Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It had been close to 2 days since Lin Jie had gone offline. When he came online again, there were two pieces of news that were spreading like wildfire in the game:
Firstly, Triumphant Midnight and Brotherhood had worked together to help over hundreds of players reach Level 40 in a short period by making use of a BUG.
Secondly, the third Main Plot Dungeon had opened.
Just how many ranking boards were there in the game? There were rankings for the prettiest or most handsome players, for the best weapons owned, and more… However, there were no other rankings, which had as much influence as the Level Rankings Board. After all, it was a game, and their levels represent power! Just the day before, everybody was shocked to find out that there were quite a few new Level 40 players on the rankings board. Without any exception, the top ten players were all Level 40! Not only that, but the next few dozens of players on the rankings board were also Level 40! How terrifying was this?
Dumb Fox made use of that so-called BUG as a gimmick to lure in many players who did not know the truth but wanted to learn more. In just a day, there were up to 5,000 players who joined Triumphant Midnight.
However, according to the information leaked by an anonymous reporter, Triumphant Midnight and Brotherhood had collaborated and seized the system’s leveling BUG. As such, he hoped that all the other players would report them. His suggestion was well received with lots of support, and the forum was filled with many posts of reports. Such actions left Lin Jie speechless. The game was controlled by artificial intelligence. Where would the BUG come from?
Soon, the identity of the reporter was exposed. It was An Xiaoran. Dumb Fox and Junior Mo immediately arranged for the Water Army to flood the forum and pin the blame on An Xiaoran for creating those rumors. At the same time, they revealed the irrelevant data on the third Main Plot Dungeon to change the players’ focus on another topic.
The third Main Plot Dungeon was called Holy Light Temple. It was a fallen holy church with many believers who had succumbed to demons. They insisted that the purpose of the Holy Light was to eradicate all evil, which included everybody that was not a church believer. Their extremist behaviors made it such that everybody was likely to be attacked by them, even the demons.
The devious demons made use of the Holy Light Temple as a front line to block the army of Guild of Light.
There were also 50 small dungeons that opened. While the rewards for clearing those dungeons were great, they were nothing compared to that of the Main Plot Dungeon.
“You are finally online.” The moment he entered the group channel, Baili Changcheng started to brag immediately, exclaiming, “I’ve cleared the mission, and I’m now at Expert-Level! Guess, what did I get?”
Lin Jie smiled. “You’ve already learned Ice Control for a long time now. This time, your Ice Control Proficiency must have increased by a grade. Otherwise, even if you’ve gotten a new Mystic Skill Book, you wouldn’t be this happy.”
“You’re spot on! My Ice Control is now a Dark Gold Mystic Skill. I only just found out that Mystic Skills can level up. Doesn’t this mean it can continue to improve?” Baili Changcheng smiled gleefully. After he was done showing off, he finally put on a serious face and said sternly, “Let’s open the Holy Light Temple right away. From what I know, there are many guilds, including Twilight Transmigration, Three Alliances, and Steel Allies, that have already prepared to attack the Holy Light Temple. Baili Xuanyuan has even formed an elite group with other guilds.”
“There’s no need for that. It’s useless to rush into the Holy Light Temple. The first Boss is enough to annihilate them all. Come, we’ll split into four groups and clear the small dungeons first,” said Lin Jie. “Ziliang, Bu Yi, Qiu Yuan, and Baili, the four of you will form a group with me. The rest can group yourselves as you like. Try to get as many first clears as you can since the rewards are Stat Points. Take this seriously and make no mistakes.”
Star Kill waved his dagger in the air and said, “I’ll sneak into the Holy Light Temple to see where the monsters are located exactly and give you guys the information.”
Lin Jie nodded. “Okay! Thank you for your hard work.”
“No problem, just arrange a date with Bella for me.” Star Kill laughed. He then turned around and disappeared. The rest of the members formed their groups and rushed to their respective dungeons.
The dark and ominous Devils Fork was filled with specks of Holy Light that resembled fireflies as a result of the opening of the third Main Plot Dungeon. They were beautiful and fantastical like a fairyland. However, Lin Jie knew how dangerous it was here.
Baili Changcheng was silent for a long time before finally asking, “What should we call our group this time round?”
“Let’s just use your guild name. Baili Xuanyuan has started to gather allies, I can’t just sit and do nothing. From today onwards, we are a grand guild alliance.” Lin Jie joked, “A strong alliance!”
Zheng Ziliang laughed. “Baili’s guild is as weak as an ant now, there’s no strong alliance. But, I do like this name… Supreme Tribe, how assertive!”
Baili Changcheng’s eyes lit up, and he clasped his hand into a fist. “When the empire falls, even the commoners can be called king. That day will come!”
Qiu Yuan and Bu Yi looked at each other before smiling. They did not interrupt the men’s conversation but listened quietly.
Bu Yi said softly, “If we get first clear for this dungeon… Little Yuan says she’ll be treating us.”
Qiu Yuan was stunned for a moment. Then, she understood Bu Yi and nodded. “Yes, it’ll be my treat.”
Baili laughed out loud. “Qiu Yuan had taken 1,000,000 from me the other time. I’ll have to enjoy this to the fullest. Okay, set. We’ll get the first clear for the treat!”
The five of them were in high spirits.
Lin Jie had a reason for not heading straight for the Holy Light Temple. Although it was a church, it was like a maze inside. Inside, there were a total of 6 Bosses, and each of them was extremely powerful. If they were to rush in, it would be an impossible task! There was a hidden rule in the Main Plot Dungeon. When completing the other small dungeons, there would be a chance of obtaining items that would be useful for clearing the Main Plot Dungeon.
Lin Jie’s destination was the five-man dungeon [Holy Light’s Backup Room]. Just as the name implied, it was the backup logistics area, which included the kitchen and the lounge.
—’Your team has entered Holy Light’s Backup Room. Wish you success!’
The first area was the Holy Light’s kitchen. There were various pots and pans, as well as ingredients in the spacious kitchen. Four Believers dressed in white chef’s outfits were cooking. When they saw the five people appear, they began rushing to them noisily.
[Holy Light Cook] (Elite)
Level: 40
Health Points: 120,000
Attack: 827-1,192
Defense: 450
Special Feature: I Am A Chef! Holy Light Cooking can strengthen its stats by devouring food. It can also turn food into weapons.
There were four of them in total with decent stats. However, these little monsters were not easy to deal with. They were able to grab food easily to devour them and raise their stats when they succeeded. If they failed, they could throw them away as bombs.
“Get them! Watch out for the food in their hands. Once you snatch them away, hurry, eat them.” Lin Jie cried out as he used Hunter’s Forward Charge. His Blade Aura immediately took the aggro from all the monsters. There were clanking sounds as the Kiara Beast King Armor withstood the attacks from the flying pots and pans.
-58! -59! -42! -73!
“Jie, your Defense is so high!” Zheng Ziliang stared with his jaws dropped. ‘If Mixed Breathless was here, his Defense should be around the same, right? But this guy here is a Berserker! He’s really such a beast.’
The Mechanical Gargoyle Zheng Ziliang summoned tore the monster’s face into pieces, dealing 300+ damage points. It opened its mouth and spat out a fireball as well, dealing both physical and magical attacks, which had high damage output.
After Bu Yi cast a Holy Light on Lin Jie, she had nothing else to do, so she started to attack as well. Qiu Yuan was moving around and waving her Mana Dagger around, dealing shocking damage of over 500 points.
“Hehe, ain’t I great?” Qiu Yuan was enjoying Lin Jie’s look proudly, just like a rooster with its tail up. She said with pride, “Ever since I got your Blood Pearl, I had the idea to enhance my equipment with enchantment and gemstones. I’m able to deal additional damage! Now, the additional damage I deal is around 380 points.”
“I see.” Lin Jie understood and gave her a big thumbs up. “Amazing! That’s a great idea. I’ll help you find more items for enchantment next time.”
The first wave of monsters was not that strong for them. They were able to easily reduce their health bars by half with one hit. Just then, one of the chef believers grabbed a small pig and roasted it in just a few seconds. He swallowed it in one gulp and waved his arms in the air, before dealing three 200 points damage at Lin Jie!
“The food gives them buffs. Snatch them away!” Baili Changcheng was slightly shocked when his blade managed to snatch the roast pork away from another chef. He ate it and immediately turned pale as if he had eaten a bitter gourd. His health dropped by 50 points every second from poison damage for 10 seconds, and his health bar limit dropped by 200 points. It was food poisoning.
Lin Jie snatched away bread from another believer. His health bar limit increased by 200 points. He exclaimed, “Look at the stats of the food carefully. Don’t eat the wrong things. The buffs from the food work all the way until the dungeon is cleared. It’s also the key to defeating the Boss. F*ck, Baili, that sardine is a bomb, throw it away!”
Baili Changcheng trembled. He rushed to toss the sardine fish far away. It exploded immediately and dealt 300 damage each to all five of them.
It seemed like he was not sensitive to food and could not differentiate the good from the bad. Lin Jie cursed in his mind. The others were doing well, especially Bu Yi. She only snatched after analyzing the food and had attained 3 whole buffs.
“Concentrate fire!”
Under Lin Jie’s command, Army Obliteration exploded and depleted the health bar of the chef in front of him. Its body turned into Holy Light and disappeared. Everybody changed their targets and prepared to defeat the other monsters.
“Hmph, these monsters do not have high stats, but their battle methods are a little disgusting. If you eat a few bad meals in a row, you will lose all your strength.” Qiu Yuan patted her chest and said, “Seems like the difficulty of the dungeon is still pretty great. Normal players would have trouble clearing this.”
Lin Jie smiled. “The spawn rate of the chef monsters is pretty random. It goes from 1 to 20. After every 4 monsters are defeated, there’s a small chance of spawning the Boss. A normal team can practice here. Once they are in a bad condition, they can just give up the dungeon and spawn again. If their luck is great, they will be able to spawn over ten monsters and level up quickly.”
Dong— Dong—
Dong— Dong—
Just as they were preparing themselves, a large silhouette appeared!
“The first monster died, and the Boss is already spawned? Is this a jackpot or misfortune?” Bu Yi looked at Lin Jie and laughed.
