Chapter 65 – Addicted to Money

This chapter was sponsored by William Wang and Johannes Ganghofner!

“Time to go…”

I took a deep breath and held onto my sword. A level 40 Tigerman. The only thing I was afraid of was that its attack was higher than the Bearman’s. On a side note, the Tigerman’s form was a lot cooler than the Bearman’s. The Bearman was just a huge bear crawling on the ground while the Tigerman was a human form warrior with the face of a tiger!

“If I kill him then my mission will be 0.1% finished!”

I activated [Haste] and [Defense] and then grasped my sword and dashed towards it. Killing monsters didn’t require extensive body control, so this guy shouldn’t be a problem. Before I even got close to the Tigerman, a golden hexagram started to appear on my sword, level 4 [Combo]!

Bang bang bang…

With the attacks of the [Combo], all 3 sword strikes landed, but the attacks weren’t as effective as I had hoped——

“247!”

“229!”

“221!”

Damn! Even after 3 strikes, I only did 700 or so damage. Was my sword falling apart? No, it was still at 100% Durability!

The Tigerman suddenly stood up and revealed a sinister smile. It raised its claws and laughed, “Ignorant human! You are looking to die if you invade my territory!”

Whoosh!

The claws magically extended 2-3 yards out. This was the monster’s attack?!

I had no way of dodging it and I felt a pain blossom on my shoulder; I lost a huge chunk of HP——

Tick!

Battle Notification: You’ve been struck by the Tigerman’s 【Violent Sweep】 and lost 311 HP!

……

I almost fainted from the pain. Although I didn’t get killed instantly, I lost 311 of my HP with only one strike. What kind of attack damage was that?

My body trembled slightly and Bobo re-positioned himself. I rushed towards the other side of the Tigerman and with a whoosh, a ray of light appeared under me. I started my custom combo, [Strength of a Thousand Men]!

“78!”

“98!”

“82!”

“117!”

“614!”

……

A series of attack damage numbers flew up and I regained some confidence. [Strength of a Thousand Men]’s [Wind Blade] was still a reliable attack. Even though the Tigerman had such a high defense, it still couldn’t go against my [Wind Blade]!

At the same time, I felt a wave of pain on my shoulder. The Tigerman’s attacks were extremely fast and it finished two strikes in an instant. It even bellowed loudly, trying to scare me!

Whoosh!

“+600”

I cast [Heal] to recover 600 HP and returned to a safe HP range where I was not in danger of dying. Unless the Tigerman had another trick that could instantly kill me, I could live if I had good control over my pet and myself!

Using the 12 pet-man tactics that Wan Er gave me, I slowly gained deeper and deeper into understanding on how the game works and the differences between it and reality. It went without saying that as I understood more and more, my power in game became stronger and stronger.

At the same time as I was using [Strength of a Thousand Men], my mind lingered on something else. How was Jian Feng Han able to break my combo, making my 4th strike miss? Now that I thought of it, the biggest weakness in my combo was my pause between strikes. Although I learned the combo, it didn’t mean that it was omnipotent. In fact. every combo would have some imperfection and since Feng Han’s insight and control were both top-class, it was fairly normal for him to break my combo.

Whoosh!

My sword sliced through the air and as soon as I finished my 3rd strike of [Strength of a Thousand Men] on the Tigerman, I rushed next to the Tigerman. Thus, when the 4th strike, my ram, landed, the Tigerman had no time to react and he got stunned for at least 1 second. As I thought, by rushing towards my target, the time between the 3rd and 4th strike got shortened. At the same time I heard a ring next to my ear——

“Ding!”

System Notification: Player has successfully realized secret arts, harmony with your combo 【Strength of a Thousand Men】 has increased by 0.9%!

……

Oh? Harmony?!

I finally understood! After creating a custom combo, there was still this thing called harmony. Now I was even more certain that the programmers who participated in creating were skilled in real life; or else they would not have possibly been able to make these small details. Mm, this game was getting more and more interesting!

……

Growl!

Yet another Tigerman fell dead in front of me and I picked up the silver coins and threw them into my bag. I looked at my mission progress: 14/1000. It looked like I needed to spend the entire morning here. But, from fighting so many Tigerman, I had figured out a couple knacks. The behavior of the Tigermen were indeed very violent, not only did they have strong skills such as [Violent Sweep], they also had another one called [Mountain Sink], which raised defense 10 times; which was why I couldn’t seem to able to scratch these Tigerman.

Well, I continued anyways, kill kill kill!

I kept on going until 10 o’clock in the morning and finally with a clang, after I killed off the 419th Tigerman, besides the black-iron and green equipment, it dropped a shiny item. An Illustration card, a blood-red illustration card. It was the Tigerman’s illustration! As I held the card in my palm, my face was full of tears. Ahh, thank you God…

Whoosh!

The seal disappeared in my palm and it entered as one in my seal window. From now on I could seal Tigermen whenever I wanted!

【Tigerman】

Attack: ★★★★☆

Defense: ★★★★☆

Health: ★★★☆

Agility: ★★★☆

Magic: ★★☆

Skills: 【Violent Sweep】【Mountain Sink】

……

I looked at the seal once again and double checked, the Tigerman’s stats were really nice. In addition, the path that these pets took was very obvious, strength + defense, 5 points in strength to maintain a strong attack and 5 points in defense to maintain the strong front. With its 4.5 stars in attack and defense, it was enough to guarantee good basic stats for the pet. So this was a good all-around pet!

At the current stage, people like Yan Zhao Warrior and Jian Feng Han had attack oriented pets. They all had extremely strong attack damage but didn’t have enough defense. When they meet the high attack, high defense Tigerman, those pets would pretty much be already dead. The Tigerman had [Mountain Sink], which could increase its defense by several hundred points; even my Baby Bobo may not be able to damage it by much, so obviously the pets such as Hell Hound had no chance!

Hehe, Tigerman, how OP!

Of course, the biggest counter to these attack + defense pets were magic pets such as Yue Qing Qian’s Bulldozer. [Mountain Sink] could resist physical attacks, but it didn’t do anything against magical attacks.

As I happily continued killing Tigerman for the mission, I needed to be more vigilant. Before killing any Tigerman, I needed to carefully check their level. A level 1 Tigerman was as good as cold, hard cash!

……

I killed until 11 o’clock AM and almost 600 Tigerman had been killed by me. The entire forest of Tigermen had almost been annihilated by me and there weren’t many left. In a ray of golden light I leveled up to 33. After killing 400 more and then handing in my mission, I should be able to reach level 34 without any problems.

At this time with a tick, a message came from the beauty Cang Tang, “Li Xiao Yao, disconnect and come for lunch. Remember to bring money. This lunch is your treat since you lost to Jian Feng Han…”

I had nothing to say. As per the bet, I lost and Wan Er even treated me to Song Helou before, so I should keep my promise.

“Okay I’ll disconnect right now. You guys are leaving right now right?”

“Yep.”

The Tigerman’s respawn time was about 3 hours or so, so that was good. I would disconnect for lunch and when I came back they should have respawned and then I would continue killing them!

I immediately disconnected in the forest, grabbed a coat and started to leave!

With a bang, my hands get grasped by a fat hand. I raised my head and it was Glasses Tang Gu!

“Xiao Yao, are you eating with the two beauties Ling Wan Er and Dong Cheng Yue everyday?”

“Yeah what about it?”

His face was full of jealousy and admiration, “Damn, give it to me straight. What’s your relationship with those two? Why does Lin Wan Er refuse so many different invitations for a meal and yet she sticks with a guy like you? How are you better than us?”

I looked at him then pointed at the mirror next to him, “Hey, look at yourself in the mirror. If you can tell me how you’re better than me in any area, then I’ll bring you too…”

He looked and then scratched his head, “I don’t think I am…”

“Okay I’m going out for lunch. I still need to grind when I come back!”

“Wait!”

“What now?”

Tang Gu quickly brought a pile of disks from his bed and with a red face he said, “Help out a brother. This is Lin Wan Er’s album, all genuine. Help me…get her signature. Just have her write her name on the title pages of all of them. If you help me then you will forever be my brother! Thank You. Thank You.”

I glared at him with incomparable contempt, “Shameless!”

Tang Gu’s face went completely red, “Can’t be helped. I only like a few girls in my lifetime and Wan Er is one of them. I need to give these disks to quite a few friends…”

“Fine, I got it. Every signature costs 100 Yuan (~$16) or else no deal…”

“You…you’re evil!”

“Do you want the signatures or not?”

“I want it! I want it!”

Tang Gu took out 10 bills and I held onto them and smiled, “Easy money…”

“Get me the 10 signatures or else I’ll kill you!”

“Don’t worry!”

……

I carried the disks and ran on the school yard pathway. Beneath the girls’ dorm were two beauties wearing skirts, waiting for me. From afar, Wan Er saw me carrying some discs and she showed her surprise, “You…this…”

Cheng Yue was also surprised as well, “Oh? Heart of Time? Isn’t this the album that you released a few years ago, Wan Er?”

“……”

……

In the dining room, while waiting for food I laid out the disks, took out a pen, and with a smile I looked at Wan Er and said, “Oh beautiful and kind Miss, can you sign each disk for me?”

“I know that you are not my fan!”

I nodded, “Mm!”

“How much money are you getting for these signatures?”

I was shocked, “You…you’ve misunderstood, I’m not that kind of a person!”

Wan Er smiled, “You’re addicted to money, do you think that I don’t know how you’re like? I’ll take 50% of what you received. No, that’s not right. I’ll take 70%. Take it or leave it!”

My face went completely white. The demons of this world; they got more and more evil!

TL: Same thing, could you guys find the errors? Thanks.

Honorable mentions from last chapter:

Fathomed

Nhi

kcz117

Akkor Dance

Chan Yong Kim

John Nguyen

Ryan Chung

Rothenell

Filip Bendevski

Thanks!

Btw, 3 chaps today? I’m going for it!