Chapter 1370: Becoming a Legend

"Ugh…"

Ẅho Will Fight Me let out an animalistic, guttural growl as he slowly dropped to his knees. It wasn’t until he saw the fading draconic flames and burning hot metal sticking out of his chest that he realized just how big the gap between his skill and Ray of Sunshine’s was. He had never stood a chance.

Pop...

A pair of fiery red wristguards dropped on the ground. It was Ẅho Will Fight Me’s "gift" to Ray of Sunshine.

The Master Swordsman of Blaze picked up the wristguards and broke into a grin. "Immortal-grade wristguards! Not bad at all. The level’s a bit low, but they are slightly better than the ones I’m currently wearing…"

After saying that, he equipped Ẅho Will Fight Me’s wristguards right in front of everyone.

Beep!

System Notice: You have won a total of 35289 gold from the bet!

……

I broke into a grin myself. It was an incredible sum of money considering that I wasn’t even a participant of the duel. As it turned out, you could earn money in the game by having a good eye for skill as well. One of the biggest mistakes the players who bet on Ẅho Will Fight Me was thinking that a true expert wouldn’t act flamboyantly. It was really the opposite.

Lin Yixin shot me a glance and said, "This Ray of Sunshine is pretty skilled. If we look at his technique alone, he is at least on Gui Guzi’s level and slightly below Chaos Moon[1]. His class and equipment aren’t the most impressive, but it certainly won’t take much effort to make him on par with Chaos Moon. Is Ancient Sword interested in recruiting this guy?"

I nodded. "I am. I don’t want to spoil his fun though. I’ll let him win a couple more rounds before I speak to him about it. If it works out, then I’ll recruit him into Ancient Sword. Speaking of which, don’t you want to recruit him to Snowy Cathaya, Yiyi?"

Lin Yixin shrugged. "I would, but this Ray of Sunshine is quite a handsome lad, and I don’t want you to get jealous…"

"I see. You and I are having words in the ring later…"

"You’re so petty…"

……

Back in the ring, the referee said, "10% of the total bet money will be taken as the prize money for the next duel, and in this case it’s 37k gold. Half of that will be paid to Ray of Sunshine right now, so the current prize money is 18.5k gold."

Ray of Sunshine smirked at the crowd and said, "Don’t be shy! I’ve just changed into my hidden class 7 days ago, and my current weapon is just as new. I can definitely use someone to sound out my new limits. CGL Hall of Famers are welcome as well!"

Ray of Sunshine made it clear who he was referring to when he shot us—or more specifically, Lin Yixin and He Yi—a glance. "You two are the guild leaders of Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword, right? Will you teach me a lesson, Fruit Knife Goddess?"

Never one to back down from a challenge, Lin Yixin puffed up her chest and unsheathed her Purple Spirit Sword. "Who am I to turn down a fool’s death wish?"

However, He Yi gave Lin Yixin’s arm a tug and said, "Wait! If you go now, our money-making scheme will have to end here. Let Lu Chen handle this…"

Lin Yixin mulled over her argument before relaxing. "Yes, Sister Eve is right!"

She then declared, "Thank your lucky stars, boy. I’m just here to watch the show today…"

Ray of Sunshine: "..."

……

As it turned out, Ray of Sunshine’s taunt had unintended consequences. The Fruit Knife Goddess was one of the most popular female players in China, and she had countless fans who would stand up for her even if she never asked for it. "Did this motherfucker just try to challenge our Little Fruit Knife? How dare he! If someone has an OP friend, wake them the fuck up and fuck this guy up already!"

It wasn’t long before a new group of players arrived, and they were led by none other than the guild leader of Pop Culture, Lone Moonshade. Ẅho Will Fight Me chose this moment to revive and speak to Lone Moonshade, "This is the guy who defeated me, boss!"

Lone Moonshade glanced back and forth between his underling’s conspicuously bare wrists and Ray of Sunshine’s new wristguards. He cursed, "Fuck! You dropped the Crimson Flame Hand when you died?!"

"Yes, boss…" Ẅho Will Fight Me bowed his head lower.

Lone Moonshade stepped into the ring, unsheathed his sword and stabbed it into the ground. "Do you dare accept my challenge, Ray of Sunshine?"

Ray of Sunshine frowned. "Why not? But who the fuck are you?"

"You will know very soon!"

Lone Moonshade grinned maliciously as he sent Ray of Sunshine a sparring invitation. There was a three-minute pause so that the spectators could bet on the outcome of the duel. As per before, Lin Yixin, He Yi and I bet 10k gold on Ray of Sunshine. When the time was up, the battle began immediately.

"Here I come!"

Lone Moonshade’s fighting style was straightforward and aggressive, so he didn’t hesitate to rush in the second the countdown hit zero. He swung a feint, put 5 yards between himself and Ray of Sunshine, and activated a super-short Charge in an attempt to stun his opponent. He even followed up with Wild Collision to push his advantage further. As a result, Ray of Sunshine was unable to do anything for the first 7 seconds besides parrying and dodging Lone Moonshade’s attacks. His attempt to counterattack with Barrier Break was parried by Lone Moonshade as well.

Thud thud thud...

A shield bash later [2], Ray of Sunshine retreated and activated a new skill called "Dance of Conflagration”. It increased his movement speed by 70% and his attack speed by 40% for 15 seconds. It was obviously his class’s signature[3] skill.

"Hmm?!"

His opponent’s sudden speed boost caused Lone Moonshade’s momentum to come to a screeching halt. While he was adjusting, Ray of Sunshine dashed behind him and dealt 370k damage with a single Crimson Flame Slash. Lone Moonshade didn’t have any buffs right now, so his max HP was only 790k or so [4] Otherwise, CS could just one-shot Farewell Song with a single skill. He couldn’t receive another hit like this. After he drove his opponent away with a double slash, he backpedaled and downed a health potion.

Rustle rustle...

Ray of Sunshine kept running around the ring in search of a good attack angle. Eyes calm, he abruptly stopped in his tracks and fired what seemed like a human shadow straight at Lone Moonshade. The skill passed right through the guild leader and actually stunned him for 4 seconds. Not only that, it dealt an incredible amount of damage—

472622!

The skill was called ‘Shadow Breaker’, and it was yet another Master Swordsman of Blaze class’s skill. It was more than enough to one-shot Lone Moonshade considering his current HP, but the stun kept him standing for 4 seconds before he dropped to his knees and died.

That was two wins in a row, and 70k+ gold in total in my pockets. Pop Culture was one of the major guilds in Sky City, and their guild leader had just lost to a nobody. No one was expecting this to happen.

……

I slowly mulled over Ray of Sunshine’s skills in my head. Crimson Flame Slash was a single-target skill, Dragon Flame Flurry was a triple-hit skill, Shadow Breaker was a ranged skill like Coiling Dragon Revolution but with the additional ability to stun the target, and Dance of Conflagration was a self-buff skill that increased his movement speed and attack speed. So far, it looked like Ray of Sunshine’s skill set was extremely versatile. Assuming that he had a HP recovery skill and a big AoE skill as well, then he was almost a perfect metal-armor player. Not even our guild had more than a handful of players like him.

"The… the guild leader lost too…?" Ẅho Will Fight Me was completely flabbergasted.

The Pop Culture players who came with Lone Moonshade clenched their fists tightly. "Fuck! Not only did the guild leader drop his cloak, that arrogant bastard even equipped it right before our eyes! We need to tell Candle Dragon about this and get them to send over a couple of heavy-hitters right now!"

"Yeah, we need to tell Candle Dragon now!"

I smiled a little before whispering to Lin Yixin and He Yi, "See, I knew this would blow up. Ray of Sunshine is pretty good, but to think he would alarm even Candle Dragon…"

Lin Yixin whispered back, "If Candlelight Shadow shows up, Ray of Sunshine’s chance of winning will be less than 20%. The gap between their equipment is just too huge. Even with a 50% HP-buffing card, Ray of Sunshine would only have 1.3 million HP. It’s not even enough to tank one flurry skill from Candlelight Shadow."

I nodded. "Yeah. If his equipment was just a bit better, he may be able to tank a few more hits…"

He Yi said smilingly, "I don’t think Candlelight Shadow will fight Ray of Sunshine though. Knowing him, he’ll find it beneath him to challenge someone who isn’t already a famous expert…"

"That’s true. Pop Culture is Candle Dragon’s subordinate guild though. I wonder who they will send…"

……

The answer was revealed a few minutes later. Tempest Shadow of the four gods of Candle Dragon arrived at Sky City with a long, cyan-colored blade in his grip. He declared angrily, "Who is Ray of Sunshine? Fight me!"

Ray of Sunshine raised an eyebrow the moment he saw Tempest Shadow. "You’re Tempest Shadow? The guy who’s called the shame of the CGL Hall of Fame?"

Tempest Shadow’s complexion turned a shade of pig’s liver. "The arrogance!"

Tempest Shadow issued Ray of Sunshine a sparring invitation immediately after he dismounted. A lot of people were cheering for him because he was a CGL Hall of Famer, and because it meant that the battle had climbed up a whole new weight class.

The battle lasted 47 seconds in total. Tempest Shadow executed 14 skills, but only landed 3. It was still enough to drop Ray of Sunshine to almost no health, but the Master Swordsman of Blaze was ultimately able to regenerate back to full health with a skill called "Dragon Flame Recovery" and end Tempest Shadow’s life with a flurry skill.

Thump!

A kind of realization spread across the crowd when Tempest Shadow dropped to his knees. Although Ray of Sunshine had been spoken about on the forums, the reason he never really became famous was because he was a solo player. Now that he had toppled an actual legend right outside the gate of Sky City though, he was destined to become a highly sought-after player in the China server. Even my guild members were talking about him—

Xu Yang: "Holy shit! Ray of Sunshine took out Tempest Shadow at a betting match outside the eastern gate just a few seconds ago!"

Gui Guzi: "Dang, I would fight him if I wasn’t grinding in an instance right now! Li, you wanna go kick his ass?"

Li Chengfeng replied lazily, "You kidding, bro? There are show-offs every day, man. If I killed these chuckleheads every time they sprout from the earth, I would have no time to do my own thing…"

Chaos Moon: "Yeah, only someone who’s stupidly free would bother to kick Ray of Sunshine’s ass."

Me: "..."

Heaven’s Rain: "Oh no, vice leader big bro isn’t saying anything. You’re right outside the eastern gate, aren’t you? You’re going to kick Ray of Sunshine’s ass, aren’t you?"

Me: "I would never…"

"Like hell we’ll believe that…"

……

A new group of people showed up, and this time they belonged to Warsky Alliance. The challenger was none other than the vice leader of Warsky Alliance himself, Lin Bing Dou Zhe!

"This is going to fun. Lin Bing Dou Zhe should have a much better chance than Tempest Shadow at beating Ray of Sunshine!" I declared.

"True, but that doesn’t mean he’ll actually beat him…"

Lin Yixin’s skepticism was spot-on. Lin Bing Dou Zhe’s technique was equal to Ray of Sunshine’s, but the latter had a hidden class, and he didn’t. In the end, he lost and became yet another stepping stone to Ray of Sunshine’s legend.

……

"Hahaha…"

Ray of Sunshine laughed loudly as he picked up a necklace Lin Bing Dou Zhe dropped. "Looks like the so-called famous experts of Sky City are so-so after all! I would challenge Lu Chen himself if I had a couple more Sacred Armaments!"

I finally stepped into the ring, walked to the opposite side of Ray of Sunshine and pointed my sword at him. "I’ll challenge you…"

"You?!"

Ray of Sunshine watched me for a second before breaking into a smirk. "You think you, a Level 211 potato, can challenge me? Stop wasting my time and get out of my sight already."

……

Behind me, Lin Yixin broke into a Cheshire’s grin. "Oh, he’s so dead…"

1. E/N: Since when is Chaos Moon better than Gui Guzi who should be just behind Li Chengfeng? No clue! ☜

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

2. T/N: was it from Ray of Sunshine or Lone Moonshade? I have no idea! The shorter the text, the more ambiguous the meaning becomes ☜

3. E/N: You might remember Little Piglet having a similar skill on his Cold Wind Swordsman. Seems like this Blaze Swordsman is the same class, just different element ☜

4. T/N: this is why when Farewell Song and CS dueled earlier, Lu Chen told them to get full buffs ☜