Can't Mess With It, Can't Mess With It

Over the course of his long life, Yang Yu had conquered countless RPGs. He had long since worked out a set of key strategies and written them down in a little notebook.

The most, most, most important one was:

"If you encounter a monster far stronger than yourself and haven't prepared adequately, decisively abandon the attempt and run immediately. Preserve your strength. Never, ever charge straight at it in a moment of impulsiveness and end up dying without even a grave."

As the vicious yet seemingly harmless Slime slowly wriggled about, Yang Yu strictly put his own theory into practice. Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, fleeing was the best; without another word, he turned and ran.

His stats weren't even a fraction of a Slime's. Nope, nope, couldn't mess with it.

Could some overpowered guy have transmigrated into a Slime and happened to run into me? Forgive me for saying so, but only someone even more overpowered could defeat a Slime like that.

Sorry, but I'm just a weak, helpless villager. I don't have a one-hit kill, and I can't one-shot level 999 enemies. Asking Fat Tiger to deal with a Slime like that is just making things difficult for me.

Even dying required procedure and strategy. He had to decisively refuse such a pointless act of self-sacrifice.

Not everyone was some great hero who could shout "Stella!" at the sight of anyone, turn into a shooting star in the sky, and instantly destroy heaven, earth, and air, trading their own sacrifice for heaps of experience fodder.

Wiping the sweat beading on his forehead, Yang Yu's smile twisted.

He was clearly still in the beginner stage. The players clearly had not even gotten used to the basic controls. They clearly hadn't learned any skills and could only launch normal attacks, yet the game had placed an insurmountable mountain before them.

A game like this definitely wouldn't sell.

As expected of a game made by a god. It had effortlessly accomplished something ordinary humans could never do.

It made his blood boil and won his admiration.

Discouragement was out of the question. On the contrary, what kind of achievement and satisfaction would he gain from defeating an opponent who seemed impossible to overcome through his own efforts? Just thinking about it made Yang Yu a little excited.

A good game had no undefeatable opponents.

God loved games so much that there was no way a game made by God would set out to become garbage from the very beginning.

That Slime had appeared there for a reason, and there had to be some way to deal with it.

The usual method was leveling up. For the time being, there was no way to gain levels, and even if he did, he probably still wouldn't be able to beat that Slime. It would only pin him to the ground and rub him around, triggering an unbearable defeat CG.

Since leveling up was a dead end, gathering information was the only path left.

After returning to Novice Village, Yang Yu ignored his exhaustion and ran all over the place, going door to door to ask about Slimes. He also conducted a thorough search for hidden items or recruitable NPCs.

In most RPGs, a childhood friend would become the protagonist's first companion, either a healer or a mage, complementing the male lead.

But here, let alone a female childhood friend, Yang Yu hadn't even seen anyone his own age. Naturally, there were no specific events involving childhood friends.

I seem to be a villager. Having a childhood friend you're secretly engaged to is the kind of event only someone with a protagonist's halo can trigger. What the hell does that have to do with me? Since I chose a commoner start, I shouldn't fantasize about events that only a protagonist's halo can trigger.

Facing reality, Yang Yu continued going from house to house, gathering information about Slimes.

In the end, aside from some unreliable legends, there were only two pieces of useful information:

First, Slimes never attacked people first. Only after you attacked them and hit them would they retaliate. Their first attack was very slow, slow enough for even children to dodge. You could treat it as a warning that the Slime was about to attack."

Second, if you encountered an overly powerful Slime, you could try throwing the Four-leaf Clover in your hand. Those Slimes would eat Four-leaf Clover, and you could use that opening to escape.

What kind of chemical reaction would occur between Four-leaf Clover and Slimes?

Would they simply treat it as food, or would it make Slimes hallucinate like catnip did to cats? To conquer the game, he had to find out.

There was clover in the forest near the village, so gathering it was not difficult. Four-leaf Clover was a rare mutation of clover, but the luck symbolized by Four-leaf Clover...

Luck was the kind of unreliable thing strategy games didn't need.

If you wanted to pull what you wanted, the best method was not to keep pulling endlessly until you got it, but to buy out the entire prize pool. In a large clover field, there had to be at least a few Four-leaf Clovers.

After spending an entire afternoon turning over the clover fields near Novice Village and gathering several Four-leaf Clovers, Yang Yu immediately set out along the path in search of a lone Slime. Before he had gone far, he spotted a light-blue Slime leisurely rolling around in the grass beside the road.

He opened its status panel:

[Slime Level: LV5 HP: 192/192 MP: 61/61

Attributes: Strength 38, Defense 146, Intelligence 36, Special Defense 176, Agility 18, Endurance 20

Resistance: Physical 50%

It was not much different from the Slime that morning. It radiated the aura of a boss from head to toe, its absurdly high stats like an insurmountable mountain.

This game had an extremely high degree of freedom, which meant he could die in more enjoyable ways—no, it meant there were more ways to conquer it.

Among all those routes, finding the safest one was the key to clearing the game in one life.

Taking a deep breath, he chewed up another bitter herb and brought his body into peak condition. Yang Yu swung his sword, deliberately missing the Slime and slashing beside it.

Several blades of grass snapped in response. The Slime did not move at all, remaining perfectly calm as though it had not seen a streak of light pass by its side.

If I don't move, the enemy doesn't move. If I move, the enemy will move.

Gripping his sword, Yang Yu used all his strength to slash down on the Slime's jelly-like body.

Slippery and springy, striking the Slime felt like hitting a round ball with a wooden stick. Yang Yu had to use every ounce of strength to keep his sword from slipping out of his hand in another direction.

Red damage text slowly floated up from where the sword had made contact with the Slime.

HP -1.

"Not bad. At least it wasn't zero."

The damage was entirely within his expectations. Yang Yu swiftly jumped back and watched the Slime's every movement.

The Slime stretched out its body like an oversized piece of taffy, swaying from side to side as it declared its attack. Then, like a bouncy ball, it slowly bounced up from the ground.

Its charge was extremely slow. Rather than an attack, it was more like a playful pounce. A simple turn was enough to avoid it easily.

He swayed aside to dodge the attack. To be safe, Yang Yu did not continue attacking and instead threw out a Four-leaf Clover.

The Slime's attention was instantly drawn to the Four-leaf Clover. Faced with the sweet temptation, it leaped without hesitation and enveloped the Four-leaf Clover within its jelly-like body. Before long, the Four-leaf Clover vanished without a trace.

[The Slime's status has changed to Friendly]

Simply becoming friendly would not do. Only by defeating the Slime could he consider the task complete.

Yang Yu resolutely picked up his weapon and slashed at the Slime.