Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Pish…”
Lin Jie felt relieved after letting out his urine.
He washed his hands and went to the kitchen, looking for some food. To his surprise, he discovered an exquisitely decorated invitation letter placed on the table.
There were pictures of a sunlit college with fantastic scenery, and a group of youthful-looking teenage boys and girls painting side by side…. This was an invitation letter by a university.
“Miss Lin Xiaoxue, Huaxia Academy of Fine Arts would like to invite you to join us at…” Lin Jie read a few words, and his eyelids began to twitch. ‘Heavens, this is the invitation letter by Huaxia Academy of Fine Arts?!’
Huaxia Academy of Fine Arts was known as the dream school that all Arts students wanted to enroll in. Under the meticulous teaching of experienced teachers, coupled with its worldwide acknowledged first-class learning environment, should a student’s talent be recognized and recommended by any highly respected teacher, a bright future ahead would definitely be in store for them…
How long had passed since Xiaoxue started to learn art? Yet she was able to produce these good results within such a short time!
However, technically speaking… if one thought about it, which Arts student didn’t start their careers since their school days—by doodling on their textbooks—and refining their skills for more than a decade?
However, with its fame as the cradle of Arts, Huaxia Academy of Fine Arts’ tuition fees would not be cheap—one had to pay up to nearly 100,000$ per year! That was not inclusive of the additional expenses one had to spend for participating in competitions, etc…
Lin Jie frowned. In his previous life, his sister had enrolled in a local Arts school, then what about this invitation letter… His heart thudded as the realization hit him. Before he was reborn into this life, his family could hardly get by. Could it be that his parents were unable to afford such expensive tuition fees, and hence his sister…
A wave of remorse washed over him.
His fingers grabbed tightly onto the letter. At that moment, Lin Jie discovered a crease at a corner of the invitation letter. It was as if someone had held it tightly in their hands before, trembling but at a struggle to decide what to do with this letter.
“Dad…” Stroking that crease, Lin Jie felt as if he could feel what his father felt when he saw this letter. Their family has always been poor, and throughout the years, no matter how hard they worked, they could only accumulate a meager amount of around a few ten thousand dollars as their savings. Such finances could only guarantee the whole family the most basic lifestyle.
Now, Lin Jiawu could only watch his daughter give up the chance to enroll in a prestigious institution, and choose to study at a local university as it offered free tuition fees and scholarships—all for the reason that the family couldn’t afford the high tuition fees! For parents, what could be more torturous than this?
Lin Jie thought about this for a while and decided to keep the invitation letter, placing it under his pillow.
– “Welcome back, you have appeared within Prague City.”
Silent Grey Sky had blocked all calls from players after Lin Jie told her the coordinates for the ore resources and gone on ahead happily to mine the ores. Lin Jie strolled around in Prague City, went to the Auction House and prepared to leave after he took note of the tax rates.
Ding~
Regional Announcement (Hell Plume): Brothers of the Angel Descent Guild, hear this order! From today onwards, kill all Brotherhood members! All members who are in Prague City or in the surrounding areas, do take note! Otherwise, leave our guild or be prepared to be killed!
As soon as the announcement was made known, Lin Jie immediately received notifications that hundreds of members quit Brotherhood.
Prague City was Angel Descent’s territory. If one wanted to make a living here, they could not offend them! Moreover, many people in Brotherhood were originally members of Angel Descent, and after weighing their options, it was no wonder they decided to play it safe and withdrew themselves from this mess.
Lin Jie smiled coldly. What were the chances that Heaven Plume was ignorant about Hell Plume assuming such great airs and giving orders around to his members? By the looks of it, he must have given silent consent to Hell Plume.
Brotherhood’s progress had rendered it strong enough to replace the Mercenary Association, and it was showing beginning signs of threatening the statuses of major guilds. For survival’s sake, a guild could only choose to act in either two ways: maintain close ties with Brotherhood’s members, or destroy this organization entirely!
Obviously, Heaven Plume had chosen the latter.
Brotherhood’s progress was too successful, and many guilds were jealous of it. After all, there were only so many opportunities in Prague City, and as the saying goes, ‘two tigers cannot coexist on the same mountain’. Naturally, Angel Descent would want to take the first move!
‘The tall poppies get cut down,’ Lin Jie smiled coldly, ‘it’s such a shame that Heaven Plume did not understand this logic.’
Taking off the Wolf Head Helmet, Lin Jie set off for the slums of Prague.
In the slums, the dirty ditches gave off all sorts of unpleasant smells. All kinds of rubbish were scattered around on the ground.
Lin Jie’s brows furrowed as he walked on.
“Pia!”
A dirty little girl suddenly fell in front of him, and Lin Jie hurriedly helped her up.
“You… you hit me!” The little girl pointed at Lin Jie, and cried, “When you knock cute little Shana down, you have to compensate me with half a loaf of bread! Little Shana’s legs hurt so much, sobs…”
Umm, feigning injury to cheat people of compensation 1 ?
Lin Jie shook his head and let out an exasperated smile, then placed a loaf of bread in her waiting hands.
Little Shana stopped crying immediately and took a great bite out of the bread. She swallowed it without chewing much but ended up choking and coughing.
Lin Jie took out fresh water and gave it to the little girl. Her face was dirty, but her eyes were bright and lively. The little girl sipped on the water gingerly, then began to gulp down huge mouthfuls of the water.
“Eat slowly, little girl. I have more here if it’s not enough,” said Lin Jie with a smile.
All this while, Little Shana couldn’t find time to reply. After eating a large piece of bread, she said pleadingly, “I am so sorry, Big Brother, I lied to you just now. I fell down by myself.”
—’The favorability of Little Shana towards you has increased by 10 points.’
“Hahaha…” Lin Jie caressed her hair and placed a silver coin in her hands. “Take this, go buy something to eat.”
“Oh no, Grandpa Edgar said that we can’t take someone else’s money.”
“Grandpa Edgar?” asked Lin Jie.
“Shana!” A stern voice rang out in the slums. Not long after that, a gray-haired elderly man appeared in their sight, walking slowly towards them with a cane.
This was the old grandfather who lived in the slums! At first glance, he looked like some mysterious yet all-prevailing divine figure, the kind of person who could deal out powerful magical attacks effortlessly in some fantasy novels!
In actual fact, this old grandfather was the famous Enchant Master in The New Age, Edgar! However, he also expertized in a skill unknown by all—as a superb Enchant Master, he was also skilled in forgery!
Yet, Lin Jie knew this fact full well!
Edgar studied Runes extensively and had attained great results in Enchantment. Unfortunately, he was framed by his apprentices, and all his properties were confiscated, and he was being chased to live in the slums. Yet, he created a ‘Life Runes’ which could allow one to sustain his life without having to eat!
Edgar would occasionally release some missions to players, and the first player who completed his mission could learn his Runes. He could then draw the “Life Runes” on his equipment, which would increase his health bar’s cap by 4%! In Lin Jie’s previous life, there had been a lucky Enchant Master who had gotten this reward, and as a result, he had risen to fame overnight.
Edgar caressed the little girl’s hair fondly, and commented, “Did you take someone else’s stuff again?”
Little Shana pouted her lips. “Grandpa, though your runes are powerful, it can only sustain life but can’t take away the feelings of hunger…”
“You imp…” Edgar shook his head helplessly, looked at Lin Jie and laughed. “Young man, are you from the alternate realms? What are you doing here in the slums?”
“I came here looking for you,” Lin Jie took out the letter from the Dwarf King.
“I need your help to forge something.”
“I don’t know how to forge stuff!” Edgar’s eyes turned cold.
“You are very close to this little girl, aren’t you?” Lin Jie commented casually, throwing a look at Little Shana. “She has taken a silver coin from me. Isn’t your principle that you will offer your services to whoever pays you, Enchant Master Edgar?”
“You…”
That’s right, this was the reason why Lin Jie gave the little girl silver coins! This was to trigger the game’s plot. As an Enchant Master NPC, Edgar abided by the rule that he would offer his services to whoever paid him—and to him, Little Shana was almost like his biological granddaughter.
“Come with me.” Edgar lowered his head in dejection, turned and beckoned Lin Jie to follow him into a tattered house. There was only an old desk with a few feather pens on it—this was where he lived in.
Little Shana looked at her Grandpa piteously. ‘Oh no, I have caused real trouble this time! This guy’s a bad person!’
—’Little Shana’s favorability of you has decreased by 500.’
Lin Jie couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile. NPCs’ favorability towards players always increased so slowly, yet dropped by heaps and bounds…
“How should I change it?” asked Edgar as he took up the feather pen.
Lin Jie had already prepared the modified version and just required Edgar to rewrite the letter in the Dwarf King’s handwriting.
Since the Angel Descent Guild had become so overbearing, it seemed like he had no choice but to suppress them and show that he was not to be trifled with! Fortunately, Lin Jie had the exact trick for them up his sleeves: the siege by the monsters!
In many games, raids by monsters were considered ‘welfare’ for players, and an opportunity for them to earn EXP points, equipment and gold coins… this was the same in The New Age. Unless sieges of cities were triggered by historical events, attacks by monsters were generally welcomed by players.
However… what if this group of monsters resorted to trickery, and attacked the city while players were away?
This letter could trigger the attack of the city by monsters. As a game prop, the City Leader of Prague City could naturally recognize whether a letter was real or fake. If Lin Jie made the foolish decision of forging the letter on his own, he would be put in jail for at least one month.
However, things were different if Edgar forged the letter for him! As an Enchant Master, the way he forged letters was to guide the words to form into sentences by themselves, just like how Runes transformed and changed themselves.
In this way, there would be no danger of being discovered! The forged letter would really be recognized as the real one!
“Done,” Edgar handed the letter to Lin Jie, frowning. “Little Shana, gather the other people as soon as possible, we are leaving.”
Lin Jie smiled. “You can go to the City of Light, the Holy Church there distributes food for free.”
When the monsters attacked the city, the slums would definitely be ruined! Being such a conscientious person, Edgar definitely foresaw this situation coming!
He threw a cold look at Lin Jie, gathered the poor people and hurriedly fled to the City of Light.
Lin Jie shrugged his shoulders indifferently and dialed through to Seven Ears. “Seven Ears, tip the Holy Church’s Paladins and Priests, there will be a group of NPCs going over. Help to settle them.”
“Yes, Boss.”
At his side, Lin Jie proceed to the City Leader’s Mansion by himself. The City Leader of Prague City certainly looked so much more reliable than a certain fellow leader who the grand name of “Caesar”, but did not exhibit any noble characteristics befitting of his name. As the mansion’s gates opened, one could see the City Leader conducting the drills for his guards!
“Hah!” When the City Leader thrust his long spear into the air, it reflected off the light from the sun and gave off a bright flash. An Iron-winged King Bird, the size of a small calf, was hit by the spear, and it fell down to the ground, dead!
The City Leader laughed merrily. “Clean the bird, we shall bake it and make a feast out of it tonight!”
“Great City Leader, a person from the alternate realms, wishes to see you. He said he needs to report to you some urgent news from the Dark Iron Dwarves.”
“Oh?” The City Leader raised his eyebrows, and commanded, “Let him come in!”
Lin Jie placed the letter in his palms and handed it respectfully to the City Leader.
“Hpmh, such impudent creatures! Guards, announce the news now and prepare to standby!” bellowed the City Leader furiously after he read the letter.
Ding~
System Announcement: The Dark Iron Dwarves from Dark Iron Castle will attack Prague City at 8pm tonight! The Dwarf King Ebstein has sworn that he shall conduct a massacre of Prague City with his King’s Elite Guards! Brave warriors gather now! Players who successfully help to defend the city will be rewarded with handsome EXP points and Reputation points.
This world announcement immediately caused an uproar within the players!
There were those who were prepared to fight, and also those who planned to flee…
Heaven Plume brightened up at this announcement. Laughing loudly, he announced to his members, “Great, this is great! The first siege by monsters will actually occur at our Prague City! The Dwarf King is merely a Level 30 Overlord, in the face of our army, this might as well be giving us the rewards directly! Brothers, be prepared to gather, we will own all the Bosses which come with the siege! Let’s get them all!”
At 8pm that night, the members from Angel Descent, who were originally in Prague City, surrounded the city gates excitedly. Even the other members who were stationed at the surrounding cities were teleported here so that they could have a share of the benefits too. As such, hundreds and more players withdrew from Brotherhood!
At 8pm, all of them were highly spirited and prepared to fight, waiting excitedly for the monsters to attack the city.
After four hours… there was no sign of anything at all!
Another three hours passed, and the time was now close to 3am in the early morning. All players were angry and had the thought revolving inside their minds, ‘Could it be that the system has played us?’
After waiting for seven hours, even Heaven Plume and all his members were exhausted. They all went offline.
Seven whole hours of waiting, yet nothing happened—all thought this was the most wasteful night they had ever spent at Prague City.
However, when Heaven Plume went online the next day, he was stunned on the spot!
The city was full of smoke!
Almost all the buildings were destroyed!
Furthermore, his Guild Base… it was successfully snatched by the Dark Iron Dwarves, and in fact, it had turned into a Level 25 Dungeon, named as the ‘Black Iron Frontline’!
Regional Announcement (Codename Lone Wolf): You’re welcome, Hell Plume!
“I… F*CK!” Heaven Plume cursed and fainted.
