Chapter 7

At this moment, in the center of Xiangcheng City, amidst a vast expanse of ruins, a massive canopy was slowly unfurling, completely enveloping an area of two to three kilometers in diameter.

As the canopy expanded, all the people who witnessed this scene were terrified and turned to run, for they did not know what fate awaited them if they were caught in this light curtain. Those who ran a bit slower were knocked back by the light curtain, which propelled them to continue their frantic escape.

No one knew that in the middle of the ruins, four statues, each several dozen meters tall, were gradually taking shape, identical to the four statues on Luofeng Slope, except that these were over ten times larger. Not only were there these four statues, but also six ancient-style pavilions. As for the purpose of these pavilions, no one knew, at least not the people in Xiangcheng City.

...

Cheng Yang and his companions were also fleeing at this moment.

Carrying a girl undoubtedly slowed them down significantly. After a full four minutes, they had only advanced about 700 meters.

At this point, Cheng Yang's expression changed slightly, as he could already sense the subtle energy fluctuations in the air. The appearance of these fluctuations indicated that mutated creatures were about to emerge.

Sure enough, after they ran another fifty meters, a flash of light appeared ahead, and a gray wolf materialized. After letting out a howl, it lunged directly at Cheng Yang and his group.

Niu Bing and the others were startled by the creature's bizarre appearance. Moreover, it was a wolf! In human perception, wolves were genuine carnivores.

"Magic Missile!" Cheng Yang muttered, and a white light sphere instantly formed at the tip of his staff, then shot toward the gray wolf like a bullet.

This gray wolf was only a first-stage early monster, equivalent to the strength of a beginner magic apprentice. After being hit by Cheng Yang's Magic Missile, it was knocked back, suffering significant head injuries.

However, this creature was also extremely ferocious. After being injured, it showed no signs of fleeing and instead lunged at them again.

"Is this thing still alive?" Niu Bing and the others were greatly alarmed. They had thought the monster would be instantly killed by Cheng Yang's Magic Missile, but it was still lively.

Cheng Yang, while raising his wooden staff, explained, "This is a first-stage early mutated gray wolf, equivalent to the strength of a beginner warrior apprentice. Their health points are roughly 30, and my Magic Missile can only deal 9 points of damage, so it's impossible to kill it in one hit." As he spoke, he fired another Magic Missile.

The unfortunate gray wolf had not even managed to take a few steps before being knocked back again.

After the initial shock, Niu Bing and the others had calmed down somewhat. However, they still found it hard to accept the existence of such monsters, and terms like health points and damage sounded like something from a video game.

The injured gray wolf let out a howl and charged at Cheng Yang with all its might. Cheng Yang quickly retreated a few steps, then fired another Magic Missile, once again sending the gray wolf flying.

In the next round of confrontation, the gray wolf met its end, its body devoid of any life.

Suddenly, a few blurry light points flew out from the gray wolf's corpse and entered Cheng Yang's body. These light points were spiritual energy, which, when absorbed by combatants, manifested as spiritual energy points and appeared on their attribute panels.

Although spiritual energy points could not directly enhance human strength, their effects were enormous.

Firstly, when actively consuming spiritual energy points during training, the efficiency was twice or even more than that without spiritual energy points. The exact multiple depended on the total amount of spiritual energy points and could not be subjectively determined.

Secondly, spiritual energy points were essential for combatants to advance in their professions at the profession statues. Each advancement required a certain amount of spiritual energy points, and the higher the rank, the more points were consumed.

Lastly, spiritual energy points became the primary currency in the world's transactions because they had tradable properties. The six ancient-style pavilions in the main city also contributed to making spiritual energy points the currency. These pavilions were a tailor shop, a blacksmith, a carpentry shop, a carving house, and a potion room. To purchase items from these places, one had to use spiritual energy points.

The only downside was that they were over a kilometer away from their base, so the mutated beasts they killed could not contribute to the base's spiritual energy points.

Cheng Yang was not overly concerned at this moment. After all, the mutated beasts had just spawned and would not appear in large numbers. One or two mutated beasts posed no threat to him.

The group continued forward and soon killed another mutated beast that resembled a fox. At this point, Cheng Yang's magic energy was more than half depleted, so for safety, he had to stop and meditate to recover.

Under normal circumstances, magic energy recovered at a rate of one point per minute. However, meditation or skills like Spirit Accumulation could greatly accelerate the recovery rate. For a first-level meditation skill, it could recover one point of magic energy every two seconds, about thirty times faster than natural recovery. Of course, Cheng Yang's magic energy recovered even faster in a meditative state, reaching about two points every three seconds, as his meditation skill was already at level 2.

After recovering, the group set off again. The distance to Luofeng Village's base was now only about 800 meters. Cheng Yang did not stop, leading the group in a direct charge. Along the way, they encountered three mutated beasts that had emerged from the forest, all of which were killed by Cheng Yang.

For these first-stage early mutated creatures, they posed no threat to Cheng Yang, a mid-level magic apprentice. If not for Niu Bing's safety, he could have rushed back to the base in one go.

Cheng Yang rushed to the north gate of the base, where many mutated creatures were already surrounding the walls. Fortunately, there were no mutated beasts at the north gate at this moment.

The gate opened instantly, and only then did Cheng Yang's heart fully relax.

Although he had rushed out without hesitation to rescue Niu Bing, he knew it was a risky move. While he understood the situation after the apocalypse, no one knew if there would be any variables. If he encountered a large group of mutated beasts, he might be able to escape using his speed, but Niu Bing and the others would be in danger.

At this moment, Boss Li also ran down from the wall and immediately asked Cheng Yang, "Young man, shortly after you left, over twenty monsters appeared around the base, all surrounding it as if they wanted to break in. What's going on? And what did you mean by 'changing professions'?"

Cheng Yang waved his hand and said, "I can't explain it, but the apocalypse has come, and the world has become a game. To survive, you must strive to enhance your strength; otherwise, you will only face death."

"What should we do?" Boss Li was at a loss. After Cheng Yang left, he had become the pillar of support here, and everyone was waiting for his instructions to survive. To keep everyone calm, he had to maintain a clear head. Now that Cheng Yang was back, he didn't know what to do.

Boss Li was a very measured person. He had already noticed that Cheng Yang seemed to know many things that others did not, but he did not pry. Instead, he directly asked Cheng Yang to make the decision.

Cheng Yang said, "The most important thing for you now is to change professions, but we don't have enough spiritual energy points yet, so we need to wait a bit longer."

After saying this, Cheng Yang quickly climbed onto the wall and began attacking the mutated creatures below without hesitation.

With Cheng Yang's attack power, four Magic Missiles could kill a mutated creature, earning him one point of spiritual energy and adding one point to the base's spiritual energy.

After killing six mutated creatures, Cheng Yang's personal spiritual energy points reached 11, and the base's spiritual energy points also reached ten.

Cheng Yang stopped attacking the mutated creatures and turned to Yu Kai, who was watching from the side. "Old Yu, come down with me and change professions first. Then we can kill the mutated creatures together to speed up the process."

Yu Kai was slightly taken aback and said, "Why me first? Let Haozi go first; his gaming skills are on par with yours."

Cheng Yang shook his head and said, "He is more suited to becoming a warrior. We can't open the gate yet, so a close-combat warrior can't be of much use. You are suited to becoming an archer, so you should go first."

Cheng Yang remembered that in his previous life, Yu Kai's talent was C-level, with a 2% increase in ranged attack distance and a 1% increase in physical attack for each small rank advancement. This talent was considered above average among humans.

After hearing Cheng Yang's explanation, Yu Kai did not insist further. He believed that Cheng Yang had his reasons.

Following Cheng Yang's instructions, Yu Kai descended the wall and placed his hand on the archer statue. Immediately, a rainbow light enveloped him. After a few moments, the light disappeared, and a wooden bow appeared in his hand, with a quiver of arrows hanging from his waist.

Cheng Yang opened the base's attribute panel and indeed saw Yu Kai's name in the resident management section. As the base leader, he could view any resident's attributes.

Name: Yu Kai

Affiliation: Luofeng Village

Profession: Archer, Rank: Beginner Archer Apprentice (0%)

Age: 19

Lifespan: 110

Health: 25

Magic Energy: 25

Physical Attack: 5

Magic Attack: 1

Physical Defense: 1

Magic Defense: 1

Attack Speed: 1

Movement Speed: 1.1

Talent: 1. Each small rank advancement increases physical attack by 3%.

2. Each small rank advancement increases ranged attack distance by 3%.

Skills: Essence Return Technique Level 1 (Basic skill for archers, gradually enhances strength through practice. Skill level increases with profession rank.)

Magic Arrow Level 1 (Attaches magic energy to the arrow, attacks distant targets, deals 100% magical physical damage, attack range 30 meters, no special effects. Casting consumes 4 magic energy points. Proficiency 0%.)

Equipment: Wooden Bow: Symbol of an archer, no additional attributes.

Quiver: Magical bag for storing arrows, automatically restores one arrow per minute, no additional attributes.

Seeing these attributes, Cheng Yang was stunned. How could Yu Kai have S-level talent? His own talent had changed slightly from his previous life, which he could explain by his rebirth, but how could Yu Kai's talent be explained?

Suddenly, a thought crossed Cheng Yang's mind. The change in his talent might not be due to rebirth but the timing of his profession change. Perhaps the earlier one changed professions, the better the talent they received. Of course, this was just a hypothesis, and Cheng Yang needed further verification.

Currently, both his and Yu Kai's talents were S-level, but the actual effects were not particularly noticeable. However, the reason talents were called talents was that they became increasingly powerful as one's strength increased. At a certain level, Yu Kai's strength would be invincible among peers, of course, assuming the opponent did not have such an outstanding talent.

PS: New book, please recommend and collect...

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