Chapter 3: The Shameless Strategy

All along the way, Wu Shaochen found himself unable to make a move. There were people everywhere, and the whole place was in utter chaos. As soon as a rabbit respawned, a swarm of people would rush over and hack away wildly. However, the observant Wu Shaochen still noticed a few groups that looked well-trained. They cooperated seamlessly, guarding nearby spawn points with clear divisions of labor. Some took turns landing the final blow, while others were in charge of weakening the enemies so that one person could finish them off, concentrating all the resources on a single individual. Regardless of the method, it was far better than the chaotic free-for-all. So this is the power of guilds, Wu Shaochen thought.

He began to grow anxious. He hadn’t even touched a single rabbit yet. If things continued like this, he’d fall far behind. But he didn’t want to fight others for kills either—not only was the competition fierce, but even if he got lucky and snatched one, it was horribly inefficient.

“Do I really have to go to the Level 2 monster area?” Wu Shaochen pondered for a moment before continuing forward. Might as well take a look—it was better than standing around doing nothing. Monsters level 1 and below wouldn’t attack first, so as long as he didn’t provoke them, he’d be fine.

Nearby, a few players waiting for rabbits to spawn noticed Wu Shaochen heading alone toward the Level 2 area. One short young man said, “Hey, look! Is that guy really heading to the Level 2 monster zone?”

“Looks like it. Probably can’t grab any kills here and wants to challenge himself inside. Haha, he’s in for a rude awakening. I had the same thought at first—went in all confident and came running back with my tail between my legs after seeing the stats of the Level 2 monsters,” a slightly chubby guy laughed.

“Fatty, you’ve been there? Are the monsters inside really that strong?” the short guy asked.

“Yeah, they’re not something current players can handle—unless a whole group gangs up on one. But that’s not worth it either. Better to just stay here and kill rabbits,” Fatty said with a lingering fear in his voice.

After walking for a while, Wu Shaochen finally saw some different monsters ahead: a group of goats leisurely grazing. He looked around and realized there were no players nearby. So many goats and no one attacking them. Wu Shaochen approached and cast Insight.

[Goat]
Level: 2
HP: 300
Physical Attack: 21
Physical Defense: 8
Speed: 7
Skill: Charge – The goat lowers its head and charges with its two horns, dealing 120% physical attack damage. Cooldown: 5 seconds.

Looking at the goat’s stats, Wu Shaochen’s mouth twitched again. Now he understood why no one came here. This is a Level 2 monster? Seriously? It already has a skill at Level 2? What were the developers thinking? With stats like these, no one at this stage could handle it.

Suddenly, he remembered his talent—he needed to kill monsters higher than his level to increase his poison damage. He had thought it would be easy and that he’d soon become rich and handsome, win the heart of a wealthy beauty, and reach the peak of life. But now it seemed he had been too optimistic. If all monsters scaled like this, how was he supposed to farm his talent?

Unwilling to give up, Wu Shaochen kept moving forward until he reached a fork in the road. Ahead was a bamboo forest, the left led into a forest, and the right seemed to be a beach, likely leading to the sea. Didn’t expect this game to have an ocean, he thought. Intrigued, he headed right. Even if he didn’t fight, it wouldn’t hurt to check out the sea.

Before long, he indeed saw a beach and the vast ocean beyond.

What a view. Is this really a game? It feels like a real place. Feeling the sea breeze, Wu Shaochen stretched his arms wide and took a few deep breaths. “In the real world, air this fresh hasn’t existed for a long time,” he murmured. This game was truly immersive.

“Holy crap, that’s a huge crab!” Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a crab the size of a washbasin emerge from the sand, waving its two giant pincers as it scuttled toward him sideways.

Wu Shaochen cast Insight, then bolted faster than a rabbit.

[Giant Crab]
Level: 4
HP: 800
Physical Attack: 45
Physical Defense: 15
Speed: 8
Skill: Double Claw Strike – Swings both pincers at the target, dealing two consecutive hits of 70% physical damage. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

After fleeing a long distance, Wu Shaochen looked back at the crab with lingering fear and cursed, “Damn you, developers! Are you sure this game is meant for humans? That crab could one-shot anyone with ease. How are we supposed to survive?!”

Sigh. What now? Looks like he had no choice but to go back and join the rabbit-killing crowd after all.

Just as he was about to leave, Wu Shaochen spotted a giant turtle slowly crawling on the sand. Out of curiosity, he cast Insight again.

[Sea Turtle]
Level: 5
HP: 1800
Physical Attack: 50
Physical Defense: 40
Speed: 3
Skill: Thorn Shield – Blocks the next attack and reflects 50% of the damage back to the attacker. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Looking at the turtle’s stats, pretty much anyone would turn and run without hesitation. High defense and HP—typical tank. With 40 defense and 1800 health, even at higher levels, no one would want to fight it. The returns were just too low.

But at that moment, a strange gleam flashed in Wu Shaochen’s eyes. Indeed, the turtle’s attributes were insurmountable for any Level 0 player. With 40 defense, no one could break through. But Wu Shaochen’s damage wasn’t based on attack power. What caught his eye was the turtle’s speed—only 3. He could kite it.

Even if he got hit once, the turtle’s 50 attack wouldn’t instantly kill him. His own defense was 6, so it would only deal 44 damage. Its only skill was useless against him—he couldn’t break its defense anyway, so reflected damage didn’t matter. Meanwhile, his poison dealt 60 damage per minute. With the turtle unable to heal, it would die in 30 minutes. And in those 30 minutes, who knew if he could even snag a single rabbit at the village entrance?

More importantly, he was currently Level 0. The turtle was five levels above—just right to trigger his talent. Haha, let’s do this!

Without hesitation, Wu Shaochen approached the turtle. Level 5 monsters wouldn’t attack first, so he got close and swung his wooden sword at its shell.

-1
-1

A red “-1” floated above the turtle’s head—forced chip damage despite not breaking its defense. Then a white “-1” appeared, representing true damage from poison.

Though the turtle moved slowly, its reflexes were decent. As soon as he struck, it stretched its neck and snapped at him.

-44

With only 50 HP, Wu Shaochen was left on the verge of death. Frightened, he turned and ran. This was where his speed advantage shined. The turtle slowly chased behind him, but could only watch as he got farther and farther away, while a constant stream of white “-1” floated above its head. Its health bar dropped at a glacial pace.

From a safe distance, Wu Shaochen looked back at the turtle and grinned. “Come on, try and catch me!”

The poor turtle could only trudge forward, one slow step at a time, tirelessly chasing him.

After 10 seconds, Wu Shaochen started regenerating 1 HP per second while continuing to taunt the turtle. In Oracle, both players and monsters would exit combat after 10 seconds without dealing or receiving damage, triggering natural HP regeneration. If health was under 100, it defaulted to 1 point per second. Without potions, this was the only way to heal.

And so, Wu Shaochen waged a long war of attrition against the sea turtle using this shameless strategy. He timed everything perfectly—just before the poison was about to wear off, he’d run in and land a hit, then retreat. With the poison duration being 60 seconds, he always had enough time to fully heal before reapplying.