Chapter 17: I Am A Genius

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

The river was narrow and the current was swift. There were few fish in the river, but some underwater monsters inhabited the bottom of the river. Gu Tong avoided the monsters adroitly and kept swimming upstream.

About twenty minutes later.

Gu Tong led Li Xiaonian straight to the bottom of the river and entered an underground river. Then he turned from swimming against the current to with the current and sped up dramatically.

The underground river was pitch-black and nothing could be seen. With Gu Tong protecting him, however, Li Xiaonian was not really worried.

About two minutes later.

Splash…

Li Xiaonian was thrown out of the water, and then they appeared in a shining cave.

This underground cave was large and flat. It was at least the size of a football field as far as the eye could see, with sparkling fluorescent stones studded on the rock wall.

In the middle of the cave, there was a simple thatched hut built from a few pieces of wood.

There was a table and a recliner in the hut.

Gu Tong walked out of the river, his wet body quickly dried out and returned to the normal state. He said proudly, “This is my personal base. Although it is a bit crude, it feels good.”

“…”

Li Xiaonian was stunned for a long time before he said against his will. “Yes, it looks nice. it… has a strong flavor of rural life.”

Only a fool would stay alone in a dark cave. He would have gone crazy if he stayed here for a long time.

Gu Tong had a beamish smirk on her face. “You said you wanted to find a covert place. At first, I planned to take you to the Nether Cave, but since you are so generous, from now on, you own half of the place. Although the cave is rough, it’s very suitable for you to grind and uplevel. Most importantly, no one can enter this place alive, except for me.”

With that, Gu Tong took a fishing rod out of his backpack, walked into the hut, and took out a jar from under the round table, which was filled with shining bugs.

Gu Tong quickly hung a bug on a fish hook, walked to the depth of the cave, and pointed to the calm water surface. “This is not the same water area as the entrance where we came in. This is a deep water pool, not an underground river. There are a lot of monsters underneath, and even I dare not go in and explore. I can only fish the monsters to the shore.”

He threw the shimmering bug into the pool.

The glowing bug was struggling on the surface of the water, flickering.

Gu Tong stared at the water intently, and Li Xiaonian also looked curiously.

The whole cave was silent.

It was the first time that Li Xiaonian saw Gu Tong’s face clearly. His face was thin, his nose was high, and his eyes were slightly sunken inward. He was neither handsome nor ugly. If he wore a pair of glasses, he would look like a typical geek.

Suddenly!

Splash~

A black shadow emerged from the calm water and swallowed the glowing bug in one bite.

Gu Tong drew his fishing rod excitedly.

A strange fish, about one and half a meters wide and with a long spike on its head, was drawn out of the water. After falling to the ground, it flopped about hard, trying to jump back underwater again.

<Black Swordfish>

Mutated swordfish, whose spike was highly poisonous.

Level: lv6;

Health point:? ? ?

Mental power:? ? ?

Attack power:? ? ?

Defense power:? ? ?

Skills:? ? ?

…

“Wow!”

Li Xiaonian was surprised that it was actually a sixth-level monster.

Gu Tong gently kicked [Black Swordfish] off the shore, and said to Li Xiaonian, “I’m lucky. It’s a level-six fish monster. Once out of water, it has no fighting power. Kill it.”

“Thanks.”

Li Xiaonian took out a dagger and pierced it against the head of this vulnerable black swordfish.

Puff!

Weakness attacked, damage doubled.

-2

“…”

Li Xiaonian’s mouth twitched, and he said in astonishment, “Is this fish monster’s defense so strong?”

Gu Tong gave Li Xiaonian a sideway glance. “Its defense is not strong, only 12 points. It’s just that you’re too low-level and your attack power is too weak. You’d better just use the [Blaster Pistol]. Otherwise, it’ll take you a lot of time to kill this fish. And don’t worry. I’ve tried it. Nothing will happen even if there is a loud noise. No boss will jump out.”

“Okay…”

Li Xiaonian took out the pistol.

Bang Bang Bang…

The shots echoed in the cave.

It took him a full twenty-six bullets, each bullet giving the black swordfish 8 points of damage, to kill the fish monster.

Ding…

System: “You successfully killed [Black Swordfish], merit +3;”

The black swordfish died, dropping two items.

[Swordfish Blade]: Meritorious item. If you turn it over to the base for management, you’ll get 3 merit points.

<Poison Sac>: Poison sac of black swordfish, which can be used to make poison.

Gu Tong’s eyes glowed when he saw the two items on the ground. He was already level-10. In the Skyfire Base, he could no longer uplevel, so when he killed monsters lower than his level, the drop rate was terribly low.

Gu Tong coughed slightly and said with a serious face, “I’ll help you level up, but the items should be mine. Are you okay with it?”

“Sure.”

Not expecting to gain merits so easily, Li Xiaonian was overjoyed.

At the current rate, if he worked hard and overtime, he might be able to reach the tenth level within four days. After all, if he joined a team, he could only get one or two merit points from killing a monster.

The two each took what they needed and worked with tremendous vigour.

Gu Tong fished monsters, and Li Xiaonian killed them on the shore.

Ding…

System: “You successfully killed [Black Swordfish], merit +3;”

System: “You successfully killed [Electric Eel], merit +4;”

System: “You successfully killed [Ghost-headed Fish], merit +2;”

…

Seeing his merit points soaring rapidly, Li Xiaonian grinned from ear to ear.

Gu Tong also harvested a lot of materials and props, so he shared his experience very happily. “Actually, if I’m not here, you can also fish monsters by yourself, but there is one thing to remember. Do not put too many glowing bugs at one time. One will be enough. The more glowing bugs you put, the stronger the monster that appears. I once tried using three glowing bugs at once. As a result, a huge black shadow showed up in the water and swallowed all the surrounding fish monsters and glowing bugs in one bite. I’m sure it was a very powerful boss.”

“Um…”

Hearing what he said, Li Xiaonian was a bit scared and asked weakly, “It’s so dark and quiet here. Aren’t you scared staying here alone?”

Gu Tong chuckled. “Not at all. I even slept in tombs when I was a kid. I grew up in the countryside, so I’m not as timid as you city fellows.”

“Awesome!” Li Xiaonian gave him a thumbs-up. This time, he admired him sincerely.

If it were him, he would definitely not dare to go to a gloomy area without a companion.

The two chatted while grinding.

As they chatted, Gu Tong couldn’t help asking, “Li Xiaonian, didn’t Lang Burang say that your family is poor? So why are you so rich? And you even know Tianyu and seem to have a special relationship with him.”

He had calculated, since he met Li Xiaonian, the latter had paid 850 gold coins. He didn’t seem to grudge money at all. Was he really from a poor family?

Especially since Li Xiaonian even promised him a bonus of 10,000 gold coins.

“Umm…”

Li Xiaonian didn’t know how to answer his question.

Seeing Li Xiaonian hesitating, Gu Tong said awkwardly, “You can ignore my question if it’s inconvenient to you. Never mind. I’m just curious. Besides, although I haven’t been around you that long, I feel that you can really lie. Even if you tell me, I’m afraid it’ll be another lie of yours.”

Li Xiaonian scratched his head awkwardly and hesitated for a long while before he said, “Okay, I can tell you the truth. In fact, what Lang Burang said is true. My family is poor, very poor. My family lives in Guangnan City and is one of the poorest families in the city. Although we can get some poverty-alleviation allowances from the government every month, we are even worse off than people in the countryside.”

Gu Tong smirked with disbelief. “Okay, stop it. I don’t believe it. Just forget it if you don’t want to tell me.”

Li Xiaonian shrugged. “I’m telling the truth. If you don’t believe me, next time you come to Guangnan City, you can visit my home. Of course, you can also turn to Tianyu for verification. He also knows about my family’s situation.”

“Really?” Gu Tong still distrusted him somewhat.

“Heh heh.” Li Xiaonian smiled triumphantly. “If you don’t believe me, I can’t help it. Believe it or not, the first day I entered “Star Wind”, I made 8,000 gold coins.”

8,000 gold coins were equivalent to 800,000 yuan. If he worked out 24 hours a day, he literally earned 33,333 yuan an hour.

After Gu Tong figured it out, his eyes widened and he was stupefied. It was unimaginable to earn so quickly.

Gu Tong asked blankly, “How did you do it?”

“How did I do it? I’m a genius. Only after I entered the game did I find that I was a real moneymaker. I can make a lot of money if I have the right conditions. This is an inexplicable intuition.”

He certainly wouldn’t expose <Shadow>, so he could only label himself as a genius.