Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“You should open the Epic Gift Bag by yourself,” Lin Jie said in a serious tone. “If you give this to me, it might as well become an ordinary gift bag. Most probably, it will contain just a few ten thousands of EXP. These are the rules set by the system, and there’s no way of going around it. This gift bag will be such a waste in my hands.”

That’s right, the reason why players were rewarded with gift bags instead of other items for the Fishing Festival was to prevent players from making rash transactions with their rewards. After all, if there were a lot of rich players around, wouldn’t they be able to bag all of those wondrous items? Though it’s true that rich players could enjoy certain privileges, if the situation progressed to that, all items could be bought over with money—that would be really unfair.

Upon Lin Jie’s rejection, Bu Yi finally nodded and opened the Epic Gift Bag.

Violet flames soared up into the sky at once!

—”System announcement: Congratulations to player Bu Yi for opening the Epic Gift Bag, she is rewarded with the Epic Mount Violet Flames Unicorn!”

Violet Flames Unicorn (Epic Mount)

Movement Speed: 150%

Wisdom: 15

Spirit: 15

Additional effect: Battle Mount! You can ride the Violet Flames Unicorn and engage in battle. During the battle, the Mount’s additional effects will be multiplied by three times. The Violet Flames Unicorn will be able to use the skill Violet Fireball, with a cooldown period of 1 hour.

The whole gaming community was shocked!

After all, it was the Violet Flames Unicorn! Not only did it have a super pretty appearance, but it also had marvelous Stats and the additional effect of being a Battle Mount!

Now, what was a Battle Mount? To put it simply, it meant being able to ride on a mount during battle! Bu Yi was an Ascetic Priest, and most of her skills were outburst type. With the Battle Mount, she would be able to use her skills more fluently—in fact, most Bandits would not even have a chance to catch up with her now!

Other than that, the Violet Flames Unicorn could help players in battle. The Violet Fireball was like the Pyroblast spells cast by the Fire Mages and was very powerful.

The appearance of such an Epic Mount immediately attracted the envy of numerous players.

“This darn system, it actually announced the Attributes of the Mount! This is just plain advertising for the game!” Lin Jie looked at the system announcement in shock. This was something he had not expected.

In Lin Jie’s previous life, the player who had come in first in the Fishing Festival had been Baili Mei Niang. However, from what Lin Jie remembered, she had not obtained an Epic Mount.

Even so, Baili Mei Niang had received an Epic Poison Formula, which allowed her to get rid of whoever she was unhappy with. All at once, she had risen to become one of the best Bandit players on the Bandits’ Leaderboard in the game.

Lin Jie mused to himself, ‘If I didn’t remember wrongly, there was this rumor in my previous life about how there are almost zero chances of normal players getting Epic, Sub-Legendary, or Legendary Mounts from items like gift bags. Only one type of player was excluded from this rule—those healing jobs! After all, even if they get Epic items, the healing jobs won’t be able to mess up much in the game…’

On the other hand, Bu Yi’s face flushed red with excitement. The Violet Flames Unicorn’ pretty appearance was like the best Mount that any female players could wish for! Even if someone else were to offer to exchange it with a Legendary ‘Dark Demonic Penta-Dragon’, she would refuse to part with this Mount!

In essence, Bu Yi was absolutely delighted with her Mount.

Lin Jie smiled at Bu Yi’s reaction. It was definitely hard to see Bu Yi being so happy. After all, she had always appeared somewhat melancholic, with her slightly creased-up brows. Her radiant smile now caused the whole sea to pale in comparison.

Lin Jie strongly believed that the City of Light’s Beauties Leaderboard, which An Xiaoran had come up with, should be topped by the three ladies from Savage Blade!

“Phew…”

“Phew…”

At that moment, the sea surged violently, as if a god had stuck his hand in and started swirling around in the water. Several whirlpools appeared out of a sudden. Numerous Merpeople Warriors clad in sea-blue armors came out of the whirlpools, holding sharp tridents. The leading figure was a Mage, who was dressed neatly in a Mage’s robes. He looked as if he was in his twenties, and standing on top of the waves, he emitted formidable vibes.

This NPC was definitely looked dangerous in every way.

This Mage was the Mermaid Princess’s fiancée—the Sea Mage Laney. He was the greatest prodigy the Poseidon Shrine had ever seen, and also the only figure who had the chance to level up to Legendary and become a Hero! This NPC had only spent 500 years to rise to the ranks of the Sub-Legendary Grand Mage—one could just see his talent!

Okay, so there was the catch—’500 years’. The problem lay in that the Mermaid Princess was famous for her playfulness. For someone who could not even stay still for one day, 500 years would seem like a lifetime!

Yet for the Sea Mage Laney, 500 years was nothing much. To him, it was merely the time he used to learn a few Aqua Elemental Magic skills and conceptualized the way of the Elements. Yet for the Mermaid Princess, 500 years of boredom was enough to torture her to death. As such, she had run away from home and come up with the idea of the Fishing Festival.

Sea Mage Laney donned a dark blue Mage’s robes, and holding onto a shimmering wand, he looked like an aspiring youth in every way. He bowed gentlemanly to Lin Jie and Bu Yi and spoke in the human language with a perfect accent. “I am glad to see you, humans. I come to you to fetch my fiancée, the Mermaid Princess Herya.”

Bu Yi’s heart skipped a beat. When she fished out that little gold fish, Lin Jie had told her about this… That time, she had thought Lin Jie had just been pulling a prank on her.

She turned and looked at Lin Jie’s calm and confident face and had a realization. ‘That gold fish must be Princess Herya, no doubt.’

At the same time, Bu Yi finally understood why both of them could remain in Aquatic World—it must be due to this subsequent plot. She couldn’t help but admire Lin Jie secretly, for his guts to dare to make use of Herya!

“Oh? Herya? We are not sure of that,” replied Lin Jie, scratching his head quizzically. “We were only here by the invitation of Lord Poseidon to participate in the Fishing Festival.”

“Hahaha, the Mermaid Princess may be playful, but she has great powers. It’s natural that you did not discover her.” The Sea Mage pointed his finger at the Peculiar Fish, and after a transformation glow, it changed into a beautiful mermaid. The mermaid had a head of navy, flowy hair. Without any adornments, her clear white skin was enough to make her look ravishing.

“Hmph, you again, Laney! I am not fond of you anymore! In the past, you wanted to concentrate on leveling up, and you wouldn’t pay me any attention even though I was around you all day. Now that I decided to dump you, you are regretful of your actions? Hmph! However, I do not regret my decision at all!” The Mermaid Princess pouted her lips, turned and addressed Lin Jie and Bu Yi, “Hey, you two cute human beings, do you want to be my masters? I have a lot of skills, and I know a lot of hidden treasures. I will be able to give you a lot of help!”

Lin Jie felt his teeth aching at this scene. ‘Oh, wtf! Mermaid Princess, can you don’t act so playing-hard-to-get now? In the near future, you will be all lovey-dovey with this guy and exploring The New Age together. Our ancestors are indeed wise—a woman’s heart is definitely like a needle under the sea, one can never truly understand what she is thinking!’

Ding~

The system sent a prompt message.

—’The Mermaid Princess Herya wishes to become your Character Card (Note: Legendary). Do you accept?’

Lin Jie’s heart almost leaped out of his mouth!

Much as he knew this was a trap, he still… longed to accept it! After all, this was a Legendary Character Card!

It was fortunate that Lin Jie had been through lots of ups and downs in the game. He took a deep breath, looked at the Sea Mage, and replied, “I believe you are the Mermaid Princess’ fiancée? Though entering a contract with us, the human beings from the alternate realms will grant the princess her wishes to play around in the world, nothing beats the joy of having her beloved accompany her at all times. If you have the time, do stay by her side. She wouldn’t have chosen to run away from her home if you had managed to keep her company, would she?”

The Sea Mage was getting angry because he saw that the Mermaid Princess had suggested following mere human beings. He was all for crumbling these two weak human beings from the alternate realms into dust. Yet he did not expect this human to say such words, and immediately he felt guilty for his thoughts and even more sorry for treating the Mermaid Princess as he did before.

He said in a grateful manner to Lin Jie, “Thank you, human. I will listen to your suggestion. In fact, when I left the Poseidon Shrine, I had already made up my mind to explore The New Age with the Princess this time round!”

“Sir Laney, you are under the orders of Lord Poseidon to catc— to invite the Princess back to her home!”

“Sir Laney, beware that your words will be heard by Lord Poseidon.”

The guards behind him muttered anxiously.

“Be quiet! If I go back to the Poseidon Shrine and continue my leveling up, my beloved will grow old and give up hope on me. Do you want me to suffer that?” With a shout from Laney, the waves behind him surged and formed a huge wall! The guards were unable to get past the wall and were all washed away by it.

“My beloved, from today onwards, you will never be lonely again. Let us leave.”

Lin Jie shouted hurriedly before they left, “Sir Sea Mage! I own a city called ‘The Brothers’ City’ near City of Light. It’s nothing fancy, but still worth exploring. If you so gladly grace your presence, we welcome you anytime!”

Before his voice died down, the Sea Mage and the Mermaid Princess had disappeared.

They were gone, ready to explore the world and leave traces of their love-making… cough, leave their romantic tracks all around the world.

Lin Jie knew that both of them had heard his words!

This plot would only be activated at the end of the Fishing Festival, and for players who had captured the Mermaid Princess. There would be two different plot developments—the first was that the Poseidon Shrine Envoy would appear and bring back the Mermaid Princess. He would reward the players with grand rewards, and there might be chances of getting Sub-Legendary fragments! In this string of events, the Mermaid Princess would be brought back to the Poseidon Shrine.

The second plot development—and also the one with stricter conditions for activating—would be that the Mermaid Princess’s fiancée, the Sea Mage, would come out of his secluded leveling-up practices to fetch the Mermaid Princess. However, the Sea Mage was someone devoted to leveling up, and each of his secluded leveling-up practices was at least eight to ten years. He wouldn’t appear for all the Fishing Festivals! The only time he ever did so was during the first Fishing Festival.

The Sea Mage would then request to bring back the Mermaid Princess, and according to the players’ choices, there would be yet another two plot developments.

If the players did not allow him to bring back the Mermaid Princess, congratulations—they would successfully evoke the rage of the whole Poseidon Shrine. Not only would they not get the Mermaid Princess’ Character Card, but they would also be tortured by the Sea Mage. Coupled with that, for the whole of next month, no matter where the players were, they would always have to be on guard if there was flowing water around—because the Poseidon Shrine’s Guards would suddenly appear and launch an attack on them!

The best development would be to let the Sea Mage bring the Mermaid Princess with him. However, doing this only would not grant the players any rewards!

Players could only get their subsequent rewards if they reminded the Sea Mage and the Mermaid Princess of a destination where they could go!

Lin Jie held onto Bu Yi’s hands excitedly and said, “Let’s go, we need to go back to The Brothers’ City. The two of them should be there already. We need to teleport there immediately too.”

When Lin Jie and Bu Yi left, the system sent some notification to him.

—’Your Favorability rank with the Poseidon Shrine has decreased to Cold.’

—’Your Favorability rank with the Naga Shrine has decreased to Neutral.’

—’Your Favorability rank with the Mermaid Princess Herya and the Sea Mage Laney has increased to Esteem.’

Lin Jie’s actions had caused the two most important younger leaders of the Naga Shrine and Poseidon Shrine to run away from their homes. It was natural that his Favorability ranks would drop.

However, he did not mind at all. In fact, there was a wide smile on Lin Jie’s face. ‘Hahaha, my Favorability ranks dropped? Who cares? When these two come back with a newborn mermaid, my Favorability ranks with you guys will increase to Admiration in no time! That time, I may even get to be a Poseidon Shrine Protector, hahaha…’