After trading the monster bodies for credit points, Lin Huang walked out of the Hunter Association and saw a commercial projection at the entrance. It advertised two BlackEagle33's, one was on its pistol form while another was on its sniper form. He then realized that it was a commercial for the game Gun Master . The game was a collaboration between Eagle Company and Hacker Company.
Lin Huang was familiar with the game. From what he remembered, the game was popular when he was still in school. Within the past two years, as the game was upgraded, the player population increased significantly. It was initially played by the general public out of boredom but now there were many hunters who were playing it religiously. However, the hunters did not see it as a game but more as a form of training. Many gunmasters and hunters who played Gun Master as a hobby used the game to train themselves.
The guns in the game were a 100% match to a real gun. Even the bullet trajectory was exactly the same as an actual gun. The game was never cheap, even on its launch in the past. A game ring sold at 3,000 credit points. After the recent game upgrades, the game ring now cost more than 10,000 credit points.
The commercial was almost three minutes long. Lin Huang stayed on and watched the commercial until the end, realizing that the game had come up with servers in exclusive areas for the hunters. Besides catering to gunmasters, the game had now extended its range of weapons to many other long-distance attack weapons including conventional bows, crossbows, flying knives and more.
There was also a battle arena which without weapon limitations.
"No wonder. This is why they're showing the commercial outside the Hunter Association, they're planning to promote the game to the hunter community," Lin Huang thought as he looked at the price of the latest game ring. It was a whopping 13,000 credit points. The price used to be unacceptable to Lin Huang but it was nothing to him now as he had just received a huge amount of credit points.
"I have never played this version before. I'll just buy one game ring to try it out and see if I have the talent needed to become a gunmaster," he thought. Lin Huang did exactly what he planned. He then scanned the barcode at the bottom corner of the commercial board and entered the shopping page. After confirming the delivery address which was his home in Wulin Town, he proceeded to pay for it. A message was sent to him immediately, "You have ordered ‘Gun Master Edition V'. We will send it to you as soon as possible. If you would like to cancel your order, please log in to our official website to do so within three hours," the notification read.
After reading the message, he closed the shopping page. He then looked at the time and it was 9:18 in the morning. He walked to a cafe nearby. There were a larger variety of coffee beans here as compared to Earth. There were 390 types of coffee beans and most of the cafes served more than 100 types of coffee beverages and at least 20 to 30 types of coffee beans. Lin Huang ordered a black coffee and sat by the window. He always loved the smell of coffee in the morning. When he was on earth, he had coffee very often as he had early mornings that was followed with hard work until late at night. That was the reason why he always ordered black coffee as the bitterness helped him focus and think.
While he waited for his coffee, Lin Huang took a look at the map of the wild zones that were around Carefree City. He planned to accumulate the Life Power in his body to upgrade himself to an iron-level rank-3 within the next couple of days. Carefree City was surrounded by mostly level-1 wild zone while level-2 wild zones were 200 kilometers away. As he looked at the map, a pretty waitress came to him with his coffee.
"Sir, would you like sugar with your coffee?"
"No, thank you," he replied. Lin Huang then sniffed the aroma of the coffee softly. The coffee smelled was much stronger than the kind he had on earth. He took a sip. Almost instantly, he frowned deeply, but not because it tasted bad. It was too bitter! It was comparable to berberine tea, which was the most bitter tasting thought that came to mind.
"The coffee beans are so different from types of coffee on earth," Lin Huang mumbled to himself but he insisted not to add sugar to it.
He then proceeded to look at the map and soon he found the place he wanted to go.
"Grimace Valley looks good. A level-2 wild zone and it is big enough. The mountains on both sides are also level-2 wild zones. There should be at least 10,000 bronze-level monsters over there. It’s more than 200 kilometers from Carefree City. It would only take 10 minutes by riding the Alexandrian Eagle. I can come back to the hotel to rest whenever I’m tired and that’s so much better than sleeping in a tent in the wild…"
After he finished his coffee, he paid for it and summoned the Viridian Wolf. He then rode to the foothold in the west. The waitress who brought Lin Huang coffee was cleaning the table when she saw Lin Huang summoning the Viridian Wolf. She screamed!
"What’s wrong?" Another service crew member turned around and asked.
"That customer is an Imperial Censor!"
"Are you sure that’s what you saw?" he asked, as he looked around and saw nothing. Lin Huang had left too quickly, by the time the other staff members had gathered, they did not see him so they laughed and shook their heads.
"It’s true! I saw him riding a gigantic green wolf when he left," she stuttered between gasps.
"Xiao Liu, you should really stop reading those web novels," the cafe owner said, shaking his head.
"You guys need to stop accusing Xiao Liu," an old man said as he stood up with his stick, "I saw the young man too. He really summoned a bronze-level rank-1 Viridian Wolf without a monster taming token. He was obviously an Imperial Censor. He looked like he was only 15 or 16 and that was my first time seeing such a young Imperial Censor," he continued.
The old man was a regular customer at the cafe. The staff did not dare say another word when they heard the old man talking about Lin Huang.
"Since Old Jia saw it too, then it must be true," the cafe owner said, relenting on his previous statement.
Lin Huang did not know what had happened at the cafe. He rode on his huge emerald Viridian Wolf, and those who saw him on the road were envious of him. When he got out of the West Gate, he recalled the Viridian Wolf, summoned the Alexandrian Eagle and flew towards Grimace Valley.
"An Alexandrian Eagle!" A hunter of a group exclaimed as they passed by and saw Lin Huang summon the Alexandrian Eagle. Some of them recognized it as a mutated monster and were immediately struck with fear in their eyes. They then jumped aside to hide from the danger. It was only when Lin Huang was completely out of sight did a hunter come out of hiding said, "Such a young Imperial Censor... I'm not sure which royal family he's from. I guess it’s all fated that way. Some people have better lives than others…" he said with a heavy sigh.
The journey from West Gate to Grimace Valley took less than 15 minutes. As the Alexandrian Eagle landed, Lin Huang recalled it immediately and summoned Bai and Charcoal. He rode on Charcoal’s back the rest of the way. Bai and Charcoal then started their parade of merciless killing in the valley…