Let’s make some preparations first, Nie Yan thought. He headed to the Starry Night Potion Shop to stock up on consumables. Since he planned to stay in the underworld for a long time, he filled all his bags to the brim. With everything taken care of, he left Okoron and headed north toward Judgement Valley.

The Dark Portal was still on cooldown for quite a while. Without it, he could only enter this way.

This was Nie Yan’s first time traversing Judgement Valley to reach the underworld. In the previous timeline, he didn’t dare to take such a dangerous journey since he depended on this game to make a living. But now, things were different. Even if the underground passage was completely occupied by Evil Faction players, he would still enter without the slightest hesitation.

Nie Yan passed through the dense forest in Judgement Valley. He encountered many players from both factions roaming around. They engaged in a game of kill or be killed with each other. The players here were pretty much all experts and only came for two things—equipment and Glory!

Nie Yan flitted through the forest, heading for the underground passage located deep in the valley.

...

Near the edge of Judgement Valley, in a small forest neighbouring Okoron, five players had just wrapped up a battle. A Spectral Thief and drow Slayer were keeping watch. Meanwhile, the drow Dark Invoker, fallen human Dark Invoker, and fallen human Dark Zealot sat on the grass and drank spring water to recover their mana.

They were in the middle of a conversation.

“Messy, how close are you to ranking up to a General?” the Spectral Thief asked the Slayer.

“I’m only five Glory away. We just need to kill a few passersby, and I’ll rank up,” the drow Slayer replied after glancing at his status screen.

“You’re the slowest out of all of us. You know what, in a bit, leave the party and kill a few players yourself. We’ll meet back up in the underworld later to restock on supplies,” the Spectral Thief said after checking his bag.

“Alright.”

The leader of this party was clearly the Spectral Thief. He wore a silver ashen set of leather armour. It was the Level 130 Legendary-grade Dark Adherence Set. This set didn’t give much bonuses to health and defense. Most of its bonuses were geared toward enhancing skills. It was battlefield armour that could be bought from an NPC shop once your Glory passed a certain threshold. It was fairly cheap.

Battlefield equipment was different from ordinary equipment. Where ordinary equipment gave a lot of advantages when facing monsters, battlefield equipment did the same for facing players.

“Black Pupil, how far away are you from becoming a Great General?”

“Still a far way off, likely a few more months,” the Spectral Thief replied.

“Boss, I just got a report. That guy who has the Death God’s Edge is making his way towards Judgement Valley,” the Dark Zealot said.

“Isn’t the Death God’s Edge in Nirvana Flame’s hands?”

“That’s just a rumour. Not confirmed. I’m guessing it’s fake news spread by others trying to scare the competition off.”

“In any case, that guy seems to be heading for the underground passage. Do you think he’s going to the underworld?”

“Maybe someone got the Death God’s Edge and is going back to turn in the quest!”

Everyone turned to Black Pupil and waited for his response.

“Boss, what do we do?”

“Follow him. Let’s investigate first!” the Spectral Thief said after rubbing his chin.

The team got back up on their feet and set off toward the underground passage in Judgement Valley. The Spectral Thief suddenly accelerated with Gale Step. The other four instantly lost sight of him.

...

Nie Yan had forgotten something. The Death God’s Edge in his possession was something the entirety of the Evil Faction coveted. From the moment he entered Judgement Valley, countless players had already taken notice. Just what sort of waves would he create when he reached the underworld?

While Nie Yan was making his way towards the underground passage, Bladelight and the others had already entered World’s Edge. Registering under Asskickers United’s name, they started clearing the dungeon. This development instantly attracted the attention of the entire server.

Major powers like Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group had already dispatched players to World’s Edge. Exploration of this dungeon was quite difficult. Angel Corps had made the most progress, having already taken down 120 bosses. The guilds under the Century Financial Group had taken down 90. Meanwhile, the best of the rest had barely taken down 45 bosses. Asskickers United, on the other hand, hadn’t even set foot in the place in these past five month. This left everyone baffled. Because of this, they had already fallen far behind their rivals. Just what were they doing? It was precisely because of this curiosity that when Asskickers United finally did enter, it generated even more discussion on the forums.

“Asskickers United was probably raising their equipment quality before entering World’s Edge.”

“After falling behind by so much, I doubt it’ll be possible for them to catch up.”

Everyone was talking about Asskickers United’s elite expedition team and them finally entering World’s Edge.

After Bladelight and the others entered World’s Edge, they completely wiped away all doubts.

They started blitzing through the dungeon. In the first five minutes, they had already taken down the first boss. This was definitely the speed record. However, this was only the beginning. 15 minutes later, they had taken down the third boss. They progressed through the dungeon at an astonishing speed.

Every boss in World’s Edge had special skills. While the other guilds had struggled to learn the correct techniques to beat each boss, wiping countless times in the progress, Asskickers United were steamrolling through them like it was nothing. Their equipment quality had reached a frightening level, they were experienced in hunting bosses as a team, and they had some information on these bosses.

Asskickers United’s progression speed left everyone slack-jawed. In only three hours, they had already taken down five bosses.

A system announcement popped up.

The forums immediately went into an uproar.

“My god! Asskickers United took down the first five bosses in only three hours! Are they still human!?”

“I heard everyone in their 1,000-man expedition team has at least two pieces of Level 130 Sub Legendary-grade equipment, while more than 100 among them have Legendary-grade equipment. The average magic power of their Mages is over 6,000!”

“I heard Nirvana Flame isn’t even with them. Can you imagine how much faster they would be if he was!?”

Bladelight finished off the Level 160 Variant Lord-class Bloody Butcher. After collecting the loot off the ground, he checked the announcement and asked, “What’s the additional reward?”

The leader of the expedition team was Smoke Stub. So, the reward was deposited into his inventory.

“It’s a new kind of catapult blueprint. It has a range of 2,000 and a damage multiplier of 300%. It’s prety decent,” Smoke Stub said. This kind of blueprint was extremely important to Asskickers United. It was even more valuable than a piece of Sub Legendary or Legendary-grade equipment.

“We’ve really struck it big. Let’s keep going. Our goal is fifteen bosses before the end of the day!” Bladelight said in high spirits.

Asskickers United’s shocking achievements immediately caused Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group to feel a lot of pressure. Just what was this freakish progression speed? It was simply inhuman! It’d taken them over half a week to clear the first five bosses, and they had wiped quite a few times. Comparing side by side, the difference was instantly obvious! For the sake of not letting Asskickers United catch up to them, Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group tried to pick up the pace. However, as the adage goes, “Haste makes waste.”

When Nie Yan received news of Bladelight and the others’ progress, he faintly smiled. It was just as he anticipated. A sharpened knife was much better at carrying out the work. This affirmed his belief that not entering World’s Edge immediately and focusing on raising their equipment quality first was the correct choice. At their current strength, Bladelight and the others would have no problem advancing through World’s Edge.

The entrance to the underground tunnel was already within sight. The deep cavern was located within a mountain. It was winding and allowed very little light to enter.

Nie Yan surveyed the surroundings before finding an isolated corner and setting up a marker. Like this, he could freely teleport here at any time.

Just as Nie Yan approached the entrance to the underground passage, a Thief came sneaking over. They stopped at around 100 meters away from him and activated a stealth buffing skill.

Nie Yan suddenly sensed something off. His eyebrows jumped. An enemy Thief!

His powerful senses allowed him to sense even the tiniest rustle in the grass. He had instantly detected the Thief!

Eye of Truth!

Nie Yan’s eyes suddenly blossomed with a profound light as he looked over toward the Thief.

A faint silhouette entered Nie Yan’s eyes. However, in an instant, the Thief turned around and fled at a fairly quick speed. He withdrew his gaze and continued heading towards the passage. He couldn’t be bothered to give chase. Meeting these sorts of players in the wilderness was too common.