"We can only pay to find a sparring partner. Hopefully, they won't charge too much," Lin Yuan said, starting to work on his phone.
Pay to find a sparring partner?
Gu Chen was completely silenced by this.
Is it so easy to earn money as a professional?
He's helping people level up, and he's paying them? Absurd!
He glanced around. All the students were standing a distance from the two of them.
Yes, they were isolated.
In this situation, it seemed there was no other way out except to pay for a sparring partner.
Lin Yuan acted quickly. Shortly after posting the message on the forum, a bunch of people were privately messaging him about the situation and the price.
However, when those sparring partners learned that the team leader was a civilian summoner, nothing happened.
One actor, however, privately messaged Gu Chen.
Yes, an actor.
The kind who just chatted and bantered throughout the dungeon, never needing to enter combat mode, and could exit the dungeon at any time if things got tough.
To put it bluntly, they're just not strong enough and are paying for experience.
After a dungeon, the captain gets the lion's share of the experience, while the actors only get a small portion, but this is still higher than solo raiding.
So, hiring a sparring partner costs money, and hiring actors also requires payment.
"How much do actors typically charge for novice dungeons?" Gu Chen asked Lin Yuan.
"Novice dungeon actors... I'm not sure..." Lin Yuan frowned slightly, thinking for a moment. "About four or five thousand per person."
Gu Chen nodded, quoted the other party eight thousand, and waited for a bargain.
Unexpectedly, the other party agreed immediately, but they said there were two people, and they had to bring both along.
Of course, Gu Chen agreed. Eight thousand per person, two people would make sixteen thousand, which was more than his annual living expenses.
Hmm... it's really easy to make money as a professional.
After the deal was settled, Gu Chen added the actor Lin Qingqing, a female warrior, to his team.
Then Lin Qingqing added a female assassin named Su Ran.
The Warrior class is notoriously difficult for commoners. Without good equipment, leveling up early on is incredibly painful.
Furthermore, when it comes time to enter the official dungeon, Warriors generally have to be two levels higher than other classes to be accepted.
As for the Assassin class, it's even more difficult for commoners.
Its defense is low, making it relatively fragile. Its early damage output isn't as good as a Mage or Marksman's, and it levels up even slower than a Warrior.
No wonder they'd pay to join Gu Chen's team.
It's no exaggeration to say that even one of the four people in the current team would stand in the dungeon plaza for a whole day without receiving a team-up invite.
Unless they paid for it.
For Lin Qingqing and Su Ran, 8,000 yuan each might be a bit pricey, but at least it meant they had a chance to complete the novice dungeon.
But Su Ran was still a little worried.
"Qingqing, are you really planning to join this team? I just heard the captain is a civilian summoner!"
"And you dare say you're aiming for SSS rank? Don't let us lose a teleport scroll."
Lin Qingqing wasn't sure, but she had no other choice.
"We don't have the money. Other teams start at 15,000, and this team is the cheapest."
"Besides, the captain has already said they want to achieve SSS rank, so they must have some talent. Give it a try, or we'll have no chance."
They had already submitted dozens of team-up requests, but none of them had any response.
No one wanted to team up with them, unless they were looking for a sparring partner, but she couldn't afford that at market price.
Su Ran said helplessly, "Okay, let's take a gamble. Even if we lose, we still have a teleport scroll to save our lives."
Although it was a novice dungeon, the mortality rate was still high, as professionals had to be out of combat before leaving.
The way to escape combat was to create a significant distance between themselves and the monster, or to kill it.
If they made a mistake, they would be entangled by the monster and exhausted to death.
Because actors didn't have to participate in combat at all, they could simply withdraw if things got bad. This convenience made the eight thousand yuan spent on the next dungeon well worth it.
After Lin Qingqing and Su Ran, another familiar figure joined the team.
A tall, handsome man, dressed in an elite-level fighter suit.
"Squad leader, you're joining our team?" Lin Yuan was stunned.
Gu Chen looked at the familiar face before him, a wave of surprise in his heart.
This tall, handsome fighter was Wu Ziyi, their squad leader.
Wu Ziyi was a somewhat arrogant person. Although he came from a commoner family, he looked down on ordinary people.
His family was well-off, but not yet up to the standards of an aristocrat.
Although he was wearing an excellent combat suit, the surface of his equipment was covered in mottled battle scars, clearly purchased from a secondhand market.
Hearing Lin Yuan's question, he said calmly, "Yes, I'll join your team as an actor. But let me make a deal: if there's a situation you can't handle, I'll intervene, and I'll take two-thirds of the team's experience."
Hearing this, a smile curled up Gu Chen's lips.
No wonder Wu Ziyi, such a noble man, suddenly wanted to join his team as an actor. It seemed he was just here to take advantage of the situation.
While Wu Ziyi's suit was eye-catching, it wasn't enough to support him leading a team through the dungeon alone and gaining experience.
So, he set his sights on Gu Chen.
Joining was simply a gamble on Gu Chen's inability to lead a team through the dungeon.
Seeing clearly, but not speaking out.
Gu Chen agreed to Wu Ziyi's terms, and after negotiating the price, he swiftly added him to the team.
Now, the team was finally complete.
A warrior, a swordsman, a brawler, an assassin, and a summoner, all level 1.
No damage classes like marksmen or mages, nor support classes like priests or paladins.
In short, this team's composition seemed a bit overwhelming.
Wu Ziyi understood this, but he didn't care. He was just gambling: Gu Chen, a common summoner, wasn't capable of leading a team.
When Gu Chen couldn't hold on in the dungeon, he only needed to make a few small moves to reap two-thirds of the team's experience.
Isn't that better than splitting the experience equally among those five-man teams out there?
Besides, even if his prediction was wrong and Gu Chen really cleared the novice dungeon alone, the worst-case scenario would be a loss of eight thousand yuan.
No, it wasn't a loss of eight thousand yuan; it was eight thousand yuan buying the experience of a solo dungeon run.
Not really a loss.
"Check the status. Once everyone is ready, we'll enter the dungeon," Gu Chen announced in the team chat.
[Lin Yuan (Swordsman LV.1): Ready!]
[Lin Qingqing (Warrior LV.1): Ready!]
[Su Ran (Assassin LV.1): Ready!]
[Wu Ziyi (Fighter LV.1): 1]
Gu Chen stood in front of the spatial vortex at the dungeon entrance, opened the options panel, and selected Hard Mode.
Immediately, a brilliant blue light erupted from the spatial vortex, illuminating the five people, and their figures vanished.
Seeing Gu Chen and the others disappear, the surrounding crowd suddenly became lively.
"Oh my god! That civilian summoner actually led people into the dungeon. Isn't that a rip-off?"
"He seems to have chosen Hard mode. This is definitely going to be a disaster."
"Striving for an SSS rating? Haha, let's think about surviving first."
"Just wait and see. He definitely won't last two hours. I hope he's not a pile of shredded meat when he comes out."
"I've seen plenty of stubborn people, but this is the first time he's courting death."
"He's really hurting himself and others."