Chapter 386: Ice Soul Steel (1/2)
The news of the ”Who Will Rise” tournament caused huge waves in every main city. Countless excited players couldn’t wait to put their skills to the test.
Beep!
Murong Mingyue sent me a message: ”Did you hear the news yet? Who Will Rise, 5v5 PvP tournament, registration starts now and closes in three days. Preliminaries will begin in three days”
”Yeah, I saw it. It so happens that Eve is coming back tomorrow, so she can participate in the tournament as well.”
”By the way, I want to ask you about our 5-man party.” Murong Mingyue smiled. ”You and Eve are the melee fighters, Lil Beiming is the ranged attacker, and I’m the healer. That’s everyone in Frost Cloud workshop, but we’re still missing one person. Do you have someone in mind?”
I thought for a moment before replying, ”Is Li Chengfeng okay with you?”
”Sure, but you should speak to him instead of me!”
”Okay!”
……
I brought up the friend list immediately and sent Li Chengfeng a message: ”Chengfeng, you there?”
A few seconds later, Li Chengfeng replied, ”Hihi, vice leader. What is it?”
”I want to know if you’re free to join my party for Who Will Rise. Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue, From Water, and I will be participating, and we’re hoping that you’ll be the last member of our party!”
”Not a problem! I’ll do my best to meet your expectations, vice leader!”
”Good! Come to Sky City’s plaza now so we can party up and register for the tournament!”
”Okay!”
……
I waited at the plaza as Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue showed up, and He Yi came online soon after. A while later, Li Chengfeng finally arrived as well. After everyone had showed up, I added everyone into the party and went to the guard outside the palace to register our party. In order to avoid a jam, the devs had made it so that players could talk to any guard inside the entire city to register their party. It was one of the more considerate things Eternal Moon Corporation had done for its players.
Outside the palace, the palace guard looked at us with half-dead eyes and asked, ”You wish to participate in the ‘Who Will Rise’ martial tournament, correct?”
He Yi gave him a smile. ”Yes.”
”Alright, the registration fee is 100 gold per person.”
”Got it.”
I finally understood where Eternal Moon Corporation’s money came from. 100 gold per person wasn’t much, but heaven knows how many parties were participating in this tournament. They probably made a frightening amount of money just from collecting the registration fees alone. The monetary reward they offered seemed generous, but if you really thought about it, it was no different from daylight robbery. The company was robbing the average players, and the best players were robbing the company. Both cases played by the law of the jungle.
Ding~!
System Notice: Your party is officially registered. Please name your party!
I typed in the name ”Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls” without hesitation. As expected, no one had taken the name because we were the main party of our guild.
I looked at the registration list. We were the 278421th team to register for the tournament in the China servers, meaning that at least a million players had registered for the tournament ten minutes after the announcement was made. It was a frightening number to say the least!
No more action was required from us, the players, after the registration was complete. It was the system’s turn to sort everyone into groups. Of course, Who Will Rise was a limited event, so some restrictions were put in place. For example, only players who were above Level 80 were allowed to register in the tournament. The name of the tournament was already a clue, but Who Will Rise was meant to be a battle between the best of the best. It would be a complete waste of everyone’s time to allow a player below Level 80 to participate...
……
”Alright, I’m leaving for my meeting!” He Yi smiled before looking at me. ”Work hard, everyone. Lu Chen, I expect you to be at Level 110 on the day of the tournament!”
I started sweating heavily in panic. Li Chengfeng gave me a look of sympathy.
He Yi logged off after that. Li Chengfeng also went away to grind solo as he usually did.
I didn’t take He Yi’s joke seriously and leave to grind. At my level, I could grind at most one or two levels before the three days were up. That wouldn’t impact the tournament in any way at all. My real first priority was to grind equipment and strengthen everyone in the party as much as I could, especially He Yi. Skill-wise He Yi was already inferior to all of us, but her biggest weakness right now was her lack of a powerful shield. Logically speaking, the party would be perfect if I replaced He Yi with Gui Guzi, but I had never been the logical type, not to mention that Gui Guzi had already made a party with Xu Yang and High Fighting Spirits. It had always been my dream to make a war goddess out of He Yi, and not once had I thought to give up on it.
……
However, I had to admit that I wasn’t sure what to do at this moment. Just where was I going to find a top-tier shield on such a short notice? Even if I tried to grind high-rank bosses, it was, to put it figuratively, completely up to the bosses whether they felt like dropping me a top-tier shield or not...
It was at this moment I heard a shout from behind me. ”All kinds of top-tier equipment selling at prices to die for!”
I turned around and saw a suspicious-looking Level 97 assassin crying for customers. I walked up and gave his products a look, but it was a lie! Top-tier equipment? All I saw were Level 70 to 80 Silver and Gold-grade items! Sure, they weren’t actually half bad, but they absolutely didn’t deserve to be called top-tier!
However, my attention was quickly caught by a faint purple blueprint, an equipment blueprint to be exact!
I bent down a little and waved my hand across it. The blueprint’s stats immediately leaped into my sight—
Ice Soul Barrier (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★★★)