Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Carsey? He has gone to explore the Primordial Ruins in order to recover his powers. I hope his wishes can come true soon enough. This poor fellow, he’s been fighting for our lands till now, and he will still carry on fighting if the needs arise…” When Lin Jie asked about the Wind Rider Sword Saint, Tyrese had a dreamy, faraway look in her eyes.

Lin Jie sighed. ‘Gone to explore the Primordial Ruins?’

It seemed like he could only consult Carsey after he was back. Up till now, he was still deeply concerned about Character Z’s three whirlwinds, and it was as if someone had placed a thorn on his back.

‘Can Carsey’s trip be related to that ‘technique’?’ Lin Jie pondered for a while and decided to let matters rest at that. He then proceeded with his return to the Sky Provisions Shop at the City of Light.

After conquering the Holy Light Temple Dungeon, he had gained large quantities of Devils’ materials. The whole Sky Provisions Shop was thrown into a work-fury state. Every novice Living Job gamer was excited—after all, these were rare and exotic materials to work with, and normal players could only dream of getting their hands on such materials.

Should a Blacksmith manage to process the Devil’s Skin successfully, they could increase 15 Proficiency points. Naturally, they would seize this opportunity to break through their bottleneck limits!

After all, many Living Job gamers could only level up their Proficiency levels by mass-producing large quantities of Low-Grade potions. Sooner or later, they would reach their Jobs’ respective bottlenecks. With these remarkable materials, however, these gamers would find it much easier to break through those limits!

The moment Lin Jie entered his shop’s door, Bu Yi rushed to him and asked anxiously, “I heard you were being surrounded by Twilight Transmigration members when you left the dungeon? Are you alright?”

Lin Jie nodded. “Yes. The situation was more threatening than dangerous overall. It was lucky that I have thick skin, and was able to fend off the Boss’ signature attack.”

“I had arranged for my men from the Supreme Tribe to check on you, but Bu Yi was still worried for you.” Baili Changcheng laughed as he said that, ignoring Bu Yi’s reddening face. He added, “By the way, I have received an interesting piece of news—seems like Baili Xuanyuan’s having a bad day at the office, and he’s been throwing his temper at his poor subordinates! Hahaha… However, this cunning fellow most probably will have some other tricks up his sleeves. You’d better take care—you won’t be able to get away so easily if he sends even more people to ambush you, or use some other underhand methods next time.”

Lin Jie put on a serious expression and nodded grimly. “I understand. Oh yeah, Baili, I have a task for you. Help me look up on this person, Character Z. I need to know all I can about him.”

Baili Changcheng looked slightly surprised, “Character Z? Sure. I will send you the information latest by tomorrow.”

Ding~

Lin Jie’s notifications rang—it was a call from Eighteen Massacres.

“Lone Wolf, what’s your take on exploring the Sun Ruins with me?” asked Eighteen Massacres. “After our trick with Twilight Transmigration in the dungeon, I have earned quite a bit of trust from Baili Xuanyuan’s side. When I successfully explore the Sun Ruins, I will be given the power to command his army. We can do even more things then.”

Lin Jie pondered for a while and replied, “Okay, let’s meet one hour later at the South Gate.”

“Sure.”

When Lin Jie hung up on the call, he scanned through the Sky Provisions Shopworkers’ progress and was pleasantly surprised to discover that most of the materials spawned by the Devils were already being successfully processed. Right now, there were four Forgers, two Enchant Masters, three Blacksmiths, and eight Potioneers who had managed to reach the Middle-Grade in their areas of proficiency.

Not to mention, all Savage Blade team members had managed to acquire many Dark Gold Fragments from this trip. It was definitely a good haul for everyone.

Domestic Fat Cattle scratched his belly and spoke. “Wantless has left the team. I suppose he’s bent on getting the first position on the Rankings Board—and I will not let him surpass me, no way! I have to go level up now. I heard that a whole patch of Ice Forest appeared in the eastern regions of the City of Light, I will be going there to see if I can farm any monsters.”

“I managed to find out some news on the Dark Gold Fragments I have. If it’s true, I will be able to gather up a whole Leather Armor and Ring, so I shall make a move first too,” Star Kill waved goodbye and left after that.

After acquiring the dungeon’s first clear, all members of Savage Blade departed for their own exploration. Other than Inksnow, who belonged to a guild, the rest of them had grown to become experts mostly through extraordinary encounters in the game. Although Lin Jie knew of many hidden maps and missions that could help his team members improve drastically over a short time, he feared that he would change the nature of his team and make them lose their zeal for improvement if he told them these locations.

There were two reasons why Lin Jie did not want to set up a guild. The first was that the amount of energy and money required to invest in a guild was too much, and Lin Jie couldn’t afford that much effort by himself alone. The second was due to his ultimate goal of building a community of shared interests, whereby the most important members within the community should always develop their strengths in a free and unrestricted manner.

“The 300,000 gold coins, as promised by the Twilight Transmigration, have already been transferred to me.” Lin Jie checked his account and smiled.

“Everyone will get 9,000 gold coins each. Do convert them to real cash as soon as possible, because the game coins are going to depreciate soon. Meanwhile, everybody should focus on completing your own jobs’ Expert-Level Job-Change missions for the time being, and gain access to your jobs’ Dark Gold Mystic Skill Books. Do not lose your focus—there’s no point in chasing after your gaming levels without increasing your strength.”

Being the experts they were, everyone understood what Lin Jie meant. After bidding farewell, almost half of the team left the place.

At the same time, the three guild leaders had started their next course of action—to announce that the Brotherhood was now on close collaboration terms with the Steel Allies. Both parties would work together to achieve common goals.

To this, Lin Jie did not elaborate much, except for acknowledging that there was indeed some form of collaboration going on within the Brotherhood and Steel Allies.

‘The best way is to put the masses’ attention on Steel Allies and let them be in the limelight, and hence the target of attacks. Brotherhood will only be involved during times of necessity. Eventually, maybe I can gather more people to form some internal community the likes of the Sea Team.’ Lin Jie tapped his fingers against each other as he went through his plans.

‘After all, outsiders can’t be trusted fully, no matter how close they are.’

After settling some administrative matters, Lin Jie made preparations and went to the City of Light’s South Gate.

Eighteen Massacres was riding on a deep blue Death Horse, known as the Hellfire Mount. Its stats were lousier than Bangalash’s stats, but it was still a rare mount by the gaming community’s standards. He waved his hands and sent a team request to Lin Jie.

Ding~

—’You have joined Eighteen Massacres’ team.’

“You still haven’t repaired your equipment?” Eighteen Massacres spoke in an amiable tone and threw a bottle of Essence Oil to Lin Jie. He smiled and spoke. “You should repair your equipment’s durability. I have brought along many items to help repair equipment for this trip, just in case our equipment’s durability is not enough to last us.”

This bottle of Essence Oil had the same effects as the bottle of Essence Oil Silent Grey Sky had given Lin Jie before. Both were expensive items that could improve the equipment’s durability.

Eighteen Massacres also showed Lin Jie a fist-size robot.

Repair Robot: This is an Engineering Product. It can build a robot that can help to repair your equipment, and the robot can be used for at most 10 minutes.

“Thanks.” Lin Jie poured the Essence Oil on his equipment, and they turned to look like brand new equipment immediately, with increased durability. He summoned the Iron-Willed Blood Horse and said, “Let’s go. Our collaboration will continue even after we finish exploring the Sun Ruins.”

Eighteen Massacres smiled and said, “Of course. I have already confirmed the coordinates of the Sun Ruins, it’s inside the General’s Ancient Temple at the western regions of the City of Light.”

A label appeared on the map.

The General’s Ancient Temple was a magnificent building that occupied an area comparable to 30% of the whole City of Light. It had seven floors in total, and many valiant soldiers from the last empire were being buried there after their deaths. It was rumored that some Imperial Treasures were buried at the top floor of the General’s Ancient Temple.

However, not anybody could discover this place as it did not have fixed coordinates.

“Your mission is quite remarkable. It can even locate the coordinates of the General’s Ancient Temple. There’s quite some good stuff on that map, and I had my eye on them since long ago,” joked Lin Jie as he urged his Iron-Willed Blood Horse to gallop towards the destination.

“Although mysterious, I heard that the General’s Ancient Temple had been explored rather thoroughly, all except for the top floor. After we finish exploring the Sun Ruins, we can make a trip to the temple’s top floor, kill the Emperor, and get his treasures. So, I don’t see any reasons I should not take up this mission,” Eighteen Massacres replied coolly.

Around the City of Light, many players who were leveling up looked at the two of them in envy. This group of players had still not yet reached Level 20, and could only walk by foot. It seemed a long way ahead for them before they could get their hands on such majestic mounts.

“The New Age’s getting more and more influential. By the way it’s expanding, I daresay more people will turn to invest their money in this game. I heard that some businesses are already claiming their rights over The New Age’s F&B and service industries. Do you have any plans for that?” Eighteen Massacres looked at the masses of players leveling up, revealed a smile, and asked, “Those tycoons in the real world most probably will set up numerous facilities in the game to gather more wealth. I suppose the Brotherhood will need the support from a commercial tycoon to back it up, so it can remain competitive among all these trends?”

Lin Jie shook his head. “You don’t understand how the Brotherhood functions. This organization is only a channel for players who did not gain their deserved respect or payment to earn a livelihood. After I initiated this community, even if I delete my account and disband Brotherhood, there will be more of such communities created in the game. Such organizations do not need to rely on anyone’s help, we only depend on having enough members.”

“If this is really what you have in mind, then I daresay the Brotherhood will only become an ordinary mercenary community. However, you obviously are doing more than that—you founded Savage Blade and got hold of whatever first clears you could. All these actions show that you wanted to let Brotherhood members develop a sense of belonging to the organization, and in fact—” Eighteen Massacres paused abruptly, pulled on his horse’s reins, and shouted, “Who’s there?”

“Eh?” Lin Jie was alarmed.

In the blink of an eye, Eighteen Massacres kicked off from his horse’s back and deactivated his Mounting state. His Seven Style Spear transformed into a bulky, fiery sword. Several gusts of Sun Blade Auras shot out towards the treetops, and it looked as if he was waving a big, burning flag around. Countless leaves were burned by the Sun Blade Auras and set on fire while the sap was being forced out of the tree trunks.

“Damn it, we are exposed, run!”

On the branches, over 10 figures jumped out and got ready to escape. They were actually a group of Trap Hunters who were lying in ambush for Lin Jie and Eighteen Massacres! In fact, there seemed to be many traps laid on the ground, all waiting for their ‘prey’ to step on them and be killed.

Yet they did not expect themselves to be discovered. A gust of Sun Blade Aura burnt down the trees where they were hiding on and revealed them. Those Trap Hunters were all experts, and once they discovered that they were exposed, they immediately made plans to flee.

“Oh? Were they sent by Twilight Transmigration to ambush me?” Lin Jie’s lips curved up to reveal a smile. As he looked upon the fleeing Hunters, he spoke. “Eighteen Massacres, I suppose you won’t have any difficulty killing them?”

Eighteen Massacres was slightly stunned, but he recovered and put on a devilish grin. “Of course! It’s a pity for Twilight Transmigration that had been lying in ambush all this while. I have longed to start my massacres—Sun Forward Charge!”

Whoosh!

Eighteen Massacres rushed towards the 10 Hunters like a burning fireball!