Drake blinked, thinking he had misheard.
It wasn't that fifty thousand per person was too expensive—it was the fact that Blackshade was actually willing to lower himself to power-level him?!
Drake turned to the assassin beside him and mumbled, "Pinch me. Am I dreaming?"
The assassin, ever the reliable friend, pinched with all his might, making Drake nearly jump out of his skin.
That pain confirmed it.
Blackshade was really offering to power-level him for an hour!
Drake hurriedly responded, "That's absolutely reasonable! I'll take four spots—cash or gold?"
He wasn't the type to hog benefits for himself. The moment he heard about this, he immediately thought of his longtime teammates.
After all, leveling up alone was useless if he didn't have his squad with him. He wasn't Blackshade—if his teammates were underleveled, even if he got ahead, their grinding efficiency wouldn't improve much.
But if they all leveled up together, their speed would multiply.
As long as they reached Level 5, they could equip new gear—practically upgrading from peashooters to machine guns.
If they made it to Level 10, they could equip Silver Grade gear. Their grinding speed would skyrocket!
Of course, compared to Blackshade, they were still lightyears behind.
Tristan wasn't surprised by Drake's decision.
In his past life, this four-person team had fought together through thick and thin, forming an unbreakable bond. Even after ExoGenesis fully descended upon Terra, they remained battle brothers.
After thinking for a moment, Tristan replied, "Cash. Direct deposit."
With the additional gold he had just earned, his total came up to 250 gold coins—a nice number, but not particularly useful at the moment.
Originally, he needed a lot of gold to buy property, but he had secured his shop for a fraction of the price by cutting a deal with Edith, saving a massive amount.
So why not take some real-world cash, log off, and buy a real house? Now that would be satisfying.
The Nearby Players Were Stunned.
Fifty thousand per person.
Four people meant two hundred thousand.
And that two hundred thousand was just for one hour of Blackshade's time.
In other words, hourly wage: 200K USD.
WTF.
What kind of absurd wealth was this?
A nearby player started calculating. "My monthly salary is three thousand… That means Blackshade could power-level me for exactly… 21.6 seconds."
Another player said proudly, "Hah! I could afford 30 seconds!"
A third one hesitated. "Uh… Do you think he'd take a 10-second commission?"
Another chimed in, "Shut up. I could only afford 5 seconds."
Someone gasped. "Dude, are you working in some underground sweatshop? That's tragic."
Another boasted, "A bunch of peasants! I could get two full minutes with Blackshade!"
A collective gasp. "Damn… That means you make 16K a month?!"
The guy sighed dramatically. "I used to think I was doing well. But now I feel broke as hell."
"Damn it, stop talking about this. It's making me depressed."
"Your time is incredibly valuable, bro. Quick—calculate how long Blackshade could power-level you!"
"I want to be rich. I want to earn 200K per hour!"
"Yeah, well… keep dreaming."
While players were figuring out how many seconds of Blackshade's time they could afford, Tristan led Drake's party out of the newbie village toward Wolf Plains.
It wasn't that wild boars were bad, but wolves were better value.
The Wolf King had just been killed, but wolves were resilient—they wouldn't stop spawning.
Given Drake's party level, the moment they set foot in Wolf Plains, they would immediately draw aggro.
No effort needed. The wolves would come to them.
Which was exactly what Tristan wanted.
All he had to do was throw a single dagger and let Toxic Blood Plague do the rest.
[Player Drake has invited you to a party. Accept?]
[Accepted.]
[Player Blackshade has joined the party.]
The moment Tristan entered the party, chaos erupted.
"Holy crap, it's Blackshade!"
"I'm taking a screenshot! I'm posting this on the forums to make everyone jealous!"
"MOM! I'M IN A PARTY WITH BLACKSHADE! I'VE MADE IT IN LIFE!"
Drake's three core teammates—Sophie, the Assassin, and the Archer—were all people Tristan had known in his past life.
But in this timeline, they hadn't met yet.
So Tristan didn't try to act overly familiar and simply said, "No need to be so formal. I'm just a regular player."
Sophie gave a helpless smile. "If it were anyone else, I'd say that's some next-level humblebragging. But coming from you… I actually believe it."
The Assassin said, "Too humble! If you're a regular player, then we must be living in the sewers."
The Archer hesitated for a second, half nervous, half excited, before finally asking:
"Uh… this might be a dumb question, but… Blackshade, do you practice shooting in real life?"
Tristan casually replied, "Nope."
The Archer exhaled in pure relief.
Alright. At least in real life, he was still better than Blackshade.
That meant they were still equals.
Watching his teammates casually joke with Blackshade, Drake finally relaxed.
He had been worried these guys might say something dumb and offend Blackshade, but so far, so good.
Despite being a legendary player, Blackshade wasn't arrogant—he was actually down-to-earth.
With that, the party made their way into Wolf Plains.
A chorus of wolf howls erupted across the field.
Awooo! Awooo!
Wolves howled from every direction, locking onto their location.
At that moment, Drake realized something.
Blackshade's attack power was insane—no doubt he could one-shot wolves.
But…
His attack interval seemed slow, and his skills were mostly single-target.
Was this really going to work?
Drake wasn't worried about the money.
He was worried that if Blackshade failed to carry them properly, he might lose face—and if that happened, would they get silenced for witnessing it?
Just as he was lost in thought, he heard Tristan's voice.
"Pay up."
"Ah—oh! Right. Sophie, pay the man."
Drake instinctively obeyed.
Sophie, always efficient, sent the transfer immediately.
Hey, it wasn't her money, so who cared?
With 200K in his account, Tristan wasted no time.
He raised his hand, locked onto a wolf thirty meters away, and threw a Shadow Dagger.
-3757! (Weak Spot Attack)
Since Tristan wasn't stealthed, he didn't get the bonus from Breaking Stealth Strike.
But 3,700+ damage was still an instant kill.
"Beautiful!"
Drake clapped excitedly, preparing to shower Blackshade with praise—
Until he saw what happened next.
The wolf's corpse exploded with a cloud of dark green mist.
The Toxic Blood Plague spread instantly, infecting nearby wolves.
One second later, their HP bars plummeted—then they collapsed, dead.
Their bodies also exploded, sending the plague further.
Within seconds, the plague reached wolves 70+ meters away.
Drake checked the game log.
Over 100 kill notifications spammed his screen.
At the same time, his EXP bar skyrocketed.
Within two minutes, he leveled up.
Drake fell silent.
So did the Assassin, Archer, and Sophie.
They stared at Blackshade in shock and awe.
What… the hell… just happened?