According to Oracle's official design, every beginner village held two tremendous opportunities.
Aside from the hidden quest.
The other was a powerful boss lurking within the beginner village's territory!
"If I remember correctly, every beginner village's boss should be level 15, tier 2!"
"Killing a beginner village boss not only gives you generous kill rewards, but also an extremely precious item: a Shadow Heart!"
Recalling his previous life, Lin Mo said excitedly, "If I can collect three Shadow Hearts, I can unlock an incredibly valuable hidden dungeon over at the Level 3 Main City!"
Having been reborn, Lin Mo had to plan every move carefully and make sure every step kept him on the right track!
So taking down the beginner village boss was Lin Mo's ultimate goal in Cloudside Town!
Picking up a Shadow Heart along the way would also lay the groundwork for his upcoming trip to the Level 3 Main City.
Rubbing his chin, Lin Mo murmured, "Cloudside Town's boss was a Spider Queen, I think, but I can't quite remember where she was..."
After all, in his previous life, Lin Mo had been a weakling who could only find a sense of accomplishment fighting low-level mobs.
Boss-class monsters like this were far beyond the reach of a nobody like him.
He only remembered that, in his previous life, the person who ultimately killed the Spider Queen had been Hero of Troubled Times.
And to kill that level 15, tier 2 boss, nearly every one of the Troubled Times Guild's thousand or so players had died more than ten times!
The battle had lasted an entire day and night!
It had been an utterly brutal fight!
That was because players within beginner village territory could not advance past level 10.
Yet beginner village bosses were as high as level 15!
So in his previous life, it hadn't just been Cloudside Town.
Boss battles in every beginner village had been extremely difficult!
According to later official statistics, fewer than 10% of Great Xia's thousand-plus beginner villages had successfully killed their bosses!
Still, that didn't stop Lin Mo from shaking his head and scoffing, "Wang Junjie, you're way too weak!"
"This time, watch me solo the Spider Queen!"
With that, Lin Mo opened his map and searched for "spider."
Soon, three locations popped up on the map-
Lv. 3 Spider Cave.
Lv. 5 Spider Paradise.
Lv. 10 Shadow Nest.
Lin Mo immediately settled on his target: the Shadow Nest!
After all, a level 10 boss couldn't possibly be hiding in a level 3 or level 5 area, right?
With a full set of gold equipment and a tier 2 weapon in hand, Lin Mo had no fear. He got straight to work!
He immediately followed the map's directions toward the [Shadow Nest].
On the way, wanting to check the current state of Cloudside Town, Lin Mo casually opened the level rankings.
[No. 1]: Mo Shou Cheng Gui (male, level 8, 43.15%) [No. 2]: Hero of Troubled Times (male, level 5, 71.13%) [No. 3]: Wind Soughs Sadly (male, level 4, 45.11%) [No. 4]: Hero of Troubled Times (male, level 4, 44.44%) [No. 5]: Troubled Times Under Heaven (male, level 4, 42.96%) ...
Cloudside Town's situation was clear at a glance.
Wang Junjie's talent was lousy, his gaming skills were atrocious, and he wasn't exactly blessed with brains.
But money covered every flaw!
He was rich, so he always had a bunch of lackeys beating monsters within an inch of their lives, then serving them up for him to finish off.
How could he not level up fast?
His subordinates also enjoyed the spoils alongside him, leveling far faster than ordinary players.
Six of the top ten players belonged to Troubled Times!
As for Wind Soughs Sadly, he looked like a penniless scholar. In real life, he surely had neither power nor connections, just like Lin Mo in his previous life.
But he was lucky enough to have a one-in-ten-thousand A-rank talent!
Call his Mutual Destruction talent useless, and it had actually blown Lin Mo to death even while he was wearing several pieces of gold equipment!
Call it amazing, and every use inflicted backlash on its user!
Still, it all depended on how he used it.
Clearly, Wind Soughs Sadly was a college student with some brains.
"He must be taking advantage of the beginner protection period before level 10, when dying only costs 10% of your experience, to keep blowing up elite monsters and level up quickly!"
"After all, compared to the generous experience from elite monsters, losing 10% from a single death is nothing."
"Otherwise, with no power or connections, there's no way he could level up this fast."
At the same time, a question occurred to Lin Mo.
"Why are this Mutual Destruction guy and Wang Junjie both so determined to be the first to reach level 10?"
"Mutual Destruction even offered me the prize money if I helped him reach level 10 first. Though that's obviously just a pretext-he must be after the hundred-thousand prize. That much makes sense."
"But for someone who throws money around like Wang Junjie, a measly hundred thousand might not even cover a late-night meal. The prize draw would be worth even less to him. Why did he threaten me earlier and tell me to slow down until he reached level 10 first?"
Lin Mo couldn't make sense of it.
"Could there be some special reward for being the first in a beginner village to reach level 10-something I don't know about, something money can't buy?"
Come to think of it!
That really was possible!
After all, Oracle was an unpredictable game, and many of its hidden opportunities were beyond ordinary players' wildest imaginations.
"But given Wang Junjie's real-world identity and status, he could very well have special channels for learning inside information ordinary players don't know!"
Now Lin Mo was beginning to look forward to it.
"I won't worry about that for now. Once I'm the first to reach level 10, the answer will reveal itself!"
He followed the map's directions.
Before long, Lin Mo arrived at his destination.
Looking ahead, he saw an enormous, deep cave looming before him.
High above, dark clouds obscured the moonlight.
Shrouded in darkness, the sinister cave entrance resembled a gaping maw into the abyss.
Even looking at it from a distance sent a chill down his spine!
This was the Lv. 10 Shadow Nest!
Unless something unexpected happened.
The Spider Queen should be inside this cave!
Whoosh!
Lin Mo reached behind his back, took down the Brave Golden Bow, and advanced toward the Shadow Nest.
Just then.
Buzz!
Pairs of green lights suddenly lit up in the darkness ahead!
At first glance, they looked like fireflies.
Then he took a closer look...
"A swarm of spiders!"
Skitter, skitter, skitter, skitter!
In an instant, a huge swarm of spiders crawled toward Lin Mo!
They were about the size of drones, quite different from what Lin Mo had imagined.
Each one was tiny.
They didn't seem capable of doing much damage.
Lin Mo casually cast Reconnaissance on one.
Before he could get a clear look at the spider's stats.
Suddenly.
Smack!
A spider leaped at him and clung to his face like a facehugger!
Beep, beep, beep!
A series of urgent beeps rang out.
Boom!
The spider suddenly exploded.
Lin Mo's entire head was blown apart in an instant.
[Ding~ You were hit by an Exploding Spider's Self-Destruct skill and lost 9,800 HP. You have died!]
Whoosh!
Before Lin Mo could even react, he turned into a streak of white light.
All he left behind was a single "What the fuck!" echoing through the night...
Before you continue