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nTranslator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

nLin Jie and Baili Changcheng sat next to each other, thinking about their own problems.

nLin Jie tentatively asked, “Baili, you are not going to invest some money to play?”

n“Invest money? Invest my ass. I come to play just to relax,” said Baili Changcheng indifferently, “With a mask and coat, finished off those semi-divine Sword Saints with one hit, left only with a fake name and escape, this is my ultimate pursuit!”

n“I didn’t realize you had such a dream.” Lin Jie laughed. On second thought, did that fellow say it for real or intentionally? If it was the latter, he was indeed scheming.

nLooking back at Dominance, Lin Jie said awkwardly, “I accidentally wiped out your mercenaries on my way back.”

n“What? What’s that?” asked Dominance with his mouth still biting on a delicious piece of giraffe meat.

n“The team leader is Aquatic Predator.”

n“Never heard of him.” Dominance shook his head. “I had many people working for me, can’t remember all of them. By the way, I have a job for y’all.”

nLin Jie and Baili Changcheng exchanged a look and said seriously, “Go ahead.”

n“According to the news, the real estate auction will be held in the top city of the Imperial City Hotel. I’m going to buy some apartments. I need you guys to be my bodyguards. Don’t dress too smartly,” said Dominance casually

nBaili Changcheng and Lin Jie were rendered speechless. The fatty was worrying about his spotlight!

nDominance gave a pat on his head and smiled. “Go ahead with the price. If someone ambushes me, just go ahead and kill them. You’ll get a bonus for every kill.”

nLin Jie smiled.

nThe last time, Dominance was sliced in half by Eighteen Massacres when fighting for the Guild Base. He was still holding a grudge.

nIt was not a bad idea to go with Dominance as it could prevent unforeseen circumstances.

n“Sure, see you the day after tomorrow.”

nThe three men closed the deal and decided to meet at the Imperial Hotel at noon on that day.

nThe two of them walked out of the hotel, and Baili Changcheng smiled. He took out a Blood-Enhancing Berry and gave it to Lin Jie. He signaled Lin Jie to keep it down and said, “You know what I mean… Hehehe.”

nLin Jie was stunned, as the Blood-Enhancing Berry was an exotic item that gave 9 strength.

n“This…” Lin Jie frowned.

nSeeing that Lin Jie did not take any action, Baili Changcheng smiled and said, “Go ahead and eat it. I know this can be sold for money, but I don’t have many friends in the game, and you are one of them. It’s beneficial to you, right? 9 Strength. Anyway, I think you could achieve great things, see it as an investment. Maybe I will need your help one day.”

nLin Jie gave a smile and placed the Blood-Enhancing Berry into his backpack without refusing any longer.

nBaili Changcheng sighed and patted Lin Jie on the shoulder. “You’ll understand. See you around.”

nLooking at Baili Changcheng slowly walk away, Lin Jie was a little confused. But that feeling disappeared quickly. Anyway, he knew what kind of person Baili was in his previous life. He was a businessman who valued worth more than anything else. Who knew what could be his intention?

nDing~

nA message notification came. It was from The Heavenly Shield.

n“Fu Sheng, I have important news.” The Heavenly Shield said seriously, “Cash Trading will soon be available. This is serious stuff, treat it with caution.”

nLin Jie nodded and said, “And then?”

n“I’m going to find a venture capital company to raise money and try to buy a real estate at auction. After all, the development of the guild can’t do without a stable source of income.” After thinking for a moment, The Heavenly Shield went on. “I suggest you apply for a paper guild. I’ll transfer The Brothers’ City to you secretly so I’ll have an easier time too.”

nThe Brothers’ City was the only stable source of income for the Ironwall Empire. It supported most of the expenditure of the guild.

nLin Jie felt touched and said seriously, “Go ahead and do it. I have no interest in your base. I do hope that you’ll still treat me as a friend and render help when you are successful in the future.”

n“Sure.” The Heavenly Shield replied with a word.

nIf The Heavenly Shield had this information, other big guilds would probably know about it too. Lin Jie looked at the Divination Scryer (Fake) and took a deep breath before putting it in the bag.

nFor the next two days, the entire game was secretly changing. NPCs were departing from the city one by one, leaving many empty plots of land.

nThe number of new players went up rapidly and consciously gathered together orderly.

nAlong with this change, there were changes in the auction houses and the black market. Most of the items there were off the shelves, only a few left. Game coins were also unsalable, even if it was below the market price, no one was interested in it.

nLin Jie kept up his original pace and farmed the shards for Shemendes Iron Cloak on a daily basis. He also farmed on Wolf King Cree at where Shadow Wolves spawned. When he was free, he would look at the map and compare it with the Torn Treasure Map. He had yet to make any progress and had no idea where the second sword blade was.

nOn the third day, The New Age had been online for a month.

n“Awo——”

nWith a cry of sadness, Wolf King Cree was covered with bleeding bullet holes. Shadow Wolf, which was previously under its King, was greedily devouring The Wolf King’s flesh. It stared at Lin Jie, who was hanging on the tree, as though it wanted more. At last, it walked away.

nLin Jie put his fuming gun back into his bag and jumped down from the tree.

nAs the Wolf King was down, a golden light shone upon Lin Jie.

n—-‘You have leveled up to level 12 and received 5 free stat points and 2 fixed stat points.’

nAfter the first kill of Cree, the drop rate had reduced significantly. Even Silver equipment was nowhere to be seen, let alone a gold shield. But there were quite a number of Wolf’s Claws and Wolf’s Teeth of decent quality.

nThis time, Wolf King Cree dropped a skill book!

n“Chill, chill. It is normal not to have it.” Lin Jie consoled himself. Upon checking on it, he was stunned.

nSkill Book: Wolf Run Swordsmanship (Specialized)

nCasting Resource: Action

nSkill Description: Your basic attack is changed to Wolf Run Swordsmanship. Every attack increases your movement speed by 3% and bonus attack speed. Maximum 3 stacks. The effect will be lost after a fight. In addition, you gain a bonus of 8% damage when using a sword.

nJob Restriction: Warriors and Paladins.

n‘Finally! It was worth it after days of killing!’

nLin Jie was elated.

nThe official drop rate of Wolf Run Swordsmanship was 0.01%. This rate was 10 times higher when it was killed for the first time. But still, it was 1 in 1,000. There were only more than 20 monsters that would drop Wolf Run Swordsmanship in the entire game. From level 10 to 70 and they were all Overlord Boss.

nWolf King Cree was the weakest among them and with the lowest drop rate on top of that!

nLin Jie had almost given up when it did not drop in the first kill. Who knew it was here right now?

nSpecialized skills were different from normal skills. They did not require a proficiency level but needed Specialty Point. A player would gain 1 Specialty Point every 5 levels, and it could be used to level up a specialized skill.

nTake Warriors for example. After Job-Changing, they could learn “Sword Specialization” and gain a 10% bonus attack when using a sword. Every Speciality Point increased it by another 2%. This made the weapon choice of players become very limited. Even when they were only level 10, Speciality Points would provide a 12% bonus damage.

nHowever, Lin Jie did not learn Sword Specialization all this time. It was because that skills from mentors could only be leveled to level 5, with a 20% bonus.

nIn Lin Jie’s previous life, many players including him had used the Speciality Point in Sword Specialization. They did gain some advantage in the early stage, but when everyone had a much better sword skill, their Speciality Points were wasted.

nWolf Run Swordsmanship was a skill that suited Berserkers best.

nLin Jie quickly used it and leveled it up to level 3.

n—-“Do you want to spend 2 Specialization Points on Wolf Run Swordsmanship?’

n“Yes!”

n‘Level up success!’

nLevel 3 Wolf Run Swordsmanship: Your basic attack is changed to Wolf Run Swordsmanship. Every attack increases your movement speed by 5% and bonus attack speed. Maximum 3 stacks. The effect will be lost after a fight. In addition, you gain a bonus of 12% damage when using a sword.

nBerserkers could wield dual weapons, and that made them capable of stacking the effect to 3 quickly in fights.

nLin Jie was about to try it out on a monster when Baili Changcheng’s voice came.

n“Fu Sheng, the auction is about to start.”

n“On my way.”

nOn his way, Lin Jie opened the official webpage, and the headline was full of bright red words: Cash Exchange System is opened! Expansion pack “War of Light” is introduced. What are you waiting for?

nThe Cash Exchange System was opened! Players could bind their bank accounts with the game for purchases. NPCs would accept real-world currency too!

nAs soon as the announcement came out, the whole game was full of complaints. Countless senior game analysts jumped out to accuse the official website of The New Age of being unkind while the creators devoted all their efforts to making money, turning countless poor players into game tools for wealthy players.

nHowever, when the system was officially opened those analysts dared not speak anymore. In the current black market, 1 gold coin was worth about 500 RMB. The exchange rate was 1:500!

nAfter the system was operating, the Middle-Grade Health Potion sold in shops cost 2 Silver Coins, which was about 30 RMB and a Black Bread worth 50 Bronze coins cost 8 RMB! The exchange rate was 1:1500! Two times more than the black market!

nWas this daylight robbery or daylight robbery?

nThis shocked many tyrants who had prepared hundreds of thousands of dollars and were ready to relax and enjoy.

nBut the poor players were happy now.

nThe value of their gold coins which they had been saving had tripled! That made them a fortune!

nSince the ratio of cash and game currency was not balanced, coupled with the fact that there was no official trading platform, the only way to sell game currency was through the black market and offline. The value of the game currency suddenly increased many times.

nThe New Age was the only game that had a boost in the value of game currency due to the Cash Exchange System!

nAfter pondering about it, many players realized that the in-game coins could only be used to buy properties!

nOn the fourth floor of the Imperial Hotel, many guild masters with gorgeous equipment laughed at the information on the forum and mocked them with the word “Idiot.”

nLin Jie hid himself with a cloak and sat quietly at the side. There were footsteps from the third floor to the fourth floor now and then. Those belonged to players who had heard the news early and they had come for house auction.

n“Qiu Yuan, do you think Fu Sheng will be here?” A slightly obscene voice came from the stairs.

nLin Jie was delighted hearing this voice. ‘What made this guy come?’

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