Chapter 179 - Foe-herder's Offensive Maneuvers

Matters related to Gu Fei continued to happen in-game as he went offline.

Even after Brave Surge was sent to prison by Gu Fei, he did not change his mind about recruiting the latter. Since imprisonment in Parallel World meant total isolation, he was temporarily unable to contact any of his people. Fortunately, Brave Surge was quick-witted enough to go offline. In reality, he was able to contact his buddies that had witnessed his PvP with Gu Fei.

Brave Surge felt gratified when he learned that his companions had asked for Gu Fei's IGN. He then instructed them to wait for his release from prison before telling their other comrades of this information.

His PvP with Gu Fei only reinforced his desire to recruit the latter and began to think of ways to entice Gu Fei into his guild while serving time in prison.

Meanwhile, Foe-herder, the guild leader of Cloud Herder, remained oblivious to the fact that he had just missed out on meeting Gu Fei by clearing off all his PK points. He only went online in the late afternoon after he had fully rested in reality. At this time of the day, the scenery in-game was vastly different from when it was the wee hours in the morning or the dead of night.

When Foe-herder got online, he promptly received a message from his female spies: All their applications to join Amethyst Rebirth had been rejected. Apparently, people could only join Amethyst Rebirth with the referral of someone already in the guild and any players randomly asking to join it would be rejected.

Foe-herder felt stunned. Among the many criteria that the different guilds had set up before they would accept someone as their own, Amethyst Rebirth's criterion was actually the most difficult. This sort of guild would never be huge and would not have any big goals, but its members would always have excellent relations.h.i.+p with one another. Infiltrating such a guild was possible, but it would take time. After all, one would need to befriend and gain the trust of certain members of Amethyst Rebirth before having the chance to join the guild. He was unsure of how long that would take, so Foe-herder decisively canceled the plan to infiltrate Amethyst Rebirth and prepared to use the currency ploy he had prepared instead.

Opening up his friends list, he saw that Brave Surge was currently offline. I wonder how things are on his end, Foe-herder thought to himself. He tried sending him a message, yet he only got this notification from the system: [Player Brave Surge is not in a serviceable area.] 

From experience, Foe-herder immediately deduced what this message meant and his heart was filled with elation. Brave Surge must have been sent to prison! It seemed that he had luckily obtained a head start in their headhunting war.

As such, Foe-herder became calmer and grew more confident in a.s.signing the online members a task each relating to the matter at hand. He then confidently headed toward one of the city gates. 

It was at this moment that his system notification sounded for a new mail: "Have you managed to acquire more information regarding that particular someone? Feel free to send me a message any time if you need anything."

Foe-herder saw that this short message was sent not too long after he had logged off. The sender's name was Xi Xiaotian. There was even an emoticon beaming brightly at him right next to the sender's name.

"It's her…" Looking at the emoticon, he immediately recalled the beautiful lady who had offered to provide him and Brave Surge information about the OP Mage for the price of 1000 gold coins. He laughed coldly and casually deleted the message. "1000 gold coins? Why don't you steal that amount of money, instead?! I doubt that I won't be able to tempt any of the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies into opening their mouths at a lower price," Foe-herder was confident in the currency ploy he had in motion.

Shortly afterward, members of Cloud Herder Guild could be seen all over Yunduan City. While they did not know Gu Fei's appearance, they were still familiar with the appearances of a few ladies of Amethyst Rebirth. It was an all-female guild after all, so most people would of course pay attention to those who belonged to that guild, not to mention that Cloud Herder had just clashed with Amethyst Rebirth during the guild versus guild tournament yesterday. The Cloud Herder's players only failed to find any of the ladies last night because they went offline after the match. Now that daytime had arrived, it did not take long for Foe-herder to receive a few reports of the locations of several Amethyst Rebirth ladies.

"Just keep an eye on the ladies. I'll interact with each of them personally," Foe-herder commanded.

The closest targets were currently on their way toward Foe-herder's location at the city's east gate, so he hurriedly adjusted his armor and struck a das.h.i.+ng pose. In no time at all, four ladies of Amethyst Rebirth entered his line of sight. A Thief on Stealth of Cloud Herder was following the ladies not too far behind. Naturally, Foe-herder could not see this Thief and only received a message from him: "The four ladies have arrived."

Foe-herder waited until the four ladies were closer to him before clearing his throat, "Ladies."

The four ladies halted their footsteps as they turned their heads to his direction.

Foe-herder amiably smiled at them, "I'd like to find out something from you."

"What is it?" the ladies genially asked.

"Are you members of Amethyst Rebirth?"

The four ladies nodded their heads.

"Does your guild have a male player?" he asked while feigning ignorance.

The four ladies nodded their heads once more.

"What is his name?" Foe-herder tried his best to pretend that his question was random. Last night's plan was to directly ask the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies first and for the currency ploy to only be enacted next if directly questioning the ladies proved to be futile.

The four ladies immediately became alert, "Who are you?" Their alertness was something that they had cultivated over time due to the male players approaching them to ask for their fellow female guildmates' names. None of the ladies wanted to be pestered by random individuals, so they would never give their fellow guildmates' names to suspicious players. Despite Gu Fei being a male player, the ladies already had the habit of probing for the asker's intention first before giving out anything.

"I'm Foe-herder," Foe-herder replied. 

Just the name of the Warrior ranked sixth on the leaderboard would garner quite the attention of players even in other in-game cities, yet the four ladies who were from the same city as him merely looked at one another in confusion, "Who is he?"

"I'm the guild leader of Cloud Herder. We fought with you girls yesterday," Foe-herder informed them, feeling depressed. Not recognizing him at a glance was fine, yet for the ladies to actually not even know his name, was he that unremarkable of a player?

"Oh! You're from that silly guild with five hundred men that only sent out fifty men for the guild versus guild tournament, right?" one of the ladies asked.

"Hey! Don't say such things!" another lady admonished her as she surrept.i.tiously glanced at Foe-herder.

He felt so embarra.s.sed, but since it was the truth, he could not retort back. As for the move being silly… Since Cloud Herder lost the match, what else could it be?

Foe-herder coughed and tried to change the subject, "I wanna ask the name of your guild's male Mage."

"Ah! I remember you," another lady suddenly cried out, adding, "You asked us the same question after we finished our fight yesterday."

Foe-herder nodded his head, "Yes!"

"Sis Xiaowu said to not tell you of our male player's name. Scram! We're leaving!" The four ladies then hurried off.

"Ah…" Foe-herder's hand was already reaching into his dimensional pocket for his money pouch to begin his currency ploy, but he ended up staying quiet as he released his hold of the coin purse.

Foe-herder refrained from using that ploy, as he realized that there were four ladies present. If he were to tempt them with money, he would have to satisfy all four. The four together would turn the 100 gold coins into 25 gold coins each. If one of them asked for 100 gold coins, he would likely have to pay each of them that much.

Why be hung up on this one group? With that thought in mind, Foe-herder asked for the location of the next target.

"One lady is here at Peddlers' Street 3. She has a stall set up!" someone reported to Foe-herder.

Quickly making his way over to Peddlers' Street 3, Foe-herder was then approached by his guild member stationed there and was directed to where the stall was.

Foe-herder gave the lady a once over. She was a Fighter. Her hands were hugging her knees as she squatted on the ground. The stall before her had many useless items, yet she eagerly awaited the customers to arrive.

"Seems like someone who is in need of money," Foe-herder smilingly said as he confidently walked toward the direction of her stall and was about to carry out his ploy.

...A few minutes later, a commotion suddenly brewed in Peddlers' Street 3 and Foe-herder could be seen squeezing his way out of the crowd with his hands covering the back of his head for protection. Several items sailed through the air and bounced off of his armor, as the female Fighter waved her fists and loudly cursed him, "Trying to poach our guild member?! You even dare to bribe me with gold coins! You better run, you scoundrel!"

Foe-herder fled from Peddlers' Street 3 with a fl.u.s.tered look on his face. The Cloud Herder's member that was responsible for tailing this target also ran out, fixing Foe-herder a confused gaze, "Guild Leader, why did you flee from her?"

"Many people are nearby, so doing this sort of thing here is difficult!" Foe-herder replied as he sweated. The lady got angry once he revealed his intention to bribe her. Getting shouted at in one of the busiest streets in Yunduan City for trying to bribe a lady, he could not help but feel immense shame and anger. 

"Peddlers' Streets and taverns; let's avoid those places with many eyewitnesses," Foe-herder announced on the guild channel after this incident.

"There ain't many people here!" someone immediately suggested a target in one of the less traveled by streets of Yunduan City. Foe-herder rushed over there while asking, "What is she doing there?"

"Seems like she's repeating a quest," the member reported.

"What quest is there in that place?" Foe-herder asked, perplexed. 

"I don't know," The member was equally clueless on this front. "Could it be a hidden quest? She has been repeating this quest here for quite some time now."

"Is that so?!" Foe-herder excitedly hurried over to the said street. 

Two guild members showed their heads from the corner of a wall upon his arrival and pointed toward a certain direction: "We've been counting and she'll be in that spot once every seven minutes. It's been six minutes since she last showed herself, so she should be here soon." Just as they said this, a lady appeared at the opposite end of the street and noisily made her way toward the location that the two men had just indicated.

"I'm going," Seeing that the lady was a fellow Warrior, Foe-herder immediately felt a sense of closeness toward her. He arranged his armor presentably and noisily made his way toward the location as well.

Chapter 180 - The Wheat within the Mud

Foe-herder steadily walked forward as his head became filled with covetous thoughts.

The covetous thoughts were not about the lady but the quest that she was doing. Is there really a quest here? Foe-herder had not heard anything about this before. We are both Warriors, so this quest might be beneficial to me as well, he continued to ponder on inside. Foe-herder felt that he should try to find out more about the quest here first. While successfully poaching Gu Fei would bolster his guild, successfully obtaining an important quest would bolster himself.

The choices were either to let his guild bask in potential glory or to let himself enjoy the limelight. Foe-herder did not even hesitate to choose the latter. "Ahem!" he coughed to get the lady's attention when he got near her, "Babe, what are you doing here?" 

"Quest," the lady replied. With people being bolder inside a game, male players striking up a conversation with female players was actually a common occurrence, so most ladies were already used to such a situation.

"Oh. What quest is this?" Foe-herder continued to ask nonchalantly.

"It's called 'The Wheat within the Mud'," the lady honestly replied.

Every quest had a unique name, and Foe-herder had never heard of such a quest before this lady mentioned it to him. Although the quest's name sounded very plain, determining a quest's quality by its name alone would be very foolish. It was like judging a book solely by its cover.

Foe-herder excitedly and carefully asked, "How did you obtain it?"

"Just talk to the NPC here," the lady answered as she began to knock on the door before her.

A hunchbacked old man, with eyes reflecting his years of acc.u.mulated experience, opened the door. The sight of the elderly man caused Foe-herder to feel emotional. Old men would often leave behind a valuable inheritance. The game designers seemed to agree with this train of thought as they would often create mysterious old men that would hand out certain secret quests. With the old man being hidden in such a secluded part of the city, it gave off the vibe that this was a hidden quest that would only get triggered when the players coincidentally knocked on his door.

"Young one, do me a favor. I've scattered some wheat over by the marketplace. Can you please help me find it? Remember, you must find the wheat within five minutes; otherwise, it will be taken by someone else," was what the old man said as he handed the quest to the lady Warrior.

The lady swiftly left after this. Foe-herder wanted to approach the old man next, yet the old codger completely ignored him and merely closed the door.

Foe-herder hurriedly knocked on that door, worried that the quest would no longer be available since the lady had already gotten a hold of it.

The door opened and the old man appeared once more, gazing at Foe-herder and repeating his instruction to the lady before. Foe-herder promptly agreed to his request and the quest 'Wheat within the Mud' appeared on his quest log.

Nothing out of the ordinary could be gleaned from the quest description, which made Foe-herder quite suspicious of it as he headed to the marketplace.

The marketplace that the NPC was talking about was not one of the Peddlers' Streets that the players had established. Rather, it was the system-created marketplace where the NPC and player merchants gathered to sell products that the system had provided. The street was not as crowded or as boisterous as Peddlers' Streets, but quite a lot of players were still pa.s.sing through it. Foe-herder searched the entire marketplace, yet he still came up with nothing. Could it be that the lady has already picked up all the wheat, which resulted into me being unable to find any? Foe-herder saw the lady leave just as he arrived at the marketplace.

Very soon, Foe-herder's five-minute deadline was up. A system prompt rang out and the quest was tagged as 'failure'.

"This quest isn't easy!" Foe-herder was visibly moved by this. At this moment in time, he saw the lady appear in the marketplace once more. 

When she caught sight of Foe-herder, she smiled, "Did you grab the quest, too?"

Foe-herder nodded his head.

"Did you manage to find the wheat, then?"

Foe-herder shook his head.

"He he!" A strange smile appeared on the lady's face as she unhurriedly told him, "Gotta use your head a bit more!"

Foe-herder tried to carefully decipher what the lady meant, yet he was still at a loss.

A minute later, the lady asked him, "Have you gotten it?"

Foe-herder shook his head to demonstrate his cluelessness.

"He he he! What's the name of the quest?" the lady asked.

"'Wheat within the Mud'," Foe-herder answered.

"Correct!" The lady congratulated him, yet Foe-herder could still not make sense of it.

"That means that the wheat can be found inside the mud!" the lady explained in a voice that sounded as if she was saying something very obvious.

"Eh?!" Foe-herder exclaimed, stunned.

"Take a look!" the lady said as she walked to a corner where a ragged piece of cloth could be seen on top of a pile of mud. Exerting force on it, she pulled out the small bag from within. "This is the wheat from within the mud! Good luck!" The lady happily exclaimed to Foe-herder before leaving once more.

Foe-herder was dumbfounded. He realized that he had made a simple problem complex by overthinking things. This was basically a beginner quest that required players to 'find an item'. This sort of quests that had items hidden in random places was often criticized by the players. And yet, the lady kept on repeating this quest. What would be the point in doing so if it truly was just a simple quest?

Foe-herder believed that there must be something to this, so he once more went to the old codger to retry the quest.

He might know how to achieve the goal now, but finding a ragged piece of cloth that indicated the presence of the wheat was not easy, causing him to fail the quest once more. Before long, Foe-herder had repeated the quest seven times. Rummaging through every inch of the mud in the whole marketplace, he finally managed to accomplish the quest in the allocated five minutes.

Foe-herder excitedly bellowed as he rushed back to where he had gotten the quest and handed the small bag of wheat to the old man.

"Thank you, young man! Your help has been invaluable!" the old man said as he handed the quest reward over. Foe-herder took it and gave it a look: 10 silver coins.

"What the…" Foe-herder mumbled to himself. He did all that just for this measly reward? Foe-herder felt indignant. If it was just this pittance, why would the lady do the quest repeatedly? Foe-herder looked around and realized that the lady was no longer around, so he quickly messaged the members in charge of tailing her. The members were even more at a loss as they asked, "Boss, didn't you already make contact with her?"

"Uhm… That…" Foe-herder found it really awkward to admit that he had placed his personal interest above the guild's future.

They had actually lost sight of the target on their third attempt. At the same time, Foe-herder remained deeply skeptical about what had happened. "It's such a simple quest, why did she have to repeat it so many times?"

This question floated in Foe-herder's mind. Sadly, the two members had not kept watch over the situation; otherwise, they would have enlightened him: "Guild Leader, you have repeated the same quest seven times as well...."

However, the real task at hand still had to be done. Someone reported seeing a lady of Amethyst Rebirth window shopping over by the Trade Exchange by herself. Foe-herder immediately headed over once he got this news. He stepped into the Trade Exchange platform for about five seconds before leaving. As the two members guarding the entrance felt perplexed, Foe-herder angrily chided, "Trying to bribe Svelte Dancer? Are you two brainless dolts?!"

Failure… Foe-herder's monetary a.s.sault had been met with failure in the end, and it was an absolutely overwhelming defeat, too.

Foe-herder recalled what a certain lady had spat out at him: "Hmph! Getting someone's name from us isn't a big deal, but for you to actually attempt bribing us, what sort of people do you take us for?!"

Foe-herder was devastated! Had he found the lady from the start, he would not have to spend a cent to get the Mage's name. Now that it had gotten to this point, he had ended up p.i.s.sing off every Amethyst Rebirth's lady to the point that they refused to reveal the OP Mage's IGN. Foe-herder and his guild were now viewed with utmost contempt by the ladies. Moreover, he was unaware of something that would figuratively leave him in tears.

Gu Fei had also logged into the game that afternoon. Seeing the many little posters all over the city looking for him and feeling sympathetic at the colossal effort that those people had expended to find him, Gu Fei decided to get in touch with them. But due to Foe-herder's deplorable actions, the ladies indirectly convinced Gu Fei to do otherwise.

"Hmph! Did he think he can do whatever he wants by just offering money as compensation?" was spat out by the number one pay-to-win player Svelte Dancer, which made the statement more impactful despite its irony. If even she thought of it this way, this meant that Foe-herder was indeed a dastardly individual.

"Money is not everything!" all the ladies cried out in unison, as they began to digress from the topic at hand.

"Just what are you all talking about?!" Gu Fei, who had been dragged into the discussion after getting online, perplexedly asked.

As the de facto spokesperson of the guild, July explained the general situation to him. "Quite a lot of guilds out there are trying to recruit you. Do give us a heads-up if you plan to leave the guild." She would always pick up this professional tone whenever she spoke for the guild. Although July approved of Gu Fei's presence in Amethyst Rebirth and did not wish to see him leave, she nevertheless showed an att.i.tude that respected his wishes.

A guild where every member was happy was July's biggest aspiration. If someone felt happier elsewhere, July would not stop him or her from leaving. She had previously asked Gu Fei to stay in the guild for a while since his departure would have disbanded the guild. Unknowingly, Amethyst Rebirth had gained a lot from his existence in it, especially in that incident with No Smile.

I do hope that he would not leave… was July's thought deep down.

Chapter 181 - The Woeful Experts

July's thinking was too idealistic, as it was impossible for any group to keep everyone in it satisfied. Her way of thinking that wished to respect everyone's wishes was quite a western concept. What China promoted was collectivism, so the minority in the country usually submitted to the will and ideologies of the majority.

On the guild channel, besides July who had not voiced her opinion, all the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies were currently expressing their wish for Gu Fei to stay. 

This was precisely what made Gu Fei confused. Amid the ladies' chattering, Gu Fei feebly asked, "But when did I say that I'm leaving the guild?"

The whole channel instantly became quiet. The wilder the thoughts were, the further the digression became. Foe-herder wanted to use gold coins to loosen the ladies' mouths, but it was simply to learn of Gu Fei's IGN. This matter… It absolutely did not involve Gu Fei leaving the guild.

"Oh…" The ladies immediately stopped discussing the matter upon realizing this and carried on with their chit-chats. Only a few ladies continued to message Gu Fei in private.

"Beware of being led astray when you're keeping bad company," Luo Luo advised Gu Fei.

"Large guilds love to bully small guilds, so you better not join any of them!" was Will-low's two cents regarding this matter. She had previously been oppressed by a powerful guild, after all.

"Large guilds are super annoying. It's so pointless," Svelte Dancer said to Gu Fei based on her similar experiences with his. Evidently, joining any large guilds she wished to was easy given her indomitable strength.

"That Foe-herder is so silly. He doesn't even know to look for the 'Wheat within the Mud' when it already says so," June's Rain remarked.

Gu Fei felt somewhat sorry for Foe-herder's quest debacle earlier. It was similar to taking an important exam, only to realize that the only question printed on the paper was '1+1=?'

Most people would definitely a.s.sume that it was a trick question, and would be having second thoughts on writing down '2' as the answer. Perhaps, '1+1' had other answers as well. But if June's Rain was the one posing the question, the answer would definitely be '2'.

Foe-herder must have overthought things, which turned him into a laughingstock to June's Rain. How pitiful! Gu Fei thought to himself as he headed to Ray's Bar.   

The ladies no longer had to partic.i.p.ate in the mercenary PvP tournament since they were eliminated last night, but Gu Fei still had to join Young Master's Elite for today's match. Seeing that it was about time for the match, he headed to Ray's Bar to meet up with his fellow mercenaries.

"I've advanced to a Lightning Mage!" Gu Fei immediately informed them this once he saw that the five were already inside the room.

"Ah?" The five eyed him in confusion.

"Thunderbolt! Strike!" Gu Fei waved his hand and a bolt of lightning descended from the ceiling. It then struck the table and a burned smell subsequently filled the air. 

"Stop messing around!" Brother a.s.sist grimly admonished as that lightning bolt had struck somewhere near him. Given Gu Fei's high Magic Attack Power and the cramped s.p.a.ce of the room, that bolt would have struck Brother a.s.sist dead had Gu Fei slightly s.h.i.+fted his hand to his direction.

"Don't worry. I'm not even holding my weapon," Gu Fei said as he sat down.

"Why did you suddenly choose Lightning Affinity?" Brother a.s.sist asked.

"I learned that Lightning Affinity has the Blink skill that can let me move from one place to another instantly. That's something useful to me," Gu Fei explained.

All the present experts inhaled sharply, as they knew very well what would happen if Gu Fei came to possess the Blink skill.

"Blink! How could I have forgotten?! Mages can learn Blink!" Royal G.o.d Call muttered to himself.

Gu Fei's fighting prowess had shocked these online gaming experts time and time again. Although all of them had become friends now, the others had unknowingly been imagining Gu Fei as an opponent that they were thinking of ways to deal with.

Royal G.o.d Call, for his part, was thinking that he could now contend with Gu Fei after acquiring Svelte Dancer's Boots of the Nimble Cloud, which gave him a faster movement speed than Gu Fei's. Unknowingly, Royal G.o.d Call was already considering ways to deal with Gu Fei and was even thinking of kiting Gu Fei to prevent the latter from closing in on him.

While the other Mages were worrying about players engaging them in close combat, these experts were worrying about this Mage before them getting anywhere near them in combat.

Gu Fei's unintentional reversal of a Mage's combat method had literally flipped the usage of his job cla.s.s's many spells and skills. An example was Twin Incineration; this spell was insignificant in the hands of other Mages, yet it was a deadly spell in the hands of Gu Fei. He was even intending to use the defensive skill, Blink, as an offensive skill.

To think that a Mage can be played like this! All these experts felt amazed by this enlightenment.

"I also learned that Blink will only be available for Mages at the later part of the game, so I want to get a skill scroll for it. Hopefully, I'll get that in today's match," Gu Fei made a grabbing motion with his hand.

Brother a.s.sist shook his head repeatedly, "Do you think that the system is kind enough to provide you with that when you need it? How can anyone be that lucky?"

"So how would I get it, then?" Gu Fei asked.

"You buy it, of course!" Brother a.s.sist replied matter-of-factly, saying, "Go to the forums and leave a post. Buying the permanent skill scroll for Blink is more realistic than you depending on luck to obtain it."

"Won't… Won't that be very expensive?" Gu Fei asked apprehensively. He had already experienced earlier today how hard it was to have insufficient money.

"Mmm. The price of a skill scroll depends on how useful the skill is. The problem is that most players don't know what the skills on the skill scrolls do, so determining their exact prices was difficult. If you trade for a skill scroll, the player will be basing its price on its known general usage in other MMOs," Brother a.s.sist explained.

"What is the known general usage for Blink, then? Isn't it available in most games?" Gu Fei asked.

"Blink usually allows a player to move instantly from one place to another, yet its cool-down time is slightly long. Relying on it fully to keep up with an opponent is impossible, and it's usually used as a lifesaving skill or to move from a place within sight that you can't reach. Based on these, its price should be average! Having it is good, but not having it won't be a loss, either," Brother a.s.sist answered.

"That's because you don't know how to use it," Royal G.o.d Call interjected.

Brother a.s.sist was expressionless, "When determining the value of an item, we need to depend on what most people understand of the item, and not the evaluation that the few experts have. If we use your knowledge to price it, Gu Fei will have to buy Blink Scroll for an exorbitant price."

"That's right. Don't interject when you know nothing, kid," Gu Fei said to Royal G.o.d Call.

"Oi, you're now a Lightning Mage. Do you still not want my skill scroll for it?" Royal G.o.d Call intended to use that dangling carrot to make Gu Fei submit this once.

Unexpectedly, Gu Fei replied with, "Why would I want that trashy skill of yours?"

Royal G.o.d Call had never seen Electric Wall before, but he could tell from the skill description that it was similar to the Wall of Flame spell in other MMOs. It was a useful spell whose value would be higher than Blink. Gu Fei's display of his poor knowledge of mage skills and spells made Royal G.o.d Call want to throw up blood. "You're not a real Mage!" he angrily said.

No one bothered with him as Brother a.s.sist merely continued speaking, "Actually, the problem isn't the price for that skill scroll; it's whether the skill is available on the market or not. But since everyone is partic.i.p.ating in Parallel World's event, some lucky player will surely get it. Any skill scroll can be given by the system to a PvP winner regardless of the person's job cla.s.s, so it should be possible to find an unlucky player like Royal—"

"You're the unlucky one!" Royal G.o.d Call indignantly interrupted him.

Gu Fei pulled out his sword and placed it on the table, the tip of it pointing directly at Royal G.o.d Call. He then said to Brother a.s.sist, "Brother a.s.sist, please continue."

Brother a.s.sist smiled, "So you should quickly go to the forums and post your purchase request!"

"But I don't have any money now… No matter how cheap it can be, it will still cost above 1000 gold coins, right?" Gu Fei asked.

Brother a.s.sist nodded his head.

"Let's pool our money together!" Sword Demon proposed, "I have somewhere over 200 gold coins."

"I also have 200 gold coins, but I gotta leave some for alcohol," Young Master Han said.

"I have about 300 gold coins here," Brother a.s.sist said.

"F*ck! You're all rich. I only have about 50 gold coins with me," War Without Wounds felt depressed upon learning how much money everyone had at the moment.

"Ha ha ha ha! All of you are paupers! I have—eh?! Why do I only have 400 gold coins?!" Royal G.o.d Call, who was originally laughing maniacally, was now in tears. He had earned a large sum from his transaction with Svelte Dancer, yet he had somehow spent almost all the money without noticing it. Indeed, people who did not work hard for their money would not put much value to it and would most likely spend it haphazardly.

"He he! Seems like we're all a bit tight on cash at the moment," Young Master Han remarked. The online experts were usually not the poor sort, especially famous top experts like them. The average gamers would actually find their hundreds of gold coins rather lavish, but in the minds of these experts, Parallel World had actually left them in quite a woeful state. Unlike their past games where they had remained glorious in every aspect, they were aware that Parallel World had someone like Gu Fei, whose capabilities was an unclimbable mountain to them. And when it came to financial matters, they were not doing that great either to qualify as 'experts' who could spend money like water without worrying too much. 

When the rest heard Young Master Han's remark, they stared at him disdainfully.

"Once we win this mercenary PvP tournament, our group will become very famous! Is there really a need to worry about money?" Young Master Han asked.

"Let's not talk about the future," Brother a.s.sist said, "Together, we have about 1100 gold coins. I reckon that sum isn't enough. Permanent skill scrolls are something new, so they will surely be pretty pricey. It's also possible for you to not be the only one trying to buy it. If there's a high demand but low supply and the price rises accordingly, it may not be impossible for you to get the skill scroll at around 3000 to 5000 gold coins."

Gu Fei felt vexed. He had just experienced being poor, so why was he going through it once more? What was worse was the fact that the amount he needed this time was much higher. Even if he managed to sell all the useless trinkets he had ama.s.sed, they would not be enough to earn him that much money.

"Miles, quickly bag Svelte Dancer. I feel—" Royal G.o.d Call promptly shut his trap upon seeing that Gu Fei's sword had actually moved an inch toward his direction.

"Offer yourself to others! People are distributing posters and flyers all over just to look for you, so they must be very willing to spend a large sum for you!" War Without Wounds suggested.

"They didn't actually offer that much. The reward is only 20 gold coins," Brother a.s.sist commented. As everyone stared at him, he explained, "Uhm… What are you guys thinking about? I was merely pa.s.sing by. Just pa.s.sing by…."

"Which rendezvous point did you go to? It's 30 gold coins when I asked how much do they offer for the reward!" War Without Wounds said. 

"I have also heard that it's 30 gold coins!" Royal G.o.d Call agreed with War Without Wounds.

Gu Fei was speechless. It seemed that Luo Luo's worry was not unfounded, after all. He had truly found himself among some bad company.