Zhan Long
chapter-104

TL: RMB = Yuan = 1/6 Dollars.

A black sword flashed across the night sky. Amidst the sound of something breaking, I could feel the warmth of fresh blood flowing at me.

In the darkness of the night, I felt countless eyes staring at me. Even more so, there was a kind of feeling that I was being targeted by some kind of weapon then the realization hit me; I was about to die.

Both my legs were numb from running in the wild. The thorns from brambles left cut after cut on my legs. Although it was raining heavily, even the rain was unable to cool down the heat in my heart. The sword in my arms quivered and on top of it was a trail of blood.

In front of me there were countless dismembered corpses. As a bullet pierced through my head, my vision turned gray. I heard the voices of my family crying and I felt a chill that went straight to the bones and a sense of despair surge through me.

Looking at the impenetrable dark sky I thought to myself. Where is this? How did I end up here?

……

“Ah!”

Suddenly waking up from my dream, I immediately sit up. Only then did I realize that it was a nightmare. Yet even though, it was a dream it felt very real.

“Li?”

On the side Tang Gu was using his laptop to surf the web. He looks at me and asks, “Why did you suddenly wake up? You are drenched in sweat, did you have a nightmare? Really, you’re already an adult and still having nightmares…”

Breathing raggedly, my heart gradually calms. Using my hands to wipe the sweat on my forehead, I smile and say, “Uhh, it was a nightmare. Now that I think about it, it is pretty embarrassing… Fortunately, it was just a dream…”

Tang Gu smiles, “You must be tired from all the grinding. To actually have a nightmare? Hm, what is your level now? Oh yeah your ID is Xiao Yao Zi Zai right? I think I checked your information before and if I recall correctly that character was pretty high level. Let me check…”

A few seconds later Tang Gu lets out a voice of surprise. Looking at me as though I’m a ghost he says, “Damn, you are already level 45? Ba Huang City’s ranked 37th? So unfair…”

I stay silent, did I fall from the 7th position to the 37th position? Exactly how long have I been sleeping…

“Hey Glasses, how long have I been sleeping?”

“Not too long, you came back around 6PM yesterday and immediately went to sleep and woke up now. It’s noon right now. Haha… Oh yeah, do you remember what happened yesterday?”

“No idea…” Standing up I touch my shirt and find that it is completely soaked and wrinkled. Ignoring Tang Gu’s nosy words, I say, “I’m going to take a bath.”

“Alright!”

……

Not turning on the heater, I take a cold bath. After retiring from the army four years ago, it has been a long time since I had these kind of nightmares. I never expected that I would trigger my most painful memories now.

After washing up I look at the clock and it was already 12 at noon. I quickly grab my phone and call Lin Wan Er’s mobile–

“Miss, are you still in the game?”

“Yup.” Lin Wan Er’s voice seems to be a little hurried. She laughs and says, “Dong Cheng and I are currently 2v1ing Lv 50 elite monsters. Why, are you finally awake?”

“Yeah, I even forgot how I got to bed last night…”

Uncomfortably, she says, “Huh, You you you! You actually forgot everything…”

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

Lin Wan Er seems to be stomping her feet in the game and says, “You still dare to ask… While we were eating at the second cafeteria, you bragged that you could drink a thousand cups of liquor without getting drunk. Dong Cheng and I ended up getting you a bottle of white wine. Yet after drinking a few cups you fainted. Dong Cheng and I even had to drag you back to the male dormitory…”

I couldn’t help but laugh, “Surely that’s not true?”

“You still dare to laugh…” Wan Er sounds embarrassed. “Bastard! Do you know how Dong Cheng and I feel to be surrounded and stared at by so many boys like little animals in the zoo?”

With an apologetic voice, I say, “I’m seriously sorry about that. Actually I am really able to hold a thousand cups. But probably due to me staying up last night, my body wasn’t in a good shape. That must be why I got drunk so easily… Oh right, do you all want to come down and eat now?”

“Nah, Dong Cheng and I have already called in a delivery. We are currently rushing to Lv 50 and won’t be joining you for the meal!”

“Sure then I will go and check out Zhan Long Studio then.”

“Okay.”

……

Going downstairs I walk straight out of the school campus and directly to Zhan Long’s studio which was just beside the university. I reach the studio in a couple of minutes. After walking up the stairs, I take out my key and open the door. At the same instant, my nose is assaulted by the thick scent coming from pickled vegetables. Wow, these guys are really obedient. They really are eating rice with pickled vegetables!

“Ka cha…”

The kitchen doors opens and Old K carries a huge pan of rice while walking towards me. He was apparently getting ready to steam the rice.

“Old K?”

“Xiao Yao, why did you come back?” Old K smiles. “To abandon your beautiful employer at the school and come to our smelly workplace. Has your head been crushed by a door or something…”

I ask him, “Are Fox and Little Wolf still in the game?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Don’t eat that for lunch. I will go and order some dishes from the restaurant downstairs and they will send the food over in a while. You can go and prepare the rice first and call the other two about 20 minutes later to go offline and eat.”

Old K widens his eyes, “You have money to eat out?”

“I still have around 700RMB in my card and some gold coins in the game. I’ll clear out some useless equips in my storage later on, I should be able to get a few dozen gold coins.”

“Okay, then I will go online first and call them in a while!”

“Yup!”

Turning around and going downstairs, I withdraw the remaining 700RMB from the ATM machine and order a few dishes from the restaurant below: Sour Vegetable Chicken, Fish with Meat Floss, Spicy Fried Chicken Gizzards, and Di San Xian totals up to 115RMB. Then I grabbed 4 bottles of beer and go back to the studio. Not long after, a worker from the restaurant brought the dishes to us. Then the four members of Zhan Long studio gather around a table in the living room after logging off.

“What kind of celebration are we having today?” Fox smiles. “It is quite a spread. Boss, did you strike it rich?”

I take out the 600RMB from my pocket and pass it to him, “Try to change the diet of everyone for a week. Although we may be poor, we can’t starve…… Zhan Long studio should aim to start earning profit within a week!”

Fox, being the treasurer, accepts the money and smiles, “Yes.”

I continue asking, “How is your leveling going?”

Song Han says, “I am at Lv 29 while Old K and Fox are at Lv 28. The speed isn’t too slow, is it?”

“You are at Lv 29 already?” I was rather shocked. I unconsciously smile and say, “Good, it’s really not bad. If you follow this pace of leveling then all of you could possibly reach Lv 40 within 5 days!”

Fox says, “Yeah, before Lv 20, what took other people 3 days to complete, we did it within 10 hours. Also you gave us Silver Tier and Bronze Tier equipment. Coupled together with three Killer Bees, we basically swept clean any maps with monsters that were of equal level with us.”

I deeply think about the matter for a moment while pouring myself a cup of beer and sake, “Just having three damage dealers isn’t enough to survive. Fox, have you found any new team members? We must find steady and long-term teammates, especially Healers.”

Fox shakes his head, “Currently we haven’t found any yet. Yesterday night we formed a party with several Healers but everyone seems to have other friends and are only accompanying us to train temporarily.”

Song Han adds, “Pulling a Healer over to our side is a must. Just yesterday Old K almost got killed by monsters several times. Fortunately the stun rate for my Gouge is on the high side…”

I ask once again, “Then are there any earnings?”

Fox shakes his head and says, “Uhh, we managed to find a Bronze Tier cloth armor, a Lv 22 equipment. We sold it for 50 silver and earned 5RMB.”

“……”

Fox took out a book from the table below and says, “I have recorded our daily expenses and earnings onto this book. This is the record for yesterday. Since we have already applied as a studio, we shouldn’t be as loose with everything like we were before…”

“Oh?”

I take the notebook from Fox’s hand and looking at the accounts, I frown–

Income:

Cloth Armor, 50 silver coins, 5RMB

Expenses:

Rice 30KG, 90RMB

Toothbrushes x3, 6RMB

Family Package Toothpaste, 12RMB

Electronic Rice Cooker, 130RMB

Toilet Paper, 18RMB

Total Income 5RMB,

Total Expense 256RMB,

Overdraft 251RMB, Negative Earnings.

……

“For a start this isn’t considered too bad…” I say

The edges of Song Han’s mouth twitch, “Yeah it isn’t too bad…”

Fox says, “We will try to make use of the time tonight to reach Lv 30. After our skills get to Lv 4, we’ll be able to go to the highlands to kill NPC Bandits. The Bandits there are Lv 35 and each one of them drop at least 4 silver coins. While training there, we would be able to earn money at the same time and probably be able to at least make a living this way.”

I nod, “Okay. While I am not here, I’ll leave all the decision making in the studio to Fox. Fox is the most mature and is able to make rational decisions. Song Han is too young and Old K is too impulsive. You all listen to Fox’s instructions.”

Little Wolf and Old K start nodding: “Okay, we’ll listen to you(Fox)!”

“Oh right…” Old K says. “There is still another problem. My [Fire Axe], [Penetration] and [Rage] uses up too much mana. After using the [Penetration]+[Fire Axe] combo a few times, my mana would be empty. There’s no way I can train my skills this way. Boss, help me solve this problem. Otherwise even if I get to higher levels, my skill levels will not rise, and thus my effectiveness is lowered.”

I smile and say, “Yeah, as for the problem with mana pills, leave it to me. I can make them.”

“Okay!”

……

In the afternoon I return to the school campus and go back online. My money is totally spent and I really should start thinking about how I can earn money while maintaining the level advantage I have over others. I can’t start slacking now or the Zhan Long studio would surely get bullied.

Looking at my storage I take out ten or so equipment. Then I sell them all at a cheap price to earn myself a dozen gold coins. After that I used the money to bulk purchase Seven Star Herbs to refine a few hundred batches of Seven Star Pills. Then I hand over the pills to Song Han and Ran Min. This should suffice for their mana usage in the short-term.

After that… I look for Lv 6 herbs to prepare to create Lv 6 pills. At the current stage, there still aren’t many people who are able to refine Lv 6 pills. On top of that, the location for the herb required to craft Lv 6 pills has not surfaced yet, so its production is nonexistent. As for me, I have already reached Lv 6 in Alchemy and can read the recipe for refining Lv 6 pills–

【Green Qilin Pill】: Recovers 700 mana.

Needs 3 blades of Green Qilin grass, 1 blade of Chilling Wind Grass and 2 Alchemy Furnaces

……

The Chilling Wind Grass could be purchased at a relatively cheap price from other players. Now all that’s lacking is the Green Qilin Grass.

Opening the forums to look for information on Green Qilin Grass. There were more than hundred results but all of them were also looking for information on Green Qilin Grass. No one knew where the Lv 6 herb could be found.

I guess there is no choice. Opening the world map I looked for maps using Green Qilin as the keyword. In an instant 3 maps appear — Green Qilin Valley, Green Qilin Ocean, and Green Qilin Abyss!

Green Qilin Ocean wasn’t a possible option since herbs were unlikely to grow in the deep sea. As for Green Qilin Valley, it was a large map whereas Green Qilin Abyss was a small map in the middle of Green Qilin Valley. Yup, I’ll lock on to Green Qilin Valley and search there!

Looking at the map, Green Qilin Valley was at the edge of Ba Huang City and sharing borders with Jiu Li City. It would be another long journey. But for RMB and equipment, let’s go!