115 Chapter 115 - Windchaser’s Boots (1/2)

On the first day of Parallel World's official release, Gu Fei received quite a huge fright when he got online and saw the people all around him pack like canned sardines. It happened to be nighttime in-game when he logged in, so the balls of fire floating everywhere in the Mage Academy and lighting up the whole place appeared somewhat sinister to him. In addition to this, the sight of countless men, women, elderly, and children shouting, ”Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” to their hearts' content created a very incongruous and cringe-worthy atmosphere in the entire academy.

Apparently, a number of Mages that day were so alarmed by the sudden change in Parallel World that they acted unlike their usual selves. Gu Fei suspected that Fireball must have had it the worst out of all these people as he had not gotten online for four days straight after that day when the game was officially released. When he finally logged in, Fireball seemed to still be out of it when Gu Fei chatted him up; obviously, his thoughts were still in turmoil.

There were too many people. This was what everyone thought when the VR game's official release happened. The sudden population explosion of players had brought about huge changes to the game's landscapes as well. For instance, Peddlers' Street 1, Peddlers' Street 2, Peddlers' Street 3, and so on and so forth came to be. Even Yunduan City's central plaza became a sprawling bazaar. Even the cost of beginner equipment experienced a spike during this period of time, taking about two weeks before it finally settled.

Some business-minded players that had received information about the official release before the others managed to make a tidy profit from this wave of rising prices of the beginner equipment. Young Master Han and Brother Assist were two such individuals. Sword Demon madly grinded levels after losing two levels worth of experience points before. However, he apparently had a stake in Young Master Han's business, so he made quite a sum as well.

However, these men were clearly not professional gamers. Professional gamers would try to exchange the in-game coins they earned to real-world currency; in contrast, these men actually squandered all their newly earned gold coins haphazardly; Young Master Han could be seen at Ray's Bar drunk like a skunk for several days, and Sword Demon's equipment experienced an extensive overhaul. As for Brother Assist, it was unknown where he spent his gold coins on.

War Without Wounds and Royal God Call seemed to have become unofficial members of Amethyst Rebirth at this point. They felt resentful toward Gu Fei for being able to join the all-female guild while they could not. Eventually, these two men's resentment died down upon considering the fact that they had actually been spending more time with the ladies – as they grinded their levels together – compared to the actual member, Gu Fei. Amethyst Rebirth gained quite a number of ladies ever since the game's official release, giving these two legendary skirt-chasers much stuff to busy themselves with. Every day, they would lead a bevy of beauties outside the city to grind levels. In some players' eyes, this was a glorious task.

As for the most prominent and glorious in-game, open beta player, Gu Fei, he was actually the one who had felt the most depressed before the start of this entire event. Gu Fei had taken to loitering around the Bounty Mission Assignment Hall as it was the one place he could legally acquire PvP subjects. Unfortunately for him, Yunduan City's peaceful atmosphere was absolutely detrimental to his bounty hunting business. The Wanted Players list only had very few targets at any given time, which he could easily handle in no time at all. Just as Gu Fei was feeling dispirited by all this, the official release happened and the great fanfare that ensued provided a wind of change for him.

An innumerable amount of players entered the game, so an innumerable amount of players needed to grind levels as well. The disadvantages of the huge amount of experience points needed before and after level 30 in Parallel World became evident at this point.

Back then, Sword Demon could grind to level 24 in a day. Even if the current players did not have his luck and perseverance, reaching level 30 was not a tall task. In just a few days, a majority of these players' levels managed to get within the range of level 25 to 30, which resulted in the grinding maps near Yunduan City to increase abruptly in player usage by several folds.

The players at Yunxiao Farm, which was already a treacherous place to begin with, could no longer grind on the monsters by slyly accusing their competitors of kill-stealing like before. These days, players there openly killed one another with many of them constantly kill-stealing monsters. All sorts of players could be seen over at Yunxiao Farm, such as players alone, players in a group, and gangs in alliance with other gangs. Yunxiao Farm momentarily transformed into Yunxiao Cemetery, with the sorrowful cries that incessantly echoed all across the map and blood that painted the fields red.

The Bounty Mission Assignment Hall's Wanted Players list naturally began to fill up, leaving Gu Fei totally elated that his smile would just not come off. Every day, after grinding his level a bit, he would go to the hall and wait for the appearance of these missions in his remaining time online.

His fellow mercenary group members felt that Gu Fei busying himself with this matter was not good; after all, the efficiency of grinding through 'Bounty Mission' was simply too low. The efficiency would be high if the targets of the various missions stood right outside the entrance of the Assignment Hall, waiting for the players to kill them. However, something like that happening was simply impossible. Thus, a large amount of time doing these missions would be spent rushing back and forth to a target's location and the hall. In addition, time would be spent on pinpointing the target's exact position. However, Gu Fei did not care about all that, as his purpose for doing the missions was not to grind levels. Thus, he continued to find happiness in doing such activity without feeling the least bit bored.

Just as the rest of the mercenary group had expected, Gu Fei's number one position on the experience leaderboard for Mages due to that one chain quest severely plummeted. It was far worse than Royal God Call and War Without Wounds that had once spent more time flirting than grinding.

However, the situation changed two weeks after the official release. Gu Fei's leveling speed suddenly seemed to have been revitalized to his previous level of efficiency. They all thought that Gu Fei had become enlightened. When they mentioned this at their gathering, Gu Fei showed them an item instead.

Windchaser's Emblem.

This emblem had two uses. First, it allowed the refresh rate of the target's coordinates for the 'Bounty Mission' to be updated every minute instead of the usual five minutes; second, it would teleport its user back to the Assignment Hall once he or she completed the 'Bounty Mission'.

”Where did you get this?” all the present experts asked in astonishment. This was a piece of accessory no one had seen on the current market yet. In fact, none of the current players was aware that there was an item inside Parallel Word with a teleportation skill .

”I got it when I went to claim my reward after completing a mission. The system stated that it will be awarded to a player who has accomplished 'Bounty Mission' for a hundredth time,” Gu Fei explained.

Sighing in admiration, they were no longer as envious as before. Clearly, this thing would only be useful for 'Bounty Mission'. Besides Gu Fei, who would be mad enough to do 'Bounty Mission' countless times? Anyway, it was thanks to this item that Gu Fei could see a substantial increase in his speed of gaining experience points.

However, their eyeballs nearly popped out when Gu Fei pulled out another item.