âLu Li, arenât you curious about why he left?â Azure Sea Breeze asked.
âNot at all,â Lu Li calmly replied. Hearing his tone, Azure Sea Breeze believed that he really wasnât curious at all.
But how could Lu Li not know? Back then, when the truth had been revealed, the entire gaming community had been sent into an uproar. The matter even became a classic material for fujoshis.
âWhat is with you? Youâre not curious about anything! Whatâs the point in living like that?!â Azure Sea Breeze exclaimed, âSis-cons are all weirdos. That Flower is also a boring guy.â
âHave you seen anyone selling Lava Essence recently?â Lu Li asked.
âHavenât been looking out for it,â Azure Sea Breeze replied.
âIf you see someone selling it in future, make sure you let me know.â
The other materials werenât too hard to find, but Lava Essence was a bit of a headache for Lu Li.
Any Boss, smaller monster or Elite-grade monster had the chance to drop them. However, Lu Li needed a whopping 15!
They werenât like Eternal Frozen Shards, which could be found in large quantities.
âIâm trying to talk about something really important right now. Can you focus?â
Azure Sea Breeze sounded quite angry.
âWhere are you? Iâll go over now,â Lu Li lightly sighed as he closed the Exchange Hall screen. It appeared that finding the rare materials would require luck.
âWeâre at the Four Seasons Tavern, next to the Inn. Also, are we really going to take Sesame Rice Ball? There are quite a few problems going on for him right now. Maybe you havenât played many games before and donât know how powerful Seventh Heaven isâŠâ Azure Sea Breeze rambled.
Lu Li tried to add Hornetâs Nest as a friend, but the system told him that Hornetâs Nest had disabled this function. This was expected â all pros turned off the feature that allowed others to add them as friends. Otherwise, they would be swarmed with friend requests.
Since they werenât friends, Lu Li couldnât privately message him. As such, Lu Li could only use the chat room that he entered in a while: the North Sea Kindergarten.
He thought for a moment before typing, âIs Hornetâs Nest hereâŠ?â
The chat room fell silent, then quickly exploded with messages.
Green Flag Wine: Isnât this Lu Li? Youâre like a firefly at night. Even if you conceal your name, we all know that youâre at the top of the Level Rankings.
Lu Li: âŠâŠ
Wild: Lu Li, are you interested in joining our Blood Red War Flag? If you join, our guild wonât stop you from making your own Mercenary Group, and weâll give you a salary of $200,000 per year.
Empty: Wild, when did you start to recruit people? Why arenât you recruiting me?
Wild: Iâm just passing along a message for my guild. You know Iâm not involved with the running of the guild.
Lu Li: Sorry, but I donât plan on joining a guild for now.
A few weeks ago, Lu Li would have jumped at an offer of $200,000 per year. However, a few weeks ago, no one knew who Lu Li was. He would have been eager to accept a Gold Collection Unit job with a yearly salary of $20,000.
Wild: Letâs fight when you have time.
Lu Li: Of course, of course.
Hornetâs Nest: Of course my ass. Fighting only takes a few minutes. Iâll create a room and you can join.
Lu Li: Thereâs something I need to talk to you about.
Hornetâs Nest: Speak.
Lu Li: Sesame Rice Ball â I want him.
Hornetâs Nest: Ah, Rice Ball. Do you know why he left the guild?
Lu Li: Donât know, and I donât want to know.
Empty: Heâs someone from one of the top 5 guilds. Heheh, Lu Li, good on you. If Hornetâs Nest hunts you down and kills you, Iâll pay for repairing your equipment.
After the third system update, the cost for repairing equipment had been increased. Players were quite unhappy with this, as the Durability of equipment decreased drastically upon dying. However, there was not as much backlash from the community, as the EXP penalty for dying in an Instance Dungeon had been removed.
Empty was implying that Lu Li wasnât a match for Hornetâs Nest and would be killed by him.
Hornetâs Nest: What do you think gives you the right to take up his issues by yourself?
Hornetâs Nestâs words were impolite, but they werenât without reason. Although Seventh Heaven couldnât compare to the Blood Red War Flag in recruiting elite players, they were far superior to guilds like the Imperial Secret Service. No matter how strong Lu Li was, he would suffer quite a lot from going against their guild.
Lu Li: Well, Iâm first in the Level Rankings, so I doubt that anyone can catch up to me within a few days. That should give me quite a bit of time to kill Seventh Heavenâs top players. Does that give me the right?
Lu Liâs words were equally impolite and were filled with bloodlust. Although he looked quite calm and relaxed most of the time, it seemed that he had a scary side as well.
Before the third update, this kind of threat wouldnât have been very scary. After all, dying didnât have much of an EXP penalty.
However, the third update brought great changes to the EXP penalties. Although there was no longer an EXP penalty for dying in Instance Dungeons, the EXP penalty for dying in the wilderness was increased. Dying brought a 30% EXP penalty, while being revived only incurred a 10% EXP penalty. If a player was attacked by another player, they would not be allowed to revive, which meant that they would automatically lose 30% of their EXP bar upon death.
Hornetâs Nest was very clear about this. It would be no problem for a PVP expert like him to trick the other side into attacking first, unless they adamantly refused to fight at all.
Empty: Goddamn. What gives you the right to threaten Hornetâs Nest?
Hornetâs Nest didnât have a good temper, but he was a veteran in the North Sea Kindergarten. Empty liked to joke around, but he would always stand with Hornetâs Nest. Moreover, it was quite audacious for Lu Li to speak to a veteran like this.
Hornetâs Nest: Of course he has the right. We fought last night and I lost.
One had to admit that Hornetâs Nest was quite straightforward and honest. He didnât try to hide the fact that he had lost at all.
Empty: !!
Green Flag Wine: !!
Blood Dagger: !!
Wild: !!
Everlasting Regret: !!
Twilight: !!
Midnight Ghost: !!
Windchaser Sickle: !!
The originally quiet chat room instantly became lively.
A countless number of legendary names began to talk. Any normal PVP player who saw so many famous players would probably die from the excitement.
Even Lu Li was unable to stay calm. All of the players that he had admired in his âpast lifeâ had all been sent into a frenzy by him.
Water Fairy: Whatâs so extraordinary about that? He beat me as well.
Moonlight: Iâve already lost twice.
Wild: Holy crap, fight a round with me!
Blood Dagger: Weâre both Thieves, so I should fight him first.
Midnight Ghost: Losers should go away. Come, fight with me. Weâll see whoâs the strongest Thief.
Everlasting Regret: This lowly one remains unconvinced. How about I test the waters first?
Lu Li: If you let Sesame Rice Ball join my Permanent Party, Iâll owe a favour to Seventh Heaven.
Hornetâs Nest: Alright, but you have to fight with me again. If you win, donât worry about the favour. If you lose, donât try to force this matter again.
Lu Li: Tonight.
Hornetâs Nest: Deal.
After exiting from the chat room, Lu Li rubbed his head and cut off the chattering Azure Sea Breeze.
âSesame Rice Ballâs matter has been taken care of, so donât worry. At the very least, the Seventh Heaven wonât openly make things difficult for him.â