Hoist Her Up and Run

After level 10, Blue Star underwent major changes, the most noticeable being its size.

According to rough estimates, the so-called "map upgrade" had expanded Blue Star to at least ten times its previous size. And this was only the map's first upgrade. Once someone reached level 100, the map would upgrade again.

The way these map upgrades occurred, as well as where they appeared, was rather strange. They were all located at the borders between nations, and these maps contained large numbers of high-level wild monsters.

It all seemed deliberate, intended to prevent conflicts between nations from arising too early.

Yet even so, it could not stop those with sinister ambitions. They sacrificed large numbers of elite personnel to cross those high-level maps, infiltrate other countries, and carry out all manner of provocation, intelligence gathering, and assassination operations.

Those with Mythical Grade Talents were the primary targets. If they had the chance, they would also kill those with Epic Grade Talents.

Although those with such talents were powerful, that was only in the later stages. In the early stages, there were plenty of ways to kill them, such as sniper rifles, poison, and so on.

The initial three resurrection opportunities seemed utterly powerless in the face of nearly endless assassinations.

Although the Dragon Kingdom later established strict defenses and protected those with Mythical Grade Talents, it was already too late.

It was not just one country targeting the Dragon Kingdom. More than half the nations on Blue Star were targeting the Dragon Kingdom.

In less than half a year, nearly ninety percent of Mythical Grade Talent holders had fallen. The death toll among those with Epic Grade and Legendary Grade Talents was even harder to calculate.

The next major change was the appearance of Main Cities.

Every Main City was incomparably massive, with even the smallest capable of holding a terrifying hundred million people.

The Main Cities all appeared within the original territories of their respective nations. However, countless wild monsters with levels high relative to the current stage also surrounded the major Main Cities. Getting inside was truly no easy task.

Of course, existing technological weapons could be used to kill those monsters, but doing so was not worth the cost.

Wild monsters killed with existing technological weapons provided neither experience nor equipment.

Lastly, the chat function was worth mentioning. It was almost exactly the same as the chat system in online games.

The chat function had five major channels: the Current Channel, Regional Channel, Guild Channel, National Channel, and World Channel.

The Current Channel covered an area of roughly one kilometer in every direction.

The Regional Channel covered one city.

The National Channel covered one country.

The World Channel covered all of Blue Star.

As for the Guild Channel, it was naturally a dedicated channel available only after forming a guild.

Among them, the World Channel automatically translated text. People from each country saw World Channel messages in their own language.

There were no restrictions on chat channels, but aside from the Current Channel and Guild Channel, speaking in the other three channels required different amounts of Gold Coins.

The Regional Channel cost 1 Gold Coin.

The National Channel cost 100 Gold Coins.

The World Channel cost 10,000 Gold Coins.

That did not sound like much, right?

But those Gold Coins could only send a single character.

The World Channel truly cost a fortune per word!

Those were roughly all the changes that occurred after level 10. The others were basically of little use.

"Uncle, someone actually reached level 10. Poor me, I'm only level 5."

Cheng Yao's face was full of envy.

"Oh, right, Uncle, you're already level 9. How far are you from level 10?" Before Wang Xian could say anything, Cheng Yao spoke again.

Wang Xian glanced at his experience bar and saw that it was already more than halfway full.

"Soon. I'm already past the halfway point at level 9. If I work hard, I should reach level 10 today."

"That fast?"

After that, Wang Xian led Cheng Yao on another monster-grinding journey.

Helping Cheng Yao level up was merely incidental.

Wang Xian did not care about being first in level rankings, because being number one in level had no tangible benefits.

Back when he had been the first to reach level 1, it had been for the title Vision of the Pioneer. Being the first to reach level 10 would only earn him a world announcement and global fame.

Grinding monsters for levels was an extremely boring task, especially when he had to face a bunch of ugly green dwarves. That made it even more boring.

Around noon, perhaps because of Wang Xian's rampant slaughter, the Goblins' leader, the Goblin BOSS, finally appeared.

"Uncle, a BOSS! It's a BOSS!"

Upon seeing the Goblin BOSS, Cheng Yao cried out excitedly.

Over the past half day, Wang Xian had done all the monster killing while Cheng Yao hid off to the side, leeching experience while browsing the Forum.

Through the Forum, Cheng Yao had learned a great deal about Blue Star's current situation.

Among all that information, BOSSes were one of the things that interested her most.

What did a BOSS mean?

Equipment! Levels! Glory!

That was why Cheng Yao became so excited when she saw one.

Compared to an ordinary Goblin, the Goblin BOSS was nearly twice as large. It held a Wolf Fang Club like Wang Xian's, except its club was bigger and longer than his!

"Stop yelling. It's not like I'm blind. I can see it!"

Wang Xian glared at Cheng Yao. It was just a BOSS. Was there any need to get so excited?

"Uncle, hurry up and attack! Kill it!"

Ignoring Wang Xian's glare, Cheng Yao remained wildly excited.

"Attack my ass! Run!"

Wang Xian put the Wolf Fang Club in his hand into his backpack, rushed to Cheng Yao's side, picked her up, slung her over his shoulder, and dashed frantically out of the forest.

As for the Goblin BOSS?

Whoever wanted to fight it could go fight it!

A level 15 BOSS was really too much for him!

When the Goblin BOSS saw Wang Xian and Cheng Yao fleeing, it hurried after them. But the Wolf Fang Club in its hands was too large and too heavy. After chasing them for a while, it gave up.

More than ten minutes later, outside the forest, Wang Xian set Cheng Yao down from his shoulder and leaned against a tree, gasping for breath.

Although Blue Star had been Datafied, many things remained exactly the same as before. People could still get hungry, tired, sleepy, and even need to relieve themselves.

It was not that Wang Xian had refused to let Cheng Yao run on her own. Her speed was simply too slow and her stamina too poor. If she had run by herself, the Goblin BOSS would definitely have caught up to her.

As for why he had not pulled her along while running?

Carrying her was better than that!

"Uncle, why did we run away? Aren't we fighting the BOSS?" Cheng Yao asked in confusion.

She had wanted to ask that question earlier, but Wang Xian had carried her the whole way, jostling her around so much that she had no way to speak.

"Girl, one of us is level 9 and the other is level 5, and that's without even counting your combat ability. Tell me, what are we supposed to use to fight a level 15 BOSS?"

Wang Xian wore a helpless expression. He wanted to kill the BOSS too, but he truly could not do it!