Chapter 001: The Hidden Job Change

  This is an urban fantasy, but due to plot requirements, the first ten chapters interspersed some online game content, mainly in the city. This situation occurs because the protagonist's abilities in this book are closely related to online games, see introduction for details.

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  The online game "Shenmo" is about to open a new copy, the first team system that passes through the new copy will be rewarded with 1000 honor points and granted a purple epic equipment as well as six assignable attribute points. This news drove the global 50 million players crazy, however, after three days of opening the new copy, hundreds of elite teams from all over the world tried to pass it, but none succeeded.

  Up until today, the "Tianzun Team" from Pangu City in Huaxia District has attracted the attention of players worldwide and is hailed as the team most likely to clear the new instance.

  The Tianzun team has a total of 15 members, with 14 main members having the highest level of 35 and the lowest level of 32. Their equipment is either top-notch or epic-level sets, and even their 35-year-old captain has a quasi-divine artifact. The strength of this team is already quite exaggerated in the "Shenmo" online game, which has only been open for three months, with the highest level being 35 (globally ranked 15th) and the mainstream level being 25.

  However, the reason this team is being looked at favorably isn't because of these fourteen main members, but rather because of the last person, a level 20 rogue with trash equipment - player "Dark Sword".

  The emergence of this dark sword triggered a heated discussion on the "Shenmo" forum, however, no one could have imagined that when the copy opened, this dark sword actually let everyone's pigeons go, he didn't log in!

  The Tianzun team finally made a desperate attempt to break through the new dungeon in the absence of Dark Sword, but ultimately ended in a complete defeat.

  The forum has blown up, this Dark Sword is simply an idiot. Such a good opportunity that others can't find even with a lantern, he actually gave it up voluntarily.

  Players have all sorts of guesses, some say the Dark Sword gas tank exploded, others say the Dark Sword was so excited that he rolled down the stairs, and some even say that the Tianzun team deliberately released a smokescreen to deceive the crowd. A level 20 thief with only store-bought equipment got killed by a monster with just one touch, what can they do in an instance dungeon?

  Of course, there is only one truth, and it all started three months ago...

  Zhou Jian, an ordinary freshman at Lingnan University, majors in a liberal arts program known for having many beautiful women. It's rare to find male students who are obsessed with online gaming while studying liberal arts, but Zhou Jian is an exception.

  Three months ago, "Shenmo" started public testing. Zhou Jian was the first to buy a game helmet and registered as a thief named "Dark Sword", then he killed his way out of the newbie village.

  Zhou Jian often summarized his experience during the leveling process, calculating which monsters leveled up quickly and finding refresh points with many monsters.

  In the crowded and strange new village, upgrading was extremely difficult. Zhou Jian risked his life to finally reach level 10 and become one of the first players to leave the new village.

  He then skipped N lessons, upgraded recklessly in every way, finally got rid of the leveling corps and took the lead all the way, becoming one of the first players to reach level 20 in "Shen Mo".

  The system rewards the top 100 players in each district who reach level 20 with a piece of ultra-equipment - Soul Ring. It also promises that the global first place player to reach level 30 will be rewarded with two quasi-artifacts, and the 2nd-10th places will receive one quasi-artifact each. Additionally, the top 100 players in each district who reach level 30 will also receive rewards.

  This news made those leveling fanatics even crazier, knowing that at the time equipment was extremely scarce, and even fourth-grade epic equipment was rare, let alone second-grade quasi-artifacts.

  However, among this batch of leveling fanatics, there was one person who stood out from the rest. Not only did he not go crazy with leveling after reaching level 20, but he also auctioned off the soul ring that greatly increased leveling speed in the auction house!

  This caused a sensation in the auction house, and at that time, other treasures were scarce, plus the temptation of 30-level rewards. This soul ring that could greatly increase the upgrade speed was directly speculated to a sky-high price.

  People are mocking "Dark Sword" in the forum for auctioning off his equipment, saying he's an idiot and short-sighted. He actually traded a Soul Ring for money, doesn't he know the huge benefits of being ahead of the game in the early stages? Not to mention that being the first to reach level 30 also gets you that heart-pounding reward from the system.

  Zhou Jian turned a deaf ear to these rumors and continued with his next plan - using the money obtained from auctioning off equipment to buy task scrolls.

  Long before the open beta of "Shen Mo", Zhou Jian had read the official announcement of game information. The official website claimed that the greatest charm of "Shen Mo" lies in its fairness, with rewards for every effort; secondly, it is complex and changeable, online games are always unknown to players, waiting for them to explore by themselves; thirdly, it has an intelligent NPC system, as well as a real game experience that feels completely the same as the real world.

  One of the classic, yet forever exciting settings is the hidden profession, which can be triggered by completing a task to change jobs. The probability is very small, but once changed, the benefits gained are enormous.

  Each profession has five attributes: strength, agility, vitality, magic and spirit. When the player levels up, these attributes will increase accordingly. Different professions have different growth methods, such as warriors increasing their strength more, mages increasing their magic more, although the growth options are different, the total number of attributes that grow is exactly the same for each profession, before level 30, the total number of attributes that grow per level is always 12 points.

  However, there are many hidden careers, and they are 16 points.

  The earlier you change jobs, the more benefits you get. The official announcement of the lowest level limit for job changing is 20 levels. If you can change jobs at level 20, it's the best, but very few players can change jobs at level 20 because the job change task is difficult to encounter, and leveling up from 20 to 21 only takes a few days.

  Zhou Jian is a self-aware person, he was able to rank top 100 in the entire district and reach level 20, apart from his own cleverness and hard work, there was also an element of luck involved, it's too difficult to continue competing for the next top 30, let alone global top ten, which is almost impossible.

  This is because Zhou Jian invested too little money in the game at the beginning, and his equipment has a big gap with other players.

  Game companies develop online games to make money, and they open the system of exchanging game currency for real currency from the beginning, with a ratio of 100:1. Many players exchange a large amount of game currency for real currency when registering, and then use this game currency to buy equipment obtained by other players.

  Zhou Jian's family was not well off, and he played games to earn living expenses. He didn't have any extra money to invest in the game. This disparity wasn't obvious at the beginning of the game because no one had good equipment then, and even if they had money, they couldn't buy it. However, as the game progressed, the gap between Zhou Jian's equipment and that of those with more money would become increasingly apparent.

  Going on like this, he is destined to be ordinary. Zhou Jian was not reconciled to being ordinary, so he wanted to take a gamble and try his luck at the low-probability hidden profession. In the early stages of the game, few people were patient enough to do quests, after all, the leveling speed from doing quests was slow like a snail, so the price of quest scrolls was very cheap.

  He massively buys task scrolls, identifies them in bulk at the task NPC, then analyzes himself the possibility that it is a hidden task, and goes to try to do the task, if not he continues with the next one.

  In this way, Zhou Jian finished two months' worth of work in one breath.

  His dormitory roommates who played "Shenmo" with him all said he was crazy, putting so much effort into such a low-probability event. In their view, this is like selling the whole family's property to buy lottery tickets, destined to lose everything.

  However, two months later, something that left them stunned happened - Zhou Jian actually triggered the hidden quest and job-changed from a thief to an assassin!

  Watching his roommate's jaw-dropping expression, Zhou Jian laughed very smugly, and his roommate also fulfilled his request to beat him up for a while.

  A long time later, a lovely junior sister asked Zhou Jian what he was thinking at the time. He said with a straight face: "As stated on the official website, the greatest charm of the game lies in its fairness - as long as you put in effort, you'll get returns; secondly, it's the unpredictability and advanced technology used in the game. Whether or not you believe it, I do."