“Shoot!” Someone shouted, and everyone immediately joined in. The whole place echoed with cries of “Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” However, the Mage Academy was an absolute safe zone, where the use of magic or combat skills was strictly forbidden. So even though the command to “shoot” was given, no fireballs moved. The guy next to Ryan Carter looked even paler, so Ryan Carter couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Damn it!” The man cursed first, then casually added Ryan Carter as a friend. “Look at my name.”

System prompt: Blaze has added you as a friend.

Ryan Carter immediately burst out laughing. So this guy’s name was Blaze—no wonder! With a thousand people shouting his name, it was no surprise he felt on edge.

At that moment, more and more people were learning their first spell, so shouts of Blaze kept ringing out in the center of the square. The Blaze next to Ryan Carter couldn’t take it anymore and called out to Ryan Carter as he prepared to leave.

“Heh, I’m leaving too, it’s way too noisy.” Ryan Carter followed after him.

The two of them left the Mage Academy together and headed toward the leveling area outside Cloud City. On the way, Blaze complained to Ryan Carter, explaining that he’d gotten this account from someone else, and both the name and class had already been chosen. Ryan Carter immediately felt a sense of shared misery. But Blaze hadn’t cared much about it at first—only after experiencing the mass shouting did he start to have some complaints about the name. Just imagine, in any future battle involving mages, whether friend or foe, if someone shouted “Blaze,” it would definitely be a distraction! For now, he could only hope that “Fireball,” the most basic spell, would be forgotten by players as the game progressed.

Ryan Carter couldn’t help but share his own feelings with Blaze, venting a bit about his own tragic experience of being forced to play as a mage. Blaze didn’t really get Ryan Carter’s underlying reasons; he just thought Ryan Carter didn’t like the mage class, so he started enthusiastically telling him about the glorious history of mages.

No matter what, Ryan Carter had a good impression of Blaze, since he was one of the rare mages who didn’t wear black-rimmed glasses or carry a broom.

The two chatted as they walked, and before they knew it, they were outside the city.

The initial changes to the game were already showing results. At this moment, the area outside the city was crawling with wild wolves and boars. Learning from past mistakes, this batch of monsters was made to look especially ugly—just one look made you want to beat them up. This greatly boosted players’ enthusiasm for leveling up. The hills outside the city were packed with people, all chasing after wolves and boars, hacking and slashing away. Unfortunately, the strength of these wolves and boars didn’t match their fierce appearance; under the players’ relentless attacks, they could barely fight back. For a while, there weren’t enough monsters to go around—whenever one respawned, a dozen players would swarm it instantly.

Blaze was fired up by the sight. He took two steps forward and shouted, “Blaze!”

A fireball slowly rose in front of Blaze.

“Shoot!” Blaze yelled.

And so, Blaze was launched.

With a “poof,” Blaze hit a wild boar that was being pummeled by a group of players. Sparks flew, a barbecue smell filled the air, and the boar collapsed.

“Nice!” Blaze pumped his fist, pleased that his first shot was so accurate. But at that moment, all the players who had been attacking the boar turned to look at Blaze. Their expressions clearly said they were looking at a creature even more detestable than the boar.

“Hey, everyone!” Blaze waved at them.

“Kill-stealer! So rude!” The response to Blaze’s greeting was a barrage of curses.

“Huh? Weren’t you all just hitting it randomly?” Blaze was confused. There were more than a dozen people hacking away—how was it that he was the one accused of kill-stealing? Wasn’t it whoever landed the killing blow who got the credit?

“Are you blind? Can’t you see we’re all in the same guild?” someone shouted.

“Guild?” Blaze looked blankly at Ryan Carter, who was just as confused. The game had just started—who had the ability to form a guild already?

A bunch of people all nodded, and one of them yelled, “You dare steal a monster from our Defying Heaven Guild? You’re done for!”

There probably wasn’t a guild name more “defying heaven” than that, but faced with this aggressive group, Blaze didn’t show the slightest fear. This surprised Ryan Carter a bit. Blaze looked the crowd straight in the eye and calmly said, “So what if I stole your monster? What can you do to me? I’m only level 1!”

Ryan Carter laughed. No wonder this guy was so righteous! Since he kept up with the official website, Ryan Carter knew about this update, which was made in response to a violent incident he himself had experienced. Players under PK protection would be immune to skills—even if hit, they wouldn’t feel any pain. This update also classified player-initiated attacks as PK, meaning that if a fight like last time broke out, Ryan Carter wouldn’t be able to blind his opponent, and even if he landed a hit, it wouldn’t hurt. Right now, Blaze was relying on this protection, completely ignoring the intimidating players in front of him.

But players bold enough to name themselves “Defying Heaven” certainly had a defiant spirit. Seeing Blaze acting all fearless just because he was level 1, they didn’t get discouraged at all and still charged at him en masse.