Chapter 85. Gun Master
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After trading the monster bodies for credit points, Lin Huang walked out of the Hunter Association and saw a commercial projection at the entrance. It advertised two BlackEagle33's, one was on its pistol form while another was on its sniper form. He then realized that it was a commercial for the game Gun Master . The game was a collaboration between Eagle Company and Hacker Company.
Lin Huang was familiar with the game. From what he remembered, the game was popular when he was still in school. Within the past two years, as the game was upgraded, the player population increased significantly. It was initially played by the general public out of boredom but now there were many hunters who were playing it religiously. However, the hunters did not see it as a game but more as a form of training. Many gunmasters and hunters who played Gun Master as a hobby used the game to train themselves.
The guns in the game were a 100% match to a real gun. Even the bullet trajectory was exactly the same as an actual gun. The game was never cheap, even on its launch in the past. A game ring sold at 3,000 credit points. After the recent game upgrades, the game ring now cost more than 10,000 credit points.
The commercial was almost three minutes long. Lin Huang stayed on and watched the commercial until the end, realizing that the game had come up with servers in exclusive areas for the hunters. Besides catering to gunmasters, the game had now extended its range of weapons to many other long-distance attack weapons including conventional bows, crossbows, flying knives and more.
There was also a battle arena which without weapon limitations.
"No wonder. This is why they're showing the commercial outside the Hunter Association, they're planning to promote the game to the hunter community," Lin Huang thought as he looked at the price of the latest game ring. It was a whopping 13,000 credit points. The price used to be unacceptable to Lin Huang but it was nothing to him now as he had just received a huge amount of credit points.
"I have never played this version before. I'll just buy one game ring to try it out and see if I have the talent needed to become a gunmaster," he thought. Lin Huang did exactly what he planned. He then scanned the barcode at the bottom corner of the commercial board and entered the shopping page. After confirming the delivery address which was his home in Wulin Town, he proceeded to pay for it. A message was sent to him immediately, "You have ordered 'Gun Master Edition V'. We will send it to you as soon as possible. If you would like to cancel your order, please log in to our official website to do so within three hours," the notification read.
After reading the message, he closed the shopping page. He then looked at the time and it was 9:18 in the morning. He walked to a cafe nearby. There were a larger variety of coffee beans here as compared to Earth. There were 390 types of coffee beans and most of the cafes served more than 100 types of coffee beverages and at least 20 to 30 types of coffee beans. Lin Huang ordered a black coffee and sat by the window. He always loved the smell of coffee in the morning. When he was on earth, he had coffee very often as he had early mornings that was followed with hard work until late at night. That was the reason why he always ordered black coffee as the bitterness helped him focus and think.
While he waited for his coffee, Lin Huang took a look at the map of the wild zones that were around Carefree City. He planned to accumulate the Life Power in his body to upgrade himself to an iron-level rank-3 within the next couple of days. Carefree City was surrounded by mostly level-1 wild zone while level-2 wild zones were 200 kilometers away. As he looked at the map, a pretty waitress came to him with his coffee.
"Sir, would you like sugar with your coffee?"
"No, thank you," he replied. Lin Huang then sniffed the aroma of the coffee softly. The coffee smelled was much stronger than the kind he had on earth. He took a sip. Almost instantly, he frowned deeply, but not because it tasted bad. It was too bitter! It was comparable to berberine tea, which was the most bitter tasting thought that came to mind.
"The coffee beans are so different from types of coffee on earth," Lin Huang mumbled to himself but he insisted not to add sugar to it.
He then proceeded to look at the map and soon he found the place he wanted to go.
"Grimace Valley looks good. A level-2 wild zone and it is big enough. The mountains on both sides are also level-2 wild zones. There should be at least 10,000 bronze-level monsters over there. It's more than 200 kilometers from Carefree City. It would only take 10 minutes by riding the Alexandrian Eagle. I can come back to the hotel to rest whenever I'm tired and that's so much better than sleeping in a tent in the wild…"
After he finished his coffee, he paid for it and summoned the Viridian Wolf. He then rode to the foothold in the west. The waitress who brought Lin Huang coffee was cleaning the table when she saw Lin Huang summoning the Viridian Wolf. She screamed!
"What's wrong?" Another service crew member turned around and asked.
"That customer is an Imperial Censor!"
"Are you sure that's what you saw?" he asked, as he looked around and saw nothing. Lin Huang had left too quickly, by the time the other staff members had gathered, they did not see him so they laughed and shook their heads.
"It's true! I saw him riding a gigantic green wolf when he left," she stuttered between gasps.
"Xiao Liu, you should really stop reading those web novels," the cafe owner said, shaking his head.
"You guys need to stop accusing Xiao Liu," an old man said as he stood up with his stick, "I saw the young man too. He really summoned a bronze-level rank-1 Viridian Wolf without a monster taming token. He was obviously an Imperial Censor. He looked like he was only 15 or 16 and that was my first time seeing such a young Imperial Censor," he continued.
The old man was a regular customer at the cafe. The staff did not dare say another word when they heard the old man talking about Lin Huang.
"Since Old Jia saw it too, then it must be true," the cafe owner said, relenting on his previous statement.
Lin Huang did not know what had happened at the cafe. He rode on his huge emerald Viridian Wolf, and those who saw him on the road were envious of him. When he got out of the West Gate, he recalled the Viridian Wolf, summoned the Alexandrian Eagle and flew towards Grimace Valley.
"An Alexandrian Eagle!" A hunter of a group exclaimed as they passed by and saw Lin Huang summon the Alexandrian Eagle. Some of them recognized it as a mutated monster and were immediately struck with fear in their eyes. They then jumped aside to hide from the danger. It was only when Lin Huang was completely out of sight did a hunter come out of hiding said, "Such a young Imperial Censor... I'm not sure which royal family he's from. I guess it's all fated that way. Some people have better lives than others…" he said with a heavy sigh.
The journey from West Gate to Grimace Valley took less than 15 minutes. As the Alexandrian Eagle landed, Lin Huang recalled it immediately and summoned Bai and Charcoal. He rode on Charcoal's back the rest of the way. Bai and Charcoal then started their parade of merciless killing in the valley…
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Chapter 86. Keep One's Word
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In the following days, Lin Huang left the hotel at eight o'clock in the morning and went back at around 12 o'clock at night.
Charcoal and Bai slaughtered the monsters in the valley, giving Lin Huang's Life Power a boost.
There were no barriers in upgrading from iron-level rank-1 to iron-level rank-3. As long as he had adequate Life Power, his combat level would be upgraded directly. Under normal conditions an ordinary person would require at least two months to complete the entire advancement process despite having adequate Life Crystals when they undergo Life Skill training.
Bai's and Black Charcoal's Life Wheel were in sync, enabling all of the Life Power from killing a monster to be transferred to Lin Huang's body because Bai and Black Charcoal's Life Power was full.
Although Lin Huang could only get around three columns of Life Power every time a monster was killed, he could fill a total of 1080 columns of Life Power within half a day.
Thanks to the advancement in Lin Huang's combat level to iron-level rank-3, Bai and Charcoal were also upgraded to bronze-level.
In Lin Huang's body, there was a duplicate Life Wheel from the Life Power Storage Card he used. The duplicate Life Wheel began to store Life Power once Lin Huang's Life Power in his original Life Wheel was full.
On the afternoon of the sixth day, the Life Power columns of both Life Wheels were finally full.
Eventually, Lin Huang stopped the slaughter and summoned the Alexandrian Eagle to fly back to Carefree City.
Within those few days, he had managed to store at least 1,300 bronze-level carcasses. He paid 17 million credit points to expand the capacity of his storage space to 20,000 cubic meters so he could store more carcasses.
However, he was not going to the Hunter Association at Carefree City to sell these carcasses. A few days ago, he was only an iron-level rank-1 hunter and he was now iron-level rank-3. If he were to sell the carcasses at the same place, people would be suspicious of his unusually drastic upgrade.
However, as they landed at the west entrance to the foothold, they bumped into the hunter team they met a few days ago.
He did not notice them but the group of hunters remembered him.
Lin Huang entered the foothold as he recalled the Alexandrian Eagle and summoned the Viridian Wolf instead. The hunters gazed at each other when they saw this.
"Is he the imperial censor we met the other day? He's able to summon two monsters at such a young age!"
"Brother, this is not the point. Look at his combat ability. He was only iron-level rank-1 a few days ago. He's capable enough to upgrade himself to iron-level rank-3 within a few days!" The bearded leader said in fear, "The Alexandrian Eagle's ability has also been upgraded to its original level which is bronze-level rank-3."
"Damn! He levels up extremely fast!" The rest of them said.
"Perhaps only royalty possess Life Skills with such terrifying effects…" The bearded leader said with a sigh.
Lin Huang did not know he had met those people before.
He went back to the hotel by riding the Viridian Wolf. After taking his bath and lunch, he went out to look for some delicious food for Lin Xin. He was looking for famous food at Carefree City these few nights and he had jotted down the locations of the shops he found.
He planned to come back earlier in the afternoon as he wanted to buy Lin Xin some food. However, the Life Power was absorbed faster than he had expected. He was half a day ahead of his schedule. Therefore, he could spend more time doing his own things.
Riding the Viridian Wolf, Lin Huang visited more than 30 shops. He ordered two takeaway sets from each of the famous foodstalls.
As soon as he finished visiting all of the shoplots, the sky became darker.
Lin Huang remembered that there was a roadside foodstall he visited with Leng Yuexin before. There were two specialty dishes.
It was so crowded there.
When he got there, the boss recognized him and waived at Lin Huang.
Lin Huang walked towards him with a puzzled expression. The boss asked cheekily, "Did you get back with your girlfriend?"
"Uncle, the girl who came together with me that day was not my girlfriend…" Lin Huang could not believe that the uncle remembered them.
"Ah alright, I'm not going to talk about it then. What're you going to order today? I'll offer you 20% discount on all dishes." The boss said generously.
"A set of steak to dine in and two sets of tenderloin and steak, takeaway please." Lin Huang ordered.
"Damn! You even ordered takeaway. I should have said 10% discount…" The boss was generous but he did not think Lin Huang would buy so much from his shop!
"It's okay. I'll pay the full amount. I know it's not easy to gain profit in a business." Lin Huang offered.
"A man must keep his word. I promised to offer you a 20% discount and I keep my promises." He then continued, "If your friends happened to visit Carefree City, do recommend them my humble stall."
"I'll recommend you to them for sure." Lin Huang nodded his head and smiled.
While Lin Huang was enjoying his juicy steak, he was reminded of his dinner here with Leng Yuexin from the last time they visited this uncle's stall.
"I wonder how she's doing now…"
Lin Huang paid for his takeaways after finishing his dinner.
He realized that it was almost nine o'clock at night when he got back to his hotel room.
Lin Huang was indeed tired but felt a sense of fulfilment with his growth and achievement in the past few hectic days.
He verified the confirmation message that he received upon booking the flight ticket of the Demonic Crystal Spaceship while lying on the sofa. The flight would depart on 8.40 a.m. After reading some news, it was 10 o'clock at night. He washed up and went to bed.
The next morning, Lin Huang was awake at around 7.40 a.m. After taking his bath, he packed his stuff and left.
He checked out after having his breakfast and he went to an outdoor café nearby. He ordered a cup of coffee while he waited for the spaceship to arrive.
The spaceship arrived on time at 8.40 a.m. and he boarded. Lin Huang sighed and said, "It's finally time to leave…"
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