Chapter 10

On his way back, Wu Shaochen considered and removed all his equipment, putting on novice cloth armor and wielding a wooden sword. He headed towards the village, unsure how well-equipped other players were, but confident they couldn't match his gear. After all, he had been leveling aggressively and efficiently, preferring to keep a low profile to avoid attracting attention.

Returning to the goat area, he saw numerous players grouped together farming goats, mostly clad in novice cloth armor and wielding wooden swords. Occasionally, he spotted someone with different gear, but they were a minority. The game's drop rates were indeed abysmal. Wu Shaochen was relieved he had stripped down before returning; otherwise, he might have drawn unwanted attention.

As he left the goat area, a woman wearing a white face mask frowned in the direction he had departed. "This person... seems unusually fast," she muttered to herself. "Even with everyone going full agility build, we're all only at level two. His speed shouldn't be that much faster."

"What's wrong, miss? Is there something about that person?" Liu asked, glancing in the direction his mistress was looking, but Wu Shaochen had already vanished from view.

"Nothing," the woman shook her head, feeling perhaps too sensitive.

Wu Shaochen soon reached the village, finding it sparsely populated as most residents were out hunting monsters. "Let's see if there are any quests available," he thought to himself, heading straight for the elderly man with white hair standing at the village entrance, likely the village chief.

"Hello, village chief. Is there anything I can help with?" Wu Shaochen asked politely.

"Adventurer, your current strength is too low to assist me. Go see Granny Liu to the north of the village; perhaps she has a task for you," the village chief replied.

"Okay, not high enough level to take quests here," Wu Shaochen sighed. He trotted eagerly to the north of the village, where he found an old lady sitting in the sun.

"Granny Liu, hello. Is there anything I can help you with?" Wu Shaochen inquired.

"Oh, adventurer, I do have a bit of trouble. Lately, the rabbits outside the village have been multiplying and eating all my radishes. Could you go kill those pesky rabbits for me?" Granny Liu asked.

"Ding! Granny Liu has a quest for you. Quest details: Go to the grasslands and kill small white rabbits, bring back 10 rabbit fur to Granny Liu; Quest rewards: Experience +10, Copper coins +10. Do you accept?"

"This is it?" Wu Shaochen thought. "I should aim higher. Isn't it better to hunt wolves with this time?" He promptly declined, rushing away from Granny Liu's disappointed gaze.

"Are quest rewards in this game always so low? Or is this just the most basic type?" Wu Shaochen wondered as he explored the newbie village. Suddenly, he noticed a farmer sitting at his doorstep, looking troubled—clearly a quest giver.

"Uncle, hello. Is there something I can help you with?" Wu Shaochen approached politely.

"Adventurer, hello. I've been facing some difficulties lately. It would be great if you could help me out. There have been wild boars wreaking havoc in the forest, destroying my crops. Could you go and eliminate those pesky boars for me?" the farmer asked.

"Ding! The farmer has a quest for you. Quest details: Go to the forest and kill wild boars, bring back 50 boar tusks to the farmer; Quest rewards: Experience +500, Copper coins +200. Do you accept?"

Haha, isn't this convenient? Wu Shaochen looked at the over a hundred wild boar tusks in his backpack and immediately clicked "accept" without hesitation. Just as he was about to submit the quest, he suddenly stopped. "Oh crap, if I submit this, won't I level up directly? How am I supposed to grind talents then?" He quickly withdrew the tusks he was about to hand over. That old guy is really tricky, trying to hinder my talent progression.

Forget it, there's no time limit on the quest. I'll come back to submit it when I can't grind talents in the newbie village anymore. I'll redo all the quests then. Experience doesn't matter much; it's mainly about the copper coin rewards.

After deciding, Wu Shaochen turned and headed towards the pharmacy. There was no need to look for other quests now; leveling talents was the most important.

At the pharmacy, he checked the goods and saw that a small health potion cost 20 copper coins. Wu Shaochen's face darkened. "So expensive?" He had thought that even the lowest-level potions would cost at most one or two copper coins. With over two hundred copper coins on hand, he had thought he could easily buy over a hundred potions. Now he could only afford 10.

"This is outrageous!" Wu Shaochen muttered to himself. Eventually, he gritted his teeth and bought 10 potions. Looking at the 16 copper coins left in his pouch, Wu Shaochen felt like he was bleeding. Each of those coins was painstakingly picked up from the ground.

He hurried to the general store and sold the extra 81 wild boar tusks. The quest only required 50 tusks, and he had 131. The extras had to be sold off. Each player could only do the same quest once, unless it was a chain quest. He received 81 copper coins, returned to the pharmacy, bought 4 more health potions, and then walked outside the village.

As he walked, Wu Shaochen opened the chat channel. Honestly, he had been playing the game for several hours without even looking at the chat channel. He felt disconnected from the community. It was time to see what everyone was talking about. Currently, only the regional and private chat channels were open. He clicked on the regional channel, and it was buzzing with activity.

"Looking for a team to kill goats. Preferably level 1 and above, full strength or full team builds."

"Need two full strength DPS to farm goats together."

"Is there anyone who can help me kill goats? Just hit level 1."

"Dang, got killed again. Luckily, deaths before level 10 don't result in XP loss, or I'd have to go back to killing rabbits again. These goats hit hard."

Watching everyone discuss goat farming in the chat channel, Wu Shaochen shook his head. Luckily, his talents allowed him to grind monsters above his level. Otherwise, he might have had to fight for monsters like everyone else.

"I heard a few level 2 big shots went to fight level 3 monsters, but they all came back soon after. Are level 3 monsters really that terrifying?"

"That must be terrifying indeed. I've checked out the attributes of those green snakes myself. Their venom is disgusting; without potions, it's impossible to handle. The ones sold in the shop are ridiculously expensive, so the pros probably aren't planning to fight the green snakes."

At this moment, Junlin and his group emerged from the bamboo forest, all wearing grim expressions.

"Let's go back to farming goats. Forget about the green snakes. Let's level up a bit more, get some equipment, and then directly go for the level 4 crabs. Green snakes are out," Junlin said.

"Yeah, fighting green snakes isn't worth it. They consume too many potions," Nanfeng responded.

"Sigh, but if we keep doing this, the gap with that person will only widen," Haoran remarked.

"Our talents are more geared towards the later stages. We don't have much advantage early on. There's no need to compete with him. His talent might be significant now, but it might not be the case later. So let's not worry too much. With our strength, surpassing him later won't be difficult," Junlin concluded.

Wu Shaochen quickly returned to the wolf area again. With 16 bottles of potions in his backpack, he felt confident. Within a few minutes, he lured out a wolf and went straight into action.