The deep voice paid no attention to a certain someone's fantasies and continued on its own: "The dragons were immensely powerful, and among them were no shortage of lustful, wicked creatures who delighted in plundering other races' treasures and abducting their maidens... Ten years ago, a band of depraved evil dragons invaded the human empire together. From that day on, scorching dragon breath swept across the land amid heartrending screams..."
Oh ho, am I supposed to play the villain? An evil dragon... kidnapping princesses? I like it...
The scene shifted... A group of girls in disheveled clothing sat inside a vast cave, sobbing quietly. Suddenly, wind howled outside, and several enormous dragons landed, transformed into human form, and slowly walked inside. Then the image gradually faded to black...
"What the fuck! Why the hell are you fading to black?!" Bitterly disappointed, he wished he could dive straight in and feast his eyes.
The deep voice spoke again: "These unfortunate women gave birth to many children who were half human and half dragon. People called them... 'Dragonkin.'"
White light flashed, and several burly "people" covered in fine scales appeared before Ye Fengxing. They even had tails trailing behind their backsides. Some weren't even humanoid: they had human upper bodies, but their lower halves were supported by several dragon claws, rather like the centaurs of myth. Hmm, half-human dragons would be a better description.
The only slightly unusual one was a young man in ragged clothes. He had neither scales nor a tail and looked no different from a human.
Ye Fengxing still had no body. He floated in the air in some strange form, looking down at the Dragonkin. But things took a rather odd turn. As he drifted along, he realized he was getting closer and closer to that young fellow...
No way! Is that supposed to be me? A sudden flash of insight finally made everything click.
"Fuck!" An angry roar burst from the young man's mouth, immediately prompting the surrounding Dragonkin to curse in unison: "What the hell are you yelling for? Get to work!"
"Yes, yes, my mistake..." After glancing at his stats, he promptly decided to grovel.
Goddammit... Even if you're going to slash my base stats, did you have to take it this far?!
ID: One Leaf Windwalk Race: Dragonkin Class: Mage (Apprentice) Level: 1 HP: 100 Mana: 100 Constitution: 0 Strength: 0 Agility: 0 Intelligence: 0 Spirit: 0 Attack power: 1 Spell power: 2 Movement speed: 5 Physical defense: 1 Magic defense: 1
As for the equipment he was wearing...
Ragged linen shirt (Chest): Physical defense 1 Ragged linen underpants (Legs): Magic defense 1
These shitty stats really take the cake. Back in the closed beta, it wasn't like this... It wasn't like this...
Ye Fengxing raised the hoe in his hands and halfheartedly dug at the ground. Everyone around him was doing the same, so he had no choice.
The place looked quite open. Apart from the mountain rising abruptly behind him, nothing else particularly "prominent" stood within sight. There was a huge cave in the mountain, and deafening snores periodically rang out from within. Presumably, those notorious evil dragons were sleeping inside.
Damn it, those bastards got their fun with the girls and then went straight to sleep. Meanwhile, one careless moment and I've become their offspring... This whole thing is so fucking ridiculous.
Ye Fengxing cursed inwardly, and his hands gradually slowed. This couldn't go on. Wrestling with clods of dirt gave him no experience, so he couldn't level up. What about quests? Where were the quests?
To level up, he needed to kill monsters, do quests, or run dungeons. At level 1, dungeons were out of the question. As for monsters... there were some right in front of him, but he couldn't beat them... Besides, their names were green. They all belonged to the same faction. The system had laid down the law: members of the same faction had to live in peace and friendship. No fighting, and anyone who started something would be arrested!
Quests, oh quests, where are you?
Ye Fengxing looked left and right, but couldn't spot anyone handing out quests. He grew thoroughly depressed.
Goddammit! What's wrong with being a beta player? Do you really have to screw me over like this? I worked my ass off finding bugs for you, and this is the treatment I get?
While he was thinking, a "half-human dragon" with four dragon claws walked over and immediately started cursing: "One Leaf Windwalk, why are you slacking off again? You've been at it forever without digging up a single piece of ore. You're useless!"
Rather than getting angry, Ye Fengxing was delighted. Oh, finally willing to talk, are you? A quest! A quest!
A line of text hovered above this fellow's head: "Foreman · Eske."
Ye Fengxing immediately sidled over and smiled. "Boss, I'm a bit stupid. I was born that way, so there's nothing I can do about it. Look... I've been digging forever without finding anything, and that's holding up the work, isn't it? How about teaching me a trick or two?"
The NPCs in Chronicles of the Sky possessed extremely advanced AI-artificial intelligence. Ye Fengxing had known that for ages; being a beta player wasn't entirely without benefits. NPCs with names like "Foreman · So-and-so" generally had personalities that were rather... well, that sort. In any case, they bore a striking resemblance to certain construction foremen in the real world.
Although this "servile" speech was something of an affront to his dignity, it was only a game. Ye Fengxing didn't care too much about such little details.
Eske looked Ye Fengxing over a few times, then said, "You've got a point, kid. Just yelling at you won't solve anything. I'll teach you a couple of tricks, then."
"Thanks for helping me improve, boss."
System notification: Congratulations, you have learned Basic Gathering.
White light flashed, and Ye Fengxing opened his skill list to inspect his new skill.
Basic Gathering (Level 1): You can use tools to gather various low-level materials, such as ore, herbs, and hides.
Without another word, Ye Fengxing got his arms moving, swung his hoe, and smashed it into the ground. Gathering was a great skill. Once he'd learned it, anything he dug up would earn him experience. Based on his beta experience, leveling through crafting and gathering skills was damn effective in the early game. There weren't any monsters he could kill right now anyway, so he might as well get to work!
He mined for an entire afternoon, golden flashes of leveling up bursting from One Leaf Windwalk one after another...
This little bit of work isn't going to stop me, he sneered inwardly. The advantages of a beta player couldn't be erased through suppression alone. They came from experience. Even if the game's content had been changed beyond recognition, certain fundamental mechanics would never change. As long as he seized on those, everything would be manageable.
The sky gradually darkened, and the Dragonkin knocked off in twos and threes. Only Ye Fengxing continued swinging his hoe tirelessly, still battling the large pit before him.
Full-immersion neural-interface games like Chronicles of the Sky were primarily controlled through brain waves. That inevitably brought the player's real-world condition into the picture. A freak with exceptionally powerful mental endurance like Ye Fengxing could go hundreds of hours without rest and suffer little consequence, but how could an ordinary person go days without eating or sleeping?
To improve this situation, someone had invented multifunction gaming pods long ago. Players could lie inside them, relying on the pods to supply their bodies with nutrients and periodically stimulate all their muscles to keep them active.
These devices really did allow people to play for extended periods without logging out. Of course, they still needed to sleep; they simply slept inside the game.
A freak like Ye Fengxing, paired with a gaming pod... In a word: professional!
Since everything was controlled through brain waves, and Chronicles of the Sky had no "fatigue" mechanic, as long as he didn't get fed up, he could keep digging forever...
Foreman Esk slowly ambled over. He looked Ye Fengxing up and down a few times, then suddenly said, "Huh, you're really motivated today, kid. Dinner's already being served. Aren't you going to eat? Wait much longer and there won't be any left."
Without even turning his head, Ye Fengxing answered in a muffled voice, "Since my superior thinks so highly of me and has done so much to help me improve, how could I not strive to better myself and give this job my all?"
Ugh... Just saying that made me want to puke.
"Hmm." Eske gave a bland acknowledgment without much further reaction. He continued ambling along in little steps, gradually moving farther away.
Goddammit, can't you give me a quest after seeing how hard I'm working? He felt a little disappointed, but if Eske wouldn't give him one, there was nothing he could do. He could only keep swinging his hoe and bury himself in work.
Several friend requests had been flashing for ages. Out of boredom, Ye Fengxing accepted them all. He had barely finished when a message arrived.
[Wangying Lanxi][Whisper]: Holy shit, where are you? PvP PvP PvP PvP PvP!!
Ye Fengxing couldn't help smiling faintly. Lan Xi was a good buddy he'd met back in Light of Freedom, and one seriously formidable mage... Labels like "lunatic," "killing maniac," and "PvP emperor" might as well have been invented for this guy.
Supposedly, the character "Wangying Lanxi" had fought 888,888 duels in Light of Freedom-a very auspicious number. Hmm... By the time he sold his account, he'd won a full 887,858 of those duels. His win rate was terrifying!
And of the 1,030 matches he'd lost, around six hundred had been losses to the character "One Leaf Windwalk"...
Apparently, this fellow was just like Yun Qianshuang. The first thing he did every day after logging in was message One Leaf Windwalk: "PvP!"
At least young Yun Qianshuang showed a little consideration. If Ye Fengxing said he was busy, she would arrange another time. Lan Xi, on the other hand, completely lacked anything resembling normal human thought. If Ye Fengxing stayed silent or refused, the entire day became a nightmare...
"PvP PvP PvP..." Lan Xi never said anything else. He simply latched onto Ye Fengxing and bombarded him with whispers-all day long! He often made Ye Fengxing want to crawl through the network cable, charge straight into his house without a word, grab two butcher knives, pin him to a chopping block, and hack away!
Ye Fengxing preferred not to comment further on this man's personality, but his skill really was incredible! Even someone known as the Windwalker Blade Saint couldn't claim he could beat Lan Xi every time.
Young Yun Qianshuang was a textbook case of dogged persistence, because she'd never once beaten Ye Fengxing. Lan Xi, however, could often knock "One Leaf Windwalk" flat on the ground, then sleazily perform all sorts of obscene gestures... Of course, more often it was "Wangying Lanxi" lying miserably on the ground while a crowd of unfamiliar players swarmed over to stomp on him!
"Goddammit! That's what you get for killing me out in the field and camping my corpse! I'll stomp you to death!"
"Great job, God Ye! Go another round and knock this dumbass down a peg!"
"Fuck! You killed my wife five times, so I'm stomping you fifty times! God Ye, take him down again in a bit. I'll collect what he owes me for the next round too!"
Before you continue