The Lost 400 Years

In the younger Lu Jin's memory, the Two-Headed Horned Serpent was a very difficult monster to deal with.

Although it was just a Level 10 normal monster, it had two skills. One of them was the Corrosive Venom skill. It could spit out extremely corrosive venom. Even if a player had come into contact with a little of it, their electronic body would suffer a lot of damage. It could even be poisoned, which would cause the electronic body to be depleted constantly. It could cause a Level 10 player to lose more than half of their electronic body.

In Fantasy World, a player's electronic body was like their Health Points. It was a virtual body that the AR system used to remodel the player's appearance. If the virtual body was damaged, it was equivalent to the collapse of the AR system.

If a Level Six or Seven player came into contact with the corrosive venom, without the antidote or memory fragment booster, they would definitely die.

The second skill of the Two-Headed Horned Serpent, the Poisonous Fog, was even more powerful. Once it was used, it could form a poisonous fog region with a very wide range. It could easily cover an area with a radius of 20 meters. Players would sustain damage to their electronic bodies in the poisonous fog, and there was a definite chance that their bodies became paralyzed.

Normally, in order to deal with the Two-Headed Horned Serpent, ranged players would have to work together to defeat it. If there was only one person, and it was a melee player, they would have chosen to take a detour.

However, to Lu Jin, who was an internal beta tester, such a low-level monster was not an issue. It only had two skills. The truly powerful monsters had five or six skills and multiple passive skills. Some even knew magic.

In order to defeat a low-level monster like the Two-Headed Horned Serpent, it was actually very simple. All one had to do was pay close attention to its two heads.

Before the monsters in Fantasy World unleashed their skill, they would exhibit a preparatory motion. As long as one paid attention to that preparatory motion, they could preemptively dodge it if they knew what the skill was. Experts could even block the release of the skill.

After the Two-Headed Horned Serpent noticed Lu Jin, it lunged forward to bite him immediately.

"After 400 years, the offensive strategy of the low-level monsters is still the same."

Lu Jin was already very familiar with such a head-on attack, so he raised his lightsaber to meet it directly.

With Strength stats of 43, it was rare for Level 10 monsters to be considered opponents, let alone serpentes which were not Strength-based.

Clang!

The sound of metals clashing echoed in the surroundings.

The two serpent heads, which were originally biting at Lu Jin, collided with each other. The status of their electronic body reduced by 3% upon collision, and they instinctively roared at Lu Jin.

Lu Jin looked at the Two-Headed Horned Serpent, which was baring its teeth menacingly, but there was not the slightest ripple in his heart. Instead, he quietly reflected. "The accuracy was a little off. That strike didn't hit the critical spot that would have triggered the stun effect. Otherwise, I would have been able to finish it off in one move."

The Two-Headed Horned Serpent seemed to be very dissatisfied with Lu Jin's calmness. It instinctively started tearing at Lu Jin again. The two heads attacked fiercely at an extremely fast speed. Ordinary people would not have been able to keep up with that speed.

However, that kind of simple head-on attack had no effect on Lu Jin. All he had to do was to change the trajectory of one of the heads to collide with the other. Then, the high-speed attack would not be orchestrated.

One hit… Two hits… Three hits…

Every time Lu Jin swung his sword, the Two-Headed Horned Serpent was not able to retaliate. Furthermore, the damage to its electronic body was also increasing. It was obvious that Lu Jin's slashes were getting increasingly accurate.

Just as the status of the Two-Headed Horned Serpent's electronic body had reduced by more than 70%, the two heads suddenly took a deep breath and were about to lean back.

"This is it!"

Lu Jin immediately stabbed one of the heads in the jaw with his sword. In that instant, the Two-Headed Horned Serpent shuddered and its movements came to a halt.

"Die! Aurora!"

Lu Jin clenched his sword tightly and swung it twice spontaneously.

Lu Jin's two consecutive strikes were so fast that they formed two streaks of light. Then the streaks of light intertwined with each other and directly hit the Two-Headed Horned Serpent's weakest spot, at its heart, instantly reducing the remaining 20% status of its electronic body to zero.

Looking at the fallen Two-Headed Horned Serpent, Lu Jin shook his body. "This body is not bad indeed. It's a pity that the Adventurer level is too low and that the five-senses enhancement is too weak. It couldn't even execute a basic Sword Aurora well…"

Weapon technique!

In Fantasy World, weapon level was different from skill. Players did not need to learn them through books of skill. Instead, they needed to learn combo techniques through trial-and-error in order to enhance their destructive power.

Among them, Sword Aurora was a technique invented by Lu Jin. At its maximum, it could be used five times in a row with increasing destructive power.

Lu Jin then shifted his gaze to the point where a pillar and the Two-Headed Horned Serpent had fallen.

ID: Lu Jin

AR System: Level 10 (Progress: 37%. 1,000 units of memory fragments required to level up once the progress has reached 100%.)

Adventurer: Level 10 (0 EXP needed to level up. To unlock Level 11, Level 11 AR System is required.)

Basic Stats: Strength: 43 (Currently at Rank 'B', maximum potential detected is Rank 'A'.)

Agility: 34 (Currently at Rank 'C', maximum potential detected is Rank 'A'.)

Endurance: 31 (Currently at Rank 'C', maximum potential detected is Rank 'B'.)

Neural Reaction: 47 (Currently at Rank 'B', maximum potential detected is Rank 'S'.)

"Weak monsters indeed have little effect on my progress." Lu Jin briefly noted his stats. The AR system had only progressed by 1%, while his Agility and Neural Reaction had both only increased by 1% as well. "It seems that I'll have to find some powerful monsters to train with in order to break through my current limit."

Lu Jin then walked to the spot where the Two-Headed Horned Serpent had dematerialized and picked up a piece of white crystal that had fallen.

"Level 10 monsters are indeed much better than Level Six or Seven monsters."

Lu Jin studied the white crystal in his hand. They were memory fragments, and there were two whole units of them. Compared to a Level Six or Seven monster in the Mid-Zone which had a low chance of leaving behind a single unit of white crystal, the rewards were much greater. Furthermore, fewer people fought for Level 10 monsters.

Lu Jin then stored the memory fragment in his electronic backpack and started searching for his next target.

Time passed by quickly. For nine hours, Lu Jin searched continuously for powerful monsters to defeat. The progress of the AR system slowed down progressively. Even after defeating more than 200 monsters, it only rose from 37% to 62%. It was the same for the basic stats.

Strength had progressed to 46%, Agility had progressed to 39%, Endurance had progressed to 35%, Neural Reaction had progressed to 49%, missing Rank 'A' by 1%.

On the other hand, he had collected 162 units of memory fragments, which was equivalent to what he used to collect in half a month.

If other players knew about that increase in speed and rewards, they would be mad with jealousy. It had to be said that the Map Exploration function was simply unbelievable. The speed at which it detected monsters was not something that ordinary players could compare to.

As the sun set, a dark gray stone emerged suddenly, after Lu Jin had defeated a Level Nine Rock Bear.

Lu Jin looked at the dark gray stone with excitement.

"It's just a crystal residue. Two pieces of that is only worth one memory fragment. How can he be so excited? He must have been driven crazy by poverty." A young Scavenger who was preparing to return to the city tutted in disdain as he looked at Lu Jin, who seemed as though he had found a treasure.

"Two pieces of crystal residue are only worth one unit of memory fragment?" Lu Jin was stunned instead of angry at the young Scavenger's words.

"You must have just come to the Heavy-Mist Zone." The young Scavenger observed the surprised Lu Jin and couldn't help but laugh. "This crystal residue can only be used to make basic Anti-Insanity Potions. It has no other use at all. Furthermore, a bottle of basic Anti-Insanity Potion is only worth three units of memory fragments. Many other materials can be used in place of crystal residues. There are very few people who would collect crystal residues in the market. You would be lucky to even sell two pieces of crystal residue for one unit of memory fragment, yet you still treat it like a treasure."

With that, the young Scavenger left Lu Jin and rode his electric scooter back to the city.

After the young Scavenger left Lu Jin fell into deep thought.

"Four hundred years have passed in this world and people don't even know the true usage of crystal residues anymore?"

During the internal beta testing of Fantasy World, many internal testers were fighting to buy crystal residues.

There were no reasons other than that the crystal residues could cause electronic monsters to become stronger if they were fed to them. If they were lucky, the monsters could even be mutated.

Those mutated electronic monsters were a huge treasure trove. As long as they were defeated, the rewards would be so amazing that it could be compared to the rewards from defeating a Regional Overlord.

Regional Overlords were not easy to find. Not only were each of them extremely powerful, but it also took a very long time for them to be generated.

After defeating the Regional Overlord, there was a chance that a Crystal of Awakening could be obtained. The Crystal of Awakening would greatly increase the adaptability of the player's AR system. It would significantly decrease the difficulty of upgrading the player's AR system.

Back then, internal testers farmed Crystals of Awakening by defeating mutated monsters.

Furthermore, even if the monsters had only become stronger and had not mutated, the rewards from defeating them would also have been very good.

In particular, powerful monsters in Fantasy World were very rare. Usually, it was rare to encounter one in any given week. Most of the time, they would appear as a group of monsters. Even a small team would find it difficult to attack them.

At the thought of that, Lu Jin decided not to look for monsters anymore. Instead, he packed up and rode his bicycle back to the City of Light.

By the time Lu Jin returned to the West Gate of the City of Light, he could already see that many Scavengers had set up stalls on both sides of the street, selling some of the materials and weapons that they had collected that day.

Meanwhile, Lu Jin found a spot near the gate and used the AR system to make a billboard.

"Buying crystal residues at a high price. One unit of memory fragment in exchange for two pieces of crystal residue. Acquiring a limited amount of residues, first-come, first-served."