Chapter 9: The Bet

  Zhou Jian logged into the "Shenmo" forum, and only then did he learn that just a few hours ago, news had come from the European forum that their Dream Team had been completely wiped out. Although they had relied on excellent equipment and powerful combat strength to beat the boss to near-black blood, in the end, their heavy shield warrior was also blown away by the boss's explosive shockwave, and two thieves who were too close were instantly killed.

  Then, like a boss who had taken stimulants, he charged into the mage squad like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, and began to slaughter them wildly, all in the blink of an eye.

  Although the hunters in their team reacted quickly, due to the casting delay of skills, by the time he set up the binding trap, two mages had already fallen into a pool of blood. Originally, they were struggling to cope with the boss who hadn't been weakened by Pandora's seal, and after losing two mages, they basically had no hope left. In the end, due to insufficient healing, the shield warrior died, resulting in a complete wipeout. The boss was left with just a sliver of health, and they were only one step away from success.

  The news of the European Dream Team's defeat highlights the difficulty of the Huaxia region's Tianzun team winning the Devil's Nest, and the players in the Huaxia region are extremely excited. Although the first batch of people to pass the new instance were not them, this does not hinder their excitement, after all, they are all compatriots of Huaxia.

  The top post on the Huaxia God Forum homepage, "Uncovering the Secrets of the New Instance Devil's Nest - An Exclusive Interview with the Core Members of the Tianzun Team", has easily broken 10 million clicks.

  Zhou Jian opened this post, he thought the one being interviewed should be the captain of the Tianzun team, Duanle's Military Knife, but unexpectedly the interviewee was Xiao Bai Tu Nai Tang.

  It's normal to think about it, the broken military knife seems to be a low-key person who doesn't like to show off, while Little White Rabbit Lollipop is probably only 16 or 17 years old, and such a little girl naturally wants to become the focus of public attention.

  In the interview video, Xiaobai Tuzi exaggerated her role in the process of running the副本, but other than that, everything else is basically true.

  Xiaobai Tangerine naturally mentioned the key figure in this copy - Gui Sha, although she looked very unhappy when mentioning Gui Sha, but it didn't stop Gui Sha's name from being known by tens of millions of players in the Huaxia region.

  Under this top post, follow various players' guesses about the identity of Dark Sword.

  Zhou Jian thought for a while and began to ponder the value of this news to himself. He had become famous, how could he use this to make money?

  After some thought, Zhou Jian used his own account to post a thread on the forum titled "I am Dark Sword".

  "Hello everyone, I am Dark Sword. I see many of you are curious about my identity. Rather than letting you guess randomly, I'll just announce it myself. I used to be a professional soldier in the special forces, but now I've retired and become a bounty hunter, taking on various high-risk missions, including capturing fugitives, apprehending villains, killing ferocious beasts, and escorting valuable goods transportation."

  "Also, teams with full purple equipment above level 33 can also contact me to get through the new instance Demon's Nest, price negotiable."

  "Contact email: ××××××, no spam."

  Zhou Jian originally wanted to write QQ contact information, but thought QQ was unprofessional and changed it to email.

  As soon as this post was sent out, it immediately received a large number of clicks, and many people followed up with cheers. After all, the profession of bounty hunter is too mysterious, but Zhou Jian's ID cannot be fake, and the poster must be Dark Sword himself without a doubt.

  After browsing through the comments next to his computer, Zhou Jian felt a thrill of excitement in his heart. This was an unexpected surprise for him, and he believed that posting such a post at this moment would have a better effect than brushing a thousand advertisements.

  But soon Xiao Yin called again, "Wow, I didn't expect you to be a special forces soldier, and even the legendary bounty hunter. It's not very nice of you not to tell your brother about such an interesting thing first."

  Zhou Jian suddenly felt a severe headache, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Well, I was originally going to tell you, but I'm afraid you won't believe me."

  "Faith, how can you not believe? Since you're so sincere, I'll tell you a secret too. Actually, I'm a Super Saiyan who's been guarding the Earth for several hundred years now, and I've disguised myself as a student. You mustn't tell anyone, okay?"

  “……”

  Zhou Jian was speechless for a moment, then directly hung up the phone that was chatting casually. He no longer cared about the forum and logged in to "Shen Mo" again. As soon as he went online, there were messages flashing in his inbox. When he opened it, it read: "You will die very ugly." The signature was Liu Shui Wu Yi.

  Zhou Jian resolutely pulled the water without intention, Huaxia district is not just a Pan Gu city, can't afford to provoke you and hide, go to another city, the world is so big, don't believe you can find it, wait for Laozi's kung fu to be completed, will definitely come back to kill you to zero level.

  Zhou Jian directly found the transmission NPC, wanting to go to Nüwa City located in the East of Huaxia District. Looking at the cost, 1000 gold coins, it's really black-hearted. Going once costs 10 RMB, transmitting once or twice is okay, but more than that would be painful. In Shenmo, as long as a player goes offline and then online again, they will automatically return to their city. Zhou Jian belongs to the citizens of Pangu City, so returning to the city naturally means returning to Pangu City, unless using a coordinate flag for positioning. And the price of one coordinate flag is not more or less, also 10 RMB.

  In other words, if Zhou Jian doesn't plan on mixing up the ancient city, then next time he goes online it'll cost ten bucks.

  There is a way to get it done once and for all, which is to become a citizen of Nüwa City, but that requires paying a not-so-small amount of relocation fees, which isn't cheap either.

  When Zhou Jian was practicing in the Skull Cave, he was always on high alert, fearing that Liu Shui would unintentionally seek revenge and come to his door. However, the distance between Nüwa City and Pangu City was very far, and even if Liu Shui had eyes and ears everywhere, it was unlikely that he could find him so quickly.

  Zhou Jian had been cultivating steadily for an hour when his Heavenly Message suddenly rang. He looked at the ID and was surprised to see that it was Qingyun Fairy.

  "Are you free? I've booked a table at Su Feng Restaurant and would like to thank you in person."

  Qingyun Fairy refers to Zhou Jian's lifesaving grace in the copy, if it wasn't for Zhou Jian, she would have nothing to do with the system's reward.

  Zhou Jian was currently in the midst of leveling up and didn't want to give it up, so he declined returning to Pangu City, which would have wasted his teleportation fee. He brushed it off, saying, "No need to thank me, Fairy, you're being too polite."

  "Hehe, Master Dark Sword, why don't you come over? It's about the post you made on the forum this afternoon." The last sentence was not spoken in the public chat, but rather through private messaging. Zhou Jian's heart skipped a beat - a post? Could it be a business opportunity?"

  "Alright, I'll go right away."

  After returning to the city, Zhou Jian didn't even bother to log off and back on again, directly using an NPC to teleport to Pangu City, then rushing straight to Su Feng Zhai.

  Su Feng Zhai is one of the top restaurants in Pangu City, known for its elegant decor and profound cultural heritage. Those who come to dine here may not be Confucian scholars, but at least they are high-end intellectuals.

  Although eating in a virtual network can't fill your stomach, the enjoyment of taste is exactly the same as in reality, and players will also experience the feeling of going from hunger to fullness. However, once you exit the game, that feeling of fullness completely disappears, and you still need to eat. Despite this, many high-income individuals come to Su Feng Zhai to eat because the prices here are only one-tenth of those in real-life restaurants of the same level.

  Moreover, the most important thing is that virtual food can satisfy women's needs. Here, you can eat to your heart's content without worrying about getting fat - ice cream, butter cake, chocolate, eat as much as you like.

  Zhou Jian arrived at the private room booked by Qingyun Xianzi, where there was another person - Xiao Bai Tu Naigai.

  Today, the fairy in light cloud didn't wear Taoist robe, but wore a white long skirt, matching her extraordinary temperament, having some flavor of not eating worldly smoke and fire.

  Xiaobai Tuzi wore a cartoon t-shirt and jeans, her tight-fitting clothes perfectly showcasing her newly developed figure, leaving people with endless imagination.

  In such an exquisite pavilion, chatting with two beauties over wine, indeed makes one's heart and soul hard to calm down. Zhou Jian took a deep breath, calming his emotions: "Miss Fairy is too polite, didn't expect Little White Rabbit Lollipop Miss to come, it's truly an honor." Zhou Jian had never experienced such a high-end occasion before, he could only recall the scenes of banquets on TV, making himself speak as gentlemanly as possible.

  Light Cloud Fairy smiled and said: "Mr. Dark Sword is indeed hard to invite, I rarely invite others, and even less often get rejected."

  Zhou Jian smiled and said: "How could I refuse a fairy, isn't that why I rushed here immediately..."

  Just as Zhou Jian was saying this, Xiao Bai Tu's eyes widened and he spat out two words, "Hypocrite."

  Zhou Jian felt a bit embarrassed, and Qingyun Xianzi gave Xiaobai Tuzi a reproachful look. "Mr. Dark Sword, let's eat first, the food here is very authentic."

  Zhou Jian chuckled twice and said, "Let's talk about the main issue first."

  When it comes to the main topic, the smile on Qingyun's face suddenly disappeared a lot, and Zhou Jian even saw a hint of worry between her eyebrows. She put down her chopsticks, tidied up her hair and said: "Let's talk privately."

  "Good."

  Light Cloud Fairy said: "Although I know Mr. Dark Sword, but since it involves some very important things to me, I still need to confirm your identity first. May I ask, have you ever registered with the Bounty Hunter Association? Do you have a professional guarantor?"

  Bounty Hunter Association? Professional Guarantor? Zhou Jian was confused for a moment, he didn't understand the profession of bounty hunter at all, thinking it was just one side paying and the other side using force, didn't think it would be so complicated.

  Zhou Jian knew that making up lies at this time was useless. The young woman in front of him, although not very old, was probably from a wealthy family and had seen more of the world than he had. He could only answer truthfully: "I haven't registered before, nor do I have a guarantor. To be honest, I've just started working and this is the first time I've heard of these two things."

  "Really? I've never heard of it before?" Yunxiao was slightly astonished.

  "Alright, I'll be honest with you, actually you're my first client."

  "First?" Qingyun Xianzi was somewhat speechless and also a bit disappointed, "So you're just having a sudden whim, wanting to be a bounty hunter, but don't understand the industry at all?"

  "No, I've thought it through," Zhou Jian said with a confident smile. "Actually, I think you don't need to pursue whether or not I've done this line of work before. You just need to worry about whether or not I can do well the task you give me, right?"

  "Alright, let's continue. You mentioned in your post that you used to serve in a special forces unit. I'd like to know the unit number and your military ID number, if possible? No other meaning, it's just that my current environment is quite delicate and I need to be extremely cautious."

  "Hmm..." Zhou Jian was suddenly speechless, he felt that this woman was not easy to deal with, at least he couldn't handle her. Although Zhou Jian's IQ was not low, he had never been in contact with these fields before and had no experience whatsoever. He could only tell the truth: "Actually, I'm not a special forces soldier, I wrote that on the post just to attract customers. However, although I didn't come from the special forces, my skills are definitely not weaker than theirs."

  The disappointment on the face of the fairy maiden grew thicker, and she was now certain of two things. Firstly, Dark Sword would not be a spy sent by that person to test herself. With that person's style of doing things, he would absolutely not find someone with a resume full of loopholes, who was obviously amateurish, to impersonate him. He would definitely find a seasoned bounty hunter or a genuine special forces soldier, at least someone whose background she couldn't investigate. Secondly, Dark Sword's abilities were probably very limited. In China, there were some mountain hermits and wild road practitioners whose skills were basically passed down from their ancestors. It was difficult to find masters among such people, but they often had an exaggerated sense of self-importance because they hadn't seen the world. Zhou Jian was likely from such a family, and at his young age, he probably hadn't even mastered the skills passed down by his ancestors, let alone fought against that person.

  Thinking of this, Qingyun Xianzi let out a sigh of helplessness. She was indeed too naive to think that she could find a bounty hunter to solve the matter by posting an ad on the forum. Even if there really were such skilled bounty hunters, they wouldn't possibly end up in a situation where they had to post ads on the forum.

  She forced a smile and said: "Mr. Dark Sword, let's eat, the dishes will get cold later."

  Although Zhou Jian had little experience, he was not stupid. He knew that because of his terrible answers, the Light Cloud Fairy had already mentally eliminated him.

  Zhou Jian himself was also helpless. A young man with no background wanting to enter this line, naturally encountered many difficulties. He said: "I don't know where the fairy's home is?"

  "Huh?"

  "What you hear may be false, but what you see is true. Are you brave enough to make a bet with me?"

  "Oh? What's the bet?" Light Cloud Fairy showed some interest.

  Zhou Jian thought for a moment and said: "I think the fairy's headdress is very beautiful, I think you also have similar headdresses in reality, tell me one, and I'll get it for you."