FreeMilk saw Jiang Qiao’s message, and her first reaction was, ‘Dungeon crawling? Fine, but you have to pay extra.’

‘How much?’ Jiang Qiao was already accustomed to how hung up she was on money, and even though she was cheap and a penny-pincher, she was extremely good at her job.

She was the first place player on the Sacred Souls Leaderboard, a Level 32 Bishop.

Bishop was the next step in class advancement of Priest, and not a class change, so it only further increased the healing abilities the Priest had, as well as letting them be able to cast several handy buffs.

‘Which dungeon are you going to challenge? I can’t let you pass all of the money for your party for yourself, I’m going to get money from them one by one.’ FreeMilk knew that Jiang Qiao had five members in his party, and from the looks of it he was going to pay on their behalf, too.

‘So principled?

‘Of course, we’re friends!’

‘Then why ask a friend for money to join their party?’ Jiang Qiao thought this healer always treated him as an outsider.

‘Of course! But I’ll give you a discount, just for you!’ FreeMilk replied, sending Jiang Qiao a sticker with a seal waving its flipper happily.

‘.’

Jiang Qiao didn’t know how to reply, so he only sent a full-stop to her in response.

FreeMilk was quite efficient, and so twenty seconds after Jiang Qiao messaged her she appeared at the entrance of the Tower of Trials.

Jiang Qiao quickly pulled this healer into their party.

“Dungeon crawling is twenty silver coins per person, guaranteed clear!”

The others had barely even had a chance to greet FreeMilk before she asked everyone in the party for money.

Zhao Mingwei and Lin Xi looked at each other resignedly, before handing twenty silver coins to FreeMilk.

Jiang Qiao had two other members in his party, the two being ModaoSwordsman who was currently livestreaming and InkFlashback from Jumping Nucleons Guild.

ModaoSwordsman was still talking with his viewers, but when he heard that FreeMilk wanted money, he took a while to react.

“What kind of person asks for money to join a party? Who do you think you…” Modao was about to continue before he saw that the person was a healer in plate armor, and so he pulled out twenty silver coins and handed it to her respectfully. “Oh if it isn’t Sis FreeMilk! Why so cheap?”

“You’re lucky that the party leader is my friend, so I’m giving you guys a discount!” FreeMilk kept the twenty silver coins that ModaoSwordsman gave her, and then she stared pointedly at InkFlashback.

InkFlashback knew the first place healer on the leaderboard, but he had never been in a team with her before.

The Jumping Nucleons Guild had healer characters like Priests and Clerics of course, but none of them were as high-leveled as she was. He saw how the other party members forked over the money, and did the same without much hassle.

“Alright, now let’s get done with this dungeon!” FreeMilk finished counting the money, and left the way towards the entrance of the dungeon like she was the party leader.

Jiang Qiao followed her with a sigh, and Lin Xi moved closer to ModaoSwordsman to gossip.

“Bro, it seems that you’ve been scammed by that healer too?” Lin Xi asked ModaoSwordsman quietly.

“What do you mean scammed? It looks like you’ve never been to Gloomy Swamp huh? If you get to ask for Sis FreeMilk at the entrance, you would be able to get through the hard level there without even having to do much. The last time I asked her for help she asked me for money too!” He replied, but he sounded like he thought it was extremely worth it.

The Gloomy Swamp was the first dungeon of Hawktalon city, and Jiang Qiao had already passed the dungeon multiple times. A lot of his equipment were farmed from this dungeon, too.

“…” Lin Xi knew FreeMilk back when they were around Level 10, so he thought that she was just a regular healer, but she has now become a renowned player.

“We’re starting.” Zhao Mingwei said, making everyone focus on the task at hand.

The theme of the first level was a mix between fantasy and sci-fi, with the floor and walls made from some unknown alloy with some magical runes glowing dimly on them.

The main monsters of the dungeon were Mantis Automatons, and they were about as tall as the average person. After they discovered their enemies, their fierce attacks could almost make squishy players reconsider life itself.

Thankfully, FreeMilk didn’t ask for money for nothing, and she always gave effective buffs and heals at exactly the correct time, and along with InkFlashback the Lancer that was acting as the tank being the professional that he was, the entire battle was abnormally relaxed…

Which meant that the players could start chatting freely.

The person that started the small-talk was InkFlashback. During the twenty-minute mark, InkFlashback asked a question as the ground started piling with Mantis Automaton bodies.

“So why did you guys start playing this game?” InkFlashback shouted at everyone as he raised his shield and blocked the sharp scythes of a Mantis Automaton.

“Why are you asking this for?”

Lin Xi created a Focused Flamethrower and aimed it at the Mantis Automaton that was being distracted by InkFlashback, and as the flames covered the monster’s body, the numbers -70, -78, -52, bounced out from the top of its head.

“I’m surveying the market,” InkFlashback continued.

“Survey? Are you part of the official team of Sacred Souls?”

ModaoSwordsman slashed down at the Mantis Automaton, immediately crushing the Mantis Automaton’s shell that had already been charred.

This Mantis Automaton’s core had pierced by ModaoSwordsman’s longsword, and so it lost mobility, falling onto the ground.

There was already a large pile of Mantis Automaton bodies on the ground, and ModaoSwordsman jumped down from the motionless body of the Mantis Automaton before rushing over to InkFlashback.

“Bro! Do you sell any activation codes? I’m willing to buy them for thirty thousand dollars!” ModaoSwordsman was quite excited, even more than when a piece of Purple equipment that he could use burst from the Mantis Automaton earlier.

“I’m not part of the official team, I’m just doing the survey myself.” InkFlashback used his shield to push away ModaoSwordsman who was clinging onto his shoulders.

“What are you doing a survey for, then?” ModaoSwordsman asked in confusion.

“If this game becomes popular, not only will the official team benefit but also us, the players, too. I asked a few of my friends who had played this game, and this game didn’t have any promotion or cutscenes, and no one knows who the game company who made this game was…But without even knowing the backstory of this game, we have all spent almost a hundred hours in this game since its release…” InkFlashback continued, “So what do you think is fun about this game?”

As InkFlashback was asking this, Jiang Qiao was only listening attentively to their replies.

Everyone was in agreement that if Sacred Souls became popular, the players themselves would benefit too.

The most direct proof of this was that ModaoSwordsman’s livestream popularity had more than doubled after he started livestreaming this game, and FreeMilk had already raked in quite a lot of cash since the start of the game.

The price of gold coins from Sacred Souls were one of the most expensive on the market within all VR games.

“Well… It feels more realistic than War, for one? The battle system is also the best in all the games that I’ve played before, and uhm, what’s that called again? The feeling when your attacks connect is the best! The skills of the class that I’m playing as right now are very cool too, have you guys ever played as swordsmen before? Dual Blade Wielding and Iai Slashing are just two of the coolest skills out there, aren’t they?”

ModaoSwordsman continued to ramble, and as he became more and more excited he ran over to two Mantis Automatons who were making their rounds and used the skill Iai Slash, a Level 25 Swordsman skill, in demonstration.

The others could barely see the longsword flash, and sparks appeared on the two Mantis Automatons as the blow connected, leaving behind two visible marks.

“You went and started a fight with two bosses at once!” Lin Xi saw the two boss HP gauges that appeared in his field of view, and he knew that ModaoSwordsman had messed up trying to act cool!

“It’s alright! Stay in formation!” InkFlashback returned to his position as the commander, but then he asked Zhao Mingwei quietly, “What about you?”

“Equipment, levels, EXP, PK ranks…Does one really need so many complex reasons to like a game?”

Zhao Mingwei rushed towards the boss, and with the sounds of dragons and tigers roaring, a Nen Shot was released from his hands.