Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1581: Chapter 308: Something Is Bound to Happen

This was like making a deal with a Devil… something every Chosen One born into the world of Jade Fantasy understood very clearly.

You wouldn’t be like ordinary players who, once dead, are just dead—at worst you drop a Level, then come back again. The Chosen Ones have a limited number of deaths; once they exceed that limit, a Chosen One will.

Normally it’s three deaths—unless you have an item that offsets death.

But as far as Tian Ji knew, the King Serpent didn’t have such an item on hand—these items had only ever been rumored on the mainland; they would appear in unexplored regions of the mainland’s Upper District.

That was why the Human Alliance was so enthusiastic about exploring the Upper District—even the King Serpent was the same.

Before he had even sat in front of the computer screen and chosen “YES,” Tian Ji had always been one of the many forces supporting the King Serpent’s climb to the top in the game from behind the scenes. Tian Ji and all the personnel from the Management Bureau involved in this game investigation were the same in one regard: they knew very clearly how many deaths the King Serpent had left.

The King Serpent no longer had any deaths left… the next time he died, it would be a true death.

The King Serpent’s brain in the real world would die directly, and he would also disappear completely from Jade Fantasy… so, although he hid it well, Tian Ji knew that the King Serpent was very afraid now, unimaginably afraid, and that was why he was sparing no effort to take part in the exploration of the Upper District.

“Right now, the Level cap hasn’t been opened yet. Aside from some newly born Chosen Ones, the veterans are basically all at the same Level. The gap… is nothing more than Skill completion and equipment.”

Deep in the Hive, Tian Ji hid in a crack in a rock, his gaze like a venomous snake as he sized up his surroundings—his class was actually the same as the King Serpent’s. In other words, if anything were to happen to the King Serpent, he would very likely be able to inherit everything of the King Serpent’s.

Of course… Tian Ji wasn’t the only one with the same class. The Management Bureau was very devoted to the idea that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, so there were at least three people training in each class… so even if the King Serpent unfortunately used up his last death, Tian Ji would still have other competitors.

“But at the very least, I have to make the opportunity appear.”

He silently stared into the depths of the Hive—then his body began to undergo some strange changes… his face started to shift, and his body began to swell a little.

Until Tian Ji had completely turned into the appearance of a gaunt-faced man.

Item: Shadow Imitation.

Function: For one hour, simulate another character and use all of that character’s Skills, with all hidden classes excluded.

At last… Tian Ji’s body finished its transformation.

After that, Tian Ji took out a piece of crystal—the Crystal Ball now showed a human face.

Tian Ji said slowly, “It’s me… the opportunity has come.”

…

…

On their way forward, Luo Qiu suddenly asked this question: “Do you like your life here?”

Qianxiu and Qian Yu Xian Rou were both taken aback. Qian Yu Xian Rou didn’t even think before she nodded directly. “How could I not like it?”

Qianxiu was a bit slower, but said, “Here… I can do many things I couldn’t do before.”

“You like this world?” Luo Qiu asked again.

They nodded almost at the same time.

Boss Luo said, if you like it, then that’s good.

This sudden question from the Little Mage felt a bit strange to Qian Yu Xian Rou, but not to Qianxiu—when he had first gotten to know the Little Mage, it had also started from some offbeat questions.

The monsters were still being killed, and the killing had never stopped… As the strongest Sword Saint of the Human Alliance, Qianxiu was indeed a Strong one beyond doubt in this real game world.

Boss Luo didn’t even need to deliberately look up Qianxiu and Qian Yu Xian Rou’s information; just thinking about how much Qian Yu Xian Rou had spent on the game at the beginning was enough to roughly guess the distance between the two of them and ordinary Chosen One players.

Although the recharge channel had been closed later, in the early stage there really had been people who brought capital in… well, the world had always been this unfair.

But Jade Fantasy still had many opportunities that allowed Chosen Ones who were born with nothing to reach the summit… it depended on luck, and on personal effort.

The ecological environment here was no different from the real world… after a segment of China’s ley line was linked into Jade Fantasy, it actually wasn’t far from being complete.

Back then, the appearance of Jade Fantasy had only been because Tai Yinzi had casually said something to deal with Boss Luo’s question, an idea that had sounded like a joke, and now it had evolved to this degree. Tai Yinzi probably hadn’t thought of that at the beginning.

Luo Qiu himself wasn’t even sure why he wanted to evolve this Jade Fantasy world into what it was now—in fact, what he was doing didn’t seem all that different from the entire Araiye System… after sowing the seed of civilization, he let it develop freely.

The only difference was that the Araiye System used the image of all humanity—you could find versions of yourself among the many Sub-worlds. But Jade Fantasy, for now, only had one.

All of them, everyone born here, temporarily belonged to the unique… the next step would probably be to let the Natives in Jade Fantasy, the various living beings in the game’s own backstory, start to possess Soul.

Begin with False Soul, and then let True Soul be born from the False Soul… and then a complete system of True Soul reincarnation; that way, the entire Jade Fantasy world would just about be able to complete an ecological closed loop.

It was somewhat like an experimental field… Luo Qiu suddenly thought: an experimental field that belonged to him alone.

Boss Luo couldn’t help thinking of Professor Xie Jiatu, who had quietly toiled away in the City of the Sun for over six hundred years—Boss Luo realized that what he was doing now was actually quite similar to what Professor Xie Jiatu had done.

Tai Yinzi had casually mentioned that the Jade Fantasy world and the Main God Project were meant to create Heroic Spirits, high-quality Souls—and that step had already been accomplished.

Then, if he went one step further…

“Benefactor, what Level are you at now?” Qianxiu’s words interrupted Luo Qiu’s train of thought.

Boss Luo smiled slightly and said, “I’ve reached Level twenty-six. The speed has increased a lot. After the Level went up, the leveling speed didn’t slow down, it even got faster… thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” Qianxiu laughed heartily as he ran through the forest. The sword in his hand was stained with monster blood, but he was truly laughing from the bottom of his heart.

Running… free, unrestrained running, running across the earth—before he was born here, he had already lost the ability to walk and could barely even take care of his own daily life.

She was the same, always gazing intently at that figure running among the many monsters, no longer shutting herself away in that pitch-black room.

Here, they had not only all this, they had even received blessings.

“It’s really beautiful…” Boss Luo murmured to himself. It seemed that it had been a long time since he had seen a Light of Soul with such colors.

[Jade Fantasy] will give birth to more of these brilliantly shining Lights of Soul—their light will turn into seeds, leading those natives who are gradually developing emotions to start trying… to embrace the radiance of the soul.

Luo Qiu smiled faintly and was about to leave—he hadn’t come here for so‑called leveling up; if he wanted to raise his Level, it was just a matter of a word. The Main God Project naturally had a backend; these were all things the backend could alter.

This was the convenience of being a permissions… holder.

He had just remembered, before going to sleep, that there was such a [Little Mage] in the game. He remembered that at the small lake outside the Novice Village where you take the [Golden Carp King] quest, there was a man drunk out of his mind, heartbroken and too afraid to accept a love confession, so he decided to come up and have a look, and incidentally experience the game world personally designed by the Maid.

So there was no need to stay any longer.

The scenery he had already seen, Qianxiu he had also already seen, and that kind of glow he liked had already begun to sprout on them… Boss Luo felt that once he went back, he would probably have a pretty decent night’s sleep.

“Well then, may you two be able to continue living here easily and happily, until…”

[Little Mage] was about to fade away.

Bang——!!

But a sudden, jarring boom made Boss Luo stop in his tracks… The boom startled all the birds roosting among the trees of the Endless Forest Sea; they took off in panic, filling the sky, like a black cloud pressing down overhead.

“Xiu, what just happened?” Qian Yu Xian Rou frowned slightly.

Qianxiu stared ahead, only to see a streak of red light suddenly appear in the sky above the forest… The entire sky turned dark red. He thought for a moment and said, “Looks like… a Floor Master just appeared.”

“Floor Master?” Qian Yu Xian Rou asked in confusion, “Wasn’t the Floor Master of the Endless Forest Sea already taken down by the Divine Land Battle Group…? By rights, it should be at least twenty days before it respawns.”

“It’s not the original Floor Master…” Qianxiu’s expression turned grim at this moment. “It’s a newly promoted Floor Master… some monster here has evolved into a Floor Master!”

Just then, as the dark red light in the sky grew stronger, the depths of the Endless Forest Sea suddenly quaked… The trees swayed, and those ancient giant trees seemed to all come alive at once!

Qian Yu Xian Rou suddenly let out a charming laugh. “I was just thinking there weren’t enough monsters, and now look at this… a Floor Master! Xiu, we might be able to finish our quest ahead of schedule.”

Qianxiu chuckled, switching the sword in his hand to his left, then directly summoning a pitch‑black Longsword in his right. Dual wielding, one black and one white, he said, “Yeah, it’s been a while since we killed a Floor Master… Hope the loot isn’t too trash this time.”

Boss Luo looked at Qianxiu’s current stance and subconsciously blinked… Dual blades, huh.

The déjà vu from this pair… is really strong.

…

…

“Just what… is going on?”

[King Serpent] looked in some panic at the entrance of the Monster’s Nest that was rapidly being covered by tree roots… The giant tree that this Hive was built into was now suddenly growing madly.

The sky was dark red, the earth was shaking… Under the red glow, everyone in the Divine Land Battle Group felt a chill shoot up from the soles of their feet.

“Floor Master! It’s a Floor Master!! A monster here is promoting into a new Floor Master… [Endless Tree Demon]! Danger Level… black! Black! A whole Level more dangerous than the Floor Master we took down last time!”

One member of the battle group couldn’t help crying out in alarm.

Hearing this, [King Serpent]’s pupils shrank at once, and his heart involuntarily pounded wildly… No one wants to face a Floor Master in a frontline exploration zone without any preparation.

When you encounter a Floor Master, you cannot escape combat, nor can you use any transfer items.

Encountering a Floor Master leaves only two outcomes: kill the Floor Master, or be killed by the Floor Master!

“Corps Commander?!”

“No choice… Looks like the new Floor Master hasn’t fully evolved yet. Get the offensive organized immediately! We must take it out before it finishes evolving!”

[King Serpent] quickly calmed down. As the first person from the Management Bureau to be trapped alive in [Jade Fantasy], his experience in the game world far exceeded that of the other Bureau members, and he had also accepted much earlier the fact that after three deaths you disappear completely.

“Corps Commander, that guy [Your Man Doesn’t Want You Anymore!] is still inside the Hive… He, he’s AFKing, what do we do?”

[King Serpent] snapped, slightly angry, “Forget him, worst case he just loses a Level when he dies, but some of our comrades here, if they die then… Anyone still in the Hive, log out immediately! Anyone whose Skill cooldowns are still running, fall back; anyone whose Skills are ready, hit this newly promoted Floor Master with everything you’ve got!”

“Got it!”

Their morale shot up like a rainbow… but whether they could actually defeat this newly promoted Floor Master, [King Serpent] had zero confidence. After all, this [Endless Tree Demon] was an entire danger Level higher than the one they’d taken down last time.

At this moment, several small squads, under [King Serpent]’s orders, quickly withdrew from the Hive, then hastily reformed into new parties.

The battle group members with long‑range Skills had already begun the first wave of probing attacks. In the chaos, no one noticed that one person was missing from the group.

Because the unprecedented pressure brought by the [Endless Tree Demon] was pressing down on them so hard they could barely breathe.

…

In the distance, atop an ancient giant tree in the forest, the three Corps Commanders from the [Super United States], [Polar Warblade], and [Divine Nation] battle groups were all using long‑distance vision methods to observe what was happening.

The [Divine Nation] Corps Commander, Mr. Bajo, looked as if he had just swallowed a dead rat. “Damn it… The battle zone actually overlaps with our area! Those Divine Land Battle Group bastards are actually trying to take down a new Floor Master here? What kind of joke is this!”

“They probably can’t handle it.” Elvin analyzed calmly. “And the appearance of a new Floor Master clearly wasn’t in their original plan… Look at their current offensive: they’re still holding formation, but they’re obviously flustered, which means they didn’t prep for this. Butchers… what do you think? If the Divine Land Battle Group gets wiped, this new Floor Master probably won’t spare us either.”

“Damn it!” Before Elvin could say anything, the Butcher cursed, “I didn’t come here to be free labor!”

Even so, if the three battle groups just stood by, the worst outcome would be that their strength got spread out, they failed to take down the new Floor Master, and were then defeated one by one, ending with… total party wipe.

“Contact [King Serpent].” the Butcher finally said coolly. “Tell him we’re nearby.”

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PS: Recommendation for another book: “Monster Slain, Death Ensues,” a new novel from the author of “Soul of Burning Steel” =.=