Chapter 97 – A Series of Surprises

Di Ping was nervously watching his hero roster, his expression tinged with impatience. After what felt like an agonizing three minutes, a new hero finally appeared on the list.

Upon closer inspection, it was indeed Owen, the S-class potential hero. Di Ping sighed in relief and felt a wave of satisfaction. Once something was in his grasp, he knew it was his to claim.

Relieved by his success, Di Ping quickly returned to the recruitment page. After all, there was still a B-class potential hero waiting for him.

However, when Di Ping clicked to recruit the B-class hero, he was stunned. The B-class hero required 50 crystal coins to recruit, but he only had 48 coins—just 2 short.

With a sigh, Di Ping reluctantly exchanged the mutated Tibetan mastiff's crystal core, which he had originally planned to keep. To his surprise, the core yielded 8 crystal coins, far more than a standard mutated beast's core.

Looking at the remaining 56 crystal coins, Di Ping resigned himself to spending them. He clicked to recruit Moke, the B-class potential priest hero. Although he felt a slight pang at the loss of his coins, he knew that B-class heroes were incredibly rare at this stage. From his experience in the game, he knew that the chance of encountering a B-class potential hero in a level-one tavern was only about 5%, making such heroes precious. His good luck was not to be wasted.

Meanwhile, Wu An, the tavern manager, was preparing to escort the warrior Owen downstairs. Just then, the prismatic pillar in the center of the hall began to creak again. White energy started leaking out from the seams. Wu An knew that the master was recruiting again, so he exchanged a few words with Owen before both stood and waited on the third floor.

As expected, after a short time, the prismatic pillar flashed white. A ball of energy, about a yard in diameter, quickly contracted, and a figure reappeared in the center of the three pillars.

The figure appeared dazed for a moment, then took a step forward and walked out of the space. Wu An, followed by Owen, moved to greet the new arrival. The three of them chatted happily as they descended the stairs.

Soon after, Wu An, Owen, and Moke stepped outside the tavern, arriving at the castle gates. The castle butler, Barton, was already waiting. After exchanging a few words with Wu An, he led Owen and Moke inside the castle.

Wu An, after seeing them off, turned back toward the tavern. Although the guards at the walls noticed Barton entering the castle with two strangers, no one questioned it. After all, everyone knew of Barton's high standing within the castle—except for Di Ping, no one dared to interfere with his affairs.

Unaware of these developments, Di Ping was relieved to see Moke appear on his hero roster and immediately closed the tavern window.

Next, he tried to locate the newly activated backpack function. After scanning the screen for a while, he finally noticed an icon of a backpack near the top of his avatar.

Excited, he quickly clicked it, and a backpack interface appeared before him. It resembled the one in the game, with small compartments arranged in five columns and ten rows, totaling 50 slots. All the slots were empty except for the first one, which contained a long sword.

Di Ping immediately recognized the sword as the Black Steel Battle Sword he had received as a task reward. The timing was perfect; his Han sword had just broken, and it was becoming increasingly ineffective. He had been in urgent need of a good weapon, and this battle sword was exactly what he needed.

However, he found himself momentarily confused by the backpack interface—how would he retrieve the sword?

Just as he was wondering how to take it out, the sword suddenly disappeared from the backpack, and Di Ping's hand felt a sudden weight. He quickly looked down to see the long black sword in his grasp.

The sword was long and narrow, about 1.5 meters in length, with a blade width of three fingers. The back of the blade was thick, with deep grooves running along the side. The tip of the sword was slightly curved upward, and the blade itself had a slight curve. The entire sword was jet black, gleaming with an eerie glow under the light, making it look ominous. The hilt was around 30 centimeters long, designed for two-handed use, with a bronze leopard head on the end of the grip, its fangs protruding, giving the weapon a fierce and imposing look.

Di Ping grew fonder of the sword with each glance. It was exactly what he needed—heavy, with a solid feel. Unlike his previous Han sword, which had been light and unbalanced, this sword had a heft to it that made it feel powerful in his hands. He could tell that if he had had this sword before, the mutated Tibetan mastiff would not have lasted a single round in battle.

Reluctantly, after admiring it for a while, Di Ping stored the sword in his backpack. With a thought, the battle sword disappeared from his hand, and he saw it reappear in the first slot of his backpack interface.

Di Ping had not expected the backpack to have such a feature. It allowed him to check his inventory mentally without needing to open the system interface. It felt as though his consciousness had entered the backpack, letting him directly view the items inside.

In a playful mood, Di Ping repeatedly took the sword in and out of the backpack, enjoying the process. After several minutes, he stopped, feeling a little tired. The time had flown by, and it was already past 9 PM. He hadn't realized how much time had passed while engrossed in his tasks.

Tired from the day's travel and battles, he yawned and stood up, heading to the bed. He collapsed onto it, fully dressed, not bothering to remove his shoes or blanket.

Gina, still meditating quietly on the other bed, had not been disturbed. Di Ping remembered what she had told him—that she and others like her rarely slept, instead meditating to rest their bodies and cultivate.

As Di Ping lay down, Gina opened her eyes. She saw him lying on the bed, fully dressed and without covering himself with a blanket.

It was important to note that the post-apocalyptic weather felt like autumn—chilly, with the temperature dropping significantly at night, especially underground.