By spending money to buy BOSS information, Lin Mo and Ning Xi spent half a day farming bosses.
From noon until seven in the evening, they killed quite a few bosses during that time.
But after everything was counted, even with the hundredfold bonus from the SSS-rank talent Supreme Emperor, Ning Xi had only gained a little over 600,000 reputation.
Adding her original 800,000, she now had a total of 1.4 million reputation.
She was still more than 1.8 million short of the 3.2 million reputation needed for the SSS-rank hidden class advancement certificate.
———
[Offline]
[In the Living Room]
During dinner, Lin Mo and Ning Xi both realized the same problem.
Because they needed Ning Xi's tenfold reward bonus talent all the time to maximize their resource gains, ever since entering the level-two main city, Lin Mo had taken Ning Xi around to hunt bosses whenever they had free time.
As a result, they had already claimed the first kill on more than ninety percent of the bosses in Inferno City.
In Divine Oracle, a boss is worth the most on its first kill. The second kill cuts all rewards, including experience, reputation, and drops, by half.
The third kill gives half of that, and so on.
Ning Xi looked over the situation and said, "Brother Lin Mo, almost all the bosses we killed today were ones we'd already defeated before. They had already respawned, so the reputation rewards were much lower."
"If we kill these same bosses again tomorrow, the rewards will be cut in half again. At this rate, it'll probably be hard to gather 3.2 million reputation within forty-eight hours."
Lin Mo had already thought of that.
Besides, bosses also needed time to respawn.
Some took only a few hours, while others needed several days.
In fact, Lin Mo knew there were far more bosses in the level-two main city than the ones he and Ning Xi had killed.
The only reason was...
"Every map in the level-two main city has rank restrictions. Right now, only about ten percent of the area has been explored. At least ninety percent of Inferno City is still untouched."
Those places definitely still had many high-level bosses whose first kills had not been claimed yet and were extremely valuable.
But not to mention ordinary players, even with Lin Mo and Ning Xi's current Silver Rank III, they still couldn't enter those places.
Because above Silver, there was Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Star Glory, King.
Ranks could be raised over time.
Those unexplored maps could be opened up little by little.
The bosses hidden there could also be hunted later.
But the SSS-rank hidden class advancement certificate would not wait.
Only forty hours remained.
If they couldn't gather 3.2 million reputation for Ning Xi within that time, they would lose the SSS-rank hidden class Yama Hall forever.
"It looks like we can't just rely on killing bosses anymore. We need to think of a faster way to earn reputation."
"Earn reputation?", Ning Fei, who had just come out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of pork rib soup, heard the conversation and immediately became interested, "Brother-in-law, you should've said so earlier."
He put down the soup, hurried back to his room for his laptop, then sat down at the dining table.
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!
The sound of typing filled the room.
A moment later, Ning Fei snapped his fingers.
"Found it!"
"In the southern part of Inferno City, there's a level 70 map called Divine Might Tower. Inside that tower, you can quickly earn a huge amount of reputation."
Looking at Ning Fei's calm expression, Lin Mo turned to Ning Xi with disbelief.
"I remember you telling me your brother wasn't good at school. This is what you call a poor student?"
Ning Fei scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed, "When I was little, I got a headache every time I saw homework. I really was bad at studying..."
Then he straightened up, "But I was lucky enough to have a great sister!"
"When I had just started middle school, I told my sister I wanted to work with the internet. She used the pocket money she'd saved over half a year by cutting back on spending to buy me a secondhand computer."
"If she hadn't supported me back then, I wouldn't be where I am today."
"Wait!", Lin Mo looked at him in surprise, "You're saying your internet skills, which are on the level of a top hacker, were all self-taught?"
"Yep!"
Other than calling him a genius, Lin Mo couldn't think of any better word to describe Ning Fei.
It also showed that Ning Xi and her younger brother Ning Fei truly cared about each other.
In his previous life, during the later stages after Divine Oracle descended, people betrayed their spouses for resources and survival.
Brothers turned against each other.
Friends plotted against one another.
Things like that happened all the time and were nothing unusual.
No wonder, before Ning Xi had fully grown and become the number one female emperor of the national server in his previous life, an enemy guild had once tried to tempt Ning Fei with an S-rank hidden class advancement certificate, yet still failed to make him betray his sister Ning Xi.
At that moment, Ning Xi asked with some concern, "This Divine Might Tower... it doesn't require Platinum or Diamond rank to enter, does it?"
Her concern wasn't unreasonable.
After all, from Yama Hall to the Divine Tomb and then the Dark Underground City, all those places had such high rank requirements that it was exhausting just thinking about them.
But the next second, Ning Fei said something unexpected, "Divine Might Tower doesn't require a rank."
"Or to be more exact, the rank requirement can be set manually."
"I checked the internal data for this map in Divine Oracle. Because Divine Might Tower has fallen into disrepair and has been invaded by dark power, it's currently out of operation."
"Whoever repairs the Divine Might Tower becomes its owner and can set the entry rank themselves, from Black Iron at the lowest to King at the highest."
"Once the Divine Might Tower is repaired, it can allow all players to enter and challenge it. While those players receive challenge rewards, the tower owner also gains a large amount of gold and reputation."
"A territory system?", Lin Mo muttered, "Interesting."
Maybe Inferno City was simply too big. Otherwise, why didn't he remember a place like this existing there in his previous life?
Of course, with the strength he had back then, even if he had known about it, all he could have done was watch.
To become the lord, the only way would have been if Lin Mo had been the last player left in Inferno City.
But in this life, he was determined to claim the Divine Might Tower.
"You can earn gold and reputation at the same time?"
"Perfect. The gold can be used to upgrade Ning Xi's talent, and the reputation can be used for reward bonuses. Two problems solved at once."
And more importantly, this was a long-term solution.
Once they captured the Divine Might Tower and made Ning Xi its lord, they would never have to spend money buying boss information and run around killing bosses just to earn reputation for her again.
Once again, Lin Mo realized just how incredible Ning Fei's internet skills were.
He was also worried because Zhao Ling'er hadn't logged in or replied to any messages all afternoon.
So he asked Ning Fei, "Xiao Fei, do you have a way to locate someone's real-world location?"
Ning Fei thought for a moment, "As long as I have a general area, plus their name and appearance, then in theory, by combining surveillance footage, food delivery records, and travel information from that area, I should be able to find them."
Hearing that, Lin Mo suddenly felt a chill down his back.
This was probably how Tyrant had found his real-world location back then.
Lin Mo remembered Zhao Ling'er had once told his clone that she was from Zhuzhou in Xiangnan.
So he gave Ning Fei those two pieces of information.
Since she hadn't logged in or replied for half a day, she had probably run into some kind of problem in real life.
So Lin Mo's only option was to find Zhao Ling'er's location in the real world.
If necessary, he would go there himself.
No matter what, he had to make sure that this future top-ten powerhouse of the Dragon Nation national server, an owner of an SSS-rank talent, stayed safe.
He absolutely could not let that family of parasites ruin her.
After dinner, Ning Fei went to look into Zhao Ling'er's information.
Lin Mo washed the dishes, walked around the neighborhood for a couple of laps to help digest his meal, then returned home with Ning Xi.
They each went back to their own room.
———
After logging in, they headed straight for the location of the Divine Might Tower in the southern part of Inferno City, a place that wasn't marked on the map but had been accurately located by Ning Fei.
Ten minutes later, they reached their destination.
Just as expected, standing in the open area ahead was a huge pagoda that looked extremely grand.
The pagoda itself wasn't damaged.
But at that moment, black mist surrounded it.
It looked as if it had been occupied by an evil dark power.
And that dark aura felt very familiar to Lin Mo.
'Wait!'
"The Dark Demon Clan again?"
Looking carefully, Lin Mo saw that the black mist surrounding the pagoda was filled with monsters that had three heads, six arms, and twelve eyes spread across those three heads, Black Demons.