Chapter 22

The remaining group members were cowed into silence. They quietly typed ‘p’ into chat, indicating that they had given up.

Mo Hongyi smiled at Cheng Xiaojin. “Not bidding?”

“It’s not like I can outbid you!” Cheng Xiaojin rolled his eyes.

Meng Jingtian saw that everyone had given up and sent Mo Hongyi a trade request. A few moments later, the money and goods had changed hands.

Meng Jingtian proceeded to post the next item description.

“Wind-Sweeping Sleeve (Purple): A protective wrist bracelet Cool Breeze Camp Boss Ma Fangxing had woven from blue and white silk.

Stats: Defense + 100, Constitution + 2, Speed + 1

Additional Skills: Wind-Sweeping Hand: Increase user’s attack speed by 20% for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 1 hour.”

“Three thousand!” After posting the description, Meng Jingtian made the first bid. The majority of his equipment so far was still new-player equipment!

While this Wind-Sweeping Sleeve had average stats, it was still a purple item.

It wasn’t like he could demand a full suit of divine equipment. He would gather up some purple equipment first!

Seeing this, the somewhat tempted players, Mo Hongyi included, immediately gave up.

“Swift Wind Boots (Blue): Excellent boots made from leather.

Stats: Speed + 5, Defense + 50

Passive: When leaving battle, speed is boosted by an additional 10%.”

It was just a silver boss, and it was already very lucky that it had dropped a purple weapon. What was left were some random blue items. Meng Jingtian and Mo Hongyi had no interest in bidding, leaving the other group members to listlessly make bids.

The two purple items had made their hearts itch, but they needed to be realistic.

They all understood that purple items were the symbols of experts. Wearing a set of blue equipment was already enough to be considered an elite. Meng Jingtian had no interest in these blue items, but they were very precious to the other group members.

Soon, the items had all been auctioned off. Each person was given two-thousand-some gold coins, after which the party dispersed.

It was the early stage of the game, and everyone was busy leveling up. There was no time to waste.

But before leaving, all of them sent Meng Jingtian a friend request.

Meng Jingtian agreed to add Mo Hongyi and Cheng Xiaojin as friends, but he rejected all the others.

“Brother Tian! That scoundrel who was trying to raise the price is cursing you in the world channel!” Cai Minghou warned as they began to head back to Black Tortoise City.

Meng Jingtian took a glance. “Let him curse. Paste our chat log for everyone to look.”

After saying this, he put the matter aside and examined the Black Tortoise Armor the mission had rewarded him with.

Black Tortoise Armor: Exquisitely crafted from the shell of a thousand-year black tortoise that was kneaded by the deep sea. A suit of armor possessing formidable defense!

Stats: Constitution + 10, Defense + 150

Passive: Black Tortoise True Body: Upon using, become invincible for 1 second. Cooldown: 24 hours.

Although they were both purple items rewarded by the system, the stats were much better than the ones from Ma Fangxing’s sleeve. Once Meng Jingtian equipped both of them, he received a major boost in stats.

“Haha! This color really matches you!” Cai Minghou joked.

This Black Tortoise Armor was dark green.

The corner of Meng Jingtian’s mouth twitched. Fortunately, it was a suit of armor and not a hat.[1] Slapping Cai Minghou on the head, he said, “Just for this comment, your brother will definitely send you a divine weapon!”

“Send me a divine weapon? No way! When did Brother Tian become so generous?” Cai Minghou looked in disbelief at Meng Jingtian.

Meng Jingtian smiled. “Of course! This brother has always been generous! It’s this divine weapon! It will definitely be green, and a hat! Let’s see if you dare to wear it.”

Cai Minghou’s face went stiff for a moment, and then he began to tearfully implore, “Brother! Good brother, I was wrong! Why don’t you reconsider? You can send me the divine weapon, but there’s no need for it to be a hat, right?”

“That depends on you! Go and hand in your mission! I’m going grinding!” After sending him off to Black Tortoise City, Meng Jingtian stopped messing around and bid farewell.

“Alright! Where are you grinding?” Cai Minghou asked.

“Black Crow Forest!” Meng Jingtian replied.

“What?” Cai Minghou turned to Meng Jingtian in alarm. “That’s a Level 30 monster region, and there are tons of them! Aren’t you only Level 26? If you go there to grind, won’t you be killed almost instantly?”

“The higher the level, the better! The Level 20 training areas are all occupied by the big guilds, right?” Meng Jingtian calmly asked.

After seeing the descriptions of all the monster areas around Black Tortoise City on the forums posted by Bai Xiaosheng, Meng Jingtian had ultimately decided on Black Crow Forest.

Bai Xiaosheng[2] wasn’t any particular player, but a massive player organization. It could be considered an in-game news agency.

Whenever anything new happened in the game, they would always be the first to report it. Bai Xiaosheng was also usually the source for the best guides. If one spent a little money, one would also be able to learn of some ‘gossip’.

On the forums, the guide for Black Crow Forest provided by Bai Xiaosheng was basically empty. All that was said was that it was a place where Level 30 monsters gathered.

Level 30 was neither too high nor too low. Although the average player level was still at 17 or 18, Bai Xiaosheng definitely had the ability to extract a little information from there.

But since the guide was so sparse on the details, it meant that Bai Xiaosheng felt that there was a price on Black Crow Forest’s info.

Meng Jingtian had been planning to grind levels, and while Black Crow Forest’s Level 30 monsters might have been dangerous for other players, it was perfect for him.

Thus, he chose Black Crow Forest. While grinding, he might also be able to discover some of its secrets.

After saying goodbye to Cai Minghou, Meng Jingtian set off for Black Crow Forest.

On the way, he saw many players grinding. The low-level areas with monsters in the teens were all packed with players. One could say that the players outnumbered the monsters, the monsters being wiped out in one second.

Grinding in these circumstances was highly inefficient.

As for the higher-level zones, with monsters in the twenties, the big guilds of Black Tortoise City had seized control of them. One could see their teams clearing monsters in a neat and disciplined fashion. Whenever an unaffiliated player who didn’t know what was good for them came to try and kill-steal, they would be killed without mercy.

Their efficiency was naturally much higher than that of the unaffiliated players.

There was one other sort of player, the solitary expert. They normally had unique understandings of the game. In secluded high-level monster zones, they could use the terrain and their skills to grind monsters alone, or they could have hidden missions. Their grinding efficiency was also rather high.

This was how the game was divided. Ordinary unaffiliated players, if they continued like this and didn’t have any lucky encounters, would basically never be able to catch up.

“Caw! Caw!” Frightening calls came from the distance. He could already see a pitch-black forest, with no leveling players around. As Meng Jingtian looked at this dark forest that appeared like a giant maw, he hesitated.

[1] In China, ‘wearing a green hat’ is a phrase referring to a man who is being cheated on by his wife.

[2] Bai Xiaosheng is a character from the Gu Long novel ‘Little Li Flying Dagger’. In this novel, he is the writer of a book that ranks various fictional weapons. It also seems to be shorthand nowadays for a person who is extremely knowledgeable in many fields.