A Strange Commission
How powerful was this Mutated Slime King BOSS minion?
Not counting the additional attributes from the Despicable title, Chen Mo's full set of excellent items dealt 270 damage at best. However, his damage was small compared to the Mutated Slime King's 500 maximum.
Furthermore, its 100 000HP was undoubtedly BOSS level!
Chen Mo summoned his BOSS minion to admire its awesomeness.
A purple light flashed and the Mutated Slime King appeared in front of Chen Mo.
The BOSS-turned-pet Mutated Slime King had lost its aggressiveness and become gentler.
However, Chen Mo felt that this little fellow had become much dumber. It just stayed on the ground like a dummy after he summoned it. It looked at Chen Mo for a second, then looked about itself, seemingly to search for monsters to attack and show off its prowess.
There were monsters around but Chen Mo was not inclined to let it show off its might unless it was a Black Slime. Other than the Black Slime, all the Slime Plains monsters were pretty much insta-kill for his minion. Chen Mo could not be bothered with small fry anymore and if anyone caught sight of him, there would be trouble.
Hunters had one chance to rename caught pets. When pets get summoned to fight, the name will be displayed, identifying it as a pet and not a monster so other players in the area wouldn't attack it. Of course, the hunter can also choose not to display the pet's name but if it were to get killed by others, they couldn't be blamed. Unlike summoners' summoned beasts and pets, where they can be re-summoned when the skill cooldown ends, if a hunter's pet dies, he will have to go back to the city and look for a specific NPC to revive the pet.
"Mutated Slime King" was such a long name; Chen Mo changed his pet's name to something that suited its rotund physique - "Fatso"!
He couldn't return to Ayer Town, nor interact with NPCs, nor gain experience when he killed monsters. There wasn't anything he could do at present in the game and he did not have much time left to play so after changing his BOSS minion's name, Chen Mo logged out.
While Chen Mo logged off and ate his supper, chaos reigned on the game forums.
"Glacier Group's joy turned to sorrow!"
"Biggest joke of the year!"
"Mysterious masked player's identity analysis!"
"The Chinese server's greatest player!"
"The game's first Black Name!"
… … …
Almost all the posts were about Glacier Group's fight with the BOSS and the mysterious masked player.
Glacier Group's advertisements had been plastered all over the past few days and annoyed quite a number of people. Now that the high and mighty had fallen, some players were quick to step on them when they were down. The posts about Glacier Group were full of ridicule.
For the backseat-commenter players, this was just the sort of thing they loved.
Still, the hottest topic was, inevitably, the masked character that Chen Mo played.
The masked man had used unknown means to make the hidden BOSS evolve, spoiling Glacier Group's plans, resulting in all its enormous efforts plus money to be in vain!
Pretty much everyone on the forums knew about the system's one-second freeze and many were of the opinion that this was also due to the masked player's machinations.
Not long after the uproar, news came of an almost dead Mutated Slime King spirited away to goodness knows where at the last moment from a group of pros by the mysterious masked player.
In the midst of this another piece of news revealed that this mysterious masked player was actually a Black Name player with astounding speed and power.
Each bit of news was, to an average player, greatly attention-grabbing and unimaginable!
From his first appearance till that point in time, the masked player had been put on a pedestal by the forum-players and hailed as their idol - all in under four hours.
"Bah! What 'Chinese Server's Greatest Player'? He's just lucky. If I meet him I'll beat him up so badly his own mother won't recognize him!"
A number of players felt that they were superior to the masked player who had gained instant fame. They were those who wished to be famous but weren't so they ridiculed the masked player.
They weren't the only group who felt that way.
What was the fastest way to gain fame?
Just like it had been since ancient times - defeat the best! If one could kill a well-known pro player, he or she would be famous!
If Chen Mo let his game ID be known, he would never have a day of peace; hordes of players who do not fear death would come challenge him.
"This guy is seriously invincible on our Chinese servers!"
The group of young men in Ash Blue Tech were already aware of Chen Mo's awesomeness but when they witnessed him capturing the Mutated Slime King, they could only goggle.
They, the non-players, were very envious of him having a BOSS minion. Now, imagine the actual players - if they knew of this they would die of jealousy.
"Man, I really want to see how this guy would do outside the beginner village."
The group of young men sighed collectively.
They were very interested in how this player with such a strong base build would fare.
Unfortunately, they would not be able to check in on him so easily once he got out of the beginner village.
… … …
After a good, deep sleep, Chen Mo woke early in the morning, washed up and went for a run.
Your body's your vehicle of revolution. You can skip classes but not training.
He'd stayed up these past nights and though he did train during the day, he'd skipped his morning run the past two weeks. Chen Mo reviewed his schedule and made plans for gaming and training.
He finished his run and ate his breakfast. He was in no hurry to return to the game. Chen Mo returned to his abode at around 8 or 9am and found that he had received quite a few messages on his mobile phone.
Just as he was about to read them, the phone rang in his hand.
"Yeah? Old Tian, what is it?" Chen Mo answered the call from Fatty Tian.
"Haha… Chen, my brother! You had great foresight not to sign up for the commission by Glacier Group. Those who did sign up only got a bit of money and a whole load of grief." Instead of his usual spiel about being 18 years old, Fatty Tian talked about Glacier Group.
"What's up? You seem excited and nervous… did you just watch an action film?" asked Chen Mo suspiciously.
"No, no! What're you saying that for? Why would someone as handsome and dashing as I watch an action film… *cough* Enough said. Brother Chen, I called to tell you something. The company wanted me to contact you urgently, so sorry for disturbing you so early in the morning." Fatty Tian blithered on for a bit and finally got to the point.
"I got a call from the company bright and early saying they got a big commission about the game. The cash incentive is huge - bigger than Glacier Group's! It can go up to ten million U.S. dollars!"
"What does this have to do with me?" Chen Mo's brows wrinkled.
"Ahem. Well, you see… the commission is big but the requester wants you to do it. The commission is not a one-off but a series of tasks in the game. Every time you complete a task you get a relevant reward. Once you agree to accept this commission, you will get a USD$100,000 deposit immediately. If you refuse, the requester will withdraw the commission."
Fatty Tian spoke nervously. This was the largest commission the company had received since its re-branding. If Chen Mo refused, the requester would withdraw the commission, and the company would suffer losses. As the person in charge he would be blamed.
On the other hand, if Chen Mo accepted the commission, he would not have to worry about his work performance for the year.