Shen Lu: I've Mutated into Multiple Game-Breaking Abilities

Chapter 3: Shen Lu—Where You Fight Monsters to Grow Stronger

Since Shen Lu first appeared 20 years ago the global player base has grown to over 200 million. Although this represents only one-fortieth of the world’s 8 billion people, they possess enough power to change the entire world. Therefore mainstream media reports focus entirely on players, and the whole world revolves around them. They are few in number. Yet they are, without a doubt, the defining theme of this era. On May 31, one million people from all over the world who had passed the player selection were all cheering and celebrating. Those who failed to pass this round of selection could only wait until next month. “Today’s player selection saw even more participants than last month—a whopping 4. 706 billion people took part.” “Ugh, the acceptance rate is way too low. Why can’t they open up more spots? It’s just a place to fight monsters, after all.” As always, the Shen Lu forum was once again experiencing its monthly peak of discussion. “Tomorrow’s round is going to be intense!” “Yeah. Over here, the War God of the Northern Bear Kingdom posted that his son became a player today; over there, the White Eagle First Guild announced that their junior guild master will officially enter Shen Lu tomorrow; and the world’s top ten conglomerates have all released good news about their new players...” “This June batch of new players is likely going to break a leveling record!” Lin Qingyu is the campus beauty of Qianjiang University. She is also one of the new players set to enter Shen Lu tomorrow. Reading through the various comments on the forum, she felt both excited and nervous. “What should I do?” “There are so many big shots in this batch—as a little newbie, I’m under a ton of pressure.” Her best friends in the dorm gathered around her and patiently reassured her: “ “It’ll be fine. You might not even run into them.” “Each batch of one million players is divided into 100 servers, with 10,000 players per server... the odds of you actually running into them are pretty slim.” “Besides, even if you do run into them, it’s a good thing.” Her best friend patted her on the shoulder and added, “You’re both competitors and teammates!” Players on the same server share a common goal. “Well… I guess you’re right.” After hearing her friend’s words, Lin Qingyu gradually began to relax. Instead of overthinking things here, she’d better focus on planning tomorrow’s actions. After all everyone’s time in Shen Lu is limited. Once she enters tomorrow, she’ll have to act with every second counting. She can’t waste even a single minute! Meanwhile. Other new players around the world were also nervously “reviewing” their action plans for once they entered Shen Lu. How to level up quickly? Where do treasure chests appear most often? And so on and so forth—everyone already had a clear plan in mind! June 1. 12:00:00 a. m. Under the eager gaze of millions of people worldwide, a dazzling rainbow-colored pillar of light descended from the sky with impeccable precision at the very instant of 12:00:00, enveloping everyone at the center. Immediately afterward. A message exclusive to Shen Lu appeared before everyone. [Congratulations on officially becoming a player! ] At that very moment, the monthly new-server announcement echoed across the globe. 〖Shen Lu Announcement: This month’s recruitment is complete. Servers 20-06—01 through 100 are now officially open! 〗 Hearing this emotionless, neutral voice, countless people instinctively looked up at the night sky. Gazing at the golden text floating in the air, some rejoiced while others sighed. “Great, they’re finally open! My good-for-nothing son has finally made it in! Hahahaha… ....” “Another month has gone by—time flies.” “Sigh, I didn’t make it as a player in May, but I’ll keep trying in June!” “You absorbed 71 points of excitement from Li Ming.” “You absorbed 63 points of excitement from Zhang San.” “You absorbed 39 points of anticipation from Zhang San.” “You have absorbed 65 points of curiosity from Li Si.” “You have absorbed...” After being transported into Shen Lu by a rainbow-colored beam of light Ling Yi opened his eyes. But all he saw before him was a torrent of rapidly scrolling emotional data! The Super Mutation System can absorb the emotions of those around him and convert them into mutation points. Just yesterday, Ling Yi had been worrying whether this absorption process would be difficult. But now it seemed his worries from yesterday had been for nothing! “Current Emotion Points Collected: 7,482; Mutation Points: 0” In just a few short seconds of standing here, he had already collected this many Emotion Points! Wasn’t that a pleasant surprise? He took a deep, heavy breath. Forcing himself to ignore the semi-transparent emotional messages that were still constantly “flooding the screen” before him, Ling Yi looked up while calming his inner excitement. He surveyed his surroundings. This was an extremely open, vast plain. Beneath his feet lay yellowish-brown soil, dotted with a few wildflowers and grasses. A wooden fence several thousand meters long enclosed the area, forming a small camp similar to a “newbie village.” Apart from the players, the only other thing in the camp was a three-meter-tall azure crystal. An immense forest encircled the camp in a “C” shape, leaving only one exit at the front. White clouds drifted lazily across the azure sky. The sunlight shone down on everyone, warm and pleasant. “Hahaha! We’ve finally entered Shen Lu!” “Hurry up, hurry up! Go, go, go!” “We’re raiding the Grassland Wolf Camp in two hours—everyone needs to be there on time!” “Of course, of course. I’ll definitely blow you all away then! Hahahaha...” “Holy crap! They’re all running so fast...” While Ling Yi was surveying his surroundings, the other players in the camp were like starving wolves, sprinting frantically in all directions. Some charged straight ahead; others dashed into the woods. By the time he turned his gaze back, only a few hundred people remained in his field of vision. “So this is Shen Lu? Just a place to kill monsters, as expected—no NPC quests at all.” “Is that news to you? You only get experience by killing monsters, and skills drop from monsters too. If you don’t kill monsters, you get nothing.” “Well, we’d better hurry then.” Two men exchanged these words as they hurried past Ling Yi. Just as he was about to set off himself, information about Shen Lu suddenly appeared before him. [Welcome to Shen Lu] [Do you wish to read the basic information? ] “Hmm… Yes.” Although he’d read quite a bit about Shen Lu yesterday he wasn’t sure how much it differed from the real thing. To be on the safe side, he decided to take a look. —Shen Lu Basic Information 1. Players receive 3 hours of “Descent Time” daily, which can be accumulated indefinitely. If Descent Time reaches zero, you will be unable to enter Shen Lu. 2. There are four maps within Shen Lu. Players can only enter the next map after defeating the Demon Lord of the previous one. 3. All actions are determined by the players themselves. End [Hint: You are currently in the Beginner Map. Current map level cap: 30] There’s very little basic information. The main point is to let players know that they have complete freedom of action. What you do is entirely up to you. If you want to get stronger, go fight monsters and level up. If you don’t want to get stronger, you can lie down and sleep right where you are, or even head back immediately—though, of course, practically no one would do that. After reading this basic information, Ling Yi didn’t want to waste any more time. He shifted his gaze back and forth between the plain ahead and the surrounding forest, pondering where he should go. ‘The plain stretches endlessly; if there are monsters, I’d spot them right away, but there are too many people.’ “Getting into arguments with other players over monster loot would just be a waste of time.” “I’ll head into the forest instead.” “Although the frequency of monster encounters is a bit lower, at least it’s consistent.” With that in mind, Ling Yi glanced at the forests on either side and ultimately set off toward the one on the right.