Level 3 Main City, Flowfire City!

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A walked east from Cloudside Town for over ten minutes.

At last, an enormous curtain of white light appeared ahead.

It was the teleportation passage connecting the beginner village to the Level 3 Main Cities!

At that moment, the occasional player who had reached level 10 and completed their class advancement arrived from Cloudside Town and stepped into the curtain of light.

Meanwhile, whenever a player finished teleporting, the name of the city they had entered appeared on the curtain.

Lin Mo stepped into it as well.

In a blank white space, a system notification sounded in his ears-

[Ding! Please select the Level 3 Main City you wish to travel to!]

As soon as the voice finished, a selection panel appeared before Lin Mo. It contained over three hundred options, each corresponding to a Human, Beastfolk, or Elf Level 3 Main City.

Lin Mo quickly chose his destination. "Human main city, Flowfire City!"

In his previous life, Lin Mo had chosen Flowfire City as his Level 3 Main City, so he knew its layout inside out.

[Ding! Human Level 3 Main City · Flowfire City. Your first teleportation is free. Teleporting you now. Please wait!]

Whoosh!

White light flared, and Lin Mo vanished from the teleportation space.

At the same time, a name appeared on the curtain of light outside-

Flowfire City!

The letters flashed for only three seconds before disappearing.

But a pair of eyes nearby still caught every detail.

Meanwhile.

Offline.

In a bedroom thick with the scent of dopamine, a large bed creaked as a naked Wang Junjie thrust hard into the girl before him, indescribable pleasure written across his face.

Just then, his phone rang at a most inconvenient moment.

Wang Junjie finished with one final burst, let out a long breath, and lay back on the bed as he answered the call.

"Boss! Mo Shou Cheng Gui went to the Level 3 Main City, Flowfire City! I saw it myself!"

At the news, an expression of intense excitement spread across Wang Junjie's face. "Fuck! I've waited so damn long in the beginner village, and you've finally gone to a Level 3 Main City, you piece of trash!"

"Flowfire City, huh? Mo Shou Cheng Gui, I'll repay the humiliation you put me through in the beginner village a hundredfold in that Level 3 Main City!"

As he spoke, Wang Junjie opened several Troubled Times Guild group chats and sent the same message to each. "Once you reach level 10, everyone is to gather in Flowfire City!"

Every group had several hundred members.

Across five or six groups, there were several thousand people, all of whom obeyed Wang Junjie's every command. The chats instantly filled with countless replies of "Understood!"

Wang Junjie sneered viciously. "Mo Shou Cheng Gui, just you wait! Once we're in that Level 3 Main City, you'll see how I deal with you!"

"I swear, Flowfire City will be your grave!"

[Ding! Player Mo Shou Cheng Gui, welcome to the Oracle Continent's Human Level 3 Main City · Flowfire City!]

Whoosh!

White light rained down, and Lin Mo appeared inside a magnificent city!

By comparison, the beginner village he had come from was practically a pigsty.

It could not begin to compare to the splendor before him!

At that moment, another system notification sounded:

[Ding! The second round of the Bounty Tournament has begun. Flowfire City's level, equipment, wealth, and reputation rankings are now available. Work hard to climb the rankings and win grand prizes!]

Here it was!

Lin Mo could practically see the prize money beckoning to him!

He opened the officially published event page and took a look.

To his delight, Lin Mo discovered that the top prize had not merely increased from the beginner village leveling event's one hundred thousand to a staggering three hundred thousand.

There were also four separate rankings for level, equipment, wealth, and reputation. Each ranking offered independent rewards that could be claimed together!

That meant...

"If I can take first place in all four rankings, I'll get a total of 1.2 million in prize money and twelve prize draws!"

"Even the guaranteed seventh-place prize in a draw is worth ten thousand. With the prizes from twelve draws added in, I should be able to make two million even if my luck is terrible, right?"

"If I get lucky and draw a second-place or first-place prize... wouldn't I strike it rich on the spot?"

"Looks like the developers really are pouring money into this to boost the game's popularity!"

Lin Mo's blood surged with excitement.

His goal and his plan became clear all at once.

He would take first place!

And not just one.

He wanted all four first-place spots!

Judging by the current situation, Lin Mo had already met that goal with ease.

Level 13, 81% EXP: first on Flowfire City's level ranking!

31.18 gold: first on Flowfire City's wealth ranking!

Level 10, Tier 2 gold-grade Heavenburn · Flamefire Saint Ring: first on Flowfire City's equipment ranking!

270 reputation: first on Flowfire City's reputation ranking!

But he knew full well:

"Only three beginner villages across the entire server have successfully killed their bosses so far. That means most of the powerful players have already met the requirements to enter a Level 3 Main City, but they're still staying in their beginner villages for the bosses."

The fact that a Level 3 Main City could hold up to three million players, while Flowfire City currently had only a few tens of thousands, was proof enough.

"Once the powerful players from all those beginner villages finish killing their bosses and flock to the Level 3 Main Cities, my first-place position on the Heaven Ranking could be threatened at any moment. If I want to hold on to first place, I have to keep improving!"

At the same time, precisely because many beginner village bosses had yet to be killed, there was another issue.

Lin Mo would have to wait a little longer before he could obtain the other two Shadow Hearts from other holders of the "King of Hunting" title-awarded exclusively for killing a beginner boss-and unlock the hidden dungeon, [Shadow Temple]!

"In that case, this is perfect. I'll use this time to prepare for the Shadow Temple dungeon in advance!"

He recalled his previous life.

A wealthy player had once splashed out thirty million to buy three Shadow Hearts from three players who had secured first kills on beginner bosses, then used those three Shadow Hearts to gain access to the hidden dungeon, the Shadow Temple.

After entering the Shadow Temple, that wealthy player had livestreamed his entire run.

But because he was not strong enough, he had been killed and expelled from the dungeon in less than ten minutes!

There was no need to go into detail about who that wealthy player was.

Suffice it to say, his surname was Wang.

At the time, that certain Mr. Wang had become a laughingstock across the internet.

Everyone laughed at him for throwing thirty million down the drain.

Yet Lin Mo vividly remembered the sheer excitement in Mr. Wang's smile after he had been killed and expelled from the dungeon!

He had spent thirty million and been killed within ten minutes. Why had he still been so happy?

There could only be one explanation:

In those brief ten minutes, what he had gained from the Shadow Temple was already worth more than his initial investment!

"More than thirty million in just ten minutes."

"What if I stay inside for the full one-hour exploration limit?"

Perhaps the value of this dungeon alone would be enough for Lin Mo to reach fifty million in cumulative top-ups!

Lin Mo also remembered watching that livestream himself.

As far as he knew, Mr. Wang had not been killed and expelled after ten minutes because the dungeon's monsters were too powerful.

The main reason had been...

"The Shadow Temple is filled with a poisonous aura called Shadow Breath. Players inside continuously lose a percentage of their HP."

"In my previous life, Wang Junjie spent a fortune putting together a full set of top-tier red-grade equipment before entering the dungeon. He made every preparation, only to be poisoned to death in the end. That was why he survived for only ten minutes in the Shadow Temple."

Lin Mo mused, "But there's a set of equipment in the Flowfire City area called the [Venom Set]. A complete Venom Set not only deals powerful poison damage, but also grants its wearer immunity to poison damage!"

"If I can collect a full Venom Set before entering the Shadow Temple, I'll be immune to the effects of Shadow Breath. Surviving for sixty minutes will be no problem at all!"