[“Thousands of people, thousands of faces, each with unique talents”]

Zhou Sui’s face showed little expression, only twitching slightly when he saw the money. “It’s that valuable?”  

As soon as he said that, Slack Bro puffed up with pride, raising an eyebrow at Zhou Sui. “Don’t let my name fool you—‘Slacker’ or not, I don’t slack when it comes to getting things done.”  

“This damn game’s full of shady merchants. Wanna avoid getting ripped off? You gotta know the trick—compare prices from three sources and keep tabs on what the leaderboard big shots are up to, every second of the day.”  

With a grand wave, Slack Bro opened the leaderboard. Zhou Sui then noticed an external system panel next to it, meticulously listing which players were recently buying what materials. With that kind of dedication, it was honestly a shame Slack Bro wasn’t a full-time game merchant.  

“It’s what I do in real life—old habit,” Slack Bro said with a smug ‘don’t idolize me too much’ look, casually adding, “While you were offline, I already flipped the materials to some big shots in-game. Guaranteed top price, no middleman skimming profits—you can rest easy.”  

Back when it was just a chest, people were chasing them down to kill them. Now that it’d turned into two top-tier materials, the forest felt oddly too quiet.  

Zhou Sui instinctively glanced toward the direction Slack Bro had come from, but there was no extra movement. “So you exposed your coordinates?”  

His words hit the nail on the head. Slack Bro’s face flashed with embarrassment. He’d barely finished the trade with someone when his coordinates were sold out. Now he was stuck in this forest, unable to leave. The Frost Moon squad was camped at the forest’s only teleport point, even hiring a bunch of players to block the roads, stopping any swordsman around Level 30 they spotted.  

Sure enough, there’s no such thing as free money.  

“This spot you found is pretty hidden, though,” Slack Bro said, eyeing Zhou Sui standing in the shadow under a tree. “It’s not too hard. Let’s team up. You go start a quest instance, open a portal, and pull me over. It’s an emergency!”  

Zhou Sui looked at him, puzzled.  

Slack Bro paused, suddenly realizing something. He’d been blown away earlier by this guy’s monster-kiting skills, assuming he was a high-level player or even a pro. But seeing the unmasked confusion in Zhou Sui’s words now, it hit him—this guy might not even know what’s going on. “Big shot, you’re not a pro?”  

Zhou Sui: “Just started playing not long ago.”  

Slack Bro got it instantly—a wild newbie prodigy!  

“Damn, your moves could honestly rival those pro streamers… Wait, hold on!”  

Zhou Sui turned to leave.  

Slack Bro: “Look, I’m new to this server, no connections, no one I know… If I had any, would I still get my coordinates sold out?”  

Zhou Sui had meant to end the conversation, but Slack Bro was the overly friendly type—once he got going, there was no stopping him.  

When he learned Zhou Sui didn’t have a usable weapon, Slack Bro said, “Why’re you looking at the marketplace? That stuff’s all player-listed—insane fees and jacked-up prices. If you’re not picky about weapons, just buy one from an NPC. Wait, hold up—didn’t the Qi Ling Trial give you a chest?”  

Zhou Sui: “Opened it. Can’t equip it.”  

The golden chest from the Qi Ling Trial—Zhou Sui had cracked it open when he logged in. It gave him a few Level 30 pieces of gear, useless to him at Level 25.  

“Whoa, Level 30?” Slack Bro leaned in for a look. “Golden chests really are something else. Most people get Level 20 gear—you pulled Level 30 stuff. Guess you really do need to buy equipment.”  

“Good thing Tong Shi ^[1] Copperstone Town’s got a weapon shop!” Slack Bro added. “Saving a life’s worth more than building a seven-story pagoda! Teaming up can work for short-distance stuff. There’s a teleport quest in Tong Shi Town—take me out of here, and we’re golden.”  

“Once we’re out, I’ll hook you up with a weapon, bro!”  

The Qi Ling Village area was mostly forest, but just beyond it lay a small town.  

This was where Zhou Sui was supposed to come for quests anyway. As he entered the town, he saw players and NPCs bustling about. When he left the forest, he spotted clusters of people at the teleport points, as Slack Bro had described. He triggered the teleport per the instructions, and sure enough, Slack Bro was pulled through to his side.

“Aren’t you worried about getting ambushed now that you’re out?” Zhou Sui asked.  

Slack Bro grinned confidently. “They can’t block me. Frost Moon might hold out for a day or half a day at most, but they’ve got other stuff to do. Spending all that time and money just to trap me—don’t you think they’d have to be idiots?”  

“I know how this works. If they can’t catch me, they’ll give up eventually.”  

Zhou Sui had noticed something: leveling up to 25 was lightning-fast, but after hitting 25, the experience bar suddenly ballooned several times over. Online guides said the early experience flood was designed to get newbies into the game’s rhythm quickly—Level 25 was where the real grind began. So when he stepped into the town, he saw tons of players on the streets, most hovering around Level 25, with only a rare few at Level 30.  

Players had IDs floating above their heads to show their identities. Slack Bro taught Zhou Sui how to hide his, and soon their IDs vanished. They strolled through the town incognito, blending in seamlessly—no one paid them any attention.  

“Heard the news? Everyone’s heading to Tian Wu Bastion now.”  

“If you ask me, Qi Ling Village’s pretty much done. The big shots online have all moved on to other spawn points.”  

Voices buzzed with chatter as players hurried past, clearly preoccupied with something.  

Zhou Sui pulled his gaze back, taking in this holographic world tinged with a touch of fantasy.  

“Because of the hidden IDs, they won’t remember what you look like. There are so many players, there’s no way they could keep track of everyone’s face.” Slack Bro rambled on. He’d clearly done his homework on rumors and gossip before logging in. “You triggered a special event with the Qi Ling Trial! Anyone in the Divine Tree newbie server with half a brain for trends has already run off to test special events at other spawn points!”  

In Server 3145, special events that made it to the server-wide announcements weren’t rare. The game was crawling with skilled players and pros, and they didn’t care about who triggered the event—they cared about the event itself. So while Zhou Sui and Slack Bro were getting cornered, other players had already explored the Serpent Cave, the Serpent King, and the newly unlocked side quest tied to the Golden Serpent King. They’d pieced together that the two were a snake couple: the Golden Serpent King guarded the cave while the Serpent King inside was nesting, showing up near the cave daily. Players treated it like a wild mini-boss because it returned home every day.  

At first glance, it seemed like a mundane little in-game side story. Compared to casual players who just messed around, pros who treated this as their job had entirely different priorities.

Zhou Sui: “Oh.”  

Slack Bro: “??? You’re really not interested at all, are you?!”  

Zhou Sui genuinely wasn’t interested. What he cared about was the weapon shop.  

Next to the weapon shop was an equipment store—everything you could need lined up along the street. After bringing Zhou Sui to the spot, Slack Bro suddenly noticed some people talking nearby. Unable to resist, he kept sneaking glances over there before saying to Zhou Sui, “You go check it out first. Don’t buy anything too fancy for gear—just get something decent. Don’t get ripped off.”  

“I’m gonna watch the commotion for a bit and come back. You head in and browse—don’t be shy with the NPCs.”  

With that, he darted off toward the crowd to spectate. Zhou Sui ignored him and walked straight into the equipment shop.  

As soon as he stepped inside, he saw a variety of gear: attack-focused, defense-focused—you name it. The shopkeeper was a plainly dressed civilian NPC, busy chatting with another player. Once he finished, he turned to Zhou Sui. “Guest, are you here to buy or sell?”  

The in-game store has huge transaction fees, making prices high. But small shops have lower prices and not as many fees, so many players choose to sell items directly to NPCs or have NPCs help them sell.

Zhou Sui wanted to browse a bit more. The NPC smiled and went back to tending to other customers.  

Before coming here, Zhou Sui had skimmed a game guide. True skill freedom didn’t come from the nodes unlocked on the Divine Tree skill tree. The five spawn points each branched into different class paths. In Qi Ling Village, where Zhou Sui started, the main focus was the medical healing branch—known as Physicians, the faction with the highest healing output in the Divine Tree system. Then there was the potion-based support branch called Apothecaries, with average healing but a ton of buff skills, making them the go-to support healers.

No matter how many factions there were, by the time players reached Level 50, the Divine Tree skill tree only offered 75 skill points. How those 75 points were distributed across the skill tree marked the initial distinction between players.  

Zhou Sui had looked it up online: in Qi Ling Village, players were mostly either supports or unconventional control-type mages, with skill builds leaning heavily toward Physicians or Apothecaries—neither of which matched his playstyle. These were the two most popular factions under Qi Ling’s banner, though there were still offbeat builds, like attack-focused Apothecaries and such.  

Zhou Sui was different from the rest. From the start, he’d dumped his points into offense—not into the potion-based skills, but into the weapon-based skills, one of Qi Ling’s three major branches ^[2] Healing, Potion and Slash.  

Driven by his personal playstyle preferences, Zhou Sui had put all three of his initial skill points into the slashing sub-branch of the weapon tree. After upgrading the basic Slash skill and hitting Level 25, he’d earned over a dozen more points, most of which he also poured into the weapon tree.  

Level 25 was indeed a turning point. On his way to town, he’d followed his instincts and picked over ten skills in a row.  

Since all his skills were attack-focused, the gear recommended for Qi Ling Village—mostly items boosting skill effects or healing output—didn’t suit him at all.  

Ignoring those, he headed to the attack-oriented equipment counter. But everything he saw there felt generic and uninspired.  

Just as he was about to settle for something random, his eyes caught a purple cloth outfit tucked away at the far end—likely relegated there because its attack stat wasn’t impressive. Zhou Sui, however, zeroed in on its two attribute modifiers: low water-based attack power and maxed-out attack speed.  

He scrutinized weapons and gear with intense focus—a habit from his old competitive days. He cared far more about equipment than skills.  

Compared to the surrounding gear, this piece’s water attack was pitifully low, but its speed was capped out.  

In-game equipment modifiers were randomized and crafted by players with the equipment forging life profession.  

This piece was player-made, complete with the crafter’s name, priced at a modest 5 gold.  

After checking it out, Zhou Sui browsed the rest. NPC-sold gear was mostly cookie-cutter, while player-crafted items often had quirky, unconventional modifier combos. Those oddball combos were priced cheaper than standard gear. After scoping out most of the stock, he doubled back and snagged a few pieces with the modifiers he wanted—mostly speed and attack power.  

“Total comes to 35 gold,” the NPC said with a beaming smile.  

Zhou Sui paid cleanly, swapped into the new gear on the spot, and didn’t notice the other players eyeing him like he was some sucker buying random junk.  

He sold his tattered old gear to the NPC, netting 3 gold back—enough to check out a decent weapon next door. He figured he could test its power on forest mobs later. But as he stepped out of the shop, he suddenly heard a commotion. The entrance to the weapon shop next door was mobbed, the crowd so thick it blocked the doorway completely, leaving him no way to squeeze inside.

What’s going on?  

“Just now, someone triggered a special quest, and a bunch of people are crowding around to watch the show,” Slack Bro said, popping out from the throng. “Nearly got crushed in there. Guess that love of watching drama is something all netizens have a bit of, which is understandable, considering it’s a leaderboard team.”  

“Of course! Those big shots usually group up on the top-tier servers. Who’d have thought our backwater server would get one?”  

“And it’s a top-ranked team, too! Ever since that Yin Yue Alliance news dropped, the forums have been buzzing that our 3145 server’s been blessed by the heavens lately.”  

A few onlookers nearby chimed in, chatting about the slew of special events that had popped up on Server 3145 over the past week. Their words carried an unmistakable buzz of excitement.  

Zhou Sui listened to the chatter and pulled up the world announcement log. Sure enough, fifteen minutes ago, a notice had gone out—  

[Server-Wide Announcement] Players Mage Alt 123 and Little Bunny 123, passing through Tong Shi Town, discovered the shattered ruins. After braving countless hardships to unlock its secrets, they earned the rare reward [Long Yu Herb].  

[World] Louis: Holy shit, no way. Several announcements just kept popping up.  

[World] Pure Love War God: Wasn’t that Yin Yue Alliance special event this morning triggered by these two as well? Insane!  

Tong Shi Town was the very town they were in. Zhou Sui asked, “Is this stuff valuable too?”  

“Of course it’s valuable! That thing’s a crit-boosting material!” Slack Bro turned to Zhou Sui. “But it’s not just about value—you didn’t check the player IDs in the announcement?”  

A nearby player overheard their exchange and chuckled. “You’re new, huh, bro? Did you see that ‘123’ tag? That’s a signature suffix one of the big shots from the third-ranked team [Wonder Zoo] loves using. And then there’s Little Bunny—naming themselves after animals and triggering special events one after another? That’s gotta be a leaderboard pro’s alt account.”  

Leaderboard squads had been a hot topic on StarNet game guides long before Zhou Sui even started playing. They were basically the trendsetters of the Divine Tree game.  

Following the others’ pointers, he opened the in-game leaderboard. It had several categories, but the two most-watched were the individual rankings and the team rankings.  

The top three teams right now were [Skyward Ascent] , [Griffin], and [Wonder Zoo]—all neck-and-neck in points. Zhou Sui recalled that [Griffin] had recently made a breakthrough in the Divine Tree world progression not long ago.  

The Divine Tree’s main storyline was bizarre. Players were “gifted ones” of the Divine Tree continent, stepping out from their spawn points as novices only to encounter all sorts of strange events across the land.  

When Zhou Sui skimmed the guides, he’d also read up on the lore. According to players dedicated to unraveling the story, the revealed worldbuilding showed that the Tiankong ^[3] Sky Tree was already in decline. This decay had sparked invasions of various races and anomalies across the continent. The erosion was ongoing, triggering outbreaks of special events and encounters like monster frenzies and mysterious happenings all over the place. There were even reports of unknown regions emerging at the edges of the Divine Tree continent.  

“They don’t play their main accounts?” Zhou Sui asked, confused.  

Slack Bro: “When your main hits a progression wall and there’s nothing new to find, you’ve got to start digging elsewhere.”  

Zhou Sui got it. “So they’re max level and bored?”  

Slack Bro: “…Your knack for dumbing things down is unmatched.”  

Zhou Sui: “How do leaderboard players climb up there?”  

He glanced at the gap. The leaderboard’s top comprehensive scores were breaking past 10,000, heading toward 20,000, while his had just hit 1,000—most of that boost coming from swapping into his new gear.

“This guy’s really a newbie, huh?”  

“Bro, leaderboard big shots are all about raw skill—either pros or top-tier players.”  

“Do you really think max-level players have nothing better to do? Haha, if you wanna climb up there, dream a little— it’ll happen in your sleep.”  

The surrounding players didn’t bother hiding their words. Slack Bro yanked Zhou Sui aside. “Ignore them. These guys act all high and mighty just because they’ve got a bit of experience, but they don’t even check if they’ve got what it takes to hit the leaderboard themselves.”  

Zhou Sui didn’t mind, though—he already knew the leaderboard was about strength. “What I want to know is the combat power gap.”  

“The comprehensive leaderboard ties into a player’s cultivation, gear, achievements, and other data. Their total combat power against regular players is like one swing, one dead newbie,” Slack Bro said, dragging him away from the noisy crowd. He couldn’t resist flipping off the buzzkill players behind them before turning back to explain the leaderboard’s weight to Zhou Sui. “In Divine Tree, if you want to get strong, it’s not something you can just buy your way into.”  

Pay-to-win players could climb to the mid-tier at best, but going higher was a long shot.  

The stuff you could buy in Divine Tree wasn’t powerful—because the truly strong items were snatched up by big shots the moment they dropped, or the big shots themselves were the ones farming rare drops.  

Top-tier gear and materials only came from special gameplay modes. Everyone had an equal shot at them; the catch was finding the “entry ticket” to those instances.  

Slack Bro: “That said, the strongest thing in Divine Tree is still skills.”  

Zhou Sui, puzzled: “Skills?”  

“Thousands of people, thousands of faces, each with unique talents.” Slack Bro looked up mysteriously, “Do you really think the skill promotion of the Divine Tree is that simple?”  

“Have you ever heard of skill mutation?”