MMORPG: Rebirth of the Legendary Guardian

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A simultaneous roar from all players in the entire world could be heard. Just as they had taken 3 f*cking days to introduce a simple Inheritance patch, they would need to endure another server shut down now, just to patch some Battle Companion crap?! What the hell!?

No matter how much the players complained, there was no stopping from what that was to come. The patch would still commence. Players from all over the world lost connection to the game in less than a minute. But, luckily, the patch was only 5 minutes. The server came back online slightly earlier. Some of the players that were not as active like Zhang Yang had not realized that and logged in after the server was patched the second time. With such a little time, Zhang Yang and his gang took the chance to review the Battle Companion ‘crap’ from the official site.

Just when the system had finished announcing the patch, the official website had published the relevant information on Battle Companion. To think that they had taken no time at all to prepare for all the documents, prior to releasing such spontaneous patches.

Zhang Yang read the content released on the official website.

Battle Companions were like Hunter’s pet. They can be summoned out, and removed from the battlefield. However, the major difference between a pet and a Battle Companion was that a Battle Companion had their own judgments and "sentience". They could make their own decisions and could execute complicated actions, based on general instructions. As long they laid down the command, they would complete it as to how the situation dictated. A Battle Companion could disobey a player if the request is unreasonable, or suspicious. It meant that they could break the contract at any time they want, and had the same power authority as a player. To put it in simple terms, a Battle Companion was more like a mercenary than an underling.

Like Hunter’s pet, Battle Companions could gain levels as the players killed monsters. There was one factor that made a Battle Companion much stronger than a pet. Battle Companions could equip weapons and armor which would give them the opportunity to grow much stronger than a pet could.

Players could only form a contract with one Battle Companion at a time. To swap a new Battle Companion, the player must first break the contract with the original Battle Companion. Battle Companion was easy to obtain. As long as a being has a mind of its own, be it a friendly target, or a hostile target, players could even sign a contract with a dragon if they had the capabilities of convincing them to form a contract. When a Battle Companion died in a field, whether or not by the hands of a player or a monster, it would lose a level.

Zhang Yang had mixed feelings in his heart. He had relied on his past "history" to carve himself a bright "future" in this timeline. However, most of the actions he had taken had been according to the previous timeline. However, this time, he had taken a new turn which had triggered something that was never released in the previous life! Zhang Yang could not help but wondered if his actions would lead to something even bigger. However, now that he has come to this, there was no way left, but forwards!

Zhang Yang relogged into the game and found a new Battle Companion window which displayed the information of the little girl. By just a simple thought in his mind, Zhang Yang had summoned Felice out into the world. Unlike summoning a pet or mount, a Battle Companion would not require any channeling or casting delay. Summoning a Battle Companion was an instantaneous action.

When Felice was summoned out, she jumped out from Zhang Yang’s palm, lightly stabbing Zhang Yang’s shoulders to stick her landing better. With a proud expression, Felice stood tall, puffing out her chest with pride.

Zhang Yang laughed at her comical attempt to guard him and said, "You precious little thing. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Felice nodded her head but when she opened her mouth, nothing but "ah ah eh eh" came out. Perhaps she was a mute, or perhaps she was made that way, due to her low level. Maybe when she gains a few level, she would gain the ability to talk to Zhang Yang.

While Zhang Yang was enjoying his time with Felice, Han Ying Xue and the rest of the troublesome ladies had joined his side and wanted to play with Felice. Unfortunately, due to Han Ying Xue’s and Wei Yan Er’s rough treatment, Felice was angry and had repeatedly tried to stab them with her toothpick-size spear. Since her level was too low, her attacks had not made any damage. Not even a single damage. Poor little "Thumbelina" was so frustrated, that she had morphed herself into a beam of light, and had returned back to Zhang Yang’s inventory.

Furious and disgruntled, Han Ying Xue pestered Zhang Yang to summon her out again. However, Zhang Yang had gained a liking for the little critter, and decided to take her side, and refused to summon Felice out just so that they could play with her. Furthermore, as the official site had mentioned, a Battle Companion could terminate the contract with the player anytime they wanted to. If Zhang Yang ever angered or annoyed Felice to an extent, she might just kick his butt and leave Zhang Yang.

Right then, Zhang Yang did not even have a hint of Felice’s ability. To think that the trigger point to initiate the Battle Companion system would require the clearance of the quest "Search of Meteor Sword", Zhang Yang felt that Felice was something extremely special and unique since he had obtained her from the Queen of the Imperial Heaven’s Empire after all. It would not make sense if Felice did not have any special abilities.

Zhang Yang removed himself from the crowd and teleported to the Thunderstorm Castle. There, he summoned the bear and rode all the way to the Ten Barren Seas. Right then, when the Chaos Realm was opened to the world, Zhang Yang had the greatest advantage, that was, his Level. The second highest level player in the game was only Level 96. Do not judge the difference of four Levels from 96 to 100, so the amount of time that the second player would need to grind to reach Level 100, would reach one months’ time! During that one month, Zhang Yang could have already roamed around the entire Chaos Realm!

The first item on his to-do-list was to capture a Flying Mount. Not only could a Flying Mount grant a player a wider, clear view of the landscape from above, the speed of which it could travel would be three times faster than regular mounts. While a level 90 map was already a headache for Zhang Yang, not having a Flying Mount in the Chaos Realm would make him suffer, from all the time wasted solely on riding his regular mount.

After Zhang Yang arrived at the Ten Barren Seas, Zhang Yang swapped the bear for the Mythical Turtle and spent close to 5 hours traveling on waters to reach the island at the center of the sea. Located at the very center of the island was the portal that led to the Chaos Realm. Even though the portal had long existed even before the system had made the announcement, no player could go through it!

On the island where the portal was located, there were no beasts and no monsters roaming around. Zhang Yang arrived on the island and swapped back to his bear to reach the center of the island without much delay. When Zhang Yang arrived in the center of the island, he was greeted by a black colored portal, with dark matter swirling in a circle, like a two-dimensional black hole.

Zhang Yang had used this portal once, back in his previous life. When he used it that time, Chaos Realm had already been explored by pioneer players. Zhang Yang only needed to link his [Teleportation Scroll] to the territory there, and had not needed to use the portal again the second time. Travelling to the Chaos Realm would not require of him to travel to the island again, It felt like a strong déjà vu when he approached the portal for the first time, a second time. Zhang Yang drew a deep breath and jumped into the whirlpool of darkness.

Whmmmmm... Thud.

It all happened in an instant. First, a sensation of being sucked into oblivion, second, a sudden surge of speed, and finally, third, a bright light flashed in his eyes, and he appeared on the other side. In the Chaos Realm, every player would arrive at a football field-sized gigantic altar. Behind Zhang Yang was the same portal where he had just walked through, and in front of him were the plains of Chaos Realm.

‘Ding! You have entered the Chaos Realm!’

Zhang Yang walked a little further and reached the end of the gigantic altar. Arranged in an orderly manner, there were eight portals which led to eight other different types of Ten Barren Seas, which belonged to eight different regions. The current map which Zhang Yang was currently in was named Tibanya Wasteland. Monsters in this map ranged from Level 100 to Level 130, which was quite a huge jump.

Even though Zhang Yang had recalled the location of the territory in this map, it was a matter of one year ago. When he opened the world map, it was completely dark, since he had not yet explored any of it. Hence, it took him quite some time, but Zhang Yang managed to locate the exact position of the territory that he had decided to conquer.

He was about to get into an extremely heated conflict. First, he would have to get himself a Flying Mount to save him a great deal of time to travel across the Chaos Realm, Next, he would want to conquer a territory to save him more time to travel back and forth between the portals. Lastly, by the time he has achieved two of them, Zhang Yang could start the quest to obtain the God of War Inheritance. That was enough of a workload for anyone else but Zhang Yang wanted more. In one month’s time, he wanted to conquer not just one, but two territories!

To conquer a territory would be a war between players. However, since Zhang Yang was the only one qualified to enter the Chaos Realm, that would mean that all territory in the realm were his to conquer, provided that no one could surpass Level 100 within the stipulated duration.

Zhang Yang had decided, that after conquering the territory in the Tibanya Wasteland, he would enter the Grandu Ice Ridge, and take the territory there for himself! One of the reasons for him to do so was because the Teleportation Point in the Grandu Ice Ridge led to the Japan-Korea region’s Ten Barren Seas.

When those bastards enter the Chaos Realm, they would cry in dismay, knowing that the only place where they could link their [Teleportation Scroll] had been taken away! Each time they wanted to travel to the Chaos Realm, they could only teleport to the Ten Barren Seas and travel 5 hours to the island, and use the portal! You have to obtain the [Territory Conquest Order] to conquer an already-occupied territory. Furthermore, defending was way easier than attacking. Lone Desert Smoke was China’s strongest guild. Additionally, territorial attacks were only limited between guilds. There was nothing for Zhang Yang to be afraid of, in a 1v1 fight!

Zhang Yang could only look forward to witnessing the expression and dismay when they realize that they had lost their convenience of traveling!

After setting his direction straight, Zhang Yang rode the bear and headed towards the first destination. After the altar, the area was nothing but a wasteland, as the name implied. It was littered with dying flora, while various cacti thrived. After just a few steps out, Zhang Yang could hear a low growl. Out of the brown, withering bushes, a leopard jumped out and sank its fangs deep in the white bear’s thigh.

[Ravaging Leopard] (Normal, Beast)

Level: 104

HP: 16,160

Defense: 100

Melee Attack: 4,702 – 5,502

Skills:

[Claw Attack]: Tears down the defense of the target. Deals a total of 5,000 physical attack in 15 seconds.

The bear growled in pain and retaliated immediately by slamming its paws into the leopard. Even though the monsters in the Chaos Realm was strong, the white bear was still a Yellow-Gold tier pet mount. With such a large difference in power and tier, the paw attack had sent leopard flying off its feet. The white bear had already received an attack by the leopard before it was sent flying. There was a visible bleeding wound on the bear’s thigh, but in the mounting status, all damage will be dealt on the shared HP bar. The attack was a DoT skill from the Claw Attack. However, instead of suffering any loss in HP, Zhang Yang superior damage absorption passives had completely nullified all the potential damage!

Zhang Yang snickered. With a quick thought, Zhang Yang summoned Felice out. Battle Companions are similar to that of a regular pet, they both required hands-on-the-field experience points to level up.

With the Sword of Purging Devourer dancing in the air, the Raging Leopard fell in its own pool of blood. It had dropped a piece of [Leopard’s Tail], and a rabbit’s foot that was yet to be digested.

[Lucky Rabbit’s Foot] (ETC)

Description: A limb that once belonged to a lucky bunny. Now, it belongs to you!

Zhang Yang frowned. How could a lucky bunny be eaten by a leopard and still not get digested...

The monster had given them a luxurious amount of experience points. Although the total experience points were divided across Zhang Yang, the bear and even Felice, the 5,000 experience points that were given to her, was enough to raise her level to Level 5.

There was a sudden growth in height and size as she gained levels. At level 5, she was already half a foot tall!

Zhang Yang continued on and killed more monsters that pounced at him. There were leopards, lions, boar or only normal tiered enemies. Still, their attack powers rivaled that of elite tiers! That large amount of experience points had sent Little Felice’s Level up high!

Level 10? Level 20? Level 30!

When the little girl reached Level 30, Felice had grown from the size of Thumbelina to a normal teenager! She wore a silvery white battle gown. Although the appearance of it looked like it was made of silver, it was neither steel nor silver, for the quality of her armor was much sturdier than that of common armor!

"Big Brother!" Felice cried out the most earnest, and cute voice to Zhang Yang.