“Shen Lu,” a mysterious game that descended upon Lan Xing 20 years ago. Only one million spots are available each month. Once you become a player, you gain extraordinary power and rise to the top of society. ...... Ling Yi awakens the Super Mutation System. From consumables to divine artifacts, everything can be mutated! Once the mutation potential reaches perfection, he can even mutate multiple abilities comparable to a “golden finger”! By mutating the “Luck +1” talent, he gains the game-breaking ability—Probability Reversal! A 10% probability flips to 90%! A 0.1% drop rate becomes 99.9% for him! By mutating the “Eye of True Vision,” he gains the game-breaking ability—Eye of Truth! Not only can he see invisible units, but he can also view hidden information about items! In addition to these, there’s “Malice Manifestation,” which turns others’ ill will into voice-over commentary, and the “Intelligence-Lowering Aura,” which continuously reduces enemies’ intelligence… One year later.
Chapter 6: Level Up!
When a black-haired teenager walked over, stepping on the leaves scattered across the ground, the battle between the Chen brothers and the two fighting roosters was still underway. Seeing this player—who appeared capable of summoning meteorites—appear, the two immediately grew anxious. They were afraid he might steal their monster. But to their surprise, the boy merely cast a casual glance in their direction before continuing westward. It was as if he had no interest in their prey. It wasn’t until the boy had disappeared from their sight that the Chen brothers finally relaxed a little. Half a minute later. Having killed both combat chickens, the brothers leaned back against a cypress tree, resting and chatting idly. “It’s really rare these days to find someone who doesn’t steal monsters.” “Maybe the drawbacks of the skill are showing. With that much power, the side effects must be huge.” “That’s true… By the way, was that guy really the one who summoned the meteorite?” “Who knows? Who cares anyway.” Chen Dajia nodded, then suddenly changed the subject: “Looking at the way that guy looked at the fighting roosters just now—he seemed completely uninterested—I actually thought he was about to level up to Level 2.” “No way.” Chen Xiaoyi shook his head with a smile. “The previous record for reaching Level 2 was 1 hour and 40 minutes, and it’s been less than half an hour since the game started.” “Even if he has that powerful skill, his experience bar probably isn’t even halfway full. It might not even be a quarter full...” While the two were still chatting and taking a break elsewhere Ling Yi, who had been continuing westward, finally emerged from the “C”-shaped cypress forest. As soon as he stepped out, he saw a large grassy slope ahead, six or seven meters high—nearly two stories tall. He’d have to climb it to see what lay on the other side. “Huh? Why is this grassy slope so high?” Ling Yi mused curiously as he strolled leisurely toward it. Just as he began climbing the grassy slope, a system message suddenly appeared. [Current Area: Crimson Orchard] [Monster Information: Red Fruit Monster (Lv2–Lv10)] [Tip: This area is teeming with monsters; it’s best to come with companions] He’d learned quite a bit from the TV broadcast yesterday. For example, the farther away from camp, the higher the monsters’ levels, and that monsters would actively attack players as soon as they spotted them. But he only just now realized what this area west of the Qingbai Forest was. When he climbed to the top of the grassy slope and cautiously peered over to the other side a green plain stretching as far as the eye could see came into view. The plain was densely covered with a maze-like pattern of fruit trees, each five or six meters tall and laden with identical, unknown vermilion fruits. The vermilion fruits varied in size; the small ones were about the size of ordinary apples, while the large ones had a diameter of nearly half a meter. Beneath each tree lay a dozen or so fruits, bouncing about. Those must be the Red Fruit Monsters. Ling Yi lay there, scrutinizing the scene for a moment, but couldn’t spot any difference between the Red Fruit Monsters and the fruits on the trees. Except that they moved. “Whoa… there are way too many of these monsters.” A quick glance revealed at least a thousand of them. And that was just what he could see. There were surely even more in the distance. Ling Yi didn’t dare to rashly enter the Red Fruit Monsters’ line of sight; once he stepped out, if not all of them, at least half would spot him. If hundreds of monsters charged at him then, he wouldn’t stand a chance. “No wonder Shen Lu提示 said to bring companions along... If you really want to take on the Red Fruit Monsters, how could you possibly manage without a few thousand people coming together?” “But that’s for others; as for me...” Thinking of the scene that was about to unfold, Ling Yi couldn’t help but break into a delighted smile. He lay flat on the grassy slope, hiding his entire body among the blades of grass, and peered down through the gaps between them. Then he whispered softly, “Xing Luo. ” The very next second, hundreds of meters up in the sky, the Flame Star appeared once more! As this bright, fiery red star accelerated toward the ground, the Red Fruit Monsters on the grassland below were still hopping about in their original spots. These Red Fruit Monsters—which looked like giant red apples—had no eyes and no heads; Ling Yi didn’t know if they’d even noticed the threat looming overhead. In any case. Until the Flame Star hit the ground and exploded, neither of the two Red Fruit Monsters in the area made any move to dodge. They both died under the Flame Star! [You defeated a Red Fruit Monster (Lv2), +2 EXP] [Congratulations! You have earned enough experience to automatically level up to Level 2! ] [You defeated a Red Fruit Monster (Lv2), +1 EXP] [You gained 5 free attribute points! ] “Level 2 already!” Ling Yi looked up at the time. [Time Remaining Until the Descent: 2 hours 34 minutes] “I’ve been in here for 26 minutes already, and I’ve only just reached Level 2. I don’t know if that’s slow or fast.” He knew that leveling up on Shen Lu was difficult. But he wasn’t sure exactly how difficult it was. That morning, he’d heard an old man next door say that even powerful players might struggle to gain a few experience points even after fighting all afternoon. The reason was that Shen Lu didn’t allow players to exploit weaker opponents. Players gain no experience from killing monsters below their own level; 1 point for monsters at their own level; 2 points for monsters 1 level higher; 3 points for monsters 2 levels higher... A Level 90 player gains only 1 point of experience from killing a Level 90 monster. And battles at that level often take several hours to decide a winner. Shaking his head to clear his mind of distractions, Ling Yi opened his character panel, ready to begin allocating his skill points. Last night, he had already decided on the path he would take. That path was to master everything! To become an all-around powerhouse capable of both physical and magical damage, capable of casting spells from a distance as well as engaging in close-quarters combat, capable of both taking down enemies and saving allies! He possessed the Super Mutation System; if he focused on just one aspect like everyone else, he’d actually be wasting the system’s potential! And since he was going to develop in this direction, as for his attribute points... “Hmm... I’ll put points into Mana first. Right now, the higher my Mana, the more powerful my ‘Starfall’ spell becomes.” “The faster I clear mobs, the faster I’ll level up.” For him right now, his top priority was still leveling up. The sooner he reaches Level 10, the better! With that in mind, Ling Yi wasted no more time and quickly allocated all five attribute points to Mana. He checked his character panel again. 『 Name: Ling Yi Level: 2 (1/300) Talent: Probability Reversal Strength: 3 Mana: 10 Agility: 3 Constitution: 3 Stamina: 3 Skill: Starfall (1 Star) Remaining Star Slots: 1 Combat Power Rating: An ordinary person with considerable destructive power 』 “Still just an ordinary person... That’s actually quite objective.” Didn’t Ling Yi also long to be incredibly strong, swift as the wind, and possess combat power beyond that of an ordinary person? But the most important thing right now was leveling up. Everything else could take a back seat. After closing his character panel, he turned his gaze back to the grassland below. “Hehehe.” “Let me see just how powerful this ‘Starfall’ is now.” Ling Yi parted a small patch of tender grass in front of him and murmured, “Starfall!” At the same time, he tilted his head back to gaze at the azure sky. At roughly the same altitude, a crimson-gold speck of light suddenly appeared, hurtling toward the grassland at the same speed as before! The altitude and speed were exactly the same as before. But the Flame Star was twice as big! Its diameter had reached 10 meters! “Whoa—” Watching the Flame Star slam into the grassland like a missile, Ling Yi instinctively sucked in a sharp breath. “Is a Level 2 skill really this powerful?”
