CHAPTER 103: CHAPTER 103: AN UNEXPECTED TURN

As soon as Sylvan walked in, he heard his older brother Remus say:

"How can this be? That player agreed ten minutes ago to sell us a Blue-quality weapon, and now he’s backing out?"

"Find out what’s going on! Who’s messing with the deal?"

Remus hung up in anger, grabbed the glass beside him, and drained it.

Sylvan walked over, picked up a random glass from the table, poured himself a drink, and asked:"You okay?"

He looked at his brother, only five or six years older but already with a lot of gray hair, and felt very worried.

Remus smiled and said, trying to sound calm, "What could happen? It’s just a small accident."

"I should’ve listened to you. Who would’ve thought a game that came out of nowhere could change so much."

Remus reached out, took the glass from Sylvan’s hand, took a big gulp, and said with frustration:"Those bastards from other cities must have planned this long ago. They want to use fights in Dawnfall Online to take our profits."

"They even threaten players in real life who want to sell to us. It’s shameless."

Sylvan patted Remus on the shoulder and smiled.

"Only in their dreams can they take what’s ours."

"Bro, I’ve already bought several Blue-quality pieces."

Remus set the glass down at once, stared at Sylvan, and asked:

"Several? Where did you get them?"

"Was it Windchaser?"

Sylvan nodded. "Ethan saw I was in trouble and sold them to me."

Hearing that, Remus repeated "Ethan" in his mind, gave Sylvan a complicated look, and said:

"Your eye for people is better than mine. You’re probably not wrong about him."

"People like us may seem to have it all, but we could crash and burn at any time."

"Dawnfall Online is indeed an opportunity. Since you’ve decided, stick with [Windchaser]."

Sylvan opened his mouth, hesitated, then said:

"Bro, you don’t blame me?"

"Weren’t you always hoping I’d take over for you?"

Remus smiled. "Of course not. Otherwise I wouldn’t have worked so hard to introduce you to Lucas, Lucian, and Morris."

Sylvan was quiet for a moment, then said: "I probably won’t stay in touch with Morris. We’re not the same kind of people."

Remus paused, then nodded. "You’ve grown up. You can make your own choices."

Soon, TV stations, media reporters, and many online news bloggers appeared across Dolren City at the same time. They carried all kinds of cameras, looking for anything special.

At the same time, the city’s biggest underground gang also sent people out, searching for anything unusual.

All of this happened because of a few words from Ethan.

Right now, he was inside the [Tower of Fates] Guild, checking the character stats on his watch.

[Name]: Windchaser

[Talents]: Pain Resistance (Blue), Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward (Unknown)

[Level]: Lv22

[Class]: Berserk Blood War God

[Status]: Normal

[Equipment]: Cotton Underwear (Gray-quality), Shadow Belt (Purple-quality), Assassin’s Sleeve Crossbow (Purple-quality), Ruin Spear (Purple-quality), Flash Mask (Purple-quality), Stealth Cloak (Blue-quality), Staying Power Necklace (Blue-quality), Ice-Silk Gloves (Blue-quality), Wolfskin Set (Blue-quality).

[HP]: 100%

[Strength]: 41

[Speed]: 26

[Defense]: 18

[Energy]: 10 (!)

[Charisma]: 12

[Luck]: 1

[Attribute Points]: 2

[Inventory]: Hellblade Class Intel (Orange-quality), Ice Calamity Intel (Orange-quality), Intel on Aurora, the healing-smithing prodigy (Orange-quality)...

[Berserk Blood War God]

[Tier]: 2

[Skills:]

Bloodthirst Rampage (can be upgraded): Costs 3 Energy. Ignites your body’s bloodthirst. Grants boosts based on class tier. Currently +3 Strength, +3 Speed, +3 Defense. Lasts 10 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour. [War God]: To be a god of war is to never lose. A true War God strikes fear even in death. When HP drops to 0%, War God mode triggers. HP fully restores, Strength/Speed/Defense +500%, immune to control effects, lasts 1 minute. When it ends, you die and your level resets to 0. [War Cry]: Costs 3 Energy. Unleash your fighting will and let out a deafening roar. Heals you for 1% HP per second for 30 seconds, and reduces enemies within 30 meters by 4 Strength and 4 Defense for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 30 minutes.

[Note]: No one wants to mess with a War God—unless they’re an idiot.

Only then did Ethan have time to really look over his stats.

He noticed his [Energy] had gone up by one point. He found it odd, then saw a little prompt icon next to Energy.

He tapped it, and a line of text popped up:

[After you reach level 20, if any two attributes are over 20, you automatically gain 1 Energy every 2 levels.]

Ethan found it a bit strange. Before, he couldn’t put attribute points into Energy, and he’d been worrying about what to do as more skills started to cost Energy.

Now it seemed you only get more Energy after level 20, and only if any two stats are above 20.

So Energy only grows when your body gets strong enough?

Ethan pushed down his doubts and looked at his [Berserk Blood War God] class.

His class tier had gone from [Tier] 1 to Tier 2.

There was also a new class skill: [War Cry].

Ethan was pretty happy with it. It didn’t cost much Energy, it healed him, and it also weakened enemies.

He felt like he’d missed something, so he checked again.

This time he noticed the words "Can be Enhanced" next to [Bloodthirst Rampage]!

He tapped it.

[Bloodthirst Rampage (Tier 2)]: Costs 3 Energy. Ignites your natural bloodthirst and grants boosts based on class tier. Currently +4 Strength, +4 Speed, +4 Defense. Lasts 10 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour.

The Energy cost, duration, and cooldown were the same, but the stat boosts were higher.

Ethan nodded with satisfaction. He could now fight even harder.

As for the two attribute points he got from leveling from 20 to 22, Ethan didn’t rush to spend them. He planned to save them and assign them when needed to meet gear requirements.

He let out a slow breath and looked at [Inventory]. He planned to use the Orange-quality [Ice Calamity Intel] and [Intel on Aurora, the healing-smithing prodigy].

Suddenly, his view started to shake. Everything in sight began to ripple violently.

A moment later, Ethan suddenly disconnected from Dawnfall Online and returned to the real world!

Pain—intense, unbearable pain!

Before Ethan could even think about what was happening, he felt his head as if it were being pressed against a red-hot drill.

The drill kept spinning, boring into his skull, crushing everything inside his brain!

Ethan gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and tried to sit up by holding onto the edge of the hospital bed. But the pain in his head was so strong that it drained all his strength, and he couldn’t move at all.

This was the first time he had ever experienced something like this. The pain from his illness had actually forced him to log out of Dawnfall Online.

This was the clearest sign that his condition was getting worse.

Tomorrow, he was supposed to meet the [Ghostfang] organization to get a medicine that could improve his physical condition and give him more strength, helping him live longer.

But right now, he was in no shape to do anything.

Ethan slowly lay back on the hospital bed, trying to shift his focus to ease the pain.

From his past experience, head pain usually didn’t last long—no more than half an hour.

But today, he waited for an hour, and there was no sign of improvement.

Ethan’s whole body was soaked in sweat. He didn’t scream, and he didn’t pass out from the pain—this was already a miracle.

Normally calm and rational, he now felt a little nervous in his heart.

He was worried that this kind of pain, which would make normal people pass out, would last the whole night.

That would mess up his plans for tomorrow. He still hadn’t contacted the special effects artist Leo recommended.

Ethan gritted his teeth, his hands shaking, and took out his phone.

At that moment, the pain in his head became even worse. His vision, once clear and bright, started to darken.

This was the sign that he was about to pass out.

No way!

Absolutely not!

Ethan’s body was shaking. He struggled to open the drawer next to him and pulled out a syringe.

Without hesitation, Ethan stuck the syringe into his left fingernail and kept moving it around.

Using pain from other parts of his body could help take some of the pressure off his head.

This was a little trick he had discovered before.

He took a few deep breaths, then grabbed more syringes. He couldn’t afford to miss what was coming tomorrow!