This Many Crawlers? How the Fuck Am I Supposed to Play?

[You have killed 'Sprinter (Bronze Grade).']

[You have gained 600 experience points.]

[Congratulations! You have reached level 3!]

[Congratulations! You have gained 2 evolution points!]

[You have gained 55 days of lifespan (tradable).]

The instant the boss fell, a string of system notifications rang through Qin Feng's mind.

After throwing that Deadly Poison Dart, he had activated Shadowmeld again, returning to stealth.

Shadowmeld still has a 26-second cooldown. A little too long.

It's slowing down my farming...

Still, it's best to spend any evolution points on evolving Greedy Hand first.

That was what Qin Feng thought.

He silently approached the Sprinter's corpse and picked up the pile of loot.

To Wang Meng and the other five, the sight was utterly eerie.

There was no one in sight.

Yet the loot beside the boss's corpse suddenly vanished?

"Thanks, friend."

Knowing the expert was nearby, Wang Meng cupped his fist toward empty air, his expression solemn and earnest as he offered his sincere thanks.

"Thank me?"

Qin Feng spoke coolly, his voice seeming to come from every direction. "Don't trust people so easily out in the wilderness..."

Wang Meng's expression turned grave at those words. "I understand. Thanks for the warning, brother."

In the Godforsaken Game, only towns were safe zones.

Outside towns, players could kill other players. Upon death, they would drop half of both their [tradable lifespan] and their [non-tradable lifespan]!

Of course, players could only pick up [tradable lifespan].

Players could not directly collect [non-tradable lifespan]. They had to let a Demon absorb it, then kill that Demon to convert 50% of it into tradable lifespan...

Clearly.

If Qin Feng wanted to harm Wang Meng right now, he could easily wipe them out. There was simply no need.

They wouldn't drop anything worthwhile!

These people were all far too poor!

By now, Wang Meng understood that as well.

If this expert really had designs on them, he wouldn't have warned them.

That made Wang Meng even more grateful.

"We'll get going, then. We won't interrupt you while you check your gear. My name's Wang Meng. If you ever need a hand, just come find me."

Wang Meng knew how to behave. With that said, he prepared to lead his people away.

But the "pretty" girl behind him, covered in sludge, suddenly waved at their surroundings. "Hey, expert! I'm Black Plum Big Li. Can I add you as a friend?"

"..."

Hearing the girl introduce herself with that handle, Qin Feng almost laughed aloud.

He actually knew her-from his previous life, of course.

She had chosen that handle because her real name was Lin Liyu. Her father's surname was Lin, and her mother's was Li. Thus, "Black Plum Big Li" was born...

She really was pretty, with a lively, endearing personality.

As for her class, she had the hidden class Prophet, which was considerably stronger than an ordinary mage.

Qin Feng had worked with her several times in his previous life.

Looks like she started out just as she did in my previous life, teaming up with Wang Meng right away.

Later, she joined Great Xia's official ranks...

Qin Feng shook his head inwardly.

He had no need to befriend her now.

He simply said coolly, "Sorry, I'm not interested in Black Plum Big Li."

Unwilling to give up without adding Qin Feng as a friend, the girl wanted to keep pestering him. But the middle-aged priestess in her party dragged her away with a helpless look...

Watching them leave, Qin Feng felt a little wistful.

Wang Meng's Holy Shield Warrior class really was tanky.

And the middle-aged priestess in the party also had a hidden class, Oracle Priest. Her starting healing output was twice that of an ordinary priest.

Otherwise, the party could never have lasted so long.

My attacks might look like instant kills.

But Shadowmeld's cooldown leaves far too much time between attacks.

From start to finish, it took nearly two minutes to finish off that boss and the three Polluters...

An ordinary party would have been wiped out by the Sprinter long before those two minutes were up...

Qin Feng shook his head and put it out of his mind.

He had made a huge haul this time!

Once Wang Meng and the others left, Qin Feng used Greedy Hand on the Sprinter's corpse.

[Congratulations! You have gained 2 evolution points!]

[You have gained 55 days of lifespan (tradable).]

One Bronze Grade boss had given Qin Feng a total of 4 evolution points, along with 110 days of tradable lifespan and five pieces of loot.

Not a bad haul.

The drops include three pieces of equipment and two skill books...

Only one of those pieces of equipment was usable by Qin Feng.

The Godforsaken Game had so many classes that loot for other classes dropped all the time. It was perfectly normal.

[Sprinter Hide Leggings (Bronze Grade): Assassin-class equipment. Physical defense +9, all elemental resistances +5. Cooldown speed +15%. Equipment requirement: level 2]

The equipment's defense and elemental resistances weren't much use to Qin Feng.

But the 15% cooldown speed was nice.

He put them on right away!

Shadowmeld's cooldown dropped from 26 seconds to 22.61 seconds. Not bad.

In the Godforsaken Game, the standard stats did not include "cooldown reduction," only "cooldown speed."

In the later stages, players could generally stack cooldown speed to several hundred percent.

For example, 400% cooldown speed meant cooldowns recovered four times faster, or five times their original rate. A skill with a 20-second cooldown would then take only 4 seconds.

In short, [final cooldown = base cooldown / (1 + cooldown speed)].

Time to keep farming.

One more evolution point, and I can evolve Greedy Hand to Jadeite Tier.

Remaining in stealth, Qin Feng headed deeper into the Dark Forest.

Meanwhile, Qin Feng's tradable lifespan had reached 268 days!

I still have plenty of equipment and skill books for other classes.

Once my inventory's full, I'll head back to town and trade them for tradable lifespan...

Then I can start considering extracting equipment and skills into the real world!

It was no exaggeration.

Qin Feng was progressing over a hundred times faster than he had in his previous life.

That made it sound as though his progress in his previous life had been painfully slow.

But...

There had been no helping it.

As the number of players in a town increased, the Demons outside would gather together as well.

The difficulty of hunting Demons would skyrocket for new players!

Instead, many player parties were hunted down by packs of Demons, constantly losing lifespan!

Take Shell Town right now, for example...

Wang Meng had led his hidden-class party back to an area closer to town. No level 2 monsters spawned here, only level 1 monsters.

To their shock, soon after returning, they saw a six-player party being swarmed by more than a dozen Crawlers!

Many parties could now kill a single Crawler on its own.

But...

More than a dozen Crawlers?

"This many Crawlers? How the fuck am I supposed to play?"

A young man cursed in panic. A moment later, three Crawlers pounced on him and tore him apart with their teeth!