Chapter 1: After Tomorrow
August 31, 2052, Blue Star Calendar, 18:35.
Rong City, China
Thud!
Wen Yu dragged his exhausted body back to his rented room, turned on the TV, and threw himself onto the sofa.
"Unemployed again. How am I supposed to survive in this world!"
Wen Yu: 24 years old, single, and now he had to add 'unemployed' to the list. Ever since his parents died in a drunk driving accident when he was 19, Wen Yu hadn't spent a single day living what he considered a decent life. The accident caused four immediate deaths, and because it was drunk driving, his parents were ultimately judged to be fully responsible for the accident. Fortunately, Wen Yu's parents had run a small business and had some money, which, combined with the proceeds from selling their house, was just enough to pay the compensation. However, Wen Yu was instantly reduced to nothing.
Fortunately, because his family used to have some money, the once-carefree Wen Yu had immersed himself in the ocean of games like most people. He believed he had a fairly decent set of gaming skills and strategies. After his family's downfall, he had also worked as a power-leveler for various games, which could be considered a barely adequate skill.
Having been immersed in the gaming world throughout university, Wen Yu's job searches after graduation also revolved around games. He had done power-leveling, gold farming, web game promotion, and served as a game raid leader. Although he didn't earn much, he managed to scrape by in the new first-tier city of Rong City. It could be said that Wen Yu had mastered every trick in small-scale games from start to finish. He had even once overconfidently gone to interview for a game designer position at a large company, only to be left speechless and humiliated by the HR manager's questions.
The job he had just been fired from was as a mobile game raid leader, or what people commonly call a "shill." Specialized promotion staff would go to other games to lure whales into their company's game, and then it was Wen Yu's job to find ways to make those whales spend money while playing alongside them. The more the whales spent, the larger the commission Wen Yu would receive. Today, because he accidentally stole a mob from a big shot, the man declared he would never spend another cent in the game. A petty manager who didn't get along with Wen Yu gave him a tongue-lashing and told him to pack his bags and leave.
"My heart is beating like a raging fire~"
He pulled out his phone and saw it was a call from his landlady, Auntie Wang. After thinking about it, it seemed it was time to pay the next quarter's rent again.
"Hello, Auntie Wang, how are you?"
"Little Wen, have you had dinner yet?"
"Not yet, Auntie Wang. Is it about the rent?"
"Sigh~ yes. Are you doing alright for cash lately? I've run into some things and need money urgently."
"Okay, I'll transfer it to you in a moment."
"Oh, good~ good. Then I won't disturb you anymore."
Wen Yu knew that when Auntie Wang said she needed money urgently, she really meant it. Back when Wen Yu had just graduated and was looking for a job, Auntie Wang, whose family wasn't particularly wealthy, had let Wen Yu stay first and pay her back once he found a job and had money.
"Ding."
[Your account ending in 6324 has an expenditure of 5,400 yuan from Aijia Bank at 18:50 on the 30th. Current account balance is 31,002.60 yuan. For details, please contact Aijia Bank.]
Fortunately, over the years of working in games, the whales had been very generous, so paying the rent didn't leave Wen Yu penniless.
"Time to find a new way to make a living again. I've almost run through every small game company in Rong City."
He casually ordered some braised pork trotter rice online. It was now 7 o'clock, the time for the daily National News Broadcast.
Because jobs had been hard to find in recent years, Wen Yu, who was always looking for a way to make a living, had developed a good habit. He watched the National News Broadcast every day, hoping it would provide him with some new ideas.
However, today's news anchors were either introducing which country was having a conflict with another and that war was imminent,
Or what new policies the government had introduced for the benefit of the people.
However, these major events were described too broadly to provide any good ideas for an ordinary person like Wen Yu.
Just as Wen Yu was about to change the channel,
"Breaking news: The holographic online game 'After Tomorrow', jointly developed by 176 countries worldwide, will officially launch at 9:00 AM on September 3, 2052. All nations guarantee that the development of this game will significantly address employment issues and will change the traditional way of gaming on mobile phones and computers. 'After Tomorrow' will use gaming helmets to enter the game, and a 99% realism level will allow players to experience the fun of the game firsthand. Gaming helmets will go on sale officially outside city/town government buildings starting at 9:00 AM on September 1, 2052. The retail price is 9,999 yuan. Let us create our'Second World' together!"
Wen Yu, with a pork trotter still in his mouth, was stunned after watching the news!
"What's going on? Game news can make it onto the National News Broadcast? And it's jointly developed by the whole world? Wait, wasn't it just saying which country was going to war with another!"
Blue Star in 2052 was indeed a diverse place, but the general public's core perception of games hadn't changed at all. Terms like 'poisoning the youth' and 'violence' could still be applied to 'games'.
"And what does this'Second World' mean? Transferring people into a game to survive? What kind of world would that be? Would it be like Blue Star, with all kinds of industries flourishing? How would the people living in the game world make money? Would the nations still be the same nations?"
"How would eating work?" If you said that wearing a helmet meant you wouldn't be hungry at all, or that if you ate in the game, you wouldn't need to eat after taking off the helmet, Wen Yu wouldn't believe it for a second.
"Will it be a farming-type game?" These questions filled Wen Yu's mind, leaving him completely bewildered.
But Wen Yu, who considered himself highly sensitive to games, also realized that this might be an opportunity—an opportunity to escape his predicament in the shortest time possible, and perhaps even an opportunity to change society's entire perception of the word 'game'.
"I've paid 3 months' rent, so I can stay until the end of November. I have nearly 30,000 yuan left. A helmet costs 10,000, leaving 20,000. I also need to set aside 8,000 for future living expenses. It's decided! I'll give myself 12,000 yuan's worth of time. If I haven't made any money by the time that 12,000 is spent, I'll quit the game and find another way!"
Wen Yu calculated silently.
In less than thirty minutes after watching the news, Wen Yu had already decided to take a chance on this so-called online game, 'After Tomorrow'!
-----x-----
Chapter 2: Planetary Invasion?
"Ring~ Ring~ Ring~!"
September 1, 2052, 7:00 AM. Usually, the first thing to "wake up" in Wen Yu's home was the alarm clock. If the alarm ever went on strike, Wen Yu would surely follow suit.
As an excellent night owl and a guild leader in games, accompanying wealthy players through dungeons, killing bosses, and doing daily quests every night had become an indispensable part of Wen Yu's life.
Although he no longer had a job, Wen Yu still woke up very early today. In two hours, it would be the official release time for the After Tomorrow game helmets. The pre-sale news came from the National News Broadcast. Young people nowadays rarely pay attention to it, so Wen Yu planned to grab a helmet as soon as possible while not many people might know yet.
Although he said not many people knew, a large number of people had actually already caught wind of the news.
Although gamers in China are often called the "scraps of society," after decades of development, they have still reached a certain scale.
What is most praised is the forum established by the player community called "China Game General Forum." It is also often jokingly called the "Toilet" by players. Every day, all sorts of messy game news fill the entire forum. Wen Yu has always been a regular at the Toilet Forum.
After finishing his pig's trotter rice last night, Wen Yu washed up early and lay in bed. Besides checking game-related news, he spent his time scrolling through the forum. He stayed up until midnight and learned quite a bit from the official promotional website. He also saw how the forum went from not many people knowing to everyone discussing After Tomorrow.
"What kind of game is After Tomorrow exactly?"
"Is 99% realism for real?"
"Will the National Team enter the fray?"
Later in the night, it changed to various major online game guilds announcing their entry into After Tomorrow!
"Magic Fantasy Guild announces entry into After Tomorrow!"
"Dynasty will lead its guild players to battle in After Tomorrow as soon as it launches!"
...
These major guilds were all famous to Wen Yu. They were all large-scale online game guilds covering various fields including RPGs, RTS, farming, and nurturing games. They were the gaming big shots Wen Yu couldn't reach before.
Having always hung around in small and micro-games, Wen Yu had always envied those big companies and guilds.
But this only strengthened Wen Yu's determination to make a name for himself in After Tomorrow.
There was also some news that surprised Wen Yu.
"Yin Sha Guild announces entry into After Tomorrow!"
Hidden Kill was a guild that Wen Yu could barely reach if he jumped. The members of Hidden Kill only played Role-Playing Games (RPG) and specialized in the Assassin class. Precisely because no one knew what kind of game After Tomorrow was yet, Hidden Kill's announcement of entry was risky. It would be quite funny if this group of people who walk in the dark ended up farming or playing a nurturing game.
Of course, there was also some news that Wen Yu found hilarious.
"Rong City Mahjong Group announces entry into After Tomorrow! Ping me for the first mahjong game in the 'Second World'!"
Wen Yu couldn't stop laughing. The Mahjong Group was a local guild in Rong City, and it was considered a relatively formal one. However, its members mostly focused on entertainment and casual gameplay, and it hadn't made a big name for itself in the gaming world. The guild leader, "Red Center," reportedly came from a family that manufactured mahjong tiles and machines. He started the guild for promotion, but unexpectedly, it actually grew quite large.
After washing up and getting ready, Wen Yu grabbed a quick breakfast downstairs and took a taxi to the Government Building.
Contrary to his expectations, the area outside the Government Building was already a sea of people. He estimated that if the winding, snake-like queue were straightened, it would stretch from the Government Building's entrance to the nearest subway station. It was long enough that the taxi's starting fare wouldn't even cover the distance.
While Wen Yu waited patiently in line, he took a quick look around. The promotional materials for After Tomorrow clearly stated that players must be over 16 years old, and indeed, he didn't see many minors. The group buying helmets was generally between 18 and 35.
"Sigh. To put it simply, games are still played by the youth."
After queuing for the entire morning, it was finally Wen Yu's turn. By the time he took a taxi home, it was already 2:00 PM.
He bought a pack of instant noodles downstairs. While waiting for the water to boil, Wen Yu set up the gaming helmet according to the manual.
The promotional materials clearly stated that once you have the helmet, you can enter early to register an account. After a few bites of noodles, Wen Yu couldn't wait to be the first to "eat the crab"!
As Wen Yu put on the helmet, the system notification sounded:
"Ding! Iris scan successful. Identity information bound. Welcome, player Wen Yu, to After Tomorrow! Please close your eyes for at least 10 seconds every time you log in with the helmet~"
In After Tomorrow, binding identity information was secondary. To prevent account theft, logins were handled via iris scans, one person per machine.
"My god!"
When Wen Yu opened his eyes again, he was so shocked he could barely speak!
Is this the legendary 99% realism?!
Is this the legendary immersive experience?!
Can a game really be made to this extent?!
A complete first-person experience! It felt exactly like his body in reality!
"Ding~ Starting the opening cinematic! Would you like to skip?"
Watching this, Wen Yu felt it was truly marvelous. Still performing various movements like squats and small jumps, Wen Yu didn't even think before saying:
"Skip!"
"Ding~ Apologies! Cannot skip! Starting the cinematic~ Please watch patiently."
"..."
If I can't skip it, then why even ask...
After thinking about it, Wen Yu suppressed his excitement and began to watch the cinematic. What if the content in the cinematic was helpful for the subsequent plot?
"BOOM!!!"
Following a loud explosion, Wen Yu, standing on a mountain peak, saw two massive spheres in the sky slowly approaching each other. The larger one was surrounded by black mist, while the smaller one emitted a faint, emerald-green light!
Suddenly!
Countless indistinguishable monsters flew out from the black sphere, flapping their wings towards the smaller sphere!
"Holy crap, what are these things? They're so ugly!"
Wen Yu was also startled by the endless swarm of monsters, and he thought to himself: So, this might be a game about fighting monsters?
Great!
That's perfect. What Wen Yu was best at was fighting all kinds of monsters. If that were the case, Yin Sha Guild had made a good bet!
The cinematic continued. Once the monsters landed on the green sphere, the sphere slowly lost its original emerald green and began turning black!
Then, a sorrowful female voice slowly drifted over:
[After Tomorrow, we again should go where...]
The animation ended there, and Wen Yu had more or less understood the cause and effect.
"The two spheres probably represent two planets. The theme of the game is stopping monsters from invading the emerald planet!"
"Right! That must be it! This is an RPG with the theme of preventing a planetary invasion!"
-----x-----
Chapter 3: What Kind of Talent Is This?
"Ding! ~" System prompt: "Create character?"
Feeling like he had glimpsed the truth of the game, Wen Yu felt a wave of anticipation!
"Yes!"
"Ding! ~ Character pre-creation successful. Choose to adjust appearance?"
If appearance could be modified, he definitely had to modify it.
Although Wen Yu had no fame in the gaming circle and didn't have to worry about being recognized at a glance, using his own face to kill and fight in the game would still make him feel weird and uncomfortable.
Moreover, based on Wen Yu's understanding of role-playing games, fighting and making enemies were common occurrences.
When playing various PC and mobile games in the past, there were always people who arranged offline fights due to in-game conflicts.
The most famous incident was in 2050, where it was said that two parties arranged an offline fight, and one of them ended up killing the other.
Not to mention the current [ After Tomorrow ]!
Just thinking about it made Wen Yu feel terrified. He didn't want to be playing the game one day only to have someone chase him to his home.
"Adjust overall appearance down by 20%, and for weight, add 20 jin for me!"
This brings up Wen Yu's actual physique and appearance. While not overwhelmingly handsome, he was at least fair-skinned with regular features, and his sword-like eyebrows were the trait he felt he inherited best from his mother.
However, Wen Yu was too thin. Over the past two years, he had been exhausted from running around. Standing at 1.78 meters, he weighed less than 130 jin. Wen Yu had always been trying to find ways to gain weight; he hadn't expected that a goal he couldn't achieve in reality would be completed for him in the game.
"Ding! ~" System prompt: "Appearance adjustment successful. Please name your game character! (Except for deleting the account and starting over, there is no name change function throughout the game. Please consider carefully! ~)"
Choosing a name... As a typical person who is terrible at naming things, every Time he had to name something was Wen Yu's most annoying moment. In the past, he would waste a lot of Time during this stage when registering characters.
"It needs to sound relatively good, have a high level of prestige! And be easy for people to remember!" Wen Yu lowered his head and pondered.
He remembered his mother often saying when urging him to improve: "Cherish the best Time of your life." Then let's call it: "Time"!
"Ding! ~" System prompt: "Detection complete, this name is available. Are you sure?"
"Confirm!"
"Ding! ~" System prompt: "Naming successful. Starting to draw a Talent for your game character! Please wait patiently."
Wen Yu was stunned. "Talent? Is there such a thing?"
"Ding! ~" "Congratulations on successfully drawing the Talent: Enlightenment (Every Time a monster is killed by a basic attack, Intelligence permanently +1)"
"Ding! ~" "Congratulations, game character creation successful. You can now open your personal panel! Have a pleasant game! ~"
Wen Yu decisively chose to open the panel to check his personal attributes—
[ Time ] Level: 1 (Experience 0/1000) HP: 50 MP: 50 Physical Attack: 10 Magic Attack: 10 Physical Defense: 5 Magic Defense: 5 Attributes: Strength: 5 (1 Strength = 2 Physical Attack) Intelligence: 5 (1 Intelligence = 2 Magic Attack) Agility: 5 (Agility affects movement speed and attack speed) Constitution: 5 (Constitution affects HP, MP, and Physical/Magic Defense) Critical Hit Rate: 10% Special Attributes: Luck: 0 (Affects critical hit rate and item drop attributes) (Note: No anti-crit attribute, critical damage is constant at Physical/Magic Attack * 2) Talent: Enlightenment (Every Time a monster is killed by a basic attack, Intelligence permanently +1) Skill: Primary Insight Technique (Can view attributes of monsters not higher than 5 levels above oneself, no cost)
Description: "A pure newbie..."
"What kind of Talent is this? Does it look like a Mage Talent?"
Based on Wen Yu's understanding of games, in RPGs, Intelligence is a very important attribute that often affects a Mage's output capability.
Good news: If your operation is good, you won't have to worry about output in the future. Bad news: It only triggers on basic attacks.
"How am I supposed to play like this? Am I going to have to beat every monster to low health and then go up and hit them with a staff? Does that mean I have to be a full-Strength Mage?"
Unable to figure it out, Wen Yu decided to stop thinking about it for now. There was still over a day until the official launch on September 3rd, so he decided to check the forums.
"I wonder what Talents everyone else got, and what tier my Talent is actually considered."
Wen Yu logged off and took off his helmet. He glanced at the Time; it was already past 7 PM. He would definitely miss today's National News Broadcast.
"As expected, Time passes quickly when playing games. I feel like I haven't done anything, just watched a cutscene, and several hours have already passed!"
"I still need to go out and stock up on supplies tomorrow. Since I've decided to farm gold myself, I should try to avoid going out as much as possible."
Wen Yu prepared to go downstairs to see if the small restaurant that was usually open was still operating today. While having a full meal, he wanted to see if he could leave a phone number so he could order takeout directly from downstairs to his home in the future.
It was still early, and there were many restaurants open downstairs.
Wen Yu walked to a shop called [ Uncle Yang's Bistro ]. The stir-fried dishes at this shop had always tasted good, and most importantly, the portions were very generous, and the prices were relatively cheap. Wen Yu used to eat here often.
Not yet sure if he could make money in [ After Tomorrow ], such a cheap and filling restaurant naturally became Wen Yu's first choice.
"Uncle Yang, give me a Boiled Pork Slices, and make some soup as well."
"Little Wen is here! Sit down. Why haven't you eaten yet so late? Did you just get off work?"
"I quit! I'm thinking of doing something on my own later." Actually, he had been laid off, but Wen Yu was too embarrassed to say so.
"Quitting is good! Young people should start their own businesses! You can't make a big fortune working nine-to-five!"
"Haha, Uncle Yang is right. By the way, can your shop help with delivery?"
"Sure! Do you need it too? People in nearby residential areas often order from my place and ask us to help deliver it."
"Then give me your phone number; I might often trouble you to deliver meals to me in the future."
After finishing his meal and exchanging phone numbers with the owner, Old Yang, Wen Yu returned home.
"It's evening now. Most people should have bought their helmets, and those who needed to register should have finished registering their accounts."
He opened the forum, and sure enough, it was already full of curious babies.
" Brothers! This game is too realistic! "
"Brothers, let me tell you, I adjusted my own pain sensation to 10%, punched myself, and it hurt! It hurt so much!"
"Only 10%, coward! I adjusted mine to 50%. What I want is realism! It's just that I can't adjust it to 100%, otherwise I'd let you see what a real man is!"
"The guy above is awesome!"
"Ah, yes, yes, yes, truly awesome!"
"... Are you sure it's awesome and not stupid?"
"Is there an option to adjust pain sensation? I didn't even notice. If I get punched in the game, I'll feel pain myself?"
"Yes, there is. In the top right corner of the system prompt, there is a little person icon."
Wen Yu hadn't noticed it either. He secretly took note of it, waiting to log in tomorrow to make the adjustments.
" I am Invincible, you guys do whatever! "
"I am Invincible. I got an awesome Strength Talent. My name should soon be famous throughout [ After Tomorrow ]."
"Tell us specifically, how awesome is it."
"Tell us, what kind of Strength Talent? I only got a Talent that increases movement speed; it doesn't feel very awesome."
"I'm not telling you. I! Am Invincible! Add me as a friend! I'll carry you guys!"
"I! Qin! Send money!"
Wen Yu was also very curious about what kind of Talents everyone else had obtained and what tier his own Talent was considered among this group. But after looking around, apart from one person who said their stealth skill duration was doubled, no one else clearly stated what their Talent was.
"Everyone is very cautious!"
Accompanied by the forum, Wen Yu slowly fell asleep, his heart even more expectant for September 3rd to arrive sooner...
-----x-----
Chapter 4: Entering the Novice Village for the First Time
Time flew by, and it was soon 8:00 AM on September 3rd.
Yesterday, Wen Yu had prepared everything he needed in real life. Not only did he buy several large crates of mineral water, but he also bought plenty of instant food like cup noodles and biscuits. With over 200 yuan worth of supplies, he could easily last a week without ordering takeout.
As Time ticked away, the anticipation in Wen Yu's heart reached its peak!
Seeing that the Time was almost up, Wen Yu decisively lay down on the sofa, put the game helmet on his head, and silently counted down.
"10"
"9"
"8"
...
"3"
"2"
"1"
Eyes closed!
[After Tomorrow]! Launch!
——————
"Ding!~"
"Welcome, player [Time], to Novice Village No. 13241 in the Huaxia Region. We wish you a pleasant game!"
When Wen Yu opened his eyes again, the small Novice Village was already packed with players who had entered at the first opportunity. There were men and women, tall and short, fat and thin.
"It's here! It's here! After Tomorrow? After tomorrow, I'll be the god of the Second World!"
"You're a god? What kind of god! Do you dare to spar with me?"
"I'll give you a punch!"
"Ah! Who touched me!"
"Holy crap! I over-adjusted; my pectoral muscles are huge!"
"Let me see!"
"I'm freaking here!"
"Anyone want to party up? Let's kill monsters together!"
It was incredibly noisy and lively!
Wen Yu watched for a moment and then stopped paying attention to them.
First, Wen Yu opened his personal inventory. There were only 50 slots in total, and currently, only one item was inside.
[Novice Gift Pack]
Wen Yu chose to use it.
"Ding!~"
"Confirm opening the [Novice Gift Pack]?"
"Absolutely! Open it!"
"Ding!~ Congratulations, you have obtained [wooden sword] (common) and [novice cloth armor] (common)!"
"Ding!~ Congratulations, you have obtained [Health Potion (common)] * 20!"
"Ding!~ Congratulations, you have obtained [Magic Potion (common)] * 20!"
Wen Yu clicked on the health and Magic Potions to check them. Each Health Potion could restore 50 HP, while each Magic Potion could restore 50 MP.
For Level 1 Wen Yu, one potion was just enough to fully restore his bars.
After equipping the [wooden sword] and [novice cloth armor], Wen Yu immediately checked his attributes:
[Time]
Level: 1 (EXP: 0/1000)
HP: 50
MP: 50
Physical Attack: 10+3
Magic Attack: 10
Physical Defense: 5+2
Magic Defense: 5
Attributes:
Strength: 5
Intelligence: 5
Agility: 5
Constitution: 5
Critical Rate: 10%
Special Attributes:
Luck: 0
Talent: Enlightenment
Skill: Basic Insight Technique
Equipment:
[wooden sword] (common): Attack +3
[novice cloth armor] (common): Physical Defense +2
...
"common is probably the worst equipment tier. I wonder what's above it."
Looking up, he saw that some players had already taken their wooden swords and started walking out of the village.
Wen Yu wasn't in a hurry. He decided to walk around the village first to see if he could pick up any quests.
Soon, he discovered an NPC surrounded by many players—a middle-aged man with a face full of worry.
Wen Yu immediately ran over to him. Since attacking each other was not allowed in the safe zone and player models could overlap, the Novice Village didn't suffer from overcrowding issues where people blocked each other.
"Uncle, is there anything I can help you with?"
The man named Ge Mo looked up at Wen Yu and said, "Sigh! My young daughter, Ge Lan, has always wanted a coat made of Rabbit Hides, but I have a disability in my hand and can't even kill a rabbit. It's almost her birthday, what should I do?"
"Uncle, how many Rabbit Hides do you need? I'll go collect them for you!" Wen Yu immediately said.
Ge Mo looked at Wen Yu excitedly: "Really? Adventurer from another world. Can you help me collect 50 Rabbit Hides?"
Adventurer from another world? Is that what they call players?
But Wen Yu didn't have Time to overthink it because the quest prompt had already triggered!
"Ding!~"
"Accept quest: [Ge Mo's Commission]?"
"Quest Requirement: Collect Rabbit Hides (0/50)"
Quest Reward: EXP * 100
Wen Yu estimated that Ge Mo must be a low-tier NPC. Through the public channel, Wen Yu already knew that rabbits were the lowest-level wild monsters at Level 1, and Ge Mo couldn't even defeat a rabbit.
But Wen Yu still intended to take the quest first to test the quest difficulty of this game.
"Accept!"
He then turned around and walked out of the village.
At the village entrance, it was even more crowded—a sea of people. Everyone was frantically attacking the rabbits in front of them. The population limit for a single Novice Village was 10,000 people.
Excluding those who hadn't logged in yet and those still wandering in the village, Wen Yu estimated that there were currently about 4,000 people hunting rabbits.
Although there were many wild monsters in [After Tomorrow] and they respawned quickly, no respawn rate could keep up with 4,000 people killing them at once.
The most obvious sign was the public chat channel, which was already in an uproar!
Old Zhang Next Door (Player): After Tomorrow! Hurry up and spawn some monsters for me. Damn, I only managed to snatch 2 rabbits in 5 minutes! 20 EXP! To reach Level 2, I'll have to spend all day just killing rabbits here!
Speechless Cloud (Player): Just be content... Every Time I get a monster to half health, a party of players comes to steal it. I haven't killed a single monster yet!
Immortal in the Painting (Player): Are there any big brothers who can carry me? The sword is so heavy, I can't lift it! *Sob sob*~
Definitely Gonna Smash You (Player): Who! Who the hell stole my monster! If you have the guts to steal it, show your ID!
"Is it really this hard?..."
After watching the chat channel for a while, Wen Yu prepared to join the fray himself.
Insight Technique!
[Rabbit]
Level: 1
HP: 50
Attack: 10
Defense: 5
Skill: None
After checking the rabbit's attributes, Wen Yu mentally calculated.
"I have 13 attack power, and the rabbit's defense is 5. That means if I hit it once, I can deal 8 damage without a crit? And it can only deal 3 damage to me? I wonder if that's how it's calculated."
If the calculation was correct, the rabbit wasn't strong.
Wen Yu temporarily dropped the idea of partying up with others.
He then found a less crowded spot to wait for a rabbit (Note: Wild monsters respawn every 30 seconds).
Seeing a newly spawned rabbit, Wen Yu went up and struck it!
-8
It seemed his calculation method was correct.
-3
The rabbit bit Wen Yu back.
Before he could process it, he looked again, and the rabbit was already dead.
Five burly men were surrounding it, each having landed a hit.
Since they were all Level 1, everyone's attack power was the same. Everyone dealt 8 damage, but one of them happened to trigger a critical hit.
The rabbit was melted instantly, and the experience was taken by the person who landed the killing blow.
...At this rate, leveling up will take forever...
But for now, he had no other choice. He could only try to snatch monsters everywhere and see if he could land the killing blow.
He kept wandering around like this. Two minutes later...
Wen Yu finally managed to snatch a monster.
"Ding!~"
"Killed a Rabbit, EXP +10"
"Congratulations, you have obtained Rabbit Hide * 1"
"Congratulations, you have obtained Gold Coin * 1"
"Talent skill successfully triggered, Intelligence +1"
Seeing that he finally snatched a monster, Wen Yu was delighted.
Checking his attributes again, his Intelligence had indeed increased by one point, and his Magic Attack had become 12.
"Where's the Rabbit Hide! Where's the gold coin! Where the hell is my Rabbit Hide!"
He flipped the dead rabbit over several Times but didn't see any gold coins drop.
The system clearly notified me that I got them, so where are they?
Wen Yu decided not to think about it for now because another rabbit had spawned.
"Take a hit from your daddy!"
-16!
Woohoo! Critical hit!
...
Like this, he repeatedly snatched monsters and had monsters snatched from him.
Half an hour later, Wen Yu snatched another rabbit.
"Ding!~"
"Killed a Rabbit, EXP +10"
"Congratulations, you have obtained Rabbit Hide * 1"
"Congratulations, you have obtained Gold Coin * 1"
"Talent skill successfully triggered, Intelligence +1"
Up to now, Wen Yu had killed 15 rabbits in total. For each one, the system had given a prompt, but no items could be found next to the rabbit corpses.
Sensing something was wrong, Wen Yu finally thought of a possibility and quickly opened his inventory.
Inside, 15 Rabbit Hides and 6 gold coins were lying quietly.
"As expected, items dropped in this game go directly into the killer's inventory, skipping the part where people fight over them."
"Looking at it this way, landing the killing blow is even more important. You get both experience and gold. No matter how much damage you deal before that, you get zero profit."
By now, Wen Yu's Intelligence attribute had reached 20 points, and his Magic Attack had reached a height of 40 points.
"I bet even if there are players who have already leveled up, no one could have reached 20 Intelligence. But before changing classes, no matter how high Intelligence is, it's useless. For leveling up, Strength must be the priority, otherwise, you can't even kill monsters."
Wen Yu was now in this awkward position.
I must level up as soon as possible! Snatch the killing blows!