Chapter 8

After clearing the main storyline, Lanbai didn’t log in again that night. He had a max-level character on the Telecom District’s Xiaoyao Valley server, and he usually alternated between them. Tonight, he was called by a guild on that server to clear a new military camp dungeon.

As for the character Baiyexing that Lanbai created simultaneously with Tianluo Jinyu in the first server of "Sword Battle," he hadn’t logged in for a long time, and it was probably still at level 60 from two years ago.

Chen Bin logged into the game again and followed the main quest, the Sect Summoning Order, to find the sect guide of the Tang Sect.

Without hesitation, he didn’t look at the introductions of other sects and directly chose the option “I want to become a disciple, please take me to the Tang Sect.”

The Tang Family Manor, hidden among the green bamboo, was serene and mysterious.

Zero followed the dark green path and arrived at the small building of Tang Xiao, the leader of the Tang Sect, with ease. At this stage of the quest, there weren’t many players who had reached level 9, and only six or seven people were talking to Tang Xiao.

“Zero? Aren’t you the one from earlier?” In the nearby channel, a player named Yitushi wrote a message.

“Cough, which one?” Chen Bin replied in the chat box.

“The one who got the blue title ‘Villain Slayer’ this afternoon, right?” Yitushi said.

“Blue title? What’s that?” Chen Bin hadn’t logged into an online game for years and only paid attention to equipment and skills when it came to version updates.

As for titles and fashion items, they were not within his scope of interest.

Yitushi was surprised: “Bro, are you joking with me? Someone who can kill a higher-level boss and get a blue title is actually a new player?”

Killing a higher-level monster was already difficult, let alone a boss.

Moreover, to get a blue title, the system had to determine that you played the most significant role in the kill, either by dealing high damage, taking a lot of damage, or providing a large amount of healing.

Chen Bin touched his nose and typed: “You can’t say that. I’m not a new player; I’m a Tang Sect expert…”

“Alright, you’re an expert.” Yitushi clearly didn’t believe him and explained, “Open the crown button in the top right corner and check the blue title section. You’re the only one there.”

“Oh, and then what?” Chen Bin was more concerned about practical benefits, “What are the rewards?”

Yitushi was exasperated: “Blue titles and above come with experience, money, and item rewards. Haven’t you claimed them yet?”

Chen Bin typed two words: “No.”

Yitushi, being a good person, said: “Alright, finish the Tang Sect’s disciple quest first, and I’ll take you to Chengdu’s main city to claim your rewards. Then we can try the new military camp dungeon. How about that?”

“No objections.” Chen Bin was also planning to check out the new dungeon.

This update introduced nine military camp dungeons from level 5 to 85. The monsters in these dungeons were more challenging, but each kill counted as military merit, increasing the player’s reputation in the military camp, which could be used to exchange for military merit equipment and special materials.

Thus, Zero and Yitushi added each other as friends and went their separate ways.

Chen Bin operated Zero to complete the tasks, delivering two letters, passing a message, brewing a pot of wine, fighting three waves of monsters, digging twice, and moving a corpse. Only then did the sect tasks finish, and he officially joined the Tang Sect.

Ten minutes later, in the square of Chengdu’s main city.

“Zero, are you done with the sect tasks? Where are you?” Yitushi messaged Zero privately.

“I’m in Chengdu claiming the blue title rewards and storing items.”

“Oh, you went by yourself? What did you get?”

“17,000 experience points, 20 silver, and a level 3 refinement stone.”

“Not bad. I’ll wait for you at the dungeon entrance. Can you find your way? Expert!” Yitushi joked.

“Yes.” Chen Bin typed and closed the private chat channel.

In Zero’s inventory, besides the 20 silver and the level 3 refinement stone, there was one more item.

Chen Bin didn’t mention it.

It was a purple crafting material called “Silent Fragment,” with a wood attribute, which could be used as a mold for the ultimate orange weapon, the “Silent” dagger. In "Sword Battle," the highest quality equipment the system could drop was purple, and orange equipment had to be crafted by players.

There were two crafting systems: the Hetu Crafting Method and the Luoshu Crafting Method. These methods used the principles of the Five Elements to craft equipment.

The Hetu Crafting Method focused on attack and was generally used for crafting weapons and jewelry.

The Luoshu Crafting Method focused on defense and was generally used for crafting armor.

However, it wasn’t guaranteed that the crafted equipment would be orange. If the materials were placed randomly, a bunch of purple materials might only produce a blue piece of equipment.

Moreover, orange equipment wasn’t necessarily stronger than the system-dropped purple equipment; it was just more suitable for the player.

If the crafting skills were excellent and the materials were good, and the final product was judged by the system as a nine-star crafted dark orange equipment, it would surpass both purple and orange equipment in terms of stats.

Currently, the twelve teams in "Sword Battle" had research departments dedicated to studying the Hetu and Luoshu to craft dark orange equipment.

Although crafting dark orange equipment required a large amount of purple materials and gold ingots, nine-star crafted equipment could be re-crafted, meaning that as long as the re-crafting didn’t downgrade the equipment, it could be continuously upgraded.

Of course, there was a risk. If a re-crafting caused the equipment to downgrade, the dark orange equipment would become orange and lose its re-crafting eligibility.

“Lanbai, help me find a Hetu crafting guide from eight years ago. It mentions something about ‘Silent,’” Chen Bin put the Silent Fragment in storage and turned to Lanbai.

“What do you need the guide for? Are you not playing the Tang Sect with hidden weapons anymore?” Lanbai was surprised.

“Don’t ask. Just help me find it.”

“Miss, can you help…” Lanbai pushed his glasses up and seriously assigned this difficult task to Xia Xiaoya.

“No problem, tell me what you need,” Xia Xiaoya paused her movie and smiled sweetly.

Lanbai sent Xia Xiaoya a file with thousands of documents and told her that one of the documents mentioned the crafting method for an orange dagger called “Silent,” and she needed to find it.

Chen Bin choked on his tea: “You can find it by just glancing at the document titles. How is she supposed to find it?”

Lanbai smiled like a typical unscrupulous boss: “Do you pity her? Then find it yourself?”

“…” Chen Bin immediately put on his headphones, pretending he didn’t hear anything.

“No problem, I’ll find it.” Xia Xiaoya didn’t feel exploited by the unscrupulous boss, turned off her movie, and started reading the documents one by one.