Translator: Zenobys Editor: TheRealSeal

Zhang Yang and the party guarded the bodies for a while but when they saw the bodies turned translucent and began disappearing, they knew that they chose to revive in the city. “Let’s go. Time to head back!” Zhang Yang sheathed his sword. Fatty Han nodded in agreement. Although still not satisfied, but killing them with the Red tagged penalty and dropping their level by 4 with an additional 1 after being revived in the city, he was contented.

Zhang Yang and the others aside from Fatty joined back the Lone Desert Smoke and continued the Bangar Crypt Hardcore Mode. Fatty Hand went to find girls from the Massage Parlor to discuss ‘life’.

30 minutes later, Zhang Yang finished the dungeon and came back to the city and retrieved his mail. His [Earthen Round Shield] was sold but not with 1,000 gold pieces, but 650 gold pieces instead. No one else bid for a higher price, the auction time was up, and the transaction was compete! Zhang Yang was surprised. He never would have thought that such a valuable shield could have a drop in price! He thought about it, and went to the auction house to search for [Earthen Round Shield], and the result showed someone else selling the same item but with an initial bidding of 500 but the wanted bid was 700 gold pieces. The seller did not even hide his name; Floating Up.

It was him!?

Bewildered, Zhang Yang immediately recalled everything he knew about this person. In his previous life, there was an extremely strong mercenary group called ‘Sword and Fire Mercenary’. The group had only 10 members in it, but their strength was undeniably strong. They alone claimed half of China server’s five-man and ten-man Hardcore Mode First Clear Dungeon achievement!

As long as you were willing to pay the price, their mercenaries would get the job done for you. It could be from getting a First Clear dungeon achievement for a client’s guild to even naming the party after the client’s own name. They also accepted other jobs aside from dungeon related requests, like assassinating or providing bodyguards for a certain target. Now, with the strength of the mercenary’s group, it was not known how many players had perished by their hands. Someone did ask them before about establishing a guild, but they responded that making a guild would require 30 members but they only had 10.

This “Trash” mercenary lasted for another half year until the starting of A-class and S-class Professional Leagues. The party began having internal conflicts about which sponsor title should they put. In the end, the group disbanded. Six of the greediest men took on the job of carrying the title of Japan’s company “Team Toyota” and participated in the S-class Professional League. Although the remaining four men tried to recruit more, the players lacked quality and skill, causing them to be stuck in the A-class league.

This man, Floating Up, was one of the mercenary that was split and stuck in the A-class league. He was a Guardian and Zhang Yang has dealt with him before. Even he had to admit that the guy had skills that were on par with him!

However, to be able to craft and sell [Earthen Round Shield], they had to be able to clear the Hardcore More and defeat the hidden boss to get the recipe, but in his previous life, the first clear achievement was claimed only after a month... and Zhang Yang suddenly understood.

Before, most of the elite parties could not get past through the third boss due to the bug-like boss’ skill! But this time, he “invented” a terrain bug method a little too early and since Lost Paradise and Lone Desert Smoke discovered it as well, there was a high possibility that the method was leaked out! Because of that, the once impossible and invincible boss was now just a piece of trash; anyone could defeat it!

The game progress changed now because of him and the butterfly effect just kept spiraling down! Zhang Yang sighed and took out another shield and made the starting and ending price 500 and 700 gold pieces respectively. “Come on, man. Work with me, not against me! There’s fortune for everyone here. Don’t do something that will only cause problems for the both of us!” Zhang Yang said in his heart.

‘Server announcement: The party Fire and Sword Mercenary has set a new dungeon time record for the Bangar Crypt Dungeon Hardcore Mode. Their achievements will be recorded in the Hardcore Time Attack Achievement Board (China Server). Please celebrate for them!’

‘Server announcement: Player Dominating Blades (Party Leader) successfully broke the Bangar Crypt Hardcore Mode time record. Obtaining 10 gold pieces, 1x Level 1 Rune, and all race 250 Reputation Points from the system reward!’

‘Server announcement: Player 44 Bandits (Party Member) successfully...’

The server channel was filled with red texts in an instant.

“What the... Where did these people come from? They actually broke the record!”

“Fire and Sword Mercenary... I think they were in the game called ‘Dragon Age’!”

“That’s awesome!”

“...”

The local channel was abuzz.

Zhang Yang was a little surprised with this, but what came after was a rather humorous feeling. Crimson Fire always wanted to get that speed record, but his dream was now shattered into oblivion! Even though Lost Paradise core members could be considered as professional players, but comparing with “Trash Mercenary”, Lost Paradise was nothing.

Tch! The upcoming was to get the first clear achievement will be extremely brutal!

Zhang Yang opened Hardcore Mode Speed Record and checked their time record.

27 minutes and 30 seconds!

That was rather good! Zhang Yang vaguely remembered in his previous life, that the record was replaced several times but finally came to a halt at 24 minutes and 17 seconds. There were no faster time record that replaced it. The record had always been hard to defeat as the dungeon level limit was 15, and with that kind of strength, it was hard to product any decent results!

Take Marzerway’s Lair for example; the entry requirement was Level 20 and the level limit was Level 29. There was a 10 level gap to allow players to have sufficient time to try the trials and defeat the speed record. After Level 100, the leveling duration could be 10 days to half a month, and it provided enough time for players.

‘Beep.’ A private message arrived.

“Zhan Yu! Argh... I’m so screwed this time!” Crimson Fire cried with a tone of despair in his voice.

“Cheer up, man. There will be more chances in the future!” Zhang Yang consoled him. In all honesty, Zhang Yang was not really close with Crimson Fire, and he did not like to meddle with someone who was quite emotional. He preferred to mix with people like Phantom Days.

Crimson Fire smiled bitterly. Even with the numerous amount of dungeons in the game, he knew his own capabilities as well as Lost Paradise’s. They were not consistent enough to claim the first clear achievement of Bangar Crypt alone; and that was with Zhang Yang aiding them!

“Zhan Yu! I want to make a deal with you!”

“Now we’re talking. Is it the shield? 1,000 gold a piece! Thank you for your patronage!”

Crimson Fire hurriedly rectified, “No, no! That’s not it! I want to reserve a dungeon run! I want the first clear achievement for Marzerway’s Lair!”

Having thought about it, Zhang Yang said, “Sorry, but the five-man dungeon run has already been decided!”

Crimson Fire would not give up and tried negotiating, “Aw, come on, Zhan Yu. We’ve been doing this since back in the days! Give me a chance! At least one slot for me! I’ll pay you 10,000 gold for it, how about that?”

Zhang Yang’s current goal was to create a concrete and stable team, not just to raid dungeons but to compete in future tournaments! He already had the right amount of gold and no longer needed to work for others now!

Zhang Yang laughed as he said, “I can’t do it! I’ve already made a deal! Plus, we’re doing the nest tomorrow! Do you have anyone on your side that’s Level 20 already?” Crimson Fire bit his tongue. To get the speed record, each of the guild’s elite were not willing to get their level any higher than 15. They were all at the same level. How could he manage to get a Level 20 member in just one night?!

“Zhan Yu, don’t go rushing into things! Look at the board, there aren’t many Level 20 players now! For your dungeon run, let it slide for a few days. I’ll even chip in another 10,000 gold! How’s that?” Crimson Fire became agitated. But Zhang Yang was firm on his decision to decline.

“Sorry, Guild Master Crimson Fire. I’ve made my word.”

Crimson Fire was silent for a moment. “Alright then. If that’s the case, we’ll double our efforts and level up. Perhaps we’ll call you up for the Level 30 dungeons.”

Zhang Yang laughed, “Haha, that’s a deal in the future. Until then!”

After his conversation, Zhang Yang went to the auction house and swept up all the [Brassica Weed] and [Gingko Flower] again. Ever since Zhang Yang began clearing them, players increased the selling price for the two herbs, and thrown many Alchemy users into disarray. Not everyone could be as rich as Zhang Yang.

After using all the ingredients in hand to craft, Zhang Yang accumulated as many as 300 stacks of [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion], taking up about 60% of his bank storage. If he did this for another day or two, his storage would definitely be full. Once he was done, it was 11pm and Zhang Yang logged off and called it a day.

The next day, Zhang Yang woke up at 6 in the morning and conducted his daily routine. He put on his jersey and went jogging after a round of boxing. He ran from his prefecture, all the way past the garden, across the market area, and arrived at an alley entrance. There, he stopped. He stopped not because he needed a breather, but what he saw at the entrance of the alley, was a 50-year old man, laid on the floor. His hands were on his head, covering it as if he was badly injured. There was a large crowd surrounding him but nobody took action.

Just as Zhang Yang wanted to walk up front, he was held back by another man, who was about 60-years old. “Hey kid, mind your own business! That man right there is a huge scammer. Anyone going to help him will only get themselves in trouble. Who knows how many hundreds or thousands of dollars he scammed away.” ｂｅ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟𝚎ｌ.𝚌𝚘ｍ

It was no longer a mystery as to why youngsters these days were called cold-hearted, disrespectful and lacked morality! It was all over the internet; the news of people trying to earnestly help others but was only cruelly and cunningly scammed. Because of them, those who really needed help were casted aside and left to die on their own. Once the perpetrator successfully latched on, they would go in for the kill and scam their way for money. If they had failed in their attempt, they could easily get away with just a few words like “Sorry, wrong guy!” or “Sorry, I’ve recognized the wrong person.”

Zhang Yang merely shook his head and went ahead.

The old man grabbed Zhang Yang’s arm again, “Hey kid, Didn’t I tell you to mind your own business?”

“It’s not like I have a choice, old man. I have to take this road to go back home!” said Zhang Yang, with a smile on his face.

“If that’s the case, you’d better be careful there. That old swindler is rotten to his core!”

“I understand, Thank you very much, mister!”

However, something inevitable happened. Zhang Yang walked around the old man lying down there and before he could even get a step past, he felt like his calf was being grabbed on tightly. He turned around. Who else could have held his legs, if not for the old scammer?