On the other side of the network.
"Hey, there is the Netherworld boss waiting for you. Get ready, it will appear soon." The deep voice of the CEO sounded from the second-floor balcony.
"We can't, Hongjie, is not here." the team captain answered from below. The ten computers in two rows and another few on sides were this team base. Because every professional team needed a good background.
And thanks to this CEO who helped his younger brother establish Zhu long, The Vermillion Dragon. He helped the kids to have a better background, accumulated money, and provided funding. Same as in the game.
Top raking Shopkeeper, master of the five-star-rated guild. An amazing business executive, but a helpless player.
It was amazing how different the Jin brothers were. One was a top-ranking swordmaster, and the other was a funny guardian that sometimes accidentally forgot to taunt or activate buffs.
One would buy whatever he did not need for all the money he had, the second had the brain to win millions. Together, they were the perfect combo.
"Why is he not here?" asked the older brother Jin Lei, CEO, baffled, when he walked out of his room and leaned over the balcony railings to see the open floor below.
"His mom. He had to go talk to her because she had problems with him playing games like this. So I let him. It's better for him to talk to her now than if she comes later and forcefully takes him away," answered the team captain, Jin Chao, the younger brother.
"Why do we have only one healer?" Lei sighed and went downstairs to the team. He sat behind one of the free computers.
"Because it's hard to find a talented healer?" Chao asked sarcastically, earning a long death glare from his older brother.
Lei logged into the SoL, the Secret of Legends, and looked up healers ranking on their server. For once, they could go with an outsider.
This boss would appear only once a month. And they had better things to do next month than wait for it to appear. They needed materials for armors and weapons.
He sighed once again because none of the healers in the top ten were online. He looked to the next page and saw one online gamer. Blacklily. Guildless. Healer. Female character.
How could a healer be guildless? A healer was useless without a team. And it's a woman. She had to be good to get to this level without a guild. Or she was a male.
"Everyone here speaks English?" Lei asked, looking around. All except Yitian and Chao raised their hands and nodded at the same time.
But Lei didn't have to ask Yitian and Chao, he knew how smart these two were, and knew that Chao lived for a while in the USA with him.
"Then I'm sending her the invitation… She might not be Chinese..." Lei said and Chao jerked his way. All looked at him in disbelief.
"Her? She?" Chao asked, full of doubt. But others got excited, especially Wuchen. That flamboyant womanizer. They started bartering about who was going to play, and which strategy should they use to protect her.
"Hey, I will only lead her your way and that's it," Lei said and did exactly that. He sent her a message, and after that, an invitation to their party while giving the lead to Chao. Then he exited the game, going to a business party he needed to get ready.
Chao stared at his brother, thinking that he had gone crazy. Jin Lei invited an outsider and women to help them. He definitely lost his mind.
***
"Did you lose your mind, because she is a girl?" Chao exclaimed and got up from his seat.
This Blacklily wasn't bad. She was quite skilled as a healer. They lost her in the middle of the fight with the boss.
They were still getting healed and debuffed, so he didn't care that much. It was nice to not care for a healer once in a while, but Chao's pride received an unhealable wound.
But give her all the ultra-rare materials and BUY weapons from her? That he couldn't apprehend.
"Think a bit about her name…" Lei was calm, as always, but Chao was perplexed. He just shook his head and sat back in his chair.
"I don't know, it didn't ring a bell," Chao said, and Lei noticed him turning to his neighborhood player, Yitian. They were really close friends, closer than most people, and Lei was glad that Yitian was such a friend to Chao.
"Her name is the one with the rare god-level staff." Yitian looked at Chao and answered Lei instead of him.
Yeah, only one god-level made staff in the game. Players wanted it badly, but the creator and owner didn't sell it. His face lit up. No wonder Blacklily was a wonderful healer. She was the owner.
Lei saw Yitian explaining something to Chao, being close to him, so he stood up from his chair and decided to oversee their players' progress. They looked good and were making steady progress. Some weren't playing as long as Chao and Yitian, so they still had to level up.
But they were all over the hundredth level, allowed to enter God's domain. So they were able to take part in the inter-servers quests and arena. They all fulfilled the requirement to enter the pro league.
"How did she manage to buy it? How much did she pay?" Chao turned to Lei, who was standing behind others, watching their progression. Lei shook his head and sighed. How come his brother was an amazing strategist in the game, but sometimes he was so dumb?
"She did not buy it. She made it, idiot," Lei straightened up and said. Chao gawked at him.
"Yes, she…" Lei insisted once more when he saw his brother's confused expression.
"So, you gave her those things and told her to make us a weapon, because you hope she makes a god-level weapon for us?" Lei nodded. He knew it was heartless to use others, but as long as he won and didn't hurt anyone in the process. And she looked rather willing.
"You are using her?" Chao said. And Lei nodded. Lei knew what his brother thought of him, that he was a ruthless bastard. But he did all of it for him. And didn't care about others.
***
"Leiiiii." Loud yelling woke Jin Lei up. He stood up, opened the door, and looked down from the balcony.
"Hmm." He mumbled, totally asleep still, yet he got up from the bed and looked down from the balcony.
He came back from yesterday's drinking party with investors in his father's company, so he had a brutal headache and felt like dying.
"She made the weapon," Chao said, grinning, still sitting behind his computer. Of course, he would grin. He couldn't lose. Either she would make an awesome weapon boosting his team level or she would make shit and he was right and Lei was wrong. In both cases, Chao was the winner.
Lei descended the stairs and logged into the game as Thunder. He wasn't using it much nowadays. Only for some guild things. Because he loved the business side of the game more than monsters battling.
[Group]Blacklily: Let's get over it... It's 3 am and I probably need some sleep...
[Group]SIG: Wow... You are a true gamer, huh?
It took Lei a few minutes to make any reason for what they were talking about. Even though he knew he wrote something, he was so half asleep he did not know what he had written.
[Group]Blacklily: More like a real dummy…
[Group]Blacklily: I made a sword. Are you willing to pay 1,5 mil. gold?
Lei calculated inside his head. Either it was a really shitty weapon or she went really low on price. But even if they dismantle it and use the material again, they would still profit from it.
[Group]Thunder: No problem.
[Group]Blacklily: Okay... sending a private offer...
[Group]Blacklily: Nice to deal with you. Bye-bye.
[World]Player Thunder purchased Secret weapon from Blacklily
[World]Loveplaying256: What the f**k?
[World]Pantercat: Secret? What's Secret? That's a level of a weapon?
[World]Demoverse: Who made it? That guy must be lucky af... Made big cash...
Lei just could process what just happened. Neither could any of the guys. They slowly came to stand behind him one by one and soon Yitian, Chao, and others were staring at the game window where world chat became crazy. And when they read what it was about, well, they didn't get it.
"Boss? Have you just purchased a secret weapon? Is it the first one in-game?" Huobai asked, teasing him by calling him boss, waking Lei up by it.
"Yes, it was supposed to help you become a legend. It's simply in the game's name. But no one could ever make or find it. Not even NPCs. It was the most known secret in the game," Lei said. He read all the materials behind the game, the establishment, and references.
One of the developers said that there are secret weapons, supposedly helping you to become a legend. No one knew they really meant a secret-level weapon. Not just some secret hidden weapons.
"It's not only hard to follow the recipe for the secret level, though. It's hard to get and follow. I was lucky enough to have one before. Tried it. I messed up just a little, and it disappeared from inventory," Chao said. Someone made a whistling sound.
"So, that girl just made a weapon that is impossible to make and sold it to us for laughable money?!" the youngest one, Shanshan, in the game HNYG, exclaimed, not believing his ears.
"Yup, Shanshan, she definitely knew how rare this is. But she still sold it to us a lot under the recommended price. I do not know if we are lucky or she was." Chao marveled, thinking hard about the character of the girl.
"But Lei, we are going to use it, right?" Yixing didn't know what they were talking about, but he wanted to see the weapon in action. Jin Lei nodded.
It would be stupidity not to use it. After all, it was a secret weapon. And there was no rule for tournaments, that used items had to be self-made. Jin Lei was curious about how many secret items were already made on other continents, like Europe or North America.
That girl was surely dumb. She could make serious money out of this. But she said thanks for the fun. And Jin Lei almost already forgot that that was the reason for playing.