Among Baldy's personal belongings, Song Gua found a commission letter.
Party A: Miss Butterfly.
Party B: Wangba Guild.
The content of the commission was that this Miss Butterfly had lost something and needed it retrieved.
The commission letter was very long, filled with boilerplate clauses.
Tucked at the very end was an A4 sheet of paper with a pencil sketch.
It depicted a black scale covered in dense, text-like symbols.
At the base of the scale was the mark of the Eye of Horus.
This was what Miss Butterfly wanted retrieved.
"This thing... looks like a Millennium Item that could help a certain Pharaoh return to the Underworld?"
It only looked like it; this wasn't the world where playing card games could save the world.
"The reward... eight million! So much money just to find something? This scale is definitely not simple!"
Song Gua had never even heard of the Wangba Guild. It was probably one of those small guilds that sprang up like mushrooms after rain every day.
Could Miss Butterfly be an out-of-towner who got scammed by the Wangba Guild?
Small guilds were basically just ragtag amateur groups. Song Gua had a bold idea.
"If I can find that scale and take this commission letter to claim the final payment, wouldn't that work too?"
Song Gua had this idea because the commission letter mentioned that the scale was highly likely in the hands of a student at Yunshan No. 5 High School.
Yunshan No. 5 High School.
That was his own school!
Wouldn't it be pretty convenient to look for something in his own school?
The clones chattered noisily.
"A small guild like the Wangba Guild has chaotic management. Impersonating them to complete the commission and earn the final payment is worth a try!"
"It won't be hard for him at all."
"Why would such a huge commission be in the hands of a small guild like this? There is definitely something fishy going on."
"I do not care if it is a massive trap, as long as there is money to be made!"
"There are risks! What if, when we deliver the goods, the other party refuses to pay and backstabs us?"
"Yeah, we have to consider that kind of danger."
Song Gua smiled and said with a hidden meaning, "No need to consider it."
One clone advised, "You bastard main body, do not get cocky! We have to play it safe to grow stronger!"
"You guys can handle these dangerous things. I will stay safe."
The silence of the clones was deafening.
"Song Gua! Be a decent human being!"
Song Gua pulled a tent out of his backpack.
"Alright, you guys go to the nearby Level 5 grinding zone and continue leveling up. I am going to sleep."
The clones were not happy.
"We need to rest too!"
"I might have an iron rod, but I am not made of iron!"
"Who is going to hang him on a streetlight?"
Song Gua criticized them sternly.
"You are all young, what is wrong with pulling an all-nighter? At your level, how can you even sleep?"
With that said, Song Gua crawled into the tent and fell fast asleep.
The miserable clones had no choice but to continue grouping up to grind levels.
The next morning, Song Gua woke up to the fragrant scent of earth.
After a comfortable stretch, he greeted the other version of himself in the tent.
"You are here."
"Yeah. As a newcomer, should I kowtow and pay my respects to the bastard main body, or bend over first?"
Song Gua was already used to waking up in the morning and seeing another version of himself sitting nearby.
This was the newly born clone.
Suddenly, Song Gua noticed that this guy had Lv7 floating above his head!
Song Gua was shocked.
"Holy crap! How is your level higher than mine right at birth? What a bastard!"
The new clone pointed at the top of Song Gua's head.
"You are also Lv7. We are the same."
Song Gua heard the faint sounds of battle outside. The clones had pulled an all-nighter and were still fighting.
The stats of wild monsters doubled at night, making them harder to fight, so the grinding efficiency dropped significantly during the night.
Even so, over the course of the night, Song Gua had leveled up twice relying on the experience fed back from the clones.
"A newly born clone will have the same level as I do at the time? So the cloning ability has this kind of additional effect. Then what is your class?"
The new clone shrugged.
"No class. I am a freelancer; I can only learn general skills."
"Ah, this... a vanilla God of War."
"Just take me to the Class Temple to get a class change, and it will be fine."
"It costs money to enter that place."
"Chump change."
"One a day, and it is no longer chump change."
"I have an idea."
The two spoke in unison: "Zero-dollar shopping."
Song Gua smiled.
"We really are in sync."
The new clone also smiled.
"Duh."
Song Gua thought for a moment.
"Let us hold off for now. We will wait until we have gathered a good number of newcomers, and then we will pull off a big heist."
Today was yet another day of scrolling through videos of pretty girls dancing.
No, wait, it was a day of hard grinding.
Song Gua did not go to the Swamp of Sorrows, to avoid running into Zhao Can and Hua Xiangrong.
He headed straight for the Level 10 grinding zone.
Some of the wild monsters here could fly, and the combat difficulty was noticeably higher.
But the experience yield was also greater, especially for cross-level kills.
There were far fewer people in the Level 10 grinding zone. If he went a little deeper, he could monopolize the area for grinding, just like in the Swamp of Sorrows.
Having clones under Level 5 fight Level 10 monsters meant that, at first, they could only rely on gang-beating tactics.
Ten clones fighting one monster; they could always wear it down to death.
The monsters' resistance to sealing was very weak. By assigning one or two crowd-control classes to each group, they could just stun-lock the monsters to death.
Once a kill was successful, the massive experience gained from such a high cross-level kill was enough to make a Level 0 clone jump two levels instantly!
The clones, like Song Gua, had a 2.0 growth rate. Once they leveled up, it meant a 20-point increase in stats, so their boost in strength was very obvious.
Slowly persevering like this, by noon, their monster-killing efficiency began to rise.
Song Gua's level also reached Level 8.
In the afternoon, more and more clones reached Level 5, and they equipped the Level 5 vanilla gear they had farmed the day before.
The clones designated as the main force, the Fire Warrior, Rhythm Mage, and Nightshade Assassin, could even take down a Level 10 monster with just two or three people.
Combat efficiency improved even further.
Their levels were higher, but their leveling speed had not slowed down at all.
After nightfall, accompanied by a beam of holy light descending upon his head, Song Gua broke through to Level 10!
At this point, 59 people in the clone brigade had reached Level 5.
The Fire Warrior, Rhythm Mage, and Nightshade Assassin had even reached Level 7. This leveling speed was leaps and bounds ahead of their peers.
Enjoying the total experience cut from all his clones, Song Gua's leveling speed was beyond words; no one among the fresh graduates could match him.
"That is about enough. It is time to go break dungeon records and get the class-change gold medal!"