Lightning Speed

Everyone has their own path, and Xiao Jie did not try to persuade him further. The two arrived at the tavern and prepared to log off.

Before logging off, Xiao Jie took stock of his leveling gains for the day.

He had gathered some junk and four pieces of White Equipment, all of which he had already equipped.

355 Copper Coins.

One Cellar Key.

12 units of Venison, mutton, and Rabbit Meat combined.

6 units of deer hide, Deer Antlers, and sheepskin combined.

He had consumed six Steamed Buns, one Blood Potion, one Strength Pill, 17 Crude Feather Arrows, and paid 135 wen in repair fees.

Overall, the profit was quite good—far better than Firewood Chopping or herding sheep. The key was that he could level up, which was the most important thing.

Today was just a small test of his skills, and due to time constraints, he had only gained one level. Tomorrow would be different. Xiao Jie had a feeling that there was definitely something good in the Tian Family Old House; if he could open it, he would surely take off.

He had originally intended to go back and feed the dog, but the sky was already growing dark, and it would soon be unsafe outside. He could only bid farewell to I Want to Become Immortal and log off separately.

The sky finally turned completely dark, and a starless gloom enveloped the quiet little mountain village.

The villagers all hid inside their own houses, locking their doors and windows and extinguishing their lamps.

Even the militia on night watch hid inside the barracks.

Only the Night Watchman, dressed in black and carrying an oil lamp, appeared on the village streets, wandering through the night like a ghost while striking his clapper.

In this silent and ominous darkness, a figure suddenly appeared out of thin air inside the tavern.

Ye Luo looked at the surrounding darkness, feeling both excited and nervous. Taking a deep breath, she walked out of the tavern's front door; it was time to start leveling up.

With her Ebony Sword gripped in hand, Ye Luo walked toward the darkness.

Xiao Jie exited the game and let out a sigh of relief as he looked at his computer desktop.

But it wasn't over yet.

Although the game had ended, the review had only just begun.

It was time to organize the game data he had collected during this time.

He first took out a prepared sheet of map paper. One of them was already half-filled, showing the architectural layout of Ginkgo Village. He had drawn it while looking for work in the village earlier, and the entire layout of Ginkgo Village was now almost completely visible, with all the important NPCs marked on it.

After hanging the village map on the wall, Xiao Jie pulled out a new sheet of map paper and began to draw.

This time, he was sketching a rough map of Ginkgo Valley.

Since he had only explored a small portion so far, the map was not yet complete, but in time, he would surely obtain a full topographical map.

Having a map made planning much more intuitive, which was a habit of his as a professional gamer.

With a few quick strokes, Xiao Jie sketched the general terrain onto the paper.

On the western hillside, Xiao Jie marked the spawn locations of several lone bandits, as well as the place that appeared to be a Mountain Bandit Camp.

In the middle of the map, he drew the path leading out of the valley, as well as the route taken by the Corpse Driver. After a moment of hesitation, he drew a skull symbol there to represent danger. After thinking it over, he drew another skull at the Mountain Bandit Camp.

Next was the Tian Family Old House to the east, along with the surrounding farmland. This area felt relatively safer, so Xiao Jie drew a question mark over the Tian Family Old House.

How to enter the Tian Family Old House was a puzzle that urgently needed solving.

It was a pity that this game had no official guides or player forums to check; he would have to study it slowly on his own. However, based on Xiao Jie's dozen years of gaming experience, any puzzle in a game would always leave behind clues, giving players a chance to crack it.

Although this game was incredibly miraculous, its content design clearly still maintained the architectural logic of a game world, so Xiao Jie did not believe this puzzle was unsolvable.

Come to think of it, someone in Ginkgo Village must know the story of the Tian family. Right, he seemed to have met an NPC with the surname Tian when he was looking for work; he could go ask tomorrow.

After finishing his game planning, Xiao Jie made himself dinner. Since he couldn't log in at night, he had plenty of time.

After a hearty meal, Xiao Jie headed out of his apartment complex once he finished dinner.

He planned to go for a night run in the park and take the opportunity to properly feel the physical changes brought about by his increased stats.

On the way to the park, he didn't feel much of a change, only that his footsteps had become a bit lighter. Once he arrived at the park and started running along the winding mountain road, he immediately felt a very intuitive difference.

His body felt exceptionally light, and his speed had clearly increased by quite a bit. He had always been a fast runner, but his stamina was poor; he was fine at sprinting, but he would collapse during long-distance runs.

This time, the feeling was exceptionally obvious. When sprinting at full speed, Xiao Jie felt the scenery on both sides flashing past him rapidly, his whole body as swift as if he had wind beneath his feet.

However, under the full burst of speed, his stamina consumption was also more severe; after only a dozen seconds, his lungs felt like they were about to explode.

Staggering as he slowed his pace, he came to a slow jog and gradually stopped. Xiao Jie thought to himself that it was exhilarating; his speed was probably around eleven seconds for a hundred meters now—almost reaching the level of an average athlete.

And this was only with 15 Agility. If he raised his Agility to 20, 30, or even 40 later, wouldn't he become the Flash?

Even Usain Bolt would be no match for him.

Though, he wondered if game players were allowed to participate in the Olympics?

The only issue was that his stamina was still too poor. Xiao Jie panted heavily, thinking that if he had spare stat points later, he would have to add some to Stamina and Strength.

Based on the changes brought by the two times he had added stat points, as well as his own understanding, Xiao Jie speculated that the increase in Constitution should improve his overall physical fitness, including blood circulation, his immune system, the speed of wound healing, and his resistance to disease.

Strength should increase muscle density and explosive power; if the strength stat were high enough, I imagine my muscles would become quite well-developed.

As for endurance, it likely pertains to muscle fatigue resistance and cardiovascular function.

Agility, meanwhile, probably covers neural reaction speed, balance, coordination, and jumping ability.

Since my neural reaction speed has increased but my muscle fatigue resistance and cardiovascular function haven't kept pace, it's only natural that I can't last very long.

It seems that extreme, lopsided stat allocation isn't very practical in reality; from a daily life perspective, a balanced development of all four attributes is the most reasonable approach.

However, considering combat in the game, lopsided allocation is unavoidable.

Fortunately, the attributes of an ordinary person are so poor that adding just a few points allows me to surpass a mortal, so there's no need to overthink it.

As Xiao Jie pondered this, his lungs finally returned to normal. Just as he was preparing to jog around the hill and head home, he suddenly looked up and discovered a pair of small green eyes watching him from the darkness.

Huh, it's that Black Cat again. But this time, the gaze the Black Cat fixed upon him was clearly filled with vigilance, not at all like the disdainful, contemptuous look from before.

Could it be because it saw me running just now?

Come to think of it, I haven't used Beast Language in reality since I learned it.

I might as well use you to test it out.

"Hey little guy, good evening," Xiao Jie said.

The Black Cat, however, showed no reaction.

That's not right; this skill isn't used like that. He still remembered the description of the Beast Language skill.

Beast Language (Strange Art)

Usage: Requires focus.

Skill Description: A strange art created by a half-demon that has awakened its intelligence. It can be used to communicate mentally with humans or beasts, condensing the information to be conveyed into words. It appears to be a conversation, but it is actually an exchange of states of mind.

That's it. Beasts don't have complex languages like humans; they communicate through relatively simplified means like tone, pitch, and scent.

Beast Language goes a step further, acting directly on the mind. It's somewhat similar to telepathy, where the spoken words act more like a medium, much like an incantation when casting a spell.

Xiao Jie closed his eyes, struggling to find that feeling in his memory.

This was no simple task, but thanks to his experience mastering Kite Flip and One Cut Two Pieces, he found the sensation quite quickly.

Xiao Jie snapped his eyes open and stared directly into the Black Cat's eyes. "Hey little guy, good evening."

The Black Cat's pupils visibly dilated.

A serious expression suddenly appeared on its round, furry face.

"Meow, so you've finally come, haven't you? Are you here to challenge my position as king, you big clumsy cat? Although you have some strength, I will not easily relinquish my power."