"Fighter, step up! This dire boar is nearly dead!" someone shouted.
Gripping his standard iron sword, Mantou stared down the boar in front of him.
It was a filthy, ferocious dire boar—massively built and weighing several hundred kilograms.
Its body was covered in stiff, needle-sharp bristles, and two long tusks jutted from its head, reeking with foul stench. At this moment, however, it seemed sluggish as though half-asleep, riddled with wounds and appearing on the verge of death.
To Mantou, this creature was nothing less than a walking heap of experience and coin.
"Screw it, let's do this!"
Gritting his teeth, Mantou stepped forward and thrust his sword straight into the boar's flank.
The iron blade pierced through the tough hide and sank deep into the flesh, sending a sudden spurt of fresh blood from the wound.
"It hit!" the players cheered loudly.
Instantly, the boar's drowsy, slit-like eyes flared a brilliant crimson. It exhaled a blast of foul, misty breath as the muscles beneath its thick layer of fat bulged violently. An unimaginable wave of raw power burst forth from its bloated frame.
"Holy crap... don't tell me this thing has a phase two..."
Cold sweat beaded on Mantou's forehead as he pulled out the bloodstained blade in sheer awkwardness, feeling like he was about to give up first blood.
The dire boar glared murderously at Mantou, its stout hooves scraping against the ground and kicking up clouds of dust.
"Huuurng—arrgh!"
With a low roar, the dire boar charged straight at Mantou head-on, sending tremors through the earth that every player could feel.
While Mantou wasn't among the very best, he still counted as a veteran pro of immersive gaming. Seeing the terrifying charge, his reflexes kicked in, and he instinctively rolled to the side.
Dust flew into the air as Mantou narrowly dodged the charge.
The dire boar slammed into the boulder behind him, fracturing the rock face into a web of spider-like cracks.
"So 'dire' just means it pops berserk when it's low on health..."
"A hit with that kind of destructive power would definitely one-shot me," Mantou couldn't help but grumble. Yet the dire boar's next charge was already barreling toward him through the swirling dust, and Mantou had been driven into a corner with nowhere left to dodge.
"Guess I really am giving up first blood?"
Mantou skillfully pulled up his system interface and dialed his pain perception down to the minimum.
"Sanctuary!"
A crisp female voice rang out.
A thin shroud of light enveloped Mantou. The boar had already barreled right up to his face—he could even hear its ragged, heavy panting and smell the stench radiating off it—yet it simply could not bring itself to attack him. It had no choice but to crash into the adjacent cliff face once more.
Driven by immense momentum, the boar's thick, elongated tusks embedded themselves deep into the cliffside, leaving it stuck.
Whoosh—
A sharp arrow whistled in from the boar's flank, piercing straight through its heart.
After a few feeble twitches, it finally stopped breathing.
"Told you, the archer fighter is the future," a man's voice remarked.
Mantou turned his head to see three players walking over together.
He recognized all three of them. They were famous pros in the fully immersive gaming scene:
There was Singo, the hardcore guide god; Xiaye Qiuyu, the ultra-popular female pro player who commanded over a million followers; and Tiansheng Zhankuang, a ten-year veteran of virtual gaming tournaments who boasted that he could wipe out any opponent.
Their current classes were fighter, cleric, and barbarian—a trio with great synergy.
Facing them, Mantou felt small. Although he called himself a pro gamer and had tens of thousands of followers, he was nowhere near the league of these famous big shots.
Feeling a bit uneasy, he said, "Thanks, everyone. Did you need me for something?"
Xiaye Qiuyu replied, "We watched your videos. You did a great job."
"You flatter me." Mantou scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
Singo, however, got straight to the point. "Mantou, when you logged off earlier, you had four gold coins on you, right?"
"Uh, yeah. Just dumb luck."
Four gold coins didn't sound like much, but it was genuine gold.
It was roughly equivalent to a hundred silver coins or four hundred copper coins. Even a hardcore grinder taking every quest around the clock would need nearly ten days to save up that much. Mantou had simply hit a stroke of sheer dog luck, finding gold coins that a miner had secretly stashed away in a mine shaft.
Tiansheng Zhankuang said, "Interested in doing a quest with us? We happen to need that money."
Mantou was slightly bewildered. "Couldn't you just go to one of the big guilds? They'd be more than happy to take you in, and this little bit of money wouldn't be an issue for them."
Even though the game was still in closed beta, the whale players had already organized small guilds such as Sword Pavilion, Golden Club, and Sovereignty. The largest of these fledgling groups had nearly fifty members, and many of them would become the precursors to future powerhouse guilds.
At the mention of guilds, Tiansheng Zhankuang grew irritated and cursed, "Those bastards have no shame. Every single day, they send people to camp the quest board and hog all the high-paying jobs, leaving us solo players with nothing but contribution quests like hauling bricks and repairing walls."
Singo nodded in agreement. "Guilds? Even dogs wouldn't join."
He liked using the word "dog," which was one reason his anti-fans called him "Sing-dog"—the other being that he was perpetually single.
Mantou pondered for a moment before saying, "What do you need the gold for? Let me think about it."
Xiaye Qiuyu brought up an item listing for Mantou to see.
[Mysterious Invitation]
[Maximum Simultaneous Users: 4]
[This invitation blazes with an eternal flame, capable of transporting you to unknown realms. What awaits you could be peril, or it could be opportunity.]
[Price: 10 Gold Coins]
"This item just appeared on the exchange," Xiaye Qiuyu added. "There's probably a limited stock, and the guilds haven't noticed it yet. We scraped together everything we had and could only manage six gold coins, which is why we came looking for you."
"Holy crap, what kind of invitation costs that much? That could buy several sets of gear!" Mantou couldn't help exclaiming.
Singo retorted bluntly, "That's the difference between you and top-tier pros. Ten gold coins might seem like a lot in the early game, but in the mid-to-late game it won't mean a thing.
"If you spend it on gear, all you get is a pile of scrap metal. But if you buy a quest item like this, you can seize the initiative at every turn and keep winning."
Xiaye Qiuyu stepped in to smooth things over. "Can't you tone it down a bit?"
Singo said expressionlessly, "If he disagrees, it just proves he doesn't have the vision, and we can find someone else."
Mantou offered an awkward smile. He finally understood why this guide master, who had everything going for him, was still single.
Still, as he weighed Singo's words, he found some truth in them, and readily agreed.
"Fine, I'm in. But since I'm putting in a larger share, you'll have to give me more say in the follow-up quests."
"No problem!" Tiansheng Zhankuang chuckled and agreed without hesitation.
Chapter 70