[The game will begin in 1 minute and 30 seconds. Please name your game character.]
Hearing the system prompt again, Wu Shaochen shook his head, deciding not to overthink it. After all, this was a groundbreaking game, and there were bound to be many things beyond his understanding. Calming his mind, he said:
"Chen Feng."
[Name successfully registered. The game will use the player's original appearance, which cannot be altered. However, you can purchase masks or veils in the game store to cover your face. To help players quickly adapt to the game, the pain sensation will be set at 5% upon entering the game, and will automatically increase by 5% every ten levels. Other senses will be consistent with the real world.]
[Upon entering the game, the system will randomly generate a lifelong talent for each player based on their comprehensive characteristics. Each talent has its unique features, so please make good use of it and choose a profession that matches your talent as closely as possible.]
[Alright, enjoy the game! The game is about to start...
10
9...
3...2...1]
As soon as the countdown ended, a flash of light appeared, and Wu Shaochen found himself standing in the Novice Village. White lights kept flashing around him as more and more people appeared, quickly making the place crowded.
"Wc, is this the game?"
"Damn, this is way too realistic."
"This is exactly like reality."
"Who the hell touched my ass!"
"Uh, sorry, I was just testing the feel. I thought I was dreaming. It really is 100% realism."
"Damn, then let me grab you to see if it's real!"
"No, please! I've already verified it, it's very real!"
The cacophony of voices around him made Wu Shaochen almost unable to distinguish between reality and the game.
[Welcome to Oracle. You were born in Novice Village No. 8365. The system has given you a novice gift pack, and your talent has been generated. Your talent is [Source of Venom]. Please check it in the character panel.]
"Source of Venom? What the hell? I'm such a righteous person, what does poison have to do with me?" Wu Shaochen was bewildered because he knew that everyone's talent was determined by themselves, and he couldn't understand what connection he had with poison.
Rewinding a bit, in reality, after Wu Shaochen's consciousness entered the game, his skin began to turn pale, and toxins continuously invaded his bloodstream. After a while, when the game helmet collected a blood sample, it detected the presence of toxins in his blood and absorbed most of the toxins from Wu Shaochen's body through the blood sample collection.
"Open the character interface," Wu Shaochen silently commanded in his mind.
Name: Chen Feng
Level: 0
Health: 50
Mana: 50
Physical Attack: 10
Magical Attack: 10
Physical Defense: 5
Magical Defense: 5
Movement Speed: 5
Experience: 0/100
Strength: 5 (affects physical attack, 1 point of strength = 2 points of physical attack)
Intelligence: 5 (affects magical attack, 1 point of intelligence = 2 points of magical attack)
Physique: 5 (affects health, 1 point of physique = 10 points of health)
Constitution: 5 (affects defense, 1 point of constitution = 1 point of physical defense and 1 point of magical defense)
Spirit: 5 (affects mana, 1 point of spirit = 10 points of mana)
Agility: 5 (affects movement speed and attack speed, 1 point of agility = 1 point of movement speed and 0.2% attack speed)
All novice characters start with attributes of 5. This is very fair unless you have a talent that adds attributes.
Skills: Insight (can view information of monsters no more than 10 levels higher than oneself)
Talent: Source of Venom: Normal attacks or melee skills will inflict venom on the target (ranged attacks cannot trigger), causing 1 point of true damage per second, stackable once, lasting 60 seconds. The target cannot heal during the poisoning period. Feature: Each time you kill a target 5 levels higher than yourself, poison damage increases by one point. Each time you kill a BOSS not lower than your realm level, the poison stacking can increase by one layer (each realm's BOSS can only trigger once).
Wu Shaochen stared blankly at his talent. Although it initially seemed quite useless, after seeing its features, Wu Shaochen's heart couldn't help but race. With his understanding of the game, he could sense how terrifying this talent could become once it stacked up.
He felt like he was about to take off! Houses, cars, money, and girls were all beckoning to him. At this point, he no longer cared whether he had any connection to poison; he just knew this talent was truly amazing...
Quickly opening his backpack, he found the novice gift pack, which unsurprisingly contained a wooden sword and commoner's clothes.
Wooden Sword: Physical Attack +2 (Novice Equipment)
Commoner's Clothes: Physical Defense +1 (Novice Equipment)
Better than nothing, he immediately equipped them, increasing his attack to 12 and defense to 6.
Looking at the noisy crowd around him and the constant flashes of white light, he estimated that there were nearly ten thousand people in this Novice Village. According to official announcements, there were ten thousand Novice Villages in China alone. If each Novice Village was like this, it meant that the game had already surpassed a hundred million players in China alone upon launch. Truly terrifying...
After finally squeezing out of the crowd, he tried to find an NPC for a quest, only to discover that the village's dozen or so NPCs were surrounded by layers of players.
"Uh, forget it. Even if there are quests at this stage, the rewards won't be high. It's better not to waste time and go out to fight monsters," Wu Shaochen thought to himself.
***
Walking out of the village entrance, he found a grassland where many rabbits were hopping around. However, the entire grassland was already crowded with players, and white lights occasionally flashed, indicating player deaths.
Can such cute little rabbits really kill people? Wu Shaochen was puzzled and approached a rabbit, casting Insight on it.
[Little White Rabbit]
Level: 1
Health: 100
Physical Attack: 12
Physical Defense: 7
Speed: 6
Skills: None
Looking at the Little White Rabbit's attributes and then at his own, Wu Shaochen's mouth twitched. He finally understood why people were dying. Without teaming up, an average person couldn't even defeat the lowest-level rabbit.
Before reaching level ten for a job transfer, players' attributes were basically the same. With the wooden sword, his attack was 12 points, and his defense with the commoner's clothes was only 6 points. This meant he would deal 5 points of damage to the rabbit per hit, while the rabbit would deal 6 points of damage to him. The key was that the rabbit had 100 health, while players only had 50. Early on, attack speeds were the same, so it was essentially a trade of blows, with the outcome obvious. The most annoying part was that the rabbit was slightly faster than players, meaning you couldn't even run away if you couldn't win. Was this game serious?
"Wc, the game developers are really cruel. Damn, I've already been killed by rabbits twice, can you believe it?"
"I'm worse off than you. I was the first to come out and have already died three times. After playing games for so many years, it's the first time I can't even beat a rabbit. It's embarrassing!"
Although many people were dying, the sheer number of players meant that whenever a rabbit respawned, several people would attack it simultaneously. Without teaming up, experience went to whoever landed the final blow, and as for dropped items, it depended on who was quicker. So far, many rabbits had died, but only the occasional copper coin or rabbit fur had dropped, with no equipment in sight. Oracle's drop rate was truly disheartening.
"FUCK, killing one rabbit only gives 1 point of experience. I finally managed to snatch one, but killing 100 will take forever."
Someone complained, and Wu Shaochen's mouth twitched. Was this game really that hard?
Seeing the enthusiastic players around him, he realized it was impossible to fight here. The rabbit he had just looked at was already surrounded by a group of people. Forget it, he thought, I'll find another place to try.
Proofreader & Editor: Peter Pan