Chapter 1496: The Real World

Xinran’s shoulders shook as she leaned against my chest. Tears sliding down her cheeks, she whispered, "I don’t know what the other world looks like. This is the only world I’ve ever known. That is why I would rather I never knew that it existed."

I held her hand tightly. "But… I’m in the other world too, Xinran…"

Xinran looked at me and said stubbornly, "I know, but I can see you and touch you in this world, big brother. What if I awaken in the other world, but you aren’t there? What is Xinran supposed to do by herself? I’m terrified that this is all a dream. I’m terrified that I’ll wake up and find that I’m all alone. That is why I would rather never awaken…"

"Xinran, I…"

I hugged her tightly and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Very well, we’ll take things one step at a time, then. I’ll let you feel my existence in the other world, okay? When you’re ready, I’ll show you many sights you’ve never seen, experience many things that you’ve never experienced…"

"Mn!"

Xinran nodded strongly and held my neck tighter. "I don’t care which world I live in. I won’t be alone as long as it is one with you in it, big brother…"

Me: "..."

……

After I managed to convince Xinran to fall asleep, I immediately sent out a message in bold, red font in the guild channel, "Fighting Spirits, Chaos Moon, Chengfeng, Beiming, Eve, come meet me at the territory hall of Dark Moon City as soon as you can. I need to speak with you all about something!"

A ton of messages began scrolling through the guild channel—

High Fighting Spirits: "Wahahaha, the vice leader has finally left the Purgatory!"

Gui Guzi: "You must’ve gotten a lot of loot, right, Boss Broken Halberd? Did you save Xinran?"

Chaos Moon: "It’s been 8 days, you bastard. I miss you so much…"

He Yi: "..."

Li Chengfeng: "Y’all heard the vice leader. Cut the chatter and assemble at the territory hall now!"

……

I brought up the territory interface. As the city lord of Dark Moon City, I had the right to teleport directly to it, so I did just that. After that, I stepped into the territory hall and sat down on the steps next to the city lord’s throne.

A while later, everyone I had summoned arrived at the territory hall. Everyone looked cheerful and happy.

Li Chengfeng was the first person to walk up to me and say, "I’ve given my equipment to Eve already, so show me my Cyan Peak Halberd, bro!"

I tossed the Cyan Peak Halberd into his hands. "Here you go!"

Next, I took out the Ghost Armament Purple Cloud Armor from my bag and passed it to Beiming Xue. I explained smilingly, "This Purple Cloud Armor is extremely good. Its Ghost Armament effect doubles your total Defense. With this, you’ll be just as tanky as a first-rate cavalryman!"

"Wow…" Beiming Xue’s eyes were curled into happy crescents as she held her new armor. "I love you, big bro~~"

"There’s still more…"

I took out the pet egg and said, "This is a Lower Divine Armament Rank mount pet egg, a Fire Phoenix’s egg to be exact. Once you’ve contracted it, you’ll be able to fly in the air and shoot the enemies from anywhere you want. I don’t need to tell you how scary an archer who can fly is, do I? Hehe…"

After Beiming Xue accepted the pet egg, she jumped into my lap and pecked me once on the cheek. She pulled away just as quickly and withdrew to a safe distance to summon her Fire Phoenix.

At this point, everyone was used to it. Even I had gotten over the embarrassment a long time ago. This time, I beckoned High Fighting Spirits to my side and passed him battle armor and an axe, saying, "Here, Fighting Spirits. This one’s the Flame God Armor, a Lower Divine Armament, and this one is Sun, a Middle Divine Armament. They both suit you well."

High Fighting Spirits shivered visibly. "This… this is too much. I can’t possibly accept it."

I smiled. "I never said I’m not going to give them to you for free. I do have a family to feed after all. Now make your pitch."

High Fighting Spirits had always been a daring man, and he didn’t hesitate to drop a heavy bag of gold right before my feet and said, "I just exchanged all the money in my bank account into gold, and I got 4.98, almost 5 million gold, here. I know that a Middle Divine Armament is worth at least 20 million, but this is all I have. Please excuse me, brother…"

I accepted 2 million gold and returned the rest to him, saying, "Even that is enough. You’re at the age where you should be getting a wife, buying a car, buying a house and so on. Everything costs money these days, you know. For example, a house worth a damn in Suzhou is worth at least 2 million RMB. Assuming that you sell your existing weapon at a fair price, you should be able to earn around 3 million gold or so. If you ask me, I would advise you to spend that money to buy a house… Forgive me for speaking frankly, but it’ll be difficult for you to attract a girl with your looks. However, it’s a very different story if you have a house and a car…"

High Fighting Spirits smiled. "Got it. Thanks, Lu Chen!"

"You’re welcome. Just earn more guild contribution points as usual. Remember, the reason we play this game isn’t just to become the kings of the world, but also to get rich!"

"Yeah!"

After I was done giving High Fighting Spirits his equipment, I produced a fiery blade from my bag and said, "This is the Middle Divine Armament, the Dihai Blade. Some of you probably already know of it if you were paying attention to the Weapon Ranking. Chaos Moon, this one’s for you. Your current weapon isn’t very good anyway, so this will make a great replacement…"

Chaos Moon shivered. "You’re giving me the Dihai Blade? S-seriously? Why not give it to Eve? This weapon is way better than the Suppressing Fire Sword!"

I smiled and rose to my feet. After I wrapped an arm around He Yi’s waist and pulled her close, I said, "Eve and I are family. If I find a weapon that she can use, trust me when I say that I will give her the weapon without a second thought. However, Eve’s skill is limited, and the only weapon she can really use is the most traditional two-edged sword. That is why I’ve ultimately decided to give—ah pooh! I mean sell—it to you. Now, pay me my expenses!"

A giggling Chaos Moon tossed me a bag of 5 million gold without hesitation. "No need to give me a 50% discount like Fighting Spirits. I have Plunder and the Greedy Wolf Howl, money hasn’t been an issue for me for a long time. Did you know that my savings have exceeded 10 million?"

I accepted the money without question. This way, everyone was happy with the outcome.

After that, I took out the less impressive, but still awesome equipment I had collected here and there during my adventure in the Purgatory. Li Chengfeng purchased the 7% lifesteal ring, He Yi took the 110% Defense ring. Gui Guzi, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and everyone else made their picks as well. I would be selling the leftovers at Sky City later. I would’ve summoned Lin Yixin to make her pick as well, but then I recalled that she had gotten the Wind Severing Sword of the Twelve Divine Armaments. She could stand to sit this one out.

……

After I finished distributing the equipment, I gave everyone 10 Hunter Cards each. Then, we sat down in the territory hall and chatted idly with each other. It had been a while since we got to do this.

"How is the situation with the other servers?" I asked.

Li Chengfeng answered, "The Northern Alliance, Cyan Earth City and Swallow Ear Canton have been working closely with each other. Unless I’m gravely mistaken, a war is already in the making. We know they’re most likely going to aim for Sky City, but we need to find out if they’re going to attack our fourth main city, Hot Sand City, as well!"

I replied, "Hot Sand City is like a poisonous thorn lodged in the heart of the Northern Alliance. Knowing Vienna’s Sorrow, there is no chance he wouldn’t remove the threat. The real question is, do we defend the city or not?"

Gui Guzi suggested, "I think we should think aggressively rather than passively. How can they attack Hot Sand City if we bring war to, say, Cyan Earth City?"

He Yi smiled while holding my hand. "That is a good suggestion. In fact, it is one we must consider carefully considering that the new patch has introduced a new wrinkle into the Nation Wars."

I let out an "oh" before asking, "What is this new wrinkle?"

She explained, "There are now three ways to handle a city after occupying it. The first way is occupation, which is what we did with Hot Sand City. The second way is abandon, which is what we did with purple Grape City. The third and new way is called conquer. This option is selectable if the sovereign of the target city is killed. The city will still belong to the target server, but they will have to send us, the conqueror, 25% of their income as tribute for 3 months!"

I sucked in a deep breath. "25% of the city’s income as tribute? Hahaha! Eternal Moon is truly playing it big this time!"

I clenched my fists and declared, "In that case, it is clear what we need to do. Either we do nothing at all, or we conquer most of our enemies at once! We’re going to conquer Cyan Earth City, Hero City and Seven Star City all in the same war!"

Chaos Moon covered her forehead. "Boasting right after you exited the Purgatory? Where do you even get your confidence from?"

Li Chengfeng raised his new Cyan Peak Halberd and said, "I believe Lu Chen can do it though!"

Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and everyone else also said, "Yeah! We believe in Lu Chen as well!"

I rose to my feet and said, "All of you are my source of confidence. With your strength, what is a dream can become reality. For the next couple weeks, be sure to grind hard and become gods as soon as possible. It won’t be long before all future wars will become the war between gods!"

Everyone nodded in unison.

It was at this moment He Yi whispered beside my ears, "You’ve been playing for quite some time, and it’s 11 am in the late morning right now. Xu Ning, Tang Feng, Zhang Chun, Shusheng, Ling Xue and everyone else are waiting for your report…"

"You’re right. I’ll log out right away."

"See you later."

……

After repairing my equipment, I flew back to Violet Empire and returned to Xinran’s room. To my surprise, she was still asleep. She must’ve been exhausted after all the trials and tribulations she had gone through in the Purgatory.

I sat down beside her bed and logged out.

After I returned to the real world, I took off my gaming helmet and sucked in a deep breath. The heavy rock that had been sitting in my heart had finally been lifted. I had finally found Xinran, and everything was well.

The moment I stepped out of the room, Xu Ning, Tang Feng, Shusheng and more rose to their feet and said, "You’re finally out!"

"How did it go? How is the big miss doing?" Xu Ning asked concernedly.

I exhaled a little before starting, "I’ve told Xinran about the real world, but there are some things she has difficulties believing. She’s afraid that it’s all a dream, and that she’ll be all alone when she awakens in the real world. I think… I need to let her feel me in the real world."

Xu Ning frowned. "Can you clarify what you mean by that?[1]"

"I mean, can you take her out of her capsule and catch some fresh air?" I said.

"I see. Of course!"

Xu Ning nodded strongly. "It so happens that Professor Wang has suggested something similar. He said she would’ve had to leave the capsule eventually, so why not now instead of later? By the way, the big miss’s brain activity reached a whole new peak about an hour ago. Now that you mentioned it, it’s probably because of what you said to her."

"Yeah. Let’s get everything ready as soon as possible, shall we?"

"Don’t worry. It’ll all be ready when afternoon arrives!"

"Okay. In the meantime, I’m going to eat lunch."

"It’s already been prepared. Shusheng and Ling Xue will accompany you!"

"Nice, thank you!"

1. E/N: We all had the same thought. It DID sound wrong. ☜

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