Chapter 23: Dividing the Spoils (Seeking Collection, Seeking Recommendations)

Zhuge Crossbow (Artifact): A masterpiece crafted by the predecessors of the Tang Sect by collecting the best gold in the world and spending ten years of time improving upon the base of the Zhuge crossbow.

Bolt capacity: 13.

Reloading speed: 2.5 seconds.

Effective range of 100 meters.

Attack +500.

Special effect: repel!

The attributes of this crossbow are absolutely perfect!

It has a large bolt capacity, fast reloading speed, a far-reaching range, and high attack power. Each attribute is simple and practical.

As for the last entry, the "repel" special effect, it is simply incredible.

What is the worst fear of a ranged class?

Of course, it's when close-combat classes get up close!

And this "repel" attribute can directly repel enemies who try to close in. It's like a divine artifact that can kite people to death!

Admiring it, Ye Weiming suddenly changed the subject and asked, "How much time does the system give you to return the crossbow?"

Upon hearing this, Youyou was startled: "How did you know there is a time limit?"

"Isn't it pretty obvious?" Ye Weiming shrugged, "You have the Zhuge Crossbow in your hand. It only took seven arrows for you to instantly kill Chen Ming, a level 15 boss. Although he wasn't at full health at the time, he still had more than half of it left. If he had been at full health, perhaps it would just take one round of continuous shooting to deal with him, without even needing to reload. So, it should be roughly the same for level 20, and for level 25…."

Ye Weiming didn't continue, but his meaning was clear: "If you don't immediately return the Zhuge Crossbow and complete your mission, but instead go out to do tasks and hunt BOSSes, in less than half a month, you can accumulate a large amount of experience, cultivation, equipment, martial arts secret books, and money, and so on… It wouldn't be too difficult to pull ahead of the average player."

"But given the nature of the game system, do you think it would give the players such a big loophole to exploit?"

As if recalling something, Ye Weiming said in a tempting tone: "Or, you could choose to betray your sect."

"How could I do that?" Youyou's attitude was very firm, clearly showing that she would never consider betraying her sect. She quickly changed the subject saying, "But you're right, I do have to complete this task within six hours. If I fail to do so, I will be considered a traitor to the sect and will be pursued for punishment by both NPC masters and players of Tang Sect. Indeed, the faster I hand in the task, the better."

"Then you should return as quickly as possible and hand in the task." This hint about the quicker, the better surely had a direct connection with the final reward of the task. Moreover, it wouldn't be possible to hunt two bosses in just a few hours, and that wouldn't even account for the travel time: "Let's start splitting the loot."

"There's no need." Youyou's response was very straightforward: "As I've said before, I only want the mission items."

"Don't rush to refuse, there's other great stuff in this hall too. Why don't I find all the items first, and then we can discuss how to distribute them?"

"Do whatever you want, I don't need anything."

Not wasting any words, Ye Weiming directly reached out to touch the corpse of Chen Ming nailed to the pillar.

Mountain-Splitting Knife Technique (Lower-Rank): A well-known knife technique in the martial world, aggressive and vicious. Cultivation requirement: 23 arm strength, 10 understanding.

Ghoul Head Greatsword (Blue): A bloody greatsword. Attack +42, defense +7.

Bamboo Hat (Blue): A bamboo hat woven together, capable of shielding against wind and rain. Defense +10

Ox Hide Quick Boots (Blue): Boots made of tanned cowhide, lightweight and durable. Physical defense +5, movement technique +5.

Realgar Wine Brewing Method: Recorded the method of brewing Realgar Wine.

Realgar Wine: ...

Coin purse containing 1 gold 21 silver.

Despite being a boss of similar rank, by looting Chen Ming's corpse, Ye Weiming managed to get significantly less valuable loot compared to what he got from Three-moon's corpse. How did he end up with this pile of junk?

Chen Ming maybe was not the strongest even among level 30 bosses, but he was a level 30 boss nonetheless!

Could it be that his luck was much worse, or was it because Chen Ming could drop the Zhuge Crossbow, and the rest of the drop was purely consolation?

Ye Weiming picked up each piece of loot in turn, playing with them before stowing them away in his bag, while pretending to casually observe Youyou's reactions. When it got to the Ox Hide Quick Boots, he saw her eyes brighten momentarily before she quickly hid her interest.

So, indeed she was interested in these boots?

Ye Weiming immediately opened the trading interface with the boots selected: "The attributes of these boots are not bad, you as a ranged class also need movement technique, so you can have them. The 'Realgar Wine Brewing Method' is mine, and I will sell off the remaining items and we'll split the profit."

"But …"

"There's no 'but' in this. Without you today, I wouldn't have been able to defeat this boss on my own. Besides, it wouldn't be fair for me to take everything ourselves since we teamed up, would it? How would we cooperate in the future then?"

To be honest, the quality of the two pieces of equipment that Chen Ming dropped was not bad, but the benefits of the Divine Detective Sect were so good that they received a full set of blue equipment upon entering the sect, which were of very good attributes. So, he referred to Chen Ming's drops as trash.

The players of other sects were not as fortunate as those of his Divine Detective Sect. Every piece of equipment from the sect had to be exchanged for with contribution points and money. Like Youyou, movement technique was very important for her indeed, but the level of importance definitely could not compare with attack. Therefore, even if she had accumulated enough sect contribution, she would prioritize replacing her hand crossbow instead of her shoes.

Moreover, after seeing Youyou's skills, Ye Weiming had the idea of making friends. In order to make future cooperation easier, he couldn't eat alone during their first cooperation, could he?

It's not being calculative on Ye Weiming's part. Adult socialization often starts with interests. Pure friendship without any impurities can only be found in school, and it may not even be found there.

Seeing that Youyou was still hesitating, Ye Weiming urged: "Take it quickly, don't delay, I still have to find other treasures!"

Only then did Youyou accept the boots, while Ye Weiming, after dealing with Chen Ming's corpse, headed towards a pair of artifacts in the corner of the hall.

Gained x1 "Knife Technique Insight".

Knife Technique Insight: A record of the knife techniques of Chen Ming, the leader of the bandits in West Lake. Applied to a specific knife technique, it can increase proficiency by 800 points!

Quickly using up the "Knife Technique Insight" and "Realgar Wine Brewing Method".

Ding! By studying the "Knife Technique Insight", you gain 200 proficiency points in the "Kneeling like Mount Tai" technique!

Ding! You have learned the method of brewing Realgar wine, cooking skill proficiency +100.

This hall is not just an empty stone room. In fact, there are quite a few artifacts, such as Buddha Statues, magic artifacts, etc., most of them are Buddhist artifacts that are useless to players, or can they be considered antiques?

Earlier when Youyou was healing, Ye Weiming had already surveyed the environment here and accidentally received several system prompts.

Sure enough, after making a round, he gained a lot of good stuff.

The rewards were so rich that they were even much higher than the rewards for killing the BOSS!