Chapter 001 – Hidden Profession

Chapter 1: Hidden Job Change

The online game 《Gods and Demons》 was about to start a new dungeon (tl: new dungeon with stronger monsters than usual). The system would award 1000 honor value to the first team, and gave an Epic purple equipment as well as six assignable attribute points. This message turned fifty thousand players around the world into a craze. However, three days after the dungeon started, hundreds of elite teams from all over the world had tried to clear it but no one managed to pass.

Until today, from the Pangu city of Huaxia district, team Tianzun managed to attract the players’ attention from around the world. They were hailed as the most likely to clear the dungeon.

The Tianzun team consisted of 15 members, of which the 14 members’ level was the highest 35 and the lowest of 32. Their body pieces of equipment were either the best or an Epic set. Even their captain was a level 35 and had an Artifact. This type of team strength in just the first three months with the highest level of 35 (globally, only 15 players at this level), compared to the mainstream level of 25 in 《Gods and Demons》, was already quite exaggerated.

However, the reason that this team was favored was not because of these 14 main members, but rather due to the last person. Only level 20 and had trashy equipment – the Thief “Dark Sword”.

The appearance of this Dark Sword evoked intense discussion in the forum of 《Gods and Demons》. However, everyone never thought that when the raid started, he broke his promise (tl: ffk) and never showed up online.

The Tianzun party, in the absence of Dark Sword, reluctantly tried to rush the new dungeon and was annihilated.

The forum exploded. This Dark Sword was simply a fool. It was such a good opportunity that others were lighting lanterns but still couldn’t get (tl: author used an idiom about getting attention here – lighting a lantern to attract opportunity, get it?) , he unexpectedly gave up on it himself.

The players came out with all kind of speculation – some said that Dark Sword’s gas tank exploded, others said that he was so happy that he rolled down the stairs. Some also said that this was Tianzun team’s deliberate smokescreen. Just a level 20 Thief and using store bought equipment; he could be defeated with just a single touch. What could he accomplish there?

Of course, there’s only one truth, which needed to begin from three months ago.

Zhou Jian, an ordinary Lingnan University freshman, majored in a subject that’s known to be usually taken by beauties – Liberal Arts. Frankly, males who majored in liberal arts and obsessed with online games were few, but Zhou Jian was a deviant.

Three months ago, when the 《Gods and Demons》 new dungeon opened, Zhou Jian chipped in money to buy the game helmet and registered in the shortest time possible as the Thief “Dark Sword”. After which he blazed all the way out of the new village.

Zhou Jian often learned throughout his leveling process, calculating which monster to kill that could help with leveling the fastest. And looking for more spawning spots.

In the little novice village, many people complained that leveling was very difficult. Zhou Jian fought desperately and finally reached level 10, becoming the first player to leave the novice village.

After he skipped N amount of class, going through various deadly upgrades and going through force leveling. He led the way to became 《Gods and Demons》 first player to reach level 20.

The system would reward the top 100 players who reached level 20 in each area a top equipment per person – the Soul Ring, and promised to give the world’s first player to reach level 30 a reward of two pieces of Artifacts, the 2-10 places one Artifact each, and also other incentives for the remaining top 100 players to reach level 30 in each area.

This news caused those who were already leveling like crazy to grew frantic. At that time, equipment were extremely scarce. Even the fourth grade Epic equipment was woefully few, not to mention a second-grade Artifact. (tl: artifact > epic)

But in this group of leveling fanatics, there’s a maverick. He didn’t only not leveled like crazy after reaching level 20, but the reward that the system awarded – the Soul Ring that could greatly increase the leveling speed was put to auction in the auction house.

This caused an uproar in the auction house since there’re few other treasures currently available there. Plus, with the temptation of the level 30 rewards, the Soul Ring that could greatly improve the upgrading speed directly shoot to sky high price.

The people at the forum laughed that “Dark Sword” was a fool. That he was shortsighted and unexpectedly took the Soul Ring in exchange for money. Didn’t he knew that being in the lead early in the game could bring great benefits? Let alone, the first to get to level 30 can get a reward from the system was already enough to make one palpitated.

Zhou Jian turned a deaf ear to these discussions. He’d decided on his next step – using the auction money to buy mission scrolls.

Early during the 《Gods and Demons》 beta, Zhou Jian had looked at the official release of the game information. The official network said that 《Gods and Demons》 biggest charm lied in its fairness. If you paid for something, then you’d had returned as well. Second was its complexity and changes. The online game would always be an enigma to the players, waiting for the players to explore the world. Another point was its intelligent NPC system, as well as having the gaming experience to feel completely the same as the real world.

Although it’s cliché, but players were always set for the hidden profession. The profession change was triggered by a mission. The probability of this was very small. But once triggered, the benefits gained from it was enormous.

Each profession has five attributes – Strength, Agility, Physical, Magic, and Spirit. Each time the player leveled up, these properties would correspond to the growth. Different professions would grow in different ways. Warriors would grow more in Strength. Mages would have higher growth in magic. Although the growth options were different, but the growth of total attributes for the professions was completely the same. Before level 30, each rise in level would lead to a total of 12 points growth in attributes.

But hidden professions had more. Those had 16 points.

Therefore, the earlier you changed the profession, the more advantage there was. Officially, the lowest grade boundary to change the profession class announced was level 20. If one could change the profession in level 20, it would be for the best. But few players could change their profession class in level 20 because the requirement to change profession was very difficult to meet, but to rise from level 20 to level 21 just needed a few days of effort.

Zhou Jian was self-aware. He could be the first of the top 100 to upgrade to level 20,wasn’t only due to his cleverness and efforts. There’s also a factor of luck involved. If he wanted to continue to fight for the top 100 to reach level 30, it’s too difficult. Let alone to reach the world’s top 10, the possibility was zero.

This was because Zhou Jian invested too little earlier in the game. His equipment has a big disparity compared to other players.

The reason that the game company developed the online game was to make money. During the beginning, the company had already set up a game currency and real currency exchange system. The ratio was 100:1. When the players registered, many exchanged a large amount of real currency to the game currency. Then, using these coins, they bought out equipment from the other players.

Zhou Jian’ family circumstances weren’t good. He played the game to earn some living expenses. Where could he even find the extra money to invest. At the start of the game, this disparity wasn’t obvious because no one had any equipment at that time. Even if one had the money, he still couldn’t purchase any. But, as the game progressed, the equipment disparity between Zhou Jian and these rich players would be getting more and more obvious.

If this continued, Zhou Jian’s doomed to be ordinary. He’s unwilling to be ordinary and wanted to take a chance. He hoped to strike a hidden profession despite the low probability. Early in the game, very few people would do the missions. After all, doing missions to level up was as slow as a snail. So, the price of a mission scroll was very cheap.

He acquired a large amount of mission and had a batch appraisal at the NPC there. Then, he further analyzed it himself for the possibility of hidden profession. He would try to do the mission, and if there’s no achievement, he would then continue to do the next one.

Just like that, Zhou Jian had done two months worth of missions.

His roommate, who’s playing 《Gods and Demons》 as well said that he’s insane. Just for that small probability of an event, he put in so much energy for this. In his opinion, this was like selling off his entire possession just to buy lottery tickets. He’s destined to lose everything and go bankrupt.

However, two months later, a shocking event that caused them to drop their glasses occurred. Zhou Jian really did trigger a hidden mission and changed profession from a Thief into a Ghost Killer.

Looking at his roommate’s jaw dropping face, Zhou Jian laughed disgustingly till his roommate also requested to give him a beating.

A long time in the future, a cute junior asked Zhou Jian that during that time, what was he thinking. He very nonchalantly said a sentence: “The information was already published on the official website. The biggest charm of this game is fairness. If you put in the effort, then you’d have returns. Second, the game was uncertain and had a lot of unknown with the use of advanced technology. It didn’t matter whether you believed it or not. Anyway, I believed it.”

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