Chapter 137 – Leaderboards (1/2)
Chapter 137 – Leaderboards
Since Tang Yao had contributed the most to slaying the Scaled Frog, he received a much larger share of the experience. As such, the generous amount of experience granted by a Level 30 Elite caused him to immediately level up.
In an effort to encourage people to challenge themselves, players would receive more experience if they killed a monster above their level. Depending on how high the monster’s level was, the experience they would receive could be as much as several times or higher. However, at the same time, the higher the monster’s level, the more difficult it was to hunt due to the level penalties. Players like Nie Yan, who relied on special methods to hunt higher level monsters, were especially rare. So even if he didn’t focus all his energy into training, he would still be able to gradually overtake the vast majority of players in level.
“Holy crap, amazing! I levelled up!” Tang Yao exclaimed. He had never seen such a huge jump in `experience before. Even though he had just recently reached Level 10, with just one kill, his experience bar had gone from 1% all the way up to 100%—resulting in him levelling up to Level 11 with 7% already filled! If he kept levelling at this speed, then even attaining the top position on the leaderboards wouldn’t be a problem!
Nie Yan leisurely walked up to the Scaled Frog’s corpse.
“Let’s see what it dropped.” Saying that, he bent down and picked up the drops from the ground: 26 silver, a Fortune Gem, and Thief Leg Guards.
Shadow Wind Leg Guards (Gold)
Requirements: Level 30
Properties: Defense 133–135, Balance +12, Jump +15, Resilience +23
Weight: 12 lb
Restrictions: Thief; can be equipped by all factions.
The Shadow Wind Set, one of the better Level 30 Thief sets, consisted of three pieces of gear: leg guards, shoulder guards, and bracers. When a player equipped all three pieces, they would gain a set bonus of +30% Movement Speed and the Annihilating Edge skill. As he wasn’t Level 30, he still couldn’t equip it yet. Although he might’ve already gone off and found something better by the time he did reach Level 30, he planned to hold on to these leg guards nonetheless. Just in case he didn’t find anything, the Shadow Wind Set would serve as a decent stand-in.
“A piece of Thief equipment dropped along with 26 silver and a Fortune Gem,” Nie Yan looked back over his shoulder and informed Tang Yao.
“Huh…? Oh! Well, let me know if any Mage equipment drops. You can take everything else.” Still in amazement, Tang Yao was a little slow to respond.
Just as the pair was about to move on, an important announcement appeared in the chat.
System Notice: Victorious Return has placed a 50-silver bounty on the head of player Nirvana Flame. The amount will be paid out each time to whoever kills the designated player and forcing them to drop a level. To claim the reward, provide sufficient evidence at Victorious Return’s guild headquarters.
Tang Yao, stunned by the announcement, turned to Nie Yan and asked, “Why did Victorious Return put out a bounty on your head? Was it because of those three players you killed?” Just who in the world did Nie Yan piss off for Victorious Return to go after him in such a way?
Even Nie Yan himself didn’t expect Victorious Return to place such a large bounty on his head. This meant he would need to be a bit more careful when setting foot outside of the city in the future. He smiled at Tang Yao and said, “Ah, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a bounty. They’d have to kill me for it to mean anything. Besides, I’m a Thief. What’s so scary about having a bounty on my head?”
Nie Yan’s carefree and relaxed appearance was a stark contrast to Tang Yao’s anxious and brooding expression. The latter recalled the words of the former, about forming their own guild and how a single person’s power was meaningless in the face of a larger enemy. Taking these things into consideration, it seemed obvious his brother’s true feelings weren’t as laid-back as he made them out to be on the surface.
A lone player going up against an entire guild, surely the pressure they’d be facing would be immense…
“If you’re seriously planning to face them alone, I guarantee you’ll be the one coming out of it on the losing end. Come on, let’s establish a guild together and fight them head-on. It’s better than being chased around everywhere and hiding for your life,” Tang Yao suddenly declared in a resolute tone.
“Hoh… Didn’t you say earlier that you were only interested in leisurely training and chasing girls?” Nie Yan chuckled in response. “Don’t worry, they won’t be able to do anything to me, at least not for the time being”
“What kind of man would I be if I still had the leisure to train and chase girls after hearing my brother is being hunted down?” Tang Yao spat on the ground. “God dammit! What’s so amazing about them? You only killed three of theirs, yet they’re sending the entire gang after you! Let’s form a guild and tear them a new one! When we get back, I’ll immediately start recruiting!”
“Are you certain about this?” Nie Yan asked.
“What? Would you be better off if I wasn’t?” Tang Yao replied. He never was someone who cared for something useless to him like power. Him establishing a guild was purely for the sake of helping Nie Yan out of this pickle.
Nie Yan stayed silent for a brief while. Establishing a guild was going to be a little difficult, but what kind of task wasn’t when starting completely from scratch? Even the tallest skyscrapers were built from the ground up. He was planning to establish a guild anyway, so now was as good a time as any. It was still too early for him to be stepping foot onto the stage, but thankfully Tang Yao was going to take his place. With him personally guiding things from behind the scenes, what heights wouldn’t they be able to achieve?
After some deep contemplation, he finally came to an answer, stored all the drops in his bag, and then said, “Let’s go, we’re heading to the next target.”
“There’s more Elites in this zone?”
“This zone is pretty large. It covers two entire mountains. Thanks to that, there are still two more areas where we can find Elites. After we’re done with them, we can go hunt the Sub-Elites.”
“Awesome, let’s go then!” Tang Yao felt invigorated after seeing all the experience he gained from the Elite Scaled Frog. After hearing there were two more, he couldn’t help but get a little excited.
Meanwhile, Nie Yan continued to ponder some more. If he wished to rally the support of the playerbase and get others to join their guild, then fame would be extremely crucial. After all, who would join the guild of some nobody they’ve never even heard of? And what better way to gain fame than the through the level leaderboards? Toppling Heaven Breaker from his number one position would deal a heavy blow to Victorious Return. Moreover, with enough fame and prestige, players would blindly flock over to their side. As long as there was an initial push, the number of people applying to their guild would snowball as they became progressively more popular. Regardless of what the future had in store for them, they would still need to take the first step to make anything happen.
As the pair ventured forth, Nie Yan suddenly received a call from Sleepy Fox.