As the voice fell away, the world before Ye Tianxie’s eyes spun into a whirl, everything switching over in rapid succession.
He didn’t notice — and couldn’t possibly have noticed — that in the very instant he was teleported to the novice village, back in the real world, the strange ornament he’d kept hanging around his neck all this time eerily faded, vanishing from sight, as though it had melted into his very body.
Before his vision had even recovered, a chaotic din was already ringing in his ears, grating hard against his eardrums. He opened his eyes and looked ahead, and as far as he could see there were people, and more people. The Huaxia Region had set up a total of one hundred thousand novice villages, yet under Huaxia’s terrifying population figures, every last one was still packed to bursting, and the glow of new players entering never stopped flickering. One step ahead means every step ahead — this was a law that belonged to the strong, and everyone wanted to be the first to set foot in and explore this mysterious world.
Ye Tianxie’s gaze swept over the crowd as he took in his surroundings. This was an ancient town; the buildings all around carried the old-world character of Huaxia’s several thousand years — eaves tiled in yellow, houses uniformly of wooden construction, quaint and steeped in antiquity. The air here had a pleasant freshness, wholly free of the murky reek of pollution. Lifting his head, he saw a pure blue sky with clouds drifting here and there — and this sky was not only unclouded by filth, it also bore no sign of that long streak called the “sky-scar.”
The novice village: the starting point nearly every game world requires you to pass through first.
Ye Tianxie’s appearance made him an instant focal point in the crowd. A near-flawless face, a demonic, wicked charm with a fatal pull on women… and then his looks adjusted up by twenty percent on top of that. The coarse novice cloth robe did nothing at all to mask his appeal; the moment he stood there, he heard a steady stream of men’s sharp intakes of breath and women’s shrieks all around him.
Ye Tianxie was not a man who liked crowds — calling him cold and standoffish wouldn’t be far off. He didn’t do what most players did, rushing first at the handful of NPCs in the novice village to test whether they’d trigger some quest. Instead he parted the crowd and headed straight for the village outskirts.
Finally reaching a reasonably quiet corner, Ye Tianxie glanced over what he was wearing… Same as nearly every virtual game, the starting point stingily granted only a coarse set of clothes to cover the body, with attributes negligible enough to ignore…
Novice Cloth Robe — Equip Requirement: None. Grade: Pale. Attributes: Defense +2.
Novice Trousers — Equip Requirement: None. Grade: Pale. Attributes: Defense +1.
Novice Cloth Shoes — Equip Requirement: None. Grade: Pale. Attributes: Defense +1.
Every piece of clothing on him added up to a mere four points of defense. With a flick of his mind, Ye Tianxie checked his backpack — fifty slots in total that could be summoned forth or hidden away at will, inside which a single slender sword lay all alone. Ye Tianxie called it out and took it in hand.
Novice Shortsword — Equip Requirement: None. Grade: Pale. Attributes: Attack +3.
Ye Tianxie changed direction and walked toward the village outskirts, meanwhile examining his starting stats in detail:
Character: Xietian
Level: 0
Class: None
Renown: 0 Money: 0
Hunger: 0/110 (Hunger tolerance cap = 100 + Strength. When Hunger reaches the tolerance cap, 1% of HP is automatically lost per second. Hunger can be reduced by eating and drinking.)
Basic Attributes: Strength 10, Constitution 7, Agility 4, Spirit 4
Fixed Attributes: Luck 0, Comprehension 0, Charm 10
HP: 70
MP: 40
Physical Attack: 23
Magic Attack: 8
Physical Defense: 11
Hit: 4
Dodge: 4
Reaction: 72
Perception: 53
Focus: 42
Attack Speed: 100 (base value)
Movement Speed: 100 (base value)
Fire Resistance: 0% (base value)
Water Resistance: 0% (base value)
Wind Resistance: 0% (base value)
Lightning Resistance: 0% (base value)
Earth Resistance: 0% (base value)
Light Resistance: 0% (base value)
Dark Resistance: 0% (base value)
Skills: Detection — a skill shared by all classes. Consumes 1 MP. Detects the attributes of monsters no more than ten levels above your own.
Looking at that word “None” behind his class, Ye Tianxie’s brow twitched faintly, then smoothed right back out. Prometheus had it right — there was never any absolute fairness in this world. So what if he had no novice class? Even reduced to a mere novice with no attribute bonuses and no skills whatsoever, he could still tower far, far above everyone else.
“Fate, is it? Fate is held in the hands of the strong.” He murmured the words softly and kept walking forward.
Just as he’d expected, the stretch of land nearest the novice village was already occupied by a dense, teeming crowd. This land was without question the roaming spot of the lowest-level monsters, and the ideal leveling ground for Level 0 novices. But at first glance, apart from the bustling throng of people, not a trace of any monster could be seen.
At last a feeble little white glow flickered, and a tiny creature appeared beneath the feet of a group of players. Ye Tianxie flicked his gaze over and cast Detection — the one and only shared skill he had — and the creature’s information promptly surfaced before him:
Angry Chick — Level 1. HP: 30. A flock of restless chicks that will occasionally lash out at humans.
No sooner had the little monster’s information appeared in his mind than it had already toppled under a great heap of simultaneous attacks. Looking at that pitiful corpse and the chicken feathers strewn all over the ground, Ye Tianxie shook his head and murmured, “Of all the things to be, it had to go and be a chick.”
The two players who happened to be passing right beside him were instantly thrown into disarray, staring blankly as his world-weary back receded into the distance…
Crowded places would forever be the last places Ye Tianxie wanted to go. He walked straight north, passing all the way through two maps where Level 2–3 monsters roamed, and still the number of players hadn’t dropped off all that noticeably. When he crossed the territory of the small wildcats, Ye Tianxie was suddenly struck by a sense of everything opening up before him… This patch of land finally lacked that terrifying head-count of players. All that remained were leveling squads each holding down their own little plots of territory — and every last one of them female, not a single man among them.
The monsters here were somewhat larger, and somewhat stranger too — they were, of all things, rabbits standing a full half-person tall, walking upright, each with a thick, hefty club hoisted over its shoulder, swaggering about aimlessly. Ye Tianxie’s approach didn’t put them on guard in the slightest; they went on idly wandering about with nothing to do.
Ye Tianxie gave the novice shortsword in his hand a little shake, walked up to one of the rabbits, and casually dropped a Detection on it before attacking:
Fierce Rabbit — Level 3. HP: 70. A rabbit lightly affected by demonic corruption from the leaked demonic energy of the Tower of Fate. Ordinarily it loves to loaf about with nothing to do; beneath its harmless-looking exterior lurks a rather serious violent streak. Due to its short stature, it favors low-blow attacks.
Skill — One Big Whopping Club: Swings the great club from its shoulder to viciously strike the area between the enemy’s legs. Damage bonus of 40% against male targets, with an extremely low chance of triggering instant death.
Ye Tianxie’s face went dark, and the shortsword he’d been about to swing obediently drew itself back. He backed up a few steps, turned on his heel, and walked away.
No wonder there wasn’t a single male player here — this Fierce Rabbit was clearly a privilege the system had bestowed on female players, to make up for the disadvantage they faced when fighting men over leveling grounds.
(End of Chapter 7)