Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Oh, they are here so fast?”

The moment Lin Jie, Bu Yi, Baili, and the rest reached the valley located outside the Harpy’s Altar, they felt an immense surge of energy radiating from within the place! It was as if the wind had stirred up great waves on the sea, and all those waves were coming for them!

A gigantic tiger, five times the size of a normal tiger, leaped into their vision. With a loud roar, the air around the place seemed to be shaken, and great gusts of wind were brought up.

The gigantic tiger had landed on the spot in front of Lin Jie and his company, rushing towards them at an incredible speed. Eying them in a condescending manner, it rumbled, finally, “Codename Lone Wolf?”

Lin Jie was slightly alarmed, but he maintained his cool as he discreetly cast an Identify Spell on the tiger.

Hungry Tiger (Transformed to Tiger King State)

Level: 50

Health Points: 12,000

Attack: 1,203-1,458

Mana Attack: 1,029-1,183

Defense: 850

Special Feature: Treefolk Life (Entitled to 130% Recovery effects with all potions.)

‘Level 50?’ Lin Jie was somewhat shocked. He was now at Level 47, and in his knowledge, he had most probably topped all ordinary players in the game. In fact, the leveling maniac Ophadi Wantless was just at Level 46 now! Yet this fellow in front of them, he was actually at Level 50?

Had this guy been leveling up on some deserted mountains, and been in seclusion all this while? Or else, how could he have missed out on such a figure?

Hungry Tiger noticed the change in Lin Jie’s expression. Making a noise that sounded as if thunder was cracking down upon their heads, he scoffed. “Are you surprised by my Level? This is only, but just the most basic level, which is required of us.”

“Who are you?” asked Lin Jie.

“Me? I am a nobody. This time round, I only have one aim—to recruit you for our association,” Hungry Tiger narrowed his eyes and added, “I suppose you have achieved one of the Nine Great Techniques of Berserkers, the Berserker’s 100 Consecutive Strikes? Although I personally feel that you are not fit yet, our association leader’s interested in nurturing you. If you can reach our standards within the next three years, we may consider letting you join our association.”

“Association? What association? And what do you mean by ‘standards’?” quipped Lin Jie, obviously shocked.

“I can only let you know these answers after you join us,” Hungry Tiger lifted his head, and continued coolly, “I don’t see any reason why you will turn down this offer. As long as you have the desire to become more powerful, you won’t reject this chance. If you remain here, you will at most reach this level of achievement—in fact, you won’t even get to know what exactly are the Nine Great Techniques. Come with me, and serve us in our association. If we are happy, we may reward you with some techniques that may benefit you for life, hahaha…”

Zheng Ziliang twitched his lips. “Such arrogance! Mechanical Gargoyle!”

Kacha—

With a super loud metallic clang, the Mechanical Gargoyle flew up into the sky. The Elemental Shooting equipment below its wings shot out strong whirlwinds, increasing its speed as it charged towards Hungry Tiger’s eyes! Its razor-sharp claws, which were newly modified, gave off cold gleams, ready to pierce through that pair of egotistic eyes.

“Oh?” Hungry Tiger seemed slightly amused, and lifting his paws, he clawed at the Mechanical Gargoyle! The Mechanical Gargoyle got away, of course, but there were faint afterimages of his paws remaining in the air, and it was hard to decipher which were the tiger’s real paws. No matter where one dodged, there seemed to be no way to escape from this attack. Such a seemingly-nonchalant attack made Lin Jie’s hair stand up on the back of his neck.

‘Such a fearsome figure!’

Any qualified melee jobs could cause faint afterimages with their attacks. For example, Lin Jie could make 20 faint afterimages of his sword attacks easily, but there would only be one real attack, and it was easy enough to see which one was the real attack. However, to make it as if all the attacks were like the real one, which was what this Hungry Tiger demonstrated just now, was another totally different matter.

“This Mechanical Gargoyle actually had two Titan’s Hearts, that’s interesting… Just nice, I can take it back to analyze it more thoroughly…”

By ‘analyzing more thoroughly’, Hungry Tiger was definitely not referring to taking the Mechanical Gargoyle back wholesome—after all, the Mechanical Gargoyle was in a Contract with another player as deemed by the system. One couldn’t just anyhow bring it back without its owner’s consent. Hungry Tiger was thinking of dismantling the Mechanical Gargoyle and then bringing its pieces back.

Claw Attack!

Hungry Tiger’s paws were like a net coming down upon the Mechanical Gargoyle! This was the most basic skill of a Transformation Druid, which enjoyed a short cooldown period with a repelling effect against enemies. Every Strength Point the Druid put into this attack would be transformed into the respective amount of damage to be dealt out.

Yet from the stance of this attack, Lin Jie guessed that this fellow most probably had used at least 500 Strength Points in this attack—and this was only his most conservative guess! To imagine such an attack coming from a Druid, a job which was most famed for keeping one’s Wisdom, Agility, and Strength Points on par—this was definitely a fearsome conjecture!

The Claw Attack reached! The Mechanical Gargoyle’s body rolled up into a ball. Meanwhile, Zheng Ziliang hurriedly launched his summoning skill, but it did not work—one could see that there was a faint Rune symbol reflected within Hungry Tiger’s eyes. This was a Lock-down type of Skill, which would force the target to remain in Battle mode, and hence be unable to withdraw itself from the fight!

“Contract·Protection!” Seeing that the Mechanical Gargoyle would be ruined at any time, Zheng Ziliang gritted his teeth and activated this final skill, irregardless of the fact that he was in the wild now and could be killed any time. This skill could allow a Contract Summoner to exchange positions with their Summoned Beast once and would take effect within an area of 100 meters. Furthermore, the damage suffered by the Summoned Beast’s owner would be reduced by 30%. This effect could last for two seconds.

Large amounts of metals, materials, and parts were needed to mend the Mechanical Gargoyle each time it died. If it was fully dismantled, both Titan’s Hearts might be destroyed, and then there would be no way to fully recover its battling powers!

Since the two of them exchanged positions, Zheng Ziliang had to face the attack by this Hungry Tiger fellow straight-on. It was only when the attack finally descended upon him that he realized how powerful it truly was!

Each tiger paw had six fingers, and their razor-sharp claws gave off cold gleams, as if ready to dig out its targets’ hearts!

“Hmph, you are getting too arrogant for your own good, aren’t you?”

Clang!

At this moment, Broken Blade stuck right in front of the sharp tiger claws. With a light flick, it blocked the attack and flung the tiger paws away. In fact, it stabbed out straight at the tiger paws, and almost succeeded in cutting them off!

However, the next moment, Lin Jie felt a sharp pain coming up from his wrists. This was the reaction force caused by the immense strength of his opponent.

This made Lin Jie truly shocked. After all, his Strength was considered ‘crazily high’ by anyone’s standards. Yet this fellow in front of them could actually resist his attack?

Due to the huge collision force caused by both attacks, Lin Jie did not make a breakthrough from this strike. In fact, he was forced to take a few steps back from the reaction force of the collision.

“Oh? So you have pretty good strength, that’s not what I expected. However, I daresay this is mostly due to the Strength Points given to you by your equipment. Your weapon… Eh? Your weapon!” Hungry Tiger’s pupils constricted suddenly, and he stared at Lin Jie’s Broken Blade, too shocked for words all at once. He couldn’t contain his bewilderment, and his body started trembling involuntarily.

“You’re good, you actually got your hands on this weapon! Codename Lone Wolf, I apologize sincerely for my attitude towards you just now.”

Lin Jie was stunned. In the next few seconds, he watched in surprise as this gigantic tiger shrunk in size and changed into a burly man of at least two meters in height before his eyes. This man had a lot of hair, and his bulging muscles and hideous scars emanated threatening vibes—he really seemed like a hungry tiger in the form of a human.

Hungry Tiger bowed respectfully to Lin Jie and spoke. “Please join our association. If you contribute your weapon to us, I daresay you will definitely gain even a higher position than me in our association. We will invest all our resources in you to help you improve your skills.”

His sudden change in attitude definitely caught Lin Jie by surprise, and it also panicked Baili Xuanyuan, who was standing behind them. He shouted anxiously, “Hungry Tiger, kill him! If you want that weapon, can’t you just get it after he spawns that weapon?”

Hungry Tiger ignored Baili Xuanyuan’s words but spoke to Lin Jie. “What do you think? How about joining us?”

Lin Jie kept silent.

Who was this Hungry Tiger? He had no idea of such a figure at all. In his previous life, although Lin Jie had stood at the peak of The New Age’s gaming community, that had been only after a lot of experts had suddenly disappeared. All these seemed to hint at a hard truth: the supposed ‘peak’, which he thought he had been at in his previous life, was none other than just a small achievement. Beyond that point, there were further heights to be conquered. He and Baili Changcheng at that time had really just been losers to those who were at the other ‘heights’. Precisely because they had stopped at their peak, they had still been caught up in the ordinary gamers’ affairs.

However, this Hungry Tiger, he seemed to be one of those figures who belonged to those heights, in that unreachable realm!

If this conjecture was true, then it meant that both Shadow Kill’s Grim Reapers, Tomorrow Night and Yesterday Morning, had been recruited by that association, and hence had not been seen by the gaming community again. The same must have applied to Scorching Sun.

Joining that ‘realm’ could definitely help him increase his strength. However… the figures from that realm had never appeared in his previous life. Yet they were doing so now—for what purpose?

After a few moments, Lin Jie lifted his head. He broke into a grin and said, “Well… How can you guarantee that I will be improving, but not going backward in that place?”

This sentence changed the whole atmosphere.

Hungry Tiger clenched his fists, and there was a sound of something bursting in the air. He stared at Lin Jie’s face in a deadly manner and emphasized on every single syllabus of his sentence, “You, repeat your words again if you dare!”

“I said, how can you prove that if your ‘association’ is not just a hoax? Fancy recruiting me just by a few sentences, and with that attitude—as if you are bestowing a great reward to me—the hell with you!” fumed Lin Jie as he finally revealed his rage at being belittled! His dominating vibes as the grand leader of Brotherhood were apparent to everyone at the scene!

He looked at Hungry Tiger and let out a sneer.

“There are only two ways we can settle this now. Either you kill me and make me spawn the equipment you want, or you just shut your f*cking mouth up! I do have a great suggestion for you, though, kill Baili Xuanyuan, and this act shall be considered as your token of loyalty to me. I can then let you join our Brotherhood, and offer you a minor position within my association!”

“Haha… Hahahaha!” Hungry Tiger was too flabbergasted with anger that he broke into laughter instead.

“This is the first time I have seen such an egoistic imbecile like you! Very well, this is your choice, I shall teach you a lesson, and let you see what real strength is like. You shall then know what you place your pride in, is just nothing! I am going to take this Broken Blade for myself, and I bet I can get all sorts of rewards when I am back!”

Hungry Tiger did not activate his skill to transform into the tiger king. Instead, he took out two Bladefists and put them on. These two Bladefists’ paws were at least 50cm in length, and they bore the shape of a hornet’s sting. One could see them giving off faded green light—these weapons were definitely smeared with Natural Poison.

It was the Dark Gold Set, Hornet Sting’s Claws Set!

As the saying went, “A magnificent horse deserves a saddle with quality befitting its worth.” How could one expect Hungry Tiger’s equipment to be of any inferior quality? As he walked towards Lin Jie, every one of his steps seemed to shake the ground and made the onlookers more fearful.

‘It’s only reasonable to scare off people with one’s vibes before the fight even begins. One will really lose if they’re scared by such tactics!’

“Hmph! What a snob!” Lin Jie let out a few cold laughs, and before anyone could react, he launched his attacks at Hungry Tiger head-on!

Under the effect of the Hunter’s Forward Charge, Lin Jie’s figure shot out like a whirlwind! Coupled with the effects of the Mad Dog’s Boots, Holy Light Winged Armor, and skills that added speed, Lin Jie was almost like a black shooting star as he charged towards Hungry Tiger! He shrunk his body and sprang out a few times during the attack, in order to strike out his most powerful attack—and for sure, this piercing action of Broken Blade was definitely the accumulation of Lin Jie’s greatest strength! Considering a Druid’s fragile health bar, Lin Jie was sure he could instakill Hungry Tiger!

“Quite a good attack, but it’s a pity you’re too slow.” Hungry Tiger was still in the mood to comment on Lin Jie’s attack. One could see his figure shifting to the side for a while—but Broken Blade had reached the next moment, and it pierced through Hungry Tiger’s body!

Whoosh—

Hungry Tiger’s figure faltered and dissipated into faint afterimages.

“The Vanishing Step? How can it be?!” Lin Jie was shocked.