Everyone looked very excited, and even Lu Xuehan smiled like a little flower for once.
After finishing their shopping, Xu Lin called an impromptu meeting to discuss development strategy:
"All of our classes have been assigned. Right now, nobody knows what the game is really like—there might not even be any beginner villages. Besides, nearly one hundred million helmets have been distributed worldwide so far, and there is only a single server set up. If there aren't many beginner villages, it's going to be packed to bursting. So I think initially, everyone should play on their own for a while. The game starts at midnight tonight, so we can start sleeping in the afternoon, get up at eleven to eat, log in right at twelve, and log off promptly at eight tomorrow morning to report our individual situations. Does anyone have any more questions?"
Xinyu put down her cup and said, "Staying up late is probably bad for our skin, and eating dinner at ten at night—isn't that a bit extreme?"
Xu Lin kept a straight face. "You don't have to log on, but your future salary will be based on your individual contribution to the family. Suit yourself."
"Forget it, the game is more important after all..."
...
With no further questions, everyone returned to their respective rooms to sleep. Lu Xuehan followed me into the inner room, sticking out her tongue at me just before entering, leaving me completely baffled.
I tried to treat it like a nap, but I woke up before three in the afternoon. I barely dragged myself through to dinner time, and after eating, I was far too restless to sleep. I decided to open the Yueheng forums first; maybe there would be some useful information.
A post titled "Talent, Absolute Impact!" was pinned right at the top. Opening it, I learned that although the official Yueheng website hadn't released details, reliable inside information revealed that when characters were created in Yueheng, a talent was randomly assigned. As for what exactly a "talent" was, nobody knew yet, but at least it wouldn't disrupt game balance. Since each player could only have one account, and new accounts could only be created one month after deleting an old one, there wouldn't be any abuse of the talent-rolling system. Everything depended entirely on personal luck!
I casually browsed other posts. Although there were many, most were just guesses, with very little truly useful content. It seemed Yueheng's confidentiality measures were working exceptionally well.
I struggled through until eleven, when Lu Xuehan punctually came to call me for a midnight snack. It was obvious from her expression that she hadn't just woken up; she hadn't even removed the light makeup from her face.
With less than an hour left before the game launched, the beauties forgot all about maintaining their composure. They wolfed down their food and dashed straight into their rooms. Liu Yun, who was always so quiet, was the only one who stayed to finish the egg drop soup with me.
Liu Yun was a very delicate-looking woman, and I had always wondered how she ended up in this line of work, though I never dared to ask. She just gave me a polite smile and returned to her own room.
Shaking my head, I looked at the mess left across the table and simply cleared it all into the kitchen before heading back to my room. By the time I finished cleaning up, it was already 11:50. Only ten minutes left until the game opened!
I put on the helmet, skipping the cutscene entirely. The screen displayed only the Yueheng background and a large countdown timer right in the center.
Time ticked away second by second while I stared blankly at the screen. I knew that at least tens of millions of people worldwide were likely watching the countdown just like me. In older MMORPG novels, the first XX players to enter the game early always got rewards—artifact-level gear and the like. Who knew if I might stumble into that kind of luck?
"Ten!"
"Nine!"
"Eight!"
"..."
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
The screen flickered, directly entering the game interface. A system prompt appeared: "Please create your character!"
I chose the Human race without hesitation. The Elves were too delicate and lacked masculinity, and the Orcs... forget it!
"Please enter your character nickname!" the system prompted further.
I blurted out, "Cabbage Tofu!"
"Sorry, this name is already taken!"
"Qingcai Baiyutang!"
"Nickname accepted. Now scanning facial contours, would you like to make any modifications?"
I looked at the young man on the screen who looked identical to me. I would definitely be recognized by people I knew if I left it like that, so I casually tweaked my appearance a bit. That made it good to go!
"Congratulations, your account has been created. Would you like to enter the game now?"
I immediately clicked enter. The scene shifted, and I found myself in a rundown village.
"Ding~!" The system prompted:
"You are player 1,250,003 to enter the game!"
"Congratulations, you have obtained the talent 'Stealth'!"
Stealth? What kind of nonsense is that?
I immediately opened my character attributes and skill panel, and sure enough, right at the bottom under talents was "Stealth"!
I clicked on it and instantly dumbfounded:
Talent—Stealth: Hide within the shadows. Monsters and players whose level is no higher than your own by 5 can't detect you from a distance greater than four yards. Moving breaks the stealth effect. Cooldown: 5 minutes.
What kind of skill was this? Waiting by a tree for a hare, or playing dead?
Weren't talents supposed to be extremely important to players? Getting saddled with such a useless, chicken-bone talent meant this character was basically a write-off, right?
Never mind, I'd figure it out as I went!
I opened the map. The village I was in was called Wild Dog Village, and the howling of wild dogs could be heard periodically. The name was a bit rustic, but quite fitting.
Players streamed endlessly out of the village center. It seemed this was the peak time for the influx of players—strong Orcs, Elf maidens wearing only underwear and bras...
I checked my equipment, which was pitifully bad:
Worn Outer Garment
Defense: +2
Worn Leggings
Defense: +1
Worn Dagger
Attack: 1-2
My character attributes were also just the base stats plus equipment bonuses. A Human's pitiful attack power maxed out at 2-3 even after equipping a weapon. I truly had no idea what I could possibly use it for.
A lone soldier was wandering around the village. I walked over to strike up a conversation and discovered there were quests available!
"Recently, a pack of wild dogs has surrounded the village, and the villagers are too terrified to leave their homes. Are you willing to exterminate these ignorant beasts for the village?"
I immediately clicked yes, and the follow-up quest appeared: "Kill twenty wild dogs and bring their pelts back to village guard Hake!"