Ye Xue’er was expecting a few soul coins, but never 500, and thought that she had misheard the man.

“How many soul coins did you say you have?” Ye Xue’er repeated the question in disbelief.

“I have 500 soul coins! I’ll sell you all of them if you are capable of paying the cost!” Lu Wu said as he grinned.

Noticing Ye Xue’er’s doubtful expression, Lu Wu took a step forward and opened his transaction column. He showed her all the available soul coins before he promptly cancelled the transaction.

“Do you believe me now?”

Looking at the 500 soul coins listed in the balance column, Ye Xue’er was astonished. After all, she had barely earned 60 soul coins from all the fights she went through to beat the creatures. However, this guy, who carried only the basic equipment, actually had an asset of 500 soul coins. It was only natural for her to be shocked.

“Yes, I will buy all of them!” Ye Xue’er said in a firm tone.

“Sure. Let’s head to the transaction website. The page is secured.”

“That’s not necessary. Just give me your account number and I’ll transfer it to you immediately.”

Lu Wu was astounded by her words as that was not a minor transaction. 500 soul coins were worth 350,000 real dollars.

But, if Ye Xue’er trusted him, Lu Wu was absolutely fine with closing the deal outside the transaction website. Without much hesitation, Lu Wu provided Ye Xue’er with his bank account number.

“Benzi, transfer the money to him!” Ye Xue’er yelled the command at a girl who was standing next to her.

The girl, who was addressed as Benzi, quickly nodded before she vanished into thin air.

A brief moment later, the girl returned. “Xue’er, I’ve transferred the money to him,” she reported.

Ye Xue’er nodded in acknowledgement before she told Lu Wu, “I’ve transferred the money to you. You can check your bank account!”

Lu Wu shook his head, “If you trust me, I’ll trust you, too. I’ll give you the soul coins now.”

As he finished his words, Lu Wu opened the transaction column and sent 500 soul coins to Ye Xue’er.

Of course, 350,000 dollars was a huge amount and Lu Wu naturally could not blindly trust Ye Xue’er. Bei Li had already informed him about the successful transaction and Lu Wu was only pretending to be unconcerned about the money.

After she collected the soul coins, Ye Xue’er gleefully visited the shop, picked a red superior leather coat and put it on immediately.

In a blink of an eye, a colorful light flashed across Ye Xue’er’s body. When she reappeared, she was already wearing the exquisite and elegant gown.

Seeing that Lu Wu was about to leave, Ye Xue’er blocked him with her hand.

“Is there anything else?”

“How did you earn all of those soul coins? Did you complete a hidden quest or something?” Ye Xue’er was dying to know.

“Oh. There’s a quest for the soul collectors. While I was loitering around, I was lucky enough to have picked up five default souls and I sold them in the shop.”

Initially, Ye Xue’er intended to find out how he activated the hidden quest. But, Lu Wu’s answer had certainly caused her to be flustered.

How much luck does one need in order to achieve this?

“I’ll take my leave if there’s nothing else. I want to take a stroll and try my luck again. Maybe I can pick up a few more default souls.”

Once again, Lu Wu’s words silenced the crowd.

Followed by Lu Wu’s departure, Ye Xue’er turned to ask her members, “Have any of you caught a default soul before?”

They shook their heads.

At this moment, a man ran out of the Ghost Mountains, appearing extremely perturbed.

“Sister Xue’er, our brothers have been ambushed!”

Ye Xue’er straightened her face when she heard the man, “Were they attacked by the Avengers again?”

“No. They were assaulted by the NPC of the game!”

Shocked, Ye Xue’er spoke, “Tell me exactly how it happened!”

“When our team of ten was looking for the players of the Avengers within the Ghost Mountains, we met a troop of ghost soldiers who were riding on wolves. They were all wearing armor while their pupils were filled with fierce burning fire, appearing exceptionally terrifying and menacing. When they met the ten of us, they wanted to know which Ghost General we were working for.”

“Then, how did you answer?”

“I said that we were the King of Beiqi’s descendants. Then, they began to chase after us and attack us. Before long, all the members of our team were killed. I was the only one who was fortunate enough to have escaped through the underground tunnel.”

Upon listening to this, Ye Xue’er was reminded about the story that was introduced during the opening of the game. It seemed like all the Ghost Kings and Ghost Generals who used to be subordinates of the King of Beiqi had begun to rebel against the King of Beiqi.

If that was the case, Ye Xue’er could understand why her peers were attacked when they revealed their identities as the King of Beiqi’s descendants.

“Brothers, let’s head to the Ghost Mountains and kill the traitors!” Ye Xue’er said in a frigid tone.

Having watched the opening story before, Ye Xue’er bore intense hatred toward the traitors. She understood how the King of Beiqi sacrificed for the billions of creatures living in the Land of Beiqi. However, not only were they not grateful, they actually had the audacity to betray the King of Beiqi. For Ye Xue’er, they were committing an unpardonable felony.

Moreover, Ye Xue’er reckoned that the ghost soldiers could possibly activate some hidden quests.

Then, the horde of hundreds fearlessly marched toward the Ghost Mountains.

After Lu Wu logged out of the game, he quickly checked his phone.

A total amount of 350,000 dollars has been transferred to your account ending with numbers, 6573. Your current balance is 351,236.

“Delicious food… delicious food…” Bei Li’s eyes were beaming with joy and excitement.

This was easy money. Looking at the balance of the soul coins that continued to increase, Lu Wu felt gratified.

To celebrate their first paycheck, Lu Wu brought Bei Li to the best hotel in town for an expensive and delicious meal. Besides, he bought a bag of tidbits for Bei Li, the glutton. Bei Li, who was easily pleased, grinned gleefully and her eyes formed crescent shapes.

The sun had set when Lu Wu returned home. He sat down in front of the computer and browsed through the main page of Platform173 to check the status of the poll that was made for the games.

Just as he foresaw, Battle Online was significantly leading the poll. The number of participating players continued to increase and had already surpassed 80,000.

At this moment, Lu Wu’s primary concern was to collect the soul coins. He was in a hurry to accumulate 50,000 soul coins in order to unleash all the power of the skills.

Actually, many gamers possessed soul coins. But, he had to figure out how to make these players spend the soul coins.

Lu Wu was undecided, not knowing if he should declare war against the Ghost General of the East. Once there was a war, people would definitely begin to spend a significant amount of soul coins.

After some deliberation, Lu Wu shook his head and decided to give up this idea. Although the number of players had hit 80,000, their ability did not allow them to beat the troop of ten thousand ghost soldiers. Constant loss could deflate the players’ morale and ruin their gaming experience.

As he mulled over the situation, an idea hit Li Wu. With the help of the artifact, Lu Wu created a quest for the players with Level 15 and above.

[Reconnaissance Quest: Head to the east of the Mansion of the Dead to check out the Ghost General’s territory. The reward will be decided by the total covered area.]

The quest was undeniably challenging as the strongest player was still no match for a normal ghost soldier.

However, the players had an advantage as they were invincible. It was the best means to send the players to ascertain the strength of the ghost armies. Then, Bei Li could scrutinize the players’ status and report back to him.

Lu Wu intended to design a stratagem after he got the gist of the whole situation.

An hour after the quest was released, many players were already on their way to the Mansion of the Dead, intending to attempt the quest.

Just when Lu Wu was feeling proud and happy of his decision, a public notification appeared.

[Congratulations to Chen Ziyu for the establishment of the Great Dragon Guild. We are recruiting all talents across the game to build a renowned Beiqi hand-in-hand!]

Lu Wu was greatly surprised by the swift appearance of the first guild. He had never expected that Chen Ziyu, one of the pioneer players, would reach Level 20 so quickly.

So, he shut his eyes and shifted his gaze toward the underworld.

There was a great bunch of players surrounding the Mansion of the Dead in the underworld, and right in the middle of these players, there Chen Ziyu stood proudly beside the NPC, Lu Mo.

Chen Ziyu was full of excitement at that moment. To create the first guild ever, he and his brothers had been training to level up at the Ghost Mountains for days and nights. In the end, they successfully collected 50 soul coins and that was how they got to create the guild.

Right after the guild was activated, there was an additional option for guilds on his function panel. As long as the players were in the same guild, they were able to view the location of other players of the guild. At the same time, the guild chat room was unlocked and this has no doubt helped a lot in their team formation and development.

“Big brother, recruiting anyone?”

“Big brother, please guide me. I have no better skills other than spending money in-game!”

“Permission to join the guild, please accept my request!”