Chapter 79: A Guest from Far Away
Translator: Zenobys Editor: TheRealSeal
Zhang Yang thought for a while and asked, “To address the elephant in the room, if we killed Marzerway together, which guild name would be used for first clearance announcement?”
“Of course it is us, The Dominators!” Humbly Gentlemen took it for granted and said dismissively, “But, surely, you will be rewarded handsomely, you have my word!”
How much could they possibly offer? Be it 10,000 or even 80,000 gold coins it won’t suffice! This is because a First Clear Achievement was particularly important to increase the reputation of a guild and any measly amount of gold would not be equal to it!
Zhang Yang smiled and replied, “I am sorry and we are very much interested in the First Clear Achievement as well!”
The reputation of the Lone Desert Smoke had shot up in the China server after they cleared the two Hardcore mode dungeon raids consecutively. Besides, the requests from others to join their guild had been pouring in these two days. If it were not for Zhang Yang; s insistence on building the guild with elites, the maximum number of the members permitted in a beginner-rate guild would have been fully occupied!
To create a strong guild, Zhang Yang would need to spread his name across the server so there was no way he would allow The Dominators to use their name instead of his Lone Desert Smoke name! On the other hand, Zhang Yang had at least a 90% guarantee of being the first to clear the Main Wing Hardcore Mode, so why should Zhang Yang work with The Dominators?
Humbly Gentlemen was shocked beyond measure, never even considering the fact that Zhang Yang would refuse his win-win situation proposal so blatantly, without hesitation!
Humbly Gentlemen, having been guild master of The Dominators for many years in past games, his members amounted to the tens of thousands! Humbly Gentlemen was very ambitious in ‘God’s Miracle’ and he wanted to build a huge “The Dominators” alliance. He also wanted to seize the eight main cities of the China server and eventually dominate the whole of the China server and have everyone patronage The Dominators and The Dominators only!
From the ironically named Humbly Gentlemen’s point of view, he was used to giving orders very often and only the China server’s top guild masters like Sky High, Crimson Rage, The Glory and Blue Sea were qualified to stand on equal ground as him. Besides, it was Zhang Yang’s privilege for Humbly Gentlemen to take the initiative to contact him. Thus, Zhang Yang should have been in awe and ready to cooperate out of the honour of being addressed by one such as him.
Humbly Gentlemen could not stop the unhappiness from rising. However, he did his best and said as diplomatically as possible, “Guild master Zhan Yu, you should have a clear estimation of yourself. Otherwise, you will get yourself into trouble!”
Zhang Yang laughed and thought in his mind, that Humbly Gentlemen was the one who requested for an alliance and when he was refused, he dared impugn on others? Zhang Yang smiled and said, “People die, whether they are courageous or cowardly, and life is short, we should have dreams and goals!”
“Ha ha ha!” Humbly Gentlemen laughed hollowly, “Then, Guild master Zhan Yu, I hope all your wishes come true!”
After that, he turned off his voice chat and ended the conversation with Zhang Yang.
Since Zhang Yang refused Humbly Gentlemen proposal, perhaps Humbly Gentlemen would be plotting something on him in the future! In his previous life, Clear Water had struggled with second-rate and third-rate guilds and he had no opportunities of dealing with strong guild like The Dominators. Who would have thought that the guild master of the highly renowned guild, The Dominators had such a personality!
He was not afraid of anyone as he had always been a loner previously and now he had the Lone Desert Smoke as his backup. There were at least five thousand members in his guild and they could definitely hold their own if The Dominators really challenged them! The core investors of The Dominators had not yet fully immersed themselves into this game, as long as Zhang Yang had enough time, he would not fear even the full power The Dominators that he had once witnessed in his previous life.
The best way to respond to the scorn from Humbly Gentlemen was to get the First Clear Achievement Main Wing Hardcore mode and prove him wrong to underestimate Lone Desert Smoke!
However, the Lone Desert Smoke was not a professional guild, other than the highly active grinders, the rest of the members’ level were just normal. That was a problem, as there would be a 50-man dungeon raids in the future and to level these teammates appropriately would take at least a month, so they would actually miss the chances to get the First Clear Achievement!
Still, Zhang Yang believed that as long as he got the First Main Wing Hardcore Mode Clearance, it would increase the passion of the members in terms of training as well. Thus, he would not need to worry about getting enough high-level players on time!
…
Half an hour later, Mining Specialist sent the [Green Copper Bars] and Zhang Yang paid upon delivery. Zhang Yang proceeded to the Blacksmith Shop to smith [Level 2 Whetstone]. He could actually increase his Smithing mastery and the [Level 2 Whetstone] also had its own uses.
He sold all the [Level 1 Whetstones] from his inventory to the NPC at the cheapest price. He had no choice as that was the only cost-saving method to increase his Smithing mastery to Amateur level. Even if he sold to the others with the lowest price, not many players would be willing to buy as most of the Smithing players would produce and sell the [Level 1 Whetstones] on their own.
“Guild master, there is a player from Blood Moon City, he had camp in our city and announced that he would defeat all the professional players in our city. He is very arrogant!” Zhang Yang received a private message.
“Eh?” Zhang Yang could not help but have his curiosity piqued, wondering how any player could have been so free to come all the way from Blood Moon City to White Jade Castle.
The China region was like an octagonal map, the eight main cities were distributed on every edge of the map and every main city had its own individual area. Towards the center was the above Level 50 training area and at the very core of the China region, were the higher the leveled areas of the map.
Geographically, the main cities closest to the White Jade Castle were Tranquil Wind City and Blood Moon City, but things were never that simple! This was because if the players wanted to travel between main cities, they needed leave their own assigned city’s area then pass through the dangerous Level 50 training area to reach another main city!
Indeed, every main city had their own teleportation portals for players to teleport to other seven main cities but it could only be used by Level 50 players and above! Zhang Yang could not fathom the very existence of a Level 50 player at this stage of the game! As evidenced by his memory, this was only achieved almost half a year from now, which means that the player who came to set up the arena, had to have passed through the dangerous and high leveled training areas of the map in order to arrive at White Jade Castle!
Who in the world has time for that?
All that time could have been used for training and clearing dungeons!
“What is the player’s name?” Zhang Yang inquired.
“…Ghostly Leaf!”
Ghostly Leaf! Zhang Yang eyes widened, as Ghostly Leaf had been a famous player in his previous life. He was also called “The Ghost Killer”, his was a Phantom Assassin and it was rumoured that he had inherited “Ghost Blood” gave him an edge at assassination! He was ranked seventh in the Top 10 Ranking for Thieves’ in the China server. Besides, he was the top Thief in the guild Radiance, ‘Bai Wei’s Team’s main force and also a famous S-Class Professional League player!
Zhang Yang found that it was really interesting for this future famous player to come to White Jade Castle and start an uproar.
“Is he strong?” Zhang Yang asked again in the private message.
“En, he is very strong! He already won 17 times continuously in the battle arena. Besides, some of his opponents are key players from Sky High and The Dominators!”
Battling was not allowed in the main city but there was a battle arena to satisfy the players who loved to battle. The battle arena built in imitation of the ancient Roman Coliseum, and there were two battle modes, “Brawl” and “Death match”.
Brawl: The system will stop the battling when the results are shown and any negative effects sustained by the participants of the duel would be removed.
Death Match: The match ends with one of the players’ death. The dead player would still drop a level but the winner will not be afflicted with the red title penalty.
Besides the personal storage and auction house, the battle arena was one of the most popular areas in the main city. This was because battle arena could be used to battle and also created the platform for wagers that included gold coins, equipment, potions and etc. All of these were protected by the system, as long as everyone chipped in before the battle, the system would automatically lock the “Bets” and automatically distributed the rewards after the results were shown. Thus, no scams ever occurred!
Zhang Yang was in the A-Class Professional League in his previous life and certainly, he had no opportunities to battle with Ghostly Leaf. This was a golden opportunity! Without further ado, he rushed to the northeast direction to the battle arena. Since Ghostly Leaf came to his city, he should at least give Ghostly Leaf a good welcome and grab this learning opportunity!
When he reached the battle arena, he realized that it was already crowded with people. The air was thick with the murmur of various discussions.
“Damn, which room is that guy in? I want to f*ck him back off Blood Moon City! He dares to scorn us!”
“That fellow is really strong! He already defeated Piggy Third Brother!”
“Piggy Third Brother is not a professional player. Our Brother Piglet, Brother Brute Bull and Brother Dragon from The Dominators are only professional players in name. That fellow just defeated a few low-leveled noob players, how can he be considered strong?”
“Damn you, who dared humiliate our Piggy Third Brother?”
“Stop arguing, whoever who has the guts, go ahead destroy Ghostly Leaf! Damn it, you guys just add more shame to White Jade Castle, letting a foreigner kill so many of our people!”
“What's the situation now? Who is battling?”
“9 Head Hydra from Sky High!”
“…”
Battle arena could hold any amount of players during the battle. Whenever a battle match was added, the system would provide a new competition space, called the anonymous’ room. So, the players would not need to worry about queuing up for participation! Players could also choose to view the matches and it was easy as long as they knew the “Room” number they wanted to view, then they could view all aspects of the battle match as an omniscient spectator. It was provided in public rooms while password-locked rooms, naturally provided entry only if you knew the password.
Players who just wanted to view the battle matches did not even have to come physically to the arena. They could just open up the Control interface and select the “Battle Arena” option and key in or select the “Room” number to view the battle match via live feed. But Zhang Yang wanted to battle and learn what he can from the experience, so he had rushed over to battle arena.
Zhang Yang opened up the “Battle Arena” option, keyed in “Ghostly Leaf” in the search bar and the results were shown: Room number 238, Ghostly Leaf versus 9 Head Hydra (Brawl Mode). He quickly entered the room and sat on the virtual battle arena stage to view the battle match.
In the battle arena, there was an Elf male player constantly moving like a shadow, swarming and attacking a Dwarf male player who used a shield. The Elf player’s footwork and maneuvers were really fast like the wind itself. He attacked and stepped back in a flash. He wielded dual daggers, continuously performing hits and runs on the back of the Dwarf player as the latter whirled about desperately, causing new damage value numbers to appear even before the previous ones had vanished.
Zhang Yang did not need to see the remaining HP of these two players. He already knew that the Elf player was going to be victorious at the end of the battle! The Dwarf player was not making use of his shield one bit. Furthermore, with the constant backstabbing from the Elf, all the defense that came from the shield had been rendered completely useless!
Both of these players had their names publicly displayed: “Ghostly Leaf, Elf Thief, Level 21, <Radiance>, and “9 Head Hydra, Dwarf Knight, Level 20, <Sky High>”.