A Bittersweet Achievement

Around two hours have passed since Jean obtained a weapon from killing one of the numerous amounts of rabbits he had killed beforehand, practicing his prowess of attacking multiple times with a one-handed weapon in one second. Not only that, he was also killing in order to find out if the Stray Bit that he killed multiple times, which gave him his current moniker, would drop any other piece of equipment he currently had at hand.

In other words, he had been killing rabbits for the past two hours, with his mastery in handling the sharpened bone he had on hand now at its current peak. To be exact, he had killed over 100 rabbits throughout these 2 hours, allowing him to obtain a level up. As usual, he allocated the status points he obtained from the level up to Vitality, Strength, and Agility, allowing him to tank more hits, dish out more damage, and send out more hits at once.

'2 points have been allocated to Vitality. The Vitality stat is now at 14 points.'

'2 points have been allocated to Strength. The Strength stat is now at 14 points.'

'4 points have been allocated to Agility. The Agility stat is now at 26 points.'

Of course, he took the time while he was allocating his status points to check out the amount of experience he needed to level up to the next level, letting out a sigh of relief when he found out that the amount of experience needed wasn't as crazy as before, being twice or thrice the amount as before. Nonetheless, it was still a lot when considering the amount of experience a single rabbit gave out.

"Then again, the higher a user's level is, the more Bits they could obtain from the monsters they kill," Jean said to himself as the thought passed through his mind while his right hand was busy slashing left to right repeatedly on a rabbit's body. As of late, he was now able to unleash the maximum attack speed he could show on one hand, leaving the Stray Bits he would encounter with no choice but to give up on retaliating.

Whoosh!

'You have obtained 10 Bits.'

���You have obtained 8 XP.'

'You have obtained a piece of equipment: [Sharpened Rabbit Femur].'

With the rabbit he just lacerated to death gradually dissipating into ones and zeroes as the loot he had obtained was displayed on a holographic screen in front of his field of vision, Jean sat down on the ground before letting out a sigh of understanding after skimming through the rewards he had obtained.

"This is the third time I have obtained the weapon," Jean muttered, opening up his inventory screen not long after. Inside it was a copy of the equipment he had equipped as of late, every single piece he currently had equipped, to be exact. The only exception to that was the weapon, where two copies of it were in the inventory screen. Looking at his screen for a bit, he pondered before muttering once more, "I guess I can't obtain any other equipment from the rabbits anymore, only these five."

Jean then stood up and looked up at the sky, the sun being past the peak already. While looking at the sun, a thought passed in his mind, telling him that he had already passed the time for lunch. He then looked down at his stomach and put his hand over it, slightly surprised that he was not feeling hungry at all. Instead, he felt quite energized and had a feeling that he could kill a few hundred more rabbits before becoming mentally tired.

Then again, Jean was already sick of killing rabbits due to how easy he could kill them with his sharpened bone. Of course, the same could not be said for the other users who did not specialize in speed, with them relying on their higher attack or defense stats, blocking possible attacks before retaliating, planning out every move before being done. It was only due to Jean's great amount of experience in playing the Assassin class in multiple TIMMORPGs in the past was he able to show off this kind of prowess at such a low level, maximizing the power of the Assassin class.

"Should I aim for the wolves next?" Jean looked at the whole inner area of the Azure Forest, noticing that most of the users in the Azure Forest were still killing rabbits rather than wolves, with only one or two users rarely facing them due to curiosity and arrogance. After knowing how ferocious they were, these arrogant users would then make a run for it, bringing other users along their demise.

He had a hunch that with his high movement and attack speed, he would be able to kill the wolves without a problem since he would be able to easily dodge and land a hit when openings on the wolves open up. Of course, that did not mean he was overestimating his abilities and was being arrogant. While killing rabbits, he took a few glances at those people who would fight against the wolves every once in a while and compare their stats to his own and simulate a fight in his head.

Then again, he was not entirely sure that he would be able to kill them without getting injured. If he would fight against them with the knowledge of getting injured once or twice, he knew that he'd be able to do so, even at Level 2. He did not know when it started, but one day, he experienced a fight wherein he was not wounded in a past TIMMORPG, which made him yearn for more occurences like these, until his whole playing style transformed into something that revolved around not getting injured with the lowest level possible.

After pondering over it for a bit more, Jean decided that it was now time to change the Stray Bit he mainly killed, seeing as he obtained nothing new from the rabbit other than Bits and XP. Without hesitation, at his full speed, he headed towards an area of the Azure Forest where wolves were more numerous than rabbits, slightly surprising those that were spectating him from afar while fighting against the Stray Bits they were facing simultaneously.

"Eh? The Rabbit-killing Demon is aiming to fight against the wolves now?"

"Surely he wouldn't be able to kill wolves so nonchalantly like the rabbits…right?"

"He's just Level 3, the wolves are Level 5. I'm definitely sure he wouldn't be able to kill these wolves unscathed."

"Hahaha…yeah…"

"You guys are making me want to stop killing rabbits."

"To be honest, same. Should we stop for a bit and see if he kills them unscathed?"

"Should we have a bet? 500 Bits if he kills them successfully."

"I'll bet 2500 Bits if he kills them without getting injured."

"Deal!"

…

Ignoring the small commotion that was happening throughout the area, Jean headed towards another portion of the Azure Forest, only taking a couple of minutes to reach it as his maximum movement speed had increased yet again. Unfortunately, just as he was about to arrive in that portion, a stray wolf along the boundary of that portion had noticed Jean dashing towards it, seemingly triggering the wolf's aggro as the wolf dashed Jean.

Whoosh!

In an instant, the distance between two was shortened to just a small gap due to both of their movement speeds being around the same level. Fortunately, Jean noticed the wolf through his peripheral vision, slightly shocked at the speed it showed as Jean leapt upwards just as the wolf was about to swipe with one of its front paws, landing on the sturdy branch of a nearby tree.

Catching his breath, he looked at the wolf that aimed at him, which was looking back at him with eyes filled with the intent to kill. The wolf circled around the tree he was on for about ten seconds or so, before the wolf decided that there was no use to fighting against an opponent it couldn't reach, heading towards another part of the portion it was in.

"That was close." Jean let out a sigh of relief, happy with the fact that he was able to avoid that attack and leave unscathed as he lied beside the trunk of the tree he landed on. Then again, just as he was about to plan out how he was going to fight against these wolves, his ears could not help but pick up a soft voice from quite a distance, turning his head around to look at the origin of that voice.

"Uwah…he dodged it without a problem." With his head turned, his field of vision could see that a group of people were sitting quite a distance away from the boundary of the portion he was entering, which left him scratching his head quite a bit in confusion. Once he heard what they were talking about, he could not help but mutter, "It seems they're talking about me? Eh? When I did get the nickname 'Rabbit-killing Demon'?"

Eventually, he decided that there was no point thinking too deep into it, focusing his attention back to killing the wolves without getting injured. Referring the encounter he just had with a wolf a while ago, he thought out loud, "From the looks of it, the wolf, unlike the rabbit, has a certain radius around them which will attract their aggravation. Thinking even further, there's a chance that I could attract the aggro of two or more wolves at once if I'm unlucky. If I had a skill that could attack with a large range, that would be to my advantage."

"Then again, how do I obtain more skills?" Jean went off on a tangent for a bit, before returning back to his original train of thought. "Other than that, their movement speed is quite close to mine, while their attack speed is multiple notches faster than a rabbit's. Considering what my dad said about them, excluding the slightly faster movement and attack speed since that seems to be an understatement, they also have higher health and defense, which means it would take more time for a user to singlehandedly kill them."

"Then again, that would make more sense since that would make users shy away from the idea of killing an enemy at a level far lower than the level of the Stray Bit they're fighting against, enforcing the idea of gradual improvement, which is beneficial when considering it from a work perspective."

"From a game perspective though, that would suck incredibly. Even the fact that I can't go to places multiple levels higher than my current level is incredibly shitty," Jean continued to think out loud. "But what can I do about it? This is the World Net, it's ultimately a workplace…though I am quite eager to see what they'll do in the Immersion Update."

Letting out a sigh, he stood up and looked at the portion of the Azure Forest he wanted to enter, examining the position of every wolf, as well as their movement patterns. Eventually, he made a move, jumping down from the branch he was just on as he screamed out, "You're the one I'll aim for!"

In his field of vision was the sight of a wolf that was quite a decent distance from the other wolves in the area, which was a perfect choice for him, who was trying to get used to the spike in difficulty when it came to killing wolves.

Of course, this move also spurred the excitement of the users that were watching him.

"Ah! He finally made a move!"

"Alright! Make your bets, guys!"

Whoosh!

While he was falling down, aiming towards the stray wolf in front of his field of vision, he raised up the sharpened bone he had been using to kill a lot of rabbits with a grin on his face. The plan he had to kill the wolves surfaced in his mind, which was actually more simple than one would think.

"The wolves' movements and attacks are reliant on their legs…so I just have to debilitate them!"

Thud!

With a soft thud, Jean landed a couple of meters away from the wolf he aimed to fight against. At the very instant his feet touched the ground, the wolf he aimed for picked up this slight disturbance, hastily turning its body around to face Jean before dashing out at full speed.

Whoosh!

Although Jean knew for a fact that this dash would lead up to an attack, he decided to let the wolf come closer as that would make sure that he would be able to aim for all of its legs in one fell swoop. With a slightly confident grin on his face, he muttered, "Closer…"

"There!" With the mouth of the wolf greatly agape, Jean took this chance to sidestep to the right before moving under the still flying body of the wolf, kneeling down before waving out the sharpened bone in his hand to slash out at the four legs of the wolf.

"Awooo…!" At the very instant Jean started attacking the wolf's legs, the wolf could not help but let out a shrill cry, with it getting louder and louder as Jean slashed out more and more towards its legs. Due to the numerous slashes Jean dealt to the wolf's legs, as it landed, its legs folded inward as a great portion of its legs transformed into ones and zeroes, which left the wolf with no other way to dodge and retaliate against Jean's attacks other than enduring the pain and using its stubs to move around.

Then again, even though the wolf knew that it could do that, it decided that the human in front of it would still be able to kill it, so it decided that it would just give up resisting and accept its fate as it softly whimpered, "Hau…hauu…"

Since Jean did not understand what the whimpers of the wolf meant, a malevolent grin crept up his face as he raised his sharpened bone up as he muttered, "Though you weren't the one that attacked me a while ago, I guess I should thank you for letting me become stronger."

"Hauu…hau…" As if the wolf understood what Jean said, the debilitated wolf whimpered in reply…before it was lacerated by a sharpened bone over and over again, turning its defenseless body into a body filled to the brim with lacerations and wounds.

Whoosh!

Eventually, due to the sheer amount of damage inflicted by Jean on the wolf, the wolf let out one last whimper before it transformed into ones and zeroes. Not long after, a holographic screen appeared in front of Jean's field of vision, letting him know what he obtained.

'You have obtained 30 Bits.'

'You have obtained 25 XP.'

'You have obtained a piece of equipment: [Wolf Fur Boots].'

While reading through the list, Jean could not help but be excited in his mind that he was able to obtain a piece of equipment from the first wolf he killed. But then, not long later, a slightly bitter feeling rose up in his heart, remembering the sounds the wolf made before he ruthlessly lacerated its body to death.

Closing the holographic screen, he let out a sigh before dashing towards the outside of the boundary, muttering to himself, "I guess you weren't a type of wolf that wanted to fight back. I'm sorry, but with the goal I've set, I had no choice."

"I hope you forgive me wherever you may be. If we meet each other again in the World Net, I hope you become my pet or something."