Chapter 1 The Goblin Merchant

The hunt for the goblin merchant started off lively, but ended peacefully.

Blue Brook Guild and Herb Garden gave up, and the other guilds with any brains could see the writing on the wall and decisively stopped wasting time. The remaining stragglers, still unable to figure out what was going on, continued their "never give up" attitude, and ultimately became supplementary DPS for Tyrannical Ambition. When the system announcement of Tyrannical Ambition's first kill of the goblin merchant was broadcast, Blue Brook Guild and Herb Garden remained calm.

The fact that the announcement mentioned the guild name meant that the first kill members didn't include any non-guild members. However, Lord Grim had only left Blue Brook Guild less than five days ago. Clearly, it was impossible for him to have joined Tyrannical Ambition. This meant he had quit the team before the boss went down, and naturally wouldn't appear on the list, keeping Tyrannical Ambition's record pure.

Blue River was quite contemptuous of this point, because they all knew that Lord Grim had contributed greatly to Tyrannical Ambition's kill of the goblin merchant. Blue River believed that the tactic of using OT (over-taunt) to control the boss's movements was something Tyrannical Ambition's own members couldn't have done. Blue Brook Guild couldn't do it, so there was no doubt that Tyrannical Ambition, being of similar skill, couldn't either. They relied entirely on Lord Grim's command.

Blue River was now completely convinced that Lord Grim's strength was on a different plane from them, a great expert a level above ordinary players. How could someone so strong be so unknown? Whose alt account was this? Blue River certainly wouldn't consider Lord Grim to be a newbie. Such powerful command required considerable skill in the game, impossible for a newcomer.

"Brother," Blue River calmly opened his friends list and sent a message to Lord Grim, "When do you expect to reach level 23?"

"Everyone's very concerned about this question!" Ye Xiu replied.

Blue River wasn't surprised. The reason everyone was concerned was simple: only level 23 characters could enter the Graveyard of Souls dungeon. They were waiting for him to level up so they could ask him to refresh the dungeon record! Tyrannical Ambition had tasted great sweetness from snatching the goblin merchant today and had certainly fully recognized the value of this great expert.

"I can't say for sure, I'll play it by ear!" Ye Xiu replied again.

"Be sure to look for us for the Graveyard of Souls dungeon!!!" Blue River said.

"We'll see!" Ye Xiu didn't give a definite answer.

Blue River's expression was rather tragic at this moment. He foresaw that in the tenth server, in order to break and maintain records, this Lord Grim would become an object of desperate competition for their major guilds. With the calmness and rationality he had seen from this Lord Grim, it would probably be a situation of "highest bidder wins." He had no confidence in controlling this situation!

Thinking this, Blue River temporarily logged out of the game. After swiping a new card, he logged onto his main account, Blue Bridge Spring Snow.

During this time, players in every server, including the Heavenly Domain, were actively busy clearing the newly released dungeons. But as soon as Blue Bridge Spring Snow logged in, it attracted widespread attention from the guild. He was one of the guild's five great experts, and wasn't he in the tenth server pioneering? Why would he suddenly pop up here?

The first message Blue River received was from Blue Brook Guild's guild leader, Chun Yi Lao.

The message was simple: ????, four large question marks.

"Busy?" Blue River asked.

"Instance" meant he was currently running a dungeon.

"Come out and talk," Blue River said.

"Urgent?"

"Not exactly, but I want to discuss something with you."

"="

Chun Yi Lao's messages were always concise, but this wasn't because he didn't talk much; he was simply too lazy to type. This guy was skilled at operating and passionate about it. He'd rather make a few boring actions to increase his APM than move a few more fingers while chatting.

The most famous incident was when someone spammed the world channel cursing Chun Yi Lao, but Chun Yi Lao was clearly online and no one saw him respond, which was quite inappropriate for a guild leader. Even if he was too lazy to argue, as the guild leader, being cursed by name in the world channel made the entire guild lose face! The guild members reflected this to him, but Chun Yi Lao said he had replied. Everyone was puzzled! Later, someone carefully searched through the world channel and actually found it.

Among the mass of world channel messages, Chun Yi Lao had replied with a total of three characters, two of which were letters: sB roll

The entire guild worshipped him to death! From then on, "sB roll" became Blue Brook Guild's supreme three-word mantra for responding to spamming and cursing, and it has been used to this day.

Blue River was familiar with his style and used to it, so he didn't say anything and just waited on the side.

More than ten minutes later, Chun Yi Lao sent a message: "Where?"

"Xi Stream City," Blue River replied.

Xi Stream City was one of the large towns in the Heavenly Domain. Because its name also contained the character "Xi," Blue Brook Guild had chosen it as their guild's base.

A moment later, Chun Yi Lao returned. The two met, and Chun Yi Lao didn't skip anything when he spoke: "What happened?"

"A great expert appeared in the tenth server," Blue River said.

"How great?" Chun Yi Lao was somewhat surprised, just because of an expert, Blue River had eagerly run back to report to him.

"I can't tell how great," Blue River said.

"What class?"

"Not yet transferred," Blue River said.

"Not yet transferred?"

"Yeah, he's learned a lot of skills from different classes, like he's playing a scattered person." Blue River said.

Chun Yi Lao laughed: "Scattered people are certainly strong in the early stages. Their skill advantage is too obvious. Later on, they won't be able to keep up without mid-to-high level skills, and they have to carry too many weapons, which increases their weight and slows them down. What's even more fatal is that they can't play after level 50. Who still plays as a scattered person now?"

"I thought so too at first, but this person's strength isn't just in that. In the early stages, his skill advantage has to be acknowledged, but this person is truly strong in everything from operation, to theory, to team command and coordination," Blue River said.

"These days, guys who dare to play scattered people naturally have to have comprehensive knowledge. But..." As Chun Yi Lao spoke, he also felt that this explanation was too far-fetched. Someone with just comprehensive knowledge wouldn't make Blue River so moved.

"Regarding the current situation in the tenth server, he got three first kills in the newbie village. Because of his participation, the Frost Forest dungeon record belongs to our team. Because of his participation, the first kill of the goblin merchant was snatched by Tyrannical Ambition, and the first kill of the Blood Gunner... he led a group of randoms and snatched it from under the noses of the three major guilds." Blue River felt that these achievements were persuasive enough.

"He played with us? Helped Tyrannical Ambition again? And then snatched the Blood Gunner from under the noses of the three major guilds? Which side is he on?" Chun Yi Lao was puzzled.

"He's on neither side. I tried to recruit him, but he's completely uninterested. I see, this guy just wants to be a mercenary, then raise his price and make big money," Blue River said.

"This person... is a bit strange. What's his name?"

"Lord Grim."

"Lord Grim? Has there ever been a high-level player named this in this server?" Chun Yi Lao was at a loss.