Chu Tian's transformation startled those around him, and one young girl burst into tears.
He stretched his limbs and found it quite uncomfortable, having to walk on all fours.
His first few steps were clumsy, and he glanced around awkwardly, relieved that no one seemed to have noticed.
"This is the human新手村, why is there a Druid?"
"Yeah, wasn't the system supposed to assign things correctly?"
...
The people nearby pointed at Chu Tian and chattered.
Chu Tian walked through the crowd, thinking to himself, "How could you low-level beings possibly know that I am the reincarnation of the Elf King!"
Overjoyed, Chu Tian wagged his tail and proudly left the新手村. He was grateful he was a Druid, recalling that in his previous life, it had taken him over half an hour to squeeze out of this place.
Transforming into his leopard form, his body shrank considerably. He deliberately walked under the skirts of female players, enjoying the glorious view...
Outside the新手村, a sea of people greeted him. There were more players than monsters, and it was common for a single level 1 larva to spawn only to be swarmed and torn apart by countless players.
All the players were experiencing a virtual game for the first time, with an astonishing 100% realism. This thrilling, immersive feeling truly captivated them.
In his previous life, Chu Tian had been one of them, fighting for ten minutes here before venturing deeper when he could no longer snatch monsters.
However, in this life, armed with his memories from the past, he knew that this新手村 was merely a pre-game content. At one AM, there would be a major reshuffling, and everyone would experience a world-ending catastrophe.
After the calamity, everyone would be transported to a continent called Gemini, ten thousand years in the future.
Gemini was actually the product of the collision between the current 'Aixing' and another high-tech planet, 'Lanxing'.
The two planets did not explode upon impact but instead squeezed together, forming a figure-eight. Both planets ceased their rotation; the side facing the sun was Lanxing, and the perpetually dark side was Aixing.
Survivors of the catastrophe were transported to Lanxing and automatically assigned to the Survivor faction.
Those who perished in the catastrophe were resurrected on Aixing and automatically assigned to the Slaughterer faction.
After this content update, players would be able to choose their faction allegiance upon character creation.
This led to a slew of protests against the game's mandatory faction assignment, with many threatening to quit if they weren't given an explanation.
However, the official response was that this was the world's only 100% holographic virtual game, and there would be no other. "Play if you want, don't if you don't."
When entering the game, that old man had said that this catastrophic end of days would become a reality in five years.
Chu Tian still scoffed at this. He had indeed been reborn, but whether it was the game "Tiandao" that caused his rebirth was another matter. Who knew if he hadn't just happened to be there at that exact moment?
Chu Tian moved through the crowd and arrived at the wild boar spawn area, where the player presence had thinned out.
Having been delayed by the old man, even the level 3 area was populated. Chu Tian cursed under his breath.
He thought to himself, "Don't let anyone discover me first!"
In his previous life, Chu Tian had wandered here because he couldn't snatch monsters at the新手村 entrance.
Then the catastrophe erupted, he accidentally fell into a tree hole, triggered a hidden quest, avoided the heavenly tribulation, and was teleported to Lanxing, joining the Survivor faction.
He arrived at the level 5 wolf spawn area. The monsters here were red-named and attacked proactively.
When he had last been here, all monsters had been wiped out by the system due to the outbreak of the catastrophe.
But with only twenty minutes left until the catastrophe, he couldn't just wait for the monsters to respawn and be wiped out again.
What if...
Looking at the tree hole within reach, the three wild wolves blocking his path, and his meager 40 health points.
Chu Tian gritted his teeth and charged forward, thinking, "We're all the same kind, you can't see me, you can't see me."
It was impossible for them not to see him. With such a significant level difference, the three wild wolves far away spotted the large cub Chu Tian had transformed into.
As he entered the wolves' pounce range, the three wolves leaped into the air.
Seizing this opportunity, Chu Tian pushed off hard with his hind legs, curling into a ball, and rolled like a wheel beneath the wolves.
The wild wolves landed and turned to find their target, but the rolling wheel, no, the big black cub, was nowhere to be seen.
At this moment, Chu Tian lay limp at the bottom of the tree hole, whimpering.
Last time, he had only 3 health points left when he fell here. This time, although his leopard form had a passive skill to reduce fall damage, he still lost a third of his health.
To avoid the wolves' attacks, he had rolled with all his might, almost breaking his old back.
Even though the pain in the Tiandao world was only 20% of real-world pain, it still hurt him so much that he couldn't get up for a long time.
"Ding... You have discovered the burial place of Master Craftsman Ryan, triggering the hidden quest [The Unclaimed Wish Box]. Accept?"
"Accept!" He had come for this, so how could he refuse?
Quest Name: [The Unclaimed Wish Box]
Quest Description: Retrieve the remains of Master Craftsman Ryan from the depths of the cave.
Experience Reward: Experience +600
Item Reward: Wish Box
"Ouch..."
Just as Chu Tian finished reading the quest description, a scream came from overhead.
A shower of rocks and dirt, along with a plump figure, fell down.
Chu Tian dodged.
He thought to himself, "So close! Someone's already here this quickly! But hidden quests are unique; no one else can trigger this."
Transformation: Leopard Form, Rend.
Chu Tian used his only level 1 skill and directly attacked the other player.
-3...
A number floated above the head of the fatty still lying on the ground, his health dropping to zero and disappearing in a white light.
"Ding... You have proactively killed player 'Utterly Unlucky', Sin Value +1."
Chu Tian mused, "What a fitting name. But you truly are unlucky. If you hadn't met reborn me, perhaps this luck would have fallen upon you."
In the Tiandao world, proactively killing players of the same faction increases Sin Value. Once Sin Value reaches 5 or more, the player becomes red-named. Upon death as a red-named player, all equipped items are dropped. Killing monsters can speed up the removal of the red name.
Picking up the health potion dropped by the unlucky player, Chu Tian quickly ran deeper into the cave.
Two minutes later, he returned to the cave entrance, looking at the [Wish Box] in his inventory with excitement in his eyes.
[Wish Box]
A divine-grade item forged by Master Craftsman Ryan's daughter, who sacrificed her own flesh and blood to the furnace.
Can be used to strengthen any equipment.
When strengthening, it adds a fixed 50% success rate on top of the original success rate.
Gold cost for strengthening is reduced by 100%.
Equipment will not be destroyed upon failed strengthening.
The strengthening level will not decrease upon failed strengthening.
Upon reaching 3 failed strengthening attempts, the next strengthening is guaranteed to succeed.
Unlimited uses.
Will be dropped upon death, cannot be traded, cannot be stored, cannot be destroyed.
Anyone who has played games knows how much of a gamble equipment strengthening is. In the Tiandao world, equipment can be strengthened up to +30. For every 10 levels of strengthening, a powerful random attribute is added to the equipment.
However, no matter how much you strengthen, if you fail, the strengthening level resets to zero.
In short, strengthening is a mystery. Some people have gone bankrupt without managing to strengthen to +30, while others have easily achieved full strengthening with just thirty enhancement stones.
Looking at his yellowish name and the time, with only a few minutes left before the system would issue a notice for players to find shelters.
Only in the新手村 or special shelters could one survive the world-ending catastrophe.
Therefore, he had no intention of leaving. In his previous life, he had hidden in this cave during the catastrophe, becoming a survivor and being transported to Lanxing.
He selected the online托管 function and then removed his helmet.
He wasn't foolish enough to go offline. In the past, some people had tried to exploit the system by going offline to hide, only to be automatically assigned to the Slaughterer faction upon logging back in.