«Congratulations! Player Lightning Emperor, Player White Lotus, and Player Fiery Queen has become the first players to have cleared Skeleton Graveyard!»
The sudden announcement shocked many players, but it was not because they were the first to clear this dungeon but because three different families from the Legacy Ranking were grouped together! In other words, they were cooperating, something that is rarely seen by the public, if ever.
"Holy shit! Three of the top 10 families within the Legacy are actually cooperating to clear a dungeon together!"
"Perhaps they have decided to make an alliance to bring down this Player Yuan?"
"That is a possibility..."
Many players gossiped about the new announcement online, some even making conspiracies. The Legacy Ranking is a system in the real world — or a real-world ranking so to speak, where professional players fight each other competitively to obtain a spot within the Legacy Ranking.
There can only be 100 players in the Legacy Ranking, ranked one to one hundred. Being a part of the Legacy Ranking brings countless profits and almost no downfalls. Wealth, fame, authority, power — one can obtain all that just by being in the Legacy Ranking. Additionally, once a player becomes a part of the Legacy Ranking, regardless of their rank, their family will also become a Legacy Family, allowing them to recruit talented players to help them remain or climb the ranks within the Legacy Ranking, almost like a guild or clan in games.
Countless players, young and old, fight in worldwide tournaments just to obtain the qualifications to challenge someone who is within the Legacy Ranking to steal their spot. Furthermore, only one game would be chosen every decade as the focus. Because of this, the rankings would usually have major changes every decade, except for those at the very top of the ranking.
The game the Legacy Ranking had chosen to be the main focus for this decade was obviously Cultivation Online, the hottest VRMMORPG in the world to date.
—
Moments after the announcement, another one appears above the clouds.
«Congratulations! Player Xiong Lu has obtained the world’s first Spirit grade equipment!»
"He’s finally appeared, huh." Lightning Emperor narrowed his gaze at the name on the announcement.
Xiong Lu of the Heaven’s Divinity, standing at the top of the Legacy Ranking as the number one Player in this world. He is a major figure even in the real world, owning one of the biggest gaming companies out there.
"Even an unsurpassable monster like him could only obtain the lowest grade equipment in this game after so many hours... yet this Yuan..." Fiery Queen sighed loudly.
—
"Xiao Hua, what are the grades for equipment?" Yuan asked her after the announcement disappeared.
"Spirit, Earth, Heaven, Divine, each broken into four tiers of quality: Low, Medium, High, and Peak. There are other grades higher than Divine, but there is no need to worry about that since you can only find them in the higher realms."
"Realm... you also mentioned that before. What did you mean by bringing me to the next realm?"
"Brother Yuan is currently in the lowest realm — the Lower Heaven. Xiao Hua’s job is to help Brother Yuan reach the highest realm — the Supreme Heaven."
"Your job?" He questioned. Why and who would give her such a job?
"Xiao Hua accepted the Supreme Heaven’s Legacy, so it became her job to find a successor."
"...What a deep game." Yuan looked at the sky, "How do we get to the next realm?" he asked.
"Brother Yuan is too weak right now and should only worry about getting stronger. After that, we can challenge the Realm Guardian for access to the next realm."
"So it’s that kind of game, huh." Yuan became more understanding of the goal of this game.
"Is there a reward for getting there? The Supreme Heaven," he asked out of curiosity, not expecting anything too much.
"Everything," she answered after a moment of silence, "The winner shall obtain everything this world has to offer... so... they become this world’s God."
"Eh?" Yuan totally did not expect such a generous reward. "Allowing Players to become God? So the game creators are essentially giving admin powers to those who reach that point? How generous of them."
’But I have no use for such power, so I will enjoy my life to the fullest and leave it to others to fight for that reward.’ Yuan thought to himself. He was content with just having the ability to use his eyes and limbs as he wishes.
—
After walking for some time, Yuan finally realized that they were walking aimlessly without a destination. "Xiao Hua, where should we go now? Or rather, what should we do?" he asked her, who seemed to be the one leading this journey.
Xiao Hua looked at him with a nonchalant expression and said, "Help Brother Yuan get stronger."
"And how will we do that?" Although he doesn’t really desire strength, it wasn’t something he would refuse either.
"That..." Xiao Hua suddenly pointed to the distance where there was an open field, and in this middle of this open field was a large figure at least 5 meters tall.
"That’s... a frog?" Yuan quickly blinked a few times nonstop when he saw the massive frog with jade-like skin sitting in the middle with its eyes closed, seemingly sleeping.
"That is a Jade Frog; it has power equivalent to a Ninth Level Spirit Apprentice cultivator."
"Ninth Level Spirit Apprentice?! I am only a Seventh Level Spirit Apprentice! Are you telling me to go kill myself?!" Yuan nearly cried upon hearing her words.
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"Although the Jade Frog is two levels above Brother Yuan’s cultivation base, it shouldn’t matter because Brother Yuan has cultivated the Heaven Consuming Technique, allowing him to be stronger than most Cultivators at the same level."
"Is that really how it works?"
"Un."
"But I also don’t know how to fight — Ah... it noticed us." Yuan suddenly pointed at the Jade Frog, its head turned towards their direction with killing intent radiating from its gaze.
Whoosh! The Jade Frog suddenly leaped and appeared dozens of meters into the sky, almost as though it was trying to touch the clouds.
"Watch out!" Yuan instinctively grabbed Xiao Hua by her waist with one hand and jumped back to avoid the shadow. Seconds later, the Jade Frog lands at where they originally stood, creating a dent in the ground.
"That was close..." Yuan wiped the invisible sweat from his forehead when he saw the hole on the ground. They could’ve been meat paste if he didn’t dodge that.
"Brother Yuan, good luck." She gave him a thumbs up and casually walked to the side to watch, dumbfounding Yuan.
Thinking that she was just an ant, the Jade Frog ignored her and kept its gaze on Yuan.
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"You... How am I supposed to fight this monster without any weapons?!" he cried out loud.
"Then Brother Yuan can use this..." Xiao Hua retrieved a small pouch from her robes, pulling out a steel sword from inside.
However, when she pulled out the sword, it also alerted the Jade Frog, causing it to leap towards her. In the Jade Frog’s eyes, Xiao Hua, who has a weapon, was more of a threat than Yuan who was empty-handed, so it ignored Yuan and went for her instead.
"Xiao Hua! Watch out!" He shouted to warn her, but Xiao Hua only watched it fall on her with a calm expression.
Boom! The ground slightly shook when the Jade Frog landed on Xiao Hua’s small frame.
Yuan’s eyes widened, and his jaw dropped from shock. In his mind, Xiao Hua has most likely turned into a pancake after being squashed by the Jade Frog’s massive body and weight.
Suddenly, purple mists began seeping out from beneath the Jade Frog, almost like it had farted, and Yuan returned to his senses.
The purple mist distanced itself from the Jade Frog and gathered beside Yuan, before forming into the figure of a small girl.
"Xiao Hua!" Yuan was baffled by what he’d just witnessed. What just happened?
"What’s wrong, Brother Yuan?" she asked him in a normal voice as though she did not just get flattened by the Jade Frog.
"You... what happened just now?"
"Xiao Hua’s Purple Mist Physique?"
"Yes... but I am also talking about why you just stood there to take its attack! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"But Brother Yuan said Xiao Hua cannot use her power until Xiao Hua has permission, and Xiao Hua did not have permission..."
Yuan looked at her with wide eyes, his expression perplexed. "Are you an idiot?!" he suddenly yelled at her.
Startled, Xiao Hua shrunk her head like a scared turtle.
"Even if you didn’t want to use your powers, you could’ve just dodged! There was no reason for you to stand there and take the hit!" Yuan was upset, but mostly at himself for telling her to do something without thinking about it.
Xiao Hua is just an NPC, someone programmed to act and do things a certain way, so if Yuan told her to sit, then she will sit without questioning him, her ’master’. But Yuan didn’t take into consideration that she was an NPC, who is also his Servant, and treated her as a real human, hence why he believed that she would have some logic in her when he told her to not use her power recklessly.
"Sorry..." Xiao Hua apologized.
"Aiii!" Yuan facepalmed when he saw her sad face. "I should be the one apologizing, Xiao Hua... I had told you to do something without thinking... I’m sorry."
"?"
"When I told you to not use your powers, I didn’t mean to completely seal off your power and be a punching bag... If you are in danger or feel like you need to use your powers, then just use it."
"What about Brother Yuan’s permission?"
"Forget I had ever said that and use it according to your judgment. What I am trying to say is there’s no need to crack an egg by smashing it with a large rock, and think about your surroundings and the environment before you decide to use it."
"Xiao Hua understands." She nodded.
"Good. Now, give me that sword. I have a debt to settle with this damn frog."
The moment Yuan grabbed the steel sword by the handle, information about the sword appeared in his head.
«Spirit Sword»
«Grade: Spirit»
«Quality: Peak»
«Physical Strength Required: 900»
«Mental Strength Required: 1,500»
«Sharpness: 1,000»
«Description: Cuts metal like butter.»
"Good sword!" Yuan instantly took a liking to it after swinging it a few times in the air.