"Huh? Where did he go?"
Sister Pear and the other four froze.
They looked all around but found no trace of Qin Feng.
The tall male assassin in the party was bewildered. "That's a stealth skill, right? He gets stealth as a starting skill? What class is that? That's awesome!"
He had chosen the assassin class himself, but he hadn't started with a stealth skill.
After searching for ages without finding Qin Feng, the five of them, too afraid to leave the safe zone, could only retreat dejectedly into Shell Town.
Sister Pear said gravely, "It's too dangerous outside. We died once, and our remaining lifespans were halved. Let's search the town first and see if there's any way to get stronger."
The soft-spoken, long-haired girl's eyes lit up. "Yes, exactly! Let's look for treasure chests, NPCs, things like that."
The tall male assassin was still in good spirits. He laughed. "Look how nervous you all are. Sure, this Godforsaken Game is a little weird, but saying it can affect our lifespans is pure fantasy... If you ask me, since we've respawned, we should just go out and kill that crawler."
The other male warrior said, "I agree. We finally knocked off almost half its health. Now that guy might get to reap the rewards."
Sister Pear sneered. "The five of us barely took off less than half the crawler's health. Alone, all he can do is use stealth to stay alive. Kill the crawler? In his dreams."
Of course, Qin Feng knew nothing of Sister Pear's group's decision.
Even if he had known, Qin Feng wouldn't have cared.
There was nothing in the starting town that could help players grow stronger. It was merely a safe place for them to rest.
At that moment, Qin Feng activated Shadowmeld and walked across the dark, scorched earth.
Once he became invisible, his footsteps, breathing, heartbeat... every sound vanished!
Apart from his physical collision boundaries, everything else was as though he didn't exist.
There was only one way to see an invisible unit.
An anti-stealth skill.
Of course, Qin Feng's Shadow class came with an innate "+1 stealth level."
In the early game, no player, or even Demon in the wilderness, could possibly detect him while he was invisible...
Soon, Qin Feng had traveled more than a hundred meters from town and entered a sparse patch of woods.
From a distance, he spotted the dark silhouette of a crawler resting among the trees.
--
[Crawler (Lv. 1)] [Rank: Common (advancing...)]
--
This thing just killed those five players, and now it's digesting their lifespans?
Qin Feng narrowed his eyes.
He had seen plenty of this in his previous life.
After Demons hunted players and obtained their lifespans, they needed time to advance. This Crawler was clearly greedy.
After hunting five players, it could already have found somewhere safe to advance, but it was still here. Clearly, it wanted to kill more...
In that case, cough up those lifespans.
Qin Feng found a concealed corner.
When his invisibility expired, he activated Shadowmeld again, seamlessly transitioning between the two uses.
Holding his scrap-iron dagger, Qin Feng silently approached the crawler.
Once he drew closer, he could even smell the foul stench of decay coming from the Crawler's body.
The dark silhouette gradually became clearer. It was a faceless humanoid with gray skin and long, thin limbs, crouched beside a tree with grayish-white mist swirling around its body.
That grayish-white mist was lifespan in visible form.
It meant the crawler was consuming lifespan in an attempt to advance.
Any lifespan a Demon hasn't had time to digest will be converted into loot at a certain ratio when it dies...
Qin Feng didn't hesitate.
Still invisible, he moved behind the crawler and struck in an instant!
The scrap-iron dagger emerged from the darkness in a cold gleam, landing squarely on the back of the crawler's neck.
The back of its neck was one of the crawler's weak points. A hit to a weak point increased damage by 50%, dealing 1.5 times the normal damage.
-372 (Weak point hit)!
With just one strike, grayish-white blood spilled from the back of the crawler's neck, and it instantly crumpled to the ground!
This Shadow class is ridiculously powerful!
Even Qin Feng was shocked.
But he knew perfectly well that it wasn't just because of his Shadow class.
Most of his damage came from Shadowmeld, the skill he had evolved twice.
Its 90 bonus attack power had multiplied his damage two or three times over.
If he still had the original inferior Shadowmeld skill, he wouldn't have dealt even half as much damage.
--
[You have killed "Crawler (Lv. 1)."] [You have gained 10 experience points.]
--
On top of that, the grayish-white mist above the crawler's corpse condensed into a fist-sized orb of light. It was visible lifespan, ready to be collected.
Qin Feng reached out and grasped the clump of grayish-white mist...
--
[You have gained 3 days of lifespan (tradable).] [You have gained 54 years and 155 days of lifespan (non-tradable).]
--
As the system notifications arrived, Qin Feng shook his head.
All five of them were killed. Each must have lost at least twenty or thirty years of lifespan, totaling well over a hundred years.
After passing through the crawler, only fifty-four years dropped...
But it doesn't matter. Non-tradable lifespan isn't much use for now.
Qin Feng knew that very well.
As long as someone was alive, they consumed [non-tradable lifespan] every second. For now, it had no other use.
Only [tradable lifespan] truly mattered!
By consuming tradable lifespan, I can bring equipment, skills, and classes into the real world!
But three days of tradable lifespan from killing one ordinary monster is far too little.
That's nowhere near enough to bring out any equipment or skills.
Time to find more monsters.
Qin Feng didn't dwell on it.
Grayish-white mist swirled around his body, gradually being absorbed into him.
Then he reached out again and picked up two pieces of loot from beneath the crawler's corpse.
A piece of equipment and a skill book.
--
[Rottenhide Boots (Inferior): Gray quality. Physical defense +3, movement speed +5%. Equipment requirement: Level 1] [Skill Book: Ice Spike (Common): White quality. Mage skill book. Learning requirement: Level 1]
--
The crawler was a level 1 common monster.
The loot it dropped upon death was most likely to be inferior, with only a small chance of being common.
Two drops at once. Pretty lucky.
Too bad neither is much use to me...
Qin Feng put on the Rottenhide Boots.
He felt a little disappointed.
The monster hadn't given him any evolution points, nor had it been enough to level him up.
Qin Feng could only activate Shadowmeld again and head deeper into the woods...
Just then, other players in Shell Town also began venturing out to explore.
Some formed parties, while others, fearless in their inexperience, ran out alone or in pairs.
Before long.
A young couple arrived at the spot where Qin Feng had just killed the crawler and immediately spotted its corpse.
"Someone killed a monster here?"
"Looks like this game isn't that hard. I told you there was no need to be so nervous, haha."
"Watch this, Xiaoya. When a monster shows up, I'll carry you and mow them all down!"
Yet the couple failed to notice...
An enormous dark silhouette had appeared in the tree above their heads!
Before you continue