Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

When all the ladies heard that, they found Brother a.s.sist's suggestion to be very agreeable. How long would 250,000 gold coins last them? The ladies pondered on this from a different perspective. 250,000 gold coins can buy plenty of exquisite and gorgeous equipment!

“That is a very good idea!” Luo Luo nodded before she asked, “Miles isn't around, though. Will he mind?”

“Of course not!” Brother a.s.sist hastily said.

Luo Luo suspiciously turned her gaze onto Young Master Han. This guy said that they are just employees and Miles is the real boss, so everything has to go through him, but now that he isn't around, they're directly having a hand at recruitment; just what exactly is the truth to this matter?

Young Master Han was too lazy to explain himself and just continued quietly sipping his liquor. Royal G.o.d Call and War Without Wounds started fidgeting in their seats. When the two men saw Brother a.s.sist introduce to the ladies the details of the duties in Thousand Miles Drunk's Workshop, they exchanged glances and flashed toady smiles as they came forward. “Brother a.s.sist, the two of us have decided to be permanent employees.”

“Permanent?” Brother a.s.sist was surprised.

“Well… We said that we want to be temps before, right?” The two laughed dryly. “Yeah, we suddenly realized that it's better if we work as permanent staff, instead.”

This was when Brother a.s.sist understood. After a quick glance at the present state of affairs and learning that these ladies would be joining in, these two men evidently intended to throw in their lot like a healing salve to an open wound. However, this left Brother a.s.sist in an awkward spot. He had sought for external staff because War Without Wounds and Royal G.o.d Call had expressed their desire to stop working before, so now that these two men were going back on their initial claims, it instead left him with too much manpower; meaning, the share of the final split would be lesser. At this rate, he could not simply just make the decisions there and then, and he figured should still ask others for their opinion: Do the others wish to save the effort and earn less or put in more hard work to earn more?

With this thought in mind, Brother a.s.sist turned his gaze over to Southern Lone Blade and his men, seeking their thoughts on this matter. Since they were the people who were in it purely for the profits to make a living, he had already asked for their opinion on taking in more employees before he began his search to bolster their workforce.

Southern Lone Blade and the others could of course tell what had driven both men to come to such a decision, and they had no idea if they should be laughing or crying. Having two extra pairs of hands would not divide the pot up too badly, and the seven were not so petty to such a degree, so they naturally had no issues with this. Southern Lone Blade simply sent a private message to Brother a.s.sist, “It's up to you. None of us have any strong opinions either way.”

And so, Brother a.s.sist was obviously not going to reject the two men's offer, but he did regard the two with open disdain as he barked, “You're not allowed to casually back out at your whim this time!”

War Without Wounds and Royal G.o.d Call nodded vigorously before turning back to encourage Sword Demon. “Everyone's getting back on the saddle again, and you're the only one who's still being a temp. Forget about it and just join us as well!”

Sword Demon was firm in his decision, smiling at the two without saying a word. The ladies were still around, so the two men would of course not care to continue conversing with Sword Demon, and they instantly went over to preoccupy themselves with the ladies, laughing and chatting away happily. Seeing an opening, Sword Demon faced the crowd and mentioned, “Dusky Cloud said he's coming over to Bais.h.i.+ City, hoping to find a time to meet up with everyone some time tomorrow!”

“Oh, just to meet up?” Young Master Han laughed mirthlessly.

“Uhm… I didn't ask, but I reckon that's not all.” Sword Demon was honest. Nine out of ten people who had contacted them recently mostly wanted to discuss about the efficient monster grinding routines. As Dusky Cloud was the big boss of his alliance, it only made sense that he would wish to seize this opportunity to better consolidate his strength.

“We've got the time now; why don't you call him over?” Young Master Han spoke pompously. Dusky Cloud was deemed as the most indomitable guild leader in all of Parallel World presently, yet the former's tone made it sound as if the latter was no more than a delivery boy – a single call would be all it took to get that man hurrying over.

Sword Demon ignored him, turning to ask others when they would be free tomorrow.

“We've got plenty of time on our hands, but what about Fleeting Smile and his lot? We don't know when they will jump out and create havoc!” Brother a.s.sist worriedly asked.

“They'll still have to look for us in the first place. We were too conspicuous organizing all those lessons today at the White Mill, so how could it be so coincidental for us to b.u.mp into them again?” Having plenty of experience fighting, Southern Lone Blade and his men offered this a.s.surance.

“That's true.” Brother a.s.sist nodded. Following along this line of thought, it meant that every time their workshop announced the next session of cla.s.ses, everyone would be exposed in public, so those men would have a very easy time locating them. Just thinking about this made Brother a.s.sist feel as if he had a fish bone stuck in his throat.

“In order for us to resolve this matter with those guys completely, we will have to first understand their actual motive. To what degree do they intend to mess around with Miles?” Southern Lone Blade wondered.

“It's unknown!” Everyone shook their heads.

“We forgot to ask No Smile that earlier. Any of you friends with that person?” Brother a.s.sist asked around.

“Forget it. We'll just get Miles to ask Fleeting Smile himself tomorrow!” someone said.

Everyone was silent for a good moment. Just what sort of messy situation are we caught up in…

The ladies soon left the tavern after staying for a while; some of them got ready to log out and others intended to play a little longer, ensnaring even the souls of War Without Wounds and Royal G.o.d Call away as they did; the two men voluntarily chased right after them.

Southern Lone Blade and his team had yet to recover from their losses since that episode with the Utopian Magic Staff, so they seized what time they had to grind their levels. Paddy Scent Pastures and Verdant Timber greatly admired the skill Young Master Han had demonstrated, so they enthusiastically asked him to join them in their grind. As they were all experts, everybody understood a Light Priest would be completely incapable of solo-grinding in Parallel World, and truth of this statement was all the more apparent the higher level they got. Even attempting to level through quests would be difficult, especially when many of them required players to kill monsters. It was essentially a job cla.s.s that was completely dependent on partying up in groups.

No matter how transcendental a player was, there was no way they could transcend beyond their job-cla.s.s limitations. These experts were thinking of this when they suddenly found themselves in tears; this was because their thoughts had involuntarily gone to Gu Fei in that moment; that person indeed possessed skills that surpa.s.sed his job-cla.s.s limitations! A Mage like Gu Fei was completely illogical, yet it was in that absurdity that he showed his indomitability. As it turned out, nothing was really an absolute in this world.

Sure enough, Young Master Han was nothing so transcendental, and he depended on having a group when he grinded his levels, but while most Priests liked to stick themselves with a regular team, he often mixed about unaffiliated teams. Actually, with the skill Young Master Han possessed, there were plenty of people out there that wished to party with him, but because of how irregular the man's schedule of grind was, occasionally grinding at 8 PM, and at other times, especially around at 3 AM, not even seeing a shadow of him, how would there be any parties out there that could stand his temperamental ways? Young Master Han was not the least bit bothered by this, though, continuing to persist in his ways. After all, he was not in the least bit picky about whichever group he ended up with when he left the city gates for his daily grind.

Most players would slowly form a permanent group after playing and mixing around with these unaffiliated players over time, but for Young Master Han to still stick to these independent parties ever since the beta started up to now… While such players existed, they would rarely be Priests and would usually be people with job cla.s.ses that could solo-grind. It was almost atypical to find a Light Priest in the same situation as Young Master Han.

Nowadays over by Yunduan City, by the city gates where the players would gather to form parties, there was a good number of players would recognize this indomitable king of the unaffiliated parties. As long as someone invited him to the party, this person would accept it, and the level of skill this person demonstrated was bewildering. Plenty of the permanent parties wished they did not need to bring their Priests when they saw his performance, while any party that managed to get him would always brag about it the next day. Many people wanted to nail down a schedule for when that Priest would be grinding, so that they could run into him every time they went out for their own grinding… but everybody failed. The lack of a schedule was the schedule that man followed.

Since Southern Lone Blade's team was inviting Young Master Han to grind, just at the same time that he was thinking of leveling as well, he did not see any reason to reject this offer and went along with them. Brother a.s.sist and Sword Demon saw that everyone was leaving and did not want to be left alone, so the seven plus three men formed a ten-man party and departed to grind together.

The night pa.s.sed in such a fas.h.i.+on. When Gu Fei came online in the morning the next day, he did not seem to be affected by that large skirmish with the ex-soldiers last night as he continued to spend his time as he usually did. He took some time to review the leveling situation with his students, only to find that everyone had already familiarized themselves with the routines, and no longer needed his tutoring. It was only when he went to complete a few 'Bounty Missions' afterward that he realized how exhilarating it had been to fight those ex-soldiers last night. Taking on the average player after that was just quite monotonous in comparison.

With a quick glance at his friends list, Gu Fei saw that none of his comrades was online, and neither was Ye Xiaowu. He took a stroll around the city out of boredom and went offline soon after.

His friends were online by the time he got online later in the afternoon. The moment he came on, he received a message from Sword Demon. Gu Fei thought that it would be information about their enemies, so he pulled up the window in his excitement, only to be notified about Dusky Cloud organizing a get-together today.

Of course, a get-together could only be hosted in a tavern, so Gu Fei listlessly made his way over to the tavern, arriving a little earlier than the stipulated time. He randomly found a table to sprawl over as he waited. Soon after, everyone entered the premises one by one. Gu Fei heard what had happened after he logged off and was slightly comforted when he found out that he had not missed anything.

“If you wanted to play still, why did you log off so early?” War Without Wounds was nonplussed.

“You're not a young lad yourself, so I'll refrain from commenting, but this is just a game. You oughta know moderation!” Gu Fei criticized War Without Wounds. Sword Demon, who was standing at the side, flushed red. He was the one out of them all that played the game most maniacally. Was his moniker as the number one gamer just for show?

Still, talking about moderation in front of such veteran gamers was no more than asking for a scolding. As everybody was regarding Gu Fei with much disdain, the tavern doors were flung wide open. Thunderous laughter drifted off from Dusky Cloud as the man greeted everyone.

Dusky Cloud had brought along plenty of comrades, and none of the experts were even certain if they had even met some of these faces before. In any case, Young Master Han and the others greeted them with a nod and a smile as they pa.s.sed. All six members from Young Master's Elite were here, and since Southern Lone Blade's team of seven did not have much of a relations.h.i.+p with Dusky Cloud, none of them intended to come and join the fun, but because there was a good possibility they might end up discussing about the efficient monster grinding routines, Southern Lone Blade was sent to attend this gathering as a representative of the whole team.

Southern Lone Blade was a famed individual as well, so Dusky Cloud was full of praises the moment they were officially introduced even as his eyes searched around the place, asking where Eternal Dominion was.

Eternal Dominion was of course online, but he was in the same boat as Southern Lone Blade's men. Eternal Dominion did not know Dusky Cloud, so there was no reason for him to be present for this gathering. Both Southern Lone Blade and Eternal Dominion's names were used in the initial post Brother a.s.sist had made when he announced their workshop, and it was apparent Dusky Cloud was not one for idle chatter, so he promptly s.h.i.+fted the topic over to ask about the workshop thusly. He had not even warmed a seat or gotten himself a drink, which only showed just how anxious he was to get down to business.

“So, brothers, which grinding map are you guys thinking of developing next?” Dusky Cloud was straightforward with his question. This was how his lot communicated with one another. As long as they were acquainted and of decent character, Dusky Cloud and his men would treat them like kin, and completely disregard the fact that they were strangers. They would speak without any inhibitions and would say whatever came to mind.

“The last one just ended last night; we've yet to make plans on where the next map will be!” Brother a.s.sist replied.

“I sent men to study what you taught yesterday,” Dusky Cloud said. “And they told me how packed the map has become! How many people do you guys end up teaching with each batch?”

“Around 400,000 players!” Brother a.s.sist did not deny the fact. When conversing with such people, it was better for everyone involved to just give them the answer outright and not beat around the bush.

“That explains it!” Dusky Cloud exclaimed. “Looks like you brothers have gotten it good instructing like this. It's rather tough for those of us who are learning your routines, though.”

Everything was still smooth-sailing yesterday when he initially secured a foothold in the White Mill along with the coalition of guilds, but as time went by, the number of players in the map grew exponentially. By the time they got to the peak period of the evening, it was as if the population had exploded, and the White Mill map went beyond its point of saturation instantly. There was no way for the guilds present to hold onto their turf any longer when faced against such a situation; what could they do when players arrived in droves and slowly jostled them out of their neatly divided sectors?

The density of players found in the White Mill was shocking by this point, and the monsters were all squeezed within the crowd of players, almost to the point that they died from how packed everything was, so what sort of efficiency was there to speak of? n.o.body had any s.p.a.ce to unleash any sort of attack at all. Warriors that casually used their Cyclone would probably end up with dozens of PK points on their heads.

The complaints from all these players resounded, yet there was no one who would listen to their grievances. Some resented the fact that Thousand Miles Drunk's Workshop had taught so many players, while the more reasonable individuals could clearly tell that this overpopulation was not only due to those players taught by Thousand Miles Drunk's Workshop. In just this one day alone, plenty of people had started setting up their bootleg versions of the routines, and it was hard not to blame everyone involved for the current situation they were all now mired in.

Still, at the end of the day, what caused this entire affair was still the efficient monster grinding routines. The players were all very conflicted! They were afraid that not learning those routines would result in them falling behind others in their levels, but learning it was what led them to waste their time in such a manner. In fact, an argument could even be made that the players' leveling efforts here in the White Mill were even worse off than those grinding in other maps. Some of these people thought to leave but were also worried that the map would be freed up if others were to share the same sentiment, and that would only result in the others who remained to end up gaining the double EXP advantage. However, choosing to stay also meant that they would be stuck in their present predicament.

Conflicted! An absolute contradiction! With all the players knowing about the current state of affairs, the efficient monster grinding routine had become no more than the tasteless chicken rib. People were afraid of falling behind if they did not learn it, yet learning it ultimately set them back even more than before.

During the peak period last night, Young Master Han and everyone else were all busy engaged in that huge skirmish with the ex-soldiers. When they visited the White Mill during their overnight grind. All of them had seen how the fighting there was still in full swing, so they knew what Dusky Cloud had said was no exaggeration. Everyone did their best to control their laughter when they heard this person's plaintive tone. With a stony face, Brother a.s.sist nodded. “Oh, is that so? To think it'd turn out like this!”

“It's not my opinion, but brothers, you guys may not find yourself in a favorable position if this continues! You guys might be unaware, but there were tens of thousands of players last night, and every one of them were glaring with such hostility, throwing curses everywhere. It did not take too long before the rabble began directing their curses at you guys. It's funny when you say it out loud, but there's so many people out there complaining about your efficient monster grinding routine disturbing the natural progression of the game.”

Young Master Han and the others did not move or say a word in response. Honestly, all these experts had already guessed that such a situation would happen, and they were all just uncertain if Gu Fei would have any sort of thoughts about this matter. With Dusky Cloud acting as their mouthpiece right now, everyone turned to regard Gu Fei. They were interested in seeing just what his reaction would be. Gu Fei was someone who would occasionally demonstrate his upright nature, just like when he went out of his way to take on the Shadowmist a.s.sa.s.sin the last time, going so far as to act in order to help the public eliminate evil! Just what thoughts would he have now that he was made aware of the resultant impact of his own actions?

However, Gu Fei did not seem to show any particularly excessive response, merely listening to Dusky Cloud describe the situation like everyone. Suddenly realizing that no one was speaking and Young Master Han and his other comrades were all staring right at him, Gu Fei found this strange and asked, “What are you guys all looking at me for?”

“Well, you're the boss! What should we do next?” Brother a.s.sist asked.

“What boss? All I care about is the development of new routines. I'm not gonna involve myself with matters like copying letters, tutoring, and whatnot! I don't even care if I don't get a share of the profits,” Gu Fei said.

“Well, what are your thoughts regarding the chaos caused by the efficient monster grinding routine?” Brother a.s.sist gingerly asked.

“Thoughts? What sort of thoughts should I have?” Gu Fei retorted.

“So, you don't have any thoughts about it?” Brother a.s.sist asked.

“What are you trying to get at? Are you looking to be slain?” Gu Fei spat.

“Nothing, nothing…” Brother a.s.sist was glum. Just who am I provoking here?  He thought of this and then looked at the others, wondering if they had something to add.

Thus, everybody saw as Young Master Han spelled it out plainly for Gu Fei, “It's good that you have no opinion on this. We're worried that the old man in you will feel very remorseful after seeing the mayhem the efficient monster grinding routines have caused and stop doing this business.”

“That's ridiculous,” Gu Fei said. “How is the routine to be blamed when the reason they can't fight monsters is because there are too many players around? Why don't they blame these grinding maps for not being big enough for everyone?”

Everybody was wearing a strange expression. “You're not feeling moody about this game just because of Fleeting Smile, are you?”

“How is that man even related to this?” Gu Fei was even more baffled by that question.

They were having trouble communicating here! Everybody was annoyed, while Young Master Han could not be bothered to be long-winded. “Do you know about hacking programs in MMOs?”

“I've heard of them.”

“To put it simply, it's a tool that gives its users a very significant edge over those that don't. It's rather game-breaking in MMOs, and Parallel World has never had such a thing before. Meanwhile, even though your efficient monster grinding routines can't be labeled as such, it still possesses a few similarities to the advantages a hacking program could provide.”

“Did you just say hacking programs would be game-breaking to MMOs?” Gu Fei suddenly asked.

“That's right. Take for example—” Brother a.s.sist was about to provide a realistic hypothetical to ill.u.s.trate his point, yet Gu Fei had already very skeptically answered, “That's wrong! The ones who are game-breaking should be the players themselves who use the hacking programs, right?”

“Eh?” Brother a.s.sist was stunned when he heard this. The logic by which Gu Fei had approached this issue was correct; a hacking program did not have a life of its own after all, so if players were conscientious enough to not use them, how would it become game-breaking?

“Then, what are your views on the person who develops such hacking programs?” Young Master Han promptly asked.

Everybody stared at Young Master Han, bewildered. They had all been worried that Gu Fei would be troubled by this matter, so it was rare for him to have share such a view on such matters. Was Young Master Han trying to intentionally lead the man to the dead end they so dreaded?!

In the end, they heard Gu Fei somberly answer, “He's a pure, highly functional individual for rising above the unsophisticated.”

Everyone was dumbfounded. That was a little bit too shameless, right? Who would have thought that Gu Fei would soon started laughing? “I was kidding. I know what you guys are trying to say. I'm the hacking program developer in this scenario, and I'm currently propagating a hacking program that can destroy the balance of this game!”

Everyone exchanged glances.

Gu Fei, however, became serious. “Actually, my ident.i.ty as a hacking program developer is nothing more than what you see on the surface. The real me is actually a martial arts pract.i.tioner who specializes in the study of kung fu; how many times must I explain myself?”

“F*CK!” Everyone scoffed.

On Dusky Cloud's side, the man was left even more clueless as he tried his best to keep up with this conversation. In the end, he scratched his head and asked, “What are you guys talking about? How did we digress into a discussion about hacking programs?”