Chapter Twenty-One: The Solo Journey

As time slowly ticked toward one in the morning, Wind Chime spoke up, "Let's stop for now and get some sleep."
"Alright, let's head back to the city, tidy up, and log off for the night," came the reply.
"I'll return to the city as well, need to buy some pet food and supplies," Zhang Shan decided, using his identity token to teleport back.
First, he went to the blacksmith to repair his gear, then teleported to the general store to restock ordinary bullets and pet food.
Bullets were cheap, but pet food was costly—ten silver coins per portion, each only enough to keep a pet happy for an hour. If a pet dies and is resummoned, its happiness drops dramatically. Zhang Shan checked his bag: barely seventy silver coins, not even a full gold. He sold off all the useless junk equipment at the shop, totaling one gold and twenty silver.
He bought five portions of pet food and seventy thousand bullets, ready to set out again.
Following the coordinates marked by Storm Under Heaven, Zhang Shan navigated several maps and, upon entering a map called Bowang Wasteland, finally found the type of monster he’d mentioned.
Ordinary Demon: Level 13, Health 2,500, Attack 350, Skill: Magic Resistance (Passive), reduces magic damage.
A passive skill, huh? It didn’t matter much to him now, but it would be valuable later. Increased magic resistance meant he wouldn’t be easily killed by spellcasters, and many bosses used magic attacks—having resistance would improve survival during boss fights.
Zhang Shan found a spot with his back to a stone, summoned Dumpling, and sent his pet to lure monsters. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about demons spawning behind him. The efficiency was slower, but safety came first.
Each monster gave over 120 experience, a bit more than the level ten ones, but their health was higher, and his pet couldn’t tank them forever—it needed to rest when low on health. It took about half a minute to kill a demon, painfully slow.
But there was no other way. He kept grinding, alone in the vast Bowang Wasteland, quietly hunting demons.
Time passed, and as midnight approached three o’clock, Zhang Shan was about to log off when Thousand Miles Alone messaged him, "Six-Bar Brother, still grinding? Where are you?"
"Still fighting monsters."
"I've just arrived in Dangyang City. Anything I should do upon entering?"
"Find the civil affairs officer, claim your identity token, bind it, and you're done."
"OK."
"When are you logging off?"
"Will be offline soon."
After ending the conversation, Zhang Shan checked his bag. Whenever there was a cooldown, he’d command his pet to perform a combo, landing the final blow. Yet after all this grinding, nothing good had dropped—just some trash white gear, which could sell for a coin or two. Dumpling’s ten luck points did improve drop rates, slightly better than when he farmed alone.
He teleported to the city, cleaned out his bag by selling junk at the store.
At the tailor’s, Zhang Shan checked backpack prices. The system only gave him twenty slots, increasingly insufficient. He couldn’t just throw away white trash gear—it was money. To save time from repeated trips, expanding his backpack was best.
Small Army Pack: adds five slots, one gold each, limit of five per character. Large Army Pack: adds ten slots, ten gold each, also five per character. Each player's backpack could ultimately be expanded to ninety-five slots—more than enough.
Zhang Shan had only two gold coins now. He teleported to the exchange, intending to withdraw the four gold coins he’d listed earlier—they hadn’t sold, and he needed them himself.
At the exchange, he checked his listing.
Wait—sold already? Someone actually bought at a thousand blue coins per gold? Incredible.
He immediately checked his phone for the bank notification.
Indeed, just over an hour ago, his account received 3,960 blue coins—four gold coins sold for four thousand blue, minus one percent transaction fee.
Today, he’d received three bank notifications: ten thousand from Little Secretary, two hundred thousand from Wind Chime, plus this three thousand. The earnings were unbelievable.
The first two were luck; but this last three thousand from selling gold coins—surely not luck, but regular income? Zhang Shan was delighted, encouraging himself—this was a promising start, keep it up.
Since the gold had sold, he went back to the tailor and spent two gold coins on two small army packs, bringing his backpack capacity to thirty slots.
Bullets took up one slot, pet food another, identity token another, plus some miscellaneous materials occupying five or six slots. Usable space was only about twenty-one or twenty-two slots—barely enough. Tomorrow, if he had more money, he'd buy two more small packs. As a grinder, constantly running back and forth was a waste.
He logged off and rested.
Removing the game helmet and washing up, Zhang Shan lay in bed, reflecting on the day’s gains, and drifted into sleep without realizing it.
The next morning, he opened his eyes to bright sunshine outside. What time was it? He grabbed his phone—already past nine.
He hurried to wash up, grabbed a quick bite, and logged into the game. Time was money, after all.
Entering the game, Zhang Shan appeared by the tailor’s shop where he’d logged off last night. The city was bustling, with noticeably more players.
System: Wind Chime invites you to join the party. He joined.
"Want to come grind bears with us? Everyone in the guild is here killing monsters, dozens of people."
"I’ll pass, I’ll keep farming demons. They're easier for me," Zhang Shan declined.
For him, demons were indeed easier. Magic resistance didn’t affect him, their defense wasn’t high, and he could deal nearly two hundred damage per hit.
"Then be careful grinding alone. The Heaven and Earth Guild, who used to have issues with us, has also entered Dangyang City. They might go after us—watch out for trouble."
"Not worried, they don’t know me, haha."
"Come on, how could they not? You fought bosses with us and were on the system announcement. They definitely know."
"No worries, my gear isn’t weak. I’m not afraid of most players."
"Alright then, keep your eyes open. Don’t leave the party—call if anything happens."
"Got it."
Though he acted unconcerned, Zhang Shan was annoyed—why did it have to come to this? He only wanted to grind quietly.
Otherwise, he was fine—his gear wasn’t weak, just his health was low, barely three hundred. A mage’s spell could kill him in one hit.
He decided to visit the auction house to see if any cloaks were for sale. If he could afford one, even a basic white cloak would help boost his health and make things safer.
He teleported to the auction house—quite crowded, so many lacking gear or skill books.
Checking the listings, Zhang Shan glanced at the most expensive items: skill books, each over ten thousand gold, with the useful ones starting at a hundred thousand gold.
He even spotted a resurrection skill book, Raise Dead, with a starting bid of ten million gold. Was that serious? Probably just listed for fun.
For Hunters, he also saw some skill books—like Jump, usable by all classes, allowing a ten-yard forward leap, very useful for survival. But the price was beyond him, so he didn’t even consider it.
He filtered for gear—cloaks.
From level one white cloaks to level ten green ones, but Zhang Shan was speechless at the prices. So expensive? A level one white cloak only added a hundred health but started at ten gold.
Level ten green cloaks added over a thousand health, very nice, but even pricier—only three listed, all starting at ten thousand gold.
Zhang Shan teleported away from the auction house and headed for the city gates—no options there, might as well grind honestly. It’s just a basic item; maybe he’d get one himself.
Ordinary demons were level thirteen monsters, dropping both level ten and fifteen gear—not fixed. He’d have a chance to farm a cloak himself.
He returned to yesterday’s demon grinding spot, sent Dumpling to lure monsters, beginning a new day of farming.
Overall, his efficiency was faster than yesterday—though Zhang Shan was still far from leveling up, Dumpling had already reached level ten, with nearly three thousand health and almost three hundred defense. Ordinary demons could barely scratch it, and the pet no longer needed to rest and recover.
With Zhang Shan’s 240 attack, plus the Demon Slayer title, Dumpling could hit twice. Killing a demon took under twenty seconds; including lure time, about twenty seconds per monster. If all went well, he could gain over twenty thousand experience per hour.
He checked the experience bar—level ten to eleven required 150,000 experience, still over 100,000 to go, likely wouldn’t level up until afternoon.
Wind Chime’s party had forty or fifty people—probably grinding separately, though grouped together.
The party chat was lively:
Zhang Shan: So lively here.
Storm Guild Secretary: I heard yesterday you got a charge skill drop—why didn’t it drop when we farmed together? Not happy.
Storm Blade: Luck, hehe.
Thousand Miles Alone: Haha, have you checked the forums? Those red-named players in the newbie village have to pay one gold per point of sin value for teleportation.
Storm Cannon: Saw it long ago! Heard a player killed over a dozen people in the newbie village, racked up over a hundred sin points, needs more than a hundred gold to teleport out. Now he’s collecting coins in his village.
Zhang Shan: That’s rough.
Storm Clear: Ahhh, my Totem skill can’t be used—needs two thousand mana, but my cap isn’t even a thousand. When can I cast it?
Storm Killer: Clear, you’re shamelessly showing off—how’s a thief like me supposed to cope without any skills? My class is skill-dependent!
Storm Clear: Poor you, go buy a skill book at the auction house. There are Thief skills for sale—just pricey, hehe.
Storm Killer: “Pricey” is robbery!
Storm Clear: Why doesn’t Six-Bar Buddha join us? It’s more fun with more people.
Zhang Shan: "I’ll keep farming demons solo—faster that way."
Storm Cannon: Hunters with pets really do as they please, jealous.
Zhang Shan: Haven’t you gotten a skill book yet?
Storm Cannon: Nope, auction house starts at a hundred thousand. Besides, I haven’t seen any tamable monsters. That panda you tamed hasn’t respawned since—not happy.
Zhang Shan: Really? Didn’t expect that.
Wind Chime: Yes, not sure if someone killed it or what, but it hasn’t appeared today.
The group chatted away. With no guild established yet, there was no guild channel, so party chat was the only option. They couldn’t use the regional channel—too many people, and it would be chaos.