So there was one way: get Zheng Dong to leave, then wear the monster down by dying and reviving.
He would lose experience when he died, but he had a Resurrection Pearl and Noble Rank 6, which let him avoid the penalty several times.
So he said to Zheng Dong, "It's getting late. You should head back. I'll take care of this sea monster on my own."
Zheng Dong froze for a moment, then nodded.
He didn't ask anything else.
Since Canxue had said that, he trusted that he had a plan.
So he left on his own.
Gao Linzhi was very satisfied.
This was perfect.
Now he wouldn't have to waste time explaining himself.
He looked out at the sea. Beneath its calm surface, a King Stingfish lurked.
After waiting for Zheng Dong to leave, Gao Linzhi turned to his pet, the Corpse Vine.
It had grown rather slowly. It was level 3 now, with 40 points of Constitution. It was no use out here on the sea.
He was currently Noble Rank 5, with the following privileges: Force Quit only cost him 10% of his experience, killing monsters gave 50% more experience, his pet's chance to break through increased by 50%, the Minimap gave a danger warning five minutes in advance, and he could avoid the death penalty once a day.
He had thought of a way to exploit a bug: whenever he was about to be killed, he could Force Quit, recover, then log back in.
Only real players had this ability. Others couldn't do the same. They only had one life, and Force Quit cost them a massive amount of experience.
One wrong move, and they would really die.
Once he had made up his mind, Gao Linzhi scanned the sea and found a patch of reefs.
Then he put all 4,000 of his experience points into Basic Spear Techniques.
Basic Spear Techniques reached level 40, and his Constitution rose to 71 points, bringing his health to 710.
Then he put on a full set of green gear, boosting his health to 900 and his Constitution to 80.
He couldn't have used this gear while Zheng Dong was around, but now he could.
He rowed over to a reef and stood on it. Then he pulled out his bow and shot an arrow toward the distant Stingfish.
The arrow flew more than five hundred meters before it finally lost momentum and dropped into the water, sending up a tiny ripple.
The next instant, SPLASH!
A huge spray of water burst into the air as the King Stingfish emerged from beneath the waves.
It quickly spotted its distant challenger.
It accelerated and charged!
No hesitation!
Its gleaming spines were like spears, and its body, over five meters long, was like a tank of the sea. It came crashing toward him with a thunderous roar!
Anyone else would have gone weak in the knees!
After all, they only had one life.
Gao Linzhi took a deep breath and calmly fired an arrow.
The arrow hit the King Stingfish, but its tough hide easily stopped it. The steel arrowhead didn't even leave a mark.
If this monster appeared in the real world, it could easily take down many fishing boats without heavy weapons.
The King Stingfish wasn't hurt. Instead, it grew even angrier, letting out a strange, whale-like cry.
They were a mile apart, but the King Stingfish crossed the distance in just one minute!
Gao Linzhi thrust his spear at it, then Force Quit.
"You dealt 150 damage to the King Stingfish." "Because you Force Quit, and thanks to your Noble Rank 5 privilege, you only lost 10% of your experience. Your current experience is 0. No experience was lost."
Well, would you look at that. It really was a broken game. One little exploit, and he'd found a bug.
Great. All he had to do was stab it 100 more times.
The next moment, Gao Linzhi found himself logged out of the game.
He opened his eyes and saw that he was still in the wooden house in the mountain ravine.
"You Force Quit. Your Game Character remained in place for 5 seconds and was killed by the King Stingfish." "As a regular player, you can choose to revive normally, revive on the spot, or revive at a safe point. Your current level is 1. Resurrection Cooldown: 24*1 hours." "Your current level is 1. You can spend 1 Skyfall Stone to clear the Resurrection Cooldown or use your Noble Rank 5 privilege to avoid the penalty once." "You can also use a Resurrection Pearl to avoid the cost of revival. Would you like to use it?"
"Use 1 Skyfall Stone to clear it."
Gao Linzhi thought that since it only cost one Skyfall Stone to clear the cooldown, he shouldn't waste his Noble Rank 5 privilege. He'd save it as a safety net.
From now on, he would make a habit of doing this. That way, if he ever ran out of Skyfall Stones, he'd still have a fallback.
From these prompts, he knew that no one else could imitate what he was doing.
They couldn't pay to play. Even if they had talents or items that let them revive, they would still suffer a Resurrection Cooldown.
Besides, they were usually high level, so their resurrection time would be incredibly long.
But now he had revived and could log back in.
The next moment, he appeared on the reef again.
The King Stingfish was thrashing its tail, about to leave.
Gao Linzhi shot it with his bow, then thrust at it with his spear!
"You dealt 137 damage."
As expected, the bow barely did any damage. He still had to rely on the spear.
Just like that, he used up 102 Skyfall Stones before finally wearing the King Stingfish down and killing it.
"You killed the level 25 BOSS, King Stingfish, and gained 2,500 experience." "You obtained King Sting (Blue)."
He still had 8,356 Skyfall Stones left.
Killing this BOSS had been incredibly rewarding.
Most importantly, it confirmed that keeping his level locked was the right move.
This was a real gaming trick, and not even one you could find in any guide.
No one else could pay to play. They were playing a broken game.
Killing the King Stingfish meant he had cleared out this sea monster lair.
Next time the King Stingfish appeared, he could repeat the process.
And once he killed it, it would take a long time to respawn.
Gao Linzhi continued grinding monsters at sea.
By evening, he had earned another 5,000 experience.
It was still a bit more than he'd gotten from grinding in the Fox Cave and Crab Beach.
Of course, it couldn't compare to a regular online game.
At least leveling up here was simple: everything required 100 points to gain a level.
He now had 7,500 experience, but he didn't spend it. He saved it instead.
Then he returned to the Fourth Elder's house in the village to rest.
A week later.
Gao Linzhi had finally settled into the steady routine of an old-school grindfest.
Every day, he woke up, ate, drank, and took care of his business, then went off to grind monsters.
After grinding, he went back to rest.
In one week, he had gained a full 70,000 experience.
Now he had a whopping 77,500 experience!
He found this life comfortable and fulfilling.
It reminded him of the days when he used to grind Legend all night, blasting from level 1 to level 22 in a single week.
The difference was that now, every point of experience could be directly converted into his own strength.
He was still keeping his level locked at 1.
He had even decided that if no better game modules became available, he wouldn't level up at all.
After all, other players had to level up to get Free Attribute Points for their Constitution, but he could increase it by learning lots of Basic Skills.
There were too many benefits to staying at level 1.
For starters, killing any monster earned him experience, so he could grind as much as he wanted, safely, steadily, and efficiently.
More importantly, the death penalty could be wiped by spending just one Skyfall Stone.
Before you continue