NOVEL WEB Ch. 4
Chapter 4. This Game is Just Ridiculous
In the beginner lottery draw at the start, what ordinary players could get was nothing more than white-quality trash equipment, or a few useless skills, such as 'Gathering', 'Mining', or 'Carrying Bricks'.
These barely contributed anything to the early game progression.
If someone managed to pull a blue piece of equipment, they would immediately be hailed as incredibly lucky.
Otherwise, how else could the developers make money by selling in-game items?
In this game, both equipment and skills were classified into four tiers: White (common), blue (rare), purple (epic), and Orange (legendary).
White was the most common—the lowest, most worthless kind, generally reserved for free-to-play, non-spending players.
Meanwhile, the big-spending players would go for blue gear and skills. If they were lucky, they might even piece together a couple of purple items.
As for orange—the legendary tier—that simply wasn't something that could be bought with money. It was too rare, at least at this stage.
Yet, on Chen Zixuan's very first draw, he actually got two prizes: one was a purple skill, the other a blue piece of equipment, and to top it off, that piece was the rarest type among all equipment—a weapon.
A ring counted as equipment, so did a weapon; which of the two was more important went without saying.
He checked the skill first: [Silverflash Pierce], a vampire noble-exclusive, purple epic skill. Cooldown: 60 seconds; mana cost: 80.
"Throw your main weapon to pierce through the enemy, dealing true damage equal to 3 times your attack power to the first target hit. The lower the target's HP, the more damage it deals, up to a maximum of 12 times your attack power. When the target's HP drops below 30%, the skill will deal maximum damage."
Simply put, this was a finisher skill with true damage that ignored both defenses—pair it with a high attack stat, and it could easily deal massive damage when the enemy's HP was low. It was also the must-have skill for kill-stealing.
With only a 60-second cooldown and a low 80 mana cost, whether for dungeons, boss fights, or PvP, this was absolutely a god-tier skill!
Chen Zixuan took a deep breath, then opened the other prize, the blue-quality equipment.
[Headsman], a vampire noble-exclusive blue rare dagger, minimum equip level: 1. Durability: 200/200.
Attack: 20
Armor Penetration: 5 (Ignores an equal amount of the target's physical defense.)
Agility: 10
Unique Passive: When attacking an enemy, there is a 5% chance to inflict bleeding, lasting 30 seconds.
(Note: While bleeding, the target loses 1% of their max HP per second. This effect does not stack.)
Compared to that earlier epic skill, the effects of this dagger seemed a bit weaker. Even so, in an ordinary player's eyes, this weapon was absolutely an artifact for the early stages of the game!
Not to mention the terrifying stat boost—a massive 20 attack, paired with Chen Zixuan's base 30 attack and 5 armor penetration.
He could stab anyone with this and they'd pretty much be "knocked out"!
If he equipped this dagger, the player [Zhang San] who originally needed three slashes and one punch from [Cecilia] to kill, could now be dispatched with just two stabs—doo doo doo doo—sending him away with glee!
And that was without considering the bleeding damage.
In PvP, the bleeding effect seemed a bit lackluster, since players only started with 100 HP.
Even if it triggered, that's just 1 HP lost per second—not impressive at all.
But what if the target was one of those early-game bosses or elite monsters with thousands or tens of thousands of HP?
Thirty seconds of consistent bleed for 30% HP—on a boss with 10,000 HP, if bleed triggers, that's 3,000 damage over half a minute. That's the terror of percentage damage.
What Chen Zixuan didn't know was that, a day later, a blue-quality warrior gear was auctioned in the real-world marketplace for 200,000 yuan, and its effect was merely a 5% chance to deal 10% of the target's current HP as damage over time.
"System notification: Player [Cecilia], you are now qualified to enter the world of Karolan Continent. Are you ready to enter the game?"
"Ready. Let's do it,"
Chen Zixuan replied indifferently.
However, he had already made up his mind: once he found the logout button, he would immediately exit the game—at least until he uncovered the mastermind who sent him the VR helmet, he had no intention of playing again.
As soon as he spoke, the pure-white space in front of him warped, and Chen Zixuan slowly closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the scene before him had completely changed.
The transition happened in an instant—Chen Zixuan found himself on a gigantic plaza, surrounded on all sides by a low-lying town, white-walled and red-roofed; the surroundings looked peaceful and picturesque.
But he was alone—on this obvious starter village plaza, there was not a single other player present!
"System notification: Congratulations, you have unlocked a new map: Crown Town!"
Game time was supposed to be synchronized with the real world; it was noon now.
The sunlight overhead wasn't scorching, but fell warmly upon him; the gentle breeze sweeping by was so pleasant, it became hard to tell game from reality.
Carried by the breeze, a few strands of silver hair drifted across his face from the right.
"Right, a mirror!"
Chen Zixuan snapped to attention.
He hadn't forgotten the system had given him a female avatar.
He glanced around and spotted what he was looking for in the corner of the plaza.
It was a massive full-length mirror, seemingly placed by the game designers for players to admire their avatars.
It was actually a considerate bit of design.
Chen Zixuan jogged over. Thanks to his enormous starting agility stat of 210, he moved incredibly fast—within seconds, he stood before the mirror.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself, the moment he saw his petite reflection in the glass, Chen Zixuan still felt as if lightning had struck him.
He almost blanked out completely.
Objectively speaking, the girl in the mirror was the most stunning Chen Zixuan had ever laid eyes on in his whole life.
Petite and not tall, maybe about 1.58 meters. Yet, even with the coarse linen of the starter dress, it could not conceal her astonishing charm.
Her pure-white undergarments were spotless, the slightly loose collar revealing delicate, pale skin and the gentle line of her collarbones.
Her chest looked a little underwhelming—certainly not enough for its main biological function.
But these were minor things. What truly made it hard for Chen Zixuan to look away was the girl's flawless, exquisite face.
Her beautiful features were somewhere between a young girl and an undeveloped loli: cherry lips as red as blood jade, a delicate upturned nose, and large dewy eyes filled now with a trace of fright, making one subconsciously think of a cute, trembling small animal.
Her brilliant silver hair was parted into two even locks, tied into twin-tails by hairbands, and cascaded smoothly down to her hips.
Just one look, and anyone would want to run their hands through it.
And under the hem of her skirt, those shapely, slender legs—one could only describe them as 'playable for years'.
Chen Zixuan could not imagine it: a character as perfect as those in anime now appeared before his eyes—and it was his own reflection in the mirror.
"This is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous... I have to log out, I have to log out!"
The girl muttered incoherently, her masculine soul tortured by this overwhelming form.
Maybe because he had officially entered the game, the system no longer gave Chen Zixuan any trouble, and simply popped up the logout menu.
Leave the game? Absolutely!
With a huff, the silver-haired girl pressed the button and logged out.
"What garbage system! I'm selling this helmet immediately," he grumbled.
With a sensation of weightlessness, Chen Zixuan's senses returned to the real world.
However, as he lay in bed and removed the helmet, he abruptly froze.
During his time in the game, someone else had entered his room...
Chen Zixuan's gaze turned grim. He rose quietly, eyes locked on the half-open door.
If he remembered right, he'd closed his door when he came in.
Who was it? Who had secretly opened his door while he was gaming?
His nerves taut, his right hand suddenly touched something cold.
"Calm down, stay calm..."
Chen Zixuan held his breath and turned his head. When he saw what was beside his pillow, his pupils instantly contracted!
It was a dagger—what was truly shocking was that Chen Zixuan recognized it at once: it was the very same dagger he had just won in the game, the vampire noble-exclusive weapon—[Headsman]!
At this moment, that dagger lay quietly beside his pillow, its blade glinting coldly. Impaled on its tip was a sheet of white paper—ink still fresh, as if someone had just written it in his room.
Imagine: As you nap in your room, someone sneaks in, sits at your desk, uses your paper and pen to write a note, sticks it on a dagger, and leaves it by your pillow. How would you feel?
Chen Zixuan's worst fear had come true—the strange phenomena from the game had spilled over into reality.
Swallowing hard, he carefully removed the note. If he guessed correctly, this was a warning—a warning from the mastermind about him leaving the game!
Sure enough, the paper bore a line of neat handwriting:
"Play the game, don't call the police, it's useless. Level up. One week. Level fifteen. Fail..."
"—then just die!"
Especially that final "die"—the writer had pressed so hard the ballpoint had torn the paper, leaving a blotch of ink.
Chen Zixuan's right hand trembled unconsciously as he gripped the paper.
He had fantasized countless times about having his own unique system, soaring to the top of life, marrying the girl next door...
But now that the day had really arrived, Chen Zixuan had to admit it—he was, shamefully, scared.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Hmm, that's mysterious...
Why him?
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】