With this S-rank skill book, who still needs to gather materials or craft equipment?
Forget 255,000, Lin Mo had a feeling: once he used this S-rank skill book to give Ling Xiao an S-rank healing passive, pushing his HP past 300,000 would be effortless.
So Lin Mo immediately set off with Ning Xi, following the location Black Night had sent.
That's right, Lin Mo planned to personally go and trade with Black Night.
After all, they couldn't use the auction house, and they couldn't use mail.
There was no other way.
"Brother Lin Mo, when the time comes, just say someone named Mo sent you a message and told you to come get the skill book."
"Anyway, you already posted in Inferno City that you were buying skill books. It connects perfectly, totally reasonable."
As soon as Ning Xi finished speaking, Lin Mo smiled and said, "Great minds think alike."
Of course, Lin Mo wasn't worried about Black Night getting suspicious.
He was only concerned about Mingyue Xin finding out that he was secretly recruiting forces.
So forming alliances and building a faction had to be handled entirely by his clone. Lin Mo himself couldn't reveal even the slightest clue.
After leaving Inferno City through the south gate, Lin Mo and Ning Xi headed toward Black Night's location.
———
[Meanwhile, Inside the City]
Tyrant, who had just come out of the resurrection spring was thinking that after suffering two consecutive wipes, the guild's morale had dropped sharply. They needed to lie low for a while, avoid falling too far behind other guilds, and prevent losing their foothold in Inferno City.
But at that moment, he suddenly received an encrypted call.
Even the voice on the other end had been altered, ["How is the matter I assigned you progressing?"]
Normally, Tyrant never tolerated anyone and always acted decisively.
But the moment he heard this voice, he became like a mouse seeing a cat, instantly submissive.
["Boss, I… I'm already working on it!"]
["I'm trying every possible way. Give me a bit more time, and I'll definitely recruit Rulebound."]
Though Tyrant looked flustered on the surface, inside, he was even more panicked.
Because from the very beginning, the order to recruit Rulebound into Storm had come from the "boss."
It was Tyrant who had acted on his own, after failing to recruit him, he developed malicious intent and a desire for revenge.
His plan had been to deal with Lin Mo first, then go to the boss and plead his case, making up an excuse that Lin Mo was ungrateful and that he had punished him on the boss's behalf.
But now that things weren't done and he had even suffered setbacks at Lin Mo's hands, Tyrant didn't dare reveal anything to the boss.
However, the voice on the other end let out a cold snort.
["Don't think I don't know what you've been doing."]
["You dare treat my words like the wind in your ears? I told you to recruit Rulebound into Storm, and you dared ignore my order and privately target him?"]
A chill shot down Tyrant's spine.
He hadn't expected that his every move was already under the boss's control.
["Don't forget who went to great lengths to pull you out of prison every time you got into trouble."]
["If I can drag you up from the abyss, I can just as easily throw you back into it at any time."]
Cold sweat formed on Tyrant's forehead.
["Boss! Please give me one more chance!"]
["I'll spare no effort, no matter the cost or method, to make Rulebound join the Storm Guild!"]
["No need,"] The two cold words from the other end made Tyrant think he was finished.
The next moment, however, the boss's words gave him a sudden turn of hope, ["At this point, Rulebound will never join Storm."]
["Kill Rulebound directly."]
Tyrant froze.
He didn't understand why the boss would make this decision.
But he didn't dare question it. The only thing he could do was obey.
Besides, killing Lin Mo was exactly what Tyrant wanted anyway.
So with a twisted expression, Tyrant said, ["Don't worry, boss! Tyrant won't fail your expectations. I guarantee the mission will be completed!"]
After hanging up, Tyrant remained uneasy.
Beside him, Tyrannosaurus asked nervously, "Boss, did the boss find out that we disobeyed his orders and targeted Rulebound?"
"Yes."
Tyrant's firm answer made Tyrannosaurus feel his vision go dark, cold sweat breaking out across his back.
Because he wasn't innocent either. Back then, he and Tyrant had both been pulled out of death row by that "boss."
Clearly, he knew that this mysterious "boss" not only wielded immense power, but was also decisive and ruthless in ways ordinary people couldn't imagine.
"It's over! Boss, we're finished!"
"I told you back then not to target Rulebound, but you wouldn't listen!"
Just as Tyrannosaurus had already started thinking about his last words, Tyrant said, "The boss told me to kill Rulebound."
"Probably planning to smash the pot since it's already cracked."
A huge question mark appeared on Tyrannosaurus's face.
"Wait!", Tyrannosaurus suddenly seemed to realize something, "No, that's not right."
"Even though we've never met the boss, you can tell he always acts decisively and with clear objectives."
"Boss, is it possible that the boss's original intention in telling us to recruit Rulebound was actually to trap him within Storm, making it easier to kill him?"
"What kind of deep grudge does the boss have against Rulebound?"
Tyrannosaurus's words made even Tyrant feel a chill as he thought deeper.
"No matter what, we just need to follow the boss's instructions. Otherwise, with his methods, the fate waiting for the two of us would be a hundred, a thousand times worse than life imprisonment."
The more Tyrant thought about it, the more afraid he became.
"No!"
"We have to immediately get that skill book back from Black Night."
"Then use this skill book to set up a trap and get rid of Rulebound as soon as possible."
Now that Tyrannosaurus was tied to Tyrant, he quickly began offering ideas, "Black Night is carrying a lot of crime points. According to the system, players with red names can't return to the city or send mail. There's no way he can deal with that skill book in a short time."
"So he must be outside the city right now, grinding off his crime points somewhere in the wild."
"And all maps within a level-two main city have rank entry requirements. Based on his current rank, Black Iron Tier 3, I checked, there are only 23 maps in all of Inferno City that he can enter."
"As long as we focus our search on those twenty-three locations, we'll definitely find Black Night."
"Good!" Hearing this, Tyrant said with certainty, "Dealing with Black Night is tricky. This plan must succeed, failure is not an option! We need absolute confidence to reclaim the skill book in one move!"
"Notify Heaven, Bloodthirst, Martial God, and Emperor Guilds. Tell them to cooperate on the S-rank skill book!"
"Understood," Tyrannosaurus nodded, "Don't worry, boss. I'll arrange it right away."
"Today, both Black Night and Rulebound will die!"
———
[Southern Inferno City]
[Level 54 Inferno Forest]
In the forest, Shadow Sword God · Black Night stood among the trees, gripping his shadow greatsword, controlling a hundred shadow sword puppets scattered throughout the vast forest, slaughtering monsters, [Inferno Skeletons].
With a hundred sword puppets, the monster-killing speed was extremely fast.
Of course, since the system designed the hidden class [Shadow Sword God], it had to remain balanced and not disrupt the game.
So when the Shadow Sword God used sword puppets to kill monsters, the rewards were divided based on the number of puppets summoned.
With one hundred puppets active at once, each puppet killing a monster only granted Black Night 1% of the experience, and the drop rate was also reduced to 1%.
So in terms of farming efficiency, it wasn't much different from solo grinding.
However, using the puppets to clear crime points was extremely effective.
Because crime points weren't affected. Every monster a puppet killed reduced Black Night's crime points by 1.
With one hundred puppets, each killing one Inferno Skeleton, Black Night could instantly reduce 100 crime points.
Previously, he had killed quite a few Chaotic World and Storm players.
Excluding gray-name and red-name players, counting only white-name kills, Black Night had accumulated over eight thousand crime points.
So even with a hundred puppets working together, it still wouldn't be quick to clear it all.
Since there were only so many low-rank maps in Inferno City, at this moment, besides Black Night, there were also quite a few other Black Iron Tier 2 to Tier 3 players in the Inferno Forest, killing Inferno Skeletons to level up.
His extreme red name made them greedy.
But the shadow sword puppets made them wary.
Player A: "Damn! That Black Night, his name's turned black. According to the system, you need at least over 5,000 crime points for it to look like that, right?"
Player B: "Five thousand crime points? That's like killing fifty white-name players. That's insane."
Player C: "Damn… if he dies like this, his level 53 would drop to zero, and all his gear would explode! Guys, I've got an idea…"
Player D: "Don't even think about it! Didn't you see he's a hidden class user? Anyone carrying that much crime is a ruthless player. Better not mess with him."
Player E: "Controlling this many summons at once to farm, this hidden class is ridiculous! Where did this guy even get a hidden class? Feels like it's even stronger than an S-rank talent! I want one too!"
At this moment, Lin Mo and Ning Xi arrived at Inferno Forest.
Seeing the shadow sword puppets spread throughout the forest, powerful enough to easily crush level 54 Inferno Skeletons, Ning Xi said in shock, "Are hidden classes really this strong?"
"No," Lin Mo looked at Black Night in the forest, his expression sharpened with excitement, "A hidden class alone isn't this strong."
"Black Night, he's an A-rank hidden class plus an A-rank talent. A double powerhouse."
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