Chapter 79: Nearly Scared My Parents to Death

As usual, the triple plea! Begging for votes, recommendations, and favorites!!

Yang Tang’s first round yielded over three hundred gold coins. He bought three small red potions, spending ninety, leaving himself with a little over two hundred and forty. He had originally intended to buy a plain white belt directly from the blacksmith Charsi, but just before making the purchase, he suddenly remembered Gheed, that shifty merchant.

“That’s right, I could try my luck with Gheed!”

However, as good as the idea was, it all depended on fate. Gheed’s wares were randomized each time, and if there were no belts available, Yang Tang would be left empty-handed.

Fortunately, luck never stays at rock bottom forever. After slaying over a hundred monsters without a single equipment drop, Yang Tang explained his intent to Gheed, who amiably opened his trading inventory.

Sure enough, three belts lay quietly in the corner of Gheed’s stock.

Checking the prices, the most expensive of the three was only two hundred and forty, the cheapest a hundred and sixty-six.

“That swindler,” Yang Tang cursed inwardly. He could afford all three belts, but was only allowed to buy one. And for the same plain belt, Charsi was selling it for less than fifty.

“Hey, my friend, I suggest you pick the most expensive one!” Just as Yang Tang was about to select the mid-priced belt, Gheed surprisingly offered a friendly piece of advice.

Yang Tang feigned ignorance, “Is the most expensive one the best?”

Gheed leered, giving an ambiguous reply, “Not necessarily. Sometimes, the cheapest one is the real treasure.”

A lesser man might have been thrown off by Gheed’s words, but Yang Tang wasn’t so easily swayed. He shot Gheed a sidelong glance and retorted mockingly, “So, in other words, everything you said is pointless?” With that, he spent two hundred and twenty gold to purchase the belt with the mid-range price.

Once the belt was in hand, Yang Tang checked its properties and was instantly overjoyed.

Raenimo’s Sash

Defense: 2

Required Level: 7

Durability: 12 of 12

Slots: 8

Mana Regeneration: 30

All Resistances: 5

Mana: 15

Light Radius: +1

This was a small masterpiece!

More precisely, it was a standard unique belt, and to get it for just over two hundred gold was an absolute steal.

The only downside was its durability. But as he glanced inadvertently at the item property transfer ring on his finger, a spark of hope ignited in his heart.

The ring couldn’t transfer weapon properties—could it transfer those of a belt?

Yang Tang pondered the question, but no answer came for a while. He thought the matter would be left unresolved, when suddenly enlightenment struck: it could be transferred, but the properties would be reduced to two-thirds of the original, and some individual properties might mutate.

Two-thirds wasn’t unacceptable! Yang Tang quickly let go of his concerns about the discount and asked two more pressing questions: What does property mutation mean? And—can item property transfer be performed in the dream world?

The best scenario for item property transfer was indeed within a dream; otherwise, the item’s properties would be discounted a second time after transfer. As for property mutation, it was unpredictable and depended on the specific items involved.

Yang Tang understood the explanation easily enough. The real question now was, how many merit and sin points would item property transfer require? When he asked, the answer came swiftly: one hundred and twenty merit-sin points!

“How is that calculated?” Yang Tang muttered.

Excluding durability and required level, all other properties add up as follows: 2 plus 8 slots plus 30 plus 54 plus 15 plus 1 equals seventy-six, rounded up to eighty, then divided by two-thirds equals one hundred and twenty!

Yang Tang: “...”

Would the dreamer like to initiate item property transfer?

“Do it, do it! I’ll earn the merit and sin points back sooner or later anyway!”

One skill copy deducted, one hundred and twenty sin points deducted. Item property transfer began: original item—Raenimo’s Sash; target item—unknown metal ring.

Transfer countdown: five minutes and forty-three seconds.

Yang Tang had expected some spectacular, earth-shaking display for the transfer, but all that happened was a faint, barely perceptible glow where the belt and ring touched, completely drowned out by the torchlight of the Rogues’ Camp.

About six minutes later, enlightenment returned, informing Yang Tang that the transfer was complete.

He didn’t check the ring immediately. First, he glanced at Raenimo’s Sash. To his shock, all its properties were gone—only the durability was now zero of twelve, and even the required level had dropped to zero!

He checked the ring:

Nameless Ring

Defense: 1

Mana Regeneration: 20

All Resistances: 3

Mana: 10

Slots: 4, similar items can be stacked

Within melee range, specified items are automatically picked up

After reading the ring’s properties, Yang Tang was both excited and indignant. “Didn’t the original have eight slots? How come after the discount it’s only four? At least it should be five!”

This is a property mutation and cannot be changed!

Yang Tang was speechless. After a moment’s silence, he asked, “The Nameless Ring doesn’t have durability, so it’s indestructible, right?”

Even stars can fall, and the sun will one day be extinguished. There is no such thing as indestructible equipment! Of course, under normal circumstances, the material comprising the Nameless Ring will not be easily damaged.

“That’s good enough for me.”

Satisfied with his new storage ring, Yang Tang cheerfully stowed his remaining ten-plus gold coins and the three freshly purchased red potions inside.

“Haha, they really do stack!”

With that, he set off once more to hunt monsters.

Skill “Scarred Hand” upgrade progress: 7%!

Skill “Scarred Hand” upgrade progress: 21%!

Skill “Scarred Hand” upgrade progress: 56%!

Skill “Scarred Hand” upgrade progress: 89%!

Skill “Scarred Hand” upgrade progress: 100%!

Ding!

Skill “Scarred Hand” has reached level two.

Scarred Hand 2: Twentyfold power enhancement, duration 0.3 seconds, a mysterious and violent two-stage assassination—can severely wound a target in one strike; active skill, instant cast, mana cost: zero.

Yang Tang stared at the skill description, eyes wide.

Twentyfold enhancement—that meant the skill’s power had doubled compared to level one, which was notable enough. But the duration of 0.3 seconds was truly terrifying. It meant that even when mobbed by zombies or ghouls, he no longer needed to fear swarms. As long as he controlled the angle of attack, he could roam freely among the monsters, coming and going at will, mowing down hordes with ease.

After a surge of excitement, Yang Tang calmed down and couldn’t help but ask, “What’s the highest level Scarred Hand can reach?”

Level 3 is the maximum. All solidified skills of the dreamer are the same!

Yang Tang was taken aback. “Even skills like Super Memory and King of Hackers can be leveled up?”

Super Memory isn’t the strongest memory, and King of Hackers isn’t the ultimate hacker. There’s always room for improvement. Also, the experience required to go from 3 to max is different from filling up level 3. Once a skill’s experience is full at level 3, it will completely fuse with the dreamer. Even if a punishment to erase skills is imposed later, fused skills cannot be erased!

“Damn, why is there even a punishment for skill erasure?” Yang Tang shouted, annoyed.

To be precise, it’s a corresponding penalty for unfinished or failed tasks. Of course, if you’re dissatisfied with this rule, you may opt for a unified penalty: instant death in the dream upon mission failure!

Yang Tang: “...”

Would the dreamer like to modify the penalty rule? Note: there is only one chance—choose carefully!

“Careful my foot! No, I won’t change it!”

Though Yang Tang was annoyed by the penalty rule, after trying out the level 2 Scarred Hand skill a few times, a wild ambition began to grow within him. “Heck, it’s just a matter of practice making perfect! I’ll grind Scarred Hand and that Aimed Shot skill to full level 3 experience before I tackle any missions!”

But dreams are always beautiful, and the reality was so nauseating Yang Tang wanted to die.

Why? Simple. To upgrade from level 1 to 2, he needed to kill one hundred enemies. But from 2 to 3, the required kill count increased by a hundredfold—to ten thousand. And to fill level 3’s experience bar—a process equivalent to reaching level 4—he’d need to kill another hundred times more: one million.

In other words, just getting Scarred Hand to level 3 with maxed experience would require slaughtering over one million enemies. Fortunately, in the dark world, kills on monsters counted toward skill proficiency. Still, monster kills needed to be multiplied by ten, meaning he’d have to defeat ten million monsters. Even if each was a one-shot kill, that number would drive anyone mad.

And that was only for Scarred Hand. Aimed Shot had three modes—effectively three skills. He’d have to kill thirty million monsters to achieve his goal. It was truly, utterly beyond words!

The most critical thing was that, when focused on something, Yang Tang could be single-minded to the point of obsession. He went on a slaughtering spree in his dream, completely losing track of time.

The next day, June 6th at noon, Yang’s mother finished making lunch and went to call him. She knocked on his door—no response. Knocked again—still nothing. Finally, Yang’s father fetched some tools and forced the bedroom door open.

Upon entering, the couple were nearly scared out of their wits.

Yang Tang lay rigidly on the bed, hands clasped over his chest, without a blanket or any clothes covering him. His body was cold to the touch—not completely frozen, but far from normal human temperature.

Thankfully, his father regained his composure first. He nudged the stunned mother and shouted sharply, “What are you waiting for? Call! Call the ambulance!”