Newbie Village Difficulty This Terrifying?

At dawn, a thin mist shrouded the town.

After a frenzy of repairs and dismantling, I had worked on nearly every appliance and machine in town. At last, I had accumulated over 21,000 points of production skill experience.

Next, it was time to level up Throwing Skill!

[Congratulations! Your Throwing Skill (C-rank) has successfully risen to Level 4. Your attack capability has greatly increased, and you have additionally gained 1 point of Strength!]

[Congratulations! Your Throwing Skill (C-rank) has successfully risen to Level 7. Your attack capability has greatly increased, and you have additionally gained 2 points of Strength!]

That gave me a total of 3 Strength.

At that moment, my attack power had reached 7–14. With other players at this stage not even going out to kill monsters and level up, it should count as top-tier stats.

Just as the morning light pierced the mist and spilled into town, I held my hand axe and looked toward the sunrise. A sudden feeling of melancholy welled up inside me. Normally, I should have woken up in my rented apartment by now, preparing to head out for a delicious KFC breakfast...

Unfortunately, this was the wilderness. There were no such luxuries here.

Just then, a ding-dong sound rang beside my ear.

[Quest triggered: Clear the Shelter (D-rank)! Quest Objective: Leave Winter Spring Town and clear the monsters around the town. Kill 20 Crested Snakes. Quest Reward: Character Experience +5000!]

A D-rank quest. Not bad!

My heart stirred. This should be one of the daily refreshed quests, right? And it was a newbie village quest, so comparatively speaking, it should be safer.

Still, having only a hand axe was a little inadequate.

So I brought along a hammer from the storage room with only 0–1 attack power. My base attack power was high enough that I did not rely heavily on weapons. Besides, after Throwing Skill reached Level 7, I could basically hit every shot within ten steps. With two throwing weapons to alternate between, it should be enough.

Taking advantage of the mist, I left town.

Outside the town, the cold wind howled, and dense trees and wild grass covered the landscape.

With a ding-dong, the system notification ringtone sounded.

[Please note: You have entered the wilderness. Would you like to immediately switch to Combat Form?]

Confirm!

The instant I confirmed the switch, my body sank. A faint blood-colored outline appeared around me, while a full green health bar and the words "Shadow Chaser" appeared over my head.

That was my game ID, a name I had come up with alongside my best friend, Fatty. We had grown up together and were as close as brothers, so we had always been in perfect sync in everything we did.

In the game, I was Shadow Chaser, and he was Chasing Light.

In reality, I was Ding Han, and he was Yang Wei.

I wondered how Fatty was doing now. During the closed beta, he had not even made it into the top ten thousand, so his gaming talent was clearly average. Now that he had entered this game world with 100% realism, if anything happened to him... I did not even dare think about it!

So I had to get stronger quickly, truly make something of myself in this Star Abyss World, find Fatty, and save his damn life!

"Hiss hiss..."

Just as my thoughts wandered, a sound came from ahead. Then, a health bar emerged from behind a tree.

There it was, the quest target monster!

[Crested Snake] (Normal)

Level: 2

Attack: 3–5

Defense: 0

Health: 120

Skill: Deadly Venom. Once attacked, the target will continuously lose health.

Details: The Crested Snake is a mutated creature. It bites people on sight and is extremely vicious.

Here it came!

The Crested Snake stared this way with its beady little eyes, swiftly twisting its body as it slithered toward me!

This was my first battle in Star Abyss. I was a little nervous and excited, but with Level 7 Throwing Skill in hand, there was no reason to fear a Level 2 mutant beast.

My body sank as I aimed at the vital spot seven inches below its head, then violently hurled the hand axe!

"Whoosh~~~"

The hand axe spun through the air. Just as expected, there was no missing within ten steps. With a pfft, the axe blade chopped into the Crested Snake's neck, sending blood splattering everywhere. Then, a moderate-sized number jumped up.

"82!"

Although I did not know Star Abyss's damage formula, dealing 82 damage to a monster with 0 Defense using 7–14 attack power, plus the skill damage bonus from Throwing Skill, seemed fairly reasonable.

The next second, the hammer flew from my hand!

"69!"

A beautiful number rose into the air. It was an instant kill!

[You have killed the monster Crested Snake and gained 300 Character Experience!]

The Experience Points were pretty good. At this rate, I should reach Level 4 after completing this newbie village quest.

As for Level 5, that would be a turning point.

In the closed beta version, once players reached Level 5, they would awaken either an Essence Furnace or a Mental Power Furnace, depending on their class. I had chosen the Super Weapon Master class, so I would awaken an Essence Furnace. With a furnace, my overall strength would increase dramatically!

Slowly but surely. The future was bright!

I stepped forward and retrieved the axe and hammer from the Crested Snake's body. Unfortunately, it had not dropped anything.

And I did not know whether this 100%-realistic Star Abyss World even had something called a "drop rate." If it did... the idea of wild monsters dropping equipment still felt rather abrupt.

Before long, though, I got my answer.

"Hiss hiss~~~"

Accompanied by a sharp hiss, the fourth Crested Snake died beneath my hammer. At the same time, with a whoosh, a streak of golden light flew out from the Crested Snake's corpse and fell into my Dimensional Storage Space!

The Dimensional Storage Space was essentially a player's inventory, except it used an interdimensional spatial model.

"Buzz~~~"

A faint glow appeared before one's eyes. I could easily see a cube-shaped storage space with sides one meter long. Every player received the same storage space upon spawning: a 1m × 1m × 1m space. Quite fair.

At that moment, the first item appeared in the storage space. It was a fist-sized object, resembling both a treasure chest and some kind of crystal.

[Congratulations! You have killed the monster Crested Snake and gained 300 Character Experience. You have additionally obtained: Ability Crystal ×1. Open the Ability Crystal to receive loot!]

So that was how it worked...

I immediately understood. Monsters and bosses did not drop gold or items directly after dying. Instead, they dropped Ability Crystals, which would yield the corresponding rewards when opened.

That avoided the abruptness and awkwardness of monsters directly dropping loot.

"Mm, that was quite reasonable~~~" (self-deceiving dog-head emoji)

The next moment, I confirmed that I wanted to open the Ability Crystal!

"Buzz~~~"

The treasure chest began to sway. The next second, it emitted a faint glow, and a grayish boot appeared before one's eyes.

[Winter Spring Town Boots] (Quality: White)

Defense: 2

Equipment Requirement: None

Description: Boots favored by residents around Winter Spring Town.

I was slightly delighted. Equipment had dropped, even if it was just a pair of trash boots.

Still, they added 2 Defense. For me at this stage, that was absolutely a good item. Besides, it was a white piece of equipment, which was already quite decent.

In Star Abyss, equipment tiers were clearly defined. The early-game equipment ranks, in order, were: gray, white/common, green/excellent, blue/refined, purple/epic, orange/legendary, cyan/immortal, and so on.

Of course, at my current stage, I could only come into contact with gray and white equipment. Even green equipment was probably wishful thinking.

After nearly half an hour of careful hunting, I finally killed 20 Crested Snakes in the forest.

The instant the twentieth Crested Snake was killed, the quest was completed as well.

[Congratulations! You have completed the quest Clear the Shelter (D-rank). Reward: Character Experience +5000!]

By then, I had gained quite a lot of Experience Points.

I pressed the level-up button repeatedly, and two showers of golden light descended from the sky. I rose to Level 4.

I allocated all 6 attribute points I had gained to Strength. As for the remaining 1 skill point, I left it unused until I found a suitable opportunity to learn a skill. Of course, the priority would definitely be Basic Marksmanship. Only by mastering Basic Marksmanship would I truly have the ability to protect myself.

Feeling a little tired, I returned to the village.

It was still that little house. I decided to sleep first. After staying awake for so long, there was no need to keep enduring it now that I had acquired the achievement-type skill Practice Makes Perfect.

After forcing myself to swallow two cookies made from earthworms and cockroaches despite the nausea, I drank a cup of water. Then I lay down on Aurelia's bed, and the moment I closed my eyes, I fell into a heavy sleep.

"Ding Han!"

In my dream, I heard Fatty's voice.

"What the hell is this place? Holy crap!!!"

Fatty's voice was hoarse with desperation.

"Ah?!"

I jolted awake from the dream, drenched in sweat. Beads of sweat as large as soybeans even rolled down from my chin.

What a terrifying dream.

I looked outside. Night had already fallen. Aurelia, that Popeye-like beauty, had said she would return in the morning, yet it was already dusk. Perhaps something had delayed her.

Just as I was wondering about it, I faintly heard the roar of engines. Then, the ground beneath the town began to shake!

"Boom~~~"

With a deafening explosion, the night was illuminated as bright as day.

A shell directly destroyed the building at the center of town!

The violent shockwave instantly shattered the few remaining panes of glass in the window. Gunfire then erupted outside.

"You Dark Tide bastards, I'll fight you to the death!"

Grandpa George rushed out with a hunting rifle, but his body was almost instantly riddled with a burst of bullets.

Vaguely visible, an armored vehicle charged into town. Then, more than a dozen figures holding Submachine Guns closed in, heading straight for the little sheriff's room where I was.

Damn it!

I was drenched in sweat. Was the newbie village difficulty really maxed out like this?

Could those people outside really be the Dark Tide organization, one of the major villain factions in Star Abyss?!

Getting revenge for Grandpa George was impossible now. I had to preserve myself first.

I violently smashed open the back window, leaped through it, and nimbly flipped to my feet. As long as I escaped Winter Spring Town, the world outside was vast. Once I reached Level 100 with a full set of god-tier equipment, I would definitely return to avenge Grandpa George, Grandma Alice, and the others!

"Grandpa George, I'll definitely avenge you. Rest in peace!"

Without looking back, I sprinted forward. But after only a few steps, more than a dozen pitch-black gun barrels were pressed against my forehead with a series of swish swish swish sounds...

"Holy crap?"

Pain exploded at the back of my head, and I instantly lost consciousness.