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They took down another group of ghouls—and this time, a piece of equipment finally dropped. A tall, black shield, nearly a meter high. No doubt about it: it was Knight gear.

A level 21 Epic-grade shield!

It provided a whopping 50 points of physical defense—and even included a decent boost to magic defense, surpassing the total defense stats of most top-tier players. The Vitality bonus translated into 1,250 extra HP! And on top of that, it also granted solid Strength.

Not to mention the Guard skill—cutting an ally’s incoming damage in half for five seconds. Whether in dungeon boss fights or team PvP, that kind of skill was invaluable.

Unfortunately, the only Knight in the party was still just level 18. He couldn’t equip this incredible shield yet.

“Wipe your drool, man—there are girls watching,” Zane said casually.
“Sluurp.” Endless Sea quickly sucked it back in.
“…”

Gross.

“Anyway, the Guardian’s Heart goes to Sea, then. No objections, right? Nobody else here can even use a shield,” Zane said.

“No objections,” Shiu replied immediately.

YoyoPink also shook her head.

“Then it’s settled. It’s yours—take good care of it.”

“What about Stardust? She hasn’t said anything.”

Ah, right—I almost forgot about her.

Starry shook her head as well.

Endless Sea thought for a moment. “This Epic shield is something we earned together. I can’t let you all walk away empty-handed. How about this—I’ll give you all the gold I’ve saved up over the past few days.”

With that, he pulled out 40 gold coins. Exactly 10 per person.

An Epic shield like this was worth far more than Rare gear—and even among Epic items, this one was top-notch. On the auction house, it would be priceless. Its actual value far exceeded 40 gold coins.

“Make it 9 gold each,” Zane said. “Keep 4 coins for yourself—to repair gear or buy potions. Otherwise, if your stuff breaks, it’ll be awkward.” Zane didn’t turn down the offer—at this point, there was no reason to. Besides, he was right.

“Deal!” Endless Sea was thrilled. “Once I hit level 21, I’ll be a real main tank!”

…

“By the way, Fia, are ghouls really the only monsters around here?” Zane asked. It felt a bit odd—weren’t there any other types of creatures? They’d heard there was a Death Knight near the Spring of Life, but that should’ve been some distance away.

If possible, Zane definitely wanted to challenge more bosses. After all, boss drops couldn’t be compared to those of regular mobs. Besides, he was about to hit level 20, just one level away from equipping the Ring of Mana.

According to leaks from the official site, every 10 levels marked a significant milestone—new skills could be learned from class mentors. And the same applied to monsters. Those above level 20 were in a completely different league compared to the low-level ones, like the difference between heaven and earth.

More skills also meant more combo potential and diversity in combat. All classes would unlock new skills, and most would gain access to crowd control. The days of high-level players steamrolling everything were coming to an end!

Fia paused for a moment, then gave her answer. “There are also… zombies.”
“Zombies? Haven’t seen any,” Zane said.
“They remain in fixed locations and don’t initiate attacks.”
“So… you mean they’re inside the houses?”
“…” Fia suddenly fell silent.

“I’m guessing those zombies used to be villagers,” Endless Sea commented in the party chat.
“That’s probably the case. Either way, once they become monsters, we don’t hesitate,” Zane said, his emerald-green eyes filled only with thoughts of loot and gold.

…

There were no more ghouls in the street. It seemed that group they’d just fought was the only one nearby. Some of the houses were in total ruin, on the verge of collapse. Unnoticed until now, the moonlight had begun to spill across the village.

“So it’s already night, huh…”
“It’s been a while. Should we all log off and grab dinner?” Zane suggested.
“I already ordered delivery. I’ll be done in three minutes!” Endless Sea said proudly.

Three minutes… what are you, a machine?

“I eat kind of slow…” YoyoPink said shyly. “Would twenty minutes be okay?”

“No problem. We haven’t even ordered yet. How about this—let’s all regroup in half an hour?”

“Mhm, sounds good!”

After logging out, Zane lifted off his helmet and was hit by a strange, dreamlike sense of disconnection—like he’d just crossed from one world into another. The contrast was jarring. Dreamscape felt almost more real than reality itself.

And in just a few days, Zane had already sold gold worth several tens of thousands of RMB. Making money this easily almost felt surreal. In the world of Dreamscape, high-end Rare and Epic gear easily went for thousands. Who among average players could afford that?

Most likely, it was the rich kids and major guilds propping up the economy. Which only made the gear gap even more inevitable.

No matter how strong their little party was, they were still just that—a party. No backing, no funding. Who knew how far this adventure could really go?

Truthfully, it was Starry’s presence that let him stay ahead of the curve. But… Starry hadn’t shown up for an entire day now. Even sleeping didn’t bring him back to the dream world.

Just one day without Starry, he already missed her.

“Zane, what are you spacing out for? Half an hour isn’t enough for delivery—let’s just go out to eat,” Shiu said as he stood up.
“Oh—yeah, good idea!” Zane replied quickly.

…

Since he’d started making money, there was no need to live off 10-yuan budget meals anymore. And so… Inside a fast-food restaurant, Zane held a chicken nugget on a toothpick in his left hand and a drumstick in his right, stuffing the juicy, greasy meat into his mouth without hesitation.

“I mean… this is your idea of eating well?” Shiu face-palmed, looking pained. “Can’t you aim a little higher?”

“Shiu, you just don’t get it. Those fancy dishes that cost hundreds or thousands? They’re not even guaranteed to taste better than KFC. They just dress up simple ingredients and hike up the price tenfold.”

“Which starving college student just let out that pitiful cry of despair?” Shiu said flatly, then grabbed a piece of fried sausage. “Nom.”

“See? You talk trash, but you’re still eating it.”

“No kidding. If I didn’t, you’d finish everything yourself! What, did you not eat for three days or something?”

“You know my situation.” Zane spoke while chewing, then swallowed a bite of chicken. “If we can keep earning at this pace, we won’t have to live like this much longer.”

“It might not be that easy,” Shiu said.
“Why not?”
“Because the gold exchange rate just dropped below 100,” Shiu replied calmly.
“What!?? Cough cough cough… cough cough…” Zane nearly choked in shock. This was about his get-rich-quick plan—failure was not an option!

“This morning, the Temple Guild discovered a kobold cave. It links to a massive new map! The kobolds inside are level 17 Rare monsters. And get this—they have a weird obsession with hoarding gold. Each kobold drops at least one gold coin!” Shiu took a sip of his drink.

“No idea who leaked the news, but now everyone in Thousand Crag City knows. It’s gotten so bad they can’t even block the entrance—there are just too many people! That whole map is almost flooded with players. The moment kobolds respawn, they get insta-killed. And now, gold prices are crashing across all four major cities.”

“Why didn’t you say something earlier!?”

Damn it—all my coins just lost their value overnight!

“I only just found out. Saw it scrolling through my feed a minute ago.”

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