Chapter 8 - First Experience

Chapter 8 – First Experience

Berry arrived at the city gate a few minutes later. He glanced at the gate and many players went in and out of the city. Berry headed to the gate and got out of the city.

Outside the city, Berry could see the vast open field in front of him. On the field were footpaths leading somewhere and many of the players went through that path. Only a few of them got out of that path to the open field.

"This field must be for low-level players. The players going through the path wear more advanced equipment," Berry spoke while he observed all the players going through the path.

Berry looked around the field and walked out of the path to search for the horned rabbits. While searching for the horned rabbits, Berry could see other players hunting the monsters. All of them attacked the monsters with balls.

"… The ball is this game's main weapon," Berry mumbled. He continued searching for the horned rabbits and got further away from the other players. Berry did not want to hunt nearby other players because he wanted to avoid fighting them over the same target. So, he went to a more secluded area.

After a few minutes of walking, Berry found a white horned rabbit, the target of his mission. Same as the picture on the computer, the rabbit was white and had the same size and shape as a normal rabbit. The only thing that differentiated it from a normal rabbit was the single horn on its head.

Berry did not rush to the rabbit but checked his stats first. He used his barrier skill once earlier and it looked like the skill's UP had yet to restore itself. The UP was at 4/5.

"If something went awry, I will just smack the rabbit with my hand. My Attack stat is high and this is an RPG game. I can defeat it with my hand," Berry gripped his fist.

In an RPG game, even with a bare fist, the players could inflict damage to the monsters. Since the Dodgeball Master was the fusion of dodgeball and RPG, the same rule applied to the game.

Since Berry knew martial arts, he found playing RPG games boring because, with his martial arts added with high stats, he could easily defeat the opponent in the game without relying on his weapon.

Berry found that the Dodgeball Master game might be similar to the usual fantasy RPG games, so, he was not worried about being in danger.

Even so, Berry wanted to feel the essence of the game which was dodgeball and thus, he would only resort to using his fist when he felt like he was losing. For now, he would follow the game and fought using the football balls given to him.

Berry made his decision and he took out a football ball from his storage. It was a normal football ball with white hexagonal patterns and a few black patterns.

Berry lobbed the ball in the air to have the feel of the ball and it felt like the normal football ball he could found in the real world.

"Time to attack," Berry turned serious and he stared at the rabbit. The rabbit was oblivious to Berry and was busy munching on the grass.

Berry took a throwing stance and tightened his grip on the ball. He aimed the rabbit and prepared to throw the ball.

"Fuu~" Berry breathed out calmly. "This is different from my martial arts where all of them are close combat but this is a long-range attack which is impossible with martial arts unless you are throwing knives or swords which I don't learn any of that."

Berry learned martial arts but the close combat ones. Martial arts that involved throwing knives and swords were not popular because it was dangerous. Parents scared that their children would get hurt and thus, there were no dojos or schools that taught martial arts related to throwing knives.

Berry breathed calmly and focused himself. Once he was ready, Berry squinted his eyes and threw the ball at the horned rabbit. Since Berry practiced martial arts, it was easy for him to target which muscles he needed to use to maximize his throwing power.

Due to that, the ball was moving at high speed at the rabbit. However, the rabbit's ears perked up and it felt the threat that was heading towards it. True to a rabbit's nature, the horned rabbit hopped to the side to evade the threat that was coming.

Once the rabbit got to the side, the ball hit the ground and the rabbit was 100% fine.

"I missed!" Berry was disappointed but not surprised. He was not used to throwing things and expected to miss but his aim was accurate. However, the rabbit was too agile.

Berry did not stop there and another ball was on his other hand. He had prepared to throw another ball. The rabbit glared at Berry and got angry.

As Berry prepared to throw another ball, the rabbit rushed towards him. Berry did not panic and he was still calm.

The rabbit's horn shone with blue light and Berry knew it was using its skill. The rabbit got closer and Berry suddenly threw the ball at the rabbit.

The rabbit was shocked but it hopped to the side again to evade the ball. It did it but was shocked again when suddenly, another ball was headed toward it.

"!!!" the rabbit was shocked and wanted to evade but could not as the rabbit was still in the air. The rabbit's leg was still a few centimeters away from the ground if it wanted to hop once again. The rabbit was not able to evade the ball and was hit by it.

"!!!" The rabbit was pushed away for a meter before it fell to the ground.

[Horned Rabbit HP -3] appeared on top of the rabbit for a second before it disappeared.

'Only three. This rabbit has a decent defense,' thought Berry as his hand was already holding another ball and he threw it at the rabbit again.

The rabbit gritted its teeth and endured the pain. It saw the incoming ball and hopped to the side but once again, another ball appeared and hit the rabbit once more.

[Horned Rabbit HP -3] the rabbit was once again pushed back by the ball.

Berry did not stop there as he runs towards the rabbit to pick up the balls. He got two of them and used the same tactic to hit the rabbit.

The rabbit saw the incoming ball but this time, it learned a lesson. Never evade to the side and instead the rabbit rushed forward towards Berry.

Berry was shocked. "It is learning? The AI they used for this game must be quite advanced!"

The ball passed above the rabbit's head to the ground behind it while the rabbit was now in front of Berry. At this range, he couldn't throw the ball. Berry readied his barrier.

The rabbit was angry and its horn was pointed at Berry. The rabbit jumped with its shining horn aimed at Berry.

Berry held his palm at the rabbit and spoke calmly, "Barrier!" a 1cm2 barrier appeared in front of his palm to block the incoming horn.

The horn hit the barrier and the barrier managed to stop it from hitting Berry… for a second before it immediately pierced through the barrier and punctured Berry's palm.

"!!!" Berry was shocked. He never thought that the barrier would shatter under a simple horn attack.

Unbeknownst to Berry, the horned rabbit had a high attack and its horn attack skill boosted the attack further. Although Berry's defense stat was high and his barrier was boosted by that, it was still much weaker than the horn attack.

[Berryier HP -3. Gain 'Bleeding' status. For every 30 seconds, the player will lose 1 HP]

Berry ignored the notification and did not stop there. As the horn pierced his palm, he grabbed the horn with his bleeding palm. He opened his other palm and struck the rabbit's body.

However, to his surprised, [Horned Rabbit HP -0] the rabbit did not lose any of its HP. Moreover, the rabbit was getting angrier and bit Berry's injured palm that was holding the horn.

[Berryier HP -1] when the bite hit.

"What the? Why is his bite gives me damage but not my palm strike?!" Berry was confused but he threw the rabbit away because he knew that his normal palm strike did not inflict any damage. If Berry continued to hold on to the rabbit, he would get hurt more.

The rabbit fell on the ground but before it could get up, Berry had thrown another ball. The ball hit the rabbit and its HP decreased by another three. One more HP and Berry succeeded in defeating it.

Even so, [Bleeding, Berryier HP -1] Berry was getting frustrated. He went to the nearest ball to give the rabbit one last hit when suddenly, a horn pierced his chest.

"!!!" Berry was surprised as it was the rabbit horn but it was bigger and longer than before.

[Critical hit, Berryier HP -6]

Suddenly, Berry's surroundings turned black and a second later, it became bright again. Berry saw the sky while lying on the ground.

"…" Berry was silent as he looked around to find that he was back at the park he arrived earlier.

"…" Berry did not say anything for a minute before he mumbled. "I got outed by a rabbit," Berry felt bitter.