Chapter 16 Reunion

Nie Yan logged off and contacted Tang Yao, Guo Huai, and others. Guo Huai had already completed the matter of bringing Brilliant Cutlass into the guild. Nirvana Flame’s members had reached a terrifying 16,000. A level 1 guild with this many members was extremely rare. After the number of guild members rose to 16,000, fewer people joined. Guo Huai and the others began to divide the work, reviewing the details of each guild member. Some with suspicious backgrounds were kicked out of the guild. Even so, they couldn’t guarantee there weren’t spies from other guilds, but at least they could ensure the team was a little purer.

After a count, there were about 3,000 players above level 10, which was a bit low, but not bad.

Brilliant Cutlass, Big Bro Seven, and others formed the guild’s elite group. Entering the elite group usually required signing an agreement. Members couldn’t simply leave whenever they wanted. If they did, they had to return everything the guild had given them and pay a large penalty. Every guild invested heavily in its elite group. Each member was the essence of the guild. If these elite members jumped ship, it would be a huge loss for the guild, so they had to be bound by an agreement.

However, once they entered the guild’s elite group, it meant they could enjoy more guild resources and would definitely develop better than ordinary players, so they signed the agreement.

After signing the agreement, the guild’s only Elementary Resurrection Scroll was given to Big Bro Seven.

At this current stage, an Elementary Resurrection Scroll was extremely valuable. Even if you offered dozens of gold outside, you might not be able to buy one because they were too rare. Most large guilds’ elite groups didn’t even have an Elementary Resurrection Scroll yet. It would only become widespread above level 20.

Elementary Resurrection could only resurrect players in the team and couldn’t be used in combat. When running dungeons, sometimes they would only get halfway through before too many players died, making it impossible to continue. With Elementary Resurrection, they could revive their teammates. When dealing with the final Boss, it was difficult for the team to achieve zero casualties. They often had to sacrifice several players to kill the Boss. With resurrection, they could avoid a lot of losses.

Therefore, for Big Bro Seven and others, having Elementary Resurrection made running dungeons much easier.

Everything was developing in an orderly manner. Nie Yan believed that with the skills of Big Bro Seven, Brilliant Cutlass, and others, the team they formed would definitely be extremely powerful after a period of coordination.

After chatting with Tang Yao, Guo Huai, and others, Nie Yan continued to follow his training and study plan. After this period of intensive training, he felt full of energy, and his body’s reactions were more sensitive than before. He had grown about three centimeters taller and was stronger.

Nie Yan’s parents would be back soon, and he felt increasingly eager, filled with longing.

Just as Nie Yan was anxiously anticipating their return, his aunt and uncle came again, but were disappointed to find that Nie Yan’s parents hadn’t returned. After they learned that Nie Yan had a chance to be admitted to the First Military Academy, even though they were unwilling, they could only greet Nie Yan with a smile. However, they still worried about the money they had lent to Nie Yan’s parents.

Nie Yan really didn’t want to use the game coins, because before the exchange of game coins for real currency was opened, every gold coin in the game was very valuable. However, the exchange rate on the black market was far from the value of the game coins themselves. A group of big shots deliberately lowered the purchase price together. Selling game coins was too uneconomical. Every gold coin was Nie Yan's capital for dealing with Cao Xu in the future.

Nie Yan called Tang Yao and said, “Yaozi, do you have any money right now? Lend me some first, and I'll pay you back in a while.”

“How much do you need?” Tang Yao asked, quite surprised. Nie Yan rarely borrowed money from him.

“Probably more than 500,000,” Nie Yan thought for a moment. This was the first time Nie Yan had borrowed money from Tang Yao. As long as his parents returned in a few days, he could pay it back.

“That much? Give me your card number, and I'll transfer the money to your account.”

“You don't want to ask me what I'm borrowing this money for?”

“You never borrow money from me. As soon as you ask, I know you must have something going on, some serious purpose. If you don't say, I won't ask. Even if you borrow more, I'll run around to raise the money and help you find it. Who told us we grew up together wearing open-crotch pants!” Tang Yao said. After his father became rich, more and more people flattered him, and fewer and fewer people could treat him sincerely. Most of them had ulterior motives, which made him cherish his friendship with Nie Yan even more. In his opinion, friendship was priceless. He didn't lack money, but he lacked friends!

“My dad owed money when he left, and someone came to collect the debt. I don't want to use the gold coins in the game, so I can only borrow from you first,” Nie Yan explained.

“It must be those snobbish relatives of yours,” Tang Yao sneered. “They will regret it one day!” With Nie Yan’s current development in the game, his wealth would definitely be terrifyingly high in the future when the exchange between RMB and game coins opened. He wouldn’t care about such a small amount of money in the future.

After a while, Tang Yao said on the phone, “I've transferred the money to your account.”

Nie Yan went to the bank to withdraw some cash and walked toward the homes of his uncle, aunt, and others. The place where they lived was not far from Nie Yan's home. They were in the same community, so they often saw each other. However, Nie Yan had never felt a trace of warmth from them, even less than from the surrounding neighbors.

Nie Yan knocked on the iron gate of his uncle Luo Ming's house.

“Who is it?” An annoying voice rang out, his aunt’s croaking voice.

“It's me,” Nie Yan's voice was cold and devoid of any anger. He didn't need to get angry with these irrelevant people.

The aunt opened the iron gate, and after seeing Nie Yan, she showed a disgusted expression, but then she thought of something, and her expression froze on her face. She asked in a stiff tone, “Oh, it’s Nie Yan, what’s the matter? Do you want to come in and sit down?” But she didn’t mean to let Nie Yan in at all.

“No need, I want to ask, how much money did my parents borrow from you?”

“170,000, plus interest, it’s almost 220,000. What’s the matter?” The aunt glanced at Nie Yan and asked.

“This is to pay you back. Return my parents’ IOU.” Nie Yan’s tone was chilling. This was high-interest usury. One could imagine how much difficulty his parents had when they borrowed money. They had promised such high interest before they were willing to lend it! It was even more difficult than borrowing money from strangers! What would have happened if Nie Yan's father's business had failed? His parents would never have been able to get back on their feet in their entire lives!

Nie Yan thought about how ignorant he was at the time. He didn’t understand how much pressure his parents were under at all. Instead, he resented them for abandoning him and kept causing them trouble, which made them feel guilty towards him and not enjoy a single day of happiness. In this life, he would never let such a thing happen again. And he had to become stronger so that he would have enough ability to protect this family.

“Where did you get the money?” The aunt was stunned when she saw Nie Yan take out so much money and asked.

“Stop talking nonsense, bring me my parents’ IOU!” Nie Yan’s face was covered with frost.

Seeing Nie Yan get angry, the aunt immediately lost her temper. Nie Yan was different now than before. If she really provoked him, he might do anything! She quickly went to the room to get the IOU and returned it to Nie Yan.

Nie Yan looked at the IOU, confirmed that it was his father's handwriting, and turned around and left, not bothering to talk nonsense with her.

“It’s really evil, where did this kid find so much money? Could it be…” The old woman thought of something, shivered, and quickly closed the iron gate.

Nie Yan knocked on each door and paid back the money. It was afternoon before he finished.

“Did you pay it all back?” Tang Yao called Nie Yan and asked.

“Yeah, I paid it all back. I’ll pay you back in a few days,” Nie Yan said. Comparing Tang Yao to those relatives, one could know the warmth and coldness of human relationships.

“No rush, it’s okay.” Tang Yao waved his hand, he wasn’t in a hurry to use the money. Suddenly he thought of something and said, “Why don’t you just give me some game coins in the game?”

“That’s fine too,” Nie Yan nodded. In fact, even if the price was lowered on the black market outside, game coins were still very valuable, after all, game coins in Conviction were too scarce. “I might have something to do after I enter the game. You guys level up first.”

“Okay.”

After agreeing with Tang Yao, Nie Yan exercised for a day and continued to enter the game in the evening.

In order to find the key to open the Dark Gold Treasure Chest, Nie Yan began to search the island, not letting go of every inch of land. As he walked towards the dilapidated altar a dozen yards away, he unexpectedly had some unexpected gains. He found an unlocked Silver Treasure Chest in a corner and took out two recipes from it.

After looking at them, they were the Black Elf Carrion Poison Recipe and the Black Elf Arrow Poison Recipe. The former was a poison recipe used to poison sharp weapons such as knives, swords, and daggers, and the latter was a poison recipe for arrows, both of which were intermediate level. Carrion Poison could cause 30 points of damage and last for 20 seconds. The materials were some carrion worms, which were difficult to find. At least you had to be level 30 to get them. The other arrow poison could cause an additional 50 points of poison damage. The materials were some relatively common herbs, requiring as many as seven. Each bottle of potion cost at least ten silver coins and could be used three times. Arrow Poison had always been the worst-selling of all potions, so it wasn’t very economical, but for Nie Yan, it was definitely a good thing. He had to ask Bird Doesn't Lay Eggs to find someone to make it.

The ruins of the altar in the distance were overgrown with weeds. One could only vaguely see the general outline of this altar. Could he really find the key to the Dark Gold Treasure Chest here? Nie Yan couldn’t help but feel doubtful.