Chapter 13: The Gathering of Blank—The Ultimate Pro-Gamer Team!
Inside God's Domain, Floor 2 Safe Zone.
Second-floor balcony of a local inn.
Seito logged in and scanned his surroundings. Seeing that Maple wasn't online yet, he sat on the bed and opened the official game forums to check the current state of the world.
To his surprise, the top-ranked player wasn't Sora or Shiro. It was a player named "Ako," who had already reached Level 17.
Furthermore, the front-line raid groups had already pushed through the Labyrinth to Floor 7. The pace was blistering.
"Those guys must have a mountain of gold by now," Seito muttered.
Every floor contained hidden quests, but the speed-runners weren't finding many—maybe five or six total. Hidden quests were notoriously difficult to trigger, and most top players spent their time grinding mobs or boss mechanics. Consequently, the raid groups currently held the highest wealth in the game.
Seito opened his friends list, searched for the names 'Sora' and 'Shiro,' and hit add.
[Ding! You are now friends with 'Sora.']
[Ding! You are now friends with 'Shiro.']
[You have created the Chat Channel: 'Fatui.']
[Players 'Sora' and 'Shiro' have joined the channel.]
[Fatui Chat Channel]
Shiro: "Seito-nii~"
Sei: "Long time no see, Shiro. I see you and Sora are already Level 15."
Sora: "Seito, where are you? Shiro and I soloed the Floor 3 Boss earlier today and took a nap. Want to hunt for rare materials tonight?"
Sei: "Great minds think alike."
Sora: "Good. Shiro and I got a drop called the 'Gold-Tier Equipment Crafting Manual' from the boss. I'll show it to you in a bit."
Sei: "Deal."
Seito closed the window. As expected of Blank—they had already identified the core loop of the game. In God's Domain, levels didn't create the ultimate gap between players; Custom Equipment did.
Red (Legendary) and Gold (Mythic) gear had to be hand-crafted. However, the odds were brutal: only a 5% chance to result in a "Gold-Tier" item, 25% for Red, and the remaining 70% were sub-par junk. Gold items were the true "God-Slaying" artifacts of this world, but the material requirements were insane.
Sei: "Sending coordinates. Teleport to me. [Location.jpg]"
Sora: "On our way."
Shiro: "Coming~!"
Just as he closed the chat, a flash of white light illuminated the room. The Luck Goddess herself, Maple, had logged in.
"Mm~ Seito-kun!" Maple walked over with a bright smile and sat beside him. "Risa is coming over too. Her ID name is Sally."
"Good. Blank is on their way as well."
"Eh?! The legendary Blank?!" Maple gasped. She was no longer a total newbie; Sally had spent the afternoon educating her on the legends of the gaming world.
In the gaming community, two phrases were law:
1. Blank Never Loses.
2. The Uncrowned King, Immortal Sei.
"Yep," Seito nodded. "We're going on a rare material hunt. Sora found a crafting manual, and I want to see what we need."
"Understood! Leave the luck to me~" Maple pumped her fists, looking incredibly determined in her cute way.
Knock, knock, knock.
A moment later, a knock sounded at the door. Since players couldn't teleport directly into private rooms without permission, they always landed in the lobby first. Seito stood up and opened the door.
The moment the latch clicked, a small silver-haired girl lunged forward.
"Seito-nii~"
Shiro's face lit up with a rare, faint smile as she buried herself in Seito's coat, inhaling deeply. Her white hair was soft, and her cowlick twitched with content.
"Hey, Shiro." Seito smiled, patting her head before looking up at Sora and Sally, who were standing in the hallway. "Looks like you guys already ran into each other. Come on in."
He carried Shiro back into the room, followed by Sora and Sally. Once the door was shut, the atmosphere became lively. Maple and Sally immediately hit it off, sitting on one bed to chat, while Seito, Sora, and Shiro still in Seito's lap sat on the other.
"Maple, these are my childhood friends, Sora and Shiro," Seito introduced. "Sora, Shiro, this is Maple. She's my student and a literal Luck S-Rank. Don't underestimate her."
"Hello!" Maple chirped.
"A... a Luck S-Rank?!"
Sora and Shiro's eyes widened, staring at Maple as if she were made of solid gold. They knew Seito—he didn't use that term lightly. If he called her a Luck Goddess, it meant she probably sneezed and accidentally found a legendary sword. To Blank, she wasn't just a teammate; she was a walking gold mine.
Earlier that day, the "Real-Money-Trade" market had officially opened: 100 RMB for 100 Gold. In a world like this, someone with Maple's luck was destined to be the wealthiest person on the planet.
"It's... it's not that big of a deal," Maple blushed, feeling overwhelmed by their intense stares.
"The Goddess of Fortune lives among us," Sally muttered, shaking her head.
"Alright, settle down," Seito interrupted before Maple died of embarrassment. He looked at Sora. "Sora, let me see that manual."
"Here." Sora pulled out a tome so thick it looked like two dictionaries taped together.
"It lists the materials for every known Gold-Tier item. But there's a catch—it doesn't give a step-by-step guide. The actual 'forging' process depends entirely on the player's creativity and skill."
Thank you for reading!