Successive world announcements
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"Shit, I already forgot about this function. Oh well, better hide my name until I want to start making connections." After which the old man made a swiping motion again and opened his stat page, then he changed [name: displayed] to [name: hidden] by swiping over it. Which would remove the hovering name above his head. Though it couldn't hide his name being mentioned during future world announcements.
Altogether this trip took the old man around one hour and besides the helmet he also got several silver and bronze coins. By the time he got back the village was already swarmed by new players, all speaking the federation's common language just like the inhabitants of [boundless]. He even witnessed a player being dragged away by the city guards for trying to beat some cattle to death.
Tsch* 'players really are too used to games, I wonder how many have already been killed or imprisoned in this first hour.' Mo Shan thought inwardly remembering all the stupid things players would do in coming days.
He even noticed a bunch of players swarming the inhabitants of the village asking if they needed help. Mo Shan sneered at the thought of these players' faces when they would realise acts of kindness had no monetary rewards attached like in other games.
The only way to make money right now was by killing monsters which had a chance of dropping gear and gold or rare materials, or by selling items they harvested or owned.
Mo Shan merely dropped by the town to see how much of a head start he had compared to other players, before making his way out and heading to the closest city. There, he would be able to sell the level 20 silver armor piece he got.
If he tried selling it in the village it would not be worth a lot due to villagers being poor and having low levels.
A couple hours of walking and sightseeing later…
At the city gates
"One bronze piece entry fee please!" A guard told the old man who arrived, secretly eyeing the expensive looking helmet the old man was carrying.
Mo Shan knew that later today the famous <
Monsters dissipate into energy particles when they die and remain untouched for a minute, which turns into experience for the player. Every level grants an evolution of sorts to the body allowing a person to become stronger, faster etc.
If players wanted to harvest a beast or monster's body for crafting or potion materials, they would need to bring a lifestyle player who had skills in that respective profession, or learn some harvesting skills themselves, if the body remained untouched for a minute the body would simply dissipate.
After paying one of his bronze coins as entry fee for the city, the old man made his way to a basic shop and bought some bread and water. Many players would lack money for food or simply forget to eat and drink and would die of starvation these first days. Which made the old man enjoy his food that much more whilst thinking of those days back then…he was one of the players who died by forgetting to eat.
The old man slowly made his way over to a crafting store after eating his full and using up his remaining few silver coins from the chest on a simple leather pouch for his gold coins, a large garbage bag sized leather backpack and some spare food. The large backpack costing the most out of these items.
This place would be where players bought weapons early on in the game before entering the larger cities that had actual armor and weapon shops.
Just as Mo Shan was about to enter the shop a notification sounded in his head making the youth in an old man's body reminisce about his past.
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Mo Shan remembered this one specifically. That player fought disregarding his injuries and was quite a skilled fighter compared to average players. Yet, barely feeling any pain didn't mean the injuries weren't there. That player would be killed shortly after whilst fighting a wolf, losing his achievement and levels having to start all over, though he kept his name. Level 1 was the benchmark where people could start using weapons.
People would make announcements trying to recruit him in the federation, only discovering a couple days down the line that he died multiple times already and might not be as skilled as they initially thought.
"Hello sir, may I help you?" A blacksmithing assistant asked the old man who just walked in holding a glittering piece of equipment.
Snapping back to reality the old man swiftly replied to the assistant
"Yes, I'd like to sell this piece of silver equipment. I assume your blacksmithing shop would be interested in buying it?"
"Ofcourse! You don't see silver equipment every day around these parts. We would be very willing to buy it from you, though its level isn't very high sadly."
Mo Shan was aware that NPC's in regular small cities were easily in the twenties to thirties level range, but that didn't mean silver equipment was common at all, since it's the best gear below level 30. The assistant was merely trying to lower its value so he could purchase it for cheaper.
"I am aware of what it's worth and what you can sell it for after you buy it from me. So how about I take 20% off its market price and sell it to you, since this armor is useless to me." The old man was fully aware how cunning these apprentices were, so he instantly offered their upper limit, knowing he wouldn't be able to go higher than that since they would still need to resell it.
"I see the older the spicier still applies. Very well, ten gold for the armor would be the market price for a silver piece of armor, so how about 8 gold?"
"Deal."
After receiving the money Mo Shan quickly made his way outside and took a minute to ponder about his next step.
"I should be the richest player in Boundless right now by a long shot, but 8 gold won't get me very far. Though by tomorrow I should be able to start using my knowledge to turn this eight gold into many, many more. As many of those who are in the villages will realise the difficulty of earning money and become very scared of dying and losing the little progress they made. But first I will need to gear up and farm a much needed recipe…
After rearranging his thoughts Mo Shan knew what he needed to do first. Lifestyle players can't wield any weapons due to the nature of their class, just like how a mage can't use a sword. The rules of this realm somehow blocked the access making it impossible to swing a sword as a mage. At best they can carry or hold one.
within a little over an hour Mo Shan made his way over to the goblin cave not too far from the city. At this point it was nearing evening in Boundless and many players would start jumping back into the portal in the town or city squares to go back to their real bodies in the federation, but many more would start seeing this as their second chance and would try hunting throughout the night to get an advantage over others.
Which shouldn't be a lot considering that most people would not win a barehanded fight to the death with either of those. And plenty of those who could would need to rest or recuperate to heal after each battle for hours.
Injuries in this world weren't as real as they were in the federation, in the way that the injuries were very real but didn't hurt at all to protect the people's sanities. so at this point most players should have either been killed and restarted or heavily injured needing a couple hours or even a day to recuperate since there were no potions or healers yet at this stage of the game. And as for those who came up with the genius idea to kill themselves in order to be fully healed….well they would be able to do that but word should have spread by now that dying meant losing everything and starting all over.
So essentially After day one players should either be completely broke if they chose not to fight but then earning money would be basically impossible, or those that did have some money would need to recuperate from injuries they sustained fighting boars and wolves and would likely be spending all their money on food and water, as they could not afford any potions to instantly heal themselves whatsoever with the little bit of bronze coins they gathered after killing a monster. Though the good thing people would discover soon is that injuries would naturally fully heal within 24 hours no matter the severity.
Whilst Mo Shan was zoning out in his thoughts another world announcement was made
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Tsch* "probably someone who tried either molesting or stealing from a villager and managed to escape."
The old man mumbled to himself, knowing fully well those players wouldn't survive long in this world and would have to restart soon enough.
Mo Shan realised he had already subconsciously entered the goblin cave whilst he was lost in memories once again.
This area was lit up by glowing vines on the walls and several torches lining the entrance, with a large fire at the center that was currently heating up a waist sized cauldron. yet instead of humans occupying the cave it was a small settlement with about a dozen or so green skinned humanoid goblins. Several of which seemingly concocting something in the center inside that cauldron That was simply resting on top of the fire. Said cauldron was exactly what he came here for.
Mo Shan managed to stay hidden due to all the goblins being focused on the fire, the darkness outside helped hide his presence too so unless he entered the lit up parts he was unlikely to be discovered.
The goblins were level 12 creatures and the three goblin potioneers that were stirring the cauldron had a high chance of dropping alchemy related loot upon death.
The area itself had no chests to loot, but Mo Shan knew that the cauldron counted as a chest as well. This was a relatively well kept secret in his previous life for the first couple months heavily exploited by large guilds to farm potion recipes.
As for how to obtain the loot, in Mo Shan's opinion it was even easier than the rock elemental chest. Simply run up to the cauldron, kick it over using his thick leather boots that every starting player gets, grab the contents from the pushed over cauldron which should be an old leather parchments soaked in whatever those goblins were cooking up and before they can react make your escape.
Goblins don't have the fastest reaction speed and the closest three, the goblin alchemists had no actual combat ability. So by the time Mo Shan had kicked over the cauldron the other goblins barely shot into action, but by then it was already decided, the goblins had a dozen meters of ground to cover yet Mo Shan only needed to grab the parchment and run. Even with the level disparity goblins weren't known for their speed so Mo Shan easily made his escape, arriving back at the city one hour later.
On the way back the wind had dried out the leather so by now it should definitely be useable. Mo Shan simply ripped the leather recipe in half, after which it transformed into particles just like a monster when it died, and entered Mo Shan's head.
Obviously leather normally shouldn't be so easy to rip apart, but since it was designed to be used by lifestyle players who were generally weak…..
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