The Almighty Ring

Jiang Fei’s parents had hit the hay right after dinner. They were very tired and Jiang Fei did not want to disturb their rest. They had been put in a stressful situation for a long duration. Psychologically and physically, they were tired. Now that everything was over and it was safe and sound, fatigue kicked in hard and the two went to bed.

Jiang Fei had gotten a room right beside his parents’. After he was sure that both his parents were asleep, he went to his own room and rested on the bed. He was tired as well. Even though everything had gone smoothly he could not deny that he had the luck of the devil. A single mistake would kill him or worse, his parents. Today he had taken a leap of faith and made his way to rescue his parents with the identity of Zhuge Shanzhen. A single mistake would expose his identity, leading to further problems. Even though he had a full set of protective gear, he might not be able to defeat what was to come to him. Especially since it was his protective gear that they would want.

“I need to get stronger faster,” said Jiang Fei to himself.

“Captain, I have detected abnormal neural patterns in your brain,” said 0541 all of the sudden.

Jiang Fei panicked immediately. Even though he did not understand what 0541 was saying, he could still understand the words “abnormal” and “brain”.

“Captain, there’s no need to get so worked up. You have been through a lot today. Psychologically speaking, you are greatly stressed. Please conduct any activity to ease your mind or your body will be affected by the negative emotions in your body.”

“Ahh… I see. I’m stressed,” said Jiang Fei as he relaxed. He wholeheartedly agreed with 0541. He was indeed stressed. He turned to the clock on the wall and noticed it was almost 10 p.m..

“I think I can play the game to ease myself. Does it count?” asked Jiang Fei.

“Very much so, Captain. The game is very special. It was almost the same as what Namek used to have but not a perfect clone. Playing games has always been good to relieve mental stress,” said 0541.

“Better than nothing, am I right?” said Jiang Fei as he laid in bed, trying to go to sleep. As he did, he talked to 0541 about mental health and when the clock struck 10, Jiang Fei entered the game.

“Verdure Glider, are you alright?” asked Isabella as soon as Jiang Fei appeared in the game. She sounded frustrated and worried.

“Sorry, I had some trouble back in my world,” said Jiang Fei apologetically. He felt guilty toward Isabella since he had not logged in the night before. As such, Isabella was trapped in the pet slot for 24 hours.

After he tried to coax Isabella and succeeded, he headed to his new fortress and checked on its progress. Luckily, he had hired NPC builders to work. Even without him logging into the game, the NPC builders would work on their own until the order was done.

After that, he checked with Rosette Rose and the other managers about the condition of the guild. The lot of them had already gotten too used to the absence of Jiang Fei’s command. As such, they had learned to work diligently without supervision. Even without Jiang Fei coming in to check on them, work would still be done smoothly.

Then, Jiang Fei returned to Dawnlight City. He headed to the basement of the guild territory and collected the daily Ant Egg from the Ant Queen. It had been so long that he collected a large sum of Ant Eggs, which he then handed over to Lady Casanova to distribute to the other members of the guild. Good ones would be given to the elite party and the main party while extras would only be given to the sparse members.

Jiang Fei had only been gone for a day and the players’ level had not gone up at all. Besides him being at the top of the list, the second highest level in the city was Seven Stars Warrior at Level 45. After the Level 40 threshold, the number of Experience Points needed to gain a level was much higher. It was no longer a thing that could be done in a day or two. After he was done with the guild, Jiang Fei headed back the Faction Map and the Demon Flame Fortress.

“Lord Explorer! You have returned! The Lord Commander is calling for you!” said one of the guards as Jiang Fei stepped out of the Teleportation Circle in the fortress.

“Thank you,” said Jiang Fei without asking for details since he had automatically received a quest notification as he stepped out of the Teleportation Circle.

Ding! Quest Notification: The Lord Commander Ivan would like to talk to you!

With the quest guidance, Jiang Fei arrived at the commander’s hall and talked to Ivan.

“My brother! I’ve been waiting for your return!” cried Ivan with such friendliness as if he was talking to his close friend.

“Lord Commander, what can I do you for?” said Jiang Fei as he examined the hall.

There was a mid-tier officer present and the two other generals were missing.

“Here’s what you can for me. The last mission that I assigned to you was a huge success. You had demonstrated your profound ability, hence I have another harder task for you to do,” said Ivan.

“As you wish,” said Jiang Fei with a huge smile. Only a fool would reject a high-level quest, especially if it could be a hidden quest!

“Even though we have the Saint of the Light in our hands, the enemies are still attacking with no changes in their formation. Something is not right. We did not make a huge enough impact on them. We need something bigger. Something that could really change the tide of war! That’s where you come in,” said Ivan.

Ding! Frontline Commander Ivan has an Epic-tier Hidden Quest for you: Materials for War! Do you accept it?

“I will do my best to collect whatever you need,” said Jiang Fei as he accepted the quest.

Ding! Quest Updated!

Quest Name: Materials for War 1

Quest Description: There will be a final fight for the Demon Flame Fortress. As of now, the fortress requires 1,000 Crossbows. In the South-West of the fortress, you can find a Mutated Sea Serpent in the Sea of Purgatory. Its nerves would make the best bowstring!”

Quest Reward: 11,000,000 Experience Points, 850 Gold Coins.

“Let’s go, Bella!”

Jiang Fei did not waste any time and headed out of the hall with Isabella.

To be honest, Jiang Fei did not like the quest reward. A few hundred gold coins were nothing to him. On the other hand, 11 million Experience Points was quite the number. Then again, 1,000 was not a small number, especially for a collecting quest. Farming materials were the worse kind of quest since not every single one of the monster killed would drop the materials needed. All in all, Jiang Fei would spend a long duration for this one quest.

Even so, Jiang Fei was happy. While this particular collecting quest did not have a good reward, he knew that there would be subsequent quests lining up for him! As long as he kept sticking to this one quest line, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow would surely be massive!

After Jiang Fei left the commander’s hall, he summoned the Juvenile Skygliding Dragon and flew straight toward the quest’s location. It took him almost an hour to reach. As he flew, there was nothing to see but the ugly aftermath of war. Abandoned houses, burnt fortresses, rotten corpses, and scattered ashes were seen.

“Urgh. This place is much worse than any place I had ever seen,” said Jiang Fei.

“The main cities are a neutral zone. Peace has long reigned since anyone could remember. This is the reality. The Great War has been going on for a few thousand years. Anywhere the war had taken place would become a scorched land. It is safe to say that only the four main cities were left untouched,” said Isabella. Compared to Jiang Fei, it seemed like Isabella had a better understanding of the game’s settings.