Chapter 1 Nie Yan's Choice

Nie Yan glanced at his opponent's name, Fallen Frog, and frowned. He vaguely remembered this person; he seemed to be a professional player. Although Fallen Frog hadn't earned the title of Shadow Dancer in his previous life, it wasn't due to a lack of skill. Rather, it was because he had devoted all his energy to a great cause: opening treasure chests! This guy was an oddball, a strange character, but in the treasure-hunting business, few could compare to him. In his previous life, there were quite a few players with the Shadow Dancer title, some of whom hadn't revealed their names to the outside world. However, there weren't many with the Treasure Hunter title. In the entire Greenland, there seemed to be only two or three, and Fallen Frog was one of them.

Nie Yan knew how many treasure chests one had to open to earn the Treasure Hunter title. In his previous life, he had opened at least five or six thousand treasure chests. Ordinary map treasure chests were a little less common, but when exploring dungeons, he had to open an average of three to five treasure chests every day. However, he was still a long way from earning the Treasure Hunter title.

It was said that over 60% of Fallen Frog's skills were for escaping from various situations, with attack skills making up only a small portion. Later in the game, players had many skills, anywhere from twenty or thirty to thirty or forty. Many players couldn't even use them all. Each of them would study a set of tactics that suited them, focusing on a few skills that they were comfortable with. However, the skills that Fallen Frog was most comfortable with were all escape skills. At levels eighty or ninety, he dared to go to maps of level one hundred fifty or sixty to find treasure chests. This guy was truly unique. Due to the small number of attack skills he possessed, he missed out on the Shadow Dancer title, but his reputation wasn't small. Many powerful people, even the guild leaders of major guilds, liked to go to him to find good items.

Nie Yan's voice communication activated. He looked and saw that it was Fallen Frog who had sent it.

"You're pretty awesome. That golden treasure chest is yours. You're Nie Yan from Asskickers United, right?" Fallen Frog said. He was quite open-minded. After all, there would be other treasure chests to find.

Nie Yan smiled, noncommittal. Fallen Frog must have seen his name, otherwise he wouldn't have asked. He sent Fallen Frog an invitation to the Assassin Alliance. Fallen Frog had always been a free agent, so his business spanned various guilds. If he invited him to join a guild, he might be rejected, so Nie Yan only sent an invitation to the Assassin Alliance.

Fallen Frog saw that Nie Yan didn't reply and was about to head to the next location to continue searching for treasure chests when he suddenly received a system notification.

System: Player Nie Yan has invited you to join the Assassin Alliance (special channel). Do you accept?

Fallen Frog had heard about the Assassin Alliance from colleagues who were professional players. It seemed to be a professional player alliance that had just been created a few days ago. All the members of Kuang Zhan Studio had joined it.

Since the Assassin Alliance was just a channel and didn't have the restrictive nature of a guild, it might be worth checking out.

He clicked accept and joined the Assassin Alliance. After reading the introduction, he roughly understood what kind of organization the Assassin Alliance was. Joining such an organization would be very helpful for his future business. He looked at the top of the alliance page and saw that the Assassin Alliance had a guild leader and five Princes, all anonymous. He wondered which level Nie Yan was.

Nie Yan saw that Fallen Frog had joined the Assassin Alliance, but he was just a regular member. He would have to complete some tasks and reach a certain number of points before he could obtain a title. However, with Fallen Frog's skills, it should be easy to raise his title.

Under the activity of Ban Seming De Hu Li, Ai Qing Sha Shang, and Fa Lan, the number of the Assassin Alliance had reached nearly two thousand people. The players who founded the Assassin Alliance in his previous life were far less well-connected than Ban Seming De Hu Li, Ai Qing Sha Shang, and Fa Lan. Ban Seming De Hu Li and Ai Qing Sha Shang were very well-connected among professional players. They knew basically every professional player with some fame. Their two studios alone had more than five hundred professional players and a large customer base. Although Fa Lan wasn't a professional player, he was an evergreen in various virtual games. His qualifications were there, and his interactions with professional players were definitely not few. Moreover, Fa Lan knew many bosses of various companies and had pulled in hundreds of people at once. These people were all potential customers in the future.

Once the Assassin Alliance's recognition among professional players increased, it would definitely have even greater development in the future.

After adding Fallen Frog, Nie Yan continued opening treasure chests and headed towards the Light Monastery.

"May I ask, what skill did you use to cross the cliff just now?" Fallen Frog knew that his question was abrupt, but for a player who was extremely devoted to searching for treasure chests, Nie Yan's skills were too attractive.

Nie Yan thought for a moment. It wouldn't hurt to reveal it to Fallen Frog, so he said, "Crawler Ring, a rare item."

Hearing the words 'rare item,' Fallen Frog gave up. Rare items were too few and far between, making them hard to find.

"Asskickers United is at war with the Victorious Return Empire, right? Don't go north. There are at least five or six hundred people from the Victorious Return Empire cleaning up the Evil Warlock over there," Fallen Frog said.

"Thank you for the reminder."

"You're welcome."

Nie Yan bent down and opened the golden treasure chest, taking out a pair of level twenty-five golden boots that belonged to a Paladin. The stats were good, and they looked like they were worth a lot of money.

Nie Yan stood at the top of the mountain slope, looking ahead. The jungle was lush. Passing through the jungle, it shouldn't be far from the Light Monastery. However, he had just received news from Fallen Frog that there were people from Victorious Return in the north killing the Evil Warlock. Should he go take a look?

Looking towards the forest in the north, a red mage tower stood in the distance, with many players active below. Magic spells frequently exploded in the air. Fallen Frog's words should be true.

The Evil Warlock was a level twenty-five Lord, extremely fierce among low-level Bosses. It knew both single-target and area-of-effect magic. No wonder Victorious Return was using five or six hundred people to deal with the Evil Warlock. When the Evil Warlock was killed for the first time, one of the items dropped was a dark-gold staff, a top-tier item in the early stages. If that thing fell into the hands of Victorious Return, they would have another super-powerful mage.

It would take at least ten more minutes to get there from here. He wondered if he would make it in time.

Thinking this, Nie Yan didn't waste any more time. He jumped off the cliff and used the skill on the Featherfall Jewel when he was close to the ground.

His speed decreased sharply, and Nie Yan landed on a branch of a large tree. He jumped forward, flying five or six yards, landing lightly, and shooting out like an arrow, quickly disappearing into the depths of the jungle.

The depths of the jungle were extremely lively. The sounds of exploding magic tore through the sky, and flames soared into the air, accompanied by flashes of lightning.

The battle was intense. He wondered how much health they had depleted from the Evil Warlock.

Ahead, several players from Victorious Return were standing guard in the jungle, clearing the monsters that spawned nearby and chatting.

"I wonder how it's going over there," one Victorious Return player said. They were just some peripheral players and didn't have the right to participate in the battle.

"It's hard to say. After all, it's a level twenty-five Lord. I hope they don't get wiped out," a warrior said.

"Brother Sogou said it would take at least two hours to finish. There are too many guards near the Evil Warlock's mage tower. We have to clear them one by one before we can go in. Calculating the time, it's been more than an hour, right?"

"Let's not think so much. Anyway, we can get 100 guild contribution points after this is over," another mage player said.

Guild contribution was determined by the guild leader himself. 100 guild contribution points in Victorious Return Empire were equivalent to about twenty copper coins.

In the past, players could get five or six copper coins for participating in a guild event, but as players' levels increased, the price for participating in a guild event had increased to more than twenty copper coins.

The devaluation of game currency was an inevitable trend. As players' levels increased in the game, they earned more and more game currency by killing monsters. In the past, killing more than a dozen monsters would only get them one copper coin, but now, the drop rate for killing high-level monsters was significantly higher. Sometimes, it was normal to drop several copper coins at once.

Nie Yan entered stealth and passed behind these players.

A faint sense of danger flashed through the mind of an arcane mage, so faint that it didn't even attract his attention.

The others didn't even feel anything and were still chatting casually.

Nie Yan passed these people and advanced into the depths of the jungle, occasionally encountering one or two Victorious Return players. On the one hand, they could level up by killing monsters here, and on the other hand, they were patrolling to prevent players outside the guild from approaching.

Looking through the gaps between the trees, there was a mage tower six or seven yards high, scarlet all over, as if dyed with blood. Under the mage tower, people were moving around, and groups of players were busy.

"Pay attention to the output!"

"Priests, keep up with the healing, damn it, hurry up!"

Shouts and curses came from time to time.

Most of these players were around level twenty. It was a bit difficult for them to deal with a level twenty-five leader, because these people seemed a bit flustered. However, they were, after all, the elites of Victorious Return Empire, so they were responding well, and there weren't too many casualties.

He wondered if Po Tian was here, Nie Yan thought, but he could be sure that Sogou was here. This was an old opponent. Last time, outside the Blackflame Forest, the two of them didn't have time to determine a winner before they were hit by Meteor Flame. Sogou was killed by Meteor Flame, while he was rescued by the priests of the Holy Roman Empire.

He wondered if there were any other acquaintances from Victorious Return, Nie Yan thought, slowly approaching the mage tower.

Fa Biao De Wo Niu: My shoulder feels like it's dislocated. I rested yesterday, and I feel much better today. Actually, I wanted to write more, because more chapters mean more money, and I have to support my family. I'll try my best, but when I'm too tired, I'll take a little rest. Please subscribe and support me.