Level Up

"Tsk, tsk. A level-one player would need at least ten people constantly chugging potions to kill an Enraged Red-eyed Rabbit."

Kurumi looked at the Red-eyed Rabbit corpse on the ground and happily narrowed her eyes.

Killing an elite monster above her level had earned her 10 experience points, raising her experience bar by 10%.

The returns were extremely considerable. Killing a Slime alone only gave one experience point, and she might not even get it. After all, there were surely even more players crowded at the village entrance fighting Slimes right now.

The Red-eyed Rabbit's corpse turned into light and vanished.

Several items dropped where it had been.

Kurumi reached out to collect them.

"You have obtained Elite-grade Red-eyed Rabbit Hide (quest item) x1, 10 copper coins, and a plain white necklace shaped like a miniature vegetable leaf."

Equipment: Rabbit Talisman (White)

Required Level: Lv.2

Type: Necklace

Effect: Defense +1

Active Skill: Summon a vegetable leaf. Eating it restores 5 Health. Cooldown: one minute.

Wow, equipment had dropped from her very first monster. Although it was only plain white equipment, this was still the early stage of the game's launch. There was no shortage of wealthy players, after all.

Meta World's equipment included seven slots: headgear, upper body, lower body, shoes, necklace, ring, and weapon. Necklaces and weapons were the hardest to obtain.

"Not bad luck. Too bad I can't equip other items after transforming into an avatar."

The Dimensional Avatar talent was powerful, but once activated, equipment and skills that did not belong to the character would not take effect.

Simply put, when Su Jiang transformed into Kurumi, any equipment and skills carried by his original body became ineffective. Only Kurumi's own equipment and skills worked.

Kurumi came with her own weapons and armor, but they had not been unlocked yet.

Thinking about unlocking equipment and skills made Kurumi feel like her liver was starting to ache...

After gathering the drops, Kurumi turned her gaze toward another Red-eyed Rabbit.

Before players reached this area, Kurumi needed to finish the Adventurer's Guild quest as quickly as possible and speed up her growth. She did not want others to discover so soon that Tokisaki Kurumi existed in this game.

Whether she wanted it or not, the game forums would definitely be full of discussions about her by then.

Meta World could not yet affect reality, but Kurumi was still afraid that someone might follow the trail to find her true body, causing history to repeat itself...

"Bang, bang, bang—"

Using the same method, she enraged the Red-eyed Rabbit, then aimed the rifle in her hands at it. Bullets wrapped in red spiritual energy shot forth one after another, like reapers claiming lives, embedding themselves in the Red-eyed Rabbit's body.

-10!

-10!

-15!

-10!

As a string of bright red numbers appeared, the second Enraged Red-eyed Rabbit also collapsed with an unwilling look on its face.

Kurumi's experience bar rose by another 10%, but this time, there was no equipment—only a piece of Elite-grade Red-eyed Rabbit Hide (quest item) and 10 copper coins.

That was normal too. That equipment just now might have been a first-kill reward. If equipment dropped every time, the currency system would easily fall into chaos.

Based on memories from her previous life, Meta World's drop rates were extremely low.

They seemed even lower than the odds of pulling a gold rarity in a gacha mobile game, and there was no pity system either.

Kurumi noticed that killing two elite monsters had earned her 20 Time Value.

But it was nowhere near enough. First Bullet's active skill consumed 10 Time Value and only lasted five seconds. As for Second Bullet, there was even less need to mention it.

For now, she should not think about using skills. Being able to attack with a gun had already put Kurumi far ahead of everyone else.

"Bang, bang..."

-10!

-10!

-10!

Kurumi continued the same routine. After enraging a rabbit, she immediately attacked its body to slow it down, then quickly widened the distance to avoid getting rammed by its rabbit head.

One hit would deduct 49 Health points—attack minus defense. Two hits would leave her hanging by a thread, so Kurumi had no choice but to deal with them carefully.

At that moment, a scene played out in the forest: a crazed rabbit relentlessly chased a human, while that human dodged and then fired a backward shot into the rabbit's body.

The poor Red-eyed Rabbit was toyed with in the palm of that agile human's hand.

"Ding— You have killed an Enraged Red-eyed Rabbit and obtained..."

"Ding— ..."

"Ding— ..."

One Red-eyed Rabbit after another became enraged under Kurumi's harassment, swelled up, and grew gigantic! Then they were shot into corpses with unwilling expressions by the firearm held in her petite hand.

By the time she killed the tenth one, Kurumi had not obtained anything besides rabbit hides and copper coins.

"Ding— Level up. Your current level is Lv.2."

After killing the tenth Enraged Red-eyed Rabbit, she naturally reached Lv.2. A faint golden light burst from within her body, and even the Health she had lost after accidentally taking a hit midway was fully restored.

"System notification: Your Life Level has received a slight release..."

"Attribute growth has increased to 11."

As an ordinary lifeform, Su Jiang's base attribute growth was only 10 points. In other words, every level increased Strength, Intelligence, Constitution, and Spirit by 10 points.

Now, however, each level increased them by 11 points, including previous levels.

So Kurumi's current attributes were:

Attack: 22 ((Strength + Intelligence) / 2, calculation method for balanced development)

Defense: 2.2 (Constitution × 0.1)

Health: 220 (Constitution × 10)

Mana: 110 (Spirit × 5)

Time Value: 100 (storage limit reached)

Attributes (Balanced Development): Strength 22, Intelligence 22, Constitution 22, Spirit 22.

After leveling up, Kurumi's attributes had doubled. If she killed rabbits again now, it would take at least half as much time!

Although killing rabbits had become faster, Kurumi did not plan to continue. After all, she had already completed the quest.

Canceling her transformed state, Su Jiang sprinted toward Novice Village.

At that moment, a large group of players waited at the entrance to Novice Village for Slimes to respawn. A small number stood by the spiked fence waiting for opportunities, while some ran into the forest to lure Red-eyed Rabbits over before hacking at them through the fence.

"Damn, you people are way too insane! The monsters don't even last a second after spawning!"

"Fuck, who stole my experience?!"

"Why didn't this game give us starting funds when it launched... I can't even afford a bottle of potion. How are we supposed to fight monsters? And there's a weakened state after death, so we're even less able to fight!"

"This Red-eyed Rabbit is ridiculously fast! If I hit it once, it definitely rams me once. When I cut it down to half Health, it just kills me outright! What the hell am I supposed to play..."

The players who had rushed out howling to fight monsters after experiencing the power of mental linkage upon entering the game had never expected that they could only bully Slimes. They did not dare touch the level-two Red-eyed Rabbits at all!