Chapter 19：Humans Appeared!

Although the icon for equipment Chain was being displayed, he could not use it right away. In order to truly unlock the Equipment Chain's effects, besides meeting the Equipment's level requirement, players still needed to unlock one other function.

That function was "Research".

Only after Researching the Equipment's Chain effect, could players get the first level of Chain effects when they upgraded their Equipment to Level 10.

On that note, Research required players to build another facility that could only be built when the players had a Level 2 Elemental Tower - the Research Institute.

When Lin Ke looked at the facility-building interface, the option to build a Research Institute had appeared.

Of course, along with the Research Institute, the Level 2 Elemental Tower enabled other new facilities to be built.

However, Lin Ke did not have the Resources to build these new facilities. Hell, he could not even afford to build just the Research Institute. All he could do right now was look at the requirements for these facilities.

The requirements for the Research Institute were not too high, 500 units of Wood and Stone each, and an additional 3000 Silver. It was not a tall order for him, but Lin Ke was a little short on Silver at the moment.

He would get more Silver at midnight. Then, he could start construction on his new facilities tomorrow.

For now, all he could do was stare at the tiny amount of Silver he had left and deliberate whether he wanted to build a new Dormitory or upgrade the equipment set a bit.

It was already decided that this equipment set would be given to Dra, but he was not going to give it to her immediately.

After all, he did not even know what situation Dra was in right now.

If she was in battle, and he suddenly increased her Attributes, he might cause her to lose control of her own powers. This would put her in greater danger.

Hence, Lin Ke needed to wait until Dra was back at the Elemental Tower before he equipped them for her.

"Lucy, do you know how to get more Silver?"

Out of sheer boredom, Lin Ke tried to start a conversation with Lucy. However, seeing her blank stare at him, he sighed helplessly.

At this point, he was short on Silver and was nearly bankrupt. He would even go steal some Silver if he were given the opportunity.

However, the currency in this world could not be converted into Silver… Additionally, Lin Ke could not materialize the Silver from within the system, it was nothing more than a bunch of numbers on a screen.

Hence, even if he got money in real life, he could not add it to his funds.

As Lin Ke scratched his head, he started to feel like he had done something wrong. He should not have started with building a Smithing Hall. He should not have purchased the equipment set so early. He should have built more Dormitories. Then, he would have been rolling in Silver right now.

"AARRRGHHH! What a waste!"

After venting out his frustration, he stopped caring as much.

After all, if Lin Ke used it for himself, this set could exponentially increase his abilities.

Dra was not back anyway, so Lin Ke just equipped the equipment set, trying to get used to this huge power surge.

This time, he had his sights on doing more than just walking normally. He wanted to be able to go into combat while in a situation like this.

Although Lin Ke had not been in a real battle before, now that he was in this world, he might face situations in the future where he would personally come face to face with an enemy.

Just having improved Attributes would not do much to help his ability to handle an actual battle. He would not have that happen.

However, he now had a sparring partner with him - dear Lucy, who was standing right next to him. If he had been the Lin Ke from before he was transported to this world, he would never even dream of raising a fist at a lady. However, now that he was sparring against an immovable Hero, Lin Ke felt no shame…

...Even if the Hero was a girl.

As a Hero, Compassionate Priest Lucy overwhelmed Lin Ke in every aspect, easily taking him down barehanded without breaking a sweat.

"My Lord, your combat instincts are too weak, you should start by learning the foundations."

Lucy was merciless in her feedback. With the equipment set, her Attributes were barely two-thirds of what Lin Ke's were right now. Even with that handicap, she was easily able to wipe the floor with Lin Ke. Naturally, her feedback held a lot of weight.

"As expected of a Leader Rating."

Lin Ke sat down on the ground, smiling bitterly. "Compared to an average Joe like me, she's way stronger."

Lin Ke had to admit defeat. Although Lucy was a Blue Grade Hero, she was still rated as a Leader. She could accurately assess the capabilities of the opposition.

She was the cream of the crop, so out of every batch of crops out there where there were countless people who were around the same level as Lin Ke, there would only be one Lucy?

If he was already utterly overwhelmed by a 2-star, he could not even dare to imagine making a move against a 6-star like Dra.

Finally, Lin Ke truly understood the sheer weight that the Disaster Rating held.

Then, for the highest tier Heroes, the ones with ratings that looked like something out of an urban legend, an "Embodiment of Chaos"… Just how terrifying would they be?

Just to put it into perspective, the meaning behind such a rating was chilling. It meant "The Enemy of the World".

Only the entire world could be a worthy foe for these Heroes. They were terrifying beings that could throw the whole world into chaos on a whim!

Lin Ke did not dare to imagine any further.

"Again! Spar with me a little more! Hopefully, this will train my muscles and reflexes. At least then, I will be a bit more useful when we're actually under attack…"

Lin Ke steadied himself as he stood back up, requesting another bout from Lucy.

As Lucy's master, Lin Ke's words held the same weight as an absolute order. The advice Lucy gave him earlier was due to him not making a decision yet. Once he made a decision, Lucy could only follow whatever he said, executing his orders down to a tee.

No matter what the situation, she would not object to these orders, unless, of course, Lin Ke gave a new order.

Lin Ke's determination to get stronger was honestly quite admirable.

However, as the stereotypical white-collar worker he was, he begrudgingly asked Lucy to stop her attacks after having a few heavy hits land on him.

He understood that if he persevered with this, his combat instincts would undoubtedly improve. Then, when he was faced against a foe, he could instinctively act according to whatever strategy he had prepared. However, the repeated pain he was suffering was too much for him to handle.

Lucy was serious when she sparred with Lin Ke. Her attacks were fierce and merciless. Every single strike was enough to have Lin Ke ache for the rest of the day, knocking him to the ground. The fact that he was able to take so many hits before tapping out was already quite an amazing feat to behold.

Of course, as a man, Lin Ke did not want to eat his own words in front of Lucy. When he stopped Lucy's attacks, he gave an excuse. "Give me a moment, I need to go check our surroundings for a while. I'll be back later."

Lin Ke opened the special surveillance system of the Elemental Tower. The Level 2 Tower's upgrades had taken effect, increasing his vision by quite a bit.

Originally, Lin Ke wanted to use this excuse to stall for time as he slowly observed the surrounding area. However, when he activated the special surveillance system, he was surprised by what he found.

In the distance, a few black figures were looking right at this place.

From the looks of it… They were humans!

The original phrase here was literally "One in ten thousand", an idiom in Chinese which I translated figuratively into "Cream of the crop" in previous chapters. However, the author here used it semi-literally, saying that "In every 10,000 people, most of them being at Lin Ke's level, there would only be 1 Lucy."