Chapter 4

"To continue evolving the Shadow Veil skill, I need 3 evolution points," Qin Feng thought. "But I only have 2 points left…"

Qin Feng could only choose to evolve the 'Backstab Boost' skill instead.

——

[You consumed 1 evolution point. Remaining points: 1.]

[Starting Skill: Backstab Boost (Poor → Normal). Passive effect: Damage bonus from attacking a target's back increased from 10% → 15%.]

——

Qin Feng was fairly satisfied with the evolution of 'Backstab Boost.'

Although it only increased damage by 5%, he could foresee how powerful this skill would become if it continued to evolve.

"With my class's passive ability doubling damage…"

"If I can evolve Backstab Boost's bonus to 100%..."

"That would mean four times the damage in total!"

Having spent nine years fighting in the Forsaken Game and being one of the top 100 players worldwide, Qin Feng was deeply familiar with how skill multipliers worked.

Now, Qin Feng was a little curious.

If these skills could keep evolving, wouldn't they surpass even the highest Immortal tier?

"Take Shadow Veil, for example. If it keeps evolving, the invisibility duration would keep increasing, and the cooldown would get shorter and shorter…"

"Could it eventually have no cooldown at all?"

"And if Backstab Boost keeps evolving, could the damage bonus reach 100% or even higher?"

Qin Feng was quite eager to see.

After all, in his previous life, he had never heard of skills being able to evolve like this.

No matter if it was gear or skill books, whatever grade they dropped as from monsters, they stayed at that grade forever, with no chance of improvement.

But now...

Qin Feng's primordial talent completely defied convention!

**Infinite Evolution.**

From now on, his skills would surpass anyone else's.

"Looks like it's time to enter the game…" Qin Feng glanced at his remaining evolution points.

He had 1 point left, but evolving Shadow Veil required 3 points, and Backstab Boost needed 2, so for now, there were no more skills to evolve.

As he decided to enter the game, a grayish-white input box appeared before him:

[Please enter your in-game alias]

In the Forsaken Game, each player had to choose an alias, similar to usernames in online games in real life.

Aliases couldn't be repeated, and if they were, the system would add a string of numbers at the end to differentiate them.

"I'll go with 'Shadow,'" Qin Feng decided.

He raised his hand and typed the two black characters into the grayish-white input box.

As soon as he finished, the input box dissolved like smoke…

——

[Your alias is: Shadow]

[Entering the Abandoned Land of the Gods…]

——

The darkness in front of Qin Feng's eyes slowly dissipated like thick smoke.

He began to feel solid ground beneath his feet.

As the surrounding darkness faded, a dilapidated town appeared before him. It was nighttime, bathed in moonlight, with a silver sheen over everything, giving the entire town an aura of desolation and decay…

Qin Feng stood in the central square of the town.

Around him, a few players dressed in black robes looked around in confusion.

As for the NPCs…

In the Forsaken Game, NPCs weren't scripted characters but intelligent beings from other civilizations.

Dealing with them required extreme caution.

Otherwise, they might swindle you out of all your lifespan, leaving you filled with regret.

Of course, in these beginner towns, there were no NPCs to be found.

For new players arriving in the Abandoned Land of the Gods, their tradable lifespan was zero, making them almost worthless to NPCs…

——

[Welcome to the Abandoned Land of the Gods.]

[This is a land of ruin, teeming with countless monsters. Be careful, for they are always ready to tear you apart and steal your lifespan…]

[Leave the town, kill monsters, and you will gain tradable lifespan.]

[But if you die in the game, half of your remaining lifespan (both tradable and non-tradable) will be deducted.]

——

The familiar system notification echoed in Qin Feng's mind.

For first-time players, this might have been surprising.

But for Qin Feng, it barely caused a ripple.

He just checked the map.

——

[Shell Town: Peaceful Zone (No monsters in this area. Player-versus-player combat is disabled.)]

[This area is classified as a mild zone. Lifespan decay rate: 1x.]

——

"As I thought, the location has changed."

"Shell Town…"

Qin Feng murmured.

Since the time of entry into the Forsaken Game varied, the place he arrived also differed from before.

There were over a billion beginner towns in the Abandoned Land of the Gods.

These beginner towns were also known as 'safe zones.'

Each beginner town could hold up to a thousand players. Once full, new players would be assigned to other towns.

"However, beginner towns are distributed by region and entry time."

"So, all the players in Shell Town should also be from Daxia Country, Jianghai City."

Qin Feng glanced around.

There were already 127 players in Shell Town.

Qin Feng was the 128th.

"Status panel."

After checking the map, Qin Feng turned his attention to his own stats.

In the Forsaken Game...

**Stats were of utmost importance!**

——

[Alias: Shadow]

[Class: Shadow]

[Level: 1]

[Non-tradable lifespan: 75 years]

[Tradable lifespan: 0]

[Strength: 10 (+3)]

[Constitution: 10 (+3)]

[Agility: 10 (+8)]

[Spirit: 10 (+5)]

[Free attribute points: 5]

——

All players started with 10 points in each of the four main stats.

The numbers in parentheses represented bonuses from their class.

"The Shadow class, as expected of a hidden class!"

"These starting stat bonuses are incredible!"

Qin Feng was stunned.

In his previous life, his warrior class only gave him 3 extra points in Strength and 3 in Constitution.

But the Shadow class…

Not only did it add 3 points to both Strength and Constitution, it also gave 8 points to Agility and 5 to Spirit!

"Strength affects physical attack power."

"Constitution affects physical defense and health points."

"Agility affects movement speed, attack speed, and skill casting speed."

"Spirit affects elemental attack power and elemental resistance."

Qin Feng understood the significance of each attribute.

In his previous life, many players initially chose to add points to Strength or Spirit to boost their physical or magical attack power.

But in reality…

Agility was the most crucial stat!

"The monsters in the Forsaken Game are extremely powerful!"

"Even the weakest of them can easily slaughter a new player."

"In the early stages, if you want to survive, you must increase Agility. No matter what class you play, only by having a speed advantage can you kill monsters without taking damage!"

Many players had the misconception that damage was the most important thing.

But in the Forsaken Game, death resulted in losing lifespan.

And the importance of lifespan needed no explanation.

Without the assurance of speed, many would find themselves dying helplessly.

"With enough speed, you can attack when needed and retreat when necessary."

"On the other hand, the small damage boost from Strength is hardly significant…"

"Especially for me."

"With my Bronze-tier Shadow Veil skill, I already have an additional 90 points of damage when breaking invisibility, which is equivalent to having 90 points in Strength!"

"I don't lack damage early on, nor do I need to add to Strength."

"Speed is the only essential stat!"