Han Ming opened his eyes. The scene around him no longer felt familiar. This wasn’t a respawn point in the game world. That was enough to convince him that yesterday hadn’t been a dream—he really had come back!
“Brother Ming, are you up? Breakfast is ready.” The clear voice of a young girl came from outside the door. She was An'an, the youngest of the three people he’d met yesterday.
After changing into the new clothes he’d bought yesterday, Han Ming opened the door and gave the girl a slight smile. “Good morning, An'an.”
His attitude was completely different from yesterday’s indifference, and the girl looked a little flustered by the unexpected warmth. Her cheeks turned faintly red. “Good morning! Come on, let’s get breakfast. Mo Li and Brother Xue Yun are already waiting for you downstairs.”
“You didn’t have to wait for me. You could’ve eaten first.” Han Ming followed An'an downstairs. They were staying at an inn in the human camp, where a room cost fifty World Coins per person per night—a hefty sum for ordinary people.
Since they couldn’t afford a house and didn’t dare stay out in the wild at night, Xue Yun and the others had to go out every day to search for treasure and hunt low-level monsters to earn World Coins. There were plenty of bottom-tier adventurers like them, and it wasn’t uncommon for some to head out and never come back.
After exchanging greetings, Han Ming sat down with Xue Yun, Mo Li, and An'an to enjoy breakfast. Many of the ingredients were familiar items from the game, usually consumables that restored HP or MP. Now they’d become common foods for humans—and still had the same effects they’d had in the game.
Even this simple breakfast cost dozens of World Coins. Life at the bottom of this world was getting harder and harder, but there were still plenty of opportunities waiting to be discovered!
“Let’s pick up where we left off yesterday. I don’t like dragging things out.” After breakfast, Han Ming got straight to the point. Now that he knew how much purple gear was worth, he could barely wait. As the whole human race leveled up over time, its value would keep falling. The sooner he got his hands on it, the more he could sell it for!
Naturally, none of them objected. With a mysterious expert like Han Ming leading the way, exploring the wild was practically risk-free. Not everyone got a chance like this.
Plenty of people came and went from the human camp every day. Many didn’t want to take on the lowest-level service jobs, so they joined the Adventurers' Guild and went out into the wild in search of greater possibilities.
“By the way, Brother Ming, can I ask what class you are?” An'an followed behind Han Ming like a curious little kid, peppering him with questions the whole way.
Han Ming was happy to talk about the game. After all, people played online games to talk and compete with other players, and he was no exception.
“My class focuses on Enhanced Reloading. I’m a Gunner.” Of course, he wasn’t about to reveal his hidden class, Godhunter. In a world so different from what he knew, he had to keep as much of his strength hidden as possible, or someone with ulterior motives might take advantage of him.
Xue Yun rubbed his chin. “A Gunner, huh? I played Infinite Fantasy before, but I never got too deep into it. I don’t know much about Gunners.”
Han Ming wasn’t worried about being found out. He’d won the world championship, sure, but hidden classes weren’t allowed in professional tournaments. He’d competed using a special tournament account, and his class had been the standard third-advancement Gunner class, Dark Gun Sovereign.
In practice, Godhunter wasn’t that different from Dark Gun Sovereign. Its only advantage was access to Godhunter-exclusive skills and an exclusive ultimate skill. Below level 60, the first- and second-advancement skills were exactly the same.
He also couldn’t pretend to be a Dark Gun Sovereign. Far too many people had played Infinite Fantasy, and everyone knew it was a third-advancement class. You had to be at least level 60 to advance a third time, so he’d draw suspicion in no time. He didn’t want to reveal himself that soon.
“So it is a hidden class! Brother Ming, you’re amazing!” In just half a day, An'an had already been won over by Han Ming’s strength. Now, everything about him seemed great to her.
Han Ming nodded. “It’s just a pretty common class. Gunners have four skill branches: Gun Techniques, Enhanced Reloading, Mechanics, and Heavy Weapons. Gun Techniques combine martial arts and marksmanship, along with some buff skills. Enhanced Reloading adds special effects to bullets to give them different abilities. Mechanics and Heavy Weapons are self-explanatory: building machines and using heavy weapons, with the latter specializing in wide-area attacks.”
“Then is the type you’re good at the strongest, Brother Ming?” Before the world turned into a game, she hadn’t been interested in games at all. But now she was full of curiosity. The game world wasn’t nearly as boring as she’d imagined.
“Every class has its own strengths. I’m good at burst damage against a single powerful enemy. Heavy Weapons users, on the other hand, excel at fighting several enemies at once, and their range is greater than any other class’s.” Han Ming’s class actually had pitifully few AoE skills. Yesterday’s Piercing Shot counted as one.
Following the marker, Han Ming returned to the place he’d left yesterday. The Man-Eating Flower King was still there. It wasn’t because the area was remote; the adventurers here were simply too low-level to pose a real threat to it.
“Today’s target is that thing. Once we kill the Man-Eating Flower King, you should all be able to reach level 10.” Han Ming took out his weapon and entered combat stance. “Don’t get too far from me. The monsters here are high-level. If you’re not careful, they could kill you in one hit.”
Han Ming’s warning made them all tense. They didn’t doubt him. Getting killed in one hit here meant really dying. Han Ming was protecting them, but who could guarantee nothing would go wrong?
Han Ming could see their hesitation. “If you’re scared, you can wait outside. I’ll take care of the boss quickly and meet up with you afterward. Then I can take you to a somewhat safer area to level up.”
“No, we believe in you!” Xue Yun thought it over briefly, then turned him down. If they couldn’t even manage to coast to victory, then this was as far as they’d ever get. The more dangerous the place, the greater the opportunity. A chance to change their fate was worth risking their lives for!
Han Ming smiled and nodded, then led them closer to the building. Within ten meters of it, the ground around them split open, and countless thorn-covered vines burst out. They were the Man-Eating Flower King’s guardian plants, protecting the building’s entrance.
But these creatures were low-level, only around level 15. Any player above level 10 could normally handle them. They were trash among trash, and Han Ming couldn’t be bothered with them. “I’ll blast the entrance open first, then clear out the monsters along the way. That should save us some time.”
『Enhanced Loading: Empowered Round』!
Empowered Round was a level 30 Enhanced Reloading skill. It fired a condensed-energy bullet at a target, and the bullet exploded on impact. Its damage wasn’t especially high, but it had a fairly wide area of effect, making it perfect for clearing out these weaklings.
But what no one—not even Han Ming—expected was that the explosion from that bullet would wipe out the entire first through fifth floors of the building!
