In the girls' dormitory at HN Economic College, a sweet, innocent-looking girl stared at her phone after the call ended, unable to quite process what had happened. "I hadn't even said anything, and you're already transferring the money? Besides, do you even know how much I need? You rotten brother, you're not just brushing me off, are you?"
"Ziyin, does your brother still have money to send you?" a pretty girl asked as she walked over.
Wu Ziyin shook her head. She wasn't sure either. Her brother's salary wasn't high, and he had to send her living expenses every month, so he couldn't have saved much. But aside from him, she didn't know who she could borrow money from.
"If you ask me, that woman did it on purpose. She's targeting you just because the guy she likes has a crush on you. Eight thousand yuan for one lousy bottle of cosmetics!" the girl said indignantly.
"Forget it. I'll just stay away from her from now on. I did break it, so I can't blame anyone else. And I checked that product online. It really does cost over eight thousand," Wu Ziyin said helplessly, her eyes misting over. Of course she knew the other girl had done it deliberately, but what could she do? She could only blame herself for being careless. Over eight thousand was more than six months of living expenses for her. She felt wronged too.
"With that personality of yours, you're going to get seriously taken advantage of sooner or later. Ugh, it's partly my fault too. If I hadn't bought a gaming headset, I'd have enough money to help you pay for it," the girl said.
"Weiwei, don't say that. You've already lent me all your living expenses. I don't even know how to thank you. And how are you going to get through this month?" Wu Ziyin asked gratefully. The girl before her was her roommate and best friend, and had always helped her at school.
"I'll be fine. Worst case, I'll cry and kick up a fuss until my dad gives in. He won't let me starve," Weiwei said breezily.
Just then, a text arrived on Wu Ziyin's phone. She opened it and saw a transfer notification. Looking at the full twenty thousand yuan that had arrived, she suddenly felt at a loss.
"Holy crap, Ziyin, your brother's loaded! My dad only gives me three thousand a month for living expenses, and squeezing even one extra yuan out of him is a struggle. One phone call, and your brother sends you twenty thousand? Give me a dozen brothers like that," Weiwei teased.
Wu Ziyin didn't respond. Instead, she immediately called her brother back and asked as soon as he picked up.
"Where did you get so much money?"
"I've made a little money playing a game lately," Wu Shaozhen said.
"A game? Can you really make that much money playing a game?" Wu Ziyin clearly didn't believe him. She rarely played games, so it was naturally hard for her to understand.
Hearing this beside her, Weiwei hurriedly said, "Is your brother playing Oracle? If he is, making tens of thousands isn't impossible as long as he's good enough. Several big shots in our Novice Village have already made tens of thousands selling equipment."
"Huh?" Wu Ziyin froze for a moment. She knew many of her classmates played this game, including Weiwei. Although she had nothing against people who played games, she had never imagined games could make money.
"Yeah, it's Oracle. I sold some equipment earlier and made a bit of money. Don't worry, I haven't done anything bad. If it's not enough, just ask me for more," Wu Shaozhen's voice came through the phone again.
"Okay, thanks. But I don't need that much. You need money too, so let me send some back." Although Wu Ziyin couldn't understand how a game could be so profitable, she felt reassured knowing her brother hadn't done anything wrong. Still, suddenly having so much money was a little hard to take in.
"It's fine. I still have more. Keep it and spend it. Buy some clothes, cosmetics, things like that. A girl should take care of herself. I didn't have much money before, so there wasn't anything I could do. Now that I do, we don't have to shortchange ourselves anymore," Wu Shaozhen said.
"Brother..." Wu Ziyin choked up.
"All right, all right. Go take care of things," Wu Shaozhen said. He knew Wu Ziyin wouldn't have called him for money unless something had happened.
"Okay, I'll hang up now. I'll come visit you when summer break starts," Wu Ziyin said.
"Okay."
"You hung up?" Weiwei asked beside her.
"Yeah. Why?" Wu Ziyin asked, puzzled.
"Aww, I wanted you to ask for your brother's in-game ID. The game's been out for less than two days, and he's already made tens of thousands. He must be really good. It'd be great if he could help me level," Weiwei said regretfully.
"My brother used to play games pretty often, I think. I don't know how good he is, though. But Weiwei, can you really make that much money in a game?" Wu Ziyin still found it hard to believe.
"Absolutely. I don't know about older games, but in Oracle, making tens of thousands a day isn't hard if you're good enough. You know Dustseal, the strongest player in the game right now? According to the estimates, he's made almost five hundred thousand just selling equipment in the day or so since yesterday. That doesn't even include the Gold Coins he has. I heard he's gotten eighty or ninety Gold Coins from system rewards alone. One Gold Coin sells for ten thousand yuan right now, which means he's made over a million in just over a day. And this is only the early game. He'll definitely make even more later," Weiwei said excitedly.
Wu Ziyin's mouth fell wide open. This was completely beyond anything she knew.
"Then... maybe I should play too?" Wu Ziyin was tempted.
"Oh, right! Your brother just sent you twenty thousand. Even after paying that awful woman eight thousand, you'll still have twelve thousand left. That's enough to buy a headset. Great, it's settled!" Weiwei declared.
Meanwhile, after hanging up, Wu Shaozhen put his headset back on and entered the game. Without lingering, he headed straight deeper into the area. Black Bear Ridge lay ahead, home to plenty of level 17 Black Bears-the next monsters he planned to farm.
Upon reaching Black Bear Ridge, Wu Shaozhen perked up at the sight of the enormous Black Bears. First, he cast Insight on one.
[Black Bear] Level: 17 Health: 23,000 Physical attack: 350 Physical defense: 180 Magic defense: 100 Speed: 40 Skill: Ground Slam: Slams the ground, dealing 140% physical damage to all targets within 2 meters and reducing their movement speed by 30%. Cooldown: 20 seconds.
Looks like regular monsters really aren't a threat to me anymore. I can just go straight in and farm them in groups. Once I put three stacks of poison on a Black Bear, I can pretty much leave it alone. At 152 poison damage per stack, three stacks deal 456 damage. Over 60 seconds, that's as much as twenty-seven thousand damage, enough to finish it off.
And so Wu Shaozhen began his ruthless monster farming, running up to each Black Bear, slashing it three times, then running away. Soon, a huge pack of Black Bears followed behind him. Gradually, the bears at the rear dropped one after another. This method of farming gave Wu Shaozhen a truly satisfying rush.
But that rush ended when he killed his eighty-ninth Black Bear, because when it died, he received only two system notifications.
"Ding! You have killed [Black Bear] and gained 200 EXP. For killing a monster five levels above you, you gained an additional 100 EXP. 20% of the EXP has been allocated to your pet. Your pet [Silver Big Bad Wolf] gained 60 EXP." "Ding! Immortal Body has activated. Maximum health increased by 1. Immortal Body has now increased your maximum health by a total of 218."
That was right-the talent improvement was missing. Wu Shaozhen reread the system notifications several times and confirmed it wasn't there. Then he checked his talent. Its poison damage had stopped at 240. To make sure, he killed two more Black Bears. His EXP increased, and Immortal Body improved too, but his talent didn't. Now Wu Shaozhen began to panic. This was something he had never considered.
He had thought his talent would keep growing as long as he kept farming. Now it seemed there was a limit. Still, he could understand it. Otherwise, continuing to farm like this would disrupt the game's balance too much.
Does that mean my poison damage will cap out at 240 from now on? Wu Shaozhen wondered gloomily. At the current stage, 240 damage per second was terrifying, but as players grew stronger, it really wouldn't amount to much. If that was the case, this talent would be pretty useless.
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