"Hundred thousand spirit jades? If I could meet that dog..."
"Then you'd die. That's a great thief who can rob Chang'an. Do you know what Chang'an is? It's a divine city on the same level as the City That Never Sleeps!"
"Only an idiot would want a hundred thousand spirit jades. Who would still be short of spirit jades with a Legendary Relic?"
"And what's so impressive about a great thief? Could he really beat our Bai Bao?"
"Ha! Even powerful messengers can defeat a thousand enemies alone. Do you think you're from the Loyalty Battalion?"
"I think Captain Night will rise to the Loyalty Battalion sooner or later! Captain Night, do you think we can beat that dog?"
At dawn, in the cafeteria of the Ping City military camp, the newly awakened northern soldiers gathered in groups of three or five, clutching their bowls as they chatted. The topics always revolved around the keywords "Divine Marquis Manor," "wanted notice," and "Legendary Relic."
Although four or five days had already passed, the Divine Marquis Manor announcement remained the hottest and freshest topic.
As they chatted, some curious soldiers looked toward the recently popular Captain Night Four—he had changed professions in three days and become a captain in five. Even with Gai Louxian's support, Night Four's rise through the ranks was still astonishing.
Yet everyone respected him. He joined the secret-realm teams every day and always charged at the very front. Though taciturn, his strength was astounding. His only shortcoming was that he still had no relic and could not lead teams into secret realms. However, Bai Bao had a Battle Merit system: every time a messenger entered a secret realm, he could earn one minor merit. The easiest relic to obtain, the Evil Spirit Mask, required only one hundred minor merits.
For others, gathering one hundred minor merits might take a year or two. But for someone like Night Four, who visited secret realms as often as if he were visiting a brothel, everyone believed he could meet the requirement in just three months.
Night Four was currently using a small knife to slice mutton. By now, he basically had to eat about one whole sheep at every meal to keep his condition from declining. Even that counted as a small appetite. For Second Turn Messengers like Gai Louxian, eating an entire cow at each meal would be no exaggeration, and every meal took half an hour.
They actually had a better option: Blood Replenishment Pills. Those could instantly satisfy a day's needs for vitality and blood, without even requiring them to defecate. But even Third Rank Heralds were reluctant to use such divine medicine as food. Besides that, the flesh of powerful demon beasts found in secret realms was the next-best option after Blood Replenishment Pills. However, the Suppressor of Three Mountains secret realm had no such demon beasts, and "Night Four" was no nobleman who could afford special-supply demon beast meat.
"First, he isn't a dog. He's a messenger wearing a Yellow Dog Mask. Second, I can beat him by myself. I don't need you."
After a brief silence, the soldiers burst into laughter and cheers.
"Well said!"
"As expected of our Captain Night! You're destined to become a great man!"
"Destined? He already is!"
At that moment, an old general arrived, and the noisy cafeteria instantly fell silent. It was Bai Bao Battalion Lord Gai Louxian. He swept his gaze around and called Night Four outside.
When Night Four returned, he was already wearing the object most desired by every Bai Bao knight—the Evil Spirit Mask. Only after everyone asked did they learn that although he lacked enough minor merits, Gai Louxian had vouched for him and exchanged the Evil Spirit Mask in advance.
Naturally, the price was not small. Starting today, Night Four had to lead teams into secret realms. Whenever a secret-realm Demon King (BOSS) appeared, he had to step forward and take the damage. He also had to lead a team at least sixty times over the next three months. Such a demand might have been a challenge for anyone else, but to Night Four, it was more like a reward.
The news spread faster than the wind. By the time Night Four finished breakfast, he had become the hottest celebrity in the military camp. Many captains came specifically to congratulate him, and some even invited him to visit the pleasure district beside the camp that evening.
Night Four naturally refused them all, then began that day's secret-realm expedition. Unlike the days of Uwan Ryu, many Bai Bao fought to enter the secret realm, even coming to blows over the allocation of places.
The Bai Bao who finally secured spots looked completely relaxed, chatting and laughing as if they were going on an outing. Night Four, who was responsible for leading them, carried no weapons. Once inside the secret realm, he ordered the Bai Bao not to participate in the battle and merely shoot from the perimeter. Naturally, the Bai Bao obeyed without question.
And so, the Bai Bao watched helplessly as Night Four kicked every demon in the secret realm to death with his Leg Technique. There was no danger throughout the entire process—or rather, all the danger was on Night Four. That was precisely why entering secret realms had changed from a miserable chore into a coveted assignment. Apart from the Bai Bao, who could easily pocket their rewards, the other captains and battalion lords were delighted by the arrangement.
Few people were willing to fight secret-realm demons. Messengers had plenty of other ways to make money, and they hardly cared about those few rewards. Now that a battle maniac who loved fighting had taken all the troublesome work upon himself, things could not have been better.
"I didn't expect Captain Night's Leg Technique to be this good too."
"Don't imitate him. Specialization is the proper path. Training a little of this and a little of that..."
"Shouldn't Captain Night rest his body? Fighting in secret realms every day will wear him down sooner or later, won't it?"
"You don't understand. There's a reason Captain Night is so talented and works so hard. I heard his entire family was killed by a Third Rank Herald, so he's training for revenge..."
"What I heard was that Captain Night had his engagement broken off, and they made a three-year pact: if he didn't become a Third Rank Herald, he wouldn't marry her?"
Yan Qing naturally knew nothing about the gossip in the military camp. As he looked at the data on the screen, he could not stop the smile from spreading across his lips.
"Finally, I've trained them up!"
"Night Four"
"Level: 18"
"Vitality: 31"
"Spirit: 23"
"Dexterity: 15"
"Comprehension: 8"
"Basic skills mastered: 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"
"Advanced skills mastered: Advanced Blade Technique Level 1"
"Milestone effects activated: Martial Arts Genius, Demolition Team"
The reason Yan Qing had made "Night Four" constantly switch weapons to train his basic skills was not only to gain experience, but also to trigger the Martial Arts Genius milestone!
Before introducing the Martial Arts Genius milestone, he had to start with 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 major city"
"Effect: Your relic's effects are more likely to destroy buildings."
"Note: Brother, is your urge to destroy things a little too strong?"
"Follow-up milestone 'Destroyer' triggered: Destroy a large landmark in any major city."
"This milestone was completed by a Reality Mode account and can take effect on all Reality Mode accounts."
When Yan Qing saw the final line, he froze.
But after thinking it over, it made perfect sense. Ordinary accounts could complete all the achievements with ease. They had plenty of time and room for error, whereas Reality Mode accounts had neither.
If milestones could not be shared, then everything would reset when a Reality Mode account died. The result would simply be that Reality Mode players abandoned milestones altogether. After all, milestone effects were optional, while completing milestones required plenty of time and effort. Players would naturally rather level up than bother with milestones.
Conversely, if milestone effects could be shared across an entire account, it would both attract Reality Mode players to complete milestones and even lure ordinary players into the enormous pit that was Reality Mode. Think about it: if you first trained several Reality Mode accounts and tried to complete a huge number of milestones, then every alt you opened afterward would have a massive stack of milestone bonuses from the start. That was practically the equivalent of cheating in an MMORPG!
The joy of cheating in an online game was at least ten or even a hundred times greater than using Feng Ling Yue Ying in a single-player game!
Ordinary players would not feel it was unfair, either. For one thing, a Reality Mode account disappeared after dying once, so most of the time, Reality Mode accounts did not dare compete with ordinary players. For another, if they were crushed by a Reality Mode account, they could always play Reality Mode themselves and grind milestones.
Everyone could cheat, as long as they dared to spend the time and take the risks.
The more Yan Qing looked at it, the more ingenious he found the "milestone sharing" system. The more he thought about it, the more fun it seemed. He wanted to open an ordinary account to hunt Reality Mode players, but also wanted to open a Reality Mode account to accumulate milestones for his alts. No wonder Messenger had managed to carve out a path in an age when MMORPGs were declining. Experts could slaughter their way across the game, but even novices could use time to accumulate a cheat-like gaming experience.
Like Yan Qing, for example.
For him, the greatest gain from this thief mission was not Bingzi Jiaolin, but discovering that titles could take effect across the entire account.
The milestones of an alt could naturally take effect on the main account too!
Thus, Yan Qing had done nothing else over the past few days and had devoted himself entirely to grinding the Martial Arts Genius milestone. After clearing the secret realm in the morning, he trained in various ways at the military camp, controlling everything manually throughout. After all, "automatic evolution" deducted thirty percent of the experience.
Other people could only see how hard "Night Four" was working, but the one truly suffering was Yan Qing!
Still, it was all worth it.
"Martial Arts Genius"
"Milestone requirement: Master eight basic martial arts techniques"
"Effect: Each martial art technique you master grants +1 Comprehension. Only effective when Comprehension is less than 10. When training skills, gain an additional 100% experience."
"Note: What is a Martial Arts Genius? Understands at a glance, learns at once, never forgets after seeing something once, and gains permanent understanding after one proof? No, no, no. Someone like that would be a genius even if he lived off a woman, so he couldn't be called a Martial Arts Genius. A true Martial Arts Genius should be very good at hard work, but not too clever—who would practice martial arts if they were truly clever?"
"This milestone was completed by a Reality Mode account and can take effect on all Reality Mode accounts."
This milestone required mastery of eight basic martial arts techniques, yet its effect was mediocre. A normal player's Comprehension could not possibly be less than 10, so the Comprehension bonus was effectively useless. Training experience was doubled, but players gained ten times as much experience from fighting monsters as they did from training. There was no reason for them to waste electricity idling in training.
Therefore, when "Night Four" triggered this milestone, Yan Qing had not paid much attention to it.
Not until he discovered that milestone effects could be shared.
For players, this milestone was better than nothing. But in the real world, it was a different story.
In this world, ordinary people starting from scratch needed to measure their training in years. They had to practice until reaching at least Level 3 or 4 before attempting actual combat. Only game characters could level up rapidly through battle.
As a three-dimensional creature who could not evolve into a game character, Yan Qing naturally had to rely on training to learn basic skills. Unlike everyone else, he would never leave Thieves' Den to fight in the outside world, even if it killed him. In other words, training was currently his only viable path to leveling up.
With the Martial Arts Genius milestone, Yan Qing could finally train his basic skills in his spare time outside the game.
After he completed the Martial Arts Genius milestone, the game displayed information about a new milestone—
"Martial Arts Pride: Master five advanced martial arts techniques"
Advanced martial arts techniques were not nearly as easy to grind as basic ones. Even though the number had been reduced from eight to five, the required time still had to be measured in months. After grinding for several days, Yan Qing was also somewhat exhausted, and for the moment, he had no plans for this milestone.
Besides, he had made up his mind long ago: as soon as he obtained the Martial Arts Genius title, he would begin practicing basic martial arts techniques. He could not keep slacking off!
Today, Messenger was taking a break!
Just then, a new message popped up in the chat box in the lower-left corner:
"Jiangnan Regional Event 'Wandering Star Forest' has begun."
Before you continue