Novice Village No. 999, late night.
Although it was late night in the game, for "era of apocalypse," which had been open for less than ten hours, this was the liveliest time. Countless office workers and students had just flooded into the game, and the novice village was bustling with noise.
However, on the official forum outside the game, a storm was brewing.
A video post titled "Shocking! Ghost Mage Appears in Novice Village, Instantly Kills Five Elite Players from Angel Guild in Melee!" was pinned to the top of the hot search, followed by three bright red "Explosive" tags.
The video's perspective was very shaky, clearly filmed by a passerby player hiding in the woods.
In the footage, under the dim moonlight, a mage wearing tattered cloth robes and goggles weaved between five fully armed guild players like a ghost.
Dodging a Charge, Z-pattern movement for positioning, that stunning "Blink" to cut into the backline, and finally the cold-blooded throat-slitting strike.
The entire process took less than three minutes.
The elite squad of the Angel Guild was wiped out.
The comment section had already exploded.
"1st Floor: Holy crap! Is this a movie? Can a mage even play like this?"
"2nd Floor: What's up with that Blink? Doesn't the official website say you can only learn it after the second advancement at level 20?"
"56th Floor: Proof is in this post, this is definitely a closed beta veteran or a hacker! I can't understand that damage, two hits to kill a mage?"
"101st Floor (Angel Guild · Wings of Holy Light): @Official Administrator, please strictly investigate this person's ID, they are seriously destroying game balance! Also, a bounty of 100 gold coins, whoever can provide this person's coordinates will get the money immediately!"
...
Ye Yi was currently sitting on a secluded rock, chewing on the dry, hard bread provided by the system to recover his stamina while browsing the semi-transparent forum interface in front of him.
Watching Lin Tianyu's frantic bounty order, he just gave a cold laugh and closed the interface.
"Only 100 gold coins? Is my life really worth so little?"
He glanced at his red-name status.
Having killed five white-name players, his ID "Yi" was currently deep red, with a crime value as high as 500 points. According to game rules, red-name players could not enter safe zones, could not trade normally with NPCs, and were guaranteed to drop equipment upon death, with double the level penalty.
For ordinary players, this basically meant deleting the account and starting over.
But for Ye Yi, this was just a minor annoyance.
"Current level is 15, leading the second place (currently the second on the leaderboard is level 7) by a full 8 levels. The resources in the novice village are already meaningless to me."
Ye Yi stood up and patted the dust off his cloth robes.
He had no intention of returning to the village to wash away his red name.
His target was the transition area between Novice Village No. 999 and the main city "Azure Dragon City" — the Mist Forest.
That place was distributed with level 10-15 aggressive monsters, and there was also a teleportation station leading to the main city. More importantly, according to memories from his previous life, that was where that "genius girl" should appear at this time.
"At this time, she should have just been kicked out by that trash team."
Ye Yi sorted through his backpack. Among the equipment dropped by those five unlucky fellows, besides that green staff which could be sold for some money, everything else was trash.
He carried the heaven-swallowing demon sword on his back (to avoid attracting attention, he wrapped the sword body with a piece of rags), lowered his goggles, and his figure merged into the darkness.
The Mist Forest was not far from the Wild Boar Forest, but the environment was vastly different.
As soon as he stepped into this area, the surrounding air temperature plummeted. Thick white fog permeated the forest, and visibility was less than five meters.
"Hiss, hiss..."
A hair-raising friction sound came from the grass.
A "Venomous Flower Spider" (Lv.11) the size of a millstone suddenly hung down from the canopy, its poisonous fangs stabbing directly at the back of Ye Yi's neck.
The monsters here were not only high-level, but most also carried control or continuous blood-loss negative status effects, making it a forbidden zone for solo players.
But in front of Ye Yi's "True Sight" (although he didn't have the skill, he knew monster habits like the back of his hand), these sneak attacks appeared clumsy and ridiculous.
He didn't even turn his head, and backhanded his sword upwards in a slash.
"Pfft!"
The spider's abdomen was precisely sliced open, and green juice splashed out.
"-180!" (Weakness Attack)
"-185!"
Two strikes, instant kill.
If it were an ordinary mage, they would probably already be poisoned and fallen to the ground by now. But the life energy fed back by the heaven-swallowing demon sword after drinking blood instantly offset the negligible poison damage.
"Too slow."
Ye Yi frowned.
Although he had the double experience talent, as the level increased, the experience points required for leveling up grew exponentially. Just relying on killing these ordinary monsters, it would take at least two more days to reach level 20 and go to the main city for class advancement.
He needed a teammate.
Or rather, he needed a specific "tool person" to cooperate with him for more efficient over-level monster grinding.
And the person he was looking for was this key.
Passing through the outer spider area, firelight appeared faintly ahead.
That was a temporary camp in the Mist Forest, guarded by a few neutral NPCs, acting as a supply point for players before entering deep dungeons.
At this moment, many players wanting to team up to challenge the "Gloomy Forest" dungeon were gathered in the camp.
Arguments could be heard even through the fog.
"Get lost, get lost, get lost! I already said we don't want you, can't you understand human language?"
"But... but my calculation formula is not wrong! As long as you stand where I said..."
"Shut up! A healer with no mana to heal, and you're still talking to me about formulas? Intelligence stat allocation? Are you brain-damaged!"
Hearing this familiar voice and the unique content of the argument, Ye Yi's footsteps stopped.
A hint of long-lost gentleness flashed in his eyes behind the goggles.
Found her.
The genius girl who was known as the "Data Queen" in his past life, the one who hacked the enemy guild's command system single-handedly.
At this moment, she was standing in the mud of the camp like an abandoned kitten, being pointed at and scolded by someone.