Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Grrrr—
At the cave’s entrance, the Red Lizard, which was being tricked, turned around and stretched out its tongue as long as possible to hit Lin Jie. However, Lin Jie had already run quite a distance apart. As he saw that the tongue was about to touch him, he thrust out his sword at it in an irritated manner while running further into the cave. Soon, he left the Red Lizard’s aggro field.
The Cave of Crystals refreshed in a very queer manner. The Red Lizard guarding over its entrance was some sort of ‘hint’—when the Red Lizard began the feast on lava, the interior of the cave would also be filled with scalding lava; however, when the Red Lizard started to rest, the lava inside the cave would be dried up.
Activating Wild Charge, Hunter’s Forward Charge and getting into Enraged mode, Lin Jie rushed towards the interior of the cave. If the lava burst out during this time, he would be dead!
Scanning the clean cave closely, Lin Jie discovered to his surprise that there were a few inconspicuous cracks on the cave’s walls. After he activated the above skills, Broken Blade became a sharp cutting tool again. Lin Jie stabbed it into the cracks and scraped hard. A few pieces of stone fell off and out gushed some wisps of cold wind which were totally different from the hot air beneath his nose.
Gulp…
Gulp…
The sound of gushing lava was heard. Lin Jie crawled into the hole he made just now with Broken Blade and sealed the hole’s entrance with the fallen stones. Due to the cold air around, the scattered stone wall was sealed up quickly, and soon all cracks disappeared.
It was no wonder ordinary folks were unable to discover the Cave of Crystals—it was hidden so well. In Lin Jie’s previous life, the person who had discovered this place was still the crazy player Ophadi Wantless. When he had discovered the Cave of Crystals, the first thing this simple-minded fellow had done was to try out his hands on killing all the monsters on this map.
The next thing he had done was to post about this map to the players’ forum gloomily. After all, he was only concerned about discovering new maps and leveling up—but the monsters on this map were too inferior and not suitable for leveling up.
Indeed, only two types of creatures were spawned in the Cave of Crystals. They were the Crystal Crab and Crystal Scorpion, and they were both at Level 30 on average. However, the experience points to be gained by killing them were about the same for killing Level 28 monsters.
What’s worth mentioning was that these monsters spawned gems! In less than half an hour when news about this hidden map had been spread, many teams had gathered around the Endless Volcanoes to try to get the treasures. These players had fallen prey to the Red Lizard, and it finally enjoyed a full meal for once.
All at once, the name of the mad player Ophadi Wantless had become the most famous in the game! Numerous female players would cry and beg to see him for once… they all believed that he was a great guy! After discovering such a hidden map which had been of immeasurable value, he had actually posted about it openly—wasn’t this a noble action?
Of course, this had not stopped him from earning the name of ‘Greatest fool ever’ by those people that were jealous of him secretly.
Boom—
The sound of the gushing lava was heard from outside. Shivers ran down Lin Jie’s spine. Fortunately, he had crawled in fast enough. In his previous life, this place was a famous burial ground!
Yet now, Lin Jie was standing in a world of crystals. There were crystallized icicles and gems hanging down everywhere here. It was a pity he could not take all of these, or else he would be rich.
Holding on to the Thunderbolt Sword and Broken Blade, Lin Jie took out a Fire Torch and threw it onto the ground. Many broken gems vibrated and jumped up, With a loud ‘crack,’ they revealed their bodies beneath the broken gems.
[Crystal Crab]: Level 29, Health Points: 17,000
[Crystal Scorpion]: Level 30, Health Points: 18,000
Three Crystal Scorpions crowded around the Fire Torch, and with their huge pincers, they snapped the Fire Torch into pieces. They then settled down satisfactorily, preparing to fall back into their slumber.
Forward Charge!
Lin Jie was unafraid of facing Level 30 creatures. Both the Thunderbolt Sword and Broken Blade stabbed into the scorpions’ heads. After a crisp breaking sound, the hard crystal shell on top of the scorpions was cracked apart and out spurted smelly blood.
-514!
-485!
With a slash of Broken Blade, Lin Jie activated Army Obliteration with Weakness Exploit in his Combo Attacks at the scorpions.
-1,021!
-1,095!
-955!
-1,251!
-523!
He made four consecutive Critical Hits! One of the Crystal Scorpion’s health bar decreased by about half. The remaining two monsters which were slower finally made a reaction and snapped down their pincers at Lin Jie’s ankles! Lin Jie suddenly felt as if his feet were filled with lead and he couldn’t lift them. A bunch of damage figures appeared above his head.
-141!
-126!
Level 30 creatures were indeed powerful! The Crystal Scorpion had a 100% chance of trapping their enemies once they began their attacks, and it could cause continuous damage—this was pretty difficult to handle.
Lin Jie let out a loud cry and activated Thunder Descent, covering the surface of his body with a sheen of thunder! Thunder also surrounded the tips of Broken Blade and Thunderbolt Sword, and every slash of these swords was like throwing out whips of thunder down upon the monsters. The monsters were frozen while they suffered around 600+ damage points!
The damage figures above Lin Jie’s head disappeared at once. Frozen enemies could not launch any attacks.
Slashing both Thunderbolt Sword and Broken Blade continuously around, the first Crystal Scorpion was finally frozen to its death. Following which, Lin Jie activated Blood Soul Multi-Slash and killed the remaining two Crystal Scorpions.
His EXP bar increased visibly. After all, these were high-class monsters, so the EXP rewarded for killing them were still rather impressive. After a small bursting sound, a petite gem fell onto the ground.
[Flying Feather Gem]: This can be engraved onto your shoes and increase your Movement Speed by 2%.
Wow, he was lucky (for once)!
Lin Jie put away the gem happily in his backpack and threw another Fire Torch on the ground. This time round it attracted a few Crystal Crabs. The way a Crystal Crab attacked was about the same as a Crystal Scorpion. However, it had higher defense capabilities, and it was immune to all attacks on its back! This was quite like the attributes of the Shemendes Iron Cloak, which Lin Jie had still not pieced up after two months’ worth of efforts.
With excellent weapons like the Thunderbolt Sword and Broken Blade, Lin Jie’s attack outputs reached a new height! In terms of health bar, other than that crazy guy Baizhan Yusheng, Shield Specialists the likes of Mixed Breathless would have to concede defeat to him! In terms of attack output, he had a Heritage weapon and a Sub-Legendary fragment as a weapon—that meant that other than jobs like Protection Paladin, Shield Specialist and Bear Druids (Druids who specialized in changing to bears)—he could kill anyone instantly with just a single Army Obliteration skill!
‘It’s a pity I am still too unlucky, or else I would long have gotten the Shemendes Iron Cloak,’ mused Lin Jie silently as he shook his head. Luck was not something he could change even if he was reborn. Sometimes, Lin Jie honestly didn’t know if he should laugh or cry out loud whenever he looked at the 12 identical, repeating pieces of the cloak in his backpack.
As the monsters’ levels were still considered quite high, Lin Jie proceeded to clear the Cave of Crystals of monsters at a steady pace. Wave after wave of monsters became dead under his swords, and his EXP bar rose steadily. However, it was still far from reaching Level 21. This was because as one attained to higher levels, it would be more difficult to gain EXP. The EXP required to be raised to Level 21 from Level 20 was enough for Lin Jie to rise from Level 15 to Level 20 previously.
While Lin Jie was steadily killing the monsters, his communication device rang—it was a call from Zheng Ziliang.
“Shoot.” Lin Jie was always very casual to this brother of his.
“Jie?” The deep voice on the other end of the communication device gave Lin Jie quite a shock and nearly made him drop the weapons in his hands. He quickly killed the Crystal Scorpion in front of him and kept the fifth Flying Feather Gem into his backpack, before running to a safer place. He replied respectfully, “Uncle Zheng?”
Correct, the person who called was not Zheng Ziliang, but Zheng Ziliang’s father. Zheng Ziliang’s father was known as a famous business genius in Jiang City. Although he often complained about giving birth to a son who was overly caring and liked to do excessive kind deeds on the streets, this person was still a very benign and reputable man.
Lin Jie guessed he most probably had gotten to him using some external devices that could connect to Zheng Ziliang’s gaming helmet.
“Yes, it’s me.” Uncle Zheng’s voice sounded authoritative and gave off the vibes of an impressive leader. However, as he tried to sound nice deliberately, it seemed rather odd.
“Ziliang told me that you guys are progressing quite well in the game.”
Lin Jie was rather taken aback at this comment. “Haha, we are just doing okay, just okay…”
WIthin youngsters, Lin Jie could be considered progressing well. However, he was still very humble in front of this tycoon.
“Why not sell the naming rights of the Auction House in the game to me? You can name any price you want,” said Uncle Zheng in a direct manner.
“This can be considered my investment in the game.”
Lin Jie frowned. “You mean you want to invest in us?”
“You can take it as that. However, I don’t need any shares,” commented Uncle Zheng casually, “how about paying you guys $20,000,000 for the naming rights?”
Lin Jie understood now. Uncle Zheng wasn’t trying to get the naming rights or invest in them… He just wanted to give Zheng Ziliang a sum of money to let him progress further. However, Lin Jie still had some shares of the Auction House, and hence, he came to discuss about this with Lin Jie.
“Thank you for your kind gesture,” replied Lin Jie in a serious tone, “however, Uncle Zheng, your price is still a bit lacking to buy the naming rights of our Auction House.”
“Is it? Hahahaha…” Laughter was heard at the other end of the communication device.
“Jie, I was just trying to help you guys. A lot of enterprises are trying to get their hands on the Auction House’s naming rights, and some might resort to underhanded methods. Why not sell the naming rights to me? At least, no one would dare to tackle you anymore.”
Lin Jie smiled and said, “Thank you, Uncle. However, this is a business by us, young people, so we will see how it goes. Moreover, I hope you don’t mind that I repeat again, the price you give is really a bit lacking…”
“Alright, since your mind is set, I shall not comment further. However, Jie, I have to caution you…” Uncle Zheng’s voice turned stern, “you need to know where you stand if you want to survive for long. Do remember this!”
Lin Jie agreed in a serious tone, “Yes.”
At the other end of the communication device, a grand-looking middle-aged man ended the call. This man was Zheng Ziliang’s father, Zheng Guangming! He toyed around with the ring on his finger, smiled, and said, “Well, that’s interesting.”
“Boss, according to my calculations, that Auction House is just worth the sum of…”
“No need to mention any further. Prices change, after all. By the way, where did my rascal go?”
“Erm, Young Master… he mentioned that the lady cleaner was pregnant, and is not suitable for doing cleaning jobs. Thus, he’s now mopping the floor…” replied the secretary in an awkward voice as he pushed up his spectacles on his nose bridge.
Zheng Guangming nearly splattered out the tea he was sipping on. He waved his hands in a helpless manner. “Mopping? That’s really… Tell him to get over here now!”
“Yes!”
Just when his secretary was about to leave the room, Zheng Guangming added, “As for the pregnant lady cleaner, let her go on paid leave. This is to satisfy my over-caring son.”
His secretary smiled and said, “Boss, then… do we have to change our company’s Workers’ Welfare Policies again?”
Zheng Guangming waved reluctantly and commented, “Change it. Add on the policy that our workers can enjoy paid leave when they are sick or pregnant…”
“Yes.”
Watching the retreating figure of his secretary, Zheng Guangming shook his head helplessly. “This rascal, he’s changing my company into a charity house!”
He looked outside the window. The beautiful Jiang City seemed to be beneath his feet. The machine that Zheng Guangming used to communicate with Lin Jie was not Zheng Ziliang’s gaming equipment. Beneath the set, there was a crooked pattern—the symbol of a broken sword was engraved on it!
