“Shit!”

Gui Guzi and I instinctively drew our swords and swiftly dashed over. It didn’t matter who had killed Li Le. As long as someone killed our Bloody Mercenaries’ client during the period of our task, they were ignoring our prestige!

Cough cough, let’s pretend we have some prestige for the time being!

A human figure swayed and the person who had killed Li Le appeared. The name was extremely familiar—Unyielding Mad Dragon, Mad Dragon’s ace assassin had actually appeared here!

“Tch!”

Unyielding Mad Dragon had already seen me and Gui Guzi. He quickly reached out and placed the Creature Holding Stone and the several pieces of equipment into his bag while grinning. “Come and get it if you’ve got the guts to!”

I and my Dark Wasp arrived at his side the very next moment. Its stinger gleamed with a cold light as it came stabbing from the sky.

Unyielding Mad Dragon was incredibly calm. He reached into his robes, found some fluorescent powder and threw it to the ground, disappearing from our sight. It was a Level 30 Assassin skill—Vanish!

It was hard to forcefully break invisibility, especially when players at this stage of the game didn’t have many AoE skills.

MISS!

MISS!

Gui Guzi and I both missed. The only thing left in the area was Li Le’s corpse, Unyielding Mad Dragon was nowhere to be seen.

I stepped on the ground then suddenly turned around, sweeping a horizontal slash with my Weeping Fire Blade!

Whoosh!

The invisible Unyielding Mad Dragon dodged. Even though I couldn’t see him, I could clearly feel the movements of the wind. My mind was incomparably clear at this time, and my senses at this time seemed to be sharper than ever before.

Found him!

I yelled, “Little Gui, 25 degrees northeast, now!”

Even though Gui Guzi was a bit dimwitted at times, his reactions were fast inside the game. He had already moved by the time I voiced the last syllable. His spear shot out as fast as lightning, like a divine dragon bursting out of the sea!

Puchi!

A sliver of blood spurted out, causing the hidden Unyielding Mad Dragon to come out of his concealment. My senses were spot-on.

“Fuck, how?!”

Unyielding Mad Dragon raged, then turned around to run. He never imagined that Du Thirteen would already be blocking his rear with a mighty air. Thirteen pointed his sword at him and smiled. “Give up now, kid!”

Crack!

I dashed over and easily struck from the back. Assassins had very limited HP, so it only took a strike each from me and Gui Guzi to end him.

When Unyielding Mad Dragon fell, the Creature Holding Stone dropped again. This thing’s drop rate is seriously high!

The three of us formed a circle around it but none of us went to pick it up.

“How are we going to deal with this Blood Skeleton?” Du Thirteen asked.

Gui Guzi wondered, “Should we give it back to Young Master Le?”

I shook my head. “No need. He’s the one who died and dropped it. Giving it back to him is just us meddling in his business.”

“Then what?”

“Yeah, what should we do?” Du Thirteen was also at a loss.

I thought for a moment, then said, “We can’t sell this ourselves. Let’s do this: Thirteen, you take it and go sell it anonymously. Once the price passes 600 gold, just sell it. Don’t be greedy!”

Du Thirteen nodded. “Okay. What do we do with the money earned?”

“Confiscate it and make it our workshop’s operational funds. Mn, it’ll basically be our food expenses!”

“Haha, no problem!”

Du Thirteen originally wanted to keep the Blood Skeleton and level it himself but what I said earlier changed his mind. Leveling a meatshield pet at this stage of the game wasn’t too bright. It would still be okay for a powerful damage dealer with a small HP pool like Mage, but Warrior should forget about it.

I looked at the two corpses on the ground. Unyielding Mad Dragon and Li Le laying there head-to-head like a pair of good brothers made me smile. Li Le was a second generation rich boy and Unyielding Mad Dragon’s boss, Roaming Dragon, was also a rich family’s young master. Those two would definitely end up fighting with each other, which would make Floating Ice City’s future events much more interesting.

At around 5 pm, Du Thirteen anonymously sold the Blood Skeleton on the online trading platform. Someone bid 700 gold, a sum which was promptly exchanged into 80 RMB per. I also sold my 900 gold, causing my personal account to reach almost 100,000 RMB.

Due to the transformation caused by the virus, my brain delay had already been shortened to about 300 milliseconds. It was a pretty big feat I’ve achieved in Heavenblessed. I looked at my account balance and heaved a sigh. Fate was a fickle thing. If I had my current reaction time, I wouldn’t have been repeatedly killed by Candlelight Shadow, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls wouldn’t have ended up in such dire straits.

Speaking of which, this could be said to be a blessing coming out of misfortune. After narrowly escaping death, my body had been strengthened and my brain activity had gotten much stronger. It was just that I wasn’t sure if I could be called human any longer, especially when I woke up to see red patches of skin, or grunted in pain due to the burning pain under the sun. My medical state kept me from returning to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and motivated me to develop Bloody Mercenaries in the shadows. It was the best way to protect them, protect my home, protect the place I missed and longed to return to.

I went offline, clock approaching dinner time.

I sat on the sofa in the workshop’s living room, recording Bloody Workshop’s daily cash flow on a notepad with a ballpoint pen—

Sold Blood Skeleton a first time, 1000 gold, converted to 76950 yuan

Accepted a mission (Leveling Li Le to 27), 100 gold, converted to 7600 yuan

Sold Blood Skeleton a second time, 700 gold, converted to 53200 yuan

Total revenue: 137750

Expenses: Breakfast 12 deep-fried dough sticks, 5 sesame seed cakes. Total of 17 yuan. Lunch at Sichuan restaurant, 287 yuan.

Total expenses: 304 yuan

Today’s net profit: 137346

I read it over, Du Thirteen and Gui Guzi nodded, not seeing any issues with my summary. I then said, “Since there are no issues, let’s go to the bank. We’ll open an account for each one of us. Bloody Mercenaries will be distributing our first paycheck.”

Gui Guzi said, “Boss Broken Halberd, you were the one who caught the Blood Skeleton so it really shouldn’t be added to our workshop’s account.”

I shook my head and smiled. “It’s fine. I’m good as long as I have enough money to use. What do I need so much for? It’s not like I can bring it into my coffin.”

Gui Guzi laughed. “Then how do we distribute the pay?”

I already had a plan in mind so I bluntly said, “Half of the total income will be deducted and treated as the workshop’s operational funds. Thirteen will be in charge of that. We’ll split the remaining half into three equal parts, one for each of us. What do you say?”

Du Thirteen was stunned. “You’ll be making a huge loss, Lu Chen. Since you put the most effort in the workshop, you should get the most…”

I shook my head. “No need to say anymore. This is our workshop’s starting period. I don’t want to be too selfish. Besides, a Blood Skeleton pet sells for 70-80 thousand. A gaming geek like me won’t even have the time to use that money. It’s better if we all split it and send some money home so our families feel at ease while we have fun playing, right?”

Gui Guzi and Du Thirteen nodded in agreement.

At this time, Du Thirteen saw the smartphone in a paper bag next to my hand. It was the pure platinum TC72. His eyes immediately lit up and he couldn’t help but ask, “Lu Chen, when did you change phones? This phone… looks so awesome and cool. Tsk tsk, what’s it made of? It’s so heavy, it must've been expensive, right?”

I casually smiled. “It’s a fake made from aluminum. Why? You like it?”

“Yes!”

“Then take it, treat it as an early present for your 25th birthday.”

“Haha, really?” Du Thirteen was delighted and grabbed the TC72.

I smiled. “Of course. Go ahead and use it. It's not like it was that expensive. But… ahem, when you’re about to scrap it, you can go to a jeweler for an appraisal. Maybe it’ll get you some money, haha…”

Du Thirteen was a bit suspicious. He held onto the TC72 and fondled it lovingly, treating it like it was a girl he had been chasing for years, refusing to let go even if he died.

Before dinner, we went to the bank and did all the appropriate transfers. I used my name to open a public account and handed it over to Du Thirteen after depositing 70,000 RMB. He would be in charge of any of the workshop’s expenses from now on. It was like he had officially become our workshop’s financial manager. Gui Guzi kept calling him “Manager B” but Du Thirteen felt like he was being called “Manager Bitch”.

Once everything had been settled, we began heading to a nearby Hunan restaurant. It was precisely the Happy House in front of the university. The food there wasn’t bad back when we were here with Lin Yixin.

Having eaten our fill, we returned to the workshop and continued to work hard!

Swoosh!

I appeared in Floating Ice City. I looked at my level and hurriedly went out to grind. Rank 3 skills could gain proficiency and reach Rank 4 once players reached Level 40. It’d be best if I leveled Ghost Deity Armor, Pardon, and Slayer Slash as soon as possible!

At this time, the sound of a bell rang—

Ding~!

System Notice: Player “Wind Fantasy” wants to voice chat with you. Do you accept?

After accepting, Lin Yixin’s voice sounded. “Hi~ Lu Chen, good evening!”

I was on guard. She sounded so nice, that was definitely not good!

“Beauty Yi, if you’ve got something to say, just say it…”

Lin Yixin’s bell-like laughter came over. A few seconds later, she said, “Lu Chen, I saw Li Le today this afternoon. Hehe, his depressed expression was really interesting~”

“Oh, that’s great…”

“Oh right, I heard that you took Li Le out to grind this morning?” Lin Yixin seemed to inadvertently ask.

I said in a low voice. “He didn’t recognize me. Besides, the requests of our Bloody Mercenaries’ clients take priority. Taking him out to level is very normal. We serve the people, you know!”

“Don’t you mean ‘serve the money’?” Lin Yixin uncovered my secret in one go.

I laughed. “Yiyi, you came to chat with me instead of leveling today. What, you missing me already?”

“Go to hell, who’s missing you?!”

Lin Yixin then said indignantly, “Alright, I’m going to level. Bye!”

I hung up and was secretly happy inside. I looked around at the players of Floating Ice City, thinking that I was probably the only person here who dared to openly tease the Fruit Knife Goddess like this.

I walked out of the city, my goal dictating my next stop: Reflection Hills. It was a holy land where high-level monsters spawned, and Rank 5 Cooking ingredient, Garlic, grew in abundance!