“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 9: Stamina
Ling Yi looked into the distance and saw a young girl wearing a gray jacket that revealed her snow-white thighs hurling fireballs at a wooden fence. She threw several fireballs in quick succession before the fence was finally burned through, creating a small hole about one meter in diameter. Regarding this, Ling Yi’s assessment was: Not bad. Don’t be fooled by the fact that he can now summon a Flame Star with a diameter of 35 meters at will. But that’s ten times the normal size; under normal circumstances, it’s only 3. 5 meters. Even with the same amount of Mana, the power of a fireball is far inferior to that of his Flame Star. Not to mention, he’d just heard that the girl was only Level 2. At that level, their Mana would be 10 points at most, so that performance was to be expected. “Come to think of it, Level 2 really is quite high these days.” Ling Yi stroked his chin and muttered softly to himself. When, just a few seconds ago, the woman named “Luo Yao” posted that she was Level 2 with 292 experience points, the player chat immediately erupted in waves of commotion. Judging by the reactions of these several thousand people, Ling Yi could no longer deny the fact that “gaining experience is really hard.” He also realized just how absurdly high his own Level 7 actually was. If he were to reveal it, the whole world would probably go into an uproar! ‘Thankfully, Shen Lu takes player privacy very seriously—there’s absolutely no way to view other players’ information.’ ‘Unless I choose to reveal it myself, no one will know my level.’ Ling Yi thought to himself. That was precisely why he felt so at ease right now. He snapped back to reality. He turned his gaze back to the distance and saw silver-gray wolves racing out of the wooden enclosure, charging toward the players gathered in front of it. The players weren’t fighting them; instead, they were retreating rapidly. Their intention was to clear a larger combat area for everyone to fight. “Here they come! The prairie wolves are out!” “Hahaha, I can hardly wait!” The surrounding players rubbed their hands together with excitement, each staring intently at the silver wolves with fiery eyes, as if they were looking at moving experience points. If not for their self-restraint, they would likely have all rushed forward impatiently. ...... Just as everyone was getting restless. From behind the massive wooden fence, a piercing wolf howl suddenly rang out! Awoo-woo-woo—!! The howl lasted five or six seconds, and during that time, the entire plain fell into an eerie silence. Intense sunlight bathed the grassland. Ling Yi raised his left hand to shield his eyes from the glare, his gaze curiously sweeping over the other players. He felt like a total newbie, clueless about everything. That wolf howl from just now clearly signified something; otherwise, these people wouldn’t be wearing those expressions of both surprise and irritation. Ling Yi didn’t know what it was. But seeing the uniform expressions on this group’s faces made him want to laugh. “You absorbed 31 points of surprise from Zhang Wu.” “You absorbed 78 points of frustration from Li Ming.” “You’ve absorbed 65 points of Resignation from Wang Yuan.” “Oh no! The Wolf King has spotted us!” Ling Yi didn’t have to wait long before someone nearby let out a startled cry. “We’re done for! The Wolf King has a group-buff aura—with that, we’re no match for the wolf pack!” “Why didn’t it just stay in its den and sleep? What’s it doing out here?” “This has happened before. I remember we turned the tide by using up our stamina. During the newbie period, we have 100x stamina regeneration, but monsters don’t.” “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s run!” As the people nearby were discussing this, the massive wooden fence in the distance was suddenly pushed over from the inside by some force, crashing onto the grass with a “thud.” The crowd looked on—what else could it be but a line of prairie wolves? The line of prairie wolves immediately charged outward after knocking down the wooden fence, and behind them, pack after pack of prairie wolves were streaming out of burrows from all directions! “Hiss—” Ling Yi gasped at the sight. “Holy shit! This many?” It was the first time he’d ever witnessed such a scene. Over a thousand wolves charging together looked like an enormous, rapidly moving silver carpet; at a glance, not a speck of green grass was visible. Among the pack, a five-meter-tall colossal wolf stood out strikingly. While the other wolves charged toward the players, it stood aloof in its spot, gazing coldly at the retreating players. Clearly, it was the Wolf King! Rumor had it that it was a Level 10 boss monster! ‘At this distance... it’s right within my attack range, isn’t it?’ Just as Ling Yi was wondering whether to launch an attack, Lin Qingyu suddenly grabbed his arm and dragged him backward, exclaiming, “What are you standing there for? Run!” “Huh!?” Lin Qingyu was incredibly strong, and for a moment, she pulled so hard that Ling Yi had no choice but to follow her. ‘This woman actually chose the Physical Training skill!??’ He stared in surprise at her slender silhouette; it was hard to imagine a young girl choosing such a “brutish” skill. After all, women aren’t naturally as strong as men, so choosing this skill doesn’t offer much of an advantage. Unless she’s confident in her close-quarters combat abilities... Without giving it much thought, Ling Yi turned to look around and saw that everyone was fleeing south at full speed; those who ran too slowly were being caught by the wolf pack. They’d been given a free trip back to town. And that was that. Over 9,000 people were being chased by the Wolf King and his pack of 10,000 wolves all the way from the northern plains to the center of the plains, now just a few hundred meters from the camp! “We can’t retreat any further! If we retreat any more, we’ll be right at the camp!” At this point, everyone knew it was time to fight. The crystal in the camp wasn’t invincible; once destroyed by monsters, no one on the entire map would be able to respawn! Therefore, just to be safe, they absolutely couldn’t let the monsters into the camp. “The stamina-draining tactic really worked—at least the wolf pack doesn’t have the same intensity as before.” The players watched the pursuing wolf pack in the distance closely and noticed that their speed had slowed significantly, and the ferocity in their eyes wasn’t as intense as before. They were nowhere near as intimidating as when they had burst through the barriers just moments ago! At that moment, many of them began to feel a surge of excitement. “Maybe we can turn the tables!?” One of the burly men harboring this thought, his eyes ablaze with excitement, charged toward a wolf with great momentum and, fearlessly, swung his fist—as big as a sandbag—to strike it with all his might. Although the wolf struggled desperately, it looked weak and powerless. It soon died under the burly man’s fist. Seeing this, all the players were filled with confidence! “Charge! Wipe out the wolf pack!” “Hahaha, the stamina-draining tactic works like a charm! Sure, it’s only useful during the beginner phase, but it’s really paid off now!” “......” While the players were battling the wolf pack, by the wooden fence at the camp entrance, Ling Yi was leaning over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily. “Huff… huff… huff…” “Hey, haven’t you exercised in a long time? You’re still this exhausted even with full stamina regeneration?” Standing nearby, Lin Qingyu nonchalantly tossed her long hair to one side, speechless at the sight of this young man who was already aching all over after running just 3,000 meters. Since the emergence of Shen Lu, the whole world had placed even greater emphasis on physical fitness. Was there a single person who hadn’t been intentionally training their physical fitness since childhood? “...” Ling Yi couldn’t be bothered to reply. He really hadn’t exercised in a long time. Even though he was now fully recovered, his back and waist still ached, and his thighs felt like they were about to cramp up. ‘It’ll definitely be worse when I wake up tomorrow...’ Noticing Lin Qingyu’s strange gaze, Ling Yi twitched the corner of his mouth and forced himself to sit up straight. “Have you recovered?” she asked, batting her beautiful eyes. “Barely...” Before he could finish, the girl in front of him squeezed his arm hard, causing him to let out a series of pained groans. They’d only known each other for a short while and were only aware of each other’s names and the fact that they were both players from Qianjiang City. Anyone who didn’t know better might think they were in some kind of intimate relationship.
