CH 04: Sometimes you wonder why they add level boosters in MMO until you realise levelling can be a pain sometime

"Thank you for your help, adventurer!! I could have never found her if it were not for you!!"

Hao nodded at the NPC's enthusiasm and looked at the unnamed female NPC holding her cat like it was her lifeline.

|You have levelled up!|

'Level 10, finally.' Hao thought while quickly distributing the points onto his stats.

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Name: Actuallyfiend

Level: 10

Class: Rogue

Sub-class: None

HP: 500/500 | MP:10000/10000

STR: 15

AGI: 30

INT: 25

VIT: 50

SPI: 15

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As Hao expected, his highest stat points currently are his VIT stat which is no surprise, considering that his VIT stat would increase by simply levelling up.

Hao had been levelling for more than three hours straight, which is not that long by an MMO standard. Some might be considering that Hao is levelling up quite fast, but you need to remember that Hao still has his beginner exp bonus, which is no longer in effect because he is now level 10, stopping the exp bonus.

But with Hao being level 10, he now unlocks another function of the game, fast travel, which might not sound important, but in an MMO, this can save a lot of you from travelling from place to place.

To use fast travel, you need to use the massive crystal in the city called Telegorn, where you touch and say where you want to go, and you will merely teleport there after ten seconds.

But there is a limitation to this fast travel system: you can only teleport to other places that also have the Telegorn in the city. Still, to teleport to another Telegorn, you have to unlock it first, which you can only unlock by going there.

To fast travel from point A to B using the Telegorn, you need to be physically at point B, and then you can teleport there using Telegorn.

And that is Hao's plan right now. The current location that he is at is the beginner town for the dark faction, and Hao had already done every quest in the beginner town, so he is planning to go to the central city of the dark faction name, Oscurida. Where it is a place where most dark faction player is at, and it is also the place where you can start the main story quest for the dark faction.

'And if I remember correctly, that would be a one-hour real time of going from here to there.' Hao thought, making his way out of the city and toward his destination.

Since he started playing GEP, Hao has not interacted with another player at all and has been doing nothing but levelling up his character.

'What do I want to do? I said I wanted to have fun playing this game, but I have not been doing anything different than my previous... Life? past? Let said life, yes. Hmmm, what should I do...?'

"Oh wait." Hao said, suddenly stopping midtrack, "There a dungeon for level 10, isn't it? I could do that as a detour while making my way toward Oscurida. Let's see..."

Hao opens up a menu to find something until he realises something.

"Oh wait, there is no dungeon finder yet. That suck." Hao mutter remembering how there is no dungeon finder until the first major expansion, which will not be released until three months.

This means that Hao needs to make his way there physically. Which is not that bad, considering the dungeon he wants to go to is close to the path that leads to Oscurida.

"I guess a little detour is not that bad."

While doing dungeon is a group activity, there is an option to do it solo, which would make it harder, but as a trade-off, you earn more loot and exp. Hao's aim is straightforward. He wanted the exp bonus from clearing the beginner dungeon solo.

There is also the first clear reward, or, to be more specific, in this case, the first clear solo reward. After all, Hao highly doubted someone in the game had mastered the mechanic enough to the point where they could do it solo.

'Is this count as cheating? I mean, not really, right? All I have is experience and knowledge from the future, which is not technically cheating, I think...? It is not cheating if they don't know that you are cheating. Yeah, let go with that logic.' Hao thought while making his way toward the closet dungeon.

While making his way toward the dungeon, Hao stopped in the middle track when someone came out from the side road.

Five men from the front and five men from the back.

Hao immediately recognises what is happening to him.

"Oh... bandits? Look like I'm being robbed. How scary." Hao said to himself while looking around, seeing how he was being surrounded.

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Bandit

Level: 10

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Bandit leader

Level: 13

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"Well, look, what do we have here? Some idiot who thinks they can go past our territory without paying fees?" The bandit leader said, "I'm feeling generous today, so how about you leave all your valuables behind, and we will all spare you; what do you say?" He said while his friends laughed, seeing the situation as a free way to earn money.

"You know, what is the chance of you guys spawning? I know that the more people in the party, the more chance you guys will be spawned and ambush them, but what is the chance of you spawning in when there is only one person? Isn't it like 5%?" Hao mainly ranted to himself while looking around him.

Of course, these bandits have no idea what Hao is about; after all, they are not real people. They are nothing more than random mobs in the game, so when coming to their AI, they are certainly not the best compared to other more important characters.

"What the hell are you talking about?" One of the bandits asks, but Hao ignores him and continues his rant.

"Not only that, there are ten of you? The minimum amount of you spawning is three, and the maximum amount is like twenty, and I got half of that! How the fuck is that even possible!! I don't know whether I'm lucky or unlucky. maybe I should try my luck with loot boxes next time." Hao finished his rant before turning his gaze back toward the bandit leader.

"I'm going to do what you called an epic gamer move," Hao said before dashing forward.

The bandit leader got a surprised expression from the sudden confrontation; he immediately pulled out his sword and swung it down toward the dashing Hao.

Hao did not get fazed a bit and sidestepped, dodging the sword swing from the bandit leader, and with his superior agility, he completely stepped out of sight of the bandit leader and every other bandit before disappearing completely.

They can only look around in confusion, not knowing where Hao had disappeared and can only stand anxiously, waiting for Hao to reappear.

1 second passed

2 second passed

3 second passed

.

.

Ten seconds had passed, yet Hao had not reappeared yet, and the bandit's team started to relax more.

.

.

Twenty seconds had passed, and all of the bandits could only look at each other with confusion before shrugging and going back inside the forest, before despawning all together.

Where had Hao gone? Why didn't Hao fight those bandits? The answer to those questions is simple.

Hao had run away.

His so-called epic gamer move is running away from a fight.

Why did he do it? If that is the question in your head, you have not played many games.

First, this is a one vs 10. At the same time, the 10 is nothing more than a mob; they are still level 10 same level as Hao, not to mention their bandit leader, that is three levels higher than him. At the same time, it is not impossible to defeat, it would take too much time to do so for Hao, and it's just not realistic to beat them all alone.

Second, his class, a rogue, a class that more specialised in sneak attacks and not in combat. While the class certainly can fight, it is more specialised in a one-v-one fight, where rogue has burst damage that can instantly kill many low defence players and mob.

The third and final reason is his stat. Have you noticed what his stat looks like? If you saw, you know that he had been focusing most of his point on AGI and INT, the ladder stat that seems not to make sense, considering he is playing rogue.

Why is he putting stat in INT? Let's say it is a future investment for Hao.

Besides, wasting time is not a good thing to do when you are levelling; you want to spend the least amount of time possible; while killing a bandit would certainly earn Hao exp, it would not be a lot considering the minuscule amount the bandit's mob give.

So, in the end, Hao decides to run away, not to waste his time-fighting bandits, knowing all of his downsides. After all, levelling in MMO can be very time-consuming at times and wasting time is not something you should do.