Chapter 4: Launching Another Attack

  "Alright, this time the European team has formed a dream team, all of whom are above level 34, with the lowest being epic-level equipment, and there are even three pieces of sub-legendary equipment, as well as Moscow's 36-level player "Terrible Ivan", who is known as the world's number one. They also want to challenge the 12-point instance, our strength will be much weaker than theirs."

  "Shenmo" is fair, every time the copy is opened globally at the same time, it's 4 am London time, these foreigners are really dedicated...

  "It's already level 36, and it's really fast."

  "Meet in an hour and a half, must rush ahead of him, now we wait." From head to toe, the broken military sword did not blame Zhou Jian for a single sentence, but Zhou Jian could always feel a sense of oppression from him.

  Although it's a virtual world, some of the player's aura can still be revealed from their demeanor and language. Zhou Jian guessed that in real life, the broken military knife was probably proficient in ancient martial arts, and might even be an expert.

  The broken military knife sat down on the ground, closed his eyes and meditated. After a moment, the second member of the Tianzun team arrived, the 32nd level female mage "Little White Rabbit Sugar". Little White Rabbit Sugar wore an epic-level mage suit, with a purple glow flashing from her legendary staff, which matched her cute appearance and petite figure, making people feel delighted. However, in "Shenmo", one's appearance can be slightly modified based on their own foundation, so beauty is not that rare.

  After seeing Zhou Jian, Xiao Bai Tu's little nose wrinkled, obviously filled with resentment towards this guy who had let them down yesterday.

  The third to arrive was also a woman, the 33rd-level healer "Light Cloud Fairy", who was in charge of healing. Light Cloud Fairy was about twenty-two or three years old, with an outstanding appearance and a noble and elegant demeanor. When she saw Zhou Jian, she just smiled slightly and didn't say much.

  These people are probably either rich or noble in real life, because if they don't spend a lot of money in the game, it's impossible to have such a level and equipment.

  In contrast, Zhou Jian was equipped with trash gear and was only level 20. As for his family background, it wasn't even worth mentioning. Zhou Jian understood that these people chose to ally with him out of necessity, but deep down, they looked down on him. They weren't from the same world.

  At this time, the fourth person arrived, a handsome young man, 34-level archer "Flowing Water Without Intention", looking only in his early twenties, wearing half a set of epic warrior equipment and half a set of legendary equipment, estimated that his real identity is a rich family's son.

  He glanced at Zhou Jian with a faint glance, his eyes carrying an innate sense of superiority, which made Zhou Jian feel very uncomfortable.

  At this time, Zhou Jian received a system prompt that the player Liu Shui Wu Yi was sizing him up with ill intentions. Zhou Jian knew that Liu Shui Wu Yi was checking out his equipment, so he let it be and didn't care.

  Zhou Jian's entire body, except for a Ghost Fire Ring, was barely passable, the rest were all trash. Liu Shui unintentionally hummed in disdain and sent a message to Zhou Jian: "Yesterday you enjoyed screwing us over, didn't you?"

  The words were full of gunpowder flavor, but Zhou Jianli was at a loss first, and he patiently replied: "Sorry, it's an unavoidable situation."

  "Sorry? Who do you think you are? How much is your apology worth? Yesterday, I lost 10% of my experience and a legendary suit in the duplicate, do you know how precious my time is? Do you know how much a legendary suit costs? You can't even afford to compensate me if you sell yourself!"

  Zhou Jian furrowed his brow, "The new instance has a very light death penalty, only losing 5% of experience. As for the equipment on you, not to mention legendary sets, even epic sets won't drop." Zhou Jian had looked up a lot of information before entering the new instance, so he naturally knew that Liu Shui was unintentionally lying.

  "You're doubting me? Do you believe I can kill you to level 0, as easily as crushing an ant?" Lian Shui unintentionally became angry.

  With his strength and wealth, he could indeed hire someone to easily kill Zhou Jian to 0 level. This was the sorrow of being powerless. Zhou Jian suppressed the anger in his heart and asked in a private chat: "What do you want?"

  "Simple, this time on the copy trip, no matter what you get, hand it over to me, and that's it. Otherwise, wait for being killed to zero level!"

  "Your request is too excessive."

  "Too much? Not at all, you can get the honor value and attribute points of the system reward, and if the equipment you hand over is satisfactory to me, I can also give you a few tens of thousands of gold coins as a bonus. You need to understand the situation, a commoner like you doesn't even have the qualifications to cooperate with us, it's just doing labor for us. Do you know what kind of people work under me in real life? Graduates from Tsinghua University, postdoctoral researchers who returned from studying abroad, they are all under my command, and even my bodyguards are masters of ancient martial arts. A commoner like you living at the bottom of society is lucky to be working under me, it's a blessing from your past life.

  Flowing Water unintentionally chatted with him up to this point, lit a cigarette, and leisurely blew out a smoke ring, "A person should have self-awareness, eat according to their abilities. You've already gotten enough, being too greedy will get you killed."

  Zhou Jian's anger had thoroughly erupted. In real life, he couldn't afford to mess with people of this social status and often had to endure. But this was a virtual game - playing games was all about having fun; if you had to be a yes-man everywhere, then it wasn't worth playing. With a sarcastic expression, he said, "Fine, just wait, I'll make sure you're 'satisfied' later."

  "Hmph, as long as you understand, I'm not a heartless person either. If you follow me from now on, I'll treat you well. And don't think about reporting to the captain, he can't help you, and I'm not afraid of him. I'll kill you back to level 0, no one can stop me."

  Zhou Jian burst out laughing, using a mixture of intimidation and temptation. For these rich young masters, their way of treating others probably only had these two aspects. "I understand this, I won't rely on others. You wait patiently, I'll give you a 'surprise'."

  "Alright, don't disappoint me." Liushui had never thought that Zhou Jian would dare to disobey him. He was used to being in a superior position, and no one dared to go against his will, whether in reality or in the online game.

  After the storm of this conversation passed, Liu Shui Wu Yi had unintentionally been put on Zhou Jian's blacklist, and it was certain that he would turn against him in the future. But with his own level and equipment, how could he deal with Liu Shui Wu Yi?

  Zhou Jian couldn't think of a better solution for the time being, so he started thinking about what his next skill to learn would be.

  He now has only one skill point, either to learn the skill of Spiritual Pierce from the Controller or to learn the skill of Mortal Strike from the Thief.

  Zhou Jian has now learned five skills.

  Thief's basic skill: "Unlock", using Thief's Key can open most treasure chests and mechanism doors on the map.

  Thief auxiliary skill: "Scout", uses the thief's perception to detect surrounding traps, mechanisms and disguised or hidden enemies.

  Thief combat skill: "Stealth", puts the thief into a stealth state, allowing movement or use of auxiliary skills while in stealth. Any attack action and use of potions or combat skills will cause stealth to fail. This skill ignores enemy levels but can be broken by certain targeted skills such as the Thief's "Scout" or Hunter pet's "Sense".

  Thief combat skill: "Backstab", launches a sneak attack from behind the enemy, adding an attack power equal to agility value.

  Master's basic skill: "Telekinesis", using spiritual power to control an object weighing no more than 10 kilograms, within a range of 50 meters.

  Spirit Piercing is a combat skill of the Controller, which can cause dizziness to enemy targets. It's only useful when players PK, and it's rarely used during leveling up because the damage is too low.

  Zhou Jian's current top priority is to upgrade. If he learns the Mortal Strike, it will naturally increase his leveling speed. However, after careful consideration, Zhou Jian still chose to put his skill points into Spiritual Pierce. The next skill after Spiritual Pierce is Lure of Light, which allows him to control and summon low-level monsters to serve him through spiritual control. This skill is extremely practical for leveling up.

  Purchased the skill book "Spirit Piercing" from the system store, spending 10,000 gold coins (equivalent to 100 RMB). System prompt: Successfully learned Spirit Piercing, current skill level 0. Deals 1 second (2 seconds) of stun and 50 points of damage to enemies by attacking their spiritual sea. Ineffective against enemies with higher spiritual power than oneself. Spiritual power consumption: 20 points. Upgrades after using 1000 times.

  The 2 seconds in the brackets is the stun time caused to the monster, the monster's mental strength is very low, even the boss's mental strength is not worth mentioning, so the stun time will be doubled. However, the monster's blood volume is very high, and being stunned for two or three seconds doesn't do much harm, just keep hitting it.

  "It's time, let's go!" Two hours later, the broken military knife suddenly opened its eyes.

  The team consists of fifteen people, three warriors, three thieves, two mages, five sorcerers, one archer, and the ghost killer Dark Sword.

  The broken military sword conversed with the NPC, received the task item "Pandora's Seal", and then everyone felt a blackness in front of their eyes. The next moment, they were teleported to the entrance of the instance "Devil's Nest".

  As soon as they arrived, everyone suddenly felt a chill in the air, and the cave was dark and gloomy, like the giant mouth of a wild beast. Occasionally, you could hear the eerie howling sounds coming from deep within, making people shiver with fear.