Chapter 9: The Loli, Guoguo (Part 1)
In the World of Fate, out of consideration for the sensory tolerance of its many players, all the gory effects produced when attacking were completely masked out — there’d be no unbearable scenes of severed heads or limbs. Having dodged the three wolves’ attacks, Ye Tianxie’s counterattack came in the blink of an eye. Only after he’d landed two thrusts on the second Wild Wolf did they finally wheel their bodies around out of their disarray and lunge back — and this time all three wolves bit at his body at almost the same instant. Ye Tianxie’s eyes narrowed and his body shot forward at top speed, threading perilously through the gap between two of the wolves, slicing a stroke across the second wolf in passing. By the time he came to a stop, he’d once again appeared at their backs — and again, two strokes in a row. Every single one of his targets, without exception, was the second wolf.
-13. -15. MISS.
After taking five hits in a row, the second Wild Wolf’s health bar was already nearly a third empty. It felt the pain, and howled as it spun around to pounce and bite again — but that figure seemed once more to have foreseen their movements. His body dropped low, his right foot kicked off the ground, and holding an extremely low posture he actually skidded flat forward for nearly two meters, then whipped around for another casual two strokes.
If there’d been any other player here right now, they’d surely have been struck dumb with astonishment — a Level 0 player in full novice gear, single-handedly battling three Level 5 monsters, and after more than a dozen of his strikes, those three highly mobile creatures hadn’t so much as touched him.
He hadn’t even used a single skill.
Even a Level 0 player came equipped with one apprentice skill from an apprentice class. In all the world, Ye Tianxie alone was the exception — no skill, no class, able only to hack, cleave, and thrust with an unremarkable novice sword…
Ye Tianxie’s body wove through the three Wild Wolves’ attacks like a flickering phantom, the swinging novice sword drawing out a wolf’s howl every so often. In under half a minute, with one feeble wolf-cry, the wolf Ye Tianxie had marked as his sole target finally toppled over, dropping something dim-glowing and shaped like a coin.
Two left. Ye Tianxie’s taut nerves eased a fraction, and he turned from passive to active, charging straight in for a throat-slitting stroke. Had this been the real world, this stroke would without a doubt have sent a wolf’s head flying in a spray of blood.
-12. -12. -14. -13. -12…
A martial arts master could beat a bungler wielding a divine weapon even with nothing but a tree branch in hand.
Ye Tianxie’s reaction and perception — several times beyond an ordinary person’s — were on full, vivid display in this moment, and this was also one of his greatest assets for cutting a swathe through the gaming world. Beneath that novice sword without a single dazzling gleam, another Wild Wolf soon fell in a mournful howl. Wearing a smug smile, Ye Tianxie unhurriedly toyed with and tormented the last Wild Wolf… That’s right — a Level 0 player in full novice gear, tormenting a Level 5 monster.
-15. -14…
At the moment the last Wild Wolf’s health bar emptied, Ye Tianxie’s movements slowed for a beat, letting the wolf’s claw rake across his body.
-21!
A faint thread of pain came from where the claw had scratched him. Ye Tianxie glanced at the damage floating above his head, then finished it off with an idle stroke.
All three Wild Wolves dead, Ye Tianxie let out a small breath and swept his gaze across the ground. Beside the three wolves’ corpses, apart from that coin-shaped object dropped by the first wolf he’d killed, there wasn’t a wolf’s eye to be seen — not so much as a single wolf hair. His Luck of 0 meant that every monster that died at his hands had its drop rate pegged to the minimum.
Ye Tianxie crouched and picked up the coin, then looked speechlessly at the words marked on it. Braving enormous danger and fighting for his life to punch above his level and kill three monsters, and what he got was… a single copper coin. Converted into real-world currency, that came to one cent.
[In the World of Fate: 1 gold = 10 silver = 100 copper. Per official promotion, once currency exchange opens, 1 gold = 1 Huaxia yuan.]
Tucking this first income he’d earned in the World of Fate into his backpack, Ye Tianxie rummaged over the Wild Wolf’s body, then suddenly smacked his own head… Wolves’ eyes — taking things off a monster’s corpse required the “Gathering” skill to do, and he’d flat-out forgotten it.
By past experience, these basic life skills could generally be learned from the village chief in the novice village.
Ye Tianxie rose to his feet and was just about to weigh whether to make a trip back to the novice village first, when a familiar sensation against his chest made him freeze for a moment. He tentatively reached a hand toward his neck, and there he touched a familiar thin cord.
This was…
He gave the thin cord a tug, and out from his novice clothes he pulled the black ornament he wore every single day, the one he never took off even in sleep. Holding it in his hand, Ye Tianxie stared blankly at this trinket set all over with seven differently shaped holes, radiating a strange, demonic black glow from its whole body, his gaze taking on a complicated sort of daze.
This is the only thing she left me… why is it here?! Isn’t this — the World of Fate?
With the novice clothes in the way earlier, he hadn’t noticed a thing. But as he’d stood up from his crouch, the dangling ornament had swung against his chest in an instant, and its faintly cold touch had finally alerted him to the strangeness. The thing in his hand was exactly, identically the same as in the real world — even the holes, the shape, and the faint seven-colored dark glow uniquely its own were without the slightest difference.
What is going on here?! Why would something from the real world show up here?
This was a fact that flat-out defied all reason!
While he stood there dazed, the black ornament clutched in his hand suddenly flickered with an instant of white light. That abrupt radiance was somewhat intense, and it flashed in Ye Tianxie’s eyes; when his gaze turned back again, the white light was actually peeling slowly away from the ornament, drifting gradually upward before his astonished eyes, floating in front of him like a small white sun.
“Oh la la… yee-hahahahahahaha! I’m finally free, finally free, oh la la la la!”
Ye Tianxie would never forget this voice — tender, sweet, and pleasing to the ear, yet so wildly brazen it made you want to cover your own. Because the owner of this voice would go on to be tangled up with him for an entire lifetime, leaving him loving her and exasperated by her and driven to headaches by her and wishing he could pin her down and spank her all at once.
The white light thinned and dispersed, and a dainty little figure appeared before Ye Tianxie — a little girl with jet-black hair, eyes like starry diamonds, and skin and dress alike a pure, flawless white… She truly was a “little” girl: not only did she look thirteen at the very most, but her body too, at a rough glance, stood no more than thirty centimeters tall.
Ye Tianxie’s eyes went wide, an expression on his face like he’d seen a ghost. Anyone who saw a little girl like this appear alongside such an unbridled voice could hardly be blamed for one of two reactions — either being struck dumb, or wondering whether they were still in a dream they hadn’t woken up from.
(End of Chapter 9)