Heavenly Left Hand

Nie Fan's attack merely itched the Burning Redwood Nymph, and did not draw its attention at all. As is usual, it would only look around when it occasionally sensed ripples of Nature Force, and did not reacted out of the ordinary.

Meanwhile, Nie Fan was slowly getting used to the behavioral patterns of the Burning Redwood Nymph, slowly becoming at ease as he concentrated in training with his skill. Although Bloodthirsty Vines would still deal [-2] damage on the Miniboss, Nie Fan was aware of how stunning the attributes of the skill was: one cast was enough to instakill another player of the same level!

He was just getting started. After all, it's not enough for Bloodthirsty Vines to stay at Level 3!

It takes 2000 proficiency points to improve Bloodthirsty Vines from Level 3 to Level 4 and almost two hours, but the investment was worth it. Even if someone would pull away in terms of level, a powerful skill like Bloodthirsty Vines would make leveling up a simple task!

But as Nie Fan was enthusiastically raising the skill level for Bloodthirsty Vines when his voice channel started to ring. It was Xie Yu once again.

"Nie Fan, Suyue, and I already reached Level 6. That place you told us about is definitely good: Holy Light classes deal 160% damage on evil goblins and killing them is like chopping vegetables. Moreover, they would spawn quickly at that location—it's like another would appear right after we killed one! Also, this place is quite isolated so no one else is trying to steal our kills!" Xue Yue told him excitedly, "Should we stay here and keep leveling up?"

Nie Fan smiled since it was an outcome he expected. "Evil goblins are just level four," he replied, "And the EXP you would gain for killing each one would be a lot less at level six. So stop hanging around there and move to these coordinates: 262, 372, 229. Got it? It's not far from there."

"Got it." Xue Yu nodded, now a firm and undoubting believer of Nie Fan. He promptly headed to the coordinates with Lin Suyue.

"It's best if you replenish your mana spring water stock when you go."

"Okay." Xue Yu answered, and then asked mysteriously, "Nie Fan, could you have received insider tips from Tempest Wings?"

"Insider tips?" Nie Fan drew a blank.

"Of course. I say, how did the studio work so fast? It's almost inhuman… they must have certain connections. Still, relax, I won't simply expose your secret."

Nie Fan could not help but smile—Xue Yu had mistaken his information as coming from the studio. "More or less. Anyway, you should go level up now, don't waste time."

"Got it. I'll listen to you in the game from now one." Xue Yu chuckled, thinking that he would definitely be able to level up rapidly and reach professional gamer levels with those insider tips from Tempest Wings. It was certainly worth spending the time to travel here, not to mention that Nie Fan would be bearing certain risks by revealing that information to him. He could not help but feel moved: he had made many friends since he was a child, but Nie Fan was the only one he would call 'brother'.

As such, following Nie Fan's instruction, Xue Yu went off with Lin Suyue to level up, whereas Nie Fan continued to train his skill enthusiastically.

***

Meanwhile, the logistics department of Tempest Wing was still running in an orderly manner at Moxxi Village.

"Vice chairman, we received fifty bronze coins from Dark Night in the mail."

"Got it." There was a fickle look on Infernal Left Hand's face.

So, the one called Nie Fan had some tricks up his sleeve to complete the quest on the first day so quickly. Still, someone must be helping him behind the scenes since most players would never gather so much bronze coins in such a short time. As such, he had a growing feeling that Nie Fan was up to no good when he joined Tempest Wings. He might have come for Lin Xinyan like he did, since any gamer who could gather 50 bronze coins on day one did not have to stay at Tempest Wings for a measly two thousand dollar-salary—he could go to any studio he wanted and earn up to seven thousand.

Infernal Left Hand would never imagine that Nie Fan was waiting for his salary from Tempest Wings to make a living.

Nonetheless, he had already thought up a dirty trick.

"Send a message to all Tempest Wings fringe members, tell them to gather at Moxxi Village tomorrow!"

"Vice chairman, that might not fly. Our fringe members are spread out at various villages, and it might take six hours for some to come here even if they hurry." One of the gamers told him gingerly, afraid that he would make Infernal Left Hand feel cross.

Infernal Left Hand thought about it for a moment and then said, "Those too far need not come, but anyone based in the villages near Moxxi Village must come!"

It was at least a half an hour journey from Tajit Village to Moxxi Village. Afterwards, Infernal Left Hand would simply assign that Nie Fan some trivial mission so that he couldn't do anything else, and he could just leave Tempest Wings if he had any objections!

"Got it."

Infernal Left Hand was the second-biggest shareholder in Tempest Wings, and the other gamers naturally would not go against him and hence quickly left to relay his orders.

"Vice chairman, the boss is here." One of them suddenly yelled.

At the village gates, a group of over fifty players was entering Moxxi Village imposingly, all of them now Level 10 and drawing gasp of awes from the other players.

Leading the group was Lin Quan. His ID was Heavenly Left Hand and he was now Level 11. With his two Copper-grade items, he looked valiant and formidable.

"Look, it's Tempest Wings!"

"Amazing, all of them have level ten items already!" To normal players, the drop rate of items was so rare that even having a normal White-grade item they could wear was already extraordinary.

"That's for sure. They are ranked at the top twenty in the country!"

"Bro Quan, you're back. How were things?" Infernal Left Hand smiled, looking much friendly than he was just a moment ago.

"It was alright." Lin Quan laughed cheerfully, before turning to give his group instructions to replenish their potions. Then, he walked alongside Infernal Left Hand and asked, "How are the fringe members doing with their quests?"

"All of them had completed their quests at the moment, earning more than three thousand bronze coins with ten coins a person on average. Only one player didn't." Infernal Left Hand replied, although the truth was that there were seven fringe members who have not completed their quests. However, he was covering for them since

"Who is it?" Lin Quan asked—to avoid affecting a fringe member's development early on, their quests were moderate. As such, the fringe members would help cultivate the elite members, and when the elite members were stronger, they would in turn nurture the fringe members: it was the most common strategy for studios to strengthen themselves altogether. Therefore, when a VR game starts service, most studios would be incurring losses since they would be paying their employees heftily, and it is only during later stages when they grow in strength, in turn gaining sponsorships, endorsement deals, items trades, and other profits.

That was why no one could not afford starting a studio without strong financial power, and they might be forced to pay for damages if the strength of the studio fell beneath projections.

"The newcomer, that one called Nie Fan," Infernal Left Hand replied.

"Him?" Lin Quan frowned. "Never mind. He's new, it's normal if he didn't finish his quest."

Infernal Left Hand smiled in agreement at Lin Quan's nonchalant look. "That's right, newcomers could hardly secure any results. Why not make him a farmer? We do lack a miner player after all."

"Miner?" Lin Quan repeated, shaking his head. "Forget it. Xinyan recommended him so let him be—we'll only discuss his future if he can't complete the fifty percent bare minimum of quests in a month."

"Is he her classmate?" Infernal Left Hand pretended to ask casually, his heart tightening as he waited for Lin Quan's answer.

"Classmate? No way," Lin Quan laughed. "He's just the son of my second uncle's old friend who passed away. That's why my uncle was entrusted with taking care of him, and it's even said that he was engaged to Xinyan, although that's probably my uncle's joke and not to be taken seriously. He would never really let him marry her, but let's allow him to stay around for a bit. Think of it as giving my uncle face and taking in a homeless person."

It was a casual remark, but Infernal Left Hand took it to heart. His very thoughts darkened at the idea of that brat being betrothed to Xinyan as children, and he definitely would not accommodate the presence of such a threat.

"Anyway, the stats should be in by now. Which other studios are basing themselves in Kelfield?"

"We're lucky. Kelfield has only a few factions: Bloodbath Studios, Phoenix Down Studios, Stalker Studios, and Wandering Souls Studios. For Bloodbath, they only have twelve players who could make the mark, aside from Warsong himself. They shouldn't be a threat. That's the same for Phoenix Down—it's a nation of women over there, but most of them can't even be considered professional gamers aside from Dancing Phoenix. As for Wandering Souls and Stalkers, they basically aren't a threat." Infernal Left Hand handed Lin Quan a sheet of data.

"Wandering Souls? I heard that they've been quite close with Demon God Studios lately."

"Just rumors. Demon God is expanding without end, sure, but they won't be interested with a studio as small as Wandering Souls." Infernal Left Hand said disapprovingly.

"By the way, I heard that there's a player selling a level fifteen copper-grade item over at Tajit a few hours ago. Help me find that person," Lin Quan said. "We need to take control of Kelfield without any surprises."

"Level fifteen copper-grade item, a few hours ago? No way. That's just rumors, how could anyone be challenging a level fifteen a few hours ago!?" Infernal Left Hand twitched inwardly—there was no way that news could be true.

"Maybe, but it's best to be sure."

"Got it. I'll send someone to ask around." Infernal Left Hand replied, thinking that Lin Quan was being too careful. In reality, he is never going to do that, and neither was he afraid that anyone would accuse him of paying lip service since he had almost complete control of Tempest Wings by now. Lin Quan could at best direct those in the elite group, and even then, some of the elites are now his trusted agents.

"I'm going to replenish some consumables. The logistic tasks are now in your hands, sorry for the trouble." Lin Quan clapped Infernal Left Hand on his shoulder; he was quite trusting of him.

"What are you saying, Bro Lin?" Infernal Left Hand sniggered, scratching his head as insolence flared inwardly—he would never have bothered to stay with Tempest Wings if not for Lin Xinyan.

Lin Quan headed towards the apothecary while reading the data Infernal Left Hand provided him. Although this was the first day for Blood of Tyranny, there were clear movements all around as the major studios set the stage in various zones.

For the moment, who would prevail as the ultimate victor remained to be seen.