Lightning Speed

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

Before logging off, Xiao Jie also took stock of today's leveling gains.

The loot was trash, totaling four pieces of White Equipment, all of which he had equipped.

355 copper coins.

One Cellar Key.

A total of 12 portions of venison, mutton, and rabbit meat.

A total of 6 wolf-dog pelts, deer antlers, and sheepskins.

Consumed six steamed buns, one blood potion, one strength pill, 17 crude feather arrows, and 135 wen in repair fees.

All in all, the profits were pretty good, much higher than cutting firewood and herding sheep, and the crucial part was being able to level up—that was the most important thing.

Today was just a small trial of his blade; because of time constraints, he only gained one level, but tomorrow would be different. Xiao Jie had a feeling that there were definitely good things inside the Tian Family Old House, and as long as he could open it, he would definitely take off.

Originally, he had also planned to go back and feed the dog, but by this time the sky was already growing dark and the outside would soon be unsafe. He could only say goodbye to I Want to Become Immortal and log off respectively.

The sky finally grew completely dark, and a starless darkness enveloped this quiet little mountain village.

The villagers all hid in their own houses, bolted their doors and windows, and extinguished the fire and candles.

Even the militia on night duty hid inside the barracks.

Only the night watchman dressed in black holding an oil lamp appeared on the village streets, lingering like a ghost in the dark night and striking a 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, her heart a mix of excitement and tension. Taking a deep breath, she walked out of the tavern gates; it was time to start leveling.

Gripping her ebony sword, Ye Luo walked toward the darkness.

Xiao Jie exited the game and let out a long breath as he looked at his computer desktop.

Yet it was not over.

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

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

He first took out his prepared map paper. One of the sheets was already mostly drawn, and on it, one could see the architectural layout of Ginkgo Village. He had drawn this casually earlier while looking for work in the village. The layout of the entire Ginkgo Village was almost fully visible, and various important NPCs were also marked on it.

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

This time, what he drew was a rough map of the Ginkgo Valley.

Since only a small portion had been explored so far, the map was not very complete yet, but given time, he would inevitably obtain a complete topographical map.

Having a map allowed for more intuitive planning when laying things out, which was also a habit of being a professional gamer.

Xiao Jie sketched the general terrain onto the paper in just a few strokes.

On the western hillside, Xiao Jie marked the respawn locations of several isolated mountain bandits, as well as the place that looked like the Mountain Bandit Camp.

In the middle of the map, he drew the path leading from the valley to the outside, as well as the location the corpse driver had passed through. Hesitating for a moment, he drew a skull symbol there, which represented danger. After thinking about it, he also drew a 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, and Xiao Jie drew a question mark over the Tian Family Old House.

How to enter the Tian Family Old House was a mystery that urgently needed to be solved right now.

It was a pity that this game had no official guides or player forums to check, and he could only slowly study it himself. However, based on Xiao Jie's dozen years of gaming experience, any mystery in a game always left traces, giving players a chance to crack it.

Although this game was incomparably magical, in its content design, it clearly still maintained the architectural mindset of a game world, so Xiao Jie did not think this mystery was unsolvable.

Speaking of which, someone in Ginkgo Village should know the story of the Tian family. Right, when he was looking for work, it seemed he had encountered an NPC surnamed Tian; he could actually go ask tomorrow.

After finishing the game planning, Xiao Jie made himself dinner. Since he couldn't log in tonight, time was quite abundant.

He had a big meal, and after finishing dinner, Xiao Jie walked out of the residential complex once again.

He planned to go for a night run in the park and take the opportunity to properly experience the bodily changes brought about by the stat increases.

Walking on the road to the park, he felt the changes weren't very large yet, only feeling 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 the extremely intuitive changes.

His body became exceptionally light, and his speed had clearly increased quite a bit. He had already been pretty fast when running; it was just that his endurance was a bit poor—sprinting was fine, but long-distance running would make him fizzle out.

This time, however, the feeling was exceptionally distinct. Under a full-power sprint, Xiao Jie felt the scenery on both sides rapidly flash past behind him, his entire body as swift as if his feet had wind.

However, under a full-power burst, the consumption of stamina was also much more severe. After running for just over ten seconds, his lungs felt as if they were going to explode.

Staggering as he reduced his speed and slowly coming to a halt by jogging, Xiao Jie thought to himself that it was too thrilling; his speed probably reached around eleven seconds per hundred meters now, almost catching up to the level of an ordinary athlete.

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

Even Usain Bolt would be completely left in the dust.

Weren't gamers allowed to participate in sports meets, anyway?

It was just that this endurance was still too poor. Xiao Jie panted heavily, thinking that if stat points were abundant in the future, he would also have to add some to endurance and strength.

Based on the changes brought by the two stat increases and his own understanding, Xiao Jie deduced that an increase in physique should improve his comprehensive physical fitness, including blood circulation, the immune system, wound healing speed, resistance to disease, and so on.

Strength should increase muscle strength and explosive power. If strength points were high, his muscles would probably become quite well-developed.

Endurance was probably muscle fatigue resistance, as well as cardiopulmonary function.

As for agility, it was probably neural reaction speed, balance, coordination, jumping ability, and so on.

Now his neural reaction speed had gone up, but muscle fatigue resistance and cardiopulmonary function hadn't kept up, so naturally he couldn't keep going for long.

It seemed that extreme, single-attribute stat allocation wasn't very useful in reality. If viewed solely from a daily life perspective, balanced development across all four items was the most reasonable.

However, considering battles in the game, single-attribute stat allocation was also unavoidable.

Fortunately, an ordinary person's stats were too poor; he could surpass mortals by casually adding a few points, so he didn't need to dwell on it too much.

As Xiao Jie thought about it, his lungs finally returned to normal. Just as he was preparing to run a lap around the hill and go home, he suddenly raised his head and discovered that a pair of small green eyes in the darkness was watching him.

Huh, it was that black cat again. But this time, the gaze the black cat directed at him was clearly filled with complete vigilance, not at all like that disdainful and contemptuous little look from before.

Could it be because it saw him running just now?

Come to think of it, after he learned Beast Language, he hadn't used it in reality yet.

He might as well use you to give it a try.

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

That black cat, however, had no reaction at all.

No, this skill wasn't used like this. He still remembered the skill description of Beast Language.

[Beast Language (Strange Art)

Usage: Requires concentration.

Skill Description: A strange art created by a half-monster that has awakened its spiritual intelligence, it can be used to conduct mental communication with humans or beasts, condensing the information to be conveyed into words. It looks like a conversation, but is actually an exchange on a mental level.]

That was it. Beasts didn't have complex language like humans, but instead conducted relatively simplified communication through tone, pitch, and scent.

And Beast Language went a step further, acting directly on the mind, somewhat similar to telepathy, with the words acting more like a medium, much like a spell when casting magic.

Xiao Jie closed his eyes, working hard to search for that feeling in his memories.

This was not a simple matter, but fortunately, having the experience of mastering Kite Flip and One Cut Two Pieces, he quickly found the feeling.

Xiao Jie abruptly opened his eyes, staring directly into the black cat's eyes. "Hey little guy, good evening."

The black cat's pupils noticeably enlarged for a moment.

On its round, furry face, it suddenly revealed a serious expression.

"Meow, so you finally came after all? Are you here to challenge the position of my throne, you big clumsy cat? Although you have some strength, I won't easily give up my authority."

PS: Thanks to book friend Wu Shang Zhong Lin for rewarding the League Leader. I will add chapters in the future; currently still owing three chapters.