The feast was spent in silence by the two men. On one hand, HereticKing and XiaoYu weren’t big talkers to begin with. On the other, HereticKing was still musing over the peculiar feeling he’d felt for XiaoYu.
However, there were some development to be had. HereticKing told XiaoYu his full name. There was a moment when XiaoYu thought the other was Japanese instead of Chinese. Only after some explanation did he understand that HereticKing’s surname was “Hei”, not “HeiQi” (Kurosaki). It was just pure coincidence that the first character of the other man’s first name was “Qi”.
Dinner ended quite some time before XiaoYu’s bedtime. Unfortunately, QiYao couldn’t stay with him anymore. Today just so happened to be the day he would give his big brother, Hei QiXuan, the monthly report of things in his life.
After QiYao logged off, XiaoYu was reminded of the items and gold coins in the tiny cat’s pouch. A glance at his Friends tab showed I_Am_A_Poor_Man still online. Thus, he hurriedly messaged the other to discuss the loot.
When XiaoYu opened up the Pet tab, his heart sunk, and his head dropped in depression. The small cat’s level was, written clearly in black and white, Level 80. It was 20 full levels higher than its owner. How was he meant to feel about that? Not only that, the indicator for how many gold coins the kitten required before its next level up now read “Level of Pet is capped at 20 higher than Owner. Please level up player before levelling pet.” Heh. Sure, XiaoYu was now a burden to the little one’s levelling.
The moment XiaoYu opened up the kitten’s inventory, his eyes were blinded by half-a-screen’s worth of bright, shimmering gold coins. An item slot can hold up to 100 of the same item. A quick looked showed dozens of items slots filled to the brim with x100 gold pieces. Just how many would that be? If it were up to XiaoYu to pick them all up one by one, who knew how many years it’d take? The tiny cat’s love for money has once again expanded the limits of his mind.
“Xiao-Yu, what are you looking at? You’re getting all cross-eyed,” Poor_Man asked as he lightly patted XiaoYu who’d been spacing out in the middle of the street.
“…” This overwhelming shock was so indescribable that XiaoYu just showed the other man the tiny cat’s inventory.
“Gods! What? I thought I’d just cracked open a bank’s safe!” Poor_Man dug out a pair of shades from his bag. “See no evil! Staring at this for too long will give me the impulse to do something bad.”
“How should we split them up, Big Brother Poor?” XiaoYu asked.
“Um…Xiao-Yu, if you keep calling me that, I’ll start feeling guilty. You can just call me Lin-ge from now on.” It was the first time ever Poor_Man disliked a nickname he made up, especially when he was faced with the mountain of gold.
“Oh. Okay.” Did that mean I_Am_A_Poor_Man’s surname was Lin? XiaoYu wondered.
“What a pity. The item description said these are just gold pieces of average purity. It’s recommended to sell them directly to NPC stores.” As XiaoYu had shared his screen over, Poor_Man could read up the item descriptions himself. “I wonder how much one would fetch. Xiao-Yu, go try it out with one piece.”
“Okay.”
The two took out a single gold piece and headed over to the nearest NPC shop. After showing it to the storekeeper, they were quoted 10 gold coins + 2 gold coins. (Unique passive skill from the tiny cat’s necklace – Sell Price +20%.) Likely due to the impurities within the gold piece, it didn’t fetch a high price. However, if multiplied by the number of gold pieces collected, the sum would be a terrifying number.
After some consideration, Poor_Man decided to sell them all. They weren’t rare items anyway. A single skill from a rich salesman’s ghost would result in tens of thousands of gold pieces falling from the sky. Since they weren’t very pure, blacksmiths can’t use them to strengthen anything. At the moment, there weren’t any Professions or Jobs that could purify metals. The game developers likely thought they didn’t need it. Otherwise, no one would visit the NPC gold stores.
Once the gold pieces were all sold off, they had thousands of crystal coins. Then, with Poor_Man’s help, the rather useless items were all sold off. On a rough estimate, not only could every member of the grinding party obtain an equipment with additional stats, they could also gain many practical items and over 100 crystals. This was major harvest for a normal grinding party session.
There wasn’t much XiaoYu could help with in the intricate task of deciding which items were useful, other than selling off the ones that weren’t. Hence, he was shooed off to wait in dessert shop by Poor_Man. After a long time, Poor_Man was finally done sorting and mailed each member’s part of the loot to them. When he arrived at the dessert shop, he found the tiny cat licking up its fourth bowl of ice cream while the big cat was on his third glass of milk. The table full of empty glassware was a spectacular sight to behold.
“Luckily, you won’t get food poisoning or diarrhoea in the game. Otherwise, with how you two are eating, you’d be in the hospital,” commented Poor_Man.
“Heheh.” XiaoYu didn’t think he’d finish his third glass so quickly without noticing it. It was probably because it’s been a long time since he’d had any. He was slightly nostalgic about that dense milky taste.
“Xiao-Yu, did Chief bully you just now?” asked Poor_Man.
“Nope.”
“Huh. Really?” From the way Chief dragged XiaoYu away, Poor_Man’s imagination conjured up dozens of colourful and interesting scenarios.
“Mn. Yao even treated me to a feast.”
“…” Was this the legendary appetite that’s born from rage and sorrow? Chief, accept my bent knee!
“But…” XiaoYu tilted his head to a side. A slight frown on his face. “It felt like he was in a bad mood.”
“Well, anyone would be in a bad mood if they were being “supervised” by someone else during a boss battle. Especially if it were by their enemies, the Wings. Chief’s bad mood is understandable.” Poor_Man hadn’t forgotten they’d yet to pay back for last time they’d stabbed into Prole-3. Any time their elite team bumped into those two smiling schemers, they felt like punching the Wings.
“Then, should I apologise to everyone else and Yao?”
“Its fine. You’re free to make friends. We won’t interfere.” Poor_Man paused. “But we don’t have a good relationship with the Wings. You’d best be careful. I don’t want you dragged into our feud.”
“Okay, got it.” XiaoYu’s motto for life was to lay low.
“Meow~” The tiny cat butted XiaoYu’s hand with its head. The fourth bowl was done. More, please. Tail swish.
“Pfft~ It’s clearly a greedy little kitty, but it’d mimic a puppy just to get you to please it.” The two humans were discussing something serious a moment before. With a headbutt, it scattered the solemn air. “However, it is the reason we had such great loot today. I’ll treat you to a banana boat.” Poor_Man snapped his fingers for an NPC waiter.
“Hehe. Thank you,” said XiaoYu as he scratched the small cat under the jaw. No matter if it could understand him or not, XiaoYu still talked to it as if he was coaxing a child, “This is the last one. No more.”
******
Meanwhile, the two aforementioned schemers from the Wings were currently drinking together in a room in a certain high-class hotel in Serica.
“What do you think of XiaoYu’s pet?” asked Glory.
“Just based on speed, it’s definitely an existence as great as a hacked add-on,” replied ZhuGe.
“Mn.” Glory had gone against that boss before. The feeling of those gold pieces bashing onto his head and body was fresh in his memory. Even the agile HereticKing he observed today was hit a few times. But that kitten? It actually snaked through the rain to grab the gold pieces without getting hurt. Practical pets were rare in this game and its A.I. was very sophisticated.
“But I don’t think the Heretic Demons brought XiaoYu along to the Ruins because of this pet. Not one member of that party was an average joe.” When they bumped into XiaoYu at the desert last time, he was being heavily guarded on an unknown mission that resulted in a server-wide announcement. That made ZhuGe think XiaoYu wasn’t just an ordinary healer.
“Yes. Either way, we have to keep observing.” A low-levelled newbie didn’t require the heads of the Heretic Demons, especially HereticKing who was renowned for minding his own business, to protect and stay around him. Glory was very curious just what kind of secrets XiaoYu was hiding.
It was fortunate ZhuGe didn’t spend too long sneaking around the grinding party before. He wasn’t around for when XiaoYu used his special buffs on the Knights. Because of that, XiaoYu’s hidden Job was still a secret to players outside of the higher-ups in the Heretic Demons.
Translator’s Note:
Progress: The chapter title makes no sense in English as there’s no one word translation for it. It’s basically “things develop” or “things went on” in the sense of “the travel of crossing a river” etc. Ge: Suffix for brother. Hospital: In China, it’s considered (or portrayed to be) the common to go to the hospital for anytime you’re sick, even if it’s a mild fever or stomach ache. Bent knee: The accurate translation would be, “Chief, I worship you!”
The feast was spent in silence by the two men. On one hand, HereticKing and XiaoYu weren’t big talkers to begin with. On the other, HereticKing was still musing over the peculiar feeling he’d felt for XiaoYu.
However, there were some development to be had. HereticKing told XiaoYu his full name. There was a moment when XiaoYu thought the other was Japanese instead of Chinese. Only after some explanation did he understand that HereticKing’s surname was “Hei”, not “HeiQi” (Kurosaki). It was just pure coincidence that the first character of the other man’s first name was “Qi”.
Dinner ended quite some time before XiaoYu’s bedtime. Unfortunately, QiYao couldn’t stay with him anymore. Today just so happened to be the day he would give his big brother, Hei QiXuan, the monthly report of things in his life.
After QiYao logged off, XiaoYu was reminded of the items and gold coins in the tiny cat’s pouch. A glance at his Friends tab showed I_Am_A_Poor_Man still online. Thus, he hurriedly messaged the other to discuss the loot.
When XiaoYu opened up the Pet tab, his heart sunk, and his head dropped in depression. The small cat’s level was, written clearly in black and white, Level 80. It was 20 full levels higher than its owner. How was he meant to feel about that? Not only that, the indicator for how many gold coins the kitten required before its next level up now read “Level of Pet is capped at 20 higher than Owner. Please level up player before levelling pet.” Heh. Sure, XiaoYu was now a burden to the little one’s levelling.
The moment XiaoYu opened up the kitten’s inventory, his eyes were blinded by half-a-screen’s worth of bright, shimmering gold coins. An item slot can hold up to 100 of the same item. A quick looked showed dozens of items slots filled to the brim with x100 gold pieces. Just how many would that be? If it were up to XiaoYu to pick them all up one by one, who knew how many years it’d take? The tiny cat’s love for money has once again expanded the limits of his mind.
“Xiao-Yu, what are you looking at? You’re getting all cross-eyed,” Poor_Man asked as he lightly patted XiaoYu who’d been spacing out in the middle of the street.
“…” This overwhelming shock was so indescribable that XiaoYu just showed the other man the tiny cat’s inventory.
“Gods! What? I thought I’d just cracked open a bank’s safe!” Poor_Man dug out a pair of shades from his bag. “See no evil! Staring at this for too long will give me the impulse to do something bad.”
“How should we split them up, Big Brother Poor?” XiaoYu asked.
“Um…Xiao-Yu, if you keep calling me that, I’ll start feeling guilty. You can just call me Lin-ge from now on.” It was the first time ever Poor_Man disliked a nickname he made up, especially when he was faced with the mountain of gold.
“Oh. Okay.” Did that mean I_Am_A_Poor_Man’s surname was Lin? XiaoYu wondered.
“What a pity. The item description said these are just gold pieces of average purity. It’s recommended to sell them directly to NPC stores.” As XiaoYu had shared his screen over, Poor_Man could read up the item descriptions himself. “I wonder how much one would fetch. Xiao-Yu, go try it out with one piece.”
“Okay.”
The two took out a single gold piece and headed over to the nearest NPC shop. After showing it to the storekeeper, they were quoted 10 gold coins + 2 gold coins. (Unique passive skill from the tiny cat’s necklace – Sell Price +20%.) Likely due to the impurities within the gold piece, it didn’t fetch a high price. However, if multiplied by the number of gold pieces collected, the sum would be a terrifying number.
After some consideration, Poor_Man decided to sell them all. They weren’t rare items anyway. A single skill from a rich salesman’s ghost would result in tens of thousands of gold pieces falling from the sky. Since they weren’t very pure, blacksmiths can’t use them to strengthen anything. At the moment, there weren’t any Professions or Jobs that could purify metals. The game developers likely thought they didn’t need it. Otherwise, no one would visit the NPC gold stores.
Once the gold pieces were all sold off, they had thousands of crystal coins. Then, with Poor_Man’s help, the rather useless items were all sold off. On a rough estimate, not only could every member of the grinding party obtain an equipment with additional stats, they could also gain many practical items and over 100 crystals. This was major harvest for a normal grinding party session.
There wasn’t much XiaoYu could help with in the intricate task of deciding which items were useful, other than selling off the ones that weren’t. Hence, he was shooed off to wait in dessert shop by Poor_Man. After a long time, Poor_Man was finally done sorting and mailed each member’s part of the loot to them. When he arrived at the dessert shop, he found the tiny cat licking up its fourth bowl of ice cream while the big cat was on his third glass of milk. The table full of empty glassware was a spectacular sight to behold.
“Luckily, you won’t get food poisoning or diarrhoea in the game. Otherwise, with how you two are eating, you’d be in the hospital,” commented Poor_Man.
“Heheh.” XiaoYu didn’t think he’d finish his third glass so quickly without noticing it. It was probably because it’s been a long time since he’d had any. He was slightly nostalgic about that dense milky taste.
“Xiao-Yu, did Chief bully you just now?” asked Poor_Man.
“Nope.”
“Huh. Really?” From the way Chief dragged XiaoYu away, Poor_Man’s imagination conjured up dozens of colourful and interesting scenarios.
“Mn. Yao even treated me to a feast.”
“…” Was this the legendary appetite that’s born from rage and sorrow? Chief, accept my bent knee!
“But…” XiaoYu tilted his head to a side. A slight frown on his face. “It felt like he was in a bad mood.”
“Well, anyone would be in a bad mood if they were being “supervised” by someone else during a boss battle. Especially if it were by their enemies, the Wings. Chief’s bad mood is understandable.” Poor_Man hadn’t forgotten they’d yet to pay back for last time they’d stabbed into Prole-3. Any time their elite team bumped into those two smiling schemers, they felt like punching the Wings.
“Then, should I apologise to everyone else and Yao?”
“Its fine. You’re free to make friends. We won’t interfere.” Poor_Man paused. “But we don’t have a good relationship with the Wings. You’d best be careful. I don’t want you dragged into our feud.”
“Okay, got it.” XiaoYu’s motto for life was to lay low.
“Meow~” The tiny cat butted XiaoYu’s hand with its head. The fourth bowl was done. More, please. Tail swish.
“Pfft~ It’s clearly a greedy little kitty, but it’d mimic a puppy just to get you to please it.” The two humans were discussing something serious a moment before. With a headbutt, it scattered the solemn air. “However, it is the reason we had such great loot today. I’ll treat you to a banana boat.” Poor_Man snapped his fingers for an NPC waiter.
“Hehe. Thank you,” said XiaoYu as he scratched the small cat under the jaw. No matter if it could understand him or not, XiaoYu still talked to it as if he was coaxing a child, “This is the last one. No more.”
******
Meanwhile, the two aforementioned schemers from the Wings were currently drinking together in a room in a certain high-class hotel in Serica.
“What do you think of XiaoYu’s pet?” asked Glory.
“Just based on speed, it’s definitely an existence as great as a hacked add-on,” replied ZhuGe.
“Mn.” Glory had gone against that boss before. The feeling of those gold pieces bashing onto his head and body was fresh in his memory. Even the agile HereticKing he observed today was hit a few times. But that kitten? It actually snaked through the rain to grab the gold pieces without getting hurt. Practical pets were rare in this game and its A.I. was very sophisticated.
“But I don’t think the Heretic Demons brought XiaoYu along to the Ruins because of this pet. Not one member of that party was an average joe.” When they bumped into XiaoYu at the desert last time, he was being heavily guarded on an unknown mission that resulted in a server-wide announcement. That made ZhuGe think XiaoYu wasn’t just an ordinary healer.
“Yes. Either way, we have to keep observing.” A low-levelled newbie didn’t require the heads of the Heretic Demons, especially HereticKing who was renowned for minding his own business, to protect and stay around him. Glory was very curious just what kind of secrets XiaoYu was hiding.
It was fortunate ZhuGe didn’t spend too long sneaking around the grinding party before. He wasn’t around for when XiaoYu used his special buffs on the Knights. Because of that, XiaoYu’s hidden Job was still a secret to players outside of the higher-ups in the Heretic Demons.
Translator’s Note:
Progress: The chapter title makes no sense in English as there’s no one word translation for it. It’s basically “things develop” or “things went on” in the sense of “the travel of crossing a river” etc. Ge: Suffix for brother. Hospital: In China, it’s considered (or portrayed to be) the common to go to the hospital for anytime you’re sick, even if it’s a mild fever or stomach ache. Bent knee: The accurate translation would be, “Chief, I worship you!”