Chapter 6

"Ha ha, I told you you wouldn't believe me. Yesterday, I went to the construction site to carry bricks. On the way, I saw an old lady fall on the street, and she was seriously injured. Many people passed by but no one helped her. I thought, 'I'm just a poor guy, I don't have to worry about being framed!' So I went up and helped the old lady up, then called a taxi to take her to the hospital for emergency treatment. Guess what happened next?"

Xiaolin, though close to him, couldn't reveal the magical space, at least not now!

"Then the old lady's family came, and they were very grateful to you, and they gave you a reward." Xiaolin responded as if listening to a joke.

"You're so smart!" Ding Hao made up a reason on the spot, not expecting Xiaolin to think along the same lines.

"So that's where your tutoring fees came from?" Xiaolin's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Exactly. One of the old lady's sons is an official in the provincial capital, and the other is a big boss in Yungang. So not only do I have my tutoring fees, but I also have the tuition for next semester. He even said that if I don't get into college, I can go to him, and he'll help me find a job..."

"Really?"

"Of course it's real. Because he had to take care of the old lady, he didn't have time to send me home, so he had his driver do it. He even said he would thank me properly when the old lady was discharged. The big boss isn't short of a few bucks." Ding Hao continued to make up lies.

"It looks like you've had a stroke of luck." Although Xiaolin wasn't jealous of Ding Hao's experience, she was happy for him, and also for herself. This way, she wouldn't feel embarrassed about accepting the tutoring materials from Ding Hao.

"This is called good deeds bring good rewards, right..."

"Cut it out, let's start reviewing." Xiaolin didn't forget her task. After all, they were neighbors, and she was the class study committee member. When it came to tutoring, she was as serious as a teacher. For the next two hours, the two of them studied under the dim light, with Xiaolin doing most of the talking and Ding Hao listening. Ding Hao listened very carefully; he didn't want to let Xiaolin down. Xiaolin was also satisfied with Ding Hao's ability to absorb information. Others might not know, but Xiaolin knew that this kid was very smart when he was young.

"Can I borrow these materials?" As she was about to leave, Xiaolin held the materials Ding Hao had bought.

"I already said I'm giving them to you. I'll go to Xinhua Bookstore on the weekend to buy more. We have money now!"

"Even with money, you should still be frugal." Xiaolin said with a hint of reproach.

"Got it, got it, it's not like a little bit matters, right?"

After seeing Xiaolin off, Ding Hao returned to the magical space. He knew that by beating Yu Feng in front of so many people at the school gate, Yu Feng wouldn't be satisfied and might seek revenge. So he had to be careful and use every opportunity to strengthen himself. Only by continuously enhancing his strength and exceeding the enemy's expectations could he have a chance of winning.

Moreover, Xiaolin's phone was broken, and if Yu Feng didn't compensate her, he would have to find a way to buy her a new one. Otherwise, if her parents found out, they would be heartbroken. Ding Hao decided to buy a good one so that Xiaolin could save face in front of her classmates, so he had to grind more monsters to get the money!

For two days after school, he entered the space to grind and level up immediately. During these two days, Yu Feng didn't cause any trouble for Ding Hao. It wasn't that Yu Feng was scared and gave up, but rather that Ding Hao's attack was too harsh. Yu Feng went to the hospital in the afternoon with a few of his followers, got checked, and bandaged. He didn't dare to show his face at school the next day. On the third day, he called his leader, Zhang Yongwei, for help, but the other person was busy, so he had to endure for now.

With Yu Feng not causing trouble, Ding Hao was happy to have some peace. Soon, it was the weekend. During the summer tutoring period, the school was somewhat humane and gave two days off on the weekend, a rare opportunity. Ding Hao devoted all his time to the magical space.

Ding Hao quickly leveled up to level 5. At level 5, he could start learning skills and magic in the game. There were 28 skills in total, covering attack, defense, and survival. Since skills and magic didn't require equipment, they could be used in real life...

Each skill had three stages: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. This meant that from level 5, it would take until level 88 to learn all the skills to the advanced stage. Considering the game's progress and his real-life needs, Ding Hao knew he couldn't learn them randomly. It would be hard to level up later.

In the end, Ding Hao chose the logistics skill, which increased his movement speed on land by 5% at the beginner level. Ding Hao acknowledged that he wasn't invincible in real life, so if he couldn't fight, he had to run, and he had to run faster than others. This could help resolve crises in many situations.

If he leveled up two more levels, his movement speed would increase by 15%. With his increased agility, he would be faster than a normal person. A 15% increase in speed would mean even Usain Bolt couldn't catch him! This skill would be very useful in urban combat or jungle survival. In the city, normal people couldn't catch him, and in the jungle, even most animals probably couldn't.

When he saw the magic section, Ding Hao drooled. In the attack and defense magic, he most wanted to learn attack speed, followed by the protective shield and stone skin. Just from the names, one increased attack speed, and the other two increased defense.

Of course, there was also escape magic, like the dimensional door and the portal. He wondered if they could be used in real life. If the dimensional door could be used in real life, that would be... However, these required magic manuals and books, which he had to obtain by grinding monsters. So Ding Hao could only continue to bully the centaurs.

For the five points he gained from leveling up, Ding Hao added all of them to strength. His attributes were now:

Level 5

Strength 130

Constitution 105

Intelligence 105

Agility 105

Spirit 105

...

Although his resistance to the five types of magic was still 0, his game life had increased to 350, and his strength of 130 was 130% of a normal adult male. This was already quite impressive in real life, and his attack speed was 5% faster than a normal person. His intelligence had also increased to 105, which was very important for a student...

Just as Ding Hao was about to head west to find new monsters for more experience, a group of different centaurs suddenly spawned in front of him. The ordinary 3-4 level centaurs had brown or red horse bodies and stood upright with spears in their hands.

But this group was entirely white or gray-white, with visibly stronger muscles, and they held battle axes in their hands, just like Ding Hao.

"Xiao Die, what's going on?" Ding Hao turned to look at the little creature on his shoulder.

"Master, these are centaur leaders. Normally, a group of centaurs has only one leader. Now that the leaders are gathered, they are probably guarding something precious, or a high-level creature of the elf race. This should have appeared after the initial restriction was broken!"

"Something precious? A high-level creature?"

"Yes, it could be a crystal or gem, but given the situation, it's more likely they are guarding a high-level creature. High-level creatures of the elf race include unicorns, green dragons, and gold dragons..."

"Let's go then." Ding Hao had heard from Xiao Die that the monsters in this space were divided into several races, and the types of monsters were numerous. For example, big-eared creatures were the lowest-level beings of the orc race, while centaurs were the lowest-level beings of the elf race. Each level up in the hierarchy increased the combat attributes exponentially.

Just this group of centaur leaders made Ding Hao feel a lot of pressure. If a high-level creature suddenly appeared, he would be instantly killed.

"Master is such a coward!" Xiao Die laughed.

"I'm being strategic, not making unnecessary sacrifices."

"They're just some centaur leaders. Where's the spirit you had at level 2? Grind them one by one, what's there to be afraid of? Master now has 350 life points and a lot of copper coins."

"I'm afraid the high-level creature will kill me instantly!" Ding Hao explained.

"Master is so stupid. Since these centaur leaders are guarding something, the creature inside probably doesn't have much combat ability, or it might just be a newborn or even an egg. If it had combat ability, why would it need the centaurs?"

"That makes sense! Should we try? If it's a treasure, we'll get rich. If it's a high-level creature, we'll just be killed, but I have the life necklace, so I'll be invincible for three seconds after resurrection. I can run far in three seconds. I've learned the logistics skill."

"Right, Master has the life necklace."

"Okay, fortune favors the bold! Xiao Die, help me check the attributes of these centaur leaders."

"600 life, 240 attack and defense..."

"... How can they be so strong just as leaders? At least I can break their defense." After hearing this and recalling Xiao Die's previous introduction, Ding Hao realized that these higher-level creatures were not comparable to the previous level. There was no choice but to grind them slowly to get to the thing they were protecting.

-35, -70, -35... Fortunately, Ding Hao now had 350 life points, and the centaur leaders could only deal a maximum of 5% of his life points, which was between 1 and 17. As long as he didn't attack more than three monsters at once, he would be safe.

One hour, two hours... ten hours... the tedious grinding continued. Fortunately, the centaur leaders dropped more copper coins than ordinary centaurs, so even though Ding Hao was almost exhausted, he continued for the possible treasure and gold.

After fifty hours, Ding Hao came out to eat, then continued to grind the centaurs... eighty hours, one hundred twenty hours... until Sunday afternoon, Ding Hao finally cleared out this batch of monsters. He found himself in a jungle. After killing the last few centaur leaders, he reached the deepest part of the jungle. It seemed there was nothing there. Ding Hao searched hard but found nothing. Apart from Ding Hao and Xiao Die, there were no other creatures around.

"Xiao Die?" Ding Hao was a bit confused. He knew Xiao Die wouldn't trick him, but she might have made a mistake. When he habitually turned his head to his right shoulder, he found that Xiao Die wasn't there.

"Xiao Die, Xiao Die!"