Little Piglet looked incredulous when he saw the brand new Fire Wolf equipment set. “This… is worth a lot of money, isn’t it?”
“You serious, man? Who do you think I am?” I was incredulous that he was incredulous. “Your current equipment is shit, so we need to replace it. Now come on, I’ll powerlevel you two to 50 so you can wear them.”
“Is it really okay?” Shangguan Wan’er asked smilingly, “We wouldn’t want to waste the Little Heavenly King’s precious grinding time…”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m Level 270 right now. Is there even a map on Heavenblessed that can boost my level anymore? Yesterday I spent over half the day grinding several maps worth of mobs and bosses, and all I got was a grand total of 1% experience! It’s terrible!”
Little Piglet chuckled. “Alright then. I know there’s a Fire Stone Valley with high-level mobs between Level 70 and 120 about five kilometers away from here. Let’s kill those mobs and powerlevel to 50 in one go. Once we can equip these items, we won’t need to trouble Lu Chen anymore.”
I nodded. “Yep. Let’s go!”
……
The moonlight cast three soft shadows on the ground as we followed a small trail.
On the way, Shangguan Wan’er looked at me and said, “Ahem, Lu Chen, you know your Xuanyuan Sword, Scarlet Dragon Armor and Cloak of Divine Fervor are on full display, right? Anyone who sees you will be able to identify you immediately, and from there it wouldn’t take them too much effort to figure out who we are. That wouldn’t be good, would it?”
I apologized immediately, “Sorry, you’re right. I’ve completely forgotten about this. Just give me a moment to disguise myself…”
“Yeah, be quick~”
I took out the Master of Disguise Ring and turned off all of my equipment luster. I then dulled the appearance of my equipment until they looked like plain equipment. Finally, I altered my own appearance to make it look like I was a newbie who just recently entered the game; a super newbie to be exact since they still wouldn’t be able to see my level [1].
But of course, I didn’t alter my appearance so much that my looks were inferior to Little Piglet or Shangguan Wan’er…
Little Piglet’s chosen race was barbarian. He had long, crimson hair and bulging muscles everywhere including his face. His eyes looked as wide as a toad’s, and he looked like he could shake a mountain with a shout. Appearance-wise, he looked like your standard all brawns no brains or skill player, but in reality Little Piglet was anything but unskilled. In the future, he might even become a warrior with High Fighting Spirits’ explosive power and Chaos Moon’s delicate control. When that day came, he would be a true peak expert.
As for Shangguan Wan’er, she had chosen to be an elf this time. Not only did it complement well with her already gorgeous looks, her long ears twitched from time to time whenever she said something. Little Piglet was obviously completely infatuated with her new look.
……
Beep!
System Notice: Player “Dark Iron Sword” has joined your party!
As the party leader, I activated the stratagem “Iron Wall VIII” to increase everyone’s Defense by 120%. The reason I did so was to ensure that Little Piglet and Shangguan Wan’er wouldn’t be one-shot by the high-level mobs.
“Dark Iron Sword? Not bad. But why do I feel like I’ve seen your ID somewhere?” Shangguan Wan’er watched me closely.
Little Piglet revealed the truth, “Dark Iron Sword was the man who wrecked Ray of Sunshine outside Sky City without using any skill whatsoever. It was you all along, Lu Chen? Fuck… I should’ve known better though. It’s not everyday you run into an expert who can toy with Ray of Sunshine like a child…”
I chuckled. “Yep, this is my shadow identity. I use it to do all that dirty work my original identity cannot do…”
Shangguan Wan’er approved. “Yes, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand is a Heavenly King and a hero, but that fame comes with a lot of unwritten restrictions. You are wise to have a shadow identity.”
I nodded before pointing at a horde of Level 85 elite wolves ahead of us. “I’m going to grind the mobs now. You guys can just stand here and leech the experience. Grind hard and try to hit Level 200 in a week, okay?”
“You serious?” Little Piglet looked astonished. “Wan’er and I are awesome, but we’re not that awesome, guild leader. It’s practically impossible to hit Level 200 in a week…”
I smiled. “It’s not possible to get to Level 200 normally, no, but what if I ask Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits, Lian Xin, Beiming Xue and more to take turns to powerlevel you guys in major leveling grounds? In that case, 200 levels in a week is nothing at all.”
A pause later, I added, “Getting to a high level—preferably Level 240 or higher—as soon as possible will be beneficial to you as well. It’ll give people the impression that you’ve joined the game a long time ago. This way, few people will suspect that you are really Little Piglet and Wan’er.”
Little Piglet waved his sword once. “Yes, what you said makes sense. Let’s do this then, guild leader!”
“Yeah!”
I charged toward the horde of wolves and used Burning Blade Slash, one-shotting at least a hundred of them instantly. 50% of the experience went to me, and only 1% or so went to Little Piglet and Shangguan Wan’er. Even so, the experience they gained was enough to increase their levels by a dozen immediately!
Three hours later, I swept through the entire Fire Stone Valley and annihilated all the wolves, dogs and bears residing in the map. It was such an intense session that even the Xuanyuan Sword’s durability had fallen by 40%. The good news was that Little Piglet and Shangguan Wan’er finally reached Level 50 and were able to put on the equipment I had given them.
There was still time, so I looked above the map and said, “The night is still young. Do you guys want to grind two hours of Corpse Eater Lair?”
Corpse Eater Lair was a fairly infamous map. It had an incredible mob respawn rate, and the Corpse Eaters were Level 120 to 150 dread-rank monsters. Although they gave incredible experience, most low-level players were too weak to grind there. They were more likely to die than to reap the bountiful experience the Corpse Eaters carried. As a result, not many players frequented the map at all. Sometimes, a small party or two would grind it, but even then they never ventured deep to the center.
Little Piglet shrugged while swinging his new Spirit-grade sword around, “Sure! If you’re fine with this arrangement, then of course we are too. In fact, let’s see if we can hit Level 100 today. I know what you said, but Level 200 in 7 days is still a pain…”
“Okay!”
……
We were greeted by a mapful of Corpse Eaters the moment we entered Corpse Eater Lair, so that was great. Also, it had been a while since I got to enjoy the sensation of one-shotting, well, anything. The game had reached its mid to late stage, and even Candle Dragon’s shitty Qiu Beast Cavalry had over 5 million HP on average. As for our Dragonlight Cavalry, they easily had over 8 million HP with full buffs. The Xuanyuan Sword was powerful, but the days where it could one-shot a target was long gone unless they were small fries like the Corpse Eaters I was mowing down right now.
However, it wasn’t long before Little Piglet suddenly let out a warning, “Someone’s coming, Lu Chen…”
“Yeah, I see them.”
I saw a large group of players making their way toward our location on the minimap.
“Let’s step aside. There’s no reason for us to clash against them.” We stepped away from the trail and beneath a tree where there were a ton of Corpse Eater bodies.
The sound of horse hooves grew louder and louder. Soon, the cavalrymen were close enough to be seen under the moonlight. They were all Level 230+ and wearing the guild emblem of “Mad Dragon 1st Subguild” on their arm.
Little Piglet gritted his teeth as he said in the party channel, “Fuck! Do they belong to Mad Dragon?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Their main guild is dead, but their subguilds are still around, it seems. It doesn’t matter though. Even if the remnants are still alive, they are far weaker especially after they’ve parted ways with Hegemon Palace.”
……
As the party of cavalrymen trucked past us, we saw that they were followed by dozens of low-level players between Level 70 to 100. If I wasn’t mistaken, the higher-level cavalrymen were here to powerlevel their buddies just like us. It was at this moment the Level 244 cavalryman at the forefront directed a malicious grin at us and said, “Mad Dragon 1st Subguild will be conducting a leveling event in Corpse Eater Lair. Please leave before we show you who’s boss!”
Another cavalryman looked at us and said, “Yo, that Level 53 archer girl looks pretty cute! What a shame that a 7 out of 10 at minimum is sticking together with 2 ugly bastards. Hey girl, you wanna join Mad Dragon 1st Subguild? We promise to carry you to Level 150 within a week~~”
Shangguan Wan’er replied coolly, “Not interested!”
The Level 244 cavalryman immediately frowned in dissatisfaction. “Tsk, we offer you kindness, and this is what we get? Whatever. Let’s go already, Third. We need to get to the Corpse Eater Hall as soon as possible. The guild leader ordered us to carry these 50 players to Level 80, remember? We can’t afford to waste time here.”
However, the warrior disagreed, “Nah, I think we should clear the air first, if you get what I mean. I don’t like the way that Piglike Opponent is staring at me. I want him dead!”
Little Piglet uttered, “Your gaze feels revolting too, bitch!”
“What did you say, you fuck? You are courting death!”
Even after all the turmoil they had gone through, Mad Dragon was as arrogant as ever. Roaming Dragon possessed a unique charisma that kept drawing assholes like these idiots to him, I supposed…
Swhoosh!
The warrior thrust his spear at Little Piglet in an attempt to kill him with Barrier Break. He would definitely be killed if he took a hit, and he probably couldn’t dodge it because the stat difference between the duo was too great.
“Back off, you two. I’ll take care of them!”
I knocked aside the guy’s Barrier Break with ease and leaped into the air. After I kneed him in the jaw for 790k damage, I thrust the Xuanyuan Sword right through his dirty mouth!
2,765,712!
How unfortunate for him. It was a critical hit!
Just like that, the Level 241 warrior was one-shot. For a time, the hundreds of Mad Dragon players could only gape at me in shock. “What the fuck! Who the fuck is this Dark Iron Sword? His level is hidden, and he managed to take out Third in two hits! Get him now! Wipe him out!”
……
I didn’t use any skill because I didn’t want to expose myself. My skill alone was enough to deal with these chuckleheads anyway!
The Xuanyuan Sword cut through their armor and flesh like a hot knife through butter. Occasionally, it would even one-shot a small group of people due to it triggering its septuple damage effect and dealing massive amounts of splash damage. Less than three minutes later, all 226 high-level Mad Dragon 1st Subguild players were dead.
I didn’t kill the dozens of leeching low-level players because it was beneath me. I pointed my sword at them and threatened, “What are you guys still standing there for? You aren’t expecting me to powerlevel you all, are you?”
The group scattered like rabbits, and Shangguan Wan’er burst out in laughter. “Lu Chen sure is an interesting fellow…”
Little Piglet was grinning as well. “Maybe our lives would have been less tumultuous had we joined Ancient Sword sooner.”
I curled my lips. “Enough bootlicking, you two. I still have stuff to do tomorrow, so the sooner you hit Level 100, the better!”
“What stuff?”
“The three of us are returning to Suzhou tomorrow. By the way, feel free to give me a call and visit Suzhou whenever you like. I’ll treat you two to mitten crabs!”
“Yeah. We’ll visit once we’ve settled down in Beijing!”
1. T/N: I thought the ring disguises level as well?
E/N: Well, it does. But he’s still an entity with Level 250+, so level suppression still applies, and in this case, people can’t see his stats and level. Just like a Level 50 player couldn’t make themself Level 400 and make everyone unable to see their level when they should, Lu Chen can’t make others see his level when they shouldn’t. ☜
