Becoming an Adventurer

Before entering the game, Su Jiang gave his character a name: Su.

He opened his personal attributes.

Name: Su

Level: Lv1

Life Level: Ordinary Human

Talent: Dimensional Avatar (Advanced Talent)

Equipment: (None)

Skills: (None)

Attack: 10 ((Strength + Intelligence) / 2, attack calculation method for balanced development)

Defense: 1 (Constitution × 0.1)

Health: 100 (Constitution × 10)

Mana: 50 (Spirit × 5)

Attributes (Balanced Development): Strength 10, Intelligence 10, Constitution 10, Spirit 10.

Life Level represented the attribute growth a player gained with each level-up. Ordinary Humans gained 10 points in every basic attribute per level.

For players focused on Strength, their basic attributes would become Strength 20, Constitution 10, and Spirit 10. Intelligence would become an almost irrelevant attribute. The same applied to players focused on Intelligence.

In the early stages of the game, players were basically all Ordinary Humans. After all, Meta World had only spread across Earth so far. Only when it invaded other planets would higher life forms appear, and those beings gained hundreds of attribute points with every level.

Su Jiang used his talent to transform into Zafkiel.

A skill instantly appeared on the panel.

Skill: "Dimensional Avatar: Tokisaki Kurumi"

After activating the skill, Su Jiang's middle-aged uncle appearance instantly changed into Tokisaki Kurumi, dressed in her black-and-red Spirit Dress.

Su Jiang was neither surprised nor uncomfortable. In his previous life, he had spent most of his days as an avatar, so he was mentally accustomed to it.

At that moment, the data panel underwent tremendous changes, and a whole pile of skills appeared.

Skill: "First Bullet (Aleph) LV.1"

Cost: 10 Time Value

Passive Effect: Increases all of the user's speeds by 10%.

Active Effect: The hit target gains a 100% increase to all speeds for five seconds. Cooldown: one minute.

Skill: "Second Bullet (Bet) LV.1"

Cost: 20 Time Value

Passive Effect: The hit target suffers a 10% reduction to all speeds.

Active Effect: Enhances the passive effect, reducing all of the target's speeds by 50% for three seconds. Cooldown: one minute.

--

Skill: "Third Bullet (Gimel) LV.1" (Locked)

Skill: "Fourth Bullet (Dalet) LV.1" (Locked)

Skill: "Twelve Bullets (Yud) LV.1" (Locked)

Other than the two initial skills, all the others were grayed out and unusable.

First Bullet and Second Bullet...

Both of these were support-oriented skills.

An Ordinary Human's attack speed was one attack per second. With First Bullet's passive effect, it became 1.1 attacks per second. If he activated its active effect and shot himself once, he could attack 2.1 times per second.

It directly doubled his damage output efficiency.

And the active effect of this skill increased all speeds. In other words, aside from attack speed, his movement speed could also increase!

Combined with Second Bullet's effect, Su Jiang could probably kite every monster of the same level in Meta World to death!

Kurumi's avatar did not consume mana, nor did it consume the spiritual power described in novels.

Instead, it used a new attribute: Time Value.

Speaking of Time Value, he had to mention the core item, Zafkiel.

Talent: "Zafkiel"

Effect: ① Gain 3 Time Value for every lower life form killed, and 10 Time Value for every ordinary life form killed...

② A coordinate may be set. Upon suffering fatal damage, 100 Time Value is automatically consumed to teleport the user to that coordinate, avoiding death and entering a ten-minute weakened state (all four attributes reduced by 50%). Cooldown: twenty-four hours.

③ Time Value can be stored. Current storage limit: 100.

Every skill of this avatar depended on Zafkiel, especially the Time Value mechanic.

Although the Time Value cap of one hundred was rather low, killing monsters could replenish it. It was essentially sustaining battle through battle, far more convenient than using mana.

Su Jiang looked over the panel after transforming once more.

Name: Tokisaki Kurumi

Level: Lv1

Life Level: Kabbalah Spirit (Restricted by the main body; unable to gain the attributes of a higher life form)

Talents: Zafkiel (Advanced Talent), Charm (Intermediate Talent)

Skills: "First Bullet (Aleph) LV.1", "Second Bullet (Bet) LV.1"...

Attack: 10 ((Strength + Intelligence) / 2, attack calculation method for balanced development)

Defense: 1 (Constitution × 0.1)

Health: 100 (Constitution × 10)

Mana: 50 (Spirit × 5)

Time Value: 0

Attributes (Balanced Development): Strength 10, Intelligence 10, Constitution 10, Spirit 10.

What the hell was Charm? Its effect was a chance to double any increase in favorability?

This...

Could it be a talent Kurumi inherently possessed?

Su Jiang stared at the new talent in confusion, unable to understand why Kurumi had this talent.

But then he recalled that when he had gotten off work last night, Kurumi had merely teased him a little, yet he had felt an almost uncontrollable urge.

That might have been Charm's effect...

Now Su Jiang understood. That Kurumi was his future self.

Had that avatar's behavior been deliberate teasing, or merely subconscious?

If it had been deliberate teasing, he could still understand it as the malicious amusement of wanting to mess with himself.

But if it had been subconscious...

Su Jiang shuddered violently at the thought.

He hurriedly shook his head, driving those filthy thoughts from his mind.

Although his attributes had not changed, Su Jiang began with two more skills and one more talent than ordinary players. That gave him a sufficiently high starting point!

"Enter the game!"

After checking his attribute panel, Su Jiang first canceled his avatar skill and returned to his original middle-aged uncle appearance.

After all, everyone started as ordinary players wearing novice clothes and carrying novice wooden sticks. If Su Jiang entered with a gorgeous outfit and two guns as weapons, who would not be shocked?

For now, it was better to keep a low profile and quietly make a fortune.

"Ding—"

System Prompt: You have entered No. 13 Novice Village. Enjoy the game.

The sea of stars in the surrounding space slowly faded away, replaced by gentle wind and the fresh scent of earth.

Su Jiang appeared at the resurrection point of No. 13 Novice Village.

At this moment, many players were already running around No. 13 Novice Village, all shocked by the sensations this game provided.

This VR game allowed them to feel touch, pain, and taste with astonishing clarity!

They all found it unbelievable!

Su Jiang knew this was the effect of the Black-Tech Thought Link, so he was not surprised.

He then headed straight for the Adventurers' Organization.

Every Novice Village had one of these organizations. It served as a platform where NPCs issued quests and players accepted them, and it also had many powerful adventurers who would become highly prominent later on.

Arriving at the Adventurers' Center, he found the beautiful receptionist at the front desk.

"Hello, I'd like to become an adventurer."