Chapter 5 (1/2)
Chapter 5 — Rise To The Challenge!
Ji Meng's true ident.i.ty…!
Edited by Planetes
Thirty minutes late, Ling Xiaolu sneaked back online like a thief. He looked around him cautiously, and only heaved a breath of relief after confirming there was no one there.
”You were offline for so long, did you go and relieve yourself? The power of the overwhelmer cannot be underestimated!”
Ling Long appeared from some corner, giving him a fright.
”Are you trying to scare me to death?!”
”Relax, Ji Meng has been long gone.”
”Hmph, I haven't settled my debts with you yet.” Ling Xiaolu clearly had plans about torturing it.
”Debts?” Ling Long pressed its claws to its chest in exaggeration. ”If not for my timely kick, you might be in Dongye right now.”
”Dongye? Where is that?”
”It's the location of the benefactor's mansion whom you just met.”
Ling Xiaolu cast it a side-eye glance. ”You seem to know it very clearly.”
”Benefactors are distinguished customers of our company. Every customer service agent is requested to be familiar with their general information,” Ling Long answered smoothly.
”Really? Then what about Li Zheng?”
”He lives in Beimang where few people go, and rarely comes down the mountain.”
”Very good, then I'll just head towards the southwest direction as far away from them as possible.”
Ling Long pressed its claw against its head. ”There's about a hundred benefactors in the game, and they're located all over the continent. Almost everyone has their own area of influence. Also, they all have unlimited teleportation abilities, and they can instantly teleport to anywhere they like. In my opinion, running away blindly like this will not be effective.”
Ling Xiaolu sagged for a few minutes, before turning around and heading back to Yuanting County.
”Where are you going?”
Ling Long bounded after him.
”Since I won't be able to run anywhere, I just won't run. The most dangerous place is the safest place. There's so many people in Yuanting County, it would likely be difficult to find me amongst all these green names, right?”
Ling Long was enlightened. ”You're really too clever!”
”Tell me exactly how do you go about playing this game. If things like this happen again, I don't want to be so pa.s.sive anymore.”
”How ambitious!” Ling Long clenched its claw, ”I like to follow such lofty players like you!”
”Let's not mention anything else first. Is there a public chat channel in this game?”
”Of course! We have many channels, both public and private. There's also region channels, and channels categorised according to their uses. Just pinch your earlobe lightly and say the name of the channel you'll like to join, and the chat window will appear. If it's a private locked channel, after saying the channel name you'll need to say the pa.s.sword, or be invited before you can join the channel. By calling a person's username, you can start a private chat with them. By the way, if you need to call out to me at any time, you can also use this method.”
Ling Xiaolu pinched his right earlobe. ”Ling Long.”
A mini-card appeared in midair in front of him, it was a chat window.
Ling Long: Can you see it? Next time when you're in a situation where it's not convenient to speak, you can use this.
Ling Long: You only need to silently think about the content you'll like to send, and the system would automatically pick it up.
Lu Bi: Sure, you universally unmatched golden dragon spirit.
Ling Long: … You've sent what you secretly thought.
Lu Bi: Oh, I'm not very good at this yet. Sorry, lizard.
Ling Long: … (maintaining a professional smile)
Ling Xiaolu drew his finger in the air, swiping away Ling Long's chat window and giving a new command.
”Region Channel – Jingzhe City.”
System: You've joined the local region channel.
Another chat window sprung up. It happened to be very busy in the Jingzhe City channel, and messages flew across the screen.
【Local】Chu Huan: Who was the one who said the benefactors were gathering at Yuanting County? Where are they?
【Local】Bai Qi: They should be where the pink names are.
【Local】Little Teddy Qiuqiu: I've been searching for so long but I didn't see any pink or gold names, they're all red or green.
【Local】Shoujo Man: You don't have the human combat pet radar, how would you even be able to find them.
【Local】Ni Ya: But I heard there were many coming, someone should have seen them, right?
【Local】Leaves Around The Clock: I saw one! He's at the entrance of the forest outside the county!
【Local】Ruan Qi: Who is it who is it?! Send a screenshot!
【Local】Leaves Around The Clock: [Screenshot]
【Local】Qiao You: It's Daddy Kou!
【Local】Wei Zhengzhi: I'm not chatting anymore, I'm going to find my daddy. Daddy, wait for me!
Ling Xiaolu exited the forest to see a benefactor named Dou Kou surrounded by a crowd. That benefactor could barely even move.
Ling Xiaolu took a deep breath and walked past the gold name person openly. The legendary Daddy Kou was getting tired of dealing with the increasing number of sycophants, and completely did not realise that he had brushed shoulders with his prey just like that.
Only when he left the other person's line of sight did Ling Xiaolu sigh in relief. Only the heavens knew how frightened he was of being recognised.
It seemed like this method was very effective. As long as there were many people around as a s.h.i.+eld, he would not have to be afraid of getting exposed.
Ling Long flew obediently next to him, pretending to be a quiet pretty wind pterosaur. It would periodically perform a system action, displaying the most common skill used by a non-combative pet — acting cute.
He had pa.s.sed the first stage. For the second stage, he would need to arm himself.
”Where can I go to learn skills?”
”Spirit School, commonly known as Pet-X. Over there, you can learn most of the skills available. Other rarer skills would need to be learnt through skill books, and there are various ways you can obtain the books.”
”Pet-X? Your game even specially designed a mating centre for the pets?” Ling Xiaolu asked contemptuously.
”What are you thinking about?” Ling Long was even more contemptuous. ”It's the pet market exchange. Long ago when there was no shops owned by players, everyone all sold and bought pets at Spirit School. Up till now, the nickname yet to be changed, and some casual players still like to perform their trades there. Instead, it's rare for people to call Spirit School by its official name.”
”…”
Fine, that place was called Pet-X. Ling Xiaolu found the building with the biggest shop front in the county, and as expected, many casual players were hawking their wares with their pets there, with people bargaining as well. Ling Xiaolu did not have a pet with him, and his entrance drew the eyes of many sellers.
”A freshly caught young mammoth, it's a rare pet. You can teach it to carry you!”
”Come look at my mantis pet, it's attack skill is top-tier. It's a must-have in combat!”
”Here's a black sheep that's the most suitable for new players, selling it at a bargain!”
Ling Xiaolu ignored them, walking straight inside where the pet trainers were. There were seven NPCs there, and the names above their heads were all different.
”There's 8 cla.s.ses of pets in the game, and they are bugs, plants, beasts, undead, metal, spirits and dragons, as well as the player-controlled humans. Every cla.s.s has different types, and each type has 7 pets of various attributes. For example, the flying type under the dragon cla.s.s has the wind-attribute Wind Pterosaur, the water-attribute Ice Dragon, the fire-attribute Blazing Dragon etc.. The seven attributes varies in effectiveness against each other, and so choosing a pet of a certain attribute during a PK has to be considered carefully.”
”You say there's 8 cla.s.ses of pets, but there's only 7 NPC trainers here.”
”Because there's no trainer for human pets. Player-controlled pets have no specific skills, but they can learn all skills from the other 7 cla.s.ses, and this point alone is enough to defy the laws of nature. Think about it, the bug pets have high attack skills, plant pets are good at healing, but you can do it all yourself!”
”But there's still a limit to the skills I can learn, right?”
”That's right, pets have a fixed number of skill points, so choosing what skills to learn is also something that has to be considered carefully. However, if you're dissatisfied with your skills, you can reset them any time. You'll only need to pay the resetting fee.”
Ling Xiaolu enquired after the beast trainer closest to him, and a thick wuxia secret manual descended from the sky. Players could look through it, and a skill was listed on every page. However, Ling Xiaolu did not understand why the name of these skills were in grey.
”I can't learn any of these skills?”
”You have to see if you can satisfy the criteria listed after each skill. Usually, a skill would require you to fulfil two obligations, skill points and money. For exclusive skills, there's also requirements for the types of pets.
Ling Xiaolu flipped to a page randomly:
— Earthquake [Max Grade]
— Skill Points: 240 points / Money: 200000 spirit coins / Exclusive to: Mammoth types
— Skill Effect: Will cause violent tremors to shake the ground, interrupting the actions of all targets in the area.
— Cooldown: 5 minutes
”Oh? This is a very powerful PVP area of effect skill. The number of skill points required is also very high. Learning this skill means that you will need to give up on many other skills, you'll need to consider this very carefully.”
”I don't have enough skill points, nor do I have any money. How do I obtain skill points?”
”You can complete quests, accept missions, but the fastest method is by eating.”
”Eating?”
”Pat your waist, this is the shortcut gesture to opening your inventory.”
Ling Xiaolu followed the instructions and opened his inventory. A newbie's inventory was very small, there were only twenty-four slots in it.
”We've gifted you with two skill pills. Each pill will increase your skill points by 25 points, and they're enough for you to learn some single attack skills. When you want to increase your skill points in the future, you'll have to rely on your own strength.”
Ling Xiaolu retrieved a pill from the inventory and placed it in his mouth. He had thought that there would not be any taste to the items in the game, but who would have thought that this skill tablet melted in the mouth, and after swallowing it down, a faint osmanthus flavour lingered on his tongue.
”It's yummy!” He revelled in the taste.
”It tastes pretty good, right? Our technical department has spent a lot of effort on simulating the sensory feelings. All the energy potions, medication and food all have their unique taste and mouthfeel. There are even many foodies who play this game just to eat. The most important thing is, no matter what you eat, you'll never have to worry about putting on weight!”
”… You guys really know how to sell your game,” Ling Xiaolu praised sincerely.
With an increase in his skill points, together with the start-up funds provided by the system, some of the basic skills in the book finally lit up.
He studied the skill manuals of the seven trainers successively, and chose two —
— Ice Arrow [Grade 1]: A spirit-cla.s.s attack spell, causing slight damage to a single target, and will also reduce the target's speed. Requires 15 skill points, and can be raised up to 10 levels.
— Dig [Max Grade]: A plant-cla.s.s counterattack spell, removing the speed reducing debuff on self, and borrowing the power of the earth to escape from battle. Requires 35 skill points.