"You killed the Level 26 BOSS, Stingfish King, and gained 2,600 experience points."
"You obtained King Sting (Blue)."
Well, would you look at that. Just like last time, nothing good dropped.
King Sting could be used to make a new spear.
As expected, you had to farm in large numbers over a long period to get a drop.
After killing the Stingfish King without taking any damage, Gao Linzhi felt refreshed and headed back to the village.
He clenched his fists. This was what it felt like to have power in his hands!
Other people had to train hard. Their strength was unsteady, their attacks inconsistent, their performance unpredictable, and their defense unreliable. One careless moment, and someone could strike straight for their heart.
But he could allocate points through the Game System. His strength was solid, his attacks consistent—he could dish out exactly as much damage as he wanted—and his defense was constant. He had no need to fear sneak attacks.
As Gao Linzhi thought about it, he walked faster and faster.
Dust billowed around him as his steps quickened.
In the end, he began moving by stepping directly on the air!
"They say that if you move fast enough, you can step on air and reach the sky. Turns out it's true."
Remembering his earlier fight with the Stingfish King, Gao Linzhi suddenly had an idea.
He felt the dense air beneath his feet and began stepping faster.
Because he was moving fast enough to break the sound barrier, the air beneath his feet had condensed until it was as solid as iron.
He subconsciously changed direction a little, and sure enough, he started climbing, as if stepping up a lotus flower!
He could fly!
The feeling was exhilarating. He looked down at the ground, and the scenery below grew smaller and smaller.
Even East Wolf Village in the distance was shrinking. Everything lay beneath his feet.
Stepping on your left foot with your right foot would only break them; it wouldn't get you into the sky.
But stepping on air was different.
As long as you stepped fast enough, putting pressure on the air with your feet was like stepping on a gas.
It was like a stone skipping across the water. Before it lost speed, it wouldn't sink beneath the surface.
A change in the volume of a gas produced elasticity.
The elasticity of air depended on its density and the local speed of sound.
As long as you broke the sound barrier, the seemingly soft air beneath your feet would be compressed into something solid.
Once its elasticity was great enough, you could step on the air and reach the sky.
Water was far denser than air. To run on water without sinking, you only needed to reach a speed of 110 kilometers per hour.
But to step on air, you had to approach the speed of sound before you could fly.
And Gao Linzhi was flying now!
Soon, he reached the village.
Below him, a group of Xu Corporation players heading out to farm monsters stared up at him in amazement.
"Holy crap, am I seeing things?"
"No, you're not. Someone really can fly! Did he learn some kind of spell?"
"It doesn't look like a spell. It looks more like he's simply stepping on the air to get up there. Look beneath his feet—it's rumbling. Those are sonic booms!"
"How high must his Constitution be to move that fast? I'd rather believe he learned some kind of flying skill."
"There's nothing like that in the village. But maybe the Great Elder has something. There's still plenty in this village for us to uncover."
But when Xu Qi, the Xu Corporation team leader, saw this, his expression changed dramatically. He hurriedly handed the monster-farming assignment to someone else and ran back to the village.
Gao Linzhi had so much fun flying around that he almost forgot to return to the village.
He still had to dig deeper into East Wolf Village's potential.
Since the Great Elder wanted to make him a cannon fodder and help someone else, he obviously couldn't just leave like that.
He realized that flying through the air like this was actually slower than running on the ground.
The only benefit, perhaps, was that he didn't have to worry about crashing into people...
There was another problem with flying this way: it was too cumbersome.
It wasn't tiring, but he had to spin his feet like Wind Fire Wheels, stomping furiously.
It was neither graceful nor smooth.
He would have to learn a flying spell in the future.
Gao Linzhi opened the store without thinking and searched for flying spells.
"Basic Flying Technique: 5,000,000 Skyfall Stones. Requires Basic Wind Skill Level 100."
"Basic Wind Skill: 1,000,000 Skyfall Stones. Requires Intermediate Wood Skill Level 100 to unlock."
Wind belonged to wood in the Bagua. That checked out.
Skyfall Stones weren't a problem. As long as there was a specific number—not some endlessly growing figure—he could save up enough.
With power, what was there to fear about a lack of gold?
West Wolf Village, which he had brought over to his side, was under the control of the Corporate Players. They had plenty of gold.
The problem was Intermediate Wood Skill. He checked Game Help.
"Reach Level 10 and change to the Mage Profession to learn intermediate and advanced magic skills."
He definitely wasn't going to level up.
At Level 1, the death cooldown was 24 hours, and one Skyfall Stone was enough to clear it.
If he reached Level 10, he had no idea what the death penalty would be.
There was no way to ask anyone, either. Everyone else basically had only one life, and the dead couldn't answer questions.
Was there any other way?
"Defeat a BOSS for a tiny chance of obtaining a Skill Stone that ignores level restrictions... Skill Stones cannot be purchased from the store."
"Holy crap..."
After cursing, Gao Linzhi decided it made sense.
Clearly, the developers were encouraging the circulation of wealth—getting the big spenders to hire Ordinary Players to fight BOSSes and obtain Skill Stones.
That let Ordinary Players share in the big spenders' wealth through cheap labor, giving them a reason to keep striving in the game.
That was what people called player retention.
A game that didn't let Ordinary Players share in the wealth of big spenders was doomed not to last.
Many long-lasting games were basically supported by big spenders, who kept the platform and Ordinary Players afloat. In return, Ordinary Players provided the big spenders with emotional and labor value.
And games provided a platform for converting wealth and showing off.
In a sense, a good game could easily solve the problem of wealth distribution that "social systems" struggled so hard to address.
Those who looked down on games and slandered them as "electronic trash" were the real trash.
They were all short-sighted. They couldn't see the importance of redistributing wealth.
The rich controlled ninety percent of the wealth, and often had nowhere to spend it. You could see that from the rooms piled high with cash.
We ought to develop games with strong retention and addictive appeal to encourage big spenders to play. Only games could absorb an unlimited amount of real-world wealth and redistribute it.
Clearly, Skyfall Game had managed to do just that.
This was the "true real-world significance of games." Claims that games were "a distraction from one's proper pursuits" or a waste of time were just the opinions of short-sighted people.
Truly perceptive people could see things from a higher level.
No wonder the store had so few advanced items and mostly offered basic consumables.
Gao Linzhi now had a new goal: to buy up large quantities of Skill Stones.
He returned to the village and went straight to see the Fourth Elder.
The other man was still smiling, as though nothing had happened.
"Fourth Elder, does the village have any Skill Stones?" Gao Linzhi asked directly.
"Skill Stones?" The Fourth Elder frowned, then relaxed. "We do. They're with the Great Elder. I'll take you to get one right now."
Gao Linzhi found it amusing.
Did the other man think he was an idiot?
Last time, when he had asked about magic skills, the Fourth Elder had said they required a great deal of contribution and the Great Elder's permission.
He had considered that reasonable.
But now, he asked about Skill Stones—which were clearly far rarer than magic skills—and the other man said they had some.
Even without the old team leader from West Wolf Village warning him beforehand, Gao Linzhi would have thought something was wrong.
Of course, the Fourth Elder and the Great Elder had no idea that they couldn't manipulate him.
This was the new era. Even people who seemed humble and powerless had a chance to turn things around.
No one could be completely certain they could control someone else's life at will.
Before you continue