Chapter Ninety-One: Ant Hill

The transfer order for Mr. Wu’s gaming helmet should be sent to his home address.

He went downstairs for dinner, then logged back in.

Next, he checked the auction house to see how the axe he had listed was doing. Surely the market wouldn’t go cold on him, would it?

He could not bring himself to withdraw the item from auction. In real life, he was nothing more than a man renting a cramped little apartment, but in this new world he was a heavyweight; he could not afford to do anything that would diminish his stature.

He checked the auction progress.

Not bad. It had already climbed to a little over 1.1 million gold, slightly higher than the usual price for a piece of red-tier gear.

That was about the normal price for a level twenty red axe. The hot bidding he had imagined had never materialized.

Then again, neither had the feared dead silence.

It seemed everyone was remarkably rational. Not a single person was willing to pay for the celebrity effect? That made no sense at all.

After all, it was a weapon dropped by the guild master of Supreme Alliance. Shouldn’t people be fighting to bid on it?

Never mind. It was unexpected windfall, a little over a million gold for nothing. He should not be too greedy.

He might as well go to Ant Hill and take a look at the enchanted marching ants. He wondered whether he could farm them now.

The enchanted marching ants were level forty monsters, while Zhang Shan was only level twenty-five. That fifteen-level gap was no joke; at the very least, it would cut his damage by more than half.

But passive skills were tempting.

Who could blame him for wanting to try, when the marching ants’ passive skill was so appealing? No matter how difficult it was, he had to give it a shot.

His attack power was already close to four thousand, and with the baby panda’s thick health and sturdy defenses, he ought to be able to farm them. The only problem was that the pace would likely be painfully slow.

He teleported to the city gate, picked his direction, and headed toward the Ant Hill map.

First, he would check whether Mr. Wu had entered the game yet.

He added a friend: Taoist With a Blade.

System message: Player not found. Please enter the correct character name.

Looks like the gaming helmet still had not arrived. He would try again later.

A level forty monster map was frighteningly far away. After estimating the distance, Zhang Shan figured it would take him at least forty to fifty minutes to run there.

Every time he had to trek to a distant map, he could not help complaining under his breath: why had the mount system in this new world been opened so late?

Players already had plenty at level twenty, and even reaching a level twenty map took a significant amount of time.

Had the game designers not considered the players at all? Did this game not even have mounts?

If there were never any mounts in the future, then once players reached a farming map, they would probably never want to return to the city.

After all, even a level forty map took Zhang Shan forty-five minutes to reach. Anyone with worse boots would need an hour, wouldn’t they?

And when they went to even higher-level maps after that, how long would it take? Who could possibly endure that?

Running was boring, so he checked the rankings.

Heart Follows Me truly was a grinding machine, steadily holding second place and already level twenty-three.

His leveling speed was no slower than Zhang Shan’s. If he had not died once, he might already be nearly level twenty-four.

Everyone in the top ten had reached level twenty-two. There were certainly plenty of hardcore players. After all, Fengyun Tianxia and the others were only level twenty-one right now.

They were online for quite long every day, and their equipment had always been ahead of the pack, yet not one of them had broken into the top ten.

Grinders were everywhere. With hundreds of millions of players in this new world, there would always be a few monsters among them. Who knew, maybe there were even some who had never logged off since the game began.

After all, if they stayed in the game pod, going ten days or more without logging off was no issue. There had to be some ruthless types like that; otherwise, how could those people have leveled up so fast?

He could not get too complacent either. He had to keep working hard, and try to hold the top spot on the level rankings for as long as possible.

He could not use the divine weapon as his calling card forever. Someone else would eventually get their hands on one. But first place on the level rankings? He would not let anyone steal that.

In the future, he could stop being the guy with the divine weapon. He could be the guy at the top of the rankings.

There was nothing much to see on the equipment rankings. The only divine weapon was still his, while the spots below were a revolving door of red-tier gear.

A difference of just a few points in stats could be enough to climb onto the equipment rankings.

He closed the rankings and added the friend again: Taoist With a Blade.

This time there was no system message about an incorrect character name, so Mr. Wu must have entered the game already.

“Haha, Boss Zhang, I’m here. This beginner village is really rather shabby.”

“Who cares? You won’t be staying there long anyway.”

“That’s hard to say. I still have to go to work during the day, so I can’t play more than a few hours a day. I probably won’t be leaving the beginner village anytime soon.”

“No problem, take it slow. Once you’ve been in the game for a while, quit that lousy job of yours too.”

“I still have to work. Otherwise what would I eat? My whole family depends on my salary for food.”

“Oh, come on. Your job is only slightly better than the one I used to have. You should still find a way to make a living from the game.”

“We can talk about that later. My family can’t go hungry right now.”

“Don’t worry. Once you hit level ten, I’ll carry you to the skies. Farming a few little bosses will be better than going to work.”

“Let’s wait until I’ve earned my first money in the game. If I can’t make money, it’s all nonsense. I can’t compare with you anyway—you’re single, fed, and responsible for no one.”

“Fine. You’re a cleric, right? What’s your talent?”

From Mr. Wu’s name, Zhang Shan could already guess he was playing a cleric.

Back in college, Mr. Wu had always liked cleric classes.

A cleric with a dog could walk the world.

The cleric class in this new world could not tame pets, but it did have summons. After Wind Chime learned the Sky General summon skill, she could call forth a heavenly general to help hack monsters down.

The heavenly general summoned by a cleric had pretty decent stats—only slightly worse than a few top-tier pets, and far stronger than most hunters’ pets.

“Yes, I’m playing a cleric. My talent is average, I guess. Five extra mana recovery.”

“Not bad. Remember not to spend your skill points recklessly. Once you’re out of the beginner village, I’ll get you a Renewal Art skill book. Focus on Attack Blessing and Renewal Art. The other skills are useless for now; even if you get the books, don’t learn them yet.”

“Got it. I’m going to start killing monsters and leveling up.”

“Go on then, chicken-slaying maniac, hehe.”

After the call ended, Zhang Shan glanced at the map.

Damn, it was far. He had only covered a tiny stretch.

In another two or three days, once Mr. Wu left the beginner village, Zhang Shan would have an assistant with him, and all sorts of little bosses would be easy pickings.

Zhang Shan always kept a lead in level, and the maps he farmed were usually places few players had ever visited, so the odds of running into a boss were very high.

If he farmed more bosses and sold some purple and orange gear, he could fatten his little war chest while also improving Mr. Wu’s life a little.

He had managed to make something of himself, but his sworn brother was still struggling miserably. That was simply too much to swallow.

It would not be right to just hand him money either. He had to consider his brother’s pride.

After a long journey, Zhang Shan finally reached the Ant Hill map.

Rolling little earthen mounds stretched across the landscape, while squads of giant marching ants moved back and forth, dense as a swarm.

There were a bit too many marching ants, weren’t there? And this was only the map entrance. That was going to be tricky.

He would let the baby panda pull a squad first and see how it went.

Fortunately, the baby panda now had an enormous health pool and would not die so easily. Zhang Shan intended to farm right at the map entrance.

Level forty monsters were too dangerous; pushing deeper into the map could easily get him killed.