Chapter Ninety-Seven: Luck Like This Never Shows Up When Buying Lottery Tickets
In Divine Sorrow, fighting monsters at night is dangerous, whether in dungeons or out in the wild. The danger lies in how easily one can be ambushed by creatures lurking in the darkness. Avoiding such a situation is simple enough, however; the official guides even explain it plainly. Players can carry consumables that provide light.
Naturally, Night Feather and the others had brought enough lighting supplies with them for use. It was convenient for themselves and for the team as a whole. Each such item could last for half an hour and illuminate a radius of about ten meters, allowing monsters within that range to be engaged.
The six of them wanted to stack up their experience as quickly as possible so they could reach a sufficiently high level before the server cap increased. For that reason, Night Feather devised an experience-farming plan, taking advantage of the current period in which experience gains were doubled.
First, they would lure as many monsters as possible to the edge of the illuminated area, then unleash wide-area attack skills to eliminate them one by one. Of course, it was a risky approach, but one with high returns.
Since the plan was recommended in this way, everyone had even agreed to it without hearing Night Feather’s other suggestions. They were all well aware of the risks involved.
For the next several hours of in-game time, Night Feather and the others continued farming monsters. After a while, however, their gains began to diminish, clearly because the experience they had accumulated had already surpassed the level of the monsters they were currently killing.
“Alright, let’s change locations.”
Seeing this, Night Feather naturally made the suggestion, and they headed toward a more distant area.
As the group advanced, they noticed a campfire burning steadily in the distance. Because Qu Zheng was from the stealth class, his eyesight was the best among all the professions, and his visual range was the farthest—one of the advantages of his role.
Upon seeing this, Night Feather and the others discarded their light sources. In the darkness, they slowly approached to within earshot of the others. Hidden in the grass, they were undetectable to the ordinary monsters around them.
As they drew near, they discovered several players sitting by the campfire.
The players appearing in this wild region at this hour were naturally all level forty, or close to it.
Night Feather and the others communicated by lip-reading, since in areas above the server level limit, voice would actually be emitted when players spoke.
“They haven’t noticed we’re here yet,” Qu Zheng said cautiously, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes as he kept watch on the players by the fire.
Sure enough, when the six of them crept into the grass near the campfire, the players there were still chatting among themselves, completely unaware that Night Feather’s group had already reached the bushes behind them.
“Tomorrow, all you need to do is act tempted by what I suggested to you. Then you can persuade the other brothers in the guild to join as well. Leave the rest to us.”
A broad-shouldered, heavily built player, his appearance concealed beneath a cloak that also hid his guild name and game ID, continued speaking to the player sitting on the other side: “By then, everything you want will come easily. Whether it’s money or the guild, and of course even the position of guild master.”
The six of them all looked toward the player seated across from the broad-shouldered man by the campfire. He did not hide his ID.
And the ID was rather interesting: Proud of Me in the Wild.
His guild name was an equally peculiar one: One Man, Two Sleeves, a Breeze.
The broad-shouldered player reached into a small pouch at his waist and took out a rather heavy bag of gold coins, which he handed over to Proud of Me in the Wild.
A wicked smile appeared on Proud of Me in the Wild’s face as he accepted the bag of coins. Smiling broadly, he said, “Everything else is easy to discuss. I’m not exactly short of money, either, but I just want to see that woman. Even just imagining her right now is enough to get my blood pumping.”
The cloaked, broad-shouldered player gave a cold laugh and said, “What you want to do is your business. I won’t interfere. But you’d better not drag my guild into this. Otherwise, you won’t be playing on the Chinese server of Divine Sorrow anymore. Do you understand me?”
Hearing that cold, merciless tone, Proud of Me in the Wild, who had been smiling a moment ago, stiffened. He hurriedly swallowed and suppressed his grin, nodding as he replied, “Rest assured, sir. Everything will go according to the plan you told me. There won’t be any problems.”
At this, Luo Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, a faint curve touching the corner of his mouth. “Looks like they’re planning a guild merger?”
“No. It should be more like a takeover. Looks like a planned annexation, with someone on the inside helping them.”
Huang Hong gently shook his head, rejecting Luo Feng’s guess.
Because currency in Divine Sorrow was valuable in its own right, the gap between it and real-world money was not all that large. As a result, a guild’s status became increasingly important. This too was an essential and indispensable part of Divine Sorrow. Given the current exchange trend of Divine Sorrow currency, the ratio kept falling, and in the end the official side would establish an equal rate: one to one.
So in Divine Sorrow, schemes and power plays of this sort—swallowing up guilds or forcing smaller guilds to merge through sheer strength—had become commonplace and were nothing new. When Night Feather first started playing, he was already aware of this, so he naturally had no interest in such matters.
“Alright, we can barely keep up with our own affairs. There’s no need to meddle in these unnecessary troubles.”
At that, Luo Feng shrugged. Qu Zheng and Tan Cong also nodded slightly. Just as everyone was preparing to leave, a thunderous roar suddenly erupted behind Night Feather, shaking the heavens and earth, and a violent gale whipped up at once.
A towering yet agile figure suddenly appeared before them. When Night Feather finally saw what it was, his expression changed abruptly, and he muttered under his breath, “How can I be this unlucky? I never get this kind of luck when buying lottery tickets!”
…
…