Chapter 502: I Can Afford You

Translator: alyschu

The reveal of the hidden caps of the Famous General Skills stunned everyone. As everyone accumulated more and more Tactics, it was only a matter of time before the absolute best players hit the maximum values of their Famous General Skills. Therefore, the higher the cap of a Famous General Skill, the better it was during the latter stages of a game!

I felt much better now that I knew the caps of each Famous General Skill. The cap on Lin Yixin’s Bombshell was 80%, while my Martial God was 200%. This meant that my Famous General Skill was in no way inferior to Lin Yixin’s because overwhelming strength could overpower anything. Speaking of which, He Yi’s Royal Road had a cap of 50% stat boost and 30% stats reduction. All things considered, it was still a very broken stratagem.

The cap of most Famous General Skills was only three times the base skill effect or less, but the cap of my Martial God was five times the base. This meant that my Famous General Skill had much higher potential than those Famous General Skills. The same went for Li Chengfeng’s Blitz and Little Piglet’s Vajra.

That being said, the 150% cap on Knight God, Bow God, and Mage Soul didn’t mean these skills weren’t ridiculously powerful. They were even the best Famous General Skills in the game if you ignored the fact that they applied to certain classes only. On another note, Candle Dragon caught up a little in the battle of Famous Generals since it was revealed that Blue Sky Scar’s Frenzy was capped at 150%, and Tempest Shadow’s Resolute at 120%. In Warsky Alliance, Laughing At The Heavens’ Hundred Battles was the best stratagem of the three because it boosted its allies by a maximum of 100% attack power and 30% attack speed.

Excluding me, He Yi, Lin Yixin, Gui Guzi, Beiming Xue, Li Chengfeng, Wang Luo and all other players with ace-level Famous General Skills, the most powerful player of the bunch was undoubtedly Lin Bing Dou Zhe. It was because his Renown was a super offensive and defensive skill that boosted attack power by 120% and defense power by 40%. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to recruit him into Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. For now, the identity of the guild who got to him first before us was unknown.

There was one more person in the list that we needed to be wary of, and that was Stranger of Three Lifetimes of Blazing Hot Lips, Vanished God City. The mage girl’s Famous General Skill, Repel, could boost her own attack power by 150%, and reduce her enemies’ attack power by 30% max. Her stratagem was best-applied in a war of attrition, and even the effectiveness of my Martial God would be greatly reduced if we had to fight her.

......

We spent a while talking about what we saw on the screen before we finally went back to our rooms.

The World Famous Generals patch had officially entered its hottest period now that more and more Famous Generals were joining the fray. This number would only grow from now on, although that was to be expected. If a game didn’t have anything the player could strive for, why on earth would they spend any money on it?

Anyway, Ancient Sword Dreaming Soul’s next move was to solidify our advantage even further, fight against Warsky Alliance and other rival guilds, and continue to improve Dark Moon City. One step at a time, we would establish a foothold in China and aim to challenge a top guild like Candle Dragon once we had accumulated enough strength!

I fell into a deep sleep very quickly. When I opened my eyes again, it was already late morning.

We left after He Yi gave an excuse claiming that we still had work to do at the company. Before we left, we went to my third uncle’s house and gave the third aunt a bankbook with a hundred thousand RMB in it. The woman was caught completely off-guard. “What are you doing, Lu Chen?”

I replied, “Third aunt, my father lives here alone, and I’m sure he gave you and uncle some trouble from time to time. This is my small compensation to you both. I can’t always stay by my father’s side due to work, so please take care of him while I’m gone. For example, you can spend this money on some good food and liquor so both my father and uncle can enjoy a good time from time to time. The password is 123456. Half of the money in this bank account is for you, and the other half, my father’s living costs.”

“But...” Third aunt wanted to turn me down, but I hurriedly covered her hand with mine.

“Third aunt, all these years I was gone, I wasn’t able to fulfill my responsibilities as a son to my father. My work environment doesn’t allow me to stay with my father, and he doesn’t want to live in Suzhou. So please, don’t deny me the chance to fulfill filial duty to my father. Please accept this!”

Third aunt couldn’t turn me down, so she had no choice but to nod. “I’ll take this, but I won’t accept my half. I promise I’ll make sure that Old Lu and my husband get to enjoy a good meal every day.”

“Haha, I’m glad to hear that!”

......

After bidding my father goodbye, I looked at the back mirror and saw my father trying to make himself taller and look at me from his wheelchair. Guilt and sorrow caused a twinge in my nose, and I nearly burst into tears there and then.

Seemingly noticing my sorrow, He Yi patted me gently on the shoulder and comforted me, “Don’t be sad. We’ll visit uncle as often as we can. The generation gap isn’t as deep as you think, and I’m sure uncle will notice your feelings as long as your heart is true.”

“Mn.”

I sucked in a deep breath before saying self-depreciatingly, “What kind of son would leave their parent all by themselves for such a long time?”

He Yi chuckled. “You say that now, but if you really stayed with uncle, he would spend every waking moment nagging you about your ‘terrible’ gaming habits, I’m sure you’d dive deep into the other end. No one likes a gap separating them and their loved ones, but it’s the inevitable price of moving forward. As long as your heart stays true, the gap between your hearts will shorten eventually.”

I nodded with a smile. “Say, how is your relationship with your parents?”

“My parents?”

He Yi sank into her seat and smiled a little. “My mom gives me a headache for sure. Just a couple of years ago, she literally spent every day trying to arrange me with a ‘worthy’ partner. Of course, she changed her mind after I blew off a couple of men who thought they were elites, but were really nothing...”

“Oh? How did you blow them off exactly?”

“I simply told them that I have a 22.4% share in GGS Asia Region and seven companies in the internet, clothing, electronics and other industries, my monthly expenditure including cosmetics and stuff is over 500k, and my car is worth 15 million RMB. I asked them if they could afford even gas for my car, and you can guess for yourself what their reaction was...”

“...”

He Yi cocked her head and looked at me, eyes playful and teasing. “Hehe, so? Do feel a huge pressure on your shoulders right now?”

I nodded. “I know full well I can’t afford you...”

“That’s fine. I can afford you...”

“I don’t wanna...”

We continued to talk about random and not-so-random things for a time, the calm in my heart rippling from time to time as I took in He Yi’s gorgeous features. I was starting to realize that I had some deeply buried feelings for her that even I didn’t know about until now...

......

Suddenly, a car horn rang behind our car. It was Murong Mingyue urging us to move faster. It was because I was the first and only player in Frost Cloud workshop to complete my fifth promotion quest, and they were in a hurry to pick up their fifth promotion skills as soon as possible!

I stepped on the gas and sped across the road.

We arrived at the bottom of our apartment less than two hours later. The girls rushed into the workshop excitedly, took a sip of water and went online immediately. They said that they would eat lunch only after they had completed their fifth promotion quest.

......

Swhoosh!

I appeared in Sky City. The city had already been renewed, and it looked as majestic and beautiful as ever. In fact, it was a lot spacier than before. It looked like this human empire was destined for greater, more prosperous times now that Karinshan had taken over.

I repaired my equipment, stocked up on potions and threw all the top-tier equipment I couldn’t use to Air Force One. By now, my shop had earned quite a bit of fame in Sky City. It had the highest turnover out of the dozen or so player shops currently operating in Sky City, although that also meant it paid the highest amount of tax.

I teleported to Dark Moon City, and a quick look at the map revealed that new resource bosses had respawned around the city. So, I went to hunt them with a group of Dark Knights and Umbra Sharpshooters. Right now, my stats were completely broken, so I didn’t fear any bosses at the same level as me!

It wasn’t long until I spotted a fearsome-looking black Greedy Wolf and a pack of Wildfire Greedy Wolves at the horizon. They were plotting to plunder Dark Moon City, but we quickly intercepted them. I ordered the Umbra Sharpshooters to shoot their arrows while I charged the Level 135 Purple Gold Rank boss. It was basically of no threat to me whatsoever!

“Roar roar!”

The Dark Wolf King roared angrily as it hit me with its claws. However, it only managed to do 400 or so damage per hit. So bad!

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

I raised my sword and used Ice Cyclone Domain!

Swhoosh!

The area around me immediately became covered in snow and ice. An icicle burst out of the ground, stabbed the Dark Wolf King painfully in the belly and lowered its attack speed and movement speed, its combat ability declining drastically!

I wanted to toy with the boss, so I raised my sword again and summoned four divine weapons from the sky. They surrounded the boss with pinpoint accuracy, created a sealing formation and locked it firmly in place! Very good, the God Binding Art was proving itself to be very useful so far. It was especially amazing in a boss fight!

I fired out a couple of Dragon Slaying Slashes before throwing the Heaven-stealing Sword. Sword Boomerang deleted at least ten thousand health from the boss’s HP. After that, I rushed forward and used Burning Blade Slash. The Dark Wolf King was incapable of defending itself against me at all.

The boss was almost dead in less than six minutes. It was at this moment the Silver Dragon Ring turned icy, and the Heaven-stealing Sword glowed brightly with light. A silver dragon circled the blade of my sword before flying toward the boss and causing a devastating explosion. By the time the storm subsided, the Dark Wolf King had already turned into a carcass. It had dropped a pile of resources and a golden chest!

My eyes lit up. Another chest!

I opened it and was rewarded with a card—[Beautiful Dryad (100)]: Rank 7 Elf Castle unit. Attack★★★★★★★, Defense★★★★★★. Transport Capacity: 700.

God dammit, it was a high-rank unit of an Elf Castle. Neither me nor Stranger of Three Lifetimes—her guild territory was a Human Castle—needed this, so I simply tossed it into my bag.

......

It was at this moment I heard a beep. It was a message from He Yi: “Are you free, Lu Chen? If you are, can you come to Sky City’s class skill trainer and help me?”

I smiled. She must’ve completed her fifth promotion quest but realized that she lacked the Strength to learn Barrier Break. That was why she was asking me to head over and help her.