The Professional Rankings, in twelve volumes, each bearing the name of my lord.

Da Congming shook his head.

"No, people know I'm a real bandit."

"Why should I?"

Da Congming pointed to the hood on his head.

"Based on this."

"What's wrong with the hood?"

"The headgear sold online is all mass-produced by machines. Our headgear is sewn by you, boss, stitch by stitch. There is a difference between handmade work and factory machine work."

Song Gua gave a thumbs-up to the unknown leader of the black guild.

"You're an expert! You've probably been in there before."

Why did Miss Butterfly pay for the item even though she knew it was fake?

There was no problem with the money they gave.

I can't understand the Song hexagram.

"Are they really just rich and stupid?"

who cares.

Overthinking is just making things difficult for yourself; having money to spend is enough.

With cash in hand and the help of Monkey King, Song Gua changed his appearance and went to the materials trading market to buy up the materials he was missing for the advanced gathering core.

—After the Monkey King's 72 Transformations skill level is upgraded, the duration of the transformation is extended.

On that very day, Song Gua upgraded the quality of the No. 1 assembly core.

[Consumes 1 [Common] Gathering Core, 10 Core Advancement Crystals, 10000 Superior Materials, 1000 Excellent Materials, 100 Flawless Materials, and 10 Rare Materials.]

[Your core unit's quality has been improved:]

[Standard -> Excellent!]

[Level cap increased:]

[Lv10->Lv20!]

[Bonus effect increased:]

Experience gain +5% → 10%;

All attributes +10 -> 20;

[Innate skill level +1 -> +2!]

[Enchantment cap increased by 1!]

The onlookers, all clones, gaped open once again, letting out a unified gasp of amazement.

"ohohohohohohohoh——"

"Who still says the bonus from the Gathering Core is just a drop in the ocean?!"

"The leader position still provides a 200% bonus! That means a 20% experience increase, +40 to all attributes, and +4 to the level of your class's innate skills!!"

"The experience gained from accumulating core enhancements is not limited by experience fatigue!"

"My God!"

"I want to be a leader too!"

"But as you can see, advancing again will cost much more. Not only will it require three Gathering Cores, but it will also need epic-level materials!"

Huozi looked around from outside the crowd.

"Can Core One be upgraded again? I still have some unused equipment I got while leveling up yesterday. Come on, let's melt it down!"

Seeing Huozi's excited expression, Song Gua immediately reminded the two security guards at the warehouse.

"Be careful, don't let Huozi go near the warehouse lately!"

Don't let it get to the point where all you have left in the warehouse are the Gathering Cores!

……

Winter break is still ongoing.

Song Gua took some time to break the records for two level 20 dungeons.

I got two job change tokens, used one on my clone, and sold the other for money.

When he has nothing to do, he stays at home and happily becomes a homebody.

Watch movies, read books, play games, get a massage.

It's so uncomfortable.

The clones won't be able to enjoy themselves.

Experience never gets tiring; team up to level up and run dungeons.

Tired of the experience, they formed a group to raid the Tianzhao Guild's mines.

In response, Tianzhao Guild stated: "Bandits, you can't just take advantage of one guild like us. The neighboring guilds of Junegreen and Steelheart have particularly rich mineral resources, and we can help you."

The bandits ignored this and continued to fleece them one by one.

Tianzhao Guild's public statement provoked retaliation from June Green and Steel Heart, who began openly assisting bandits in seizing mines, greatly helping Song Gua.

The Celestial Guild was in a real bind and even considered giving up on the mining areas in the wild.

But bandits are like nomadic tribes of ancient times; they would often go south to plunder and loot, and then run away once they were satisfied with their loot.

Such a large mining area, if left empty and not reclaimed, will be occupied by other guilds.

Let's take it back. If we dig for more than a few days, the bandits will steal everything we find again.

Increasing the frequency of transportation will increase logistics costs.

It's difficult.

Finally, they simply opened the gates to welcome the bandits as soon as they came to rob the mine, implementing a policy of non-resistance and letting them take what they wanted.

This way, we can actually reduce the losses a bit, which is better than having our formation and defensive towers destroyed.

Even the Song hexagram didn't go all the way.

He basically robbed as needed.

He does not excessively plunder resources that are not needed.

Even a rabbit will bite when cornered; the Song hexagram embodies the principle of leaving room for maneuver in all things.

It's getting harder and harder to level up.

More than half a month has passed. Relying on the experience from the feedback from his clone, the experience from Blood Brother's extraction of villains, and various other extra boosts, Song Gua barely managed to reach level 24.

The level increase is not significant, but that doesn't mean the combat power won't increase either.

The clone is getting stronger, which is equivalent to the Song hexagram getting stronger.

"Even the Special Affairs Bureau has stopped pursuing us. The authorities have really given up investigating us, both openly and secretly."

Song Gua knew that Yue Sheng must have been involved in this.

Otherwise, even if they outwardly stop pursuing the bandits due to public pressure, it's hard to guarantee that they will actually stop.

Especially organizations like the Special Bureau, which are similar to secret service agencies, have very little known to the public about what they do every day.

Speaking of the people.

During the Lunar New Year, if you walk the streets, you'll find bandits everywhere.

Many citizens dressed up as bandits and strolled around the streets.

This has become a fashion trend.

The clones were all amazed by this scene.

"To be honest, I don't really want to wear a hood when I go out now."

"When you realize that your clothes are everywhere, you just want to put them in the closet to gather dust."

"Huh? I've noticed that the most people cosplaying me are wearing the Red Center headgear."

"Nonsense, it's clearly about getting rich the most, and getting rich is very auspicious."

"There are quite a few whiteboards too!"

"I clearly have the most reds! I'm the champion of the Grand Slam!"

"You've made the most money! Who said you're the leader? That old thief says the three of us are tied!"

"Stop arguing, stop arguing, we're all brothers."

"Go drink your red wine!"

"You two, don't push your luck! Without me, where would that old thief get his experience when he's exhausted? I'm the true pillar of the state! The top of the three!"

They started fighting again.

Song Gua put them away, out of sight, out of mind.

"The environment inside the city is indeed quite good for us right now, but outside the city... Brother Ghost, have they made a move yet?"

Now bandits can leave the city without any trouble, and don't even need a travel permit anymore.

However, once outside the city, there are still occasional troubles.

Level 30 leveling area, Cold Wind Hills.

Five level 5-plus second-job professionals gathered together on the undulating earthen slope.

"Did you see clearly? They're real bandits, not those boring guys cosplaying as bandits?"

"Look closely! Although he hid his information panel, I saw that he could turn the units he killed into his summons. This guy wearing the Zephyr hood must be that summoner officer from the bandits!"

"Hahaha, great! Our team of five, all at level two, can definitely take down this level 20 newbie!"

The man laughing loudly has a red rooster-comb hairstyle and is holding a large machete, looking very confident.

Among the five, a dark-skinned, thin man with a rat-like mustache said, "Although there are five of us, and this Xifeng only has one Eight-Tailed Fox by his side, bandits can instantly kill world bosses. Can we defeat him?"

The rooster-headed man used the back of a knife to stab the rat on the head.

"Are you an idiot?! How could everyone in the bandits be that strong?! These two are dawdling even when fighting level 30 monsters, what are they afraid of?"