Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Old Shield, you…” Lin Jie contacted The Heavenly Shield right away.
Having a guild base would be a game-changing move for the Ironwall Empire. A guild base not only provided guilds with a place but also allowed them to reap enormous income.
At this stage of the game, Forest City would be the most popular place to visit if players wanted to level up. This situation would continue for at least the following few months—with the city’s appropriate levels of difficulty, it matched the tide of the game’s historical development. If a guild managed the city appropriately, they would be able to bring in loads of revenue just by earning off the Teleportation fees, equipment repairing fees and from the sale of potions in the city.
If they employed a few priests from the Holy Church and provided healing services, the profits gained would make one laugh out even in their dreams.
With this advantage, Ironwall Empire would be able to return to its former glory, and might even surpass its own peak of the past! All of The Heavenly Shield’s troubles would be solved. With a second-tiered guild base, the Ironwall Empire would be able to attract many venture investments and even sponsors with strong backstage supporters.
No matter from which perspective, the pros of owning the guild base was obviously much better than contributing it to Brotherhood.
The Heavenly Shield stopped Lin Jie and said in a serious tone, “Fu Sheng, I guess we can be considered acquaintances made from an exchange of blows. You have helped me to keep the Ironwall Empire intact, and thus I will return the favor and help you out this time. We are now even… The next time you want me to help you, I will charge you for my labor fees, haha!”
“Why talk about money between the two of us?” Lin Jie inhaled deeply and retained all else mushy comments. He allocated 12% of Brotherhood’s shares of stocks under The Heavenly Shield’s name silently the next moment.
Although the guild base was named as ‘The Brothers’ City,’ its ownership still belonged to the Ironwall Empire. However, The Heavenly Shield had set aside generous privileges for members of Brotherhood, including free Teleportation services and discounted prices for equipment repairing fees, etc., making sure that members of Brotherhood would feel at home while leveling up in the city.
Still, a lot of capital was needed to be thrown in to ensure the effective development of a guild base. As such, there was a rule which stated that members from the Kingdom of Glory would be charged triple the amount for all their spendings in the city…
As soon as the announcement was made, Brotherhood became the focus of attention among all Chinese players. Many solo players looked forward to being part of them, as they were highly intrigued by their impressive achievements. An organization which had mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, yet had so many strong mercenaries and even gained ownership of the first guild base.
With the announcement about The Brothers’ City, Brotherhood’s fame reached a high peak.
That was the true prowess of Brotherhood—and it had only just started on its growth momentum!
…
When Lin Jie returned to Meng Mountain, he immediately went to find the pagan staying in the charcoal-like hut.
“It’s very fresh. Nice,” The pagan’s face which was concealed beneath a dark cloak trembled excitedly. A piece of rotten flesh fell down from its face.
In The New Age, it’s very harmful and dangerous to believe in pagan gods. After all, only a designated group of people could become the ruling class in any one country or guild.
The pagan took out a scroll and smiled. “Dear human, will you be interested in the great Omnipotent Eye?”
Scroll of the Omnipotent Eye Religion (Dark Gold)
No job restriction
Requires: Level 10, No Religion.
For every human being you kill, you will lose 50 health points, and increase your attack power by 30.
Additional effect: Protection in all aspects. When you believe in the Omnipotent Eye religion, your maximum health bar limit will never fall below 10%.
Lin Jie’s pupils constricted. He was reminded of an organization named as the ‘Great Snow Mountain’ in his previous life. That had been an organization for killers! All its members had high movement speeds and great attack powers, but their health points had always been very little. Could it be that this group of players had become followers of the Omnipotent Eye Religion?
“All great power comes with a price,” the pagan thought Lin Jie was taken aback by the decrease of health points. He smiled sinisterly and added, “However, for every follower you get, you can get 25 health points as a reward. The number of health points you get will be maximumly capped off at the number of players you kill.”
Lin Jie took over the scroll and asked in a testing tone, “Are there more of this scrolls available?”
The pagan nodded. “Of course, the power of the Almighty Omnipotent Eye is greater than all gods.”
Lin Jie was clear then. He announced a mission within the Brotherhood to hire players to kill this particular pagan. He would be glad if he could stop the establishment of Great Snow Mountain.
Currently, he had two sets of approval. The expert-level mission would be completed with another set of approval.
Lin Jie took down the Hermit Helmet and looked resignedly at the red name on top of his head. After he finished the Job-Changing Mission, he ought to find Yatasha and make her take away that darn red name.
The Hermit Helmet was unable to decrease one’s evil score or change an NPC’s attitude towards that person.
When he returned to the City of Light, Lin Jie tried his luck by loitering at areas near the Holy Church. It would be great if he could meet another greedy official, as he would be able to complete his mission then.
There were more than the usual number of players gathered at the Holy Church’s Square.
“Bro, what’s up?” asked Lin Jie as he squatted down together with the rest of the players.
“You don’t know?” A flat-headed Paladin blinked his eyes several times. He replied, “A Bishop from a first-tiered city will be coming to explain the hidden concepts behind the Holy Light, and also choose three qualified players to undergo fine training with him in the Holy Church.”
NPCs had their own specific organizations, for example, the Holy Church was established by Paladins and Priests, the Druids had their Nature Temple, the Warriors had their Warriors Arena and so on. Every once and then, the heads of those organizations would come to the cities and choose random players to undergo fine training with them. Entering their jobs’ specialized organizations could allow players to learn many rare high-level skills, or even secure certain nobility statuses.
Players could also join those organizations by taking up missions from their mentors and undergoing extremely difficult trials.
Organizations’ heads had a certain chance of activating the game’s plots when they arrived at the cities—and imparting their experiences was one of those triggers. When players listened to the training experiences of NPCs, they could attain small accomplishments like increasing their proficiency in certain skills or even learn a new skill on the spot.
“Oh, a Bishop. Which Bishop though?” Lin Jie asked curiously.
The flat-headed Paladin rolled his eyes, “How would I know?”
More and more players gathered at the square. A ray of Holy Light suddenly shone down from the grand, solemn Holy Church. A Bishop who donned a long white robe gradually landed on the square along with the light, holding on to a scepter decorated with gems.
With a wave of his hands, Holy Light surged out in ripples in all directions.
“Cool! Why do the NPCs have these kinds of abilities, but not me?”
“Oh god, oh god… I have leveled up!”
Some people leveled up, some people’s equipment was enhanced out of the blue, while others got all kinds of buffs.
The Bishop’s gesture captivated the players, and they all hoped he could do it one more time.
Lin Jie looked at the gift bestowed upon him, and let out an exasperated laugh.
[Empathy]: The Holy Light forgives sinners. Your evil score is decreased by 100.
However, Lin Jie’s evil score still remained at 1,000 points without any change. This was a curse from Yatasha which was definitely not going to be removed by just a ray of Holy Light. Empathy was an Instant Ability, but now it had merely become some sort of buff for Lin Jie’s cursed condition, and could only be activated when the curse was lifted.
The Bishop stared at Lin Jie in surprise.
Lin Jie look back at him squarely. Through the white cape, he could see the shriveled up, tree bark-like face of the Bishop.
When the Bishop started to explain the hidden concepts behind the Holy Light, almost all people started to get confused and muddled. In the first place, not many of them were interested in the game’s background. Most players had only wanted to get free gifts from the Bishop.
Silence resumed. The Bishop’s voice was the only sound that could be heard, and his voice seemed like a flowing river that never met its ends.
“I… I understood!” A girl donning a piece of red garment raised her hand. Lin Jie knew that girl. She was the little girl who didn’t know the Soul Traction skill from before.
The girl started chanting a Healing Spell. When it fell down upon the Bishop, a great Critical Hit figure appeared.
She chanted a second Healing Spell, and it was still a Critical Hit!
Critical Hit!
…
After five consecutive Critical Hits, everybody’s expression changed to this:
(⊙_⊙)
The Bishop smiled. “You are very talented, please stand behind me.”
The first candidate to be chosen into the organization was confirmed!
Lin Jie was shocked too. ‘Good heavens looks like this girl’s pretty good at learning skills!’
There was just a very small chance that healing spells could cause critical hits, and the chances of achieving that effect could only be slightly increased with enhanced equipment. If one learned the Holy Light Mercy skill, there would be a basic 10% Critical strike chance. That was a super good skill that Priests could ever have, as activating double healing skills could save teams from being wiped out.
The little girl jumped up excitedly. However, when she saw that everyone was looking at her, she blushed, lowered her head and took out her communication device, conversing softly on it.
Most probably she was telling her friends about the good news.
The second candidate was chosen soon. It was a female Paladin named Evening Mist. She had also comprehended the passive skill and even stunned the Bishop for 0.1 seconds when she struck out her sword.
“Darn it, here he is, he’s coming!” The flat-headed Paladin clenched his fists in excitement.
Lin Jie rolled his eyes. This fellow’s stats and equipment were only belonging to the middle-low range, how could he be chosen?
Swoosh!
The flat-headed Paladin stood up and said, “I would like to become your disciple!”
Everyone was startled. After which, laughter erupted amidst the crowd.
The Bishop smiled kindly. “Why do you want to do that?”
“Because…” The flat-headed Paladin’s face flushed red, “You are suave!”
Everyone laughed harder.
“Sure. Please stand behind me too.” The Bishop gestured him to come nearer.
Including Lin Jie, all the people stopped in silence. They felt as if their throats were being gagged by an egg. Though their Adam’s apple moved, no words came out of their throats.
‘What? This… also can?’
“Thank you, thank you,” the flat-headed Paladin was elated beyond words.
At that moment, Eighteen Massacres stood up angrily from the spot he was hiding previously in the midst of the crowd. Activating Holy Light Massacre, the flat-headed Paladin was sliced cleanly into two halves.
Numerous guards were alerted to this audacious murder crime in the city.
“Resources shouldn’t be given to useless bums,” Eighteen Massacres shouted, “give them to me instead! I will repay you handsomely.”
No one expected the turn of events.
What’s most absurd was that the Bishop actually smiled happily at this. He dispersed the guards following him and summoned Eighteen Massacres to follow him into the Holy Church.
As the three candidates stepped into the Holy Church, the Bishop stopped in his tracks and pointed at Lin Jie.
“You, come in too.”
