Chapter 6: Upgrade

When a black-haired young man emerged from the foliage of trees and leaves, the Chen brothers' battle with the two battle chickens had not ended.

Without knowing who this guy was, both brothers could guess that this was probably the same dreaded player who had been summoning meteorites. Seeing him so close to them and their ticket to more experience only made them even more anxious.

They were afraid that this guy would steal their kill.

However, what puzzled the two was that the young man only glanced at them indifferently and continued to walk west.

It was as if he was not interested in their prey.

Only when the young man had left their line of sight did the Chen brothers finally relax.

A few minutes later, the two brothers finally defeated the Combat Chickens and sat under a cypress tree to rest.

"It's really rare to see people who don't steal kills these days."

"Maybe it's the skill's drawback. With such tremendous power, the side effects must be huge."

"You're right… By the way, was that really the guy who summoned the meteorites?"

 "Who knows and who cares." Chen Dajia said. Then he abruptly changed the topic, "When I saw that guy's disinterested look at the chickens, I thought he was about to level up to Level 2."

"There's no way he could be that fast." Chen Xiaoyi shook his head, "The fastest record for reaching Level 2 was one hour and forty minutes. It has only been less than half an hour since God's Path opened."

"And even if he has that powerful skill, his experience bar probably still hasn't filled up to half. In fact, it might not even be a quarter..."

The two of them continue to chat.

… 

Meanwhile, Ling Yi, who continued to head west, finally walked out of the "C" shaped Cypress Forest.

He saw a large grass slope six to seven meters high, probably nearly the same height as a two-story building.

Out of interest and curiosity, he felt the need to climb up to see what was on the other side.

"Eh? Why is this grass slope so high?" Ling Yi pondered curiously as he strolled towards it. 

When he started to climb the grass slope, a system message suddenly appeared.

[Current Area: Red Orchard]

[Monster Information: Red Fruit Monster (Level 2~level 10)]

[Prompt: There are many monsters in this area. It is best to come with your companions.]

He had learned a lot from the TV yesterday.

One of them was the fact that the further away he was from the camp, the higher the level of the monsters he would encounter. 

And these monsters would immediately attack upon sight.

He had found that area to the West of the Cypress Forest.

When he reached the top of the grass slope, Ling Yi lay on his stomach. He then cautiously looked around before taking in the view in front of him.

All he could see was a vast green plain with no end in sight.

From a distance, he could see fruit trees, about five to six-meter-tall. And he has never seen any of those red fruits before in his whole life. 

These fruits were called Vermilion fruits, and they came in different sizes. The small ones were about the size of an ordinary apple, while the bigger ones were about half a meter in diameter.

Under each fruit tree, there were more than a dozen oddly big, jumping fruits.

Those must be the Red Fruit Monsters the system mentioned before.

Ling Yi continued to lay there and carefully examined the Red Fruit monster for a moment. He couldn't find any difference between them and the fruits on the tree.

Well, other than the fact it could move.

"Sh*t!... There are too many monsters."

From a rough estimate, there were at least a thousand of them.

And this was from what was visible to him. Who knows how many of those living fruits are further into the plains?

Ling Yi didn't dare to stand up or be anywhere near those monsters' line of sight. Once spotted, at least half of those monsters would see him.

Then at least a hundred more of them alert the others, and before he would even get another step closer, he'll be mobbed by them. There was no way he could fend them off if it happened.

"No wonder God's Path prompted me to bring companions…." He mumbled, "If people really want to deal with those Red Fruit Monsters, how can they do it without inviting an army of people?"

"But that's what other people would probably do. If it were me..."

Mapping the plan in his head, Ling Yi couldn't help but smile.

He pressed himself flat to the ground, hiding his whole body in the grass, watching his targets between the blades of the grass.

"Starfall," He said softly.

In the next second, the ball of gas reappeared hundreds of meters high in the sky!

When the bright red flame star accelerated its descent, the Red Fruit monsters on the plains below were still jumping about, oblivious to its incoming fate.

From his vantage point, these giant apple-like monsters don't seem to have eyes. Ling Yi didn't know if they even noticed the threat above them.

 And so…

Even when the flaming ball of gas fell to the ground and exploded, the two Red Fruit monsters in the area showed no signs of dodging.

They had all died under the flaming rock!

[You've killed Red Fruit Monster (Lv2)]

[Experience +2]

[Congratulations! You have accumulated enough experience. You have been automatically upgraded to Level 2!]

[You've killed Red Apple Monster (Lv2)] 

[Experience +1]

[You have received 5 free Attribute Points!]

"I'm level 2!" Ling Yi exclaimed excitedly and quickly checked the time.

[Remaining time since arrival: 2 hours and 34 minutes]

"I've been here for 26 minutes and only reached Level 2. I don't know if I'm fast or slow."

He knew that it was tough to level up God's Path.

But he didn't know precisely how difficult it was.

He had heard from the uncle living next door earlier that morning that powerhouses might not gain much exp even after fighting for an entire afternoon.

The main reason for this was to avoid the possibility of players bullying the weak.

Players would not gain any exp from killing monsters that are weaker than them. Killing monsters of the same level as the player would give 1 exp, killing monsters that were 1 level higher would give 2 exp, killing monsters that were 2 levels higher would give 3 exp, and so on...

A level 90 player would still only get 1 exp from killing a level 90 monster.

And a battle of that level would usually take at least a few hours to determine the victor.

Ling Yi shook his head to eliminate the distracting thoughts in his mind. He opened his Personal Stats and was ready to add points.

Last night, he had already decided on his future path.

He wants to cultivate all attributes!

He would be an all-rounder who could deal physical and magical damage, throw skills from a long distance, and fight in close combat. He would be an all-rounder who could kill monsters and save people!

As a bonus, he also had the Super Mutation System on his side. If he were only to improve one aspect like other players, it would be a waste of the system's ability!

And since he already set his goals, it would be advantageous to place his points to…

"Mm... I'll improve my Mana first. The higher my magic attribute, the more powerful my Starfall will be, and the faster I kill monsters, the faster I will level up."

So now, his first objective was to level up.

The earlier he reached level 10, the better!

Ling Yi couldn't waste any more time. He quickly added all 5 attribute points to his Mana.

Then, he looked at his Personal Stats.

『Name: Ling Yi

 [Level: 2 (1/300)]

 [Talent: Probability Reversal]

 [Strength: 3]

 [MP: 10]

 [Agility: 3]

 [Vitality: 3]

 [Endurance: 3]

 [Skill: Starfall (1 star)]

 [Remaining Star Position: 1]

 [Combat Strength: An ordinary person with great destructive power] 』

"Still an ordinary person... You're quite objective." Ling Yi commented bitterly.

Why couldn't he be as strong and as swift as the wind? He wanted to have combat power that surpassed ordinary people.

Regardless of what the system would think of him, he still had some leveling up to do. He can think about the rest later.

After closing his Personal Stats window, he looked at the plains below again.

"Hehehe. Let me see the power of this Starfall."

Ling Yi pushed aside a small patch of grass in front of him and whispered-yelled, "Starfall!"

Another golden-red light suddenly appeared, and with the same speed as before, it rushed towards the grassland again.

Even though the distance and speed were the same as before, the flame star was twice as big!

It had a diameter of 10 meters!

Ling Yi subconsciously took in a cold breath as he looked at the meteor that hit the ground below him like a missile.

"I'm already this strong at Level 2?"