Chapter 65 – Addicted to Money
This chapter was sponsored by William Wang and Johannes Ganghofner!
“Time to go…”
I take a deep breath and hold onto my sword. A level 40 Tigerman. The only thing I’m afraid of is that its attack is higher than the Bearman’s. On a side note, the Tigerman’s form is a lot cooler than the Bearman’s. The Bearman is just a huge bear crawling on the ground while the Tigerman is a human form warrior with the face of a tiger!
“If I kill him then my mission will be 0.1% finished!”
I activate[Haste] and [Defense] and then grasp my sword and dash towards it. Killing monsters doesn’t require extensive body control, so this guy shouldn’t be a problem. Before I even get close to the Tigerman, a golden hexagram starts to appear on my sword, level 4 [Combo]!
Bang bang bang…
With the attacks of the [Combo], all 3 sword strikes land, but the attacks weren’t as effective as I had hoped——
“247!”
“229!”
“221!”
Damn! Even after 3 strikes, I only did 700 or so damage. Is my sword falling apart? No, it’s still at 100% Durability!
The Tigerman suddenly stands up and reveals a sinister smile. It raises its claws and laughs, “Ignorant human! You are looking to die if you invade my territory!”
Whoosh!
The claws magically extend 2-3 yards out. This is the monster’s attack?!
I have no way of dodging it and I feel a pain blossom on my shoulder; I lost a huge chunk of HP——
Tick!
Battle Notification: You’ve been struck by the Tigerman’s 【Violent Sweep】 and lost 311 HP!
……
I almost fainted from the pain. Although I didn’t get killed instantly, I lost 311 of my HP with only one strike. What kind of attack damage is that?
My body trembles slightly and Bobo repositions himself. I rush towards the other side of the Tigerman and with a whoosh a ray of light appears under me. I start my custom combo, [Strength of a Thousand Men]!
“78!”
“98!”
“82!”
“117!”
“614!”
……
A series of attack damage numbers fly up and I regain some confidence. [Strength of a Thousand Men]’s [Wind Blade] is still a reliable attack. Even though the Tigerman has such a high defense, it still can’t go against my [Wind Blade]!
At the same time I feel a wave of pain on my shoulder. The Tigerman’s attacks are extremely fast and it finished two strikes in an instant. It even bellowed loudly, trying to scare me!
Whoosh!
“+600”
I cast [Heal] to recover 600 HP and return to a safe HP range where I’m not in danger of dying. Unless the Tigerman has another trick that can instantly kill me, I can live if I have good control over my pet and myself!
Using the 12 pet-man tactics that Wan Er gave me, I slowly step deeper and deeper into understanding how the game works and the differences between it and reality. It goes without saying that as I understand more and more, my power in game becomes stronger and stronger.
At the same time as I was using [Strength of a Thousand Men], my mind lingered on something else. How was Jian Feng Han able to break my combo, making my 4th strike miss? Now that I think of it, the biggest weakness in my combo was my pause between strikes. Although I learned the combo, it doesn’t mean that it’s omnipotent. In fact every combo will have some imperfection and since Feng Han’s insight and control are both top-class, it’s fairly normal for him to break my combo.
Whoosh!
My sword slices through the air as soon as I finish my 3rd strike of [Strength of a Thousand Men] on the Tigerman, I rush next to the Tigerman. Thus, when the 4th strike, my ram, lands, the Tigerman has no time to react and he gets stunned for at least 1 second. As I thought, by rushing towards my target, the time between the 3rd and 4th strike got shortened. At the same time I hear a ring next to my ear——
Ding!
System Notification: Player has successfully realized secret arts, harmony with your combo 【Strength of a Thousand Men】 has increased by 0.9%!
……
Oh? Harmony?!
I’ve finally understood! After creating a custom combo, there’s still this thing called harmony. Now I’m even more certain that the programmers who participated in creating < > were skilled in real life; or else they would not have possibly been able to make these small details. Mm, this game is getting more and more interesting!
……
Growl!
Yet another Tigerman falls dead in front of me and I pick up the silver coins and throw them into my bag. I look at my mission progress: 14/1000. It looks like that I need to spend the entire morning here. But, from fighting so many Tigerman, I’ve figured out a couple knacks. The behavior of the Tigermen are indeed very violent, not only do they have strong skills such as [Violent Sweep], they also have another one called [Mountain Sink], which raises defense 10 times; which is why I can’t seem to able to scratch these Tigerman.
Well I continue anyways, kill kill kill!
I keep on going until 10 o’clock in the morning and finally with a clang, after I killed off the 419th Tigerman, besides the black-iron and green equipment, it dropped a shiny item. An Illustration card, a blood-red illustration card. It’s the Tigerman’s illustration! As I hold the card in my palm, my face is full of tears. Ahh, thank you God…
Whoosh!
The seal disappears in my palm and it enters as one in my seal window. From now I can seal Tigermen whenever I want!
【Tigerman】
Attack: ★★★★☆
Defense: ★★★★☆
HP: ★★★☆
Agility: ★★★☆
Magic Power: ★★☆
Skills: 【Violent Sweep】【Mountain Sink】
……
I look at the seal once again and double check, the Tigerman’s stats are really nice. In addition, the path that these pets take is very obvious, strength + defense, 5 points in strength to maintain a strong attack and 5 points in defense to maintain the strong front. With its 4.5 stars in attack and defense, it’s enough to guarantee good basic stats for the pet. So this is a good all-around pet!
At the current stage, people like Yan Zhao Warrior and Jian Feng Han have attack oriented pets. They all have extremely strong attack damage but don’t have enough defense. When they meet the high attack, high defense Tigerman, those pets are pretty much already dead. The Tigerman has [Mountain Sink], which can increase its defense by several hundred points; even my Baby Bobo may not be able to damage it by much, so obviously the pets such as Hell Hound have no chance!
Hehe, Tigerman, how OP!
Of course the biggest counter to these attack + defense pets are magic pets such as Yue Qing Qian’s Bulldozer. [Mountain Sink] can resist physical attacks, but it doesn’t do anything against magical attacks.
As I happily continue killing Tigerman for the mission, I need to be more vigilant. Before killing any Tigerman I need to carefully check their level. A level 1 Tigerman is as good as cold, hard cash!
……
I kill until 11 o’clock AM and almost 600 Tigerman have been killed by me. The entire forest of Tigermen have almost been annihilated by me and there aren’t many left. In a ray of golden light I leveled up to 33. After killing 400 more and then handing in my mission, I should be able to reach level 34 without any problems.
At this time with a tick, a message came from the beauty Cang Tang, “Li Xiao Yao, disconnect and come for lunch. Remember to bring money. This lunch is your treat since you lost to Jian Feng Han…”
I have nothing to say. As per the bet, I lost and Wan Er even treated me to Song Helou before, so I should keep my promise.
“Okay I’ll disconnect right now. You guys are leaving right now right?”
“Yep.”
The Tigerman’s respawn time is about 3 hours or so, so that’s good. I’ll disconnect for lunch and when I come back they should have respawned and then I’ll continue killing them!
I immediately disconnect in the forest, grab a coat and start to leave!
With a bang my hands get grasped by a fat hand. I raise my head and it’s Glasses Tang Gu!
“Xiao Yao, are you eating with the two beauties Ling Wan Er and Dong Cheng Yue everyday?”
“Yeah what about it?”
His face is full of jealousy and admiration, “Damn, give it to me straight. What’s your relationship with those two? Why does Lin Wan Er refuse so many different invitations for a meal and yet she sticks with a guy like you? How are you better than us?”
I look at him then point at the mirror next to him, “Hey, look at yourself in the mirror. If you can tell me how you’re better than me in any area, then I’ll bring you too…”
He looks and then scratches his head, “I don’t think I am…”
“Okay I’m going out for lunch. I still need to grind when I come back!”
“Wait!”
“What now?”
Tang Gu quickly brings a pile of disks from his bed and with a red face he says, “Help out a brother. This is Lin Wan Er’s album, all genuine. Help me…get her signature. Just have her write her name on the title pages of all of them. If you help me then you will forever be my brother! Thank You. Thank You.”
I glare at him with incomparable contempt, “Shameless!”
Tang Gu’s face goes completely red, “Can’t be helped. I only like a few girls in my lifetime and Wan Er is one of them. I need to give these disks to quite a few friends…”
“Fine, I got it. Every signature costs 100 Yuan (~$16) or else no deal…”
“You…you’re evil!”
“Do you want the signatures or not?”
“I want it! I want it!”
Tang Gu takes out 10 bills and I hold onto them and smile, “Easy money…”
“Get me the 10 signatures or else I’ll kill you!”
“Don’t worry!”
……
I carry the disks and run on the school yard pathway. Beneath the girl’s dorm are two beauties wearing skirts, waiting for me. From afar Wan Er sees me carrying some discs and she shows her surprise, “You…this…”
Cheng Yue is also surprised as well, “Oh? Heart of Time? Isn’t this the album that you released a few years ago, Wan Er?”
“……”
……
In the dining room, while waiting for food I lay out the disks, take out a pen,