I finally woke up from my deep slumber well past 7 pm.

I got up from my bed and pulled open the curtain, looking outside the window. It was raining.

Rainwater splattered against the glass and turned into a watery web. The refraction of the city’s neon lights looked bewitchingly beautiful.

I sucked in a deep breath and got off my bed.

Du Thirteen and Gui Guzi were awake when I entered the living room. There were eight cold or steaming dishes on the table, and Du Thirteen was carrying two cases of beer at once into the room. I had to admit that he was freakishly strong and useful.

Du Thirteen laughed loudly when he saw me. “Haha, our devil has finally awakened!”

“Devil?” I felt a bit confused.

Gui Guzi nodded before turning on the counterfeit PC in the room that was worth about 2500 RMB. He explained, “Your last night’s fight rocked the entire Floating Ice City, you know. You’ll see once you check out the official forum!”

“Oh?”

I walked over and took a look. A bloody sword and a bold, cursive line of text had dominated the leading news on the home page. “The devil fights to the death at Silver Moon Valley. Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand challenges the Domination Clan!”

Beneath the title was a short passage. “This early morning, the second-ranked player on the Heavenly Ranking of Floating Ice City, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, issued a challenge to the second-ranked guild of Guild Ranking, Gods of Destruction. He fought 21 first-rate pros from the Domination Clan alone, but he slaughtered them all and claimed the unquestionable victory. From now on, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand’s infamous name shall reverberate throughout the China server!”

Beneath the thread title was an image of me wielding Ghost Ice Soul, standing atop a pile of corpses. I looked incredibly grave and chilling in the image, especially since my killing intent was fully internalized. There was a line of text attached to the image. “No matter what reason he had to challenge the Gods of Destruction guild alone, it took more than courage to perform such a feat!”

I exhaled. “What an exaggeration. Who made this, I’m going to go kick their asses! The Domination Clan also killed me five times, you know…”

Gui Guzi smiled and clicked another headline. It contained a high definition video. “You don’t know yet, do you? While you were duking it out with the Domination Clan, a Level 34 assassin was hiding nearby and livestreaming the whole battle. The whole thing is three hours long, and it currently has over three hundred million views. Haha, you really should’ve added the words ‘Bloody Mercenaries’ to your name. Our workshop would’ve become famous overnight!”

I let out an involuntary laugh. “Forget it, it was never my plan to expand my fame this way, not to mention that I had gone way too far this time. I’m sure I pissed off the higher-ups in the Domination Clan. The Bloody Mercenaries and the Domination Clan can never reconcile.”

Du Thirteen nodded. “That’s right, it’s rumored that Dominating Archer God, Dominating Knight God, and Dominating Mage God got a severe tongue-lashing from Dominating Heaven Blade, and that they were inches away from being kicked from the guild directly. Dominating Heaven Blade is a prideful man who single-handedly built a super guild that is inferior only to Candle Dragon, and he always believed that he could do anything he wanted in Floating Ice City. I’m sure he never expected you to slap them in the face this hard.”

My eyes turned cold as I took a seat. “They shouldn’t have provoked Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls if they wanted to avoid this. Hmph, I don’t care if they’re the number one or number two guild in China, anyone who dares to bully Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will not escape my wrath!”

“Oh?”

Du Thirteen pondered for a moment before asking, “After you logged out, I saw Murong Mingyue, Xu Yang, and a beautiful knight called ‘From Water’ reviving. She’s He Yi, isn’t she?”

“Mn.”

I looked into the night outside the window and asked, “Thirteen, do you think I should meet He Yi now and confess everything?”

Du Thirteen gave me a pat on the shoulder before asking, “Do you love He Yi?”

Startled and unsure how to answer, I fell silent for a long while before saying, “I don’t know…”

“Sigh…”

“You know that the virus inside your body is incredibly unstable. How about this: delay your decision until a month later. My father should’ve made some progress by then, and you can meet He Yi once the virus has stabilized. If it acts up after you meet her, if something were to happen to you again, she’ll have to go through all that pain a second time. A man who hurts a woman may have done it out of love the first time, but a repeat offender can only be a bastard.”

I nodded. “Alright, let’s do that. One month! Let’s work hard and turn Bloody Mercenaries into a famous workshop during this time. Besides that, we’ll do our best to support Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and turn it into a Top 3 guild in Floating Ice City!”

“Okay!”

“Oh right, what are you planning to do after logging in, Lu Chen?”

“Grinding.”

“Haha, I guess I should’ve expected that. The five levels you dropped should keep you plenty busy in the next two days.”

“It’s fine, those from the Domination Clan lost even more levels. Dominating Archer God, Dominating Knight God and Dominating Mage God all fell off the Heavenly Ranking because of me, so overall it’s actually a win for me, haha!”

“Haha, that’s true!”

……

A simple dinner later, I logged into the game.

Swhoosh!

I checked my equipment after appearing in Floating Ice City’s inn. Everything was pretty much wrecked, so I immediately went to the repair merchant and spent almost 3 gold to fix everything. Ghost Ice Soul’s durability was especially low, less than 10% after all that killing, so it was incredibly expensive to repair.

Although I was only Level 45 right now, I could keep using the Level 50 Gold-grade sword as long as I didn’t remove it from my equipment slot. The same rule applied when repairing the blade. All I needed to do was speak with the repair merchant to get it fixed.

Next, I brought up the friend list. Murong Mingyue wasn’t online. But Wind Fantasy was, so I sent her a message that said, “Yiyi, are you free?”

“What is it?”

“I want to buy some high-rank potions from you. Is that fine?”

“Sure, turn around.”

“Ah?”

I turned around and was surprised to find the beautiful Light Wanderer standing on the stairs behind me, her beautiful eyes full of cunning. Lin Yixin had put on a new set of equipment. She was wearing a glowing chest armor, and the silver patterns on the metal wrapped perfectly around her astounding breasts. A pearl necklace clung around her neck, and some parts of her legs were peeking out of her armor. She looked as amazing as ever!

Lin Yixin giggled when she saw the dumbfounded expression on my face. “Hello? I thought you wanted to buy some pots? Qingqing can make Rank 4 Health Potions now, the kind that restore 800 HP in one go. Do you want some? It’ll cost you…”

I smiled and walked up to her. “Yiyi, we are close friends, aren’t we? Gimme a discount, will you? I’m so poor I almost couldn’t afford to repair my equipment. I even have to grind back all the levels I lost last night. Please take pity on this poor, broken man!”

Lin Yixin snorted exasperatedly. “Save your breath, there isn’t anyone in the world who’s poorer than me right now. How many Rank 4 Health Potions do you want? I can give you a group discount!”

I thought for a moment before answering, “In that case, gimme a hundred. It’ll be cheaper that way!”

“Mm, that’s a bit much…” Lin Yixin stuck her tongue out at me before smiling. “I don’t have that many. How about 50? I need to save some for myself you know.”

“That’s fine. How much?”

Lin Yixin rested her chin on her fist. She looked like a butcher who was evaluating her prey. A few seconds later, she said, “I guess I can sell it to you for 50 silver each, 25 gold for 50.”

“That’s still a bit expensive. How about 20?”

“Fine, fine. Come with me~”

Lin Yixin didn’t haggle with me this time. After we made our way to the warehouse manager, she took out 50 Rank 4 Health Potions, traded them to me and asked, “Lu Chen, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure?”

Lin Yixin looked at me meaningfully before asking, “If you knew me first before you knew From Water, would you have agreed to join Snowy Cathaya?”

I was caught off-guard by the question, and not sure how to answer.

“What are you waiting for? Give me an answer already,” Lin Yixin urged. I could see a hint of hope behind her beautiful eyes.

Therefore, I nodded and gave her a smile. “Sure, why not? Snowy Cathaya is a wonderful umbrella on its own, and it has a leader as beautiful as you. If one day you suddenly went crazy and decided to fall in love with me, I would be the happiest man on Earth…”

Lin Yixin’s surprise lasted for a second before her cheeks reddened rapidly. She said furiously, “Do you want to die, bastard? I… I wouldn’t fall in love with you…”

She suddenly pulled out her Snow Shadow Sword and said, “I challenge you to a duel!”

I replied, “If I win, you’ll come back with me to the Bloody Mercenaries and be my ‘mistress of the fort’…”

“Go to hell!”

Lin Yixin withdrew her blade and gave up. “You have leveling to do, right? You’re eight levels behind me. It won’t be an honorable victory even if I beat you the way you are now!”

I let out a laugh and nodded. “Okay, I’m leaving then. Oh right, thank you for coming to help me this morning. I’ll treat you to a meal when I’m free!”

“Oh, in that case I’m free tomorrow afternoon!” Lin Yixin smiled excitedly.

Without looking back at her, I added, “Didn’t you hear me? I said when I’m free, not you!”

The pretty girl stomped the ground angrily. “Screw you!”

……

I laughed loudly as I exited the front gate. Wind Fantasy was pretty much a goddess in Floating Ice City, and maybe even the China server. Not only was she incredibly powerful, she was a shatteringly beautiful woman. Meanwhile, I was a Night Creature who lurked in the darkness, and I had just gotten myself an ominous moniker, “Silver Moon Devil”. Our partnership was like a crossover between light and darkness, comedic to say the least.

The reason I said that was because everyone around me was shooting me looks and pointing at me when I bade Lin Yixin goodbye. “Fuck, he’s that guy who soloed three of the Domination Clan’s top pros last night? Fuck, he’s an acquaintance of Wind Fantasy? Fuck, this world is so unfair!”

Naturally, I couldn’t care less about their gossip. Right now the most important thing to me was regain Level 50 and grind my skills all the way up to Rank 5. Only then would my strength truly cross a new threshold.

I brought up the world map and tried to find a good place to level. A while later, I decided that Violet Forest was the best choice!

The Violet Undead Knights lurking around Violet Forest were between Level 49 and 55, a perfect range for a solo-leveler like me. Although I was only at Level 45, the Gold-grade two-handed sword, Ghost Ice Soul, was more than enough to make up for my inferior level. My offensive power was stronger than ever before, and the Dark Wasp was a good tank that was a powerhouse in its own right.

There was no reason to think Violet Forest wasn’t within my reach! My goal this time was Level 48 or higher!