At the time, Su Mu had no idea what was happening at the Professional Association.
He hadn't even considered that the simple task he casually accepted would cause such a huge stir. Even more so, he had no clue that a small tail had quietly followed him.
Su Mu and An Dashan had now arrived at the gates of the Inner City.
Cloud City was massive, with a population of several million, divided into the Inner City and the Outer City.
The Inner City housed most of the professional adventurers and people with status, while the Outer City was a slum.
A massive ancient-style city gate, twenty meters high and ten meters wide, separated the two. Through the gate, one could see the scene of the slums outside.
Dirty streets, dilapidated houses, and people gazing at the Inner City with awe and longing.
There were large potholes in the ground, blackened burn marks from monster attacks scattered across the area.
The contrast between the two cities was stark, and the reason behind it was the monster spawning mechanism.
After the game fused with reality, monsters could spawn randomly anywhere. The Inner City had special protective items to stop monsters from spawning within it, making it a safe haven.
The Outer City, however, didn't have such protection. The people there could face danger at any time. If someone was unlucky, a monster could spawn right in front of their bed while they were sleeping, and they'd be stuck there forever.
This is why countless people would give anything to enter the Inner City.
Fortunately, Su Mu didn't have these worries. Once outside the Inner City gates, he and An Dashan crossed the filthy streets and came upon a towering steel wall hundreds of meters high.
Countless windows and machine guns and cannons lined the wall—this was the true defensive barrier of Cloud City.
At the city gate, members of the Combat Department conducted security checks. After passing through, Su Mu and An Dashan walked out.
Beyond Cloud City lay an endless wilderness, teeming with various monsters.
Su Mu glanced around and spotted wind wolves, ghouls, tusked wild boars, iron-skinned zombies, and even flying monsters occasionally swooping down from the sky, their huge wings creating gusts of wind.
Modified off-road vehicles roared past the monsters, with a group of creatures chasing after them. Gunfire from machine guns or the release of skills from adventurers pushed the horde back before the vehicles disappeared into the distance.
Su Mu was momentarily stunned at the sight. An Dashan spoke up beside him, "Bro, did we forget to buy a vehicle?"
The two of them stared at each other, and after a moment, Su Mu waved his hand, "Nah, cars are too low-class. We're professionals now, we should have a mount."
Su Mu raised his hand, and two unicorn demonic panthers appeared before them.
"Woah! Unicorn Demonic Panthers! Bro, you're not kidding when you say you're an S-class Summoner! You can summon these kinds of top-tier monsters!" An Dashan's eyes lit up, rushing forward to get a closer look.
"Phew, I barely got away with it." Su Mu felt a sense of relief as An Dashan was distracted by the unicorn panthers. He wiped away the nonexistent sweat from his forehead. He wasn't about to admit he had actually forgotten to buy a vehicle.
"That was careless. Good thing I'm a Summoner," Su Mu muttered to himself.
"Alright, let's go." He waved and, with An Dashan, mounted the unicorn panthers. The next moment, they activated their charge skill and turned into shadows, dashing forward.
Not long after they left, a girl in a duckbill cap appeared from the shadows, holding a selfie stick and speaking excitedly into her phone's camera:
"Guys, the gossip is here! Did you see? It's really that S-class Abyss Summoner.
This is his first time hunting outside the city. What do you think will happen? Will he come back with loads of loot, or will he return in a sorry state?
Pick 'loads of loot' by pressing 1, 'sorry state' by pressing 2, and I'll take you all to find out!"
The girl said, and behind her, a pair of ethereal green wings materialized, and she flew up into the sky, following Su Mu and the others.
"Thanks for the gifts, everyone! Admin, drop some lucky bag red envelopes! If you like this, hit the follow button!
Here's a secret for you: Today's livestream is going to be a blast.
Because I just overheard in the Professional Association Hall that our new genius from Cloud City may have taken the S-level task to hunt the Bound Earth Demon Spirit.
This task has been hanging for three years and no one has completed it. Do you think he'll succeed? I think he has a chance!"
"Hey hey hey, focus, people! Also, to those spamming 'wife'—stop it. I'm thirty-eight, divorced with two kids, female, and interested in women. You guys aren't my type."
...
Cloud City had eight satellite base towns around it for adventurers to resupply, and Zelin Town was one of them.
Su Mu and An Dashan rode the unicorn demonic panthers for over half an hour before finally reaching Zelin Town.
It was a small town with a population of several thousand, just as dirty and chaotic as the slums. Su Mu and his companion didn't even enter the town, instead heading directly for the Marshlands.
The Marshlands was a vast swampy forest covered in thick mud. The trees were purple-black and twisted, resembling demons with claws and teeth.
Here, level 5 Marsh Dwellers, level 7 Sawtooth Crocodiles, and level 10 Thunder Eels roamed.
It was an ideal leveling area for low-level adventurers, but the presence of the Bound Earth Demon Spirit made it largely deserted.
The Bound Earth Demon Spirit resided deep within the swamp, and in order to deal with it, Su Mu would have to venture further in.
Thankfully, the purpose of today's outing was to level up, so he wasn't in a hurry. He planned to move cautiously.
"Bro, how do we walk on this swampy ground?" An Dashan asked, frowning as he looked at the muddy, uneven surface.
The terrain was indeed a major issue, but Su Mu had his tricks.
"Watch this!" Su Mu replied, and two rings, one blue and one red, appeared on his index fingers.
With a flick of his right hand, the blue ring glowed, and a large puff of blue mist surged outward.
Su Mu waved his arm, and the mist fell on the muddy ground. In the blink of an eye, the surface froze into solid ice, creating a thick layer of ice in front of them.
"Wow, bro, you've got so many cool items! This is the C-grade skill Breath of Ice, right?"
An Dashan stared in disbelief. He was becoming more and more unable to understand his childhood friend.
Just running through a beginner dungeon had netted him all these amazing things. Had he gotten lucky with some rich woman's treasure?
Looking at Su Mu's face, An Dashan began to suspect. He couldn't help but pat Su Mu on the shoulder.
"Bro, uh, though I know you've got a bad stomach, but, you know, eating too much soft stuff is bad for the kidneys. You need to hold back, okay?"
Su Mu's face darkened. "Scram, scram, scram! What are you thinking? I've got a steel stomach that never eats soft stuff."
He slapped away An Dashan's hand, explaining that these ice and fire rings were actually equipment dropped by the Ice Fire Jackal. They were silver-grade gear with all attributes boosted by five, along with a control and attack skill. They were a nice upgrade for his Summoner abilities.
The best part was that rings were the only equipment that could be dual-wielded, one on each hand.
After equipping them, Su Mu's stats saw another significant improvement.