St. Gall City was a main city. Players who wanted to level up could use the teleportation routes to travel to various villages and towns. However, those villages could only support players up to level 10; after that, they still had to level outside the main city.
Lu Yang ran back to the safe zone. By then, there were already many players there. Players were constantly entering the game, while others were constantly teleporting to various towns to level up.
He arrived at Giant Town through the teleporter. The town was not named because giants actually existed there, but because it stood at the boundary between the plains and the mountains. At sunset, the nearby peaks looked remarkably like giants.
By the time Lu Yang arrived, the level 1 to level 2 monster zones outside the town were already packed with players. As far as the eye could see across the vast plains, people stood everywhere in dense crowds.
A level 1 horned deer had just spawned. Before it could even lower its head to graze, six or seven longswords swung at it at once. With a cry of "Yoo~~," the horned deer died on the green grass.
As everyone hurriedly looked at their experience bars, one player suddenly jumped up in excitement and burst into laughter. "The experience is mine! It's mine!"
Lu Yang could not help laughing. It had been the same scene in his previous life. The official developers of Second World had anticipated a huge number of players and had specially opened fifty beginner villages for every main city. Yet they had not expected ten million players to enter the game on its first day. Even with fifty beginner villages per main city, each village still had to accommodate twenty thousand people.
When Second World had been designed, its experience system had been calculated with extreme precision to prevent players from easily reaching level one or two hundred. Every level was very difficult to gain.
But everyone who played games knew that a level 10 player could kill a level 13 monster. A level 0 player, however, could defeat a level 1 monster, barely defeat a level 2 monster, and could not kill a level 3 monster even with a crowd.
The level 1 and level 2 monster zones were only so large. Most players were now crammed into the level 1 monster zone, while a small number of skilled players had gone to the level 2 monster zone and struggled to kill monsters in teams. The players were helpless, and the officials were equally at a loss.
Yet the more things were like this, the more interested the players became, because this was the charm of the game. In a relatively fair environment like this, whoever was willing to invest more time and effort, and possessed greater experience, awareness, and skill, would become stronger.
In his previous life, Lu Yang had been like these people, struggling to snatch monsters from the crowd. But now that he had been reborn, there was naturally no need for him to do that again.
He had come to Giant Town because there was a bug here that allowed players to kill monsters above their level. Before doing that, though, Lu Yang needed to take care of something else.
What was the greatest tragedy for a mage player? Being poor!
Why were they poor? Mostly because of buying potions. Mages with good movement did not need many health potions, but no matter how good their movement was, they still ran out of mana.
To solve this problem, mage players in his previous life had made all kinds of efforts. Later, someone discovered a secret: outside the beginner villages were some strange people. They were not useless passersby, but high-level NPCs who could teach players special skills.
For example, Chef Bredeman, who sat beneath a tree by the moat at Giant Town's entrance, was always asking people for Electric Eel Meat.
Many people had accepted this quest, but no one had been able to complete it. They searched the riverbed but could not find any electric eels. Later, someone found electric eels at the bottom of a river two kilometers away from the moat. After handing the Electric Eel Meat to Bredeman, Bredeman actually gave that player a gold-grade cooking recipe.
Crispy Electric Eel Meat was only a level 0 cooking item, but it was gold grade. After use, it restored 200 health and 350 mana over 30 seconds. After using it continuously for 8 seconds, it also granted a buff that increased Intelligence by 5 and restored 8 mana every 5 seconds for 1 hour.
For the mana-hungry mage players in the early game, this was an extremely practical buff. Even if a mage ran out of mana in battle, the gradual mana regeneration still gave them a chance to kill monsters with excessively high health.
Once the guide was released, it caused an uproar. Countless beginner players rushed to compete for this quest. Lu Yang remembered it because, in his previous life, he had been one of those players fighting over it.
After leaving Giant Town through its gates, Lu Yang saw two armored soldiers holding swords standing on either side. Less than twenty meters in front of the gate, beneath a large tree, he spotted Chef Bredeman.
The plump middle-aged man was anxiously rubbing his hands as he fished beside the river. Lu Yang walked over and asked, "Sir, what are you doing?"
As if he had been waiting to pour his heart out, Bredeman said excitedly, "Oh, heavens! My beloved girlfriend is coming to my house tomorrow for a date, and she specifically asked for my best dish, Crispy Electric Eel Meat. But those damned electric eels have disappeared from the river! If anyone can help me find Electric Eel Meat, I am willing to teach them how to make Crispy Electric Eel Meat."
Lu Yang smiled. "Sir, don't worry. I'm an adventurer. Let me help you."
Bredeman clasped his hands together happily. "Really, sir? Can you really help me find electric eels?"
Lu Yang picked up the fishing spear beside Bredeman. "Of course. Wait here and don't move. I'll definitely be back."
System Prompt: You have accepted Chef Bredeman's commission. Find ten pieces of Electric Eel Meat.
The game was highly realistic. Since fish were in the water, Lu Yang's beginner fire spells could not be used underwater. He could only use the fishing spear provided by the system.
After bidding Bredeman farewell, Lu Yang ran toward the riverbank about two kilometers away on the other side of the lake. Half an hour later, he found a river.
System Prompt: You have discovered the Lando River.
There had originally been level 1 murlocs along the riverbank, but they had long since been killed by the ravenous players.
Lu Yang went beneath a small bridge by the river. The nearby players immediately grew tense, thinking another person had come to steal their monsters.
A warlock player frowned and said, "Friend, go somewhere else. There are already enough people here fighting over monsters."
The other players also voiced their dissatisfaction. "Yeah, this place is taken. Please go somewhere else."
Lu Yang glanced at them, gave a cold laugh, and could not be bothered to waste words on them. He jumped straight into the river beneath the bridge.
A gray bar appeared above Lu Yang's head. It showed how long a player could remain active underwater—roughly two minutes. Once that time was exceeded, the player died immediately.
In the rankings of death methods from his previous life, drowning had firmly held first place. Many people had not known about it, and their first death had been helplessly given to this suffocating method.
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