Heroes' Prison

Chapter 138 Instakill and Thunder God

Ranked 157th in the world, that basically puts him among the top 10 forging masters in the China Region. Huang Yi found it hard to find a stronger blacksmith elsewhere. He took the business card and said, "Great! After these two weapons are smelted they can become an Orange Weapon. How much would you charge for the work?"

"Free!" Ye Lan waved his hand dismissively, "My blacksmithing skills have also hit a bottleneck. Ordinary equipment no longer increases my proficiency. These two weapons are just what I need to improve my mastery and take my blacksmithing skills to the next level! So it’s a win-win situation, no need for money."

Huang Yi nodded slightly. It seemed that this Ye Lan was a reliable person, not one to have his eyes light up at the sight of money; Huang Yi felt much more at ease. He handed over the two weapons to Ye Lan and asked, "How long will the smelting take?"

"Transforming Purple Weapons into an Orange Weapon is a complicated process; it will take at least one day. I’ll work overtime and do my best, so come and take it tomorrow evening!" After saying this, Ye Lan took the weapons and turned to walk to The Crucible, starting his work immediately, with decisive efficiency.

Huang Yi didn’t have anything else to do, so he logged off and went to the forum.

As usual, he clicked directly into the voting thread for The Second World’s annual grand ceremony. Although the result of this poll wouldn’t determine the final award, it did signal the direction of public opinion, allowing him to see who his potential rivals were.

When he scrolled to the Best Newcomer Award list, he was stunned, unbelievably staring at his own support rate—91%! At first, he thought he had seen wrong, but after a careful look, it was indeed as high as 91%! That meant out of every 10 votes, nearly 9 were for him!

This was a level of support that no ranking or player had ever achieved. Even Thunder God, who had just made a system announcement yesterday, hadn’t reached such a high rate of support. Thunder God’s support yesterday was 13%, which meant most of the Chinese players voted for him, but today’s Huang Yi had players from all countries voting for him—no division by nationality!

Huang Yi exited the thread and went to the homepage of the forum. However, as soon as he entered the homepage, he saw that it was flooded with posts related to him!

"[ #Kill # ] Can Instakill escape from Ghost Axe Black Wolf’s pursuit?"

"[ #Kill # ] Analysis by Master Li Su’s latest essence post—Instakill’s power analysis."

"[ #Kill # ] Instakill is a god."

"[ #Kill # ] Between Instakill and Thunder God, who truly deserves the Best Newcomer Award?"

"[ #Kill # ] A young girl’s love story—That night, Instakill hurt me in Dragon City."

...

The entire homepage was almost filled with posts related to him, many of which were prefixed with "[ #Kill # ]", just like some fan posting format. This kind of unified prefix and posting style usually only appeared in the fan forums of entertainment celebrities, yet now it was present in the entire forum of The Second World, and the proportion was very high, nearly 40% of the posts on the homepage had this prefix!

Huang Yi hadn’t expected that just by collecting the Heart of the Sand Thief King—which only triggered a regional announcement and didn’t even yield any National Honor Points—he would create such a big reaction.

In fact, it was precisely because the announcement was regional and didn’t add any National Honor Points that it generated such a reaction. Yesterday, Thunder God issued a [System Announcement], adding a bit of National Honor Points for China again. His action was a point of pride for just one country, and to players from other countries, it was actually bad news. This indicated that Chinese players were becoming stronger, and it would be disadvantageous for other countries in future national wars. Some foreign players who had intended to vote for Thunder God changed their minds after hearing the announcement, their nationalistic feelings coming into play.

However, Huang Yi was different. He obtained the Heart of the Sand Thief King and only triggered a regional announcement without earning any National Honor Points, causing players from all countries to set aside their nationalistic perspectives and look at the situation more objectively.

Of course, what was even more important was the fact that at the time, billions of people were anxiously following the fate of Dragon City, their worries for the city’s destiny gripping their hearts. Huang Yi’s announcement struck them to their core with its immediate, palpable impact, a stark difference from the usual detached experience of merely hearing announcements.

So, tonight was destined to be Huang Yi’s night. It was prime time for players to be online, with billions of players focusing on him. In a couple of days, after the fervor died down, the forum would return to normal.

Huang Yi didn’t care much about these matters. What he cared about the most was the Best Newcomer Award. He glanced through the list of posts, and finally clicked on the one titled "Between Instakill and Thunder God, who truly deserves the Best Newcomer Award!", and read—

"If we were to list the most eye-catching newcomers of the year, I think it would have to be divided into two phases. One is before Instakill’s appearance, during which we could list many outstanding players, such as Thunder God, Yang Yuheng, Zi Xing, Nameless, Dong Huan, Mu Yun, and so on. The other phase is after Instakill arrived, and during this phase, there is only one person to mention, and that is Instakill! He burst onto the scene less than a month ago and has continuously performed earth-shattering feats, from killing the 250-level Hydra Death Scales, to later breaking through the Respawn Point of Wind Forest Stronghold, twice breaking the world record in the Tower of Pantheons, to the recent rescue of Dragon City... Never has any player achieved so much in such a short period of time! So I believe Instakill is the hottest candidate for this year’s Best Newcomer Award! Although he appeared very late, losing almost half a year of performance time, this is also his strength, it shows he has unlimited potential. Let’s imagine if we put him on the same starting line as Dao Feng and his peers, how far could Instakill have developed by now? Could he have become the second Dao Feng? Therefore, I think this year’s Best Newcomer Award is very likely to be awarded to Instakill! Of course, that still depends on Thunder God’s subsequent performance."

On this note, the author of the post shifted gears, forward to Thunder God’s perspective. "If there were no player named Instakill in the world, then Thunder God would become the hottest award winner. He was the first to cross the continent without triggering a system announcement, which had already garnered much sympathy. Yesterday, he finally triggered a formal system announcement, validating himself and becoming the crowned king, almost guaranteeing the award. But Instakill’s performance today nearly snatched away the prize that would have belonged to him. There’s a saying in China, ’Why create another if one is already excellent?’ which fits perfectly for Instakill and Thunder God. However, if Thunder God manages to gain more National Honor Points, he could snatch the award back. With less than three months left until the annual grand ceremony, can he trigger another system announcement?"