Shadow Panda

At seven in the morning, Su Jiang struggled to open his eyes and dragged himself out of bed, his face full of exhaustion.

Whether it was because Su Yu was unused to the bed or not, she had tossed and turned all night, making it hard for him to sleep as well. Sometimes, just as he was about to fall asleep, she would kick him, jolting him awake.

It was not until four in the morning, when he was truly too tired to go on, that Su Jiang fell asleep as though he had passed out.

Su Yu, meanwhile, had already woken up at six-thirty.

Su Jiang had to admire a child's energy. She had not gone to bed until midnight last night, yet she was up again at six.

"Dad, get up and eat breakfast."

Su Jiang had been planning to get some more sleep when Su Yu ran in and called out to him.

"Mhm, did the delivery arrive?"

"It's here~" Su Yu said sweetly.

Her favorite lotus seed paste buns were part of breakfast today, so she was in an especially good mood.

"You eat first. Dad will eat after brushing his teeth." Su Jiang spoke with his eyes closed, showing no intention of getting up whatsoever.

"Okay."

A few minutes later, Su Jiang still forced himself out of bed.

While eating breakfast, he told Su Yu that he needed to make money in the game. If anything happened, she could call for him at any time.

After finishing breakfast, Su Jiang quickly returned to the game.

The next day passed with Su Jiang traveling.

If Su Jiang had not possessed the ability to kill monsters above his level, he would not have wasted time on such long-term quests. After all, the experience gained from killing monsters at his level or below was extremely low, nowhere near the returns from completing Adventurer's Guild quests.

The number of daily Adventurer's Guild quests was also gradually decreasing.

At present, the player count throughout the entire "Meta World" was steadily increasing. Aside from the talent draw at the start, which easily discouraged players, the game's other features were practically an entire era ahead of modern games. Entering the game was no different from being transported into another world. After experiencing it, few players quit.

And as the number of players increased, the "Meta World" system would become more complete, further improving the player experience.

In two days, Su Jiang successfully traveled from Forest City to the foot of the Green Root Mountain Range.

He had killed countless magical beasts along the way, and his level had reached Level 20!

At the same time, he unlocked Kurumi Incarnation's fourth active skill, which was still a support-oriented skill.

Fourth Bullet (Dalet) LV.1

Cost: 40 Time Value

Passive Effect: Generates one Time Reversal Shield every twenty seconds. (Time Reversal Shield effect: Within 1 second of taking damage, all damage is restored after 1 second. If the damage received exceeds the maximum HP, it cannot be reversed.)

Active Effect: The struck target's state reverts to ten seconds earlier. Cooldown: one minute. (Cannot take effect if the target is already dead.)

A life-saving skill had finally appeared.

Time Reversal Shield gave Su Jiang enough time to fight back when facing assassin-type classes.

The active effect was extremely useful in both PvP and PvE.

Using this state reversal on himself could restore HP and refresh the duration of other skills. If used on a magical beast, it could revert the beast to how it was ten seconds ago. Although this would restore its HP, it could also cause its skill activation to fail and send it directly into cooldown.

Before entering the Green Root Mountain Range, Su Jiang still needed to investigate whether there were any special ores nearby. Upgrading weapons and equipment required ores, but he did not have time to mine them himself. He could only report the coordinates to the Adventurer's Guild in exchange for priority purchasing rights for the ores.

Epic equipment upgrades naturally required epic-quality ores as well. If he had to mine them alone, he might not find even a single piece before the year of the ox came around again.

"System Notice: You have discovered an amethyst mine. Its coordinates have been added to the quest to investigate mineral coordinates in the Green Root Mountain Range."

"System Notice: You have discovered an iron mine. Its coordinates have been added..."

Most of them were just ordinary iron mines...

It seemed he would only find rarer ores by going up the mountain.

Su Jiang recorded the ore caves along the way as he headed toward Destroy Fallen Camp.

At last, he emerged from the dense forest and entered an area where the trees were sparse. The quest notified Su Jiang that he had entered the range of a Fallen camp and should proceed carefully.

Su Jiang immediately became vigilant and entered the Kurumi Incarnation state.

After searching the area for quite some time, Kurumi finally found a pitch-black cave entrance.

"This should be one of the camps."

Kurumi recorded the cave entrance's coordinates in Zafkiel's resurrection passive, then entered the cave.

The cave was utterly silent, completely unlike a place where Fallen were present.

After walking through the dark passage for half an hour, Kurumi finally vaguely spotted human figures.

Fallen

Level: 20

Life Level: Elite Human

Health:

Attack: 500

Defense: 200

Skills: Summon God, magic attacks...

It seemed this quest was not utterly insane after all. The monsters' levels were set according to the player undertaking the quest, which would make completing it much easier.

Kurumi stepped out of the darkness, her footsteps echoing through the cave.

"Who's there?" The Fallen One instantly became alert.

"First Bullet!"

Kurumi fired a shot at herself, instantly doubling her speed.

Bang, bang...

Red bullets burst from the muzzle aimed at the Fallen One.

-538!

-1076!

-760!

That damage...

She could finish it within two minutes!

Just as Kurumi focused on attacking, a massive fireball suddenly appeared beside her. Its flames lit up the entire cave before it exploded!

-457!

There were other Fallen Ones!

The space was too dark; she could not see anything beyond five meters.

She swiftly finished off the Fallen One within her sight, then rushed toward the one hidden in the darkness.

Less than five seconds later, Kurumi spotted him hiding behind a rock, launching sneak attacks at her.

A blazing fireball gathered in his hand once more.

"Second Bullet!"

A bullet carrying the power of slow struck him.

With all his speeds reduced by 50%, his movements became like a video playing in slow motion. Seizing the opening, Kurumi ran behind him and attacked.

A moment later, the second Fallen One collapsed.

The cave passage was narrow, long, and dark.

Perhaps the system had set it up deliberately: only after one Fallen One was killed would the next appear, just like the calabash brothers saving their grandfather one at a time.

After clearing out dozens of Fallen Ones, Kurumi successfully reached the deepest part of the cave.

A massive magical beast slept in the center.

Shadow Panda

Level: 35

Life Level: Elite Magical Beast (Weakened State)

Health:

Attack: 2000

Defense: 0

Skills: Bear's Roar, Shaking Mountains and Rending Earth, Frenzy, Damage Reduction...

Magical Beast Description: Shadow Panda had once been a happy little monster in the mountains and forests. Then one day, it was captured by a group of people wearing black robes and subjected to all kinds of experiments. It was no longer happy. It felt so much pain...