As he walked, Wu Shaozhen found he had no chance to attack anything. People were everywhere, most of them in utter chaos, swarming any rabbit that spawned and hacking away wildly. But with his keen eye, he spotted several groups that seemed well trained, coordinating smoothly as they camped nearby spawn points with clearly assigned roles. Some took turns landing the finishing blow, while others weakened the monsters for one person to finish off, funneling all their resources into that single player. Either approach was far better than the disorganized mobs. So this is the power of a guild, Wu Shaozhen thought.
Wu Shaozhen grew anxious. He had yet to touch so much as a strand of rabbit fur. At this rate, he would be left far behind, but he did not want to fight other people for kills. Whether he could win that fight was one thing; even if he lucked into an occasional kill, it would be terribly inefficient.
"Do I have to head to the level 2 monster area?" After thinking it over, Wu Shaozhen continued forward. He might as well take a look. It was better than standing here helplessly. Monsters level 5 and below would not attack first, so he would be fine as long as he left them alone.
Several nearby players waiting for little white rabbits to respawn saw Wu Shaozhen heading toward the level 2 monster area alone. One short young man said, "Look, is that guy heading to the level 2 monster area?"
"Looks like it. He probably can't get any monsters here and wants to try his luck farther in. Haha, he'll know what despair feels like once he gets there. I had the same idea at first, but after seeing the level 2 monsters' stats, I came scurrying right back," said a slightly chubby young man.
"Chubby, you've been there? Are the monsters inside really that strong?" the short young man asked.
"Yeah. Current players can't handle them unless a whole group gangs up on one, but that's more trouble than it's worth. Just stick to farming rabbits," Chubby said, still shaken.
After walking for quite a while, Wu Shaozhen finally saw a different kind of monster ahead: a herd of goats leisurely grazing. He glanced around. There were no players here, and nobody was fighting all these goats. Wu Shaozhen walked over and cast Insight.
[Goat] Level: 2 HP: 300 Physical attack: 21 Physical defense: 8 Speed: 7 Skill: Headbutt: The goat lowers its head and rams the target with its two horns, dealing 120% physical attack damage. Cooldown: 5 seconds.
Wu Shaozhen's mouth twitched again as he looked at the goat's stats. He finally understood why nobody was fighting here. These are a level 2 monster's stats? Damn, it already has a skill at level 2? Oracle, what the hell are you thinking? Who can possibly tank these stats right now?
He suddenly remembered his talent. He had to kill monsters five levels above himself to increase his poison damage by one point. He had thought it would be easy, that he would soon become rich and handsome, marry a gorgeous heiress, and reach the pinnacle of life. Now it seemed he had been dreaming. If monster stats keep increasing like this, how am I supposed to improve my talent?
Unwilling to give up, Wu Shaozhen continued forward until he reached a fork. A bamboo grove lay ahead, the left path led into a forest, and the right seemed to lead to a beach. He must have reached the coast. He had not expected the game to have an ocean, too. With that thought, Wu Shaozhen headed right. Even if he did not fight any monsters, seeing the ocean would be nice.
Before long, he did indeed see a beach, with a boundless ocean stretching out ahead.
What beautiful scenery. Is this really a game? It feels like a place that actually exists. Feeling the sea breeze, Wu Shaozhen spread his arms and took several deep breaths. "Air this fresh disappeared from the real world ages ago." This game was completely immersive.
"Holy shit, that crab is huge!" Out of the corner of his eye, Wu Shaozhen suddenly spotted a crab the size of a washbasin emerging from the sand. Waving two enormous pincers, it scuttled sideways toward him.
Wu Shaozhen cast Insight on it, then took off faster than a rabbit.
[Giant Crab] Level: 4 HP: 800 Physical attack: 45 Physical defense: 15 Speed: 8 Skill: Double Pincer Kill: Swings both enormous pincers to strike the target twice in succession, each hit dealing 70% physical damage. Cooldown: 10 seconds.
After running a long way, Wu Shaozhen glanced back at the distant crab, still shaken, and cursed. "You damned devs, are you sure this game is meant for people to play? One fucking crab can kill someone in an instant. Are you trying to get us all killed?"
Sigh, what am I supposed to do? Looks like I'll have to go back and fight everyone else for rabbits after all.
With that thought, Wu Shaozhen was about to leave when he suddenly noticed an enormous turtle crawling slowly along the beach. Curious, he cast Insight on it.
[Sea Turtle] Level: 5 HP: 1,800 Physical attack: 50 Physical defense: 40 Speed: 3 Skill: Thorn Shield: Blocks the next attack and reflects 50% of its damage back at the attacker. Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Almost anyone who saw this sea turtle's stats would probably turn and run without hesitation. It was the classic high-defense, high-HP monster. With a whopping 40 defense and 1,800 HP, even players who had leveled up would not want to fight a monster like this. The returns were too low.
Yet a strange gleam appeared in Wu Shaozhen's eyes. Granted, the sea turtle's stats made it an insurmountable foe for every level 0 player. Nobody could break through its staggering 40 defense. But Wu Shaozhen's damage did not have to depend on his attack stat, and what caught his attention was its speed. With only 3 speed, he could kite it.
Even if it hits me once, its 50 attack won't kill me instantly. I have 6 defense, so it can only take 44 HP off me. Its only skill is completely useless against me. My attacks can't break its defense anyway, so even if it reflects all the one point of forced damage, it won't matter. My poison deals 60 damage per minute. If it can't regenerate HP, I can poison it to death in exactly thirty minutes. If I spend those thirty minutes fighting for rabbits at the village entrance, who knows whether I'll even get one?
Most importantly, I'm level 0, and the sea turtle is exactly five levels above me, so it'll trigger my talent's effect. Haha, let's do this!
Wu Shaozhen immediately put his plan into action and hurried toward the sea turtle. The level 5 turtle would not attack players first. He walked up beside it, raised his wooden sword, and struck its shell.
-1
-1
A red -1 appeared above the turtle's head: one point of forced damage from an attack that failed to break its defense. Immediately afterward, a white -1 representing true damage appeared above its head as well.
The sea turtle moved slowly, but its reactions were quite fast. After Wu Shaozhen struck it with his sword, it thrust out its head and bit him.
-44
With only 50 HP to begin with, Wu Shaozhen was instantly left with a sliver of health. Frightened, he immediately turned and ran. Now his speed advantage came into play. The sea turtle lumbered after him, but could only watch him get farther and farther away. Meanwhile, white -1 numbers kept rising above its head, and its health bar fell at an exceedingly slow pace.
After running a long way, Wu Shaozhen grinned smugly at the slow-moving sea turtle behind him. "Come on, you little punk. Catch me!"
The poor sea turtle could only drag itself along, stubbornly pursuing Wu Shaozhen one slow step at a time.
Ten seconds later, Wu Shaozhen slowly regenerated one HP per second while continuing to taunt the sea turtle. In Oracle, characters and monsters followed the same rule: after ten seconds without attacking or being attacked, they were considered out of combat, and their HP would slowly regenerate at 1% per second. If their maximum HP was below 100, the default recovery was one HP per second. Without potions, this was the only way to recover health.
And so Wu Shaozhen used this shameless fighting style to wage a drawn-out battle against the sea turtle. He carefully kept track of the time, running in to land another hit whenever the poison was about to expire, then fleeing again. The poison's sixty-second duration gave him more than enough time to recover to full health before every fresh strike.
Before you continue