Chapter 23: Fame (Up)

The pendant on his chest let out a mechanical sound and the needle that was pierced into Jiang Ming's body returned into the pendant. Then, he slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing that he saw was an old, broken white paper lamp that was emanating yellow light. When Jiang Ming noticed the mouldy smell that was coming from the room, he couldn't help but smile. As the smile on his face grew wider, he started laughing. "Hahahahahah!"

He hadn't played a single game for the past three years and now that he had entered one and encountered so many things, there were countless words in his head that he could use to describe his feelings now. But there wasn't one that could accurately describe what he was feeling.

He had never thought that it would feel so satisfying to kill so many players in the game. Although this was an absurd thought, he had never felt as glad as he was now.

"Could it be that I was born a psycho killer?" Jiang Ming laughed mockingly, but he then shook his head. "I'm being too serious. This is just a game. If I remember correctly, we used to kill quite a lot as well while playing Glory just that it wasn't this much at one time. I guess this is the feeling of victory."

After looking for an appropriate explanation to convince himself, he calmed down and took out his credit card.

Within one gaming day, he had already earned one thousand dollars. This was ten times more than the amount he would earn from collecting garbage. Other than that, he still had lots of equipment that he could sell for a vast amount of money. However, he wouldn't sell them now as these things were important for his character development later on. He would only sell them if he had no other choice.

"My sister's annual tuition fee is about thirty thousand dollars, which is about a hundred and eighty yuan. I have already paid them for the past three years, excluding this year's. I only have about thirty thousand dragon coins now which definitely isn't enough. I have to get them ready by the beginning of next year, which means I have to get at least another hundred and fifty yuan by the end of the year."

Jiang Ming muttered to himself as he looked through his bank account.

"Let's just see what happens after this. If I don't have enough by then, I'll sell the Purple Thunderball. A divine gemstone should be an extremely valuable item. I'm guessing that a lot of tyrants would be willing to spend a large amount of money to buy it."

A day ago, Jiang Ming was still worried about his sister's tuition fee, but he was now no longer worried about it since he had gained a high reputation in the game.

"I'm so hungry after being in the game for one entire day and night. Let's have some food." Jiang Ming was in an extremely good mood as he placed the credit card back into his pocket. He opened the door and left looking for something to feast on.

"Meow~"

Just as he was about to step out of the room, a black figure came out from underneath his bed and climbed onto his shoulder.

"Sh*t, I almost forgot about you." As Jiang Ming stared at the black cat sitting on his shoulder, he remembered what Chikage told him when they were in the game. "What took you so long? The game would have already started updating since a long time ago."

"Meow~ I was having a look through the forum. You're famous now! The entire forum is talking about you." Chikage went on. "By the way, could you help me get a credit card? Some of the posts on the forum have additional charges."

Jiang Ming was still pretty shocked to hear Chikage speak in reality, but after hearing what Chikage requested, he looked at Chikage contemptuously and said, "Looking through the forum? Can you even read? And you want a credit card? Do you even have an identity card? You silly cat!"

"Meow~ Just because you're my boss doesn't mean that you can insult my intelligence. My IQ level is above 300." Chikage licked its paw. "Plus, the posts on the forum have pictures on it. Can't I just guess from all the pictures? You're right, I don't have an identity card, but you can come up with something, Boss. Otherwise, I won't be able to withdraw any of the money I've earned in the game since the credit card has to be linked with the player."

"If you promise me that you will give me half of the amount you earn, then I'll help you get a fake ID." Jiang Ming pondered about Chikage's abilities in the game and realized that this fellow would be able to earn quite an amount. Plus, there were a lot of people that he knew who could provide a fake ID, and it wasn't that difficult for him to get one for this cat.

"Meow~ No problem!" Chikage replied, patting on its chest as it thought to itself: You're my master. Even if you wanted all my money, I would still give it to you. It's already enough that you left half for me.

Jiang Ming wasn't stupid either. He knew that Chikage was his slave so even if he wanted Chikage to give him all his money, Chikage would have to give it to him. However, he knew that in order to become stronger in the game, he would have to buy armour, equipment and potions, so he decided to leave some of the money for Chikage.

After closing the doors, Jiang Ming walked towards the night market.

As he was walking on the streets, he grabbed the pendant that was on his chest and clicked on one of the buttons. The next moment, a transparent screen appeared above the pendant.

There was a moving banner on the screen and it read: Divine Land Forum

Previously, he left without looking through the forum, but after hearing what Chikage said, he became interested in what was on the forum. Therefore, he used the 'computer' function from the pendant to look through the forum.

The forum was divided into two main categories: public and premium.

The forum that he was looking through was in the public category and what caught his eyes were the top three posts in red with over 100 million clicks.

The first post: 00520 novice village, Reaper NPC killed over ten thousand players and even killed the president of the Divine Altar within seconds (with videos attached).

"Ten thousand players?" Jiang Ming laughed as he shook his head. "That's bullsh*t."

His guilt value in the game was only 3378 points, which means that he only killed about three thousand people, how did it go up to ten thousand?

He clicked on the post and played the video. It was the scene where he was fighting with Situ Shenzhe's group; he killed about seven to eight players in one fell swoop and there was blood everywhere. The air was tinted a bloody red colour and even Jiang Ming himself was shocked when he saw the video.

"I was that terrifying just now?" Jiang Ming muttered in surprise. Then, he returned his attention to Situ Shenzhe. Jiang Ming frowned as he clenched his fist, and there were flames burning faintly in his eyes. "How on earth did this bastard use photoshop even when he's in the game! No wonder I couldn't recognise him just now! Otherwise, I would have beaten him until he was level 0!"

The tough times that he had been through where he was betrayed by his teammates, his hands were paralysed and he lost the love of his life, it was all because of Situ Shenzhe.

All the insult, cynicism and abandonment for the past 3 years was because of Situ Shenzhe.

Jiang Ming was fuming mad and hated that he didn't recognise him when they were at the Demon Wolf Valley. Finishing him within seconds was too easy on him. If Jiang Ming had another chance, he would want to see Situ Shenzhe's expressions after his hands were paralysed.

But at least he did kill him at the Demon Wolf Valley, he got to kill him once. Although he didn't know who he was at that point, he still felt a little comforted.

After scrolling through the comments section that was mostly filled with comments of admiration, Jiang Ming closed the first post and went to the second post that also had more than a million clicks.