Chapter Ninety-Six: The Pirated Legend Bursts onto the Scene! — Chapter Ninety-Seven: Silver Moon Capital City

With a light touch against the clear, gleaming screen, a ripple of blue spread outward from my fingertip. At that instant, everyone seemed to stop breathing.

Ding.

System Notice: Congratulations, player Vegetable-and-Jade Soup, you have received a special reward.

System Notice: Congratulations, you have received a special reward. The system will enhance one of your skills. Please select a skill.

The screen before me began to flash again, and the options displayed there were unmistakably my own skills.

The turn of events was so abrupt that I was left staring blankly. The purple-quality equipment was gone, the advanced skill manual was gone, and in its place I had been given a skill enhancement. What was this supposed to mean?

Since things had come to this, I did not bother thinking any further. I simply reached out and pressed it, and the personal system prompt came at once.

Ding.

System Notice: Congratulations. Your innate skill, Stealth, has been enhanced and officially upgraded to Enhanced Stealth.

Some of the people at the edge of the field began to make a commotion, because they could not see what reward I had received. Messages from the young women asking what had happened were already arriving one after another, and this match had officially come to an end.

I looked at my level, which had risen three times in succession. I was now level thirty-eight. No matter how one looked at it, the contest had been worth it.

Ding.

System Notice: This edition of the Hero Challenge has officially ended. Players who made it into the top thirty-two, please use the system-provided telephone to contact our customer service department and confirm your bank account number. We will transfer your prize money into your account within three business days.

Ding.

System Notice: The server will undergo maintenance tonight at 11:00 p.m. sharp. Maintenance will last one hour. After maintenance, the teleportation function for the four major capital cities will be enabled.

With a whoosh, everyone was teleported out of the arena. Only then did I have time to look at exactly what my innate skill had become.

Enhanced Stealth: Use the power of space to slip into darkness and move. Movement speed reduced by 10 percent. Skill cooldown: 10 seconds. While in combat, you may forcibly enter stealth by using luminous powder.

I was stunned. I rubbed my eyes hard several times before I could confirm it was real.

A rogue’s skill, Stealth, in a greatly upgraded form. As far as I knew, a rogue’s Stealth normally reduced movement speed by 50 percent. Yet my Enhanced Stealth only cut it by 10 percent, and with my high agility, that reduction was practically negligible. More importantly, ordinary rogue Stealth had a 30-second cooldown, while mine was only 10 seconds. That meant I could re-enter stealth just 10 seconds after activating it. Combined with Swordfighter’s Swiftness, the skill that boosted both attack speed and movement speed...

Heh, a truly formidable rogue had just been born!

“Hey! What skill got enhanced?”

A soft little hand patted my shoulder, and only then did I remember that Murong Shanshan, who had been with me in the cathedral these past two days, had also been teleported inside.

I was still debating whether to tell her when she suddenly gave a wicked smile and said, “Lin Fan, let’s duel again?”

Fine. I might as well test just how powerful Enhanced Stealth really was.

“Wait here. I’ll be right back!”

I ran out of the cathedral at full speed and bought three large packs of luminous powder from a street vendor. Murong Shanshan, your flawless control would not save you this time.

When I returned to the cathedral, Murong Shanshan grabbed me and was about to drag me toward the back courtyard. I quickly stopped her.

“Wait. There are heavily armored NPC knights guarding the back of the cathedral. I’m red-marked—am I supposed to go die back there?”

Murong Shanshan immediately ground her teeth and said, “Idiot, after these past two days of competition, you’ve long since turned green. Look for yourself!”

I took a careful look and found that my name really was no longer red. Another thing worth celebrating.

I glanced at the beautiful girl beside me. She was already level thirty-four, and with two purple-quality items, I had no idea how powerful she had become. Curiosity got the better of me.

“Shanshan, can you share your status panel with me? I want to take a look...”

Murong Shanshan did not hesitate and shared her stats:

Murong Shanshan, Swordswoman
Level: 34
Health: 3220
Attack: 475-620
Defense: 442
Reputation: 12,300
Luck: 0
...

I drew in a sharp breath.

The defense bonus from purple-quality gear was indeed extraordinary. Murong Shanshan’s health and defense had already surpassed mine completely. Only her attack was still slightly behind, but with her skill, that tiny gap no longer mattered.

Murong Shanshan smiled proudly. “There aren’t many players back here. Let’s hurry in!”

Once we reached the open area, Murong Shanshan immediately challenged me. The battle would begin in three seconds.

I had already assigned Enhanced Stealth to a hotkey, so at the very first instant I entered stealth. Watching my body slowly vanish into the air was indescribably satisfying.

Murong Shanshan was dumbfounded. A living person simply disappeared before her eyes, something far beyond her understanding.

“Wow, did this guy get so scared that he logged off?” Murong Shanshan muttered to herself.

My movement speed had only been reduced by 10 percent, so I quickly moved behind her. Watching the little beauty blinking and looking around, I actually felt a faint pang of unease. She was too beautiful, so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her.

Clang!

A few snowflakes drifted through the air as my Dark Sword, carrying the frost power of Ice-Sealing Slash, struck down from the void onto Murong Shanshan’s body, followed immediately by the combo of Double Strike and Heavy Blow.

432.

224.

212.

204.

314.

It was shocking. Truly shocking.

In the past, this sequence of skills would have killed Murong Shanshan instantly. Now, however, it had only taken off more than 1300 of her health.

Murong Shanshan was no slouch either. In that 0.1-second window of being frozen by me, she used Shatter Ice, and the elegant sword of the night elf carried a spray of ice blossoms as Double Strike and Heavy Blow followed.

I took more than 1300 damage as well, but the most dangerous part was that the power of Murong Shanshan’s frost slash had not yet faded. I hurriedly activated Swordfighter’s Swiftness and fled in a reverse direction. My attack speed had already been weakened, and trying to go head-to-head with Murong Shanshan now would be nothing but courting death.

Murong Shanshan showed no mercy. After a normal attack, a sword aura burst out from her hand. I finally endured the 10-second cooldown for Stealth, scattered luminous powder, and vanished into the air once more. Looking at my remaining health, I saw it was already under 1000, while Murong Shanshan still had around 1700 or more.

I could not wait for her skills to recover.

I quietly slipped behind the young swordswoman. My combo of Double Strike and Heavy Blow erupted and ended within 0.1 seconds. I did not hesitate in the slightest. Before Murong Shanshan could even turn around, I was already racing away. The movement speed granted by Swordfighter’s Swiftness truly made me feel as though I had come and gone like the wind.

By the time the second 10-second cooldown came around, Murong Shanshan was already completely broken. As I grew more and more adept at using Stealth, she could no longer so much as touch me, and most of her sword qi slashes missed cleanly.

“I’m done, I’m done!”

Murong Shanshan flopped down on the ground in a huff and quit the duel.

I did not know whether to laugh or cry. As the second-ranked player in the entire city, Murong Shanshan was actually resorting to such shameless behavior, sitting on the ground the moment she lost. If someone captured that and posted it on the forum, who knew how many people would spit blood?

I simply sat down beside her with my sword in hand. “Shanshan, what’s wrong?”

“You ask that like you don’t know? You think I’d be happy after getting frustrated like this? Is the stealth skill the one that got enhanced?”

“Yeah. It’s a rogue skill. Don’t be angry...”

A faint smile appeared on Murong Shanshan’s snow-white face. “It’s fine. I suddenly figured something out. Anyway, you’re mine.”

“Yours...?”

“Mm, that’s right. Did I spend those hundred thousand in vain?” Murong Shanshan said brightly, rubbing her fingers together.

I could only nod helplessly. “Forget it. The system maintenance is tonight anyway. I’m going offline to sleep now. After midnight, I’ll log in and head to the capital city. There should be plenty of quests there.”

Murong Shanshan smiled. “You just reminded me. Fine, I’m going back to sleep too. Let’s act separately at midnight and take all the high-level quests in Silvermoon City!”

Silvermoon City was one of the four major capital cities in the Chinese region.

Murong Shanshan’s idea was good, but far too idealistic. Right now, the official information for Moon Horizon had not even given a detailed description of what the capital cities looked like. It did not even say where the teleportation arrays to the capitals were located, let alone what conditions were required to go there. If level ten players could already go to the capital, then when the masses swarmed in, there would probably be no quests left to claim.

After confirming my personal bank account with customer service, I logged off.

Xu Lin and the others were already preparing dinner, all of them smiling brightly, because I had retained the individual championship. In other words, our Green Vegetable family’s reputation in Hurricane City was now at its peak. Silvermoon City would be automatically designated as the capital city for all players in the southeast region of China, so it was easy to imagine that it would also become the most crowded of the four capitals. By then, all players from more than a dozen secondary cities on the scale of Hurricane City would be entering one city together. Opportunity and challenge would coexist, and the future of our little studio would be hard to predict.

When I stepped out of the room, I saw Xin Yu staring at a plate of fish, chopsticks in hand, unable to move forward or retreat. She looked exactly like a little cat wanting to steal a bite but lacking the courage.

“Xin Yu, what are you doing?”

Xin Yu immediately set down her chopsticks and said with great seriousness, “Nothing. Lin Fan, the game’s going to update tonight. What are your plans?”

“Finish dinner, sleep, then log in at midnight and head to Silvermoon City. We’ll see after that.”

Xin Yu smiled flirtatiously. “Sister Lin and I were thinking the same thing. Want to go together?”

“Of course. If we spread out, we’ll be able to pick up more quests, won’t we?”

“True enough. Hurry up and eat, then sleep!”

...

When I woke, it was already past eleven at night. My stomach suddenly hurt a little, and only then did I remember that I must have had quite a few dreams just now, even kicking the blanket off. Half-asleep, I felt someone cover me with it again, but I had still caught a chill, and my stomach had begun to churn like a stormy sea. So I rushed into the bathroom and emptied myself out. By the time I came out, it was 11:55.

Perfect. The system maintenance had just finished. Ha-ha, Silvermoon City, here I come!

Once I entered the game, I was startled by the number of players in Hurricane City Square. Almost everyone who had just logged in was moving sluggishly, barely able to walk. The dozens of NPCs operating the trade hall were scattered across the city’s various corners. One was right beside me, so I went over to check. All of the equipment dropped by the group from Battle Frenzy had already sold out. Nearly twenty pieces had brought in over sixty thousand in total, and my share alone was more than twenty thousand. Doing the math, there was now about 650,000 in my bank account.

At current housing prices in Suzhou, a commercial apartment of more than 100 square meters cost at least 1.5 million. Hmm, still a long way to go. I’d have to keep working hard if I wanted to marry a wife!

A large crowd was running toward the east gate. It looked like that was where the newly updated teleportation array had been placed. I followed the crowd over, and from far away I could already hear a chorus of curses:

“Damn it, what the hell is this company doing with Moon Horizon? The requirements are so strict, and they didn’t even say so earlier. I had to get up in the middle of the night and woke my wife. Damn it, now I’ll have to go out once more after this!”

“Damn it, they actually require level 30. In the whole city, there aren’t even ten people who have reached 30 yet. When the hell are we supposed to enter the capital city?”

“Fine, requiring a level is one thing, but they actually charge 50 gold per teleport. Has Moon Horizon gone crazy for money or what?”

...

I smiled and walked over.

This was great. The requirements were level 30 and 50 gold coins. I doubted there were many people in all of Hurricane City who could meet both conditions. By the time they finally scraped together the money and came over, I’d already have taken every quest I could get.

The NPC in charge of the teleportation array was a soldier. After speaking with him, I confirmed that I would be teleported to the default capital, Silvermoon City. There were also three other capitals: Water Ravine City, City of Life, and Moonlight Dragon City. Their teleportation fees were even higher, at 100 gold pieces. I supposed no one in the early stages would be foolish enough to waste a pile of money teleporting to another faction’s capital.

System Notice: You will be teleported to Silvermoon City. Cost: 50 gold pieces.

Whoosh.

Everything before my eyes flashed white, and I was already standing in the magnificent Silvermoon City.

The system voice, rich and resonant, was reciting the epic rise and fall of this capital city.

Silvermoon City was a vast metropolis where humans and elves lived together. Twenty years ago, it had survived a brutal invasion by the orcs. During that three-year war, the tenacious humans and the mysterious night elves formed a firm alliance. In the end, the two forces drove back the savage orcs, and the people rebuilt Silvermoon City from the ruins. The remaining strength of humanity once again prospered in the southern reaches of the continent.

Unfortunately, after the undead legions invaded ten years ago, the kingdom of Nea in the western part of the continent became a wasteland. Silvermoon City thus became the final fortress of human civilization, guarding the prosperous human cities in the rear, such as Hurricane City and Nightfall City.

Five years ago, under the pressure of the mighty undead legions, the alliance of humans and elves was forced to join forces with the orcs of Water Ravine City, while also maintaining distant ties with the dragon capital of Moonlight Dragon City and the homeland of the night elves, the City of Life. Over these five years, the young king of Silvermoon and the brave commander of the knight order had led their armies into battle with valor and unwavering conviction. Determined to defend human dignity and rights in an increasingly dark world, they fought a bitter, heroic, and epic war of survival against the undead legions...

I patiently finished reading Silvermoon City’s history. As a human player, I actually felt a surge of passion rise within me.

For survival and glory, fight like a man!

I looked around. Aside from me, there were no other players in sight. It seemed I had arrived quite early. At the grand gate of the castle ahead, a squad of knights was standing guard. I should go take a look first.