225 points of Constitution, 107 points of Spirit, plus a whole bunch of Basic Skills. Just how strong was he?
Gao Linzhi needed to assess his strength properly so he could decide how much to spend.
After all, there was still a whole lot of stuff to buy in the shop.
The shop's stock was unlimited, but his gold was limited for now.
So he couldn't just say, "I want everything."
He reached out and grabbed a stone pillar beside him, curling his fingers like claws. He activated the skill "Basic Fists and Feet," and the next moment, the solid stone crumbled into powder.
But he could already do that before.
That didn't mean much. To accurately assess his strength, he still needed to find a suitable opponent.
Who would make the best opponent?
He thought of the Stingfish King, the BOSS he'd fought before. Back then, he'd relied on endless revivals and Skyfall Stones to clear his Resurrection Cooldown, wearing the creature down until it died.
When he'd killed it, he'd had only 71 points of Constitution, raised to 80 by his equipment.
Now he had 225 points of Constitution. With his equipment bonuses, that made 234—three times as much as before.
A several-fold increase in Constitution meant an exponential increase in strength.
As soon as the thought occurred to him, he logged in.
His figure appeared once more in the familiar East Wolf Village, and the children's cheerful laughter rang in his ears again.
It was a sight rarely seen even in the golden age of a feudal dynasty.
He didn't spare it another glance and headed straight out of the village.
He moved so quickly he was like a wisp of smoke.
As he passed the familiar iron gate at the village entrance, he saw the Rogue Players polishing stones again.
The familiar game IDs still hung over their heads.
"Little Cat Fishing," "Ou Xiaohuang," "Little Chi Boss," "Little Shuo Assistant," "Ice Dance Snow Cherry"...
Heh. When he'd first arrived here, they'd been doing the same menial work. More than a month had passed, and he'd become this powerful, yet they were still at it.
That was the tragedy of free-to-play players: the results a big spender got from playing for one night could keep them occupied for a lifetime.
That wasn't an exaggeration. Anyone who played online games regularly understood.
He wasn't about to look down on them. After all, they weren't even playing the same game.
He simply quickened his pace and vanished from the village entrance in the blink of an eye.
"Who was that guy? He's moving so fast. His Constitution has to be at least 30! Does he not lock his level? Does he just come in and level up like crazy?"
"He looks kind of familiar."
"Can Xue Waves Across the Map. He's been pretty famous this past month. I heard his comprehension is incredibly high and he learned a lot of skills at the Martial Arts School. His Constitution must be propped up by Basic Skills."
"Damn, I still haven't learned a single skill, and he's got that kind of talent. It's infuriating!"
"Doesn't matter. We all only get one life. He's getting stronger too quickly, so he'll get cocky and stop playing it safe. Something's bound to happen to him sooner or later."
"True enough."
The Rogue Players chatted among themselves. Before long, their moods had improved considerably, as if they could already picture Canxue hitting rock bottom someday.
Once he left the village, Gao Linzhi's speed immediately surged.
Before long, he reached the Thornfish Nest by the sea—a vast stretch of reefs.
Now, half-meter-long sea fish were leaping out of the water from time to time.
Gao Linzhi didn't waste time looking for a boat. Instead, he chose to run straight across the water.
At his current speed, running on water was no problem.
Soon, he was racing over the waves and landed on a reef.
His movements immediately startled a whole swarm of thornfish.
They were all extremely aggressive, and they shot straight at Gao Linzhi.
Gao Linzhi neither dodged nor moved aside.
"Smack!" A thornfish slammed into him, and its spine shattered the next moment.
"You killed a thornfish and gained 15 experience points."
Another fish came right after it.
"... gained 12 experience points."
He stood there without moving, letting the thornfish crash into him.
The faster they went, the greater the force of their impact—and the faster they died.
Forces acted in pairs...
And these thornfish were a classic example of high attack and low defense.
Most players hated monsters like these. One careless hit, and their health would be in the danger zone.
That was why Xu Corporation didn't come here to farm thornfish.
If they fought monsters here, their supplies would run out too quickly.
But for Gao Linzhi, with 235 points of Constitution, these thornfish were practically throwing themselves to their deaths.
He didn't even need to activate the advanced auto-combat privilege from Noble Rank 8.
Before long, thornfish corpses covered the ground at his feet.
When a wave came in, it swept the mound of corpses—piled as high as a small hill—out to sea.
It wasn't long before the Stingfish King finally appeared.
Its stats and appearance were the same as last time.
It was still over five meters long, comparable to a great white shark.
The hard, lightning-rod-shaped spine atop its head seemed to have grown even longer, striking fear into anyone who saw it.
"Level 26."
"Stingfish King."
"HP: ."
"Skills: Rapid Swim, Fierce Pierce, Lethal Assassination."
Damn. He remembered dying over a hundred times last time, which had apparently fattened up the Stingfish King.
Fortunately, he'd stayed at level 1 the whole time, so the Stingfish King hadn't gained much experience from killing him. But it had gained a new skill.
Then he pulled a bow and arrow from his Game Backpack and fired at it.
As expected, the arrow hit its skin and fell straight down.
The bow's power had an upper limit, determined by the bow itself.
He pulled out an Iron Spear instead.
The power of this weapon was directly proportional to his Constitution.
The Stingfish King flew into a rage at the attack and charged straight at Gao Linzhi at high speed.
The waves churned, as if a speedboat were racing across the water.
The glinting spine was terrifying to behold.
In just a few seconds, the Stingfish King had reached Gao Linzhi.
Gao Linzhi swung the Iron Spear and thrust it into the Stingfish King before it could hit him!
"Clang!"
Man and fish both flew backward.
Forces acted in pairs.
Gao Linzhi soared into the air.
In midair, he instinctively stamped out thousands of steps in rapid succession, and somehow managed to move through the air.
The thornfish, having charged upward from below, was knocked straight back into the sea by the Iron Spear.
The weapon went with it.
The Iron Spear had sunk deep into its skin.
"You dealt 2,000 damage to the Stingfish King."
"Great. Eight more hits and it's dead!"
As expected, the increase in strength from 234 points of Constitution was on another level. Before, he'd only dealt a little over a hundred damage per hit. Now he was dealing more than ten times as much!
Gao Linzhi jumped back down and found another reef to stand on.
The original reef had cracked under the force of their collision, even though it had only taken a small part of the impact.
Injured, the Stingfish King went even more berserk and charged out of the water at Gao Linzhi again!
Gao Linzhi pulled out another Iron Spear and repeated the same move...
People said fish had no brains for a reason.
After eight cycles like that, the Stingfish King was dead, and Gao Linzhi hadn't taken a scratch.
Before you continue