The phoenix is a creature of legends, a wonder of the world, an imagery of life and destruction. This fabled creature signifies the rise of a hero in a virtual world where battles occur for the sake of honor and glory! Zhang Yang was a professional gamer in the first and most fantastic game that revolutionized the world: God’s Miracle. A game where traditional knowledge in RPGs did not matter anymore, players would have to manually target and evade attacks, giving rise to a significant gap in skill between a professional and an amateur gamer. Zhang Yang’s downfall came a little too soon. His girlfriend was snatched, his guild was harassed and disbanded, and he was even driven to commit suicide! Jumping off the top floor of a hotel, Zhang Yang seemed as though he was soaring like a phoenix. Little did he know that the end of his life also signified his rise from the ashes!
‘-1!’
‘-1!’
‘-1!’
Floral Shorts and Kindling Chest Hair had used all their brute strength in attacking Zhang Yang but were unable to penetrate his defense, their faces paling in shock.
‘God’s Miracle’ was designed really well. Even a player’s inner feelings could be expressed so realistically! Zhang Yang applauded internally and then dealt a horizontal blow towards Kindling Chest Hair.
“-92!”
“Damn, this guy must be using hacks! How can a f*cking Guardian deal such high damage?!” cried Floral Shorts. He had thought that they could take Zhang Yang easily by outnumbering him 4 to 1 but unexpectedly the situation was reversed. How could they not feel embarrassed?
“Fucking GM1 and shitty game. Why didn’t they do anything about the hacks? What the f*ck, f*ck you and your ancestors!” Kindling Chest Hair cussed immediately.
Zhang Yang raised the shield immediately after <Block>’s cooldown completed.
‘-70!’
‘-80!’
2 <Block> reflected damage texts popped up while Zhang Yang conveniently activated <Shield Bash>.
‘-156!’
Kindling Chest Hair huffed in pain and exclaimed, “Floral, let’s withdraw quickly!”
“Trying to run?” sneered Zhang Yang as he drew his sword again and launched another <Horizontal Sweep>.
‘-202!’
‘-20!’
‘-208!’
‘+2!’ <Life Steal> from the ring was triggered.
Floral Shorts and Kindling Chest Hair did not even manage to turn around before they both fell and died. Kindling Chest Hair had actually dropped an equipment. It was the [Heavy Chest Plate] he had obtained from their Normal Mode Bangar Crypt run together.
‘Ding, you have killed Floral Shorts!’
‘Ding, you have killed Kindling Chest Hair!’
Zhang Yang picked up the equipment and stored it in his inventory without a second thought. Although he did not need it, it could be sold for a few gold coins if he auctioned it at the Auction House. He was in need of money so every penny counts!
Some 10 minutes later, Floral Shorts and his friends had revived themselves by returning their ‘spirits’ to their bodies.
‘Sha!’
Suddenly, a shadow sprang out from the bushes by the road and charged towards Prideful Precepts, causing rotating stars which symbolized the ‘Stun’ status effect to immediately appear on his head.
“Crap! That noob Guardian is spawn camping!” Floral Shorts yelled in surprise.
‘-106!’
Zhang Yang waved his sword and a huge damage text floated across Prideful Precepts’ head. How could Prideful Percepts who had just revived with only 20% HP withstand such a blow? Thus, a white light flashed and he was sent to sign his attendance at the graveyard once again!
When his Rage rose to 25 points, Zhang Yang wielded his sword and used <Horizontal Sweep>!
‘-198!’
‘-205!’
‘-208!’
‘-20!’
Kindling Chest Hair and the 2 others who stood close to each other were then sent off to meet the Resurrection Goddess in a stream of white light.
“F*ck! F*ck!” cried Prideful Precepts in his spirit form as he appeared at the graveyard. Not long after, he received notice of Floral Shorts and the others’ deaths. All of them were dropped to Level 6 from dying twice under red-tagged names.
“That guy… could he still be camping our bodies?” said Prideful Babysitter with a tone of fear in his voice.
“Let’s run back to our bodies but not resurrect ourselves yet. We’ll wait!” said Floral Shorts.
The 4 of them returned to their bodies and waited patiently.
One hour later.
“He should be gone by now right?” said Floral Shorts with uncertainty in his voice.
“Yeah. It’s been so long now. He shouldn’t have such patience!” said Prideful Precepts, “I’ll count to 3 and let’s resurrect together!”
“1!”
“2!”
“3!”
A gust of wind blew by and all 4 souls were still there standing.
“F*ck, why didn’t you guys resurrect?” scolded Prideful Precepts.
“Damn, why didn’t you resurrect?” Floral Shorts argued back as well.
“Stop, stop, stop! Stop quarrelling, we’re all a family! Let’s do this again, whoever doesn’t resurrect this time is a noob bastard. His son will be born without an asshole and his daughter cursed to forever remain flat-chested!” said Prideful Babysitter.
“1!”
“2!”
“3!”
4 of them resurrected together.
‘Sha!’ A flash of sword went by and four bodies laid dead on the floor.
“I… Crap…” Prideful Precepts was filled with tears.
The other 3 looked at each other speechlessly. They had wanted to kill Zhang Yang back to Level 0 initially but looking at their own pathetic states now, they have already dropped to Level 4! If they were killed another two more times then all of them would really end up hitting Level 0!
“… Let’s resurrect here!” Floral Shorts finally said after a long time.
Resurrecting directly at the graveyard would incur additional penalties: dropping 1 level and decreasing all attributes for 80% for an hour!
…
Zhang Yang leisurely laid by the bush and played with a stalk of grass, glancing at the 4 bodies by the road occasionally. Suddenly, all 4 bodies turned transparent and eventually disappeared.
“Hehe, they’ve resurrected directly at the graveyard huh?!” Zhang Yang patted his butt and stood up. The nearest graveyard was in the Capital and it was prohibited for players to fight there, so there was no chance for him to kill the Pride Quad back to Level 0!
Zhang Yang had been an absolute dictator since he was young! The title ‘Li’l Overlord of Octagonal Alley’ was not bullshit, it was in fact a title he had earned through sweat and blood! The despicable Pride Quad had dared ambush him and even threatened to kill him back to Level 0. Naturally, he had needed to remind them to engrave this lesson into their hearts!
Checking the time, he realized he had actually wasted 2 hours on the Pride Quad! Zhang Yang thought about it and chose to log off immediately. The place he had intended to travel to was not nearby and he would have to go to bed by the time he arrived and killed only a few mobs. In addition, he had a dungeon raid at 9am tomorrow. Running back and forth would be such a pain!
Theoretically, a player could only get a mount at Level 40 and a flying mount at Level 100. How Zhang Yang missed the days in his previous life where he could roam the world on his Stormhawk!
Just as Zhang Yang had logged off, he recalled that he had forgotten to inform Fatty Han about the next morning’s dungeon raid. Inevitably, he had to log back on to send the fatty a private message, telling him to wait at the dungeon entrance at 9 am the next morning.
Fatty Han seemed like he was still chatting with a certain pretty girl and had only acknowledged the message after some time before completely ignoring Zhang Yang once again.
Logging off and laying on his bed, Zhang Yang took out his diary and scribbled what he could remember from the game’s trend in his previous life.
According to his memory, the final boss Marzerway in the Level 20 dungeon, Marzerway’s Lair, was a magic-type monster. Its <Shadow Ball> had been extraordinary! Currently, nobody possessed much magic-resistant equipment and could only achieve high magic resistance with the aid of potions!
There was an <Alchemy> recipe that could produce a potion called [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion]. Upon consumption, it would increase a player’s Shadow resistance by 100 for 1 minute. This would be an absolutely necessity to clear Marzerway’s Lair!
Zhang Yang’s next stage of his get-rich-quick scheme would be to sell this potion, it would definitely rake in massive profit!
After he receive Crimson Fire’s gold coins tomorrow, Zhang Yang plans on hoarding [Brassica Weed] and [Ginkgo Flower], the two main ingredients in crafting [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion].
Zhang Yang strategized for a while and went to bed.
The next day, Zhang Yang woke up at around 6 in the morning and spent an hour exercising. After having his breakfast as well as a short break, it was already around 8.30 am.
He put on his game helmet and logged on!
‘Ding! Player Crimson Fire invites you to join his party. Will you accept his invitation?’
The moment Zhang Yang went online, he received a party invitation. He accepted it since they had made an agreement the previous day.
‘Ding! You have joined a party! Party leader: Crimson Fire, Group Looting Parameters: Master Loot!’
He checked the party list and well, there were already 10 players. It was just lacking him.
He already knew half of the party members: Crimson Fire, Phantom Day, Silky Snow, and Fatty Han; the other 5 were unfamiliar faces but he guessed that they would probably be the elites of Lost Paradise!
Royal Pardon, Dwarf, Beastmaster, Level 10.
Love Lonely, Human, Pyromancer, Level 10.
Absolute Defense, Human, Defender, Level 11.
Favorite Orange, Elf, Cryomancer, Level 10.
Little Demon, Human, Sacred Knight, Level 10.
Immediately, Phantom Day and the others had greeted Zhang Yang enthusiastically.
“So early?” Zhang Yang asked in the party channel as he laughed.
“Yeah, you’re the last one. Hurry over! We can begin once everyone’s here!” replied Crimson Fire.
“OK, I’m coming!” Zhang Yang had logged off midway yesterday so it would only take him roughly 10 minutes to walk over to Bangar Crypt.
“Hmph, how stuck-up! 9 of us have waited for such a long time for you!” Absolute Defense suddenly said.
Zhang Yang was surprised and thought to himself, “It’s already said that the dungeon raid starts at 9 am. I looked at the time before coming and it wouldn’t have passed 9 am when I reach the dungeon anyway. What a temper this bro has!”
“F*ck, don’t play if you don’t want to wait! F*cker, who do you think you are!” Fatty Han had a far shorter temper than Zhang Yang, turning angry immediately when he heard people complaining about his brother.
Crimson Fire hurriedly pacified them and said, “Absolute, stop your nonsense!”
10 minutes later, Zhang Yang arrived at the dungeon entrance.
Differing from yesterday’s deserted state, the valley was filled with people as most players had reached Level 10 and wanted to try raiding the dungeon. Lone players were searching for pub parties while parties were finding players they lacked. All sorts of messages flooded the open channel as though it was a market.
Among the crowd, tanks and healers were undoubtedly scarce. Although Zhang Yang had hidden his profile information, people could still recognize him as a tank because of the shield he was carrying on his back. He had received no less than 30 private messages asking him to join their parties.
“Let’s enter the dungeon!” commanded Crimson Fire.
‘Ding! You have entered Bangar Crypt (Hardcore Mode)!’
All 10 players appeared at the entrance one by one. Zhang Yang glanced at Fatty Han and was surprised. “Why are you in a guild?”
As coy as Fatty Han was, he would never hide his profile information. “Slim and Handsome, Crypt Slaughterer, Level 10.” “Blazing City” were the two rows of text above his head.
“Hehe. Yesterday I met this pretty chick who really fancies Fatty! So I’ve decided to temporarily join her guild and give her an opportunity to further understand her idol!” Fatty Han said shamelessly. “Oh yeah, why don’t you join in as well? I’ll be bolder if you’re with me!”
Zhang Yang frowned and said, “We’ll talk about it later!”
Translator Note:
1 GM stands for gamemaster, game moderator or game manager. This is sort of the admin/go-to person hired by an MMO developer to cater to the masses of people playing an online game. GMs generally help ensure the stability of the server and usually have various kinds of jobs as long as they are related to the game server.