Chapter 72: The Old Man Lost His Horse—Who Knows If It Isn't a Blessing?

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Lin Jia looked on in despair at the young mage named “Little Rascal,” shouting, “Hurry up, you guys! There’s a little mage picking up my stuff!” At the same time, his fingers flew over the keyboard, desperately trying to distract the little mage.

“Hey man! At least leave me a couple of bundles! Don’t take everything!”

Little Rascal: “…I’m picking! I’m picking!”

“Come on! I’m talking to you! How can you just take someone else’s things? That’s just not right!”

Little Rascal: “…I’m picking! I’m picking! I’ll throw some back as I go!”

Lin Jia was at his wit’s end, watching with teary eyes as Little Rascal scooped up even the very last random teleport scroll from the ground, muttering, “Damn! He really can pick! Doesn’t he ever bring anything with him? How big is his bag?”

Just then, Boss and Fourth arrived almost simultaneously. Fourth immediately barked, “Where’s the stuff?!”

Lin Jia, utterly defeated, curled his lips and said, “That little mage took it all! Damn! Is he a scavenger or something? He didn’t even spare a single worthless Sea Soul…”

At the mention of the Sea Soul, both Boss and Fourth bristled. What was the Sea Soul? That was money! That was hard cash! Without hesitation, they unleashed flying talismans, twin poisons, pork ribs, and the Killing Sword Technique, all raining down on the little mage’s head. Lin Jia, crushed, clicked the revive button and returned to town to recover. So what if they killed the little mage? The Sea Soul was already gone. Did they expect it to drop again?

After logging back in, Lin Jia squeezed out of the safe zone, seething, and rushed toward the warehouse, planning to find a spare weapon to take revenge on those guys hogging the Fragrant Stone Tomb. Using numbers to bully the few, huh?

Fate is fickle, disaster and fortune are unpredictable!

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As the saying goes, “A blessing in disguise.”

Three and a quarter seconds later, these words echoed in Lin Jia’s mind. When he reached the shack behind the warehouse in Mud City, “whoosh! whoosh!”—two figures fell from the sky, landing in a tangled heap right in front of him, both letting out cries of pain.

For a good half second, Lin Jia was stunned by the loot scattered everywhere. Then, moving faster than the system’s speed limit, he lunged forward and grabbed a Sea Soul and two unidentifiable pieces of jewelry. The surrounding horde of players then swarmed in and cleaned up the rest.

Fourth cursed loudly beside him, “Damn! That punk actually teleported?! Wait, if he teleported, why did I get a murder warning?”

Lin Jia grinned like a fool as he stared at the contents of his bag, making his two buddies beside him worry he’d lost his mind from the shock. Boss tried to comfort him, “Second, come on! It’s just a Sea Soul! Gone is gone! Let it go, don’t be upset!”

After a couple of silly laughs, Lin Jia pointed at the new items in his bag:

Sea Soul: Magic 1-5

Coral Ring: Level 25 required, Attack 0-4, Durability 5, Weight 1

Gold Ring: Level 22 required, Magic Defense 0-3, Attack 1-1, Magic 1-3, Taoism 1-3, Durability 5, Weight 1

This Gold Ring, compared to the Demon-Banishing Ring, has a lower level requirement—just 22—but only a handful of Taoist players have it. Its attributes also differ from the one that dropped off the Taoist who died on the first level of the Fragrant Stone Tomb, with an extra m1d2 attribute. With so many stats, and an additional rare attribute point, it was at least as valuable as the ring Boss had previously swindled from Lin Jia, maybe even more so, since it had 1-3 magic and 1-3 Taoism—a perfect item for both Taoists and mages!

The Sea Soul and Coral Ring had dropped from the two guys now lying on the ground—one was Little Rascal, the young mage, the other was a heavily armored warrior named “Conquer the World in Underwear.” What puzzled Lin Jia was that Little Rascal’s luck was incredibly bad: after snatching the loot, not only did he get killed, but he also experienced a “flying corpse” just like Lin Jia had earlier. Not only that, but he somehow managed to die right in front of Lin Jia, and even more unlucky, he dropped the Sea Soul he’d just picked up. This massive reversal made Lin Jia want to leap up and laugh at the sky.

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As for “Conquer the World in Underwear,” he was even unluckier. Judging by his level, he didn’t seem like he should have been carrying a ring that required level 25, yet he had one in his bag and got killed for it. To make matters worse, he died alongside Little Rascal, gifting Lin Jia a high-attack Coral Ring the likes of which had never been seen on the market. Lin Jia didn’t know if anyone else had one, but it wasn’t listed on the official game site—meaning it was definitely a rare treasure!

Boss and Fourth stared as Lin Jia gleefully equipped the Sea Soul and the Gold Ring, replacing his old Iron Ring (Defense 0-2, Magic 0-2). His magic power climbed another point, reaching a terrifying 25!

[Note: For ease of reading, equipment attributes will henceforth be labeled as: f = magic power, f = defense, d = Taoism, g = attack power]

The two unfortunate souls on the ground had already revived and left, while Boss and Fourth returned to Mud City using their town portal scrolls to regroup with Lin Jia. Boss eyed the Gold Ring on Lin Jia’s hand, drooling, “Second, give me that ring! It’s got 1-3 Taoism and 1-1 attack! It’s perfect for me. You’re just wasting it…”

Lin Jia replied grumpily, “You need to be level 22 to wear it! When you hit the level, I’ll give it to you. Let me use it for now!” Boss could only look forlornly at his level 21 character. Fourth, on the other hand, was ecstatic. “Wow! Second, you’re amazing! You die once and still manage to luck into such awesome gear? I’ve never seen a warrior with something like that! Give it to me!”

After forcibly trading the Coral Ring from Lin Jia, Fourth grinned from ear to ear and turned to Lin Jia, “So what now? Are we still going for revenge?”

Just as Lin Jia was about to answer, “Conquer the World in Underwear,” who had lost his Coral Ring, sent a message: “Hey, did you pick up my Coral Ring? Could you give it back?”

Lin Jia hesitated. Give it back?

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[Note: Spent the evening playing on a private server with a few buddies. That server is actually pretty fun—I almost didn’t want to log off…]