This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.

Entering the game

Three days passed by really quickly…

Looking at the time, there was only one minute away before the game officially opens. Rui, wearing a helmet, was lying on his bed, waiting.

He turned on the power.

With his vision going dark, Rui entered the game.

Once again, he arrived at the place where he made his account.

“There’s only ten seconds left before the game opens!”

“Only nine seconds before the game opens!”

“…”

“The game will open in one second!”

“The game has opened, do you wish to enter?”

Gently approaching the front of the Rogue statue, upon activation, Rui’s body was suddenly sucked into it, and the six statues of other occupation broke and collapsed.

“Enter the game!”

With one bright white light shining into the sky, by the time Rui’s vision was restored, he was already in a very small town.

He touched his own body and felt the existence of fabrics. It seems, in order to protect the privacy of the players’ characters, and protect the players themselves, the game company actually gave players protection rather than having them start out with an underwear and a bra.

“Damn, what the f— is going on? I was gonna sit here and watch the naked bodies of beautiful ladies!”

“Hell, this is outrageous. I’m going to protest!”

“You two idiots, instead of standing here and complaining, why don’t you go and level up. In a little while, there will be so many people that you won’t be able to play.”

“…”

Hearing the crowd’s conversation, Rui began to laugh.

Opening his bag, he found a wooden sword the system presented to him, and he took out the equipment.

He took a look at the stats of his equipment.

Novice Wooden Sword: Attack 3-5, Indestructible Novice Clothing: 5 Defense, Indestructible Novice Sandals: 1 Defense, Indestructible

‘Damn, are these equipment for a caveman or something?’

Dumbfounded, Rui looked at the linen clothes on his body, the straw sandals, and the wooden sword.

Nevermind, it was better for him to find a place to level up, otherwise, there’d be more and more people.

The sky was constantly alight because it shines each time a new player enters ‘Kismet.’ The Novice’s village is a closed town; before a player reaches level 10, it is absolutely impossible to leave it. There were a lot of players inside the confinement of the Novice Village who wanted to reach level 10 quickly and seize the opportunities to leave it.

Carrying a wooden sword, Rui was running while taking advantage of his Speed stat of 2. Although it wasn’t very fast, relative to many of the players who didn’t even have 1 point in Speed (for not having 10 Agility points), he was very fast.

He ran all the way straight to the exit of the village, and ran into an NPC with the word “Mayor” above his head.

A quest!

Rui suddenly stopped in his tracks, walked up to the Mayor, and talked to him.

“Hello Mayor, is there anything I can do for you?”

“Hello brave Sly Hand, welcome to number 22,222 Novice Village. I hope you can find your own path in the world of Kismet. Become strong, and continuously transcend to the very top!”

“…”

Discontented, he bid farewell to the Mayor. Really, there was no way it was that easy to receive a quest.

The moment he came out of the village, it was already overcrowded. The moment small rabbits and chicken spawned, they didn’t even have enough time to look around before a wooden sword would slash upon them, and countless of them died on the spot. How sad! Fortunately, the corpses of the slain animals would disappear quickly, otherwise, the ground would be littered with corpses and would really become a tragedy!

With many players eyeing the ground waiting for the monsters to respawn, Rui suddenly lost interest. He didn’t want to get mixed in with the large group and kill steal. Moreover, if he wanted to get out of the Novice Village quickly, engaging with small rabbits and chickens wasn’t enough. To seize opportunities, his starting point must be different from everyone else. Since there’s a big difference in his stats compared to normal players, naturally, he should go find high-level monsters to kill.

He walked away from the village, and naturally, the monsters there were stronger the further away from safe-zone. Even though most people were level 0, they may be able to go up against level 1 mobs, but for level 2 and higher, unless they were working together, it was near impossible. However, with Rui’s increased attributes and his knowledge of the game, he should be able to handle higher level monsters.

Novice players were generally divided into two categories. The first category are the Physical-based kind of players such as Knights, Warriors, Rogues, and Archers. The second type are the Magic-based players such as Mages, Summoners, and Priests. Prior to level 10, before getting their job advancement, physical-based players have no attack skills other than the generic attack. However, there was a passive effect that can trigger and deals 120% damage, which was considered ‘not bad.’ Magic-based players are considered relatively weak, but they have a skill called ‘Elemental Ball of Light,’ which deals 120% damage and consumes a certain amount of MP. However, due to it being the earlier stages of the game, players do not have the money to buy MP potions. Thus, compared to using Elemental Ball of Light for leveling, wielding a wooden sword to kill monsters was much better.

Pheasant Level : 2

Health : 100/100

Attack : 15

Walking further away from the village, were monsters called Pheasant, and its Attack and Health was doubled in comparison to the level 1 rabbits and chickens. Thus, relatively fewer players came to this place, and most of them who did come, were friends and formed a party together.

Although there were fewer people, there was still not enough monsters to go around. Since Rui didn’t want to get in conflict with the people there, he sent them a sweeping glance and proceeded further.

Nevertheless, there were a lot of people who took notice of Rui’s sudden appearance. However, since he was on his own, the chances of them being robbed of their monster was quite slim, and thus, did not care if he went further away from the village. But there were still people who minded him. Seeing Rui getting farther away, a lot of the people revealed mocking smiles. A level 2 monster needed a party to work together to barely defeat it, and there’s one guy who wants to find more powerful monsters? To court death?

Rui didn’t care how people thought of him, and even if he did, he would just laugh it off. He continued into the depths passing the level 2 Pheasants’ area.

“Hey bro, right ahead is the area of the Gray Wolves, it’s very dangerous!” A handsome youth cried out towards Rui’s back.

Rui turned around to look at him and the people around him, and smiled gently. Ignoring the persuasive call of the young fellow, he wandered to the area of the Gray Wolves alone.

“Big bro, don’t worry about him anymore. If you rush into the area of the level 5 Gray Wolves, you’ll be killed!” Shortly after, a short person held the handsome youth back and said with disdain.

“Is he really trying to die?”

Rui looked back, and the handsome young fellow’s eyebrows were slightly wrinkled, but he didn’t have time to ponder. A friend of his lured another Pheasant towards him and their next battle continued.

Stepping into the Gray Wolf area, it didn’t take long before he encountered a Gray Wolf the size of a calf.

Gray Wolf Level : 5

Health : 300/300

Attack : 35

Defense : 5

Seeing the stats of the Gray Wolf, Rui suddenly felt his perspiration streaming down his body. ‘What the hell is this? The monsters right before this place was a level 2, but it’s level 5 here? F— me!’

Rui discovered the Gray Wolf, naturally the Gray Wolf also discovered him. Rui originally thought it would be a level 3 monster. At the moment, the Gray Wolf’s gaze was fixated on him. Advancing was not an option, neither was retreat. It was very awkward moment! Compared to other monsters such as Rabbits, Chickens, and Pheasants, Gray Wolves were very different, they took initiative to attack. When Gray Wolves finds a player, it will attack them, and this was why players considered them a pain in the ass. In a party against a non-aggressive monster, even if they all hit it once, it’d be mostly dead. However, for aggressive mobs, that strategy would not be possible, since they can’t get close enough without it attacking, thus the strategy was not viable.

‘Damn, it’s just a virtual wolf. What the hell? Nevermind a real wolf, even if it was a real lion or a tiger, I would still slaughter them as though they were cats and dogs.’

Seeing the Gray Wolf lowering its forefoot and slightly lowering its head, assuming an attacking posture, Rui’s mood suddenly turned sullen. Without any hesitation, he grabbed ahold of his Novice Wooden Sword in reverse grip, with its blade pointing behind, he habitually gripped it as though he was holding a dagger.

Perhaps because Rui also displayed an attacking posture, the Gray Wolf suddenly got angry. With force from its rear leg, it quickly ran towards Rui.

Frontal assault?

In the end, a beast is still a beast! Without any intelligence, it was easy to deal with a low level monster.

There was a hint of smile on Rui’s lips. With the body of the Gray Wolf fast approaching, his body dodged to the side, avoiding the teeth-bite attack, and the wooden sword in his hand struck its back ruthlessly.

Critical Damage: -34

Yellow colored damage numbers suddenly appeared, and Rui couldn’t help but grin.

Good start, the first attack was a critical hit, really awesome!

Maybe because of the pain of being attacked, the Gray Wolf turned and a pair of violent eyes looked straightly at Rui, bared its teeth and grinned, disgusting saliva flowed down from its teeth.

‘Damn, isn’t the extent of virtual realism of this thing too amazing? It feels like a real wolf.’

“Awooo…”

After a loud howl, the Gray Wolf attacked again. This time, its running speed was even faster than its first attack. Because Rui was surprised at how fast it was, he wasn’t prepared for it, and the wolf’s paw landed an attack on his shoulder.

– 37

Upon suffering an attack, his Health fell by almost a third.

Rui’s eyes turned piercingly cold. According to the wolf’s previous attack, it showed that it did not attack vital organs and weaknesses. At this moment, because of Rui’s Defense, he shouldn’t have received a lot of damage. However, because his level was lower, it resulted in him receiving 37 points of damage.

With a slightly arched body, his was in a posture that resembles a cheetah. In reality, Rui would have given the wolf a thrashing. However, he was inside a game and his stats limited him. Nevertheless, Crimson Shadow Ghost was no small prey the wolf could defeat.

With slightly narrowed eyes, Rui looked straight at the Gray Wolf, and the latter became somewhat timid because of the cold atmosphere.

Heh~, the game really was very realistic. The beast formed by data actually knew fear! Since it didn’t dare to come over and launch another attack, then he’ll go over there, kill it, and make it pay for baring its claws at him!

Rui’s eyes flashed, he bent his body slightly, and rushed past the Gray Wolf.

“Awooo…”

Due to Rui’s imposing manner, the Gray Wolf suffered a loss of morale. Seeing its enemy blatantly rushing towards it with a frontal attack, the Gray Wolf howled, and with force from its rear legs, it jumped up and fiercely charged towards Rui.

‘You’re dead!’

Seeing the Gray Wolf’s body in the air, Rui let out a sneer.

“Nimble Wind!”

Nimble Wind suddenly activated, and Rui’s speed increased dramatically. With the Novice Wooden Sword in his hands, he rushed beneath the Gray Wolf’s body, and its eyes showed a look of disbelief. A small flash appeared.

Quick, concise, a fast blow, and a flash like thunder hovered over across the sky!

This was one of Crimson Shadow Ghost’s method to kill people, accurately slitting the Gray Wolf’s throat. An instant kill move!

– 138

Ding!

Due to attacking the Gray Wolf’s weakness, the damage has been doubled!

Attacking the weakness plus critical damage! This has caused almost 150 damage to the Gray Wolf.

Hmm!

When the Gray Wolf landed, Rui snorted. In the end, this was still a game world, and everything was based on stats. Otherwise, at this moment, the wolf should have died! Nevertheless, by now, the outcome of the battle was already clear!

Taking advantage of the still active effects of Nimble Wind, Rui regained his balance and charged towards the Gray Wolf. Around it, was a continuous a wave of attacks from the Novice Wooden Sword, finishing off the Gray Wolf with its little remaining HP!