20%! Not bad, yeah?” War Without Wounds gave them a brief overview of his armor’s traits as he turned around once more.
Everyone felt a wave of nausea come over to them. Royal God Call could not take his vomit-inducing display any longer and said, “Scram over to one side! Take a look at my bow and ring, instead!”
Royal God Call’s former bow was originally high grade and was beyond his level, but since it was only white tier, it no longer had any advantages at the current stage of the game. After going on a shopping spree last night, he finally found what he deemed as an excellent bow.
Sniper’s Scream. It had high Attack Power and additional traits that increased an Archer’s attack range by 10 meters, adding 20% to Agility, and increased chances of Fatal Blow by 15% while increasing the Fatal Blow effect by 15% as well. Moreover, it provided Enhancement to the Snipe skill.
Royal God Call’s new bow was purple tier, while War Without Wounds’ armor was only gold tier, so the former’s purchase easily eclipsed War Without Wounds’ armor by tier alone. Just as he was about to present his ring, War Without Wounds hurriedly dropped his sword on the table, “Look at my sword; it’s purple tier, too!”
“Look at my ring!”
“Look at my sword!”
As the middle-aged man and the youngster argued on, Young Master Han placed something on the table, “Look at what I got for myself!”
Everyone glanced at it. What Young Master Han had placed on the table was a bottle of the most expensive liquor in Parallel World, which was worth 120 gold coins.
Although the liquor’s price was nothing compared to that of expensive equipment, but it carried a different meaning altogether. Since equipment was a necessity in a game, anyone would try to buy one as long as he or she had the capital for it. Liquor, meanwhile, was considered as a luxury item. No matter how rich a player was, the person would usually just settle to drinking inexpensive liquor and would only partake a bit of the most expensive liquor during special occasions or at someone’s treat. Seldom would there be anyone who would spend 120 gold coins on a bottle of liquor. Young Master Han looked at the two mockingly after showing how much more of a spendthrift he was and said, “You guys are not at my level yet!”
“Tsk! Wastrel!” Feeling dissatisfied, the two scoffed at him.
“Brother Assist, what did you get for yourself?” Young Master Han addressed Brother Assist.
“I’m still looking!” Brother Assist replied.
“Oh…” Royal God Call quickly interjected, “Then, let’s look at my ring! See, this ring—”
“Hide your stuff; Miles is here,” Young Master Han interrupted.
Royal God Call and War Without Wounds quickly put the items on the table into their dimensional pockets and straightened themselves up. As Gu Fei walked in, they all smiled at him amiably. Although yesterday’s affair was over, they only saw Gu Fei again today, so they were clueless on how he felt about the matter.
Young Master Han felt that it was best for them to not talk about their purchases last night in front of Gu Fei until they ascertained his view regarding yesterday’s event. Seeing the others flaunting their newly bought equipment, Young Master Han immediately told Ray to alert him of Gu Fei’s arrival.
However, the Gu Fei before them was different from the usual and wore an anxious expression on his face. Just what or who had given this man, who slew people without batting an eyelid, such a fright?
“Pour me a drink,” Gu Fei motioned for Young Master Han to pour in liquor on the glass he had picked up by the counter outside.
“What’s this?” Young Master Han poured Gu Fei’s glass liquor as he curiously examined him, “Just what has made you so upset? Go on; don’t feel shy to share it with us.”
Everyone became quiet. Young Master Han was really the king of ‘tact’; it was no wonder so many people wanted to bash him up.
Gu Fei did not seem to mind it, though, as he replied after drinking a mouthful of liquor, “It’s nothing. I just met someone I know in reality.”
“Are they babes?” War Without Wounds and Royal God Call leaned in. For these two, the highest level of achievement in online gaming was bringing a girl from the internet to real life and turning fantasy into reality. From the bushes of Yunjiao Lakeside to a private hotel room....
Gu Fei cast the two a sidelong glance, which caused them to feel sheepish, “Can’t we just casually ask that?!”
“Parallel World is very large. If you’re not intentionally looking for them, it’s actually not easy to meet a familiar face,” Brother Assist commented.
“It’s just meeting someone you know in reality; why be so flustered?” Royal God Call asked.
“Is it because the person asked money from you or wanted you to carry him or her? That’s pretty annoying,” War Without Wounds remarked.
Gu Fei exhaled deeply as he really did not know where to begin. Moreover, this was something his fellow mercenaries would be unable to help him with. He could only hope that he would never meet the students again to avoid that sort of awkwardness in the future.
“What group are we matched up with for tonight?” Gu Fei changed the subject.
“High Cloud mercenary group. It’s a level 4 mercenary group. Besides leader Cirrus and his few friends, the other group members are players who were not chosen for their own guilds’ mercenary groups. Although their levels are quite high, they terribly lack unity. Cirrus is not that impressive himself. They managed to reach this stage of the mercenary PvP tournament by fighting every match separately and depending on their numerical superiority,” Brother Assist briefed.
Young Master Han would usually relay their tactic for the match at hand after every meeting’s briefing; today, he merely continued drinking liquor after Brother Assist was done speaking.
Brother Assist nudged him, “Hey, it’s your turn.”
“Sword Demon is not here yet; I don’t wanna repeat myself twice,” Young Master Han replied.
“Oh. It’s still early!” Brother Assist realized as he looked at the time.
They rarely spent time chatting with one another idly, so the atmosphere became rather awkward when everyone realized this fact.
“Why don’t we all grind levels together?” Gu Fei suggested in an attempt to break the ice.
“F*ck off! We’re not gonna grind with you!” Royal God Call and War Without Wounds answered in unison. While they knew that grinding levels with Gu Fei would be efficient, everyone wanted to enjoy themselves playing the game, so they did not want to become mere observers from the sidelines as Gu Fei fought with the monsters. Moreover, seeing Gu Fei fight really hurt their pride as experts! They were already feeling pain from being with him in all their fights, so they had no wish to rub salt to their wounds by grinding levels with him.
With that, the awkwardness pervading the air dispersed by itself and they all began to casually converse with one another until Sword Demon arrived. Seeing that everyone was already in the room, Sword Demon received quite the shock. He was usually the most punctual out of the six of them, so he never expected for his fellow mercenaries to arrive earlier than him today. It was as if he was watching the sun rise from the west, and he trembled as he took a seat. Is something huge going to happen today?! Sword Demon wondered internally.
“Ahem!” Young Master Han cleared his throat and began to speak, “Today’s opposing group is as Brother Assist said. It has plenty of members, but the men lack unity. Plus, their group leader isn’t as amazing as I am. But it’s precisely because of all these factors that we may find them troublesome to deal with. Even if their leader is wary of our Grand Kiting strategy, it doesn’t guarantee that his members will listen to him and not participate in the match, so let’s assume that all eighty members of High Cloud will be present!”
“But!” Young Master Han quickly added, “Because they are not united, they will probably be fighting this match separately and without a commander. As such, this match is where all of you must fully demonstrate your abilities and break them one by one.”
“From your words, it seems like all your planning from before is for naught?” Gu Fei asked.
Young Master Han sighed deeply, “Man proposes, but God disposes; how was I supposed to know that we would face such enemies? Could it be that the heavens are jealous of my talent and have intentionally intervened to make me suffer a bit?”
Everyone was simply speechless at how he had managed to twist his failed plan into something worthy of praising him for.