I looked at the time and noted that it was past 8 pm in the evening. Although I was used to this lifestyle, the health indicator informed me that my real body’s fatigue was almost at 54%. Not everyone had what it takes to undergo such high intensity grinding and boss battles. Still, it was undoubtedly a great achievement to clear out the Devil Sealing Tower in such a short time!

The rewards I had obtained were equally as impressive. The most valuable loot of them all was undoubtedly the 2-star Outstanding weapon, Purgatory Scepter. Right below it were the 1-star Outstanding Purgatory Legguards and the insanely powerful Paralysis Ring. Third, 100 stacks of Rank 8 Leaf of Eternity, and finally fourth were the Level 75 Dark Gold–grade Bloodbreak Spear and the Level 75 Dark Gold–grade Golden Scale Bow. All in all, my journey today could be summed up in one line: my efforts had finally borne fruit!

I planned to give Gui Guzi the Bloodbreak Spear and sell the Golden Scale Bow and Purgatory Scepter.

……

Right now, I’m sure that a lot of people were still killing mobs and doing quests at Dragonfall Lake to obtain the Devil Sealing Tower’s Proof of Trial. Unfortunately for them, their toil was guaranteed to end in disappointment. It would take at least another 48 hours for the elite mobs to respawn, and probably ten to fifteen days for the bosses to respawn.

Ding~

System Notice: You have obtained the Devil Suppressing Sword. Would you like to teleport to Prophet Bly’s camp immediately?

……

What? Did the system just offer to save me some walking?

Hell yeah!

I clicked “Yes” and was teleported to the edge of Dragonfall Lake immediately. The undead camp was less than two meters away from me, and Bly was standing right there.

After I took out the Devil Suppressing Sword, Prophet Bly grew so agitated that he grabbed my shoulders and declared loudly, “Well done, oh young and brave warrior! Princess Sophia is sure to name you the ‘Violet Hero’ for this magnificent achievement!”

I shivered. Why did I feel like I had heard this before? “Well done, comrade Lu! You’ve innovated our production and improved our technology! The Party Secretary is sure to name you the ‘Planting Expert’ for this glorious achievement!”

After taking the Devil Suppressing Sword, Prophet Bly held the sword in front of his chest and caressed the blade with his right hand. The old man was literally trembling from head to toe and shedding tears of joy. “After so many years, the divine sword has finally returned to the Violet Empire once more. With this, we’ll finally be able to cut down those damnable Night Creatures and rebuild our capital city!”

After that, Prophet Bly looked at me and said, “Young undead, you’ve accomplished a near-impossible quest. Come and accept your rightful reward!”

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have completed the quest [Devil Sealing Tower’s Divine Aspirations]. You have gained 120000 EXP, 1500 Reputation and 2000 Kill Points with the Blood Dance Legion!

……

Swoosh!

I leveled up again as a flash of golden light enveloped me. I was now Level 78 and just 2 levels away from the 80 mark!

Besides that, my military rank in the Blood Dance Legion also increased!

Ding~!

System Notice: You have obtained the title “Phantom Knight”. The title reduces the experience needed to level up by 7% and increases your Blood Dance Legion command power by 1!

……

Tsk tsk, not bad at all. I wasn’t sure what “command power” meant—it probably enhanced my attack power in some ways—but it wasn’t something to rack my brains over. The answer would come to me naturally.

My role was basically over after this. Prophet Bly would be delivering the Devil Suppressing Sword to Princess Sophia and claiming all the credit for himself, and I would get nothing except what he had already given me. It was a tragedy really. I did all the hard work, and he got all the benefits. I didn’t mind though. These days, everyone who worked as a salaryman was basically toiling away to the benefit of someone else.

Beep!

Suddenly, I received a message from Murong Mingyue: “The night’s cool, and the moon’s bright. You wanna go eat at a buffet, Lu Chen?”

Smiling, I replied immediately, “Of course. Give me 5 minutes to log off, will you? You, boss and Beiming Xue can log off first. See you at the living room!”

“Mn!”

I started to feel hungry after sending Murong Mingyue off. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten or drank anything since breakfast. That wouldn’t do. Not even a literal iron-man could handle such a long period of deprivation.

I crushed the return scroll and teleported back to Floating Ice City immediately. It was currently the busiest hour of the day. According to the news, the Shanghai server would let out groans of pain everyday at 8 pm sharp since it was so busy. Since tens of millions of players were playing the game at the same time, it was practically mandatory for the servers to be linked up at least once every three days. It was because one server couldn’t possibly handle this much data flow at the same time.

Anyway, I made a beeline to Floating Ice City’s auction house and sought out the master auctioneer. First, I took out the Golden Scale Bow and set the bottom price to 10000 gold. When I turned the item in to the auctioneer, a ding suddenly entered my ears.

System Notice: The equipment you submitted is good enough to enter the Top 100 of the city’s equipment ranking. Would you like to activate “Public Auction”? Would you like to announce your player ID?

……

I was pleasantly surprised by the notice. It’s really looking like I’m gonna be rich this time!

I declined to announce my player ID. It was generally not a good idea to boast your wealth. Then, I set the Golden Scale Bow to go on auction 180 minutes later. This should be enough time for most archers to spread the news like wildfire, increase competitiveness and raise the price even more as a result!

After I was done setting up everything, I clicked “Yes” on the final confirmation screen.

Ding~!

System Announcement: All players, please be informed that player XXXX has put up the Golden Scale Bow (LV-75, Dark Gold–grade, 240 Attack, Strength +50, Agility +42, Max HP +20%) for auction. The item will enter the bidding phase in 3 hours. All interested players, please proceed to the auction house and take your numbers before the auction starts!

……

Haha! I wasn’t expecting the system to put up such a huge advertisement for me! But I supposed that I should’ve expected it. It was one of the many ways Eternal Moon Corporation cashed in on their game after all. It would be a bad idea to allow auctions set up by private organizations to grow more famous than theirs, so they took measures to ensure that they were always ahead in the game. Besides that, a 5% fee was incurred every time an item was transacted through the auction house. It was just one of the many proofs that gaming companies were just as vicious and greedy as the other companies out there.

But of course, this was nothing compared to the countless tolls that were set up throughout the highways of China.

The Golden Scale Bow was hardly the most valuable item I planned to auction today, however. This time, I submitted the 2-star Outstanding Purgatory Scepter and set the bottom price to 100k gold. I didn’t put an upper limit. Just like the Golden Scale Bow, I set the auction to begin in 3 hours!

As expected, another announcement reverberated through the skies of Floating Ice City after I confirmed the Purgatory Scepter for bidding.

Ding~!

System Announcement: All players, please be informed that player XXXX has put up the Purgatory Scepter (LV-75, Dark Gold–grade, 2-star Outstanding, 355 Magic Attack, Intelligence +52, Stamina +42, Magic Attack +12%, Magic Shield Durability +40%, Skill: Snowstorm) for auction. The item will enter the bidding phase in 3 hours. All interested players, please proceed to the auction house and take your numbers before the auction starts!

……

Obviously, the Purgatory Scepter was the real focus here. To explain the value of a 2-star Outstanding Dark Gold–grade scepter, all you needed to do was point out that 99% of the players out there hadn’t even seen a Dark Gold–grade item, let alone one with the Outstanding rating. Going by that line of thought, who wouldn’t be excited by the emergence of a 2-star Outstanding Purgatory Scepter?

There were almost a hundred players around me when I submitted the scepter, and as expected all of them had frozen up like a statue the moment the public announcement was made. When they finally recovered themselves, they looked at each other in shock. “WTF! Did I hear that right? Did someone seriously put up a 2-star Outstanding Dark Gold–grade weapon for auction? Unbelievable! How on earth did someone find an Outstanding item at this stage of the game? They must be incredible!”

To avoid becoming the center of the attention, I hid my player ID and nodded in agreement like everyone else. Then, I said, “Yeah, that guy had to be an incredibly smart, wise, magnanimous and ambitious player!”

“Fuck…”

Everyone glared at me like they wanted to kick my ass. In fact, I was pretty sure there would be a brawl if my gear wasn’t good enough to dissuade them!

……

I ran out of the auction house feeling very pleased with myself. I shall come back three hours later to collect my money!

I checked my bag and noted that I still had a hundred stacks of Leaf of Eternity. If they hadn’t taken up most of my bag space, I would’ve been able to return with a couple more valuable items and sell them as well. In other words, it was time to slaughter Lin Yixin’s wallet! I wouldn’t be able to face the champ who had toiled away at the Devil Sealing Tower that was myself otherwise!

I brought up the friend list and saw that Beauty Lin was online. I immediately sent her a message: “Hi, pretty~”

She replied just as quickly: “Hi, stupid~”

“Fuck!”

I replied in righteous fury. “I promise that the next half of your life will be full of regrets if you don’t return to Floating Ice City in the next 30 seconds!”

Lin Yixin didn’t reply, but in less than 10 seconds the teleportation circle flashed silver and admitted a beautiful light wanderer. It was none other than Lin Yixin, of course. Her head was covered in a couple of maple leaves, and there was blood on the blade of her Moonlight Sword. Clearly, she was either PvPing or killing mobs right until the moment she saw my dire message.

Lin Yixin slowly made her way toward me as her war boots creaked against the stone floor. I felt like my heart was fluttering as much as the cape behind her. After stopping in front of me, she looked at me and the Dark Wasp buzzing next to my head before smiling. “Alright, I’m here. Now, why did you summon me so urgently? I promise your whole life will be full of regrets if it’s something trivial!”