More than two hours later, Lu Yang reached Level 1, 10%. At that point, he had already risen to tenth place on the Level Rankings. If he had not wasted an hour obtaining the Demon God's Heart and another hour cooking Electric Eel Meat, Lu Yang could definitely have taken first place on the Level Rankings.
As for the nine people ahead of him, they were all leaders of major guilds. Relying on their numerical advantage, they cleared out areas and farmed monsters, their leveling speed no slower than Lu Yang's. Take Xiong Ba Fengyun, the leader of the Supreme Dynasty Guild and the top-ranked player, for example. He had brought 50,000 guild members into the game. The moment they entered, they occupied a Level 1 monster area in a beginner village. With ten mages exploiting the game loophole that a monster belonged to whoever attacked it first, Xiong Ba hit each monster once while the other ten instantly killed it for him, allowing him to claim first place on the Level Rankings.
Just as Lu Yang was preparing to continue killing monsters, a phone-like beep sounded. He checked his interface and found that someone had sent him a message.
To avoid trouble, Lu Yang had already disabled friend requests from strangers. The only person who could speak to him was Lan Yu, who was already on his friends list.
When he opened the interface, it was indeed a message from Lan Yu.
"Expert, you're amazing! You actually made it into the top ten of the Level Rankings."
If ten years of gaming experience still could not get him into the first tier, Lu Yang would have been utterly worthless. He said, "Not bad. How are things on your end? Have you gone to do the quest?"
"We're still collecting Electric Eel Meat," Lan Yu said.
"Why are you taking so long?" Lu Yang asked.
"You think this is slow? Electric eels are hard to catch," Lan Yu said helplessly.
Only then did Lu Yang realize that the server had just opened and they were all newcomers. Catching electric eels that swam at incredible speed was nowhere near as easy for them as it was for him.
"No rush, take it slow. Just be careful when you head to the cave to level up later. Don't let anyone discover you. If someone follows you in, it won't be a secret anymore."
Lan Yu nodded and said, "Mm, we'll be careful."
Suddenly, Lu Yang remembered something. "Little girl, promise me one thing. Don't tell anyone else my name. You haven't told them, right?"
Lan Yu said mischievously, "Of course not. Don't worry, I know you want to keep a low profile."
Lu Yang could practically picture Lan Yu's expression. Smiling, he said, "Little girl, since you're being so obedient, I'll give you a gift next time we meet."
Lan Yu sent back a smiling face, and their call ended.
In truth, Lan Yu had not revealed Lu Yang's name. On one hand, she had intentionally kept it to herself. On the other, Xia Yuwei, Zheng Yuan, and the others had not thought to ask.
Zheng Yuan hated Lu Yang to the bone, while Xia Yuwei was too proud to ask. She believed that once their studio grew, solo players like Lu Yang would naturally come to her when they needed something, so there was no need for her to lower herself to befriend him.
After turning in the quest, Xia Yuwei grilled electric eels as she said to everyone, "Now that we have supplies, we need to hurry up and level."
Zhang Zibo said, "That's right. I really don't know how those people on the Level Rankings are leveling. There was so much experience needed to get from Level 0 to Level 1, and there were so few monsters, yet they all leveled so quickly. Forget about the top nine on the rankings—even Lu Yang, the unknown player in tenth place, is already Level 1."
Xia Yuwei nodded. "Indeed. There are too many experts in this game. If we don't hurry, it'll be easy to fall behind the first tier. One step behind means falling behind at every step. It will be hard to develop later."
Zheng Yuan, who had remained silent after finding the electric eels, said angrily, "That Lu Yang really doesn't know what's good for him. I wanted to buy a guide from him, but he actually disabled his friend function."
Zhang Zibo sighed. "I tried just now too. What a pity. If we could contact Lu Yang, maybe we'd have a chance to enter the Level Rankings as well."
The top nine players on the Level Rankings were all leaders of major guilds who had previously recruited members on the Second World forums. Only Lu Yang was an obscure newcomer, so they guessed that he had found a fast way to level up.
As Lan Yu listened to everyone talk about Lu Yang, whom they had clearly met just moments ago, she found the whole thing incredibly strange.
Zheng Yuan said irritably, "What do we do now? Where are we going to level?"
Xia Yuwei and Zhang Zibo had no good ideas either. There were people everywhere outside, and they had not expected the game to be so popular. Just as everyone was at a loss, Lan Yu raised her little hand and said, "I know a place to level. I guarantee no one will steal our monsters."
Xia Yuwei froze for a moment and asked, "Where?"
Lan Yu said, "Coordinates 7985.9867. There's an old man there. Once we complete the task he gives us, he'll teleport us into a cave. It's filled with Level 1 and Level 2 monsters. No one else must know about that place yet, so we can go there."
Everyone had thought Lan Yu was joking, but they had not expected her to give them both the exact coordinates and the method.
Xia Yuwei asked in surprise, "How did you find out? Is it real?"
Lan Yu playfully stuck out her tongue. "I don't know if it's real either. The person who told us about the electric eel quest told me before we parted."
Hearing that it was Lu Yang again, Zheng Yuan shouted resentfully, "What kind of joke is this? If he really knew about a place like that, why wouldn't he go himself? It has to be fake. I don't believe it."
Lan Yu really wanted to tell Zheng Yuan that Lu Yang did not go because he had an even better place to level. He was already Level 1 and ranked tenth on the Level Rankings.
Xia Yuwei frowned slightly. "Second World will definitely become humanity's true second world in the future. The few of us have already decided to develop this game seriously, so we shouldn't casually make enemies in the game. Zheng Yuan, since that person knew the recipe for Electric Eel Meat and has now revealed a hidden monster-farming location, I think he may have participated in the closed beta. We might as well go take a look. If it's fake, we lose nothing. But if it's real, our guild's early development will be much faster."
Zhang Zibo nodded in agreement. "Agreed. Given the current situation, I support giving it a try."
Among the seven wealthy second-generation youths, including Xia Yuwei, five voted in favor. Only Zheng Yuan and one of his close friends opposed it. When the studio had been founded, they had established that the minority would yield to the majority, so Xia Yuwei led the group toward the coordinates Lu Yang had given them.
Zheng Yuan was not actually foolish. He too guessed that the cave was probably real. He simply did not want Lan Yu to have more contact with that inexplicably appearing man. After all, currency exchange would open in fifteen days, and they could use money to power-level and still catch up to the first tier.
Before you continue