Jirin Passages

Initially, Lu Fengyi would have been happy to accept a piece of equipment or two, however considering that the only equipment that dropped for thieves and assassins were colourless, there wouldn't be much of a point. Asking for equipment would only make him stand out, possibly making him reveal his special class extremely early into the game.

Taking advantage of the ongoing commotion of the other players, Lu Fengyi disappeared into the surrounding trees before moving back towards the village. Now that he had gained a few levels, it was the perfect opportunity to begin moving towards higher levelled areas to infiltrate and loot the pitiful monsters that resided there. Of course, it wasn't as fanciful as described to be, but rather, the truth was littered with danger and one could be killed at a moment's notice if they weren't careful.

Knowing that leaving the main character to do his business was the best idea if he wanted to progress easily, Lu Fengyi moved towards a direction completely opposite Lake Rando, the area that the protagonist, Nie Yan, had gone during the novel. While he would be missing out on a bunch of known loot and such, it was still better than completely changing the story this early into the transcension.

As he ventured further and further from the village, Lu Fengyi began to see high levelled mobs, some entering even level 4 and 5.If he were to aggravate any of these, it was for sure that he would be killed in a single hit.

Carefully evading the patrolling crows and ominous eyes in the shadows of the forest area, Lu Fengyi made his way towards a place named the Jirin Passages. While this placed hadn't been mentioned in the original novel, Lu Fengyi was confident that a difficult area as such would most definitely have decent opportunities to grow stronger. If he were to defeat Ji Xun, the most important thing to obtain was strength. As he continued to sneak through the forest, Lu Fengyi quickly ran through and considered his list of options.

There were three main paths that he could currently take. While he had already decided that he would not be interfering with Nie Yan's growth early on, that did not mean that he could not make himself grow in terms of fame. One of his options was to become so publicly known that when he went and formed a guild, talented players left and right would join, allowing him to effectively crush Ji Xun in guild strength.

Another that he could consider was joining Nie Yan's guild, the Asskickers United. While it wasn't a bad option, the main question was, would he be able to lower his pride enough to join a fictional character's guild? Absolutely not! Unless it was extremely beneficial to the point of extremities, Lu Fengyi would not even consider joining Nie Yan's guild. How could a transcender, a peer of the creator of this world join the main character's guild? Although it wouldn't seem that bad on the outside, however his pride would be hurt every time he reminded himself of the fact.

The third and final option was to become the most accomplished assassin, gaining the power to even defeat Nie Yan. If he were to be able to accomplish such a feat, it would only serve to make him absolutely confident in defeating Ji Xun. After all, the man was a cult leader, how skilled could he be in games such as these?

Seeing the ends of the forest begin to enter sight, Lu Fengyi dropped the thoughts for the moment, deciding that these considerations could be revisited when he had a little more of a direction to work towards.

Upon exiting the everlasting forests, Lu Fengyi gazed out towards the Jirin Passages. Almost like a maze, the rock walls before him stretched towards the skies, leaving only half a dozen entrances into the endless earth formations. If he were to describe what he saw, it would be a stone hedge maze, just, slightly enlarged.

From what the map indicated, the Jirin Passages was a level 8 map that consisted of some of the more difficult natural bosses in the early game. Alongside those would be hundreds and thousands of minions, each possessing the capability to destroy him in a single hit. Travelling here was not only dangerous and risky, however extremely daring as well. The compensation that he could receive for his efforts though, they would most definitely be rich and rewarding.

Just as Lu Fengyi was about to enter the passages, the game system pushed out a global notification.

「System: The servers will be shutting down in three minutes. We request that all players prepare to go offline.」

Seeing that his time was up for the day, Lu Fengyi moved towards a hidden spot safe from monsters before logging out. While it was true that most of his advancements would be within the game, it was still important that he made sure that his life outside of the game was running smoothly as well. If he were to neglect everything outside, it was almost definite that the school that he was meant to attend would seek him out in order to question his absence. Of course, as a curtsy of the system, he had been enrolled into HuaHai Affiliated High School as a final year student. While this would allow him to know to a certain extent, what Nie Yan was up to, it would also give him the pleasures of experience his high school days once more.

Taking off the game helmet, Lu Fengyi rubbed his eyes before opening the blinds and preparing himself a light breakfast with what was provided inside the fridge. Being the hardworking author he was, it was already a luxury to be free from thinking about his next chapter constantly, finally allowing him to experience a well deserved break from his stressful life.

Quickly packing into his bag, some of the more important school materials, Lu Fengyi pulled out a phone from his pocket before searching the location of the school. He could only thank that the world he was currently in was quite the slice of life, meaning that apart from several minor details, most of the things around him were the same as before. Even the phone he had been provided with was the same Huawei that he had been using after his debut as an author.

Walking outside of the tall residential building, Lu Fengyi took a deep breath before moving towards the direction of the school, a medium sized bag on his back. Thankfully, the system had set his residence only several minutes walk from the school. It would be a pain if he had to travel long periods of time everyday to reach the high school.