Chapter 051: A Skill Book for Free

In "Legend of the Mage," when monsters are defeated, the items they drop on the ground are only clearly visible if they are clothing or weapons; jewelry is usually just a tiny dot, and players are reminded to pick them up by a periodic flash every few seconds.

Gold coins, however, are quite conspicuous on the ground. The size of a pile of coins visually represents the amount: piles of less than 100 coins appear as three coins, 200 coins as a slightly larger bundle, and so on with 500 and 1,000. A pile of 1,000 coins looks particularly enticing, but even if the amount exceeds 1,000—whether it’s 10,000 or a million—it will still be displayed as the largest pile of 1,000 coins.

After a deranged Taoist had thrown away all his belongings, he began tossing out money—piles of 1,000 at a time—nearly inciting a riot among the new players in the safe zone of Biqi. Layer upon layer, they swarmed around him, blocking every possible exit.

Perhaps finding this amusing, the mad Taoist—whose in-game name was “Little Demon God”—seemed to forget his original plan to delete his character and shouted gleefully, “Giving away money! Giving away money! Anyone who wants gold, come to the safe zone in Biqi!” His announcement further ignited the already frenzied crowd. Each fresh pile of gold sent the eyes of hundreds of new players bulging with greed. Those squeezed to the edges, desperate not to miss out, began stabbing wildly at those in front with whatever wooden clubs or short swords they had.

Standing right next to the bookstore owner at the edge of the safe zone, Little Demon God was astonished at the chaos he had caused and began spamming the chat: “Hurry up and grab free money! I’m throwing out ten thousand coins at a time!”

Instantly, the players outside the safe zone lost their minds, and the front rows of unsuspecting newbies fell in droves to the melee, screaming as they went down. Those in the back surged forward, getting closer to the makeshift millionaire at the center. This behavior spread like wildfire—soon the entire safe zone was in uproar, with players hacking at each other aimlessly while privately messaging friends and family: “Hurry! There’s an idiot in the Biqi safe zone throwing out gold and gear! Come and get it!”

This word-of-mouth frenzy drew a stampede of players from the Skeleton Cave, the Zombie Mine, Serpent Valley, and even as far as Mengzhong Province. What began as a brawl among a hundred new players near the safe zone quickly escalated into a citywide riot involving nearly a thousand people.

Some players, though failing to grab any gold, found themselves even more obsessed when they unexpectedly looted equipment from fallen players. No longer fighting for coins, they turned to ambushing others for gear instead.

But this only made things worse—those who turned “red-named” from killing other players soon became prey themselves, as others teamed up to hunt them down. The dead respawned in the safe zone, returning for revenge, and when red-named players dropped loads of equipment upon death, it drove the looters into a berserk frenzy, attacking anyone and everyone in sight.

No one would've thought that the first large-scale PK war in “Legend” would be ignited by a mad Taoist intent on quitting the game. It’s a pity if no one remembered his name, for he’d surely go down in legend.

In the chaos, it was unclear if Little Demon God was simply overjoyed or had become careless, but he was eventually overwhelmed by a horde of frenzied newbies, swarming him like ants on an elephant. Each time he tried to leave the safe zone, a mob pounced on him—not to wait for his next handout, but to kill him and loot his gear.

After being taken down twice this way, Little Demon God seemed to have had enough and disappeared into the crowd. Lin Jia, having been squeezed into the safe zone at the very start, escaped the slaughter. He watched the mayhem and the chaotic shouts from within, unable to contain his laughter.

One moment someone would shout, “Kill that idiot for his gear!” Another would retort, “You fool! He’s already dropped all his equipment! Don’t kill him—wait for more gold!” Then someone else would chime in, “Quick, kill Little Demon God for gold!”

Lin Jia almost fell off his chair laughing. It seemed these new players didn’t realize that, unlike equipment, gold isn’t dropped when a player dies.

After the dust settled, countless bright-red-named players roamed Biqi. Some, straying too close to the city’s sword or archer guards, would be greeted by a sharp, mournful cry as they were struck down. The chaos sent a wave of red-named exiles to the infamous “Red Village” in Mengzhong.

Seeing the excitement dying down and the peak having passed, Lin Jia finally remembered that his boss had asked him to wake up their fourth companion. He wondered why his boss hadn’t checked in for so long and glanced over to see him chatting with another player in a small house in Mengzhong’s main city. Not wanting to disturb him, Lin Jia decided to switch to his main account and go level up. Just as he was about to log out, he remembered he’d been one of the first to snatch goodies from the mad Taoist and hadn’t checked what he’d picked up in all the chaos.

Opening his inventory, he was pleasantly surprised: not only had he grabbed thirty thousand gold coins, but also several bundles of super potions and a dozen skill books. Among them was a Level 22 skill, “Furious Flame”—a spell Lin Jia had never managed to obtain. There was also a Level 25 Warrior skill, “Assassination Sword Technique,” and others he’d never even heard of: “Half-Moon Blade,” “Savage Charge,” “Demon Binding Curse,” “Summon Divine Beast,” “Infernal Thunder”—all high-level skills. The Taoist’s “Summon Divine Beast” required Level 35 to learn.

Lin Jia realized he’d stumbled upon a treasure trove—skill books that he and his friends could use. Some were duplicates, so he could sell the extras to other players. Since the bookstore only sold low-level skill books under Level 20, high-level skills were in great demand. But where had that Taoist found so many advanced skill books? The drop rate for skill books in the Fragrant Stone Tomb was high, but Lin Jia’s group had never found such high-level ones. Perhaps there were maps dedicated to dropping advanced skills, otherwise, how would that Taoist have gotten so many?

He decided it was best to store these safely away. They might not be precious equipment, but they’d save his group the trouble of hunting for their desired skills later.

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[Announcement: Brothers, the book is in urgent need of supporting characters. If you’d like to volunteer, please leave a message in the pinned post in the review section following the format!

Also, I’ve already burned down my own house! No need for you to come! The “mysterious game” that was supposed to launch its open beta today has been postponed; the internal testers are now wanted, and the developers have fled with the donations, leaving us all hanging. So, I very responsibly set my own house on fire... The official launch date for the “mysterious game” will be announced later!

There will be another chapter around midnight as an apology!]