Chapter 8
After spending another hour killing 38 wild boars, Wu Shaochen leveled up to level 4, gaining 20 health and 10 mana points. He allocated all attribute points to agility. During this time, he finally looted another piece of equipment, a helmet.
[Boarhide Helmet]
Quality: White
Health +30
Defense +3
Requirements: None
In the Oracle game, clothes, pants, belts, and helmets were considered defense equipment, mainly boosting health and defense. Weapons, rings, bracelets, and necklaces were categorized as attack equipment, focusing on attributes like attack power and critical hit rate. Shoes mainly enhanced speed. However, these were relative distinctions, not absolute ones.
Wu Shaochen equipped the helmet, raising his health to 200 and defense to 12. With agility at 25 and a speed of 28 thanks to his shoes, he said to himself, "One more level and I'll reach 33 speed, higher than the boar king's. Then I can consider taking it down."
Now, should he go fight wild wolves with these stats? It would be a good opportunity to level up his talents. After all, this was the core of his path to the pinnacle of life.
However, after considering the wolves' skills—150% attack, up to 172 damage minus his defense, plus a 50 damage bleeding effect—he decided against it. It could easily kill him. It would be better to collect more equipment first.
Looking at his experience: 4/2000. Killing level 6 boars would give him a 20% experience bonus. This meant 24 experience points per boar, so he needed to kill 84 more boars to level up. If he could find two more pieces of defense equipment before leveling up, maybe then he could challenge the wolves.
At that moment, in the area of the level 2 mountain goats, several groups of players were already busy fighting them.
"South Wind, fall back and heal. Let Haoran take over, others continue attacking," Jun Lin calmly commanded the battle. Soon, the goat fell under the combined efforts of the group.
"Jun Lin, it dropped equipment!" Haoran, a sunny and handsome young man, exclaimed excitedly, holding up a helmet.
"Phew... Finally got some equipment," Jun Lin sighed in relief. It was their thirtieth goat kill, and even for seasoned gamers like them, this game's difficulty made them question life.
"Why are the stats so low?" Haoran frowned at the helmet in his hands.
"What are the stats?" Jun Lin asked.
"10 health points, 1 defense point," Haoran replied, feeling disappointed.
"It's probably because helmets generally have lower stats. Just equip it, Haoran, and let's continue. As long as we can get equipment, everything will be fine. Slowly but surely," Jun Lin reassured him.
The situation for the other teams was much worse than Jun Lin's. Their operations and awareness were different, and fighting level 2 mountain goats was a struggle. Deaths were a common sight.
Meanwhile, Wu Shaochen spent over an hour killing a total of 32 wild boars and finally found another piece of equipment.
[Wild Boar Belt]
Quality: White
Health +30
Defense +3
Requirements: None
Putting on the belt raised Wu Shaochen's health to 230 points and defense to 15 points. "Hmm, not bad. Just one more piece of defense equipment, and then I'll go take on the wild wolves."
He glanced at the three small health potions in his backpack—each restored 10 health points per second for 10 seconds. "If necessary, I'll use a potion to grind a few more talents. Otherwise, by level 5, I'll have to face level 10 monsters for talent grinding, which will be even tougher. The higher the monster level, the greater the difference in attributes per level."
Continuing to grind...
After nearly another hour, he killed 28 wild boars and finally found another piece of equipment. However, upon picking it up and checking, he felt disappointed—it was another piece of Boarhide Armor he already had.
"Sigh, guess I'll just auction it off. But thinking about the upcoming windfall of money cheered me up instantly."
He listed the Boarhide Armor on the auction house, following his usual routine: auction mode, 10-minute bidding time, anonymous listing to avoid flooding private messages. Now was the time to keep a low profile and quietly make a fortune.
With Wu Shaochen's Boarhide Armor listed, the entire newbie village became active again, with major factions bidding eagerly.
At the same time, Jun Lin furrowed his brow as he inspected the Boarhide Armor listing on the auction house.
"What's wrong, Jun Lin? Is there something wrong with this equipment?" Haoran asked.
"What were the stats on your helmet?" Jun Lin inquired.
"Health +10, Defense +1," Haoran replied.
"Xiaobei, what were the stats on the shoes we just got?" Jun Lin asked the other member.
"Speed +1, Defense +1," Xiaobei responded.
As he spoke, the realization dawned on the others as well. As elite figures in the gaming world, their understanding of the game far surpassed that of ordinary players.
"Our equipment stats are all +2, but the equipment on the auction house shows +6. This includes the boar-killing knife from earlier, which is essentially +6 Strength. These two pieces of equipment should have dropped from the same type of monster, so it's likely they were put up for auction by the same person. Equipment with these stats couldn't have dropped from killing rabbits. If we estimate, it's very likely they dropped from a level 6 monster," Jun Lin said solemnly.
"Are you kidding me? A level 6 monster? We're struggling against level 2 monsters, and you're telling me someone can kill a level 6 monster?" Haoran exclaimed incredulously.
"Yeah, unless they're cheating, how could anyone possibly kill a level 6 monster? Given this game's difficulty, a level 6 monster could probably wipe us out effortlessly," Linzi interjected.
"This game shouldn't have any external cheats. Xiaobei, go check if there are any monsters resembling boars, and find out their level and stats. Judging by the name of this equipment, it seems like it drops from wild boars. Head left at the next three-way intersection; if it's boars, they're likely in the forest to the left," Nan Feng instructed.
"Got it."
On the other side, the veiled woman with the white veil held the clothes she had just obtained and pondered as she glanced back at the clothes in the auction house. She had underestimated the people listing their early-game white equipment; clearly, this person's white equipment wasn't dropped from killing level 1-2 monsters.
"Uncle Liu, could you help me check if there are any boar-like monsters and examine their attributes? Please let me know," the woman said to the middle-aged man behind her.
"Of course, Miss."
Xiaobei quickly returned to the group and solemnly shared the insights he had gleaned about the boar's attributes.
"Damn, 2000 health, 70 attack, and defense as high as 30 points. Are you telling me someone can handle that at this stage?" Haoran exclaimed in amazement.
Jun Lin fell silent as well. If someone could handle those attributes, even he would suspect foul play. Such stats were beyond what skill and strategy alone could overcome.
"Forget it, no use speculating. Since we're in the same newbie village, we'll eventually cross paths. When that happens, we'll see what cards they're holding. If this equipment likely dropped from a level 6 monster, which we can't handle yet, we'll see if we can obtain it when the time comes. A +6 stat boost is significant," Jun Lin said in a low voice.
On the other side, the woman, after a long silence upon reviewing the attributes of the boar shared by the middle-aged man, finally said, "Let's try to acquire this equipment, if possible."
At this moment, Huang Shao, who had raised the bid to 20,000 yuan, looked around smugly, mocking, "Hmph, no one else bidding at just 20,000? All poor losers."
As the bidding time was about to end, Huang Shao calmly awaited the notification of successful transaction. Suddenly, in the last second of the auction, two bids appeared simultaneously: one for 25,000 yuan and another for 30,000 yuan. Ultimately, the player who bid 30,000 yuan won the auction.
"Damn it, snatched away!" Huang Shao muttered in frustration.
Holding the boar leather armor in his hand, Haoran admired, "Jun Lin, you're really smart. You anticipated that someone might have the same idea as us. I was about to bid 21,000 yuan myself. If I had done that, I probably wouldn't have gotten this equipment."
"Ding! Auction failed. The amount has been refunded to your linked bank account."
Upon hearing the system notification, the veiled woman frowned. She had thought that by adding an extra 5,000 yuan at the last second, she would secure the bid, but someone had already predicted her move.