Elegant Ancient Flute

Zhou Heng definitely would not choose Fate Hint Two.

He even dared to offend a terrifying force like the Longevity Family, so why would he care about a legendary Forgery Master who was about to break past level 100?

So...

Zhou Heng picked up where he had left off.

"Sir, these two things look pretty good. I'll take both. How much?"

The Forgery Master rubbed his hands together, looking delighted.

"Young man, you've got a good eye!"

"These two items of mine are absolutely worth every coin. You won't lose out, and you won't get swindled."

"They're cheap. 500 copper coins each."

Zhou Heng had thought the man would set a very high price, but now it seemed he also wanted to complete his Transcendence Achievement as soon as possible.

Zhou Heng could easily afford that price.

"All right, sir. Let's trade."

[You obtained the Elegant Ancient Flute]

[You obtained the Deepwater Jiaolong (Statue)]

[Copper coins -1,000]

Seeing his wares sold, the Forgery Master grinned happily.

Of the ten thousand new players, he had already swindled eight thousand in less than four days. Just two thousand more, and he could complete his Transcendence Achievement and embark on the path to legend.

Just as the Forgery Master was imagining his future, achievement notifications suddenly appeared on his retinas.

[You failed to swindle your 8,000th new player]

[Forgery Master's advancement on the path to legend failed]

[Please reapply for the Path to Legend Transcendence Achievement on January 1 next year]

[May legend await you, boundless and endless, immortal and undying]

The Forgery Master froze, staring at the notifications before him in disbelief.

He, a Forgery Master on the verge of becoming a legend, had spent his days hunting geese, only for a goose to peck him in return?

Fuck, I misjudged them.

At least one of the two items, the Elegant Ancient Flute and the Deepwater Flood Dragon statue, was genuine.

Coming to his senses, the Forgery Master looked at Zhou Heng, who had put away the items and was getting up to leave. His expression instantly darkened.

After a long while, he sighed.

"Forget it, forget it. I was the one who misjudged them, after all. How can I blame a kid who's only just entered the game?"

"But which one was genuine, the Elegant Ancient Flute or the Deepwater Flood Dragon statue?"

"Ah, my Transcendence Achievement. Who knows what kind of Transcendence Achievement I'll randomly get next year?"

The Forgery Master suppressed the agitated impulse within him.

He was no longer a low-level player a few dozen levels in. Killing a little fellow who had only just reached level 10 with his level 100 strength would certainly be a slaughter, but he would also have to bear the penalty for breaking the rules.

After all, if players at his level could kill new players at will, those beasts from the Longevity Family would have completely monopolized the entry zones of Boundless Endless long ago.

If he killed Zhou Heng, the other party might only lose one free resurrection, whereas he would lose at least ten levels.

He did not know what those ten levels meant to others, but he had endured countless hardships to grind from level 91 to level 100. After all, wild monsters were genuinely hard to find these days. There was no way he would throw away those ten levels over a single mistake of his own.

Watching Zhou Heng walk away, the Forgery Master stood up listlessly and disappeared into the streets of Little Bird Town.

"Is this Elegant Ancient Flute really not a counterfeit?"

As Zhou Heng played with the Elegant Ancient Flute, drawing on the appraisal classes he had taken at school, the more he examined it, the more he felt it was fake.

Because it was too new-so new that there was nothing ancient about it at all.

Honestly, if the Fate Hint had not said it was genuine, Zhou Heng would never have given it a second glance.

After fiddling with it for quite a while and still finding no clues, Zhou Heng finally put it into his inventory, alongside the unidentified Ceramic Shard.

He arrived at Little Bird Town's tavern, which was packed with all kinds of players and NPCs.

"The Black Bear Guild has issued an announcement, officially putting out a bounty on a new player named Zhou Heng. The reward is 30,000 copper coins."

"That's strange. Why would a major guild like the Black Bear Guild still pay in copper coins? Why not just offer silver coins?"

"Who knows? Maybe they've got so many copper coins they don't know what to do with them."

"Rather than that Zhou Heng who's been plundering resources, I'm more interested in knowing which expert actually sent a Longevity Family player back to the Revival Point."

"I heard about that too. The only Longevity Family player in our Little Bird Town actually got sent back to the resurrection point."

"Why couldn't she have been killed by a wild monster? Why are you so sure a player did it?"

"Little girl, you clearly haven't been studying properly. A Longevity Family player, killed by a wild monster? If word got out, trust me, they'd be kicked out of the Longevity Family in a heartbeat."

"The Longevity Family is an ancient family that's existed for ten thousand years. How could someone from a place like that be killed by wild monsters right after entering the game, especially in a backwater like our Little Bird Town?"

"Actually, none of you have gotten to the point. When a Longevity Family player is killed by another player, a scratch appears on their arm. Although no one knows how it works even now, as long as there's a scratch, they were definitely killed by a player. One death, one scratch. Three deaths, three scratches."

"So a player really did it?"

"What else? You really think a wild monster killed her?"

"Where did this badass come from, daring to kill even a Longevity Family player? Do they really think death is that far away?"

"Someone like that is bound to turn up every so often. They all think their randomly assigned talents are mighty, but in the face of the powerful Longevity Family, they're nothing!"

Zhou Heng sat in a corner, sharing a table with a group of people. He said nothing and simply listened quietly.

Most of the news revolved around the Black Bear Guild's bounty on Zhou Heng and the killing of the Longevity Family player. He had not obtained the location coordinates he needed.

An hour later, just as Zhou Heng felt there was no point staying any longer, a player's drunken shout came from farther away.

"Say, if I camped outside the Little Bird Inn and became that Longevity Family player's dog, could I land myself a spot as her pretty boy?"

"That Longevity Family player is seriously beautiful!"

At those words, the somewhat noisy tavern instantly fell silent, followed by a roar of laughter.

"Brother, stop fucking dreaming. Your fucking beard is almost thicker than my hair. Trust me, a beautiful young girl like that would never take a liking to you."

"When it comes to a force on the Longevity Family's level, the only people who can catch those women's eyes are either unbelievably handsome or immensely powerful."

"If you ask me, maybe the player who killed her could succeed if he went to the Little Bird Inn and knelt on the ground to be her dog."

In the corner, a gleam flashed in Zhou Heng's eyes, and the corners of his mouth could not help lifting slightly.

Persistence paid off. After listening to an hour of boasting and chatter, he had finally obtained the information he wanted.

The Little Bird Inn-NPC-run inns like that were all very expensive. Generally, few players would spend their precious funds on lodging at this stage.

So, if he went to the Little Bird Inn, he was one hundred percent certain he could easily find her.

And as long as he found her, her resources...