The next day, I blinked blearily at the incoming sunlight as I woke up. It was already past 3 pm. Obviously, our long grind at Bloodthirsty Castle was the reason I woke up so late. The Level 300+ mobs were difficult enough to deal with, but I had to watch out for Dark Mercenaries, Blood Alliance and God’s Domain as well. It had taken an inhuman amount of effort and concentration to juggle it all.

I got out of bed and went to the living room. Lian Xin was eating some snacks, and He Yi was drying her hair.

After I was done cleaning myself, I ate a few slices of bread, poured a glass of warm water on the table and sat down beside He Yi. "Is everything okay? Nothing big happened to the guild while we were grinding at Bloodthirsty Castle, right?"

"Nope. However…"

He Yi pointed at the notebook on the table. "Dark Moon City had come under the limelight once more after we upgraded it with the Vassal Token. See, there’s even a suspicious uncle using it to analyze the current picture of the China server…"

I looked. It was a stickied thread posted by a person named "Storyteller”. The thread had a lot of views and replies.

"The Vassal Token Appears, and Dark Moon City Rises"

It was the wee hours when the best players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls—Lu Chen, He Yi, Beiming Xue and more—returned to Dark Moon City. They had just completed an expedition to Bloody Shield Domain, and their reward was an item called the "Vassal Token" that would affect the power dynamics of the entire China server.

As we are all aware, "Duplicate Mount" and "Mounted Archery Training" are the unique skills of Dark Moon City. They are the main reason the Dragonlight Cavalry and Dragonlight Archers are the greatest cavalry troops in the entire world. However, it looks like the Vassal Token is going to extend their insurmountable lead even more than it already was.

There are two things the Vassal Token did for Dark Moon City. First, it reduces the cost of both unique skills by 50%. Theoretically speaking, this means that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls can now create twice as many Dragonlight Cavalrymen and Archers. This isn’t the best boon they got out of the Vassal Token, however. Game balance is key in an MMORPG, and no one’s skill, class and so on are so broken that it may as well be a cheat. In the case of Duplicate Mount, it is unable to duplicate any mount that is higher than Earth Rank.

Not anymore. The Vassal Token has cleverly circumvented this requirement by upgrading the original mount, the Earth Rank Dragonscale Beast, to a Quasi-Immortal Rank Boss mount directly. Not only that, the upgrade applies to all existing Dragonscale Beasts as well. What this means is that the Vassal Token has transformed the Dragonlight Cavalry into a true game-breaking army that is both indestructible and unstoppable. According to my calculations, Warsky Alliance’s Gold Cavalry is now only 71% as strong as the enhanced Dragonlight Cavalry, not to mention that they have a late start to begin with. How can they hope to surpass Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ new Dragonlight Cavalry now? At the very least, that letter of challenge will have to be postponed for a very long time.

How should Warsky Alliance overcome this gap? Should they start developing giant dragon mounts, or should they target some strange beasts that have never been seen before? And don’t get me started on the power of the Seventy-two Ghost Armaments. Can Warsky still keep a firm grip over his Immortal Blade now that Lu Chen has obtained the Song of Freedom? Can Candlelight Shadow still smile even though Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ climb shows no signs of stopping anytime soon?

……

All things considered, it was a fairly objective analysis. It was a fact that the new Dragonlight Cavalry seemed almost unbeatable. It was also true that Warsky Alliance’s Gold Cavalry was going to have a hard time surpassing them. Theoretically speaking, Warsky could shorten the gap by grabbing a Vassal Token of his own, but even if the item was common—and it wasn’t, not even close—there were multiple types of Vassal Token. Not all of them could increase a city’s stats. [1]

Next, I looked at the replies. Unfortunately for Warsky, he didn’t manage to steal the 2nd post this time—

1st comment (Player "Ring Ring Ring"): Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, the kindest and dearest guild of them all!

2nd comment (Player "Ling Xueshang"): Poor He Yi, poor Lu Chen. I can’t believe you spent half the midnight grinding away at Bloody Shield Domain...

3rd comment (Player "Candlelight Shadow"): Congratulations to Lu Chen and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls for obtaining the Vassal Token. Only a powerful competitor can elevate Candle Dragon and the China server itself to greater heights!

4th comment (Player "Phantom Dust"): I would like to join Ancient Sword. Can anyone recommend me? I’m a Level 219 magic knight with Immortal-grade necklace, ring and weapon, and Outstanding Heaven-grade everything else. Please recommend me. Please make me a Dragonlight Cavalryman!!

5th comment (Player "Roaming Dragon"): This Storyteller has to be a shill, right? Or do you really think Ancient Sword is this powerful? Disgusting. Just watch. Purgatory Mad Dragon’s super unit will destroy everything!

6th comment (Player "Chaos Moon"): Everyone, look above me! It’s the most shameless bastard you’ll ever meet!

7th comment (Player "Blue Peaks"): Agreed. Purgatory Mad Dragon may have the numbers, but they would have never made it to the Top 10 without Little Piglet.

……

……

120993th comment (Player "Warsky"): Come on, I just woke up from bed, and there are 120 THOUSAND comments already? Anyway, I think you’re trying to get Lu Chen to PK me, Storyteller. So what if he has the Song of Freedom? Everyone knows that the Immortal Blade is mine. Do you think Lu Chen will break his principles and PK me for my equipment? Even if he did, I’m not just going to stand there and lose it, you know, not to mention that I have 1.4 million brothers and sisters behind me as well. Take my weapon from me, and my entire guild will chase you to the ends of the earth!

……

……

148282th comment (Player "Stranger of Three Lifetimes"): Man, Warsky is arrogant as hell, isn’t he? My woman’s intuition is telling me that he’s either going to lose his Immortal Blade to Lu Chen’s Song of Freedom, or better, Red Maple’s Crimson Dragon Arm. We’ll have the perfect reason to raid Wallow Ear—ah pooh, I mean Swallow Ear—Canton then...

138283th comment (Player "Eyes Like Water"): You are right, my lady. By the way, can you please not spend so much time in the bath during the night, my lady? I need the hot water too, my lady...

148284th comment (Player "Nono"):...

……

The comments were growing out of control at this point, so I stopped reading and said, "Well, Warsky isn’t wrong to be worried. His grip on the Immortal Blade is starting to weaken…"

He Yi chuckled. "Are you really going to PK him with Chains of Freedom?"

"Nah…"

I replied after thinking for a moment, "It would make me seem too petty. We’re going to war with Warsky Alliance anyway, so a suitable opportunity will arise eventually. When the time comes, I promise you that he’ll grow to loathe Song of Freedom."

“Mn. Where is Yiyi, by the way? Why isn’t she here yet?"

"It can’t be too long now."

"By the way, Zhou Ping only required the three of us to go, right? I think so…"

It wasn’t long before there was a rapping sound on the door. The Fruit Knife Goddess wore a black windbreaker and a white mini skirt today, looking as gorgeous as a white flower that stands strong despite the winter chills. She beamed at me and said, "The last time I went to a bar, I was in junior high school. I never thought that I would receive an invitation like this again. Though, I guess I should thank Little Cheat for this one~~"

I said, "If we depart by 4 pm, we’ll arrive at Shanghai past 5. We’ll eat dinner first before we head to the bar. By the way, what’s the name of the bar again? It only opens after 10 pm, right?"

He Yi nodded. "It’s called Chance Bar, and it’s one of the chains Zhou Ping owns. The reason she’s acting so ceremoniously is because the bar at Shanghai is her flagship bar."

I grinned. "Sounds good. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a bar myself. In fact, I’ve been to Sky City’s adventurer tavern more than I’ve been to a real bar…"

He Yi giggled. "Oh right, I heard that Zhou Ping is also inviting a female celebrity to her bar too! I think she’s called… Zhou Xiaomeng?"

I was surprised. "Huh. Is that the one who sang ‘Miniskirt’?"

"Yes, yes, that’s her!"

Lin Yixin nodded smilingly. "I know that one. I’ve even spent a couple of days learning it. Unfortunately, Lil Beiming is still a better singer than me… I keep going off-key…"

I looked at her white miniskirt and her long, pale legs before chuckling. "It’s fine. I have a feeling that the song will suit you perfectly nonetheless. In fact, let’s have a karaoke battle with Zhou Xiaomeng later…"

While saying this, I searched for Zhou Xiaomeng on my phone and exclaimed, "Oh, she’s quite the beauty…"

"Really?" Both He Yi and Lin Yixin asked at the same time.

I hurriedly changed my tune, "Ahem, she’s nothing compared to Eve and Yiyi though…"

Lian Xin chuckled. "How pragmatic of you, big brother Lu Chen… Anyway, Sister Mingyue and I won’t be joining you all to your dinner party tonight because we’ll be grinding a high-level map at Dragonbone Mountain Range with Lil Beiming, Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi. Not all of us can be Level 239 like you, big brother Lu Chen. We need to grind experience to secure our lead over our enemies…"

I nodded. "Okay! The guild will be in your hands until Eve and I return. The Dragonlight Cavalrymen and Archers are more powerful than ever before, and Beiming has just gotten a new mount. Help her grind her mount to adult stage as soon as possible!"

"We will. By the way, you’re not coming back tonight, right? So, see you tomorrow!"

"See you."

……

I had chose a black casual wear for the occasion. He Yi had taken a page from Lin Yixin and put on a windbreaker, a plaid shirt, a mini skirt and a pair of leather boots. The attire have her a fresh but stylish appearance. There were both good news and bad news about this. The good news was that they looked gorgeous as hell. The bad news was that we immediately became the center of attention almost the second we exited the apartment. I could already imagine some salivating men cursing me with all their might: "His first time won’t exceed 10 seconds", "he won’t have a full hard on for the rest of his life", "his dick will shrink by 10 cm after it reaches adulthood" [2] and so on.

"Which car are we driving today?" I asked.

He Yi replied, "Let’s ride in Yiyi’s Porsche today. My Lamborghini can’t fit all of us…"

I nodded. "Works for me. Let’s go!"

"Mn!"

……

This model of Porsche Panamera was like a huge silver carp head. It had an incredibly low ride height, and it moved so fast that we reached downtown Shanghai in less than one and a half hours. Unfortunately, we were stopped by a traffic jam and remained in it until past 7 pm. Damned rush hour. When the clock turned to 7:30 pm, we finally arrived at the entrance of Chance Bar. Hugging Bears In Silence was standing right there and waving us to a parking space. She had worn a sexy black dress today. "Over here! This is the last ground parking space in the area…"

Gratitude filled me for a moment. There were many reasons Shanghai was called Modu (Demon Capital), and the impossibility of finding a parking spot was one of them!

Zhou Ping was present as well. After I parked my car, she walked up to us and said with a wide smile on her face, "I thought you would arrive sooner…"

I replied, "It’s rush hour. If anything, we should be thankful we weren’t stuck until 10 pm. Anyway, where are we eating tonight?"

Zhou Ping hummed for a moment. "Well, what do you want to eat?"

"I want meat!" I replied without hesitation.

"I’m fine with anything…" He Yi said.

"Something tasty or nuthin’!" Lin Yixin declared firmly.

Zhou Ping giggled at our responses. "In that case, we’ll grab you a hotpot before we head to the bar. While we wait for the food to arrive, I’ll fetch you some snacks to tide you over. Is that fine?"

"Yes, thanks."

1. T/N: this confirms that this Vassal Token is a different from the previous Vassal Token that was used to declare a territory war

2. T/N: when does a dick reach adulthood? When it graduates from virginity, of course!