Account-Wide Shared Milestone

"Ten thousand Spirit Jade, if I could just meet that dog of a person..."

"Then you'd be dead. That's a notorious thief who can rob in Chang'an. Do you even know what Chang'an is? It's a divinely blessed city on par with the City of Evernight!"

"Only an idiot would want ten thousand Spirit Jade. Who needs Spirit Jade when they have a Legendary Relic?"

"Besides, what's so great about a thief? You think they can beat our Hundred Guard?"

"Ha, a skilled Herald can take on a thousand single-handedly. Do you think you're the Loyalty Battalion?"

"I bet Night Captain will be promoted to the Loyalty Battalion sooner or later! Night Captain, do you think we can beat that dog of a person?"

In the early morning, in the Ping City military camp's cafeteria, newly awakened Northern Border soldiers gathered in small groups, holding their rice bowls and chatting. The topics always revolved around the keywords 'Divine Marquis Manor,' 'wanted notice,' and 'Legendary Relic.'

Even though four or five days had passed, the Divine Marquis Manor's announcement was still the latest and hottest topic.

As they chatted, some nosy soldiers looked towards the recently rising star, Night Four—promoted in three days, a captain in five. Even with Gai Louxian's support, Night Four's promotion speed was astonishing.

However, everyone was impressed by him. He participated in Secret Realm teams every day and always charged to the front. Although he was taciturn, his strength was amazing. His only flaw was that he didn't have a Relic, so he couldn't lead a team into the Secret Realm. But the Hundred Guard had a merit system; a Herald earned a small merit point for each Secret Realm they entered, and the easiest Relic to obtain, the Evil Spirit Mask, only required one hundred small merits.

For others, accumulating one hundred small merits might take a year or two, but for Night Four, who went to the Secret Realm as frequently as going to a brothel, everyone believed he could definitely meet the requirements in three months.

Night Four was currently using a small knife to cut mutton to eat. Now, he basically had to eat about a whole sheep per meal to ensure his condition didn't decline. He was considered to have a small appetite; people like Gai Louxian, second-rank Heralds, could easily eat a whole cow per meal, and each meal took half an hour.

They actually had a better option, which was to eat Blood Replenishment Pills, which could instantly satisfy their daily Vitality needs without even having to defecate. But even third-rank Heralds were reluctant to use this sacred medicine as food. Besides that, the flesh and blood of powerful demonic beasts that appeared in the Secret Realm was the next best option to Blood Replenishment Pills, but the Suppressor of Three Mountains Secret Realm didn't have such demonic beasts, and "Night Four" wasn't a noble, so he couldn't eat specially supplied demonic beast meat.

"First of all, it's not a dog of a person, but a Herald wearing a Yellow Dog mask. Secondly, you guys aren't needed. I can beat him alone."

After a brief silence, the soldiers burst into laughter and jeering.

"That's right!"

"As expected of our Night Captain, he's destined to be a big shot!"

"Destined? He is now!"

At this moment, an old general arrived, and the noisy cafeteria immediately fell silent. It was Hundred Guard Battalion Lord Gai Louxian. He looked around and called Night Four out.

When Night Four returned, he was wearing the most coveted item of the Centurion Knights—the Evil Spirit Mask. Everyone asked, and they learned that although he didn't have enough small merits, Gai Louxian had vouched for him and exchanged the Evil Spirit Mask for him in advance.

Of course, the price wasn't small. From today onwards, Night Four had to lead a team into the Secret Realm, take the initiative to tank damage when encountering Secret Realm demon kings (BOSSes), and lead a team at least sixty times in the next three months. This requirement might be a challenge for others, but for Night Four, it was more like a reward.

The news spread faster than the wind. When Night Four finished breakfast, he had already become the most popular person in the military camp. Many captains even came to congratulate him and even invited him to have fun in the nearby den of dissipation next to the military camp at night.

But Night Four naturally refused them all and then began today's Secret Realm journey. Unlike Uwan Ryu's time, many Hundred Guard were fighting to enter the Secret Realm, even fighting to allocate places.

The Hundred Guard who managed to grab a spot looked very relaxed, chatting and laughing with each other as if they were going on a picnic. Night Four, who was responsible for leading them, didn't carry any weapons. After entering the Secret Realm, he asked the Hundred Guard not to participate in the battle, only to shoot from the periphery. The Hundred Guard naturally obeyed.

In this way, the Hundred Guard watched as Night Four relied on his leg techniques to kick all the demons in the Secret Realm to death, without any risk throughout the whole process—or rather, the risk was all on Night Four. Because of this, entering the Secret Realm had changed from a chore to a desirable task. Besides the Hundred Guard who could easily earn rewards, other captains and battalion lords were also happy to see this happen.

Few people were willing to fight with the Secret Realm demons. As Heralds, they had many ways to make money and didn't care about those few rewards. Now that a martial arts fanatic who liked to fight had taken over these troublesome things, it was simply too good.

"I didn't expect Night Captain's leg techniques to be so good."

"Don't learn from him. Specialization is the right path. Practicing a little of this and a little of that..."

"Night Captain, aren't you going to rest? Going to the Secret Realm to fight every day, your body will easily break down, right?"

"You don't understand. There's a reason why Night Captain is so talented and works so hard. I heard that his whole family was killed, and the murderer was a third-rank Herald, so he's seeking revenge..."

"What I heard was that Night Team Leader had his engagement called off, setting a three-year agreement that he wouldn't marry until he became a Third Rank Herald?"

Yan Qing naturally didn't know about the commotion in the military camp. He looked at the data on the screen, unable to suppress the smile on his face.

"Finally mastered it!"

"Night Four"

"Level: 18"

"Vitality: 31"

"Soul: 23"

"Dexterity: 15"

"Comprehension: 8"

"Mastered Basic Skills: Basic Saber Technique Level 10, Basic Footwork Level 10, Basic Spear Technique Level 10, Basic Fist Technique Level 10, Basic Sword Technique Level 10, Basic Shield Technique Level 10, Basic Leg Technique Level 10, Basic Archery Level 10"

"Mastered Advanced Skills: Advanced Saber Technique Level 1"

"Activated Milestone Effects: Martial Arts Genius, Demolition Team"

The reason Yan Qing had 'Night Four' constantly switch weapons to hone basic skills was not only for experience but also for this Martial Arts Genius milestone!

Before introducing the Martial Arts Genius milestone, we must start from the day Yan Qing returned from Chang'an.

That day, Yan Qing saw "Demolition Team" in 'Night Four's' status bar.

"Demolition Team"

"Milestone Requirement: Destroy a medium-sized building in any main city"

"Effect: Your Relic effects are more likely to damage buildings."

"Note: Bro, is your desire for destruction too strong?"

"Subsequent milestone 'Destroyer' has been triggered: Destroy a large landmark in any main city."

"This milestone was completed by a Reality Mode account and can take effect on all Reality Mode accounts."

Yan Qing was stunned when he saw the last line.

But upon closer thought, it made sense—ordinary accounts could easily achieve full completion, with plenty of time and room for error, while Reality Mode accounts had no such conditions.

If milestones couldn't be shared, a Reality Mode account would lose everything upon death, leading Reality Mode players to abandon milestones altogether. After all, milestone effects were optional, but the effort and time required to complete them were significant, so players would naturally prefer leveling up over milestones.

Conversely, if milestone effects could be shared across all accounts, it would attract Reality Mode players to complete milestones and even draw ordinary players into the Reality Mode pit—imagine leveling up several Reality Mode accounts first to complete a bunch of milestones, then having a bunch of milestone bonuses from the start on your future alts. It's practically like cheating in an MMORPG!

The joy of cheating in an online game is at least ten or even a hundred times greater than using a trainer in a single-player game!

Moreover, ordinary players wouldn't feel it was unfair. First, Reality Mode accounts are gone after one death, so they usually don't dare to compete with ordinary players. Second, if they get crushed by a Reality Mode account, they can also play Reality Mode and grind milestones.

Everyone can cheat, as long as you dare to spend time and take risks.

The more Yan Qing looked at the 'milestone sharing' mechanism, the more ingenious he found it, and the more fun he thought it was. He wanted to open an ordinary account to hunt Reality Mode players and a Reality Mode account to accumulate milestones for his alts. No wonder The Herald could carve out a path in an era of declining MMORPGs. Experts could dominate the game, but noobs could also accumulate time to gain a cheat-like gaming experience.

Like Yan Qing, for example.

For him, the greatest gain from this Thieves' Den mission wasn't the Bingzi Jiaolin, but the discovery that titles could be account-wide.

The milestone of a small account could naturally take effect on the main account!

Therefore, Yan Qing did nothing else these past few days, focusing all his efforts on grinding the Martial Arts Genius milestone. After finishing the Secret Realm in the morning, he would conduct various training exercises in the military camp, all manually operated, since 'automatic evolution' would deduct 30% of the experience.

Others could only see that 'Night Four' was working very hard, but the one who was truly suffering was actually Yan Qing!

But all of this was worth it.

"Martial Arts Genius"

"Milestone Requirement: Master eight basic martial arts techniques"

"Effect: For each martial art you master, Comprehension +1, only effective when Comprehension < 10. Gain an additional 100% experience when training skills."

"Note: What is a Martial Arts Genius? Understands at a glance, learns with ease, never forgets, and proves it once and for all? No, no, even someone who's good at mooching off women is a genius, so they don't count as a Martial Arts Genius. A true Martial Arts Genius should be very good at putting in the hard work, but not too smart—who would practice martial arts if they were truly smart?"

"This milestone was completed by a Reality Mode account and can take effect on all Reality Mode accounts."

This milestone required mastering eight basic martial arts techniques, but the effect was underwhelming. Normal players' Comprehension couldn't possibly be < 10, so it was as good as not adding any Comprehension; training experience was doubled, but players' monster-killing experience was ten times that of training, so they didn't need to waste electricity hanging up for training.

Therefore, when 'Night Four' triggered this milestone, Yan Qing didn't pay much attention to it.

Until he discovered that the milestone effect could be shared.

This milestone was better than nothing for players, but it was different in the real world.

In this world, it took ordinary people years to start training basic skills from scratch, and they would only go into actual combat after training to at least level three or four. Only game characters could quickly level up through combat.

A three-dimensional being like Yan Qing, who couldn't evolve into a game character, naturally had to rely on training to get started with basic skills. And unlike others, he would never leave the Thieves' Den to fight outside, which meant that training was currently his only feasible way to level up.

With the Martial Arts Genius milestone, Yan Qing could finally train basic skills in his spare time from the game.

And after completing the Martial Arts Genius milestone, the game popped up with new milestone information—

"Martial Arts Pride: Master five advanced martial arts techniques"

Advanced martial arts techniques weren't as easy to grind as basic ones. Even if the number was reduced from eight to five, the time required would be at least a month. Yan Qing was a little tired after grinding for a few days and didn't have any thoughts about this milestone for the time being.

What's more, he had made up his mind long ago that as soon as he got the Martial Arts Genius title, he would start training basic skills and couldn't be lazy anymore!

Today, The Herald is not starting!

Just then, a new message popped up in the lower-left corner of the chat box:

"The Jiang Nan regional event 'Wandering Star Forest' has been activated."