Chapter 13: “I took the protection fee, and I’ll level him up.”
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Su Mo didn’t say anything, just stood there looking at him. “Are you coming?”
ScarletFruit resignedly ran over. Just as he entered the group of monsters, he saw the Summoner quickly use a skill, and the Zephyr Hawk immediately helped him divert some of the aggro. He endured the beating from several monsters and finally stood still at the designated coordinates. The plug-in reminded him that he was carrying the aggro of three monsters.
“Are you stable? Heal yourself,” Su Mo instructed. He let the Zephyr Hawk pull the monsters away, and soon all the monsters returned to their original positions.
ScarletFruit, in his haste, said, “Wait! Brother! Don’t pull the monsters away!”
The Zephyr Hawk disappeared, and the monsters moved too far away, returning to their original positions. ScarletFruit thought the aggro list would explode with red, but after putting three layers of healing circles on himself, he suddenly found that he still only had the aggro of the original three monsters, and the others paid him no mind.
“What are you afraid of?” Su Mo strolled back to his original position. “In battle, there’s a range. At that position, you’ll only aggro 3-4 monsters. You won’t die.”
The location was secluded, with a large stone blocking the front, distancing it from the central monster area.
ScarletFruit breathed a sigh of relief, but then another worry arose. “Brother, even though this is a holographic game and there’s something blocking us for safety, the Heavenly Eye System will still show the positions of hostile red dots on the mini-map…”
Su Mo, “Hmm?”
“Just on the mini-map…” ScarletFruit began, but then suddenly froze. “Wait… they’re overlapping??”
There were numerous red dots on the mini-map representing hostile monsters, and one blue dot, which was his position, overlapped with one of the red dots, faintly visible.
“I asked customer service. The Heavenly Eye System shows positions based on red names. Although the emblems are slightly different from those of the monsters, it’s hard to tell without careful observation,” Su Mo explained, clapping his hands. “And this is the monster respawn point. If they don’t come here personally, it’s hard for them to notice you.”
ScarletFruit felt a bit surreal. He looked at the position on the mini-map and walked a few steps left and right. He found that as soon as he left this coordinate, the dots on the mini-map became very obvious. “How did you notice this? It’s amazing!”
Su Mo didn’t think much of it. He had noticed the fixed monster respawn point last time he was farming monsters. It was his personal habit. He preferred to judge positions by using the built-in mini-map of Celestial Horizon, so he was very sensitive to changes in coordinates, especially subtle changes.
“It might be a bit slower with two people, but reaching an output of 200/s shouldn’t be a problem…” Su Mo hadn’t finished speaking when he suddenly saw a familiar figure. “Wait a minute.”
ScarletFruit asked, “?”
Su Mo saw an array master. The monster area they were in was a remote corner, with few monsters and many obstacles, making it unfavorable for teams to efficiently farm monsters. Generally, no teams would come to this side. So when the array master stopped to farm monsters, Su Mo immediately noticed his actions in pulling aggro with his array. Even though the other party had hidden their ID, Su Mo recognized them at first glance.
“Let’s team up,” Su Mo said.
ScarletFruit asked, “What?”
Su Mo immediately sent a team invitation to the other party. The person paused for half a second, and then another person joined the team.
[(Serene Essence Temple·Array Master) UnchainedWanderer has joined the team]
A steady male voice came through the voice channel. The array master asked, “momo?”
Su Mo paused for a moment. Last time they teamed up, the array master called him a Summoner. This was the first time he heard the array master call him by his ID. “Yes, it’s me.” He glanced at UnchainedWanderer’s level, 25, and asked, “Are you joining us? Efficiency is higher with three people.”
The array master asked, “Are you the tank?”
Su Mo said, “ScarletFruit is pulling aggro.”
The array master said, “Then let’s go.”
ScarletFruit exclaimed, “Wait a minute, are you guys mistaken?”
What were these two doing? They arranged his fate with just one sentence each. Healing pulls aggro? Isn’t that ridiculous!?
The array master wore a half-body Taoist robe and held a judge’s pen as tall as a person, standing imposingly. Just as ScarletFruit finished speaking, he saw this aloof array master looking at him with a strange gaze, then asked Su Mo, “Is he your friend?”
“My boss,” Su Mo said concisely. “I’ve received protection fees to help him level up.”
ScarletFruit said, “…what you said is not wrong, but why does it sound like I’m your little brother?”
The array master said, “Alright, let’s start?”
Su Mo said, “Boss, summon your pets to the front, don’t move, protect yourself well.”
ScarletFruit said, “Wait a minute!!!”
Next, ScarletFruit finally understood what it meant to pull aggro. He saw the Summoner release another pet into the pile of monsters. The surrounding monsters gathered from all directions. Just as his pet was about to be killed, both the Summoner and the array master moved at the same time. The two pets of momo occupied the triangular positions with the Soul Rabbit, the array master stacked a damage buff array, then released an AoE attack. The Summoner slowed down the monsters and the array master used high damage arrays to chip away at their health bars.
The two of them were incredibly coordinated, cycling through their skills one after another, as if they had practiced countless times together. In no time, they had killed a group of monsters.
As soon as the monsters died, after a few seconds, new monsters respawned in their original positions.
“Momo, don’t space out, summon again,” the array master said.
ScarletFruit understood now. These two were using him as a tool to gather monsters.
The monster farming went smoothly for a while. During this time, people from Eternal Flame came by, but they passed by not far from them, completely unaware that there were people standing in this secluded corner. Momo told them not to level up, as they could get the maximum benefit from farming at level 25. ScarletFruit hadn’t expected it to go so smoothly. In about two hours, the three of them had leveled up to 28.
“Your efficiency in farming monsters is too high!” ScarletFruit exclaimed. “I saw someone’s guide saying to speed farm the monster area last time, but even with Mountainless Blade Sect’s physical swords and a team of five Swordsmen, they wouldn’t be as efficient as us, right?”
This speed was much faster than doing quests.
There was nothing to say about momo’s operation. Controlling two summons plus a pet alone was as good as three people. What surprised ScarletFruit even more was the array master. The array master seemed taciturn, but his operation was smooth and fluid. He didn’t miss any buffs, and he perfectly timed his high damage arrays.
“Why are both of your names so hard to pronounce?” 1ScarletFruit corrected his pronunciation. “Brother Wanderer, how do you play as an array master? Your cooldown stacking is too fast!”
The array master glanced at him but didn’t speak.
ScarletFruit looked at momo. “Brother, your friend is really aloof.”
Su Mo said, “We’re not friends.”
ScarletFruit asked, “?”
Su Mo said, “It’s only the second time I’ve met him.”
ScarletFruit looked puzzled. “Wait, you two don’t know each other?”
The seamless coordination between them just now, was it just for fun? How could they cooperate like that without knowing each other?
“Level 28 doesn’t yield any benefits,” Su Mo said, looking at the array master. “UnchainedWanderer, what do you say?”
The array master replied, “I’m not farming anymore. I’m going back to learn skills.”
With that, the array master left.
ScarletFruit now completely trusted momo. Escaping the newbie area and reaching level 40 relied entirely on this person in front of him. “M, should we continue doing quests or…?”
Su Mo looked at him. “M? I’m young, you don’t have to be so polite.”
ScarletFruit said, “I’m being polite. Calling you that sounds more intimate.”
Su Mo said, “…”
“Then O, Mo, Momo?” ScarletFruit tried out several titles. “Which one do you prefer? I’ll call you that.”
Su Mo gave up on communicating with him and headed back to the Sect’s base.
“Don’t leave, boss! I was just kidding. Wait for me,” ScarletFruit hurried to catch up.
—
Su Mo and ScarletFruit returned to the Sect’s base. On the other hand, someone posted about the incident in the monster area on the StarNet forum. The Celestial Horizon section of the StarNet forum was always popular, especially since the Global level cap was reached recently. Every day, different players speculated on Global progress.
The game level cap for “Celestial Horizon” was 70, mainly due to the halt in Global progress.
Since the launch of Celestial Horizon, pioneer players had quickly reached level 70 in just a month, but they encountered an epic-level difficulty task. As the main storyline progressed to the later stages, players needed to break through the barrier of mortal flesh and truly enter the path of cultivation. However, they were held back by the barrier of spiritual energy from heaven and earth.
Breaking through this barrier would fully unlock level 70 and open up the experience gain from levels 70-80. And this task was classified as a Global progress task, explored collectively by the player community.
On the forum’s main page, there was a hot post titled [Global Progress Focus Thread].
[Check-in, did the Global progress bar move today?]
“Ah, it’s been two weeks, why is it still at 90%?”
“The big shots must be stuck. This Global progress task is too difficult. I suspect it’s intentional by the developers.”
“Take it easy, guys. The game isn’t just about this one gameplay. It’s the big shots who are impatient, not us.”
“I feel like many big shots have given up. Has ReturnToSimplicity not been seen in the arena for a long time? I haven’t seen him in the past two weeks.”
“He’s been online, but I heard he’s power-leveling.”
As the conversation in the thread shifted from Global progress to guild grudges and game gossip, someone suddenly interjected, “Brothers, look whose alt account this big shot is using [link].”
The post was titled [Enchanted Misty Woods Monster Area 40s Speed Clear Video].”
When the link was opened, it revealed a ten-minute video.
The video featured the uploader’s commentary, “So, this afternoon I was practicing with a friend on an alt account, and unexpectedly, I saw a three-person team in the Misty Woods level 25 monster spawn point. The team consisted of a Clear Origin array master, a Spirit Summoner, and a Spirit Healer… I didn’t quite understand. Is this kind of operation real? Are they cheating?”
In the video, the healer stood in the center, the Summoner controlled three summons, and the array master stacked damage buffs and high attacks to clear the area in 40 seconds without a warrior to tank.
“Has anyone reported this? This speed isn’t normal.”
The uploader replied, “I reported it, but it didn’t pass judgment. They weren’t cheating.”
“Is this Summoner using three summons, the alt account of FireworksAndLanterns?”
“Is the speed at which this array master is stacking buffs real?”
“A 40-second clear??? Wasn’t the fastest Swordsman team clear 45 seconds?”
“The Swordsman team you’re referring to is probably the elite team of Sweetheart Baby, right? A normal team would take at least a minute to clear a spawn point.”
“This isn’t normal +1.”
“This Summoner looks familiar, wasn’t he the one who stole the alt team from Eternal Flame last time?”
“Healer pulling aggro? Can Spirit Sanctuary’s summoners be played like this?”
“Shocking, has the Spirit Sanctuary risen from the sewers?”
After returning to the Sect’s base, Su Mo refined his existing skills and then noticed the third summoning skill. In addition to their own skills, Summoners gradually unlock summoning skill diagrams as they level up. When the character reaches level 28, they unlock the third summoning slot and receive a lot more attribute points.
The third summon was the White Tiger, a high-attack physical summon with no control abilities, but its skill power was twice that of the Solitary Wolf. Su Mo still allocated points for speed enhancement, but this time he allocated more attribute points to physical attack. As he was about to finish allocating points to his skills, he noticed a friend request in his friend list, and the latest location list displayed the ID “UnchainedWanderer.”
As soon as he accepted, the other party sent him a coordinate address. Su Mo opened it and found that the coordinates were for the weapons merchant of the Sacred Spirits Sect.
Momo: ??
UnchainedWanderer: Change your weapon to something with high attack.
Su Mo looked at his weapon inventory, which only contained the fishing rod he obtained in Peach Blossom Village. Since the weapons merchant was not far away, Su Mo quickly arrived and opened the selection of Spirit Sanctuary weapons available at various stages. Spirit Sanctuary had two factions: healing weapons were fans, and summoning weapons were lantern staffs.
Su Mo glanced at the lowest-level lantern staff, level 25, priced at 20 gold, “… Are even low-level weapons sold at such high prices in this game?”
Author’s note:
Yu-ge’s way of getting closer: Send the other party a shopping link.
ScarletFruit: It’s more practical to send money as a gift.
