Steward Zheng, Zheng Qingxi, and Master Gui exchanged glances but didn't ask any questions.
They knew players all had deep secrets—talents, for example.
No one knew what talents anyone else had.
No one could be sure that another player had only one talent. In fact, they knew of a kind of Talent Stone that could unlock multiple talents.
"All right, then."
Zheng Qingxi then led Gao Linzhi into the three-story library.
Inside, he saw a three-story stone building made entirely of bluestone, evidently to make it fireproof.
The first floor was a hall. Book after book, all thread-bound, sat on rows of stone bookshelves.
At a glance, there were at least dozens of rows, each with more than a dozen columns.
All the books were written in simplified Chinese.
Zheng Qingxi pointed to the shelves.
"The Basic Skills are all on the first floor. Have a look for yourself. Learn whichever ones you want."
Gao Linzhi felt like a mouse that had found a rice jar. His heart leaped with joy, though his expression remained calm.
He walked past the first row of bookshelves.
He saw titles like "Basic Archery," "Basic Swordsmanship," "Basic Defense," "Basic Fists and Feet," "Basic Dodge," "Basic Spear Techniques," "Basic Medical Skills," "Basic Perception," and "Basic Stealth"...
Good grief, there were hundreds of skills.
An Ordinary Player would have to decide on a career path first: melee or ranged, tank or damage dealer, healer or assassin...
Only after deciding would they choose which skills to learn.
In fact, everyone outside was learning Basic Lightness Skill to improve their ability to run away.
They didn't need to rush.
They could take their time deciding on a career path.
After all, even if they learned Basic Lightness Skill as quickly as possible, it would still take three months. That was plenty of time to think things through.
But Gao Linzhi could learn a lot of skills right now.
For him, the biggest restriction was money.
Then he picked up a book titled "Basic Dodge." As it happened, he had the "Absolute Dodge" talent.
Given his current circumstances, improving his mobility and ability to dodge would be the most beneficial.
If he couldn't dodge an attack, he could die and revive. That was still better than being captured and tortured.
He glanced through the book, and a game prompt appeared:
"Learn Basic Dodge?"
"Learn."
"You need to spend 500 Skyfall Stones to unlock a new skill slot. Would you like to unlock one?"
"Yes."
"You learned Basic Dodge."
That left him with 12,458 Skyfall Stones.
Then he set his sights on "Basic Medical Skills," "Basic Perception," and "Basic Stealth."
He spent another 700, 900, and 1,100 to unlock three slots.
Apparently, each additional skill slot cost 200 more Skyfall Stones than the previous one.
Not bad, at least the cost wasn't increasing exponentially.
He now had 9,758 Skyfall Stones left. Money sure went fast.
Before he knew it, the 2,000 gold he'd topped up was almost gone.
He realized that spending money on fixed slots like skill limits was a pretty good deal.
They only had to be purchased once, but their benefits lasted forever.
Pet, weapon, and equipment purchases, on the other hand, would eventually become obsolete. They were only good as stopgaps.
Spending money in a game was a real art.
After thinking it over, he decided to learn "Basic Defense" too, spending another 1,300.
In short, he was going to become a well-rounded warrior!
With so many advantages, if he still couldn't do everything, wouldn't all that money have gone to waste?
After learning the skills, Gao Linzhi left the library. Next, he needed to focus on farming experience.
Being a village guard really was great. Otherwise, he would have had to spend a lot of extra money just to learn these skills—and the other party might not even have taught him.
Then he found Zheng Dong, who was anxiously searching all over the village with several others.
"Zheng Shan's missing. Brother Canxue, have you seen him?" Zheng Dong asked as soon as he saw him.
"No. After I escaped the Crown Snake yesterday, we went our separate ways." Gao Linzhi shook his head.
He knew Zheng Shan had been killed, of course, but he couldn't say so.
"Damn it, we can't find any trace of him. Should we ask the Great Elder to divine his whereabouts?" Zheng Dong frowned.
"Captain, the Great Elder has been in seclusion for years. He wouldn't come out just for Zheng Shan," someone beside him said, shaking his head.
Zheng Dong let out a long sigh. "Then we can only report Zheng Shan's disappearance to the Fourth Elder and let him investigate when he can."
Zheng Dong then led Gao Linzhi and the others to the Fourth Elder's home and reported Zheng Shan's disappearance.
"Oh, I see. I'll have someone investigate. Take Canxue out to level up as soon as possible. You don't need to worry about these odds and ends," the Fourth Elder reminded him again.
"Understood." Zheng Dong was somewhat reluctant. He couldn't help asking, "What about Zheng Shan's family?"
"The village will take care of them. Now that we have players here, the village isn't short on supplies," the Fourth Elder reassured him.
"All right." Zheng Dong took a deep breath and looked at Gao Linzhi. "Let's go."
Gao Linzhi knew that in the real world, they couldn't file a case without a body.
Here, though, a suspect was all they needed.
Who would the Fourth Elder suspect?
He didn't care about that. All he cared about was developing himself.
Zheng Dong thought for a moment. "There are a lot of monsters in Myriad Snake Cave, but the Crown Snake is a problem. I'll ask someone from Xu Corporation."
He led Gao Linzhi to a large compound in the village.
A sign above the entrance read "Xu Clan Headquarters." An elderly villager was standing guard.
He was evidently employed by Xu Clan.
Players could level up, but villagers usually couldn't. This sort of odd job suited them perfectly.
"Dongzi, back to ask about the BOSS again?" the elderly villager said warmly.
"Yeah, Uncle Six."
"I'll go in and ask around for you."
Before long, the elderly villager came back out and said warmly, "The people from Xu Clan said they're going to farm the Crown Snake BOSS today. The places where they've already farmed the BOSS are Green Flood Dragon Beach and Foxy Slope."
"They also said there aren't enough monsters to fight, so they need to add a few more spawn points."
"Then never mind. We'll go somewhere else. Let's go to Green Flood Dragon Beach again," Zheng Dong said after thinking it over.
The two then headed back to Green Flood Dragon Beach, where crabs roamed.
At Green Flood Dragon Beach.
That day, Gao Linzhi and Zheng Dong continued farming crabs.
Thanks to Zheng Dong's careful arrangements, nothing unexpected happened.
They didn't even go back to the village canteen for lunch. Instead, they ate a few pieces of hardtack to stave off their hunger.
Nothing happened throughout the day, and their efficiency was pretty good. Gao Linzhi farmed a full 5,400 experience points.
Added to what he already had, that brought him to 6,000 experience points.
Of course, he still couldn't match Xu Tianlang's efficiency.
After all, the other man could gather dozens of people to fight monsters and let him take all the kills.
Gao Linzhi wasn't worried about that, though. The other man faced skill-learning difficulties and skill limits too.
Besides, Gao Linzhi didn't like the idea of building up a faction. It was too much trouble and would only distract him.
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