Chapter 12

"Next, let's check the attributes of level 10 monsters and see if I can handle them. If I can, I can continue grinding talents."

Passing through the Wolf Plain and continuing forward, Wu Shaochen was followed by a pack of wild wolves. It couldn't be helped—wild wolves were aggressive monsters. Once you entered their aggro range, they would chase you. However, with Wu Shaochen's speed of 33, he didn't pay much attention to them; they couldn't catch up anyway.

After walking for a while, a valley appeared ahead. From a distance, he could see several majestic silver wolves walking around inside the valley.

"Why wolves again?" Wu Shaochen's heart sank halfway. He still needed to use blood potions to fight wild wolves, and the wolves inside looked much tougher than the wild ones.

Reaching the mouth of the valley, he used Insight on the nearest silver wolf.

[Silver Wolf]

Level: 10

Health: 6000

Attack: 140

Defense: 60

Speed: 30

Skill: Extreme Speed: Howls loudly, gaining 50% attack speed and 50% movement speed for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes.

...

Damn, this thing counters me. I can't fight it at all... Time to bail. Wu Shaochen turned around and left without hesitation.

"Fine, I'll log off and eat something. I've been playing for six hours; I've only eaten a piece of bread today. My body can't handle this." It was a good opportunity to reward himself with the money he earned.

He found a safe place to log off, removed his helmet, and sat up on the bed. Shaking his head, he didn't feel any discomfort. Suddenly, his stomach churned violently, and he rushed into the toilet.

He squatted there for over half an hour, completely drained. Wu Shaochen staggered out of the toilet. "Ah, must be the expired bread I had for lunch. Can't eat randomly like this next time."

Sitting on the dilapidated sofa in his rented apartment, Wu Shaochen took out his phone and extravagantly ordered a bucket meal. He had planned to eat out, but walking was exhausting now, so he had to order delivery.

After ordering, he started browsing forums on his phone. Almost all the posts were about Oracle, and surprisingly, two out of the top three were about him, with millions of views.

1. [Speculation about high-attribute equipment frequently appearing in Auction House of newbie village #8365]

2. [White equipment auctioned for as high as 60,000 in newbie village #8365]

3. [Discovery of newbie village boss Wild Boar King, stats attached; experts interested in strategies can take a look]

Curious, he clicked on the first post. It was a game commentator speculating about the equipment he had listed, and surprisingly, what this person said was quite accurate.

"There are currently three top-tier items known to be listed in newbie village #8365. According to my speculation, the first two items are likely drops from level 6 monster Wild Boars, and the third item, the Wolf Fang Necklace, is probably dropped by level 9 monster Wild Wolves."

"I strongly recommend the authorities to thoroughly investigate this person. I suspect this person is using cheats. Not to mention the Wild Wolves, even level 6 Wild Boars are not something current players can handle."

The comments below quickly reached hundreds of thousands, mostly demanding an investigation into this suspected cheater. There were a few rare voices suggesting maybe it was skill, but they were quickly drowned out.

Surprisingly, this post received an official response:

"The Oracle does not condone cheating!"

It was a simple and direct reply, without any additional words, which immediately silenced those who wanted to continue joining the criticism bandwagon.

"The officials are quite authoritative," Wu Shaochen chuckled, touching his nose. He then glanced at the next two posts and muttered to himself, "I didn't expect someone to discover the Wild Boar King already. Looks like I need to hurry up and kill it. Even though no one can kill it in the short term, it doesn't feel good to be watched."

After more than ten minutes, the takeaway finally arrived. After a hearty meal, Wu Shaochen wiped his mouth and lay down on the bed, putting on his helmet to log back in.

Appearing where he had logged off last time, Wu Shaochen checked his attributes. He still couldn't handle the Wild Boar King, and using potions on Wild Wolves would be wasteful. Damn, do I have to go back to fighting Wild Boars? Can I just say that I feel nauseous whenever I see a Wild Boar?

Why not go check out level 8 monsters? If I can handle them, I might find different equipment. Maybe I can build up my attributes enough to take on the Wild Boar King. Level 8 monsters should be beyond those spiders. I need to be careful passing through the Spider Forest; I can't afford to get stuck in those disgusting spider webs, even with my current stats.

Sigh, the monster distribution in this game is so irregular. How many people are going to fall into these traps? Just imagine, most players feel no pressure fighting level 3 Green Snakes, so they decide to venture deeper and prepare to challenge higher-level monsters. But as soon as they step in, they get caught in a level 7 spider web directly. That kind of despair would probably cause psychological trauma.

Wu Shaochen navigated to the Spider Forest skillfully, relying on his super high movement speed to safely reach the depths of the jungle. Finally encountering an eighth-level monster, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable looking at the toad before him.

**[Toad]**

Level: 8

Health: 3200

Attack: 100

Defense: 48

Speed: 15

Skill: Tongue Strike: Extends its tongue to target, ignores 50% defense, deals 145% physical damage, and reduces target's movement speed by 30%. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

"Hmm, I can handle this," Wu Shaochen calculated. The Toad's skill, which ignores 50% defense, would only deal 137 damage to him, but with his high health of 290, he was completely safe. With his current 23 poison damage, he could kill it in three hits, and even with a 30% reduction in his 33 speed, he'd still have 20, which was enough to beat it.

"Ah, it's ugly, but I'll endure it. It's not like I'm dating it."

Killing an 8th-level Toad would bring Wu Shaochen 30 experience points, plus an additional 9 points for every 3 levels above it, totaling 39 experience points per kill. Besides the 4 copper coins, the Toad would also drop a sticky saliva, likely a quest item. There should be a quest for each type of monster in the newbie village. And so, Wu Shaochen embarked on his journey to kill Toads.

At this moment, some of the leading players in the newbie village had already reached level 3 and were beginning to tackle Crabs. Each of them had several pieces of equipment, with the strongest already wearing full defensive gear. However, most of these were only +2 attribute defense gear from Mountain Goats, providing minimal improvement. Even though they were grouped in fives, the Crabs' attributes were still too strong for current players, making the battles very difficult.

At this time, everyone in newbie village #8365 was eagerly watching the auction house, hoping that the mysterious big shot would once again sell equipment. Although the auction house now had many items listed, they were all +2 attribute equipment, with prices so high that there were no takers. In fact, a few of the items were listed for 20-30 thousand, possibly in response to Wu Shaochen's previous equipment sales prices, but no one showed interest.

Just then, a pair of shoes appeared in the auction house, priced at 10,000 yuan. In just one second, they were snapped up.

"What the heck just happened?"

"I think I saw a pair of shoes appear and then disappear."

"Seriously, I checked the auction house records. Shoes with +5 attributes, priced at 10,000 yuan. It must have been that big shot who listed them. Who the hell has such fast reflexes! Been single for thirty years, I bet."