Chapter 1 The Beginning

The Sword Demon and the other three were focused on clearing the monsters ahead, with no time to pay attention to what was happening behind them. Besides, they weren't as stubbornly fixated as Young Master Han, who believed that even if there was nothing to do during a mission, one should still watch intently to learn how others worked.

The team continued deeper into the Black Dragon Cave. Young Master Han kept looking for an opportunity to teach Gu Fei a lesson, but having completed this mission once before, he knew there would be no chance along this path. The deeper they went into the cave, the higher the level of the monsters, and the denser they became. To continue advancing without disturbing any extra monsters required absolute precision.

They had to fight their way to the very depths, where a stone door stood, guarded by a mini-boss with considerable strength. Defeating it and opening the mechanism of the stone door would finally lead to the bandit leader Suo Tu's humble abode.

Young Master Han calculated their progress and kept track of the time, unaware of the unexpected event that had occurred behind them.

The mountain path in the cave was treacherous, with uneven footing.

The client, in a moment of carelessness, missed a step. He stumbled and staggered several steps to the side.

"Watch out!" Gu Fei saw that he had only lost his balance and wasn't about to fall, so he simply offered a verbal reminder.

The client steadied himself and thanked him. But at that moment, Gu Fei suddenly sensed something amiss in the darkness behind the client.

"Get out of the way!" Gu Fei shouted, already flying forward.

Before the client could react, he saw Gu Fei dart past him like the wind, landing behind him.

"Clang..." a crisp sound of metal on metal. Gu Fei's longsword, already drawn from its scabbard, had met a shadowy figure head-on.

"Go on ahead, don't worry about me!" Gu Fei said, looking back.

"Damn!" Gu Fei exclaimed sincerely after turning his head. The guy had already run far away, with no intention of helping Gu Fei. In his mind, since Gu Fei and the others were hired to help him, they had a responsibility and obligation to ensure his safety, so Gu Fei's rescue was only right. As for him helping in return? Hell no! If I could handle these monsters, would I need to hire you guys? That’s what the client was thinking.

"Alright, you just keep going!" Gu Fei said to the guy, while casually fighting.

The client walked away in a daze, feeling somewhat confused. Isn't that guy a mage? Why does it look like he's fighting the monster hand-to-hand? Oh! He's getting closer to draw the monster's aggro, quickly shifting its attention from me to him. He really is an expert.

The client hurried to catch up with the main group, leaving Gu Fei to face the enemy alone.

It was difficult to fight in the darkness. Gu Fei retreated while fighting, gradually returning to the center of the path, where some unknown light source illuminated the area. Gu Fei finally saw his opponent clearly. It was also a bandit, but dressed in blue.

What did the blue outfit mean? It was like the blue names in old-fashioned online games. In the fully immersive game, the NPC leaders no longer had names floating above their heads, and of course, it was impossible to distinguish bosses from blue or gold names. But it was obviously inappropriate to engrave "Big Boss," "Mini-Boss," or "Blue Monster" on their faces, so the game company decided to use appearances to differentiate them.

The small bandit in front of him was a mini-blue monster.

Since Gu Fei started leveling up, this was the first time he'd gotten lucky enough to encounter a blue monster, making him a bit excited.

Unfortunately, the blue monster didn't bring him much excitement.

A blue monster was, in the end, not a true Boss. It was just an upgraded version of a regular monster with increased health, attack, and defense. Real Bosses were those who appeared before you clad in golden armor and riding on auspicious colorful clouds, making you feel ashamed just by looking at them. They were four-dimensional NPCs: strong skills, good equipment, high levels, and high AI. Compared to a Boss, a blue monster was just a nobody.

Gu Fei fought the nobody, continuing to execute his maximum damage output with extreme precision. It was only a matter of time before he resolved the situation. Unfortunately, Gu Fei lacked strength, and his equipment was plain. Dealing with ordinary monsters was quick enough, but fighting an upgraded version was tiring. After all the effort, it took several minutes for the blue monster to finally fall to the ground with a crash.

Just before collapsing, Gu Fei clearly heard the little blue monster mutter, "The key to the secret passage, I will never hand it over to anyone."

"What key?" Gu Fei asked subconsciously.

But the monster was already dead. Even if it weren't, it wouldn't answer unless it was a pre-programmed dialogue.

Gu Fei quickly rummaged through the little blue monster's body. Besides dropping more coins than ordinary monsters, there was actually a heavy iron key. He looked closely: Black Dragon Cave Secret Passage Key.

But where was the secret passage? Gu Fei looked around and walked towards the darkness from which the little blue monster had emerged.

It was too dark to see anything. But that didn't stop Gu Fei, because he had a torch.

He had killed many of those vagrants who played around bonfires by the lake. Besides getting bundles and bundles of meat-cleaving knives, he also seized a lot of the fire-starting tools. Gu Fei was just a mage with limited carrying capacity. His Doraemon pocket wasn't infinitely large. He wouldn't carry extra meat-cleaving knives, but things like torches might be useful someday, and wasn't this that time?

Gu Fei was glad for his foresight, and casually pulled out a torch from his pocket and lit it.

The darkness lit up. Gu Fei immediately noticed a large iron plate on the ground, with a huge lock fastening one end. He inserted the newly acquired key, turned it, and the lock clicked open. After removing the lock, Gu Fei lifted the iron plate, revealing a one-person-sized opening in front of him. He shone the torch inside, revealing a one-person-tall passage below.

Gu Fei quickly sent a message to Sword Demon, but received a system notification that "Message Reception is Closed."

They were in the middle of an intense battle and didn't want to be disturbed by messages. Sword Demon and the others had all closed their message reception. Anyway, they were all together, so they just shouted if anything happened.

I'll wait until the mission is over! Gu Fei closed the iron plate and returned to the path, only to be stunned again.

The monsters that Sword Demon and the others had cleared when they passed by had already respawned.

They were only level 35 monsters, which were not difficult for Gu Fei. But the point was, Gu Fei didn't know the location distribution, aggro range, and other data of each monster like Sword Demon and the others did. If Gu Fei continued forward now, he would probably have to clear all the monsters in the cave again. In short, it was: troublesome.

"Fate!" Gu Fei sighed, turned around, and opened the iron plate again.

"Maybe if I go this way, I'll get ahead of them and scare them!" Gu Fei thought with a hint of mischief, and crawled down into the secret passage.

The secret passage was narrow, but it was much easier to walk than the path in the cave. Gu Fei held the torch in front of him to light the way, and was constantly on guard in case there was an ambush inside!

But everything was peaceful along the way. Gu Fei came to the end of the secret passage, a huge stone door. He reached out and pushed hard. The stone door slowly opened, but it threatened to snap shut at any moment. Gu Fei pushed and squeezed, finally squeezing through. He released his grip, and the stone door closed again. He tried to push it open again, but it wouldn't budge. Open it? He had already worked up a sweat pushing it open just now. It was impossible to open it by pulling. Gu Fei was somewhat dissatisfied with his strength. It seemed he could consider adding some strength.

Leaving the stone door, he looked around and saw a vast space before him.

Unexpectedly, there was such a flat and wide area inside the cave. Gu Fei then noticed a small wooden house standing alone in the flat square.

"Suo Tu lives in a small wooden house built deep inside the Black Dragon Cave... although the outside is flat and spacious..." Gu Fei recalled what Young Master Han said when introducing the mission.

He had actually reached his destination. So this secret passage was a shortcut for this mission! Gu Fei was happy. Since no one had arrived yet... Gu Fei gripped the sword in his hand and walked towards Suo Tu's wooden house.

He admired Young Master Han's plan, and he had seen their exquisite cooperation along the way. If they really followed Young Master Han's plan, it would probably be thrilling but safe.

However, admiration didn't mean liking it! Gu Fei liked direct, face-to-face combat.

What pulling monsters, trapping monsters, drawing aggro... Gu Fei had often heard and seen these terms, and he knew the general idea. These were all aspects of a top online gamer's skill, but Gu Fei was different. He indeed wanted to become a top player in this game, but he wouldn't rely on online gaming skills, but on his kung fu. This was his purpose in coming to "Parallel World."

After slashing at monsters for so long, Gu Fei had been looking forward to having a Boss to challenge. Now he finally had that opportunity.

You had to know that these mission Bosses weren't so easy to encounter. The system randomly released missions every day. There were endless fetch-and-carry tasks, but these challenging high-level missions were rare. Even if one spawned, being able to receive it was a stroke of great luck. That's why this client was willing to spend money to hire people to help him complete it.

Thinking about it that way, joining this mercenary team wasn't bad. He could often take on difficult missions and have more opportunities for challenges.

As Gu Fei thought this, he arrived outside the wooden house.

Inside was an NPC, a guy whose head he needed to chop off to complete the mission. Of course, Gu Fei wasn't bored enough to knock on the door and say hello. He kicked the door open and shouted, "Suo Tu!"

It seemed this method could also draw the monster's aggro. The guy lying on the bed immediately flipped over, picked up the broadsword placed at the foot of the bed, and slashed at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei swung his sword to meet the attack! Collision!

"So strong!" Gu Fei blocked the attack, but he couldn't withstand the force. Gu Fei was sent flying by Suo Tu's slash.

Suo Tu roared and charged out of the house.

Gu Fei's face turned green. Because he remembered Young Master Han said, "As soon as Suo Tu leaves the house, he'll blow a whistle and call his minions."