Chapter Nineteen: Dangyang City

Zhang Shan chose to teleport to Dangyang City in the State of Chu. With a flash of white light, he transformed into a streak of radiance and vanished from the novice village.

Inside a grand and imposing hall, a burst of white light appeared, and Zhang Shan materialized in the teleportation hall at the heart of Dangyang City. He took a careful look around and realized the sheer scale of the city was beyond imagination—he could not see its boundaries at all. Comparing his position on the minimap, Zhang Shan discovered it might take a good one or two hours just to traverse from one side of the city to the other, much larger than the entire map of the novice village—truly colossal.

Fortunately, as Fengyun Tianxia had mentioned, teleportation within the city was unrestricted. Zhang Shan gave it a try, and sure enough, with merely a thought, he could instantly move to any location within the city.

What a convenient feature! Otherwise, it would probably take half an hour just to leave the city on foot.

Looking around, he saw rows of orderly buildings and wide avenues stretching through the city, bustling with crowds of NPC inhabitants. Occasionally, squads of NPC soldiers passed by, clad in ornate armor, their weapons glimmering with orange light. Even the foot soldiers wielded orange-tier weapons? The NPCs were truly on another level.

Zhang Shan checked his friends list. Wind Chime was still online and not yet asleep, so he sent her a message:

“I’ve arrived at Dangyang City. Where are you all now?”

“We’re farming monsters outside the city with my brother. The creatures out here are much tougher than those in the novice village, and the rewards aren’t great either. If I’d known, I’d have stayed in the novice village longer. Come join us—I’ll add you to the party.”

Zhang Shan joined their party, checked the location, and teleported to the nearest city gate, then ran toward their hunting grounds.

When he arrived, he found that in addition to Wind Chime and Fengyun Tianxia, another guild member, Fengyun Yidao, was there as well. It seemed others had leveled up quickly, too.

“Hey, Six-Barrel, not bad—out of the novice village so soon!” greeted Yidao.

“You’re even faster, Brother Yidao. We had to fight two bosses just to reach level ten first. How did you do it? Why are you ahead of me?”

“How else? I hired help to clear mobs and lure monsters. Otherwise, I might not have made it out by tomorrow morning.”

“Impressive.”

“He’s lucky,” Wind Chime teased. “At least he managed to hire help. Poor Fengyun Killer, that luckless rogue, only managed to hire two people for a high price late at night. Who knows when he’ll make it out of the village?”

“Heh, just luck.”

The monsters on this map were demonized bears, quite large, level ten. They hit Fengyun Yidao for three or four hundred damage per strike, while the party’s attacks only inflicted a hundred or so points of damage on the bears. Without Wind Chime’s support, they would have struggled.

Zhang Shan joined the attack, and his shot only dealt around a hundred damage.

“Damn, why are the monsters here so strong? I have 240 attack, and I’m barely scratching them. How are we supposed to level up like this? Do even the regular monsters have such high defense? Do the bears at least give good experience?” Zhang Shan asked, frustrated.

“Not much, about the same as the unicorn goats,” replied Wind Chime.

“You’re kidding. Isn’t there an easier monster to farm? How are we supposed to level up at this rate? It takes 200,000 experience just to get from level ten to eleven. At this pace, we won’t even level up in a day.” Zhang Shan was speechless.

“These bears are the easiest monsters around here. I’ve been exploring the maps around Dangyang City for over three hours. The other creatures are even tougher—some have absurdly high magic resistance, and my attacks barely scratch them. Others have high physical defense, so regular attacks do almost nothing,” explained Fengyun Tianxia.

Zhang Shan was at a loss for words.

“Don’t worry,” Wind Chime encouraged. “It’s mainly because everyone’s gear is weak and we’re unfamiliar with the maps. Once we’re better equipped, we’ll manage.”

Fengyun Yidao chimed in, “Exactly. I’m still using a green level ten weapon. The best axe at the auction house is a purple one, and guess what the starting bid is? Ten thousand gold! It’s outrageously expensive. The real problem is, where do we get gold? There are hardly any sellers at the exchange, and even if you want to buy, you can’t find much. It was easier back in the novice village.”

“It’s fine. There are still too few players in the city—most are high-end players who only buy, not sell. Wait a few days until more players arrive, then try the exchange. The supply and price of gold should stabilize by then,” said Fengyun Tianxia.

“What’s the exchange? Is that where you trade for gold?” Zhang Shan asked, puzzled.

“Yes, the New World Exchange. It’s similar to a real-world securities exchange. In-game currency is treated like a security, and you can use blue coins to buy gold directly. Every city has one, and the entire game’s exchanges are connected,” Wind Chime explained.

“Oh, I hadn’t noticed. There are so many buildings in the city, it’s dazzling. I didn’t look closely. But this exchange system is novel—it’s no wonder you said the in-game currency in New World might become a second currency. With convenient trading and lots of players, it’s entirely possible.”

“There’s a trend toward that. Right now, gold output is still too low, and demand is high, so prices can’t stabilize. But eventually, free trading should be possible. With tens of millions of players online and many farming gold, supply should catch up with demand,” said Fengyun Tianxia.

“By the way, where do you buy return scrolls? I didn’t see any at the general store. Don’t tell me you can’t return to the city here?” Zhang Shan hadn’t brought any because he didn’t know where to get them.

“Seriously, Six-Barrel, you’re such a newbie. You don’t need return scrolls. Just bind your resident status at the civil official, and you’ll receive a token. Keep it in your inventory, and you can use it just like a return scroll—but with a ten-minute cooldown,” Fengyun Yidao teased.

“No way, I really didn’t know that. Wait a moment, I’ll go back and bind now. Good thing the city isn’t far,” Zhang Shan replied, slightly embarrassed.

He hurried back into the city, located the civil official, and teleported over.

“Young man, welcome. Do you wish to join Dangyang City?”

“Yes.”

“Here is your identity token. After joining Dangyang City, you must heed the city lord’s commands and fight against the demon race. Please confirm.”

Confirm.

A token appeared in Zhang Shan’s inventory. He checked its details.

Six-Barrel Bodhisattva, Resident of Dangyang City, 100 merit points. These were awarded for their first kill of the Wild Boar King, and he’d never known how to use them—there was no indication in his attributes—but now it was finally revealed on the identity token.

He checked the uses for merit points. Founding a guild required 200 merit, purchasing property needed 1,000, and with 1,000 merit you could obtain an official rank. Ranks ranged from Squad Leader, Platoon Leader, Captain, Deputy General, Guerrilla General, Middle General, General of the East, Commander of the East, up to Grand General.

With a rank, you could collect a weekly salary from the civil official. The lower ranks paid little and weren’t worth much, but the higher ranks offered decent rewards. For now, players shouldn’t get their hopes up—the highest rank, Grand General, required a merit point total with more zeros than Zhang Shan could count. Even the lowest rank, Squad Leader, needed 1,000 merit points, which would take ages to earn, and the salary was only one gold per week—not particularly meaningful for players.

After binding his identity, Zhang Shan visited the exchange. Surprisingly, three other players were there, but he didn’t recognize any of them, so he kept to himself.

He checked the currency exchange interface. There was little information about sellers. Someone had listed one gold for 10,000 blue coins—outrageous! The rest were asking over 1,000 blue coins per gold, ten times the price in the novice village—quite the markup.

There were many buy orders, though. Zhang Shan saw one asking for ten blue coins per gold, with a whopping one million gold posted—that’s ten million blue coins! But clearly, this person wouldn’t be buying any soon—not in the next day or two, at least.

Most other buy orders were for 100 blue coins per gold, not much difference among them. Zhang Shan thought for a moment and listed his four gold at 1,000 blue coins each. If no one bought, there’d be no fee, but maybe some big spender would urgently need gold.

He’d already earned 210,000 blue coins today from boss hunting, but more is always better. Zhang Shan’s dream of farming coins was still alive.

He didn’t bother with the auction house, as he had no gold left and couldn’t afford anything even if he saw something he wanted.

Returning to the monster-hunting party, Zhang Shan asked, “Boss Tianxia, have we established our guild yet? I saw it only takes 200 merit to found one. Didn’t you get 200 merit already?”

Fengyun Tianxia had earned 100 merit for killing the Wild Boar King and another 100 for being the first to leave the novice village—he should qualify to create a guild. But Zhang Shan hadn’t heard them mention it or seen a system announcement, so he asked.

“You think it’s that simple? 200 merit is just the bare minimum. You also need a million gold and, most importantly, a special item—the Hero’s Order. Gold we could probably raise in a few days, but as for the Hero’s Order, no one knows how to get it yet. Maybe bosses drop it, or maybe it’s just luck,” Fengyun Tianxia replied, sounding frustrated. He’d thought being first to reach the city would mean first to establish a guild, but the requirements were far tougher than expected.

“The Hero’s Order can’t be easy to get. If regular monsters dropped it, with tens of millions of players, someone would have found it by now. There’s been no word, so maybe regular monsters don’t drop it at all. I guess we’ll have to try bosses. Once everyone arrives in Dangyang City tomorrow, let’s look for any bosses we can handle and keep trying,” Wind Chime suggested.

“The monsters here are already so tough—who knows how terrifying the bosses will be? They’ll probably squash us like bugs,” said Fengyun Yidao, clearly pessimistic.

“No rush. If we can’t get the Hero’s Order, neither can anyone else. Besides, we can’t buy gold yet anyway. Let’s wait a few days until everyone levels up and gears up a bit more,” Fengyun Tianxia said, relaxing a little at the thought that boss fights would be extremely challenging for now.

“True. In our guild, out of a dozen or so people, only I have learned Rejuvenation, the healer spell. No one else has gotten a skill book yet, so I’m the only one who can heal. That won’t cut it,” Wind Chime mused.

“You’re kidding—Rejuvenation is that rare? No one else has looted it or bought it?” Zhang Shan asked in disbelief. Healing skills should be common, and skill books should drop easily—or so he thought.

“In New World, any skill book is hard to come by. Players with new skills are one in ten thousand. Even Boss Tianxia hasn’t found a fire mage skill book yet—haven’t you noticed he’s only using Fireball to fight?” Fengyun Yidao laughed.

“Looks like we’ve been lucky. We’ve found a few skill books already—Wind Chime’s Rejuvenation, Lightning Strike, and my own Tame.”

“You’ve learned Tame? Why don’t you catch a pet, then?”

“Can’t find a suitable one. Only un-demonized monsters can be tamed, but I haven’t seen a single one,” Zhang Shan replied, frustrated.

“Oh! The panda we saw earlier—wasn’t that one tameable? Yidao almost killed it by accident, but I thought it was cute and stopped him. Let’s go see if it’s still there!” Wind Chime said excitedly.