Chapter 439: Raising Rank

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After Zhang Yang emptied the chest, he got out of the hole that he had dug and got to ground level. Just then, he saw the silhouette of a man walking away. He selected the player and examined him. It was Caesar the Great. The player must have obtained the map to the chest but was one step too late. Since every one of them were still enemies, there was no reason for him to find trouble when there was none. Caesar the Great had only observed the situation and when there was nothing else he could do, he bailed. Now that it had come to this, there was no point putting up a brave front.

Zhang Yang jumped on his bear and moved on to the next group of monsters to kill.

"Dummy? How are you?" Han Ying Xue asked in the party channel.

"I’m fine. Though I’m still at rank 4," said Zhang Yang. After 3 to 4 minutes, he had encountered another swarm of monsters and had proceeded to slaughter them all.

"Not bad for a noobie tank! If I had not gotten a fight with some bastard, I would have scored much higher than you!" cried the little brat disgruntledly.

"Ah huh. Yeah. Great. You’re the best." Zhang Yang replied dismissively.

Zhang Yang had killed all the monsters as he was talking but had not found any piece of map. Still, he was not disappointed. He still had 12 hours to slowly farm his way. Zhang Yang rode the bear far and wide, and stumbled across another swarm of monsters. He killed them all swiftly and easily, and had managed to obtain a new treasure map. Once obtained, there was no more time to lose, so he turned around and headed towards the map’s location. The hill was not too large, but to get from one end to the other end would take about 10 minutes or so. The second treasure chest was not too far from where he had picked the map from and had only taken him 7 to 8 minutes to get there.

The place that the map had directed Zhang Yang to was a deserted plain with no trees nor boulders to shield oneself from an attack. Zhang Yang arrived and quickly hid himself to prevent the other three players who were already at the chest from seeing him. Quietly, Zhang Yang got himself in a prone position and carefully observed the players. All of them were at least standing 20 meters away from each other and had formed a perfect triangle formation, facing each other in a Mexican stand-off.

All of them did not move, nor made any aggressive actions. Neither of them wanted to engage or the third player would be able to reap the benefits from the fight. The three were Dusk Phoenix, Musashi Ou-sama, and Xindalo. All of them were human males, except Dusk Phoenix who was an Elven female. Like all female elves, she was sexy, tall, and had a body that could captivate men. She was not as hot as Sun Xin Yu or Han Ying Xue, to be honest. Still, her body and the way she looked had reminded Zhang Yang of his university life.

As expected the triangular standoff. No one moved for such a long time! With a sudden inclination to do something, Zhang Yang stood up, got on his bear and rode towards the trio slowly. He approached them slowly, allowing the trio to notice his presence.

When they noticed Zhang Yang’s presence, all of them frowned, but immediately relaxed. If the three of them continued their standoff, it will eventually be dragged on forever. But if one more player joined the fray, it would break off the stagnant which will force them to take out some of them. Unfortunately, the chances of them having any form of cooperation was literally 0.

The stagnant position was suddenly broken off when Dusk Phoenix summoned her White Lion mount and leaped towards Xindalo. Shocked, Xindalo jumped to his feet and leaped on his mount. He quickly shot an arrow at Dusk Phoenix and withdrew a few steps. Xindalo was a Hunter class player. With a 3 meter blind spot, he had to make space between him and his target in order to attack.

With Xindalo and Dusk Phoenix busy fighting each other, Mushashi Ou-sama was still afraid to dig up the chest, due to Zhang Yang’s suspicious presence in the scene. Since he did not have the skill {Beast Taming}, he could not keep the battle mount in the field to attack in his stead. The battle mount would at most for 2 seconds before disappearing.

Zhang Yang did not want to waste any time and decided to attack Mushashi Ou-sama instead. He leaped to 30 meters range and threw a {Spear of Obliteration, dealing 4,000 damage to the opponent. At the same time, he had gauged the enemy total HP and found out that he had more HP than Captain America, at around 80,000.

"Puny Jap!" cried Zhang Yang as he attacked the man, with a face ready to maul the man.

"Urusai!" said Mushashi, untranslated by the system. Musashi raised his hammer and brought it down like a true samurai.

"HMPH!"

Zhang Yang raised his shield and blocked the hammer, with a quick turn and slide, Zhang Yang moved to the side and borrowed the momentum of the hammer’s strike to spin around, and sliced Mushashi for more than 4,000 damage, gaining more Rage points.

Two men and two animals started attacking each other with vengeance and fury.

"I detest Japan thugs like you!" cried Zhang Yang as he stopped relying on moving around. He wanted to fight the Japanese players head on to release all his fury.

"Anta koso. Nani mou shiranaii kuseni!" cried Musashi. Finally, after a while, a translated text come in, "We, Japanese are the most elite race in the world! You, Chinese dogs who only love to sit and wait for someone to spoon feed you shall fall! The cars you ride are built my us! Everything from computers, phones, camera, and many other digital appliances were made by us! One of these days, the economical power house of China shall fall into our hands! I’ll be there to see your family and descendants be our slaves!"

Zhang Yang was ticked off. How could a person such as him be so closed minded? Not everything in the world was invented by the Japanese. Zhang Yang could name many other brands to rebuke Mushashi, but it would be of a waste of time. Zhang Yang gave up reasoning with him and decided to provoke the man. "Yea? You and your AE86 thugs can screw yourself! When I’m rich, I’ll buy every single one of your precious Japanese companies! Talk to me, when you can do the same thing!" Zhang Yang laughed. He knew that in the near future, ‘God’s Miracle’ would be a mega industry with 2 to 3 billions of players! The chance of pioneers emerging out of this game would be extremely high! As long as Zhang Yang had the keen eyes to spot them, he could build himself an impregnable business fortress and earn billions!

"Hmm. Don’t be too full of yourself, China dog!" Musashi retracted his hammer and place it against his waist, prepping himself for a sword drawing style. The man was obsessed with the samurai path, as if he was one himself. Still, Zhang Yang was not going to look down on the man. Only players with ability and skills could survive this long in the event. With a Guardian as an opponent, Musashi withdrew. He knew that exchanging blows with him would only be a waste of time, and he would run out of juice. He pulled the reins of his Raptor and moved away from Zhang Yang.

Hmph!

Zhang Yang scoffed. Was he trying to lure him in? Noob Japanese, Zhang Yang had not brought out his real game yet and that was already kind enough for him! Zhang Yang leaped to the front and stuck to Musashi’s movement, and followed him wherever he turned. Like a shadow following the owner, Zhang Yang stuck to him and slashed him with every chance he get.

"Konnoyarou!" yelled Musashi.

In theory, there was no way a melee fighter could keep up with a tank in terms of equipment. A tank’s Defenses were so strong that it could reduce the bursting damage a melee fighter had. However could a melee fighter match with a tank’s HP? If this slugfest continued on, the first person falling down would definitely be the melee fighter!

Musashi knows this, that was why he was trying his best to keep away from Zhang Yang. While controlling the battle mount, he was performing evasive movements that was on even match with Zhang Yang. However, Zhang Yang was much better in every way. There was no way a person could defeat a PvP veteran with so much additional experience from the "future", like Zhang Yang! The slugfest continued between Musashi and Zhang Yang. A hammer would drop and a sword would come slicing. Both sides suffered damage, but it was Musashi who was raging. Zhang Yang was calm and cool, even though the urge to flatten the Japanese’s face was overwhelming. Still, he was able to quench his battle lust by occasionally slamming his shield in Musashi’s face. It was not {Shield Bash}, since the skill could only be activate after a successfully {Block} occurred. It was just a physical movement that would not deal any damage. However, it was a move that had greatly angered Musashi.

After a few more shield slamming, Musashi had snapped. "You are a disgrace! There is no honor in your fight! You do not deserve to hold that sword! How dare you call yourself a fighter!"

That was the only translatable sentence that Musashi had uttered. The rest was in Japanese that Zhang Yang had only managed to hear, but not understand.

Zhang Yang laughed. It was true. Zhang Yang had slammed the shield in his face just to humiliate the man. There was no honor with his battle style, but that had not gotten to Zhang Yang, since the opponent was an enemy in the game, and not in real life. Musashi did not deserve his respect!

"Chikushō!!!" Musashi was practically shouting in desperation, as he was already out of means to win the battle. All sort of skills were used to survive, but none of them had managed to keep him alive. He was about to lose the fight!

"AHhh Mouu!" Musashi stopped fighting all of a sudden and swiftly withdrew.

"You can have the chest. I’m done!" said Musashi as he runs in a different direction.

Zhang Yang chased after the man and said, "Please. It’s not the chest I want. I’d rather give the chest up to kill your head!"

"Kisama!" Musashi drew out his hammer. He had not expected for Zhang Yang to give up the chest just to kill him.

"You are going to far!" said Musashi bitterly. His experience bar had already reached 85% so far. If he was killed by Zhang Yang, he would lose all his experience points and would have to start from the bottom! It had taken him 10 days in real life just to collect that much!

"There’s never too far in a battle! All I want is your head to roll!" cried Zhang Yang with a sinister smile. With little effort, Zhang Yang hacked at the man and killed him off.

"Watch your back! I’ll be back for you!" said Musashi as he turned into a white light, to be revived at a random corner of the hill.

Zhang Yang felt odd. Almost all defeated players would say the same thing after being defeated.

Having killed Musashi, Zhang Yang got out of battle mode and gazed towards where Dusk Phoenix and Xindalo, and found that Xindalo had already been killed. She sat down to rest and recovery herself. Just then, she noticed Zhang Yang glaring at her. She quickly entered stealth mode.

Zhang Yang was not worried. As a Guardian, he was not scared of being ambushed by any melee class attackers. Plus, he had the [Heart of the Death Knight], so all status effect debuff will be halved! Not even two Thieves could tie him down!

Without any hesitation, Zhang Yang walked towards the ground where the chest was buried and unearthed the soil. A violet-aura was emitted when the soil on the chest was removed.

Zhang Yang was excited. If the chest could give more a few more [Level 5 Gemstones], that would be swell!

Just when he bent over to open the chest, he was stunned. It was {Ambush}!

Although he could not move, he could still see Dusk Phoenix’s character appearing behind him. She first attacked Zhang Yang with her swords and then summoned her battle mount.

Impressive. Attacking normally without skills had global cool down as well. By summoning the battle mount after attacking , it would not waste any time at all since she could not attack nor cast any skills during that duration. Furthermore, being idle would only recover 20 Focus points for her, which could replenish her Focus points after using {Ambush}.

The bear beside Zhang Yang had not remained stationary. Knowing that its master was being attacked, the bear hurl itself towards Dusk Phoenix and attacked her.

"Huh!?" Dusk Phoenix was astonished. In the beginning, she felt that it was extremely odd for his bear to remain active in the field even after dismounting it. But she was even more surprised when the bear could even be used like a Hunter’s pet and attack an enemy! It was a first for her!

Being attacked, her summoning was lengthen from 2 seconds to 2.3 seconds.

In that brief period, Zhang Yang had awoken from his stunned state and said, "Thou art but a fine missus, wherefore art thee a thief?"

Even though the game had a translator embedded in the conversation tool, but such an old form of language was unnecessary to translate, since it was fairly understandable. Dusk Phoenix raised an eyebrow and said angrily, "Man, how dare you insult me for being a thief!"

Without any further exchange of words, Dusk Phoenix attacked Zhang Yang swiftly, along with the female panther beside her. Zhang Yang parried her sword strike with his. Fighting against a high attack interval player, the efficiency of {Block} was greatly reduced. However, since he had extreme Defenses and a high Damage Absorption passive, Dusk Phoenix had only manage to deal less than 1,000 damage to him without a skill.

That was the main reason why a melee attacker would never win against a tank in a slugfest. Having high attack intervals would mean a lower attack output per strike. Each strike would then have their attacks reduced by the defense and skills of the tank. On the other hand, having a two-handed weapon would have lower attack interval, so {Block} would be extremely effective against this type of weapon carrier!

That was, if a player did not possess {Eagle Eye}! If a player had {Eagle Eye}, they could easily defeat a tank since they could ignore some of the tank’s extreme Defense!

When Dusk Phoenix was not able to deal devastating damage to Zhang Yang, Zhang Yang was able to hack away Dusk Phoenix’s HP bar away like an axe to a tree. Dusk Phoenix was good. She footwork was excellent. She was light as a butterfly, floating in the battle field and stinging like a bee. She was strong enough to make someone of lower prowess to grow dizzy trying to chase after her. Her speed of moving around was good to a point that a player would be sliced to death without even landing a sword on her! However, that was against someone who was "noober" than her. Zhang Yang was someone who had already reached the pinnacle of PvP combat. Instead of being made like a fool, Zhang Yang had turned the tide of the battle and made her suffer the wrath of a Guardian!

Still, Zhang Yang mentally nodded at her prowess. Ever since the end of the first Professional League, top players made a giant leap in terms of their own progress. Since Zhang Yang had already reached the pinnacle of PvP, there was little to no room for him to progress anymore! How could he, when he is the strongest in the entire game! In order for one to become stronger, one would have to fighter stronger opponents! With no space for him to improve himself, many players in the game had move on closer and closer to where he stood. Right now, he could still fight these players, but how about in 6 months time? Could he still hold them back?

Why 6 months? That’s because 6 months later, the final fight for the 8 Regional S class Professional League would take place. The winner of the battle team would walk away with the strongest battle team of the world title! In his previous life, China had many talented battle teams, but could not stand among the world’s league. The best result China had hauled was only the second place, and it was won by the all-female battle team, Crimson Rage. Almost all male players in China had to bury their face in the ground for allowing that to happen. They could have done better. That was why, Zhang Yang would die hard to win the world Professional League! No matter what it takes!

Back to the battle, Dusk Phoenix realized half way that Zhang Yang was too strong. Having more than half of her HP left, Dusk Phoenix activated {Sprint} and {Vanish} to escape from the fight.

Hmph!

{Thunder Strike}!

No response…

Zhang Yang rushed to where the opponent had disappeared and stomped the ground to cast a net of electrical current. However, there were no response. Dusk Phoenix had probably left the battle field instead of trying to make a comeback. For him to chase after and reveal a hidden Thief in this wide-open field, it would be like searching a speck of dust in a pile of snow!

Zhang Yang smiled bitterly and went back to the chest. Killing others was important in this event, but opening chests to earn Glory points came first.

‘Ding! You have opened an Ancient Glory Chest!’

‘Ding! You have obtained [Level 5 Intelligence Gemstone] x1!’

‘Ding! You have obtained 82 Glory Points!’

D*mn! It was an Intelligence Gemstone! Zhang Yang wanted Vitality or Strength! Zhang Yang sighed heavily and decided to give the Gemstone to Han Ying Xue to earn some happy points from her.

Still, the 82 Glory points was so good that it had pushed him over Captain America. He had collected 2,881 Glory points so far, putting him at the second place with only 48 Glory points behind the first place, Dusk Phoenix!

Just one more! One more chest, and he would be at the first!