Chapter 22: Seond Equipment Page: Soaring Strength
The battle between the four from Radiant Tower and the group led by Azure City’s Young Master could only be described as a devastating slaughter.
The strength level of Azure City’s pursuers were merely Innate Realm First or Second Stage to begin with, and they were all extremely exhausted, so they couldn’t display even half of their combat’s effectiveness.
Originally, according to the process, the first wave of enemies would not be very powerful.
The number of strong experts on the enemy’s side was small, and it was also impossible for them to take part in this pursuit. The strong experts would only arrive when the current party had already been tailed and surrounded.
Under Gu Nan’s influence, this was akin to cheating in a tower defense game where you only had to kill the first wave of monsters, which was extremely easy.
Gu Nan didn't even have to do anything. After killing several enemies, Qin Xuanji found that she couldn't beat Ye Chong and Lin Ruo, the two crazy "headhunting dogs’" so she could only quietly return to Gu Nan’s side.
"Is this your martial arts path?" Qin Xuanji asked as she stood beside Gu Nan, watching him look down at the tumultuous battlefield with a calm expression.
Gu Nan turned his head in surprise. "What martial arts path?"
"A senior told me that there are thousands of martial arts paths in the world, and only by staying true to your own path can you reach the peak. His path is a bit like yours— making decisions thousands of miles ahead of everyone and devising battle plans on the spot."
"No need to sound so erudite, I’m just using my brain to play games."
……
+
「Dungeon’s main mission has been completed:
Main Mission Evaluation: B
Side Story Development: B
Map Exploration: A
Evil Value: B
Comprehensive Evaluation: B+」
+
「Accumulated points: 40 points
Accumulated Evil Value: 4 points」
+
The main mission was finished easily, but Gu Nan was somewhat dissatisfied. "The reward is a little small. It seems that this is a small-scale dungeon..."
Small dungeons couldn’t possibly give good rewards, but in Gu Nan's view, the difficulty this time was also low, so it was worth the entrance price.
And he just happened to receive 4 Evil Value this time, so he had already accumulated 30 Evil Value, which meant he could open the second equipment page!
With 376 points in hand, that was enough for him to buy some good equipment and enhance his fighting strength again.
"The mission is completed, let's return. Do you two still remember the chant for drawing your souls back out?" Ye Chong walked over and looked at Gu Nan and Qin Xuanji.
As he spoke, he also took a deep look at Gu Nan.
This newcomer had brought him too much shock. For three days and three nights, he "walked the dog [1]" and played their pursuers in the palm of his hand. This decision-making skill was definitely not something that ordinary people possessed.
In contrast, his strength wasn’t as important anymore.
In response to Ye Chong’s words, Gu Nan and Qin Xuanji nodded.
Reincarnating their entire souls was a relatively dangerous reincarnation method, but it also had many conveniences. For example, they could restore their strengths very quickly, and it was also very convenient to return to their original plane.
Previously, Gu Nian had only thrown part of her soul into the reincarnation process, so she had to rely on external forces to return. However, those who reincarnated with their entire souls would only need to rely on their soul’s power.
After about a minute of chanting, Gu Nan felt a force from inside his soul slowly dragging him away from the body and floating toward the sky.
"This is like chanting and rubbing the hearthstone to return to the city..."
The next moment, Gu Nan's consciousness woke up in the tavern in Radiant Tower’s branch office. His body was wrapped in a blue light, emerging in reality bit by bit.
Gu Nan was not surprised by this. This was a common occurrence in rebirth.
When reincarnating, there were corresponding seals for members to entrust their bodies to the endless void and preserve them with a secret technique, which was the safest and most convenient method.
After all, sometimes they didn’t have the luxury of reincarnating in absolute safety, so they could only do this.
Of course, souls normally couldn’t enter the endless void, and the preparations were also complicated, so it couldn’t be used as a way to save one’s life.
"How was it? Did it go well?" Zhang Dongsheng and Tang Xuan were already waiting in the tavern hall.
Seeing four people return, Zhang Dongsheng smiled.
He was in a pretty good mood. As long as there were no casualties, they could at least give them a break even on this mission. He never planned on the mission being successful anyways.
‘It’s such a difficult task and only four people could go. Plus, there are even two newcomers, so how can they possibly complete…’
"The mission has been completed." Ye Chong said calmly, but his words stunned Zhang Dongsheng.
"Completed? How did you complete it?"
Ye Chong glanced at Gu Nan, hesitating on what to say. Lin Ruo pressed her lips together and simply turned and left; Gu Nan and Qin Xuanji also left, one after another.
Suddenly only Ye Chong, Zhang Dongsheng, and Tang Xuan were left in the hall.
Ye Chong saw the two simultaneously turning to him and smiled wryly as he recounted the entire mission process from beginning to end. After listening to his account, the two people stared with wide eyes.
"You mean, Gu Nan took you around in circles and led the pursuers around for three days, just like walking a dog?"
"Simply absurd!" Tang Xuan couldn't believe Ye Chong's words at all. It wasn't that she didn't trust Ye Chong, but because this completely violated basic logic.
Ye Chong smiled bitterly. If he didn’t personally experience all this, he would also feel incredulous.
What kind of person completes missions this way?
What they didn’t know was that Gu Nan had already done this kind of thing too many times in the Evil God game.《Evil God Cultivation》, which claimed to be a complete virtual reality, had such a mission system with diverse routes to begin with.
It was precisely because of this that most of the missions in 《Evil God Cultivation》 were very complicated and difficult. In Gu Nan’s eyes, Radiant Tower’s missions were just child’s play.
Just when Zhang Dongsheng and Tang Xuan were still feeling shocked as they interrogated Ye Chong, Gu Nan had already hid in his room. His consciousness sank into the Evil God Temple.
+
「Activate the second equipment page!」
+++
「The second equipment page has been activated. Please select the equipment type.」
>
「Accessories」
As soon as Gu Nan issued the command, a glimmer of light flashed in the Evil God Temple. The second equipment page appeared in the store, and a series of accessories were displayed.
At the same time, an inexplicable force acted upon Gu Nan, and he suddenly felt that his physique had been greatly strengthened.
"Eh? Does opening the equipment page also enhance the player's physique?" Gu Nan had some doubts.
He had never heard of such a thing in the game in his past life. The player’s advancement could only depend on raising their tiers. But the Evil God Temple in reality seemed to upgrade the player more smoothly.
‘Perhaps there was also an improvement when the first equipment page was opened, but I didn’t notice because the magnitude was too small.’
Gu Nan thought to himself. However, this didn’t affect his purchase of the equipment he had decided on long ago.
>
「Buy——Observer Eyepiece, Shadow Earrings」
+++
「Purchase successful. Deducting a total of 345 points」
「Observer Eyepiece: Fixed Tier 2 magic "Insight.” 120 points」
「Shadow Earrings: Exclusive to agility type Evil Gods. Skill "Power of Shadows" +1. 225 points」
+
The purchase of the two accessories directly left Gu Nan with only 31 points; he practically used up his entire wealth. But these two accessories were definitely worth it!
With these two new pieces of equipment, he could finally dare to confront Ye Chong and Lin Ruo—the two Innate Realm Fifth Stage cultivators—with just his Innate Realm Third Stage cultivation!
T/N:
[ 1 ] “Walked the dog” - he led them around wherever he wanted, like he was walking a dog
Devotee's Game System Inspired Note
» This section of the chapter is a Fan based created system to mock-up or simulate the 'Status Information' of our MC - Gu Nan. This implies that you are free to skip reading this and continue your journey onto the .
» All catalog data below is a summary of various information achieved by Gu Nan that corresponds till the end of the related chapter and is compiled into a singular 'Status Screen.' Additionally, the invented system below would continue to evolve as we progress and learn more about the novel itself.
MC's Status Information
Name: Gu Nan
Current Location: Radiant Tower’s branch office on Ruby Fish Star’s sixth asteroid belt
Current Soul Location: N/A
Status: ⟪ Evil God ⟫
Advancement Direction: Agility Type
Current Evil God Rank: Tier 2
Equivalent Martial Art: External Kung Fu Master - Innate Realm Third Stage
Current Evil God Temple Quest:
→ Main Mission Objective/s:
-— Protect an item and prevent the enemy from snatching it for three days. - External Source
◈ Status: Cleared
Current Evil Points: 31
Overall Evil Points: 856, Overall Evil Value: 30
Exclusive Skills Acquired:
— Deceitful Steps. [ Passive Ability ] 「Movement Speed increased by 30%. Attack Speed increased by 50%」
— Power of Shadows. [ LVL 1 ] 「?」
Equipment being worn
→ Weapon
-— Four Element Crossbow. 「A Tier 2 crossbow weapon that can generate four types of elemental arrows—earth, water, wind, and fire—based on the user’s needs and does not need to load arrows.」
→ Accessories
-— Shadow Earrings. 「Skill 'Power of Shadows' LVL +1」
-— Observer Eyepiece. 「An eyepiece that have a fixed Tier 2 magic 'Insight' inscribe in it.」
Equipment Skills Acquired:
-— Insight. 「?」
Item/s owned:
→ None.