Chapter 25: Challenging the Staff Master, Wang Long

To Wang Ling’s surprise, the somewhat timid-looking boy before him turned out to be a seasoned veteran who had successfully completed eight main storyline missions. Truly, appearances can be deceiving!

Through their conversation, Wang Ling obtained several precious pieces of information. It turned out that every Dreamer could own up to three familiars—essentially pets. Familiars were not acquired casually; instead, one needed to use a special item called a “Contract Stone” to form a pact with a storyline character willing to become a familiar. These characters could be animals or supernatural beings, but never humans.

Obtaining a familiar was no easy feat, as Contract Stones were classified as “rare and precious” items. The odds of drawing one from a standard reward chest were only one percent! Moreover, winning the genuine loyalty of a storyline character was quite challenging—at least more difficult than Wang Ling courting Princess Beatrice.

As such, even among Dreamers, those who possessed a familiar were exceedingly rare!

Su, after completing his third main mission, drew an item—not a Contract Stone, but a Scene Card. This card was for “Pokémon LeafGreen” on the GBA. Unlike Wang Ling’s Summon Card “Kung Fu,” this was a reward card. Upon entering the world of Pokémon LeafGreen as a trainer, Su worked in a large daycare facility, and upon completing the task of caring for one hundred Pokémon, he was rewarded with a Pokémon that could be brought out as a familiar.

Su was deeply passionate about Pokémon in the real world, and thus he was intimately familiar with the game. During the reward mission, he transformed what should have been an easy task into a grand adventure—teaming up with the protagonist, Ash from Pallet Town, and the then-champion Lance, they jointly destroyed Team Rocket’s headquarters, even triggering the movie storyline “Mewtwo Strikes Back,” leading to the appearance of legendary Pokémon. The process was fraught with peril.

In the end, he not only received the original reward, Abra, but was also gifted a Pichu from Professor Oak, and obtained a Dratini from Team Rocket’s headquarters. Due to the increased difficulty of the scenario, all three Pokémon became rewards.

Having acquired three familiars at once, Su could no longer collect more, even if he obtained a Contract Stone, as familiars could not be abandoned.

In his last main mission, Su was assigned to a team called “Raiders,” notorious for their reputation but formidable in strength. Due to the Raiders’ slaughter of civilians in the mission world, conflict erupted. Su’s three familiars, all still in their juvenile forms and lacking combat power, were killed protecting his escape.

Familiars could be revived after death; ordinary resurrection required only 2,000 points, but their abilities would decrease. Perfect resurrection cost ten times as much. Su sold everything he could, raising 25,000 points, but was still 35,000 points short. To revive his three familiars perfectly, he had to sell his cherished musket—a weapon vital to his long-range shooter path, almost as precious as life itself.

Upon learning all this, Wang Ling sympathized with Su and was grateful for the information about familiars, feeling that it was well worth it.

Of course, despite his sympathy, Wang Ling could not simply gift Su the missing 35,000 currency points; the transaction for the iron musket would proceed as agreed. However, he offered Su a deal, purchasing two skill points for 6,000 currency points. This amount enabled Su to buy an E-ranked white handgun from the market. For a gunman, being without a weapon would make the next main mission extremely difficult.

Wang Ling had his own plans. As a veteran with three familiars, Su possessed great potential for growth. Helping him in a difficult moment might yield a powerful ally in the future.

This act of aid was truly a lifeline in the snow, moving the young boy to tears. He revealed another valuable piece of information:

“Skill points and attribute points can be traded, but even if you have a lot of currency points, you should never desperately buy them to boost your strength.”

Wang Ling found this odd and asked in confusion, “Why not? Isn’t a Dreamer supposed to do everything to increase their strength?”

Su thought for a moment and replied, “Suppose a Dreamer can command several others, and after they complete their tasks, all their skill and attribute points are transferred to him. With so many benefits, wouldn’t he become very powerful?”

“Of course he would.”

“Yes, his strength would soar—much like having people work for him. But, as his strength skyrockets, the difficulty of subsequent missions will increase dramatically. If he lacks combat experience and his apparent strength does not match his true abilities, his chances of dying are very high.”

“This is why, despite skill and attribute points being tradable, few people actually buy them. After you become stronger, the Dream Space will assign you tougher missions. Yet, you can’t avoid adding points gained from normal missions, or else the Dream Space will penalize you for deliberately stagnating at your current difficulty level.”

Wang Ling nodded thoughtfully and asked, “So what should one do?”

“Generally, Dreamers just follow the natural course—adding skill and attribute points as they are earned from missions. The normal pace of becoming stronger won’t attract special attention from the Space. They also don’t go out of their way to learn excessive skills or use too many skill points to upgrade them. Solid growth through battle is the wise choice.”

Hearing this, Wang Ling realized his decision to upgrade three skills to level four in succession might have been rash.

After returning from Su, he was left with only 7,000 currency points and refrained from spending recklessly, not even upgrading his iron musket. From Su, he had learned that upgrading weapons and armor would increase their equipment requirements. The iron musket currently needed an agility of 15; even a small increase would make it unusable.

Due to the equipment requirement for this crucial weapon, Wang Ling spent 2,000 currency points to purchase Basic Ranged Combat, then used the two skill points from Su to raise it to level three—boosting his ranged damage by 30%. Over the next two days, he trained his marksmanship in the training hall during the day, rested in his private room at night, and occasionally gathered information in the tavern of the entertainment district, enjoying a comfortable routine.

In two days, Wang Ling went from never having touched a gun to being able to hit a fixed target within ten meters, and reliably land shots within thirty meters. At least, he could now use the iron musket in combat without any issue.

Training at the hall cost one currency point per hour; using puppets for shooting practice was pricier, but over two days, he spent just over fifty points. In the free market, he spent another 1,000 points to purchase a melee weapon—a simple E-ranked white iron battle axe, with an initial attack power of 3–17.

The axe weighed over twenty pounds, fitting comfortably in his grip. After acquiring it, Wang Ling had only 3,946 currency points left—his reserve for activating the “Kung Fu” Scene Card and undertaking its challenge.

He withdrew the Kung Fu card from his Dream Badge and paid 1,000 points to activate it. The card began to spin in midair, and a stream of white light poured out, wrapping around Wang Ling completely. In the next instant, Wang Ling found himself transported by the light into a new setting.

He stood before a tall tower, six stories high—a classic Chinese wooden pagoda, the Six Harmonies Tower. This was the scene of the “Kung Fu” game. From this, one could see how small the setting of this pioneering fighting game truly was.

Upon entering, his Dream Badge prompted: “You have entered the Kung Fu scene. Each time you defeat an opponent, you may summon them in the mission world by consuming currency points. Only after defeating the previous opponent can you ascend to a higher level of the Kung Fu Tower and face a new challenger.”

“Additionally, the fifth floor of the Kung Fu Tower is filled with traps. To challenge Grand Commander Wu Tian, you must overcome these obstacles.”

“When fighting in the Kung Fu Tower, neither you nor the storyline characters will die. If your health drops below 10%, you will automatically be transported out of the Scene Card. Re-entering requires spending currency points to activate the card again. If a storyline character’s health falls below 10%, they will surrender and pledge loyalty to you.”

Wang Ling nodded inwardly at the Dream Badge’s explanation. Since there was no risk of death, battling here carried no psychological pressure. He didn’t need to worry about the iron musket’s bullets being too powerful and accidentally killing the storyline characters.

However, the next prompt shattered his hopes: “Detected that you are equipped with a ranged firearm. You are not permitted to use gunpowder or ranged weapons when challenging storyline characters in the Kung Fu scene!”

Wang Ling sighed helplessly and put the iron musket back into his storage pouch, pulling out the iron battle axe instead. “Looks like I’ll have to fight hand-to-hand. Fortunately, I have Steel Head and Steel Leg, and now an axe—I’m not afraid of close combat.”

Gripping the twenty-pound axe tightly, Wang Ling took a deep breath and stepped into the first floor of the Kung Fu Tower. Opposite him stood a bald, burly man, about six feet tall, bare-chested and wearing blue pants, holding a thick staff as wide as an egg.

The man’s eyebrows were sparse, almost nonexistent, and his eyes were small, with thin eyelids narrowed into slits that glinted with fierce determination. His massive body, though plump, was not entirely fat; his exposed arms showed pronounced muscles.

This was none other than Wang Long, the staff master from the Kung Fu storyline—one of the fearsome villains who terrorized all of China with his formidable skills.