Chapter 11: Number one on the red name rankings
Three golden beams of light landed on us. A comfortable feeling washed through us. The rewards from killing the boss were very generous. It directly pushed all three of us into level 11, refilling our HP bar in the level up process. The moment the boss died, I waved my hand and sent all the loots into my inventory as I was the one standing nearest to the boss. Since all the loots were level 12 equipments, I ignored them for now.
I locked my gaze onto the Mage that was attacking Big Hai with fireballs. A single fireball could drop over 200 points of HP off Big Hai. The damage was truly quite high.
***
Flaming Rat (Probationary Mage)
Level: 9
Squad: Fight If Salty
***
He was that Flaming Rat from the power rankings. He had about a dozen people following him. All of them were level 7 or 8, players that were already capable of some sort of DPS. This Flaming Rat was most probably a guild leader of some nearby guild if he could gather so many people around him. Nevertheless, he was now an enemy.
“Big Hai, retreat!”
I ordered as I charged towards Flaming Rat. With his retreat, Flaming Rat would have to face my sword if he wanted to kill Big Hai. His reaction proved that he was indeed a good player. The moment I charged him, he retreated hastily as well. His eyes grew cold as he spoke, “Hopeful Present, you dare to fight back against us? Brothers, go! Kill them all!”
At his command, three Swordsmen and two Knights charged at me. I continued my advance. Just as I was about to crash into them, I sidestepped around them. My sidestep avoided four incoming attacks and at the same time, my sword shone as I dealt a combo attack of normal attack + Heavy Slash on a level 7 Swordsman.
367! 411!
This Swordsman was incredibly squishy against the attack of a level 11 like me. Since I was four levels higher than him, the level suppression was rather obvious. I did not stop moving and charged a different Swordsman immediately. I raised my sword and instantly killed that Swordsman with a two hit combo as well. At the same time, I ordered in the party chat, “Little Che and Big Hai, focus your firepower on their Archers and Mages.”
Lin Che’s eyes were bloodshot from his anger since Zhang Wei was killed. The instant he raised his hand, two talismans flew out. The same thing happened. His target was instantly killed. Wang Jinhai’s gun barrel turned crimson red as he readied his attack. He had a perfect grasp over the distant between him and his opponents. Everyone within 40 yards of him was forced into retreat.
While this was happening, I killed two other Knights. Then, I slammed my foot onto the ground, creating a shockwave around me as I activated the Shield of Honor. None of our enemies were level 10. Therefore, all of them were players without skills. The difference between us was too huge. Instant cast skills were able to ignore the slight delay between normal attacks. Therefore, with instant cast skills, we were able to achieve two hit combos.
This was equivalent to attacking an enemy two times with a single attack and was very fatal against these players with no skills. We regained the advantage despite being disadvantaged in terms of numbers. We were now the party doing the killing.
In the blink of an eye, the HP bar of all three of us reached critical level. Tanking the attacks of the Mages and Archers, I was able to kill eight of them. I alone nearly killed off all their melee players. I also had the deepest tint of red on my name, signifying that I had been in a PK incident. With his gun, Wang Jinhai killed two more Mages, dropping some of their items as loots on the ground.
Flaming Rat hurried into a retreat with bloodshot eyes. After blasting me with a fireball to reduce my HP bar below 20%, he started running with the veins on his face throbbing, “Just you guys wait. We from Fight If Salty will definitely have our revenge!”
“Trying to leave after acting tough?” I waved my hand, “Little Che, go after him and kill him.”
“Ok.”
Wind appeared below Lin Che’s feet as he activated the Seven Stars Step. The +10% bonus to movement speed immediately sent Flaming Rat into despair. Lin Che easily caught up and used a Bodyseal Technique on Flaming Rat to stun him for one second. Then, he followed up with a Daofire Talisman. With this, the Mage who was number four on the power rankings were killed in humiliation due to the difference in our levels and skills. He transformed into a clump of white light and was sent back to the newbie village.
“Damn it!” Wang Jinhai was still unhappy, “They are the one who started it.”
In the party chat, Zhang Wei asked, “Brothers, is it over? Are you guys fine?”
Lin Che answered, “We’re fine. They are all dead. But all our names are red now because of the PK.”
“What should we do next?” Zhang Wei asked blankly.
“Don’t worry. We won’t leave you behind.” I smiled, “Wait for us at the village entrance. We’re going back for you now. We only need to avoid any areas with a huge crowd and nobody can do anything to us.”
“Ok.”
“Big Brother Chen…” Lin Che frowned, “Look at our red names. If we return now, we will be everyone’s target. I checked earlier and found that this Flaming Rat has quite the background. With a gaming organization of at least 300 members behind him, he is capable of rallying a huge number of players. If we go back to pick up Zhang Wei, we might not be able to leave the newbie village anymore.”
“There won’t be a problem. Hurry back and leave with Zhang Wei quickly. The Flaming Rat might not have guessed that we would be brave enough to go back.”
“Sure. Let’s do it this way then.”
“Yeah.”
After 10 minutes, we arrived outside the newbie village. There were over 20 NPC guards at the entrance. Each of them could kill us with a slash of their sword. We definitely must not go test our luck with them. Therefore, we waited below a certain poplar tree outside the village. However, the arrival of three red names that were us still caused an uproar. Many players gazed at us with shock in their eyes. All of us were equipped in only white equipments yet our names were so very red. We looked like mad murderers in their eyes.
Zhang Wei ran over to us with his stick in hand. His face was filled with helplessness, “My chest armor has been broken.”
“It doesn’t matter. We have a lot of spare chest armors here.”
I waved my hand, “Let’s go. Leave now or people will start aiming us. We can remove our red names by killing monsters. Let’s spend some time removing our red names before doing anything else.”
“Ok.”
Under numerous gazes, three red names brought Zhang Wei along and rushed into the monster zones. We advanced without stop and entered deeper into the forest.
At this moment, a new ranking with a bloody aura around it appeared beside the power rankings.
***
Red Name Rankings
1. Hopeful Present – Kill count: 9 players – Level: 11
2. Cold Autumn Waters – Kill count: 5 players – Level: 11
3. Headshot – Kill count: 4 players – Level: 11
4. Be Good For You – Kill count: 3 players – Level: 11
5. Flaming Rat – Kill count: 2 players – Level: 8
***
Flaming Rat had dropped a level from having killed by us. He wanted to snatch the first kill from us yet he had his level dropped instead. My username would probably be popular in this newbie village now. Not only was I in the top three of the power rankings, I was also the first place in the red name rankings.
“Oh, right, Big Brother Chen. What did the boss dropped?” Lin Che asked.
I checked my inventory. This Golden Hyena Boss was indeed quite generous. It dropped three items at once. It dropped an extremely streamlined and exquisite bronze sword, a sinister looking necklace, and a silver colored leg armor. I shared the stats in the party chat. Everyone started salivating with greed.
***
Bronze Longsword (Bronze equipment)
Attack: 18 – 25
Strength: +5
Level requirement: 12
***
Skeleton Pendant (Bronze equipment)
Magic power: +4
Level requirement: 12
***
Longslope Leg Armor (White equipment)
Type: Heavy
Defense: 12
Level requirement: 12
***
Lin Che then suggested, “As usual, the bronze sword goes to Big Brother Chen since he is the only one that can equip this weapon. The Skeleton Pendant is mine since it adds magic power. Big Brother Chen has the priority to get the heavy leg armor as well. Big Brother Wei can wait for the next drop.”
Zhang Wei nodded, “No problem.”
I gave the Skeleton Pendant to Lin Che and kept the rest for myself. However, I needed one more level before I could equip them. I spoke, “We need to continue leveling up. Continue advancing in the direction of the Hyena Boss. Perhaps we will reach the bronze monster zone soon. There, we can prepare to get the bronze boss first kill as well.”
“Let’s go. Remove our red names.”
Right after we finished our conversation, a melody rang in the air. It only stopped after ringing three times. This was a public announcement posted by a player.
Ding!
System announcement (Player Flaming Rat’s shout): Hopeful Present, Cold Autumn Waters, and Headshot of the Chosen Studio. Listen. From today onwards, we of the Fight If Salty Guild will kill any Chosen members on sight. Wait for us!
We all fell into a short daze.
“Wow…” I exclaimed in admiration, “He’s really wealthy. A player needs to pay 5,000 bucks to use the system announcement once. This guy actually doesn’t mind spending the money just to declare war on us. Wouldn’t it be good if he gives us the 5,000 bucks instead? We will be able to eat good food with it. Right, Big Brother Wei, did you check the exchange rate at the auction hall when you were at the newbie village?”
Zhang Wei appeared completely confused, “What auction rate?”
Lin Che laughed, “It’s a waste of time to ask him. I already checked. In our newbie village, the exchange rate is one silver coin for five bucks.” (Author note: 1 gold coin = 100 silver coins = 10,000 copper coins)
I was astounded, “Wow, there are quite a lot of rich people around huh? So does this mean the six gold coins we got from the boss kill is equivalent to 3,000 bucks?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately, we can’t return to the newbie village at this time. Otherwise, we would be rich.”
“It’s fine. Focus on removing our red names first.”
“Ok.”
After travelling through the Hyena zone, we started hearing howls. In the wilderness, numerous canines crawled around waiting for preys to appear. We could often see them pouncing on little rabbits before dragging them into the bush. Then, cracking sounds would ring out from the bush.
“Blackback Canine, level 13. This is a very suitable monster for us. We can grind here until level 12.” I said.
Lin Che and Big Hai nodded cheerfully, “Let’s get it started. Kill!”
We were now capable of easily crushing these monsters. We cleared the map at a very high speed. One Blackback Canine after another was turned into corpses. Our EXP bar rose without stop as well. The EXP gain speed was far above our speed when we were level 9. In less than an hour, we showered in light. Level up! Level 12!
As usual, I allocated all my stat points into strength. Then, I equipped the Bronze Longsword and Longslope Leg Armor. Instantly, my stats and power rating shot up.
***
Hopeful Present (Trainee Knight)
Level: 12
Attack: 89 – 132
Defense: 75
HP: 1200
True Qi: 100/100
Luck: 1
Great achievement: 2
Power rating: 253
***
I was now the first place in both the red name and power rating rankings. With my current attack, no players in current stage of the game could take three attacks in a row from me, not even a full HP Knight or Monk.
Lin Che finished allocating his stat points and spoke longingly, “Big Brother Chen, I still understand what luck does. It affects the drop rate and the trigger rate of the higher end of the player’s attack range in combat. But what is this great achievement?”
“Since it’s in the main character page, it must be important.”
I waved my hand and smiled, “Just take what we get. In any case, it is something good. I believe it will be useful in the future.”
“Ok.”
Zhang Wei was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. He rubbed his eyes and said, “It’s over 9:00 am in the morning. Are we still continuing? I’m afraid that our bodies can’t take it anymore.”
“Stop at 12:00 pm to get some food and sleep.” I said.
“Fine. Continue the grind then…”
He said. Yet the listless manner in which he spoke caused his words to sound rather unpersuasive.
Chapter 11: Number one on the red name rankings
Three golden beams of light landed on us. A comfortable feeling washed through us. The rewards from killing the boss were very generous. It directly pushed all three of us into level 11, refilling our HP bar in the level up process. The moment the boss died, I waved my hand and sent all the loots into my inventory as I was the one standing nearest to the boss. Since all the loots were level 12 equipments, I ignored them for now.
I locked my gaze onto the Mage that was attacking Big Hai with fireballs. A single fireball could drop over 200 points of HP off Big Hai. The damage was truly quite high.
***
Flaming Rat (Probationary Mage)
Level: 9
Squad: Fight If Salty
***
He was that Flaming Rat from the power rankings. He had about a dozen people following him. All of them were level 7 or 8, players that were already capable of some sort of DPS. This Flaming Rat was most probably a guild leader of some nearby guild if he could gather so many people around him. Nevertheless, he was now an enemy.
“Big Hai, retreat!”
I ordered as I charged towards Flaming Rat. With his retreat, Flaming Rat would have to face my sword if he wanted to kill Big Hai. His reaction proved that he was indeed a good player. The moment I charged him, he retreated hastily as well. His eyes grew cold as he spoke, “Hopeful Present, you dare to fight back against us? Brothers, go! Kill them all!”
At his command, three Swordsmen and two Knights charged at me. I continued my advance. Just as I was about to crash into them, I sidestepped around them. My sidestep avoided four incoming attacks and at the same time, my sword shone as I dealt a combo attack of normal attack + Heavy Slash on a level 7 Swordsman.
367! 411!
This Swordsman was incredibly squishy against the attack of a level 11 like me. Since I was four levels higher than him, the level suppression was rather obvious. I did not stop moving and charged a different Swordsman immediately. I raised my sword and instantly killed that Swordsman with a two hit combo as well. At the same time, I ordered in the party chat, “Little Che and Big Hai, focus your firepower on their Archers and Mages.”
Lin Che’s eyes were bloodshot from his anger since Zhang Wei was killed. The instant he raised his hand, two talismans flew out. The same thing happened. His target was instantly killed. Wang Jinhai’s gun barrel turned crimson red as he readied his attack. He had a perfect grasp over the distant between him and his opponents. Everyone within 40 yards of him was forced into retreat.
While this was happening, I killed two other Knights. Then, I slammed my foot onto the ground, creating a shockwave around me as I activated the Shield of Honor. None of our enemies were level 10. Therefore, all of them were players without skills. The difference between us was too huge. Instant cast skills were able to ignore the slight delay between normal attacks. Therefore, with instant cast skills, we were able to achieve two hit combos.
This was equivalent to attacking an enemy two times with a single attack and was very fatal against these players with no skills. We regained the advantage despite being disadvantaged in terms of numbers. We were now the party doing the killing.
In the blink of an eye, the HP bar of all three of us reached critical level. Tanking the attacks of the Mages and Archers, I was able to kill eight of them. I alone nearly killed off all their melee players. I also had the deepest tint of red on my name, signifying that I had been in a PK incident. With his gun, Wang Jinhai killed two more Mages, dropping some of their items as loots on the ground.
Flaming Rat hurried into a retreat with bloodshot eyes. After blasting me with a fireball to reduce my HP bar below 20%, he started running with the veins on his face throbbing, “Just you guys wait. We from Fight If Salty will definitely have our revenge!”
“Trying to leave after acting tough?” I waved my hand, “Little Che, go after him and kill him.”
“Ok.”
Wind appeared below Lin Che’s feet as he activated the Seven Stars Step. The +10% bonus to movement speed immediately sent Flaming Rat into despair. Lin Che easily caught up and used a Bodyseal Technique on Flaming Rat to stun him for one second. Then, he followed up with a Daofire Talisman. With this, the Mage who was number four on the power rankings were killed in humiliation due to the difference in our levels and skills. He transformed into a clump of white light and was sent back to the newbie village.
“Damn it!” Wang Jinhai was still unhappy, “They are the one who started it.”
In the party chat, Zhang Wei asked, “Brothers, is it over? Are you guys fine?”
Lin Che answered, “We’re fine. They are all dead. But all our names are red now because of the PK.”
“What should we do next?” Zhang Wei asked blankly.
“Don’t worry. We won’t leave you behind.” I smiled, “Wait for us at the village entrance. We’re going back for you now. We only need to avoid any areas with a huge crowd and nobody can do anything to us.”
“Ok.”
“Big Brother Chen…” Lin Che frowned, “Look at our red names. If we return now, we will be everyone’s target. I checked earlier and found that this Flaming Rat has quite the background. With a gaming organization of at least 300 members behind him, he is capable of rallying a huge number of players. If we go back to pick up Zhang Wei, we might not be able to leave the newbie village anymore.”
“There won’t be a problem. Hurry back and leave with Zhang Wei quickly. The Flaming Rat might not have guessed that we would be brave enough to go back.”
“Sure. Let’s do it this way then.”
“Yeah.”
After 10 minutes, we arrived outside the newbie village. There were over 20 NPC guards at the entrance. Each of them could kill us with a slash of their sword. We definitely must not go test our luck with them. Therefore, we waited below a certain poplar tree outside the village. However, the arrival of three red names that were us still caused an uproar. Many players gazed at us with shock in their eyes. All of us were equipped in only white equipments yet our names were so very red. We looked like mad murderers in their eyes.
Zhang Wei ran over to us with his stick in hand. His face was filled with helplessness, “My chest armor has been broken.”
“It doesn’t matter. We have a lot of spare chest armors here.”
I waved my hand, “Let’s go. Leave now or people will start aiming us. We can remove our red names by killing monsters. Let’s spend some time removing our red names before doing anything else.”
“Ok.”
Under numerous gazes, three red names brought Zhang Wei along and rushed into the monster zones. We advanced without stop and entered deeper into the forest.
At this moment, a new ranking with a bloody aura around it appeared beside the power rankings.
***
Red Name Rankings
1. Hopeful Present – Kill count: 9 players – Level: 11
2. Cold Autumn Waters – Kill count: 5 players – Level: 11
3. Headshot – Kill count: 4 players – Level: 11
4. Be Good For You – Kill count: 3 players – Level: 11
5. Flaming Rat – Kill count: 2 players – Level: 8
***
Flaming Rat had dropped a level from having killed by us. He wanted to snatch the first kill from us yet he had his level dropped instead. My username would probably be popular in this newbie village now. Not only was I in the top three of the power rankings, I was also the first place in the red name rankings.
“Oh, right, Big Brother Chen. What did the boss dropped?” Lin Che asked.
I checked my inventory. This Golden Hyena Boss was indeed quite generous. It dropped three items at once. It dropped an extremely streamlined and exquisite bronze sword, a sinister looking necklace, and a silver colored leg armor. I shared the stats in the party chat. Everyone started salivating with greed.
***
Bronze Longsword (Bronze equipment)
Attack: 18 – 25
Strength: +5
Level requirement: 12
***
Skeleton Pendant (Bronze equipment)
Magic power: +4
Level requirement: 12
***
Longslope Leg Armor (White equipment)
Type: Heavy
Defense: 12
Level requirement: 12
***
Lin Che then suggested, “As usual, the bronze sword goes to Big Brother Chen since he is the only one that can equip this weapon. The Skeleton Pendant is mine since it adds magic power. Big Brother Chen has the priority to get the heavy leg armor as well. Big Brother Wei can wait for the next drop.”
Zhang Wei nodded, “No problem.”
I gave the Skeleton Pendant to Lin Che and kept the rest for myself. However, I needed one more level before I could equip them. I spoke, “We need to continue leveling up. Continue advancing in the direction of the Hyena Boss. Perhaps we will reach the bronze monster zone soon. There, we can prepare to get the bronze boss first kill as well.”
“Let’s go. Remove our red names.”
Right after we finished our conversation, a melody rang in the air. It only stopped after ringing three times. This was a public announcement posted by a player.
Ding!
System announcement (Player Flaming Rat’s shout): Hopeful Present, Cold Autumn Waters, and Headshot of the Chosen Studio. Listen. From today onwards, we of the Fight If Salty Guild will kill any Chosen members on sight. Wait for us!
We all fell into a short daze.
“Wow…” I exclaimed in admiration, “He’s really wealthy. A player needs to pay 5,000 bucks to use the system announcement once. This guy actually doesn’t mind spending the money just to declare war on us. Wouldn’t it be good if he gives us the 5,000 bucks instead? We will be able to eat good food with it. Right, Big Brother Wei, did you check the exchange rate at the auction hall when you were at the newbie village?”
Zhang Wei appeared completely confused, “What auction rate?”
Lin Che laughed, “It’s a waste of time to ask him. I already checked. In our newbie village, the exchange rate is one silver coin for five bucks.” (Author note: 1 gold coin = 100 silver coins = 10,000 copper coins)
I was astounded, “Wow, there are quite a lot of rich people around huh? So does this mean the six gold coins we got from the boss kill is equivalent to 3,000 bucks?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately, we can’t return to the newbie village at this time. Otherwise, we would be rich.”
“It’s fine. Focus on removing our red names first.”
“Ok.”
After travelling through the Hyena zone, we started hearing howls. In the wilderness, numerous canines crawled around waiting for preys to appear. We could often see them pouncing on little rabbits before dragging them into the bush. Then, cracking sounds would ring out from the bush.
“Blackback Canine, level 13. This is a very suitable monster for us. We can grind here until level 12.” I said.
Lin Che and Big Hai nodded cheerfully, “Let’s get it started. Kill!”
We were now capable of easily crushing these monsters. We cleared the map at a very high speed. One Blackback Canine after another was turned into corpses. Our EXP bar rose without stop as well. The EXP gain speed was far above our speed when we were level 9. In less than an hour, we showered in light. Level up! Level 12!
As usual, I allocated all my stat points into strength. Then, I equipped the Bronze Longsword and Longslope Leg Armor. Instantly, my stats and power rating shot up.
***
Hopeful Present (Trainee Knight)
Level: 12
Attack: 89 – 132
Defense: 75
HP: 1200
True Qi: 100/100
Luck: 1
Great achievement: 2
Power rating: 253
***
I was now the first place in both the red name and power rating rankings. With my current attack, no players in current stage of the game could take three attacks in a row from me, not even a full HP Knight or Monk.
Lin Che finished allocating his stat points and spoke longingly, “Big Brother Chen, I still understand what luck does. It affects the drop rate and the trigger rate of the higher end of the player’s attack range in combat. But what is this great achievement?”
“Since it’s in the main character page, it must be important.”
I waved my hand and smiled, “Just take what we get. In any case, it is something good. I believe it will be useful in the future.”
“Ok.”
Zhang Wei was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. He rubbed his eyes and said, “It’s over 9:00 am in the morning. Are we still continuing? I’m afraid that our bodies can’t take it anymore.”
“Stop at 12:00 pm to get some food and sleep.” I said.
“Fine. Continue the grind then…”
He said. Yet the listless manner in which he spoke caused his words to sound rather unpersuasive.
