Silver Wolf

Next, I should check the level 10 monsters' stats and see if I can fight them. If I can, I can keep grinding my talent.

He crossed the Wild Wolf Plains and kept going, with a pack of wild wolves trailing behind him. There was no helping it-wild wolves were aggressive monsters and would chase anyone who entered their aggro range. But with 33 movement speed, Wu Shaozhen hardly cared. They couldn't catch him anyway.

After walking for quite a while, he came upon a valley. From a distance, he could see several imposing silver wolves prowling around inside.

"Why is it wolves again?" Wu Shaozhen's heart sank. He still needed health potions to fight wild wolves, and the wolves in there looked much stronger.

He approached the valley entrance and cast Insight on the nearest silver wolf.

[Silver Wolf]

Level: 10

Health: 6,000

Attack: 140

Defense: 60

Speed: 30

Skill: Extreme Speed: Lets out a long howl, gaining 50% attack speed and 50% movement speed for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Great. This thing counters me. There's no way I can fight it... I'm out of here. Wu Shaozhen turned and left without the slightest hesitation.

Forget it. I'll log off and get something to eat first. I've been playing for six hours, and all I've eaten today is a bread roll. My body won't hold up if I keep this up. Besides, I've earned so much money-I ought to treat myself.

He found a safe spot and logged off. Taking off his helmet, Wu Shaozhen sat up in bed and shook his head. He didn't feel any discomfort, but then his stomach suddenly churned violently. He rushed into the bathroom, where his bowels let loose.

He spent over half an hour on the toilet. Completely drained, Wu Shaozhen staggered out of the bathroom. "Ugh, that bread I had at noon must've been past its expiration date. I'd better stop eating random stuff."

Sitting on the only battered sofa in his rented room, Wu Shaozhen took out his phone and splurged on a family bucket. He had intended to eat out, but now he could barely walk, so delivery was his only option.

After ordering, he started browsing the forums on his phone. Almost every post was about Oracle, and two of the top three pinned posts were actually about him. Both had millions of views.

1. [Theories on the frequent appearance of high-stat equipment in Beginner Village 8365's auction house]

2. [Plain equipment sells for as much as 60,000 at Beginner Village 8365's auction house]

3. [Novice Village boss, the Boar King, discovered! Stats attached-experts looking to take on the boss, come have a look]

Intrigued, he opened the first post. Someone claiming to be a game commentator had offered a few theories about the equipment he had listed. To be fair, the guy was pretty accurate.

"So far, three pieces of top-quality equipment have been listed in Beginner Village 8365. My guess is that the first two dropped from level 6 wild boars, while the third, the Wolf Fang Necklace, most likely dropped from a level 9 wild wolf."

"I strongly urge the developers to investigate this player thoroughly. I suspect he's cheating. Forget wild wolves-even level 6 wild boars are beyond what players can handle at this stage."

There were hundreds of thousands of comments below, most accusing him of cheating and demanding an investigation. A tiny minority asked whether he might simply be skilled, but those voices were quickly drowned out.

The post had even received an official reply:

"There are no cheats in Oracle!"

The reply was short and direct, without a single unnecessary word, yet it silenced everyone who had been about to jump on the bandwagon.

"The developers sure don't mess around," Wu Shaozhen said, rubbing his nose. He then glanced at the other two posts and thought, I didn't expect anyone to find the Boar King already. Looks like I need to hurry up and kill him. Nobody will be able to kill him anytime soon, but I still don't like people eyeing him.

A little over ten minutes later, his food finally arrived. After stuffing himself, Wu Shaozhen wiped his mouth, lay down on the bed, put on his helmet, and logged in.

Appearing where he had last logged off, Wu Shaozhen checked his stats. He still couldn't fight the Boar King, and fighting wild wolves would waste potions. Damn it, do I really have to go back to killing wild boars? Can I just say that the sight of them makes me want to puke?

How about checking out the level 8 monsters? If I can fight them, I could get some different equipment. Maybe with enough extra stats, I'll be able to take on the Boar King. The level 8 monsters should be past those spiders. I'll have to be careful not to get caught in those disgusting webs while crossing the Spider Forest. Even with my current stats, I couldn't survive more than a few hits.

Ugh, there's no rhyme or reason to this game's monster distribution. How many people is this going to screw over? Most players who find level 3 green snakes easy will definitely keep going, planning to challenge monsters one level higher. Instead, the moment they step in, they'll get webbed by a level 7 spider. That kind of despair could leave them traumatized.

Wu Shaozhen made his way to the Spider Forest along the now-familiar route. Thanks to his extremely high movement speed, he reached the depths of the forest with a few scares but no real danger. He finally found the level 8 monsters, but the sight of the toads before him made his skin crawl.

[Toad]

Level: 8

Health: 3,200

Attack: 100

Defense: 48

Speed: 15

Skill: Tongue Thrust: Thrusts its tongue at a target ahead, ignoring 50% of defense and dealing 145% physical damage. Reduces the target's movement speed by 30%. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Oh, I can fight this one. Wu Shaozhen did the math. Even ignoring 50% of his defense, the toad's skill would only deal 137 damage to him. With a whopping 290 health, he had nothing to fear. His poison damage was now as high as 23, so three hits would kill it. And even with a 30% reduction, his 33 movement speed would still leave him with 20-more than enough to crush it.

Well, ugly is ugly. I'll just put up with it. It's not like I'm dating it.

Each level 8 toad gave Wu Shaozhen 30 experience, plus another 9 for killing a monster three levels above him, making 39 experience per kill. He would level up after killing 77. Besides four copper coins, the toads also dropped a sticky saliva that was probably another quest item. It seemed that every monster type in the Novice Village had its own quest. And so Wu Shaozhen began his toad-killing spree.

Meanwhile, most of the leading players in the Novice Village had reached level 3 and were starting to tackle crabs. Nearly everyone had a few pieces of equipment, and the strongest groups already had full sets of defensive gear. However, most of it was gear with two stat points dropped by goats, so it didn't improve their strength much. Although they fought in groups of at least five, the crabs' stats were still too high for players at this stage, making every fight a struggle.

At this point, everyone in Beginner Village 8365 was watching the auction house eagerly, hoping that the mysterious expert would sell more equipment. Plenty of equipment had already appeared there, but unfortunately, it all had just two stat points and absurdly high asking prices. A few sellers, apparently inspired by the prices Wu Shaozhen's equipment had sold for, had even listed theirs for twenty or thirty thousand. Nobody was interested.

Just then, a pair of shoes was listed in the auction house for ten thousand yuan. It sold barely a second after appearing.

"Holy shit, what just happened?"

"I think I saw a shoe pop up, and then it vanished."

"Holy shit, it's true! I checked the auction records. Shoes with five stat points, listed for ten thousand yuan. That expert must've posted them. Who the fuck was that fast?! Have they been single for thirty years?"