--. Unfortunately, it was past midnight.
Wang Yang was devastated.
The Frenzied Boar's charge had not only hurt him; it had shattered every last bit of his confidence. The HP bar in the upper-left corner of his vision was down to half, **blatantly reminding him that he'd just come within a hair's breadth of death. If He Gu hadn't been there, the Frenzied Boar's second charge might have turned him into flying shards of glass, while his real-world brain melted into a puddle.
It was only a level 1 monster. It was only a level 1 monster. So why was it so hard to deal with? Was I too weak, or was this world too terrifying?
A voice rose in his mind, crying out over and over. It was like a demon had wrapped itself around Wang Yang's heart, reminding him every moment of how useless he was.
Wang Yang stared blankly, suddenly despairing of the future. At first, he'd planned to earn enough Kael to support himself by hunting harmless monsters, then wait for Kirito to clear the game two years later so he could return to reality.
It was a very cowardly thought, but only human nature. If people knew they could escape the game in two years, would they willingly put themselves in a situation where their lives were at risk every moment?
Wang Yang certainly wouldn't. Living in a peaceful era, he considered himself afraid of death. He didn't want to keep walking along the edge of danger, growing stronger and climbing through one labyrinth after another. Especially since he knew what the future held, he had even less reason to think that way.
But now, he had no choice but to think about it.
He couldn't even handle a level 1 boar. How was he supposed to survive two years?
Sure enough, in this world, Combat Power was equivalent to Survival Ability.
Seeing Wang Yang standing there in a daze, He Gu walked over after killing the Frenzied Boar and waved a hand in front of his face. Wang Yang didn't react at all.
"Did that shake you up?" He Gu wasn't stupid. He could guess what was going through Wang Yang's mind from his reaction.
Wang Yang's eyes slowly came into focus, and a dejected look spread across his face. He lowered his head toward the grass and said bitterly, "One hit took half my HP." His lips twisted into an exceptionally bitter smile. "I actually got scared by a virtual boar from a game. It's just a boar..."
Suddenly, he thought of the Goblin Lord boss on the first floor, the Blue Demon on the seventy-fourth floor, and the Bone Centipede Demon on the seventy-fifth floor. He remembered the appearances of all three floor bosses clearly, yet he'd been so frightened by a boar charging straight at him that he hadn't even managed to instinctively dodge.
"When I first fought a Frenzied Boar, I was in worse shape than you." He Gu patted Wang Yang's shoulder and smiled. "I was alone then, and the Frenzied Boar tossed me around the grass like it was rooting up cabbages. It was as miserable as you can imagine."
"Wouldn't that have finished you off?" Hearing about He Gu's first fight made Wang Yang feel a little better, though the future still made him uneasy.
"Actually, it was the opposite. When I got hit the first time, my HP also dropped by half, but the Frenzied Boar's second charge only did about seven damage." He Gu's smile widened, as if recalling that first terrifying encounter.
After he'd been sent flying and landed, the Frenzied Boar charged him again before he could get back up. He'd thought he was about to die and respawn at the Spawn Point, but the second charge had turned out to be all noise and no force. It had only knocked him into a slide of about a meter along the ground, dealing just seven damage.
"Seriously?" Wang Yang's eyes widened. The difference between seven damage and sixty damage was enormous.
"What would I get out of lying to you?" He Gu pursed his lips. "You and I were just unlucky enough to run into a Frenzied Boar that triggered its skill on our first try. If I'd managed to dodge its second charge, I would've run without looking back. One charge took nearly half my HP. There was no way I could beat it alone. It was only because I couldn't dodge the second charge that I found out the Frenzied Boar wasn't that strong. Otherwise, I'd have wasted a lot of time."
"Hearing that makes me feel a lot better."
Wang Yang let out a breath. If even a level 1 monster was that strong, then there'd be no way to survive. So it was just bad luck that he'd run into a Frenzied Boar that had triggered its skill. Even so, he'd witnessed how terrifying monsters could be—and how important skills were.
"Haha." He Gu laughed without a care, then said casually, "All right, sit down and rest until your HP is full. The Frenzied Boar will respawn in five minutes."
He sat down himself. His HP was full, but there was no point in standing around while they waited for the second Frenzied Boar to respawn.
"Five minutes? Why so long?" Wang Yang sat down as instructed, surprised by the Frenzied Boar's respawn time. One Spawn Point took five minutes to produce another monster, which meant that, excluding the time it took to kill each boar, he could only fight around ten Frenzied Boars an hour. Each one only gave about twenty-six Experience Points, so he could earn just around three hundred Experience Points per hour.
At that thought, he opened his status screen and found the Experience Points needed to level up at the bottom.
26/1000
A thousand Experience Points... just to go from level 1 to level 2...
Wang Yang was speechless.
He Gu sat cross-legged on the grass, resting his hands on his knees as he smiled. "A Frenzied Boar spawning every five minutes is only good for players. It gives you enough time to recover your HP. It'd be nice if we had potions, but the ones sold in town aren't very effective, and they're expensive. I can't even afford a single bottle."
Wang Yang smiled too, but thought to himself: If potions were that easy to get from NPCs, would Sword Art Online have had such a high death rate at the beginning?
"But leveling up is way too hard."
"I don't think so." He Gu opened his inventory and idly rummaged through the assortment of things inside. "If you master Combat Skills, you can kill a Frenzied Boar without taking any damage, then immediately look for another one instead of waiting around here."
Wang Yang nodded in agreement, then sighed. "It's hard to believe how many fights it takes before you can calmly face monsters this realistic. If your HP hits zero, you die."
"Sword Art Online really is different from other games. When you die, you're really dead." He Gu smiled faintly, but a trace of sadness showed on his face.
Wang Yang fell silent. At last, he'd seen that even He Gu, who always wore a smile, could look sad.
In the end, for players in the game, only reality was home. No one wanted to stay in this hellhole forever, no matter how beautiful it was.
He heard a sigh, so faint it was almost inaudible. It belonged to He Gu, low and subdued, as if it had been buried deep from the start. No one could be indifferent to their circumstances. Even the most optimistic person would eventually lose their smile, trapped in a world like this prison.
This fucked-up world...
Wang Yang suddenly felt that he shouldn't be so pessimistic, clinging to the selfish hope of waiting two years in safety. He should work and fight for the day when ten thousand players would be freed!
But the thought vanished the moment the second Frenzied Boar respawned.
The second Frenzied Boar appeared without warning, about five meters in front of He Gu and Wang Yang. That distance was outside its aggro range, so neither of them reacted too strongly.
"Use your skills properly, and you'll find that Frenzied Boars are actually pretty frail." He Gu looked at the boar five meters away without getting up.
Wang Yang nodded, then stood and stared at the Frenzied Boar nearby, his gaze serious. This time, he absolutely couldn't be timid again. Even if he had no lofty ideals, he couldn't let himself fall to a mere Newbie Monster.
"Bring it on!"
Wang Yang roared inwardly and took several quick steps into the Frenzied Boar's aggro range, then focused intently on its movements.
He knew he had one advantage: his dynamic vision was extraordinary. As long as he overcame his fear in the moment, a mere Frenzied Boar would be nothing!
That was why a few of his basketball buddies had once dragged him into playing. As a homebody, he'd had no interest in basketball at all, but after trying it, he'd grown to love it.
There was nothing better than stopping the other team from getting past him.
Gradually, Wang Yang imagined that the Frenzied Boar in front of him was just a player trying to break through his defense. His focus sharpened like never before. He was completely absorbed, and his entire bearing changed with it, taking on a faint sharpness. He was like a divine weapon just barely drawn from its sheath, the tiniest glint of its blade still enough to catch the eye.
A few meters away, He Gu sensed the change in Wang Yang's bearing, and his eyes shifted slightly.
"Something's different about him. He also seems pretty impressive." He Gu caught that faint glimmer of sharpness, and a serious expression began to show on his face.
Just then, the Frenzied Boar charged at Wang Yang with startling speed.
The second Frenzied Boar had also triggered its rare charge skill!
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