Chapter 1 The Beginning

Nie Yan made a trip to the underworld. The five guilds of the Tuoba family had been attacking the War God Tribe's fortress for a long time without success. He received news that the War God Tribe's fortress had already completed two Frost Ironclad Catapults, and the third was still in production and would be completed soon.

Once all three Ironclad Catapults were completed, the War God Tribe would launch a full-scale counterattack. Previously, in the Battle of Cripps Fortress, Zhan Dao Shixue had used the Ironclad Catapult to wantonly slaughter players from the Mad Rogue Tribe. This time, they would use the Frost Ironclad Catapult to slaughter the five guilds of the Tuoba family. If the Tuoba family didn't have some more advanced machinery or powerful summoned creatures, they would definitely suffer.

The war situation was as Nie Yan had predicted. On the sixth day of the Battle of Nisode City, all three Frost Ironclad Catapults of the War God Tribe were completed. The Frost Ironclad Catapults appeared before the world with an arrogant posture, frantically slaughtering the players of the five guilds of the Tuoba family. All the legions of the Tuoba family besieging the city began a full-scale rout.

Defeat was inevitable.

The War God Tribe began to gain a certain degree of advantage. As long as they protected the three Frost Ironclad Catapults, there would be no problem. The affairs of Nisode City could be left to Guo Huai to handle; the situation was already under control.

Nie Yan sold the equipment transported from the underworld again. This time, the equipment only sold for 500,000 gold coins. The market for equipment that added Dark Vision or Focus was already saturated. The market's demand for this type of equipment would only increase again after a period of time.

Selling equipment like this was definitely most profitable in the beginning. It would become less and less profitable later on, and might not even be as profitable as Nie Yan doing other things. Nie Yan and Duo Duo agreed to continue reselling equipment again after a while. The profits earned from reselling equipment during this period had really made both guilds a fortune.

Guo Huai sent news that Sun had received a flying mount quest and was in the process of completing it. Nie Yan also received news from Wangzhe Tianxia that he had just obtained two sub-legendary equipment pieces. His movements were quite fast.

Under Guo Huai's arrangements, the Mad Rogue Tribe, in conjunction with several other guilds, captured all the beginner fortresses in Karol City, and were busy upgrading the buildings and defenses of the major fortresses. They were extremely busy, and the Mad Rogue Tribe was bustling with activity.

Nie Yan checked the progress of his various quests. There were a total of three quests in progress. The first quest, the Legend of the Ten Holy Knights, had Nie Yan receiving Carl's request and seeking the truth, finding the dragon girl Benita. Nie Yan estimated that he would need to be at least level 100 or higher to complete this quest, and it would be very difficult, so he temporarily put it aside. The second quest was to find the Spider Queen Finaus's Psychic Charm. This was also a very high-level quest, and its difficulty was self-evident. This quest could not be done for the time being either. The third quest was to collect the Abak Set. This quest required Nie Yan to go to the City of Gold to complete it. The City of Gold could be entered at level 60, so he should be able to receive quest guidance when he got there.

In addition, he was also being tracked by the Ghost Princess Aina. However, the Ghost Princess Aina had not appeared all along. Nie Yan guessed that she might suddenly appear during a certain quest process to hunt him down and affect the quest's progress. Nie Yan had to be very careful when doing quests.

Nie Yan prepared himself, purchased a large number of consumables, and teleported to Hilderlock in the Emerald City, heading towards the City of Gold. As he was on the way, a system notification suddenly sounded.

System: 'Volcanic lava erupts from the earth. Disaster befalls Hilton Fortress. The warriors of the Greenland Empire defend Hilton Fortress. They bravely resist the invasion of the magical creatures. The Hilton Fortress Defense War expansion is now open. Warriors, go to Hilton Fortress and use your powerful strength to defend this heroic city of mankind!'

Nie Yan's heart skipped a beat. The monster siege of Hilton Fortress had finally begun. The monster siege would last for four or five days. The NPCs in the fortress would be killed and wounded, and then players would enter Hilton Fortress to become the main force in defending against the monsters' attack. In addition, after level 100, some players from the underworld would gradually arrive on the surface, and then the war between the two camps would begin.

Seeing this system notification, a stone fell from Nie Yan's heart. He had successfully predicted the monster siege of Hilton Fortress. He wondered if the NPCs there had made prior preparations. Nie Yan opened his title and looked at it. He was currently still a Great Scholar.

Great Scholar: 25 away from the next title level, Grand Seer.

Nie Yan predicted the monster siege of Hilton Fortress and only completed three-fifths of the progress to become a Grand Seer. Nie Yan couldn't help but feel a little puzzled. It was too difficult to obtain this Grand Seer title. After all, predicting wars wasn't something that happened every time.

Nie Yan searched the official website for information about the Grand Seer. To advance from Great Scholar to Grand Seer, the degree of completion was determined based on the size of the predicted event. Predicting an ordinary war only counted as one-fifth. After predicting five, one could advance. Nie Yan successfully predicting the monster siege of Hilton Fortress counted as three, so he completed three-fifths.

Nie Yan looked at the rights of the Grand Seer. The Grand Seer could have a fief in his country of birth, own a city of his own, and all the taxes of that city would belong to the Grand Seer. He could set the laws of the city. In addition, in the Greenland Empire and the Saturn Empire, the rights of the Grand Seer were equivalent to those of an elder of the council, possessing many supreme honors. It was also said that the Grand Seer could communicate with gods and nature and possess a powerful summoned creature of his own.

Many things still needed to be explored by the players themselves. The official website did not list everything.

However, Nie Yan was quite tempted by these benefits of the Grand Seer. The city referred to above was not as simple as a fortress, but a large city like Karol City or Nisode City, with many fortresses attached. However, the Grand Seer title was a bit distant from Nie Yan. After all, the historical process of the game had already changed, and it was very difficult for Nie Yan to predict the next event. Moreover, the Grand Prophecy technique could only be cast once every ten days, and it was not guaranteed to be accurate.

Nie Yan could only give up for the time being. He didn't know if there were any rewards for successfully predicting the monster siege of Hilton Fortress. The system didn't give a notification. After the monster siege ended, Nie Yan had to go to Hilton Fortress to see if there were any special rewards.

At this time, he was already on the way to the City of Gold.

The City of Gold was located to the south of Hilderlock. It was rich in gold. A wealthy mine owner built such a magnificent castle there. It stood on the mountainside of Mount Burkes. Later, the mine owner abandoned the light and became a demon. That was the famous Boss, Mine Slave Igelin. Mine Slave Igelin was a level 90 Lord, and players did not dare to challenge it for the time being. They could only go to the underground mine below the City of Gold.

Nie Yan rode the Falkner Warhorse and galloped towards that place.

In the distance, on the mountainside, the huge castle came into Nie Yan's view. That was the City of Gold. The area above the City of Gold was where the Mine Slave Igelin was active, and below was a famous dungeon, the City of Gold Underground Mine. Cancan Daoguang and others had already cleared that dungeon. It was said that when they came here, they had a conflict with a guild in Hilderlock. The guild had about two thousand people and blocked Cancan Daoguang and others in the City of Gold, but they were killed by Cancan Daoguang and others. Twenty people beat them so badly that they had no temper at all. From then on, the Mad Rogue Tribe became famous in Hilderlock.

When the guilds in Hilderlock encountered players from the Mad Rogue Tribe coming to do dungeons, they all had to be polite. They understood who they could afford to offend and who they couldn't. This was a long time ago. At that time, Nie Yan was still in the underworld, grinding monsters and leveling up or doing dungeons. These kinds of small frictions were common. If they made a big fuss over a little friction and sent the entire guild to encircle and suppress them, it would be too much of a fuss.

Now, there were still quite a few players who were level 60 or higher, so the City of Gold was particularly lively. People were setting up stalls to sell things next to the forest path outside the City of Gold.

Nie Yan walked along the road and arrived outside the City of Gold along with the crowd. He wore a large black cloak, completely hidden under the black cloak.

"Looking for a group for the City of Gold Underground Mine, mage with 800+ spell damage..."

"City of Gold Underground Mine dungeon team looking for a priest, paladin. Priest required to heal 1000+, paladin to heal 500+."

The outside of the City of Gold was bustling with activity, with about two or three thousand players gathered. From time to time, people were shouting to form groups to do dungeons. There were players from various guilds in the Greenland Empire here, many of whom had come from other cities, and many were casual players who wanted to find a dungeon team.

Since this was not a safe area, the players were all relatively cautious.

Some people were scattered in groups everywhere. They scrutinized everyone they passed, and when they met a suitable candidate to form a group, they went up to ask. They had very high requirements for each player. If anything did not meet the conditions they put forward, those casual players would be rejected.

However, occasionally some low-end teams would set off for the City of Gold Underground Mine. They were not going to clear the dungeon, but just to grind monsters and level up in the dungeon. If they were lucky, they would also get one or two good pieces of equipment.

Nie Yan shuttled through the crowd. The black cloak concealed his appearance, and no one recognized him. Ordinary players were already used to seeing players wearing cloaks, so they didn't pay attention to him when he passed by. They didn't know that the person wearing the black cloak was the famous Crazy Thief Nie Yan.

~~Four updates tomorrow. Today is a transition plot, a bit stuck. Snail is thinking about the follow-up plot.