Throughout his long life, Yang Yu had cleared 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 have not prepared enough, decisively abandon the strategy, run immediately, preserve your strength, and remember: never charge in headfirst just because of a momentary impulse, only to die without even a burial place."
Watching the ferocious yet harmless-looking Slime slowly squirm, Yang Yu strictly followed his own theory. Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, fleeing was best. Without another word, he turned and ran.
His stats were not even a fraction of that Slime's. Bye-bye, I can't mess with that.
Could it be that some overpowered bastard had transmigrated into a Slime and happened to run into me? Forgive me for saying so, but only an even more overpowered bastard 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 slash for 999 levels in one blow. Asking me to deal with a Slime like that is just making things difficult for Fat Tiger.
Even dying had to follow proper procedure and strategy. He had to firmly refuse this sort of pointless giveaway.
Not everyone was some great hero who could shout "Stella!" at anyone, turn into a shooting star in the sky, instantly annihilate heaven, earth, and air, and trade their own sacrifice for endless EXP 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 learned the basic controls. They clearly had not learned a single skill and could only use normal attacks, yet the game had placed such an insurmountable mountain before them.
A game like this definitely would not sell.
As expected of a game made by a god. It had effortlessly accomplished what ordinary humans could not.
It made his blood boil and left him utterly convinced.
Getting discouraged was impossible. On the contrary, what kind of achievement and satisfaction would come from defeating an opponent who seemed impossible to defeat through his own efforts? Just thinking about it made Yang Yu a little excited.
A good game had no opponent that could not be defeated.
God loved games so much that there was no way the game he made would start off by heading straight toward being garbage.
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. There was currently no way to level up, and even if there were, he probably still could not beat that Slime. It would only pin him to the ground and grind him into dust, triggering an unbearable defeat CG.
Since leveling up was a dead end, the only path left was gathering information.
Returning to Novice Village, Yang Yu ignored his exhaustion and ran all over the place, going door to door to ask about Slimes. While he was at it, he conducted a thorough search for hidden items or recruitable NPCs.
In most RPGs, the childhood sweetheart would become the protagonist's first companion, either a healer or a mage, complementing the male lead.
But here, let alone a female childhood sweetheart, Yang Yu had not even seen anyone his own age. Naturally, there were no special events involving any childhood sweethearts.
I seem to be a villager. Having a childhood sweetheart you've secretly pledged yourselves to is a plot event only for people with protagonist halos. What the hell does it have to do with me? Since I chose a commoner start, I shouldn't fantasize about plot events that only a protagonist halo can trigger.
Facing reality, Yang Yu continued going door to door, gathering information about Slimes.
In the end, aside from a few unreliable legends, there were only two useful pieces of information:
First, Slimes never attacked people on their own. They would only counterattack after you attacked and hit them. Their first attack was very slow—even children could dodge it. You could treat it as a warning that the Slime was about to attack."
Second, if you encountered a Slime that was too strong, 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?
Did they simply treat it as food, or would it make Slimes hallucinate like catnip did to cats? To clear the game, he had to find out.
There was Three-leaf Clover in the forest near the village, so gathering it was not difficult. Four-leaf Clover was a rare mutation of Three-leaf Clover, but Four-leaf Clover, the symbol of luck—
Luck was the sort of unreliable thing one did not need to clear a game.
If you wanted to pull what you wanted, the best approach was not to keep pulling endlessly until it appeared, but to buy out the entire prize pool. In a huge field of Three-leaf Clover, there had to be at least a few Four-leaf Clovers.
After spending an entire afternoon combing through the Three-leaf Clover fields near Novice Village and gathering several Four-leaf Clovers, Yang Yu set off down the path without pause, searching for a lone Slime. Before he had gone far, he spotted a pale blue Slime leisurely rolling about in the grass beside the path.
Opening 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 from 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. That also meant one could die more creatively—no, it meant there were more ways to clear it.
Among all these routes, finding the safest one was the key to clearing the game in a single life.
Taking a deep breath, he chewed up another bitter herb and adjusted his body to its best condition. Yang Yu swung his sword, deliberately missing the Slime and cutting into the ground beside it.
Several blades of grass snapped at once. The Slime did not move, remaining calm and unhurried as though it had not seen a streak of light pass by it.
If I don't move, the enemy doesn't move. If I move, the enemy moves.
Gripping his sword, Yang Yu used every ounce of strength he had to slash down upon the Slime's jelly-like body.
Slippery and bouncy, striking the Slime felt like hitting a round rubber ball with a wooden stick. Yang Yu had to use all his strength to keep the sword from slipping out of his hands.
Red damage text slowly floated up from where the sword touched the Slime.
HP -1.
"Not bad. At least it wasn't zero."
The damage was entirely within his expectations. Yang Yu leaped back at once, watching 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 bouncing ball, it slowly sprang 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.
Swaying aside to dodge the attack, Yang Yu did not continue attacking for safety's sake. Instead, he threw out a Four-leaf Clover.
The Slime's gaze was instantly drawn to the Four-leaf Clover. Faced with the sweet temptation, it leaped up without hesitation and enveloped the Four-leaf Clover in its jelly-like body. Before long, the Four-leaf Clover vanished without a trace.
A message popped up on the panel: [The Slime's status has changed to Friendly]
Simply becoming friendly would not do. Only by defeating the Slime could he count the task as completed.
Yang Yu resolutely grabbed his weapon and slashed at the Slime.
Before you continue