Lin Yixin’s appearance at the city square was like a rock chucked into a pond. Judging from the stunned looks on everyone’s face, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that her looks had reached murderous levels. She wasn’t even smiling, but the male players around her all looked like they were either drunk or spaced out. Some of them were even staring blankly at her chest... armor and wiping their saliva.

I gripped the dagger and got up in disbelief. I asked, “You want this dagger?”

“Yep. Unless you can't sell it to me for some reason?”

Lin Yixin only looked at me once before turning her full attention on the Moon Blade. It was almost as if I was far less attractive than the dagger I was selling… Okay, fine, I admit that a looker like Lin Yixin must’ve met plenty of handsome men in her life. It’s only natural that someone like me isn’t up to her standard.

“Of course not.” I nodded. “But it’s very expensive. Are you sure you can afford it?”

A gleam and a smile passed through Lin Yixin’s features. “Did I ever say I was going to buy that dagger?”

“You’re not buying?” I pulled a face. “If you’re not going to buy then why are you wasting my time? I’m busy…”

“Seriously?” Lin Yixin glared at me before puffing out her awesome chest. “I’m not buying, but I can give you something of equal value in exchange!”

“Oh really?”

My interest was finally piqued. I smiled at her. “What is this item?”

Lin Yixin shot me a glance. “Come with me!”

I didn’t think she would try to kill and rob me, so I followed behind her without hesitation. When she turned around, her white cape fluttered and revealed her soft, pale legs for a second. That glimpse of beauty was so stunning that I almost couldn’t breathe!

I clutched my chest and reminded myself to be on my guard. I was planning to use the money I earned from that dagger as capital, and I had no intentions of falling for her beauty and be cheated out of my money.

Lin Yixin passed right through a small forest inside the city. “Wind Fantasy LV-31”. Her ID was as eye-catching as her own person.

When we reached a secluded spot, Lin Yixin finally stopped and turned around to face me. She then showed me her palm and asked, “Take a look at this. Do you think it’s worth as much as the Moon Blade?”

A ring with a reddish glow was sitting in her palm. A bloody shield had been engraved into the metal. It was clearly a high-level item!

Lin Yixin curled her fingers a little and brought up its stats. The window hovered in midair like a hologram.

Bloody Ring of Protection (Dark Steel–grade)

Strength: +18

Passive: Increases attack by 3% for dark users

Level Requirement: 30

For a second, I thought Medusa had petrified me. A Dark Steel–grade ring? Where the hell did she get something like that? I spent half a day killing that Golden-scaled Python King, and all I got for my efforts was a Steel-grade dagger! This is totally unfair!

“Who… who was the poor chap you swindled the ring from?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Geez!” Lin Yixin glared at me. “What do you mean swindle? Where are your manners? I had to fight a difficult boss carefully for over two hours before I got this ring! Dammit, it’s useless to me because the +3% attack power only applies to dark players!”

I nodded at her explanation before gulping. Three percent attack power! This ring was an OP accessory that could last until the late game! It was already pretty difficult to get accessories to drop, and top-rate accessories were even rarer.

“Hehe. So, do you want this ring?” Lin Yixin cocked her head and looked at me, her accidental display of cuteness causing my heart to skip a beat again. I hurriedly cautioned myself. Don’t look at her, don’t look at her, if I fall for the minx there’s no returning from it!

I pretended that the ring mattered little to me and replied, “A ring, huh? Well, it’s just a ring. How can it possibly compare to a weapon in terms of practicality? Hmph hmph, you may as well forget about this. I have plenty of buyers anyway!”

Lin Yixin stomped her foot angrily. “You! Don’t you understand? This ring has way better scaling than that dagger of yours!”

I replied, “But its requirement is too bizarre. That stat boost only applies to dark players. It’s already going to lose a lot of value when I sell it as a second-hand product, and there are barely any dark players in the game at all. And don’t even get me started about scaling…”

Lin Yixin gritted her teeth and glared at me. “What do you want?”

I smiled. “I can trade you my Moon Blade for your Bloody Ring of Protection, but I also want gold on top of that. Otherwise, this is a no deal…”

“Ah?!” A hint of murder entered Lin Yixin’s features. “You… this is too much!”

“Calm down or you’ll get wrinkles,” I advised.

“Dammit…”

Lin Yixin’s beautiful face was filled with hesitation for a moment, but in the end she wasn’t able to give up on the dagger. “Fine. How much do you want?”

I was very pleased that the beautiful girl had submitted to me. I raised two fingers in response to her question.

“Two gold?” Lin Yixin exclaimed in pleasant surprise. “Alright, deal!"

“Come on!” It was my turn to glare. “Can you not let your desires get in the way of reality? It’s 20 gold, not 2!”

“20 gold?”

Lin Yixin exclaimed in shock before puffing out her chest in anger. “What is this, a robbery? Hmph, I’d rather give you my life than my gold! Wait, that's not right… you…”

She fell into confusion again. I had to say that the internal struggle of a goddess was quite a sight to see. I smiled as Lin Yixin made all kinds of cute faces such as reluctance, frustration and displeasure.

Finally, she looked up and said, “I only have 17 gold right now, so I can only give you 15 gold. You understand I need some gold to buy potions and grind, right?”

I accepted the offer without hesitation and nodded. “Sure, I suppose I can give you a friend’s discount.”

Lin Yixin gritted her teeth again and puffed her cheeks at me. She looked so displeased with me, her “friend”, that I suspected that she was ready to backstab me if I needed help in the future.

I opened the trading window and selected the Moon Blade. Lin Yixin put the Bloody Ring of Protection in, as well as 12 gold.

I immediately canceled the trade and stared at her. “15 gold, no more, no less!”

Lin Yixin shot me a hurt look. Her round, red eyes looked extremely pitiful.

I knew in that moment that my opponent was a terrifying one. I couldn’t show mercy no matter what!

Still wearing that hurt look on her face, Lin Yixin opened the trade window, put in the Bloody Ring of Protection and 15… WTF? 15 copper??

I stared at her and canceled the trade again.

“15 gold is 15 gold, alright? Not 15 silver, not 15 copper. 15 gold. We should strive to become kind and honest people…” I began tutoring her on the steps to take to become a better person.

Lin Yixin nodded and activated the trade window once more. Finally, she put 15 gold in.

Trade complete!

I happily put on the Bloody Ring of Protection. Hell yes, the 18 Strength the ring gives is just too good! And there is nothing I can’t beat with this 3% attack power bonus!

I checked my stats. My attack power had gone up to 132~246. There was probably no one who could rival me in terms of attack power in the whole Floating Ice City. There were two reasons for that. One, Undead Swordsman had great Attack scaling. Two, my equipment was pretty awesome.

Lin Yixin held a sword, but slung the Moon Blade around her waist. She shot me a look and said, “Little Cheat…”

I wasn’t sure how to respond.

She turned around and gave me a wave. Then, she disappeared into the city. She probably went away to get her class promotion.

Oh right, I need to promote too!

I bought another two return scrolls and ran straight for Frost Mound.

At the cold Frost Mound Camp, my trainer, the imposing Undead Swordsman Suren looked at the sky as if he was watching the stars.

I walked up to him and said, “Trainer, I would like to undergo my class promotion!”

Suren looked down at me and smiled. “You are much stronger than you used to be, little skeleton. Alright, pay me 10 gold, and I’ll allow you to undergo your class promotion!”

“Fuck!”

I was shocked. 10 gold? The players in Floating Ice City only needed to do a simple quest to promote their classes. What’s with this preferential treatment?

Still, Suren was the only one I could rely on to get my class promotions, and skipping them wasn’t an option.

A class promotion was the key to increasing one’s strength. There were powerful class skills that could only be learned after a class promotion, and all skills weren’t capped at Rank 4!

I checked my bag. I had 148 gold to begin with, and after swindling another 15 gold from Beauty Lin I had a total of 163 gold. 10 gold was nothing!

I paid the money Suren requested and pleased him greatly. He laughed loudly and said, “Boy, in the name of Queen Sophia, I officially grant you the glory of a senior Undead Swordsman!”

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have completed your class promotion and became a Bronze-rank swordsman!

A small row of text, “Bronze Swordsman”, appeared behind my name. If I had to guess, it represented the current rank of my class. As I grew stronger, it would become Silver, Gold and so on. Long story short, the higher my class rank, the stronger I’d be.

I talked to Suren again and brought up the “Learn Skill” interface. As I thought, there were 3 new skills to learn after I had become a Bronze Swordsman.

Awakening I (Passive): Increases EXP gain by 5%

Regeneration of the Undead I (Passive): Regenerates 0.1% HP per second

Ghost Deity Armor I: Summons the power of the dead and transforms it into armor. Defense +5%.

They were all Rank 1 skills, but the effects—especially Ghost Deity Armor and Regeneration of the Undead—were pretty amazing. The first one increased my defense, and the second one regenerated my health. If they were already this powerful at Rank 1, I couldn’t even imagine how powerful they’d be at Rank 10. On top of that, “Ghost Deity Armor” was one hell of a name!

Each skill cost 1 gold to learn, and I paid the price without any hesitation, adding 3 new skills to my skill window. Awakening and Regeneration of the Undead were passive skills, meaning that Ghost Deity Armor was the only skill that showed up on the active skill window.

I raised my hand and activated it. A ghastly wail broke out, and a terrifying wave of undead energy surrounded me before transforming into an impressive-looking heavy armor. It made me look cold and stern. The armor turned half-invisible a few seconds later, but it was clearly present and protecting me.

Hell yeah!

I swung the Weeping Fire Blade once. I could clearly feel myself growing much stronger than before!

Suddenly, there was a beep. Du Thirteen had sent me a message: “Fuck! The landlord came over just now for his rent money! What should we do?”

Fuck!

I replied, “Gimme a moment to prepare the money.”

“Prepare the money?” Du Thirteen sounded confused.

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. You just focus on leveling up!”

“Okay!”

I took out a return scroll, crushed it and teleported back to Floating Ice City in a flash. Then, I stood in the middle of the square and shouted, “Flash sale, flash sale! 1 gold for 80 RMB, 150 gold at the ready! If you need gold, contact me now! You won’t get another chance if you miss this one!”