New Age Of Glory

[The Forsaken Crypt - Inner Tomb]

The Forsaken Crypt dungeon was quite confusing if one were to play it for the first time. The amount of traps and ambushes from this dungeon numbered one of the highest in whole of Glory. Despite that, as long as one remembers the location of the trap and remembers where the ambushes are, they can simply skip them. Only, the map for this dungeon is like a maze, thus, normal player wouldn't be able to remember them at all.

For the man dubbed as the Glory textbook and former professional players though, this maze is simply a piece of cake. It was like taking a stroll. It did not take long for them to reach the boss area. At the center of the boss area stood the dungeon boss, 'Old King - Jeremiah'. Unlike the rest of the mobs in the dungeon, the armors that Jeremiah donned did not suffer any rusting, so they maintained their pristine look.

"Alright. The only thing that we need to be careful is his group AoE that he released once when he reached residual blood and entered berserk state, and another when his health is at 5%. At 10%, he will become more aggressive so there will barely be any opening shown. Just trade health when you can't help it," Ye Xiu explained.

"Trade health? We don't have healers," Wang Jiexi said.

"There is me?" Ye Xiu shamelessly replied.

"With your puny heals?" Han Wenqing chimed in.

"Old Han… don't you remember how many times this puny heals have saved you before?" Ye Xiu retorted. "There is this one time with the wild boss-"

Han Wenqing didn't bother to wait for Ye Xiu to finish talking and had already moved towards the boss. As soon as he entered the boss's range, Jeremiah changed his stance and went forward to engage Han Wenqing.

"Still passionate as always," Ye Xiu just sighed and controlled Lord Grim to join the battle. There was nothing much to say in this battle. Unlike the messy encounters of wild bosses, a dungeon bosses ending can only be said pitiful when met with this kind of line-up.

After hacking the last bit of the boss' health, 'Old King - Jeremiah' finally fell. The first thing that Ye Xiu did was checking the loot.

"Well? How is it? Did it drop?" Han Wenqing asked.

"Unfortunately, no. We'll have to go again tomorrow," Ye Xiu said with a sigh.

"Alright. Just call on me again whenever you need help. I still cannot get used to this… retired life," Han Wenqing said.

[Huang Shaotian: Old Han, didn't you become a coach?]

Everyone went silent the moment they saw the message that Huang Shaotian sent. Qiu Fei glanced at his side to see Ye Xiu's expression.

"I forgot you are still here," Ye Xiu simply said, addressing Huang Shaotian.

[Huang Shaotian: Old Ye!! I cannot believe you! You muted me and now you forgot about me? If it were not for me, do you think Old King Jeremiah will die this quick? I feel very wronged, ah! I don't care anymore! Come to the arena. Let's go pk! Pk Pk PK!! We will settle this with PK!!]

[System: Huang Shaotian was removed from the party]

Following the system message, Huang Shaotian's character disappeared from the dungeon. Not long after, Ye Xiu's QQ were bursting with notifications, all from Huang Shaotian asking Ye Xiu to come to the arena to PK. Ye Xiu simply set it to mute before he addressed the rest of the team. "Alright, this is it for today. We'll disband. Old Han, Old Wang, remember to rest your hands," Ye Xiu reminded the two before he exits the dungeon and logged off.

After that, he leaned back against his chair and gently massaged his hands. Qiu Fei noticed this and can't help voice out his concern. "Master, are you alright?"

"Hmm? Yes. My hand is just feeling tired after just one dungeon like this. It's normal. After all, I am not that young anymore," Ye Xiu replied in a relaxed manner.

"You are looking for a rare item drop from the Old King Jeremiah, right? Why not just let the guild do that?"

"No. The guild are the part of the professional team's asset," Ye Xiu replied. "They should only have their attention on helping the team. It's alright, I have others who will help me. Now that I'm not playing professionally, I can just take my time to upgrade the umbrella."

"What do master need from the boss?"

"Old King Jeremiah's Insignia. According to Luo Ji, this is the most important material to upgrade the umbrella's sword form. It's just that, the drop rate is less than 0.01% and even if you beat him in less than ten minutes, the chance of it dropping only increased to 0.5%," Ye Xiu sounded helpless as he explained it to Qiu Fei. "If only there is a way to play without straining my hand…"

Qiu Fei could relate to Ye Xiu's lament. If their condition didn't deteriorate, then let alone ten years, they would play until they are on their death bed.

"Ah!" Qiu Fei was suddenly reminded of something, then turned towards Steamed Bun who is still looking at his PC. "Brother Steamed Bun, Boss Chen said she have an errand for you after the dungeon. You should go and see her," Qiu Fei said and Steamed Bun quickly stood up.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier, ah! She must've waited for long already!" Steamed Bun said as he rushed to the stairs. But just as he was about to go up, Chen Guo was also running up the stairs.

"Guys!! It's here!!" Chen Guo said in an excited tone.

Hearing this, everyone present turned their heads towards Chen Guo who were holding a thick envelop. "The invitation to the Alliance Headquarter is here! This must be for that new system they had a meeting on few years ago! There are only three invitation though. Ye Xiu, I'll leave it to you on who to bring. But remember, the current professional player are not allowed to join the test," she reminded Ye Xiu as she handed the envelop over to him.

"The big boss can just leave it to me," Ye Xiu assured her.

"Good. Ah, yes. Steamed Bun, will come with me to go out and buy some meat? Since Qiu Fei is joining us officially today, let's have some barbecue to welcome him properly!" Chen Guo said as she pulled at Steamed Bun's hand.

"Ah, but boss!! I also want to join the test!" Steamed Bun said but Chen Guo will not hear any of it.

"Well, I'm going. So there are two invitation left. Who wants to go? The test will take place tomorrow and we'll have to stay there for three months for confidentiality purposes. Meal and living place will be provided," Ye Xiu said as he took out the content of the envelop. In it were three booklets, and three invitation letter.

"I won't be able to go. I promised Xiao Tang to attend her concert in Berlin next month with sister Chen," Su Mucheng answered.

"I also won't go," the next to answer was Mo Fan. Unlike most of retired professional player, Mo Fan went ahead to get a job. So now, one can say that he is an accomplished a.d.u.l.t with a stable job. Not to mention, Mo Fan actually has a family now.

"That leaves Xiao Fei and Yifan. If you two aren't going, then these two invitation will become void," Ye Xiu told the two.

"I can go. I've actually been waiting for this to come out ever since I heard of it," Qiao Yifan replied.

Qiu Fei was still confused about what they were talking about so he had to ask, "What is this invitation about?"

"Hmm… you've just retired yesterday so you haven't heard of it," Ye Xiu pushed one of the booklet towards Qiao Yifan and Qiu Fei. "Few years ago, the management for Glory noticed that the amount of player in the game was decreasing."

"Ah, yes. I remember the guild manager had reported that they can barely collect materials because they lacked players…" Qiu Fei said. "That was three years ago?"

"En. Even now, the number is dwindling, and in order to save the game, the company decided to work with the alliance and injects a huge amount of capital into the game's R&D department. They obtained the license for the patented technology and started to develop a new system that allows players to immerse themselves into the world of Glory," as Ye Xiu said this, he opened the booklet for Qiu Fei to see. "This is the new system they came up with."

Qiu Fei glanced at the booklet and couldn't help taking a sharp intake of breath. "Glory with Virtual Reality System?" he picked the booklet up and started reading. "This new system… rather than using keyboard and mouse as an input, they're using brainwaves? Is this… even safe?"

"The system was already tested for safety. What we're going to help them test is the functionality and its ease of use, as well as finding out if there's bugs when using the system. Once this system is launched, the Glory world will step into a new age. And old people like us may be able to return into the professional league," Ye Xiu said with a smile on his face, in his eyes, the fire of competition began burning once more.

Seeing this, Qiu Fei glanced down at the booklet and the invitation on the table once more. "I'll go. If Master returns to the professional league, are you going to make a new team?"

"A new team? That would depend on the big boss," Ye Xiu answered. "But I wouldn't mind making a new team. That way, I won't feel guilty for snatching the junior's place in the main roster."