Lin Yixin and I started sweeping the battlefield, but I was in no hurry. The 2000 or so shadow-rank mobs we killed had dropped at least 500 pieces of equipment, and since I had 500 slots in my bag and Lin Yixin only had 120, I didn’t mind giving her the first pick. In the end, I was still going to be the biggest winner of the two of us.

I carefully searched through the stacks of equipment on the ground and picked up the best of the bunch. Most of them were Silver-grade, and some Gold-grade. Besides that, I made sure to pick up all the Snow Rabbit Meat and used Death Plunder to get even more. Rational exploitation was the royal road to success!

Soon, my bag was filled with 192 stacks, or 19200, of Snow Rabbit Meat in total. If I were to sell them at the current market price—20 gold per one bundle of 10—each stack of 100 Snow Rabbit Meat was worth 200 gold. This meant that I was carrying the equivalent of 40k gold in my bag right now!

As expected, the greatest profits almost always belonged to the greatest players in a game. By the time most players had become strong enough to hunt Snow Rabbits, the price of its meat would’ve dropped like a rock just like the Turtle Meat and Chicken Meat. That was how the market functioned in the game, and only those who knew them well could earn the highest profits before everyone else caught up with the trend.

……

We finished sweeping the battlefield not long after. Lin Yixin was responsible for gathering the Frozen Earth set pieces, and after we were done she ran up to me excitedly and said, “Wawa! I found 14 Frozen Earth set pieces in total, Lu Chen! It’s just enough to make up two full sets! We’re rich~~”

I narrowed my eyes. “Hehe, yeah. Don’t lose them!”

“Mn, mn!”

I opened my own bag and looked over my loot. Surprisingly, there was a ton of powerful items, and the best ones moved even me—

Cold Blade Wristguards: Level 95 Gold-grade, metal armor. Defense +170, max HP +5%, Tactics +10.

Dark Scale Chest Armor: Level 95 Gold-grade, leather armor. Defense +145, Agility +50, critical rate +3%, Tactics +14.

Chest Armor of Barbaric Strength: Level 95 Dark Gold–grade, metal armor. Defense +245, HP +700, Tactics +15, Defense +5%.

……

Tsk tsk, the Chest Armor of Barbaric Strength was undoubtedly the best item out of all the loot I had picked up so far. It was unthinkable that a Level 115 shadow-rank monster would drop a Dark Gold–grade item though. Previously, they only dropped from boss monsters, and the drop rate was depressingly low.

When most players had risen to Level 110 or so, the equipment war would welcome a new era. Dark Gold–grade equipment would become common, and Purple Gold–grade, Spirit-grade, and Immortal-grade equipment would enter the limelight for several months to half a year. Finally, we would enter the Divine-grade era, and would usher the golden age of true kings and heroes.

I took out the Chest Armor of Barbaric Strength and asked Lin Yixin, “Take a look at this. Do you need it?”

“Ah?!” Lin Yixin’s mouth fell open in astonishment. “Did it drop from a Snow Rabbit?”

“Yeah. Do you want it?”

“Ohh, it feels embarrassing to take this…”

“Fuck…”

Dumbfounded by her act, I tossed the chest armor into her hands and said, “Since neither of us have a use for it, let’s sell it together with the Frozen Earth sets and split the profit in half later. Is that okay?”

Lin Yixin shot me a grateful look. “Mn. Thank you, Lu Chen.”

“You’re welcome. We’re close friends, aren’t we?”

“Mn mn.”

Lin Yixin probably needed the money more than me anyway. In fact, I actually had more money than I needed right now. I could buy a house, but I didn’t want to because it was too troublesome. I already bought a car not long ago, and I didn’t need another one. Well, whatever. I’ll just pretend that I’m saving up for my marriage funds or something. There isn’t a man or woman in the world who would complain that they have too much money.

In the end, I kept all the excellent equipment, and I gave Lin Yixin the best ones to sell. We would share the profit for the Frozen Earth set and the Chest Armor of Barbaric Strength, but the rest would belong to her. I had over 200 Silver-grade and Dark Steel–grade items in my bag anyway, and even if I sold them all at a shop I would still be getting a lot of money out of it.

I didn’t dare give Lin Yixin money directly because the act itself carried various implications. For example, it would look like I was providing for a mistress or a lover, and I had zero intentions of becoming Lin Yixin’s sugardaddy.

……

Thankfully, Lin Yixin was an incredibly smart woman. She didn’t say anything, but I knew that she knew why I was going about this the roundabout way as clear as day.

I looked at Snow Rabbits that Lin Yixin missed scattered across the icy plains. I checked the time and noted that it was 12:30 pm, but not only was I not hungry at all, I felt possessed by a deep excitement.

Lin Yixin looked at me with a smile. “Should we continue?”

That was exactly what I was hoping to do, so I nodded immediately. “Yeah. We’ll skip lunch and have dinner together, okay?”

“Mn mn!”

Lin Yixin stepped on the snow and took off again. She looked like a snow fairy as her snow-colored battle robes flapped to the wind.

It wasn’t long before a new group of Snow Rabbits was lured to our choke point. Although the number was incomparable to the first time, it was still an exhilarating amount of Snow Rabbits! Now that I knew that these mobs had a chance of dropping Dark Gold–grade equipment, my motivation was as high as the sky. Sure, the drop rate was depressingly low, but it was the same feeling as buying a lottery ticket. Maybe I might hit the jackpot again? Who knows!

……

So far the grind had been a wonderful experience, especially since my partner was a gorgeous beauty. Lin Yixin looked pretty happy herself, although it was because I was a peak expert who could fight at close or long range and not because of my stunningly good looks!

Thousand Mirage Slash, Ice Flame Slash, and Dragon Slaying Slash kept ringing across the icy plains as the Snow Rabbits dropped dead and yielded a ton of equipment and experience. Everything was perfect thus far.

Beep!

It was at this moment I received a message from Murong Mingyue. “Lu Chen, Warsky put a bounty to your head, didn’t he? Did he catch you?”

“No, not yet. What’s wrong, sis?”

“No, just asking if you would like to have lunch together.”

“Not this time, sis. I’m grinding right now!”

“I bet it’s a wonderful experience to grind with Beauty Lin, huh?”

“And how did you know that?”

“Hmph hmph, she leveled up twice in a morning. What would you think if you were in my place?”

What the heck? Lin Yixin leveled up twice already? I turned around to look at Lin Yixin, and it was exactly as Murong Mingyue said. The girl had leveled up from 97 to 99, but I was only at 78%. As I thought, the amount of experience needed to level from 99 to 100 was insane!

Murong Mingyue said in an aggrieved tone, “You haven’t grinded with me for a long time, you heartless bastard…”

Feeling a bit apologetic, I replied, “I should be able to hit Level 100 by today, so I’ll grind with you and Beiming Xue after I finish my fourth promotion, okay?”

“Mn. It’s a promise!”

“Yeah!”

After bidding Murong Mingyue goodbye, I shifted my focus back to grinding. She contacted me probably because she was worried about the bounty Warsky had put on my head, but it was probably unnecessary. There were Level 115 mobs all over the place, and even Warsky himself would be hard-pressed to make it to our location safely. Suppose that he brought 1000 players to the mountain, he would be lucky to lose only 900 by the time he reached us.

Back to the grind. I’m not quitting until I hit Level 100 today!

Our equipment, pots, and magic consumables declined steadily as we dispatched the second horde of Snow Rabbits in another two hours or so. Unfortunately, I had hit the max limit on my bagspace, and I was forced to throw away some trash equipment to fit all the Snow Rabbit Meat I gathered. In the end, 500 slots still weren’t enough to meet my needs. If only I could have a bag with unlimited space...

When I shared my thoughts with Lin Yixin, she immediately retorted with scathing criticism. Even now, most players in the world still didn’t have a bag and had to struggle with 20 slots every day. She said that my dream to have unlimited space was absolutely insensitive...

It wasn’t long before I had 350 stacks of Snow Rabbit Meat in my bag, enough to last me for months without returning. The rest of the ingredients necessary to make the Rank 8 Magic Consumables—Green Pepper, Garlic, and Salt—could be purchased for cheap at the market, so I obviously wasn’t going to bother foraging them myself.

For a time, I felt like my senses were flooded by an overwhelming sense of happiness. Right now, my bag was filled to the brim with 350 stacks of Snow Rabbit Meat, 40 stacks of Magic Consumables, 40 stacks of potions, and top-tier equipment. Tsk tsk, I couldn’t wait to count the money I earned after the sale!

……

As it turned out, Lin Yixin was even more excited than I was. She grabbed my sword handle and laughed. “That’s four complete sets of Frozen Earth set! We’re rich, we’re rich!! Hehe!!”

I nodded. “Yes, we are. We can practically eat at a restaurant every day after this!”

“Mn!”

Lin Yixin looked at herself to check her equipment’s durability. After six to seven hours of hardcore grinding, her weapon had less than 50% durability, and her equipment had less than 20% durability left. My weapon was even worse off than her equipment, however. Thousand Mirage Slash was a powerful skill, but it also cost an insane amount of durability because every hit counted as an attack, meaning that I was losing 9 times the durability every time I used it. As a result, my Purgatory Sword was sitting at less than 10% durability right now.

“We’re almost all out of durability. Should we head back?” Lin Yixin asked with a smile.

I looked at my experience bar and noted that I was sitting at 98%, literally 2% away from hitting Level 100, so I said, “Can we continue just a bit longer until I hit Level 100?”

“Sure!”

Lin Yixin nodded and started walking back to the other side of the cliff. However, a couple of figures suddenly appeared at the horizon, and they were no Snow Rabbits. They were players!

There were four of them in total. One of them was even a familiar face. The guy at the front of the party was a high-level warrior clad in excellent armor. He wielded a sword that glowed with wavy light, and his features seemed to be permanently etched with a pair of gloomy eyes and a small but disgusting smile. His shoulder was shining with an ugly ass guild insignia, and the line of text floated above his head stated—

Pillar of the Nation LV-89 Silver Warrior

Guild: Hegemon Palace

Guild Position: Leader

……

“OMG, it’s Hegemon Palace. I guess our plan is busted now…” Lin Yixin whispered.

I was too busy staring at the cyan-armored warrior walking behind Pillar of the Nation to respond to her though. This man was utterly silent, and he was gripping a huge cyan sword. The name above his head was even more astonishing—

Little Piglet LV-95 Silver Cold Wind Swordsman

Guild: Hegemon Palace

Guild Position: Vice Leader

……

My pupils shrank. Fuck! Little Piglet the Cold Wind Swordsman had finally appeared, and he was the vice leader of Hegemon Palace!