Chapter 33: Account-Wide Shared Milestones

Page (1/3)

“Hundred thousand spirit jades! If only I could meet that dog-man…”

“Then you would die. That thief is powerful enough to rob Chang’an. Do you even know what Chang’an is? It’s a divinely blessed city on the same level as the City of Evernight!”

“Only an idiot would want a hundred thousand spirit jades. If you had a legendary token, who would still be short of spirit jades?”

“And what’s so impressive about a thief? Could he really defeat our Hundred Guards?”

“Ha! Even a powerful Messenger can take on a thousand men alone. Do you think you’re from the Loyal Character Battalion?”

“I say Captain Night Four will rise to the Loyal Character Battalion sooner or later! Captain Night Four, do you think we could beat that dog-man?”

Early in the morning, inside the cafeteria of Ping City’s military camp, the newly awakened soldiers of the Northern Frontier gathered in groups of three or five, clutching their bowls as they chatted. Their conversation revolved constantly around several key phrases: the Divine Marquis’s Residence, the wanted notice, and the legendary token.

Although four or five days had already passed, the Divine Marquis’s Residence announcement remained the hottest topic around.

As the soldiers talked, some of the more mischievous ones turned their attention to the recently ascendant Captain Night Four. He had changed classes in three days and become a captain in five. Even with Gai Louxian’s support, Night Four’s rate of promotion was still enough to leave everyone dumbfounded.

Yet every one of them respected him. He joined the secret-realm parties every day and always charged at the very front. Though taciturn, his strength was astonishing. His only shortcoming was that he still lacked a token and could not lead a party into the secret realm.

The Hundred Guards had a merit system, however. Every time a Messenger entered a secret realm, he could earn one minor merit. The easiest token to obtain, the Ogre Mask, required only one hundred minor merits.

For ordinary people, gathering one hundred minor merits might take a year or two. But Night Four entered secret realms as often as a man visited a brothel, and everyone believed he would meet the requirement in no more than three months.

At that moment, Night Four was using a small knife to slice and eat mutton. He now had to consume roughly one sheep at every meal to keep his condition from declining. Even that counted as a small appetite. For second-advancement Messengers like Gai Louxian, eating an entire ox at every meal was no exaggeration. Each meal took half an hour.

They actually had a better option: Blood-Replenishing Pills. A single pill could instantly fulfill the day’s qi-and-blood requirements, and it did not even produce waste. Yet even third-advancement Messengers could not bear to use such a sacred medicine as food.

Apart from that, the flesh and blood of powerful monsters found in secret realms was the next-best choice after Blood-Replenishing Pills. Unfortunately, the Three Mountains Suppression secret realm had no such monsters, and “Night Four” was no nobleman. He could not afford specially supplied monster meat.

“First, he isn’t a dog-man. He’s a Messenger wearing a Yellow Hound Mask. Second, I don’t need any of you. I can beat him by myself.”

After a brief silence, the soldiers burst into laughter and cheers.

“Well said!”

“As expected of our Captain Night Four! You’re destined to become a great man sooner or later!”

“Sooner or later? He already is!”

At that moment, an old general entered. The noisy cafeteria fell silent at once. It was none other than Gai Louxian, Banner Lord of the Hundred Guards. He swept his gaze across the room, then motioned for Night Four to follow him outside.

When Night Four returned, he was wearing the object most coveted by every Hundred Guard knight: the Ogre Mask. Only after everyone asked did they learn that although he lacked enough minor merits, Gai Louxian had vouched for him and exchanged the mask for him in advance.

The price, naturally, was not small. From that day onward, Night Four had to lead parties into secret realms. Whenever they encountered a monster king, or boss, he had to step forward and absorb the damage. He also had to lead at least sixty expeditions over the next three months.

For anyone else, such a demand might have been a challenge. For Night Four, it sounded more like a reward.

The news spread faster than the wind. By the time Night Four finished breakfast, he had become the most sought-after man in camp. Many captains came especially to congratulate him, and some even invited him to visit the pleasure quarter beside the camp that night and have a little fun.

Night Four naturally refused every invitation. He then began that day’s journey into the secret realm.

Unlike the days of the Crow Pill School, many Hundred Guards now scrambled for the chance to enter the secret realm. They even had to fight over the available positions.

The Hundred Guards who secured a place looked utterly relaxed, chatting and laughing among themselves as if they were heading out for a picnic. Night Four, who was responsible for leading them, carried no weapon at all. Once inside, he ordered the Hundred Guards not to participate in the fighting and merely to shoot from the perimeter. They naturally obeyed without question.

And so the Hundred Guards watched as Night Four kicked every monster in the secret realm to death with his legs. The expedition proceeded without the slightest danger—or rather, all the danger was concentrated on Night Four.

That was precisely why entering the secret realm had changed from a miserable chore into a coveted assignment. The Hundred Guards could easily collect their reward money, while the other captains and banner lords were also delighted by the arrangement.

Few people were willing to fight the monsters of the secret realm. As Messengers, they had plenty of other ways to make money and did not care much about those scraps of reward money. Now that a battle-mad martial fanatic had taken all the troublesome work upon himself, what more could they ask for?

“I never realized Captain Night Four was so skilled with his legs, too.”

“Don’t imitate him. Specialization is the proper path. Training a little of this and a little of that…”

“Shouldn’t Captain Night Four rest and recuperate? Fighting in secret realms every day will wear his body down.”

Page (2/3)

“You don’t understand. Captain Night Four is so talented and works so hard for a reason. I heard his entire family was killed, and the murderer was a third-advancement Messenger. He’s training for revenge…”

“What I heard was that Captain Night Four was rejected by his fiancée. They made a three-year agreement: he wouldn’t marry her unless he became a third-advancement Messenger.”

Yan Qing naturally knew nothing of the gossip spreading through the military camp. He stared at the figures on the screen, unable to suppress the smile at the corners of his mouth.

“I finally did it!”

“Night Four”

“Level: 18”

“Qi and Blood: 31”

“Spirit: 23”

“Dexterity: 15”

“Insight: 8”

“Basic Skills Mastered: Basic Blade Technique, Level 10; Basic Footwork, Level 10; Basic Spear Technique, Level 10; Basic Fist Technique, Level 10; Basic Sword Technique, Level 10; Basic Shield Technique, Level 10; Basic Leg Technique, Level 10; Basic Archery, Level 10”

“Advanced Skills Mastered: Advanced Blade Technique, Level 1”

“Milestone Effects Activated: Martial Arts Prodigy, Demolition Crew”

The reason Yan Qing had made Night Four constantly switch weapons to train his basic skills was not merely to gain experience. It was also for the Martial Arts Prodigy milestone.

Before explaining the Martial Arts Prodigy milestone, however, one had to begin with the day Yan Qing returned from Chang’an.

That day, Yan Qing had seen Demolition Crew in Night Four’s status bar.

“Demolition Crew”

“Milestone Requirement: Destroy a medium-sized building in any major city.”

“Effect: The effects of your tokens are more effective at destroying buildings.”

“Note: Brother, is your destructive urge a little too strong?”

“Subsequent Milestone ‘Destroyer’ Activated: Destroy a large landmark in any major city.”

“This milestone was completed by a Hardcore Mode account and is effective on all Hardcore Mode accounts.”

When Yan Qing saw the final line, he froze.

But after thinking it over, he found it perfectly reasonable. Ordinary accounts could complete every achievement with ease. They had plenty of time and room for error, whereas Hardcore Mode accounts had neither.

If milestones could not be shared, and everything reset to zero whenever a Hardcore Mode account died, then Hardcore Mode players would simply give up on that part of the game. After all, milestone effects were optional, while completing milestones required considerable time and effort. Players would naturally prefer leveling up rather than bothering with milestones.

Conversely, allowing milestone effects to be shared across all accounts could encourage Hardcore Mode players to complete milestones. It might even lure ordinary players into the enormous pit that was Hardcore Mode.

Just imagine it. You could first develop several Hardcore Mode accounts and strive to complete a mountain of milestones. Then every new alternate account you opened would begin with a whole host of milestone bonuses. It would be like cheating in an MMORPG.

The pleasure of cheating in an online game was at least ten times, perhaps even a hundred times, greater than using a trainer in a single-player game.

Ordinary players would not consider it unfair, either. For one thing, a Hardcore Mode account disappeared after dying once, so in most situations Hardcore Mode players would not dare compete with ordinary players. For another, if an ordinary player was crushed by a Hardcore Mode player, they could always enter Hardcore Mode themselves and grind out the milestones.

Everyone could cheat, so long as they were willing to spend the time and take the risks.

Page (3/3)

The more Yan Qing thought about the shared-milestone system, the more ingenious it seemed. The more he considered it, the more entertaining it became. He wanted to open an ordinary account and hunt Hardcore Mode players, but he also wanted to open a Hardcore Mode account and accumulate milestones to pave the way for his alternate accounts.

No wonder The Messenger had managed to carve out a path to success in an age when MMORPGs were declining. Skilled players could slaughter their way across the game, but beginners could also accumulate time and effort to obtain an experience that felt almost like cheating.

Yan Qing was one such beginner.

For him, the greatest reward from the thief quest was not Bingzi Pepper Grove. It was discovering that titles could take effect across an entire account.

The milestones of an alternate account could naturally benefit the main account as well.

Thus, Yan Qing had done nothing else for the past few days. He had devoted himself entirely to grinding out the Martial Arts Prodigy milestone. After completing his morning secret-realm expedition, he trained in every discipline available at the military camp, controlling everything manually throughout. After all, automatic evolution deducted thirty percent of the experience gained.

Other people could see only how hard Night Four was working. The one suffering through it was actually Yan Qing.

But it was all worth it.

“Martial Arts Prodigy”

“Milestone Requirement: Master eight basic martial disciplines.”

“Effect: For every discipline you master, Insight increases by 1. This effect applies only when Insight is below 10. Skill training grants an additional 100% experience.”

“Note: What is a martial arts prodigy? Understanding at a glance, learning upon first instruction, never forgetting anything once seen, proving the truth once and for all? No, no. Someone like that would be a genius even if he lived off a wealthy woman, so he cannot be called a martial arts prodigy. A true martial arts prodigy should excel at clumsy, painstaking techniques while lacking sufficient intelligence. After all, what truly clever person would practice martial arts?”

“This milestone was completed by a Hardcore Mode account and is effective on all Hardcore Mode accounts.”

The milestone required mastery of eight basic martial disciplines, yet its effect was underwhelming. A normal player’s Insight could not possibly be below 10, so the Insight bonus amounted to nothing. Training experience was doubled, but players gained ten times as much experience from killing monsters as from training. There was no reason for them to waste electricity leaving a character to train while idle.

Thus, when Night Four triggered the milestone, Yan Qing had not paid much attention.

That changed only when he discovered that milestone effects could be shared.

For players, this milestone was better than nothing. In the real world, however, it was an entirely different matter.

In this world, ordinary people needed to measure the training of basic skills in years from the very beginning. They would normally train to the third or fourth level before entering actual combat. Only game characters could rise rapidly through battle.

As a three-dimensional human being who could not evolve into a game character, Yan Qing naturally had to rely on training to learn basic skills. Unlike everyone else, he would never leave the Thieves’ Den to fight outside, even if it killed him. Training was therefore the only viable path to advancement available to him.

With the Martial Arts Prodigy milestone, Yan Qing could finally train his basic skills while playing the game.

After he completed the Martial Arts Prodigy milestone, the game displayed information about a new milestone:

“Martial Arts Paragon: Master five advanced martial disciplines.”

Advanced martial disciplines were nowhere near as easy to grind as basic ones. Even though the required number had been reduced from eight to five, the time involved had to be measured in months at the very least.

After grinding for several days, Yan Qing was beginning to feel weary. For the moment, he had no interest in pursuing this milestone.

Besides, he had made up his mind long ago. Once he obtained the Martial Arts Prodigy title, he would begin properly training his basic martial disciplines. He could not continue slacking off.

Today, the Messenger would not be activated.

Just then, a new message appeared in the chat box at the lower-left corner:

“The Southern River regional event ‘Endless Forest’ has begun.”