"General, the level leaderboard is about to end, and that guy from the US is catching up!" Ding Yi said. Normally, the data of Dragon Palace's official members would be compiled by her, then confirmed by Zhou Ningdong and reported to Ye Yun.
These past few days, everyone had been busy with real-life matters, and Ye Yun had been practicing the application of "Arc of Electricity" manifestation. However, he hadn't neglected matters in the game.
The two Americans, who had been suppressed by Ye Yun earlier, reportedly spent a massive amount of gold coins to acquire upgrade cards and double experience cards online, just to get back into the top five.
An upgrade card was a special consumable item that allowed players to level up directly. Ye Yun had used one before level 10. Every ten levels was a stage, and each player could only use one card per stage. Ye Yun estimated that these two Americans had used them at level 19.
Then, they used double experience cards to grind monsters day and night. Ye Yun didn't know how many double experience cards they had bought, but they had climbed back into the top ten, ranking third and eighth respectively.
Even more surprisingly, there was a dark horse from the Russian side, who had entered the fifth position on the leaderboard!
"Alright, this matter is coming to an end! I made a lot of money today, and I plan to improve your talents further."
Ye Yun looked at the eight people, his fingers tapping on the desk.
"This… Boss, this is your personal money. We have state funding, we don't need it…" Zhou Ningdong became anxious when he heard this.
"Yeah, Boss, you don't have to do this."
"Alright, your talents, to be honest, are too low. And Dragon Palace is now considered my private army. There will be no more state funding in the future! The documents will be here in a few days!"
"So, your more than ten thousand families are considered to be following me for a living from now on. I need to earn more money to support you all."
This was Ye Yun's request to the Elder Council, conveyed and set by Zhang Junbao. The Elder Council was currently unclear about Ye Yun's specific strength, only trusting the words of that old man.
"This… the higher-ups will agree?" Several people's eyes widened at Ye Yun's words, looking incredulous.
A private army! This was almost impossible in present-day Huaguo! Even the Li family before wouldn't dare to truly play this way.
"Heh, no matter when or where, strength is always king! Moreover, I have also given them assurances! As Chinese citizens and soldiers of Huaguo, you must not forget your original intentions and mission! Do you understand?" Ye Yun smiled faintly. He didn't elaborate on the assurances.
"Understood!" The few people shouted, their eyes shining with excitement, and they left arm in arm. Ding Yi, however, stayed behind.
Ding Yi stood there awkwardly, hesitant to speak. She felt that since Ye Yun came to Dragon Palace, there was an aura about him that made her afraid to look directly at him.
Especially when she was alone with Ye Yun, the entire space felt extremely oppressive. Yet, she inexplicably liked it.
"Sis, what's wrong?" Ye Yun asked Ding Yi, genuinely concerned. Ye Yun had always taken good care of this older sister.
"Um, General, my parents have been discharged from the hospital, and Ding Dang will be going to the army in a while. So, my parents want to invite you to a meal before Ding Dang leaves, to thank you for your care back then." Ding Yi's face flushed slightly, trying her best not to look at Ye Yun's face.
"Ding Dang?" Ye Yun was stunned. What a nice name.
"That's my younger brother's name," Ding Yi quickly explained.
"Oh, hey, sure. You can arrange a time then," Ye Yun said with a smile.
Thinking about it, Ye Yun hadn't visited Ding Yi's parents from their hospitalization in Modu to their discharge. This was clearly not a qualified leader.
"Ah?"
"Okay, General, how about tomorrow evening?" Ding Yi seemed surprised that Ye Yun agreed, as Ye Yun's current status and position were far too distant from hers.
These past few days, Ding Yi had learned a lot from the conversations among Dragon Palace members. Especially that white-bearded old man who came last time, he was one of the most powerful people in Huaguo, yet he treated Ye Yun with courtesy.
"Mhm, you arrange it," Ye Yun nodded. He suddenly realized that at some point, Ding Yi had started avoiding him, intentionally or unintentionally. Since they arrived at Dragon Palace, there had been a sense of distance between them. However, Ye Yun couldn't say anything; everyone's interactions with people were constantly changing.
"Alright, I'll get back to work then." Ding Yi smiled happily and turned to leave. Since arriving at Dragon Palace, her workload had greatly increased. Besides the game, she was also Ye Yun's assistant.
Ye Yun logged back into 'Tiandao' and first converted all the money in the forum into gold coins, then quickly entered the game.
980.1 billion gold coins!
Ye Yun looked at his wealth with pride. Unfortunately, this game had leaderboards for level, talent, and combat power, but no wealth leaderboard, nor a recharge leaderboard. Otherwise, he would be unrivaled.
Level Leaderboard -
1-*****, Level 21, Nationality: Huaguo.
2-Long Ning Shu, Level 21, Nationality: Huaguo.
3-meyol, Level 21, Nationality: US.
4-Long Tai Yang, Level 21, Nationality: Huaguo.
5-Galloqika, Level 21, Nationality: Mao Country.
...
8-tiges, Level 20, Nationality: US.
Out of the entire top ten, seven were Chinese, and all of them were from Dragon Palace!
The top five were all level 21, while the next dozen or so were level 20! The competition on the leaderboard was fiercer than in his previous life, which was exactly what Ye Yun wanted to see. In his previous life, the first person to reach level 20 on the leaderboard was only level 20, but now five people had reached level 21!
And there were still nearly 7 hours until the leaderboard ended. In these seven hours, these people would undoubtedly be pushing themselves to level up. Even Zhou Ningdong and Li Chenxu had spent tens of millions to buy double experience cards.
Fortunately, Ye Yun's "Sacred City Revival" quest 3 was completed, opening up the third level of the secret realm. Otherwise, their levels would have been caught up by the two Americans. Ye Yun didn't know how much money those two guys had spent to buy double experience cards.
Ye Yun checked his divine skill cooldown, which still had 18 hours left, and felt a little disappointed but helpless.
After transferring 640 billion gold coins to the eight people including Zhou Ningdong, the remaining 468.1 billion gold coins were for them to improve their talents, which Ye Yun had prepared for the future talent leaderboard.
If he had enough funds, Ye Yun wouldn't mind cultivating the world's first player to reach Emperor-level talent purely through money. Currently, his gold coins had no other use besides buying attribute points, and Ye Yun gained over 300,000 attribute points per level. As for equipment, Ye Yun disdained it, because equipment was always replaced, and more importantly, equipment couldn't be manifested like attribute points.
"Holy crap, the boss is the boss! He sent 640 billion gold coins directly via mail?" In the second level of the secret realm instance, Zhou Ningdong and the other two, along with Ding Yi, had just entered the instance when they received the gold coins sent by Ye Yun via mail, and they shouted excitedly.
"I feel like the boss alone is rich enough to rival a nation. 'Rich' is the only word, and he's said it many times," Li Chenxu swept his greatsword, instantly killing over a dozen monsters surrounding him, his face full of admiration.
"You know what, I feel like following the boss is so much better than before. Before, I'd want some money and see their stingy faces, which was annoying," Liu Hai couldn't help but comment.
"This is for the General to improve your talents. Don't waste it," Ding Yi said from the rear of the team, her arrows carrying faint starlight shooting out from her hands, quickly killing monsters.
Ding Yi's words immediately drew playful teasing from the few of them, instantly making her face as red as a ripe apple.