Chapter 7

“Senior Brother, hehe, you look so silly wearing that helmet, just like Ultraman!”

It was his junior sister, Yang Chushuang.

“Little girl, what do you want from your senior brother?” Yang Xuan sat up, stretched lazily, and asked.

Yang Chushuang pounced on Yang Xuan, her fair little hands pretending to strangle his neck as she said resentfully, “Stinky senior brother, I’ve told you not to call me a little girl, I’m already thirteen, you’re the little girl!”

Yang Xuan said helplessly, “Alright, alright, I won’t call you a little girl, I’ll call you junior sister, okay? What do you want from me?”

Yang Chushuang climbed off Yang Xuan, a victorious smile on her cute and pretty face, and then said, “It’s not me looking for you, it’s Sister Xinran who called. She’s still waiting.”

Yang Xuan quickly got out of bed and headed for the living room.

“Hmph, you ran so fast when you heard it was Sister Xinran’s call!” Seeing Yang Xuan run out, Yang Chushuang pouted, her tone filled with jealousy.

Walking to the somewhat old living room, Yang Xuan ran to the video phone. On the screen was the beautiful and charming Xu Xinran.

“Sister Xinran!” Yang Xuan looked at the happy Xu Xinran, a bit puzzled. The game "Another World" had just started, why would Sister Xinran have time to call instead of leveling up?

“Yang Xuan, I have some good news, I’ve joined a studio!” Xu Xinran’s sweet voice was filled with excitement, “As long as I complete the tasks assigned by the studio, I can earn a monthly base salary of 3,000 yuan and a substantial bonus.”

“Already joined a studio?” Yang Xuan was also happy for Xu Xinran, “Sister Xinran, which studio is it?”

“The Twin Flowers Studio!” Xu Xinran suddenly changed the subject, giving Yang Xuan a mysterious smile, “Do you know why I could join this studio?”

Yang Xuan shook his head.

“It’s all thanks to the combat knowledge you taught me. When I fight monsters, I subconsciously use the combat techniques you taught me to dodge their attacks, and I managed to succeed a couple of times. One time, the leader of our studio saw me and recruited me.”

Yang Xuan smiled. This was expected. Although Sister Xinran’s skills were far inferior to his, they were still much better than those of ordinary players, giving her an advantage in combat.

Xu Xinran suddenly thought of something and asked, “By the way, which beginner town are you in, and what level are you?”

“I’m in Falling Leaves Town, and I’m level 2 now.” Yang Xuan told the truth.

“You have such good skills and you’re only level 2?” Xu Xinran was slightly stunned, then excitedly said, “I’m level 3, a swordsman, in Breezy Town, which is right next to Falling Leaves Town! Why don’t you come over and level up with the people in our studio, it’ll be faster.”

Xu Xinran thought Yang Xuan had never played an online game before and might not understand many things, so he had only leveled up to 2 in one day. Therefore, she wanted to bring him along to level up.

“No need,” Yang Xuan shook his head, “Your studio is all women, it wouldn’t be convenient for me to join. Besides, I’ve found a way to level up quickly, my level will go up soon.”

“Alright then.” Xu Xinran thought for a moment and gave up on persuading Yang Xuan. Yang Xuan had a strong sense of self-respect and wouldn’t accept being brought along to level up. Since he said he had found a way to level up, it shouldn’t be a big problem. She believed that with Yang Xuan’s skills, finding a way to level up wouldn’t be too difficult.

What she didn’t know was that Yang Xuan wasn’t leveling up slowly, but had entered the game a whole day later than others. If Yang Xuan had reached level 2 in less than an hour, it would be considered slow, then the people at the top of the level rankings should consider suicide.

However, Yang Xuan didn’t explain and asked, “Sister Xinran, what’s your in-game nickname?”

“I’m just called Xinran. Add me later, what about you?”

“Xuan Yang.”

“Sounds good. Yang Xuan, work hard. With your skills, it won’t be hard to join a large studio, and you’ll definitely make a name for yourself in the game. If I get chased by someone in the game, you have to help me!”

…

After Xu Xinran specifically logged out to tell Yang Xuan about joining the studio, she hung up and logged back in to level up. Yang Xuan did the same.

“Now I’ll go kill Elite White-Eyed Rabbits for some equipment, then find a time to go to Breezy Town and give Sister Xinran some equipment, which will help her level up faster.” After logging in, Yang Xuan headed straight for the area outside the city where the Elite White-Eyed Rabbits were. “I’ll add Sister Xinran as a friend first, and then tell her my class when I meet her, giving her a surprise.”

After adding Xu Xinran, they greeted each other and then turned off the communicator. In the early stages of the game, no one wanted to waste time on other things; leveling up was the top priority.

Soon, Yang Xuan left Falling Leaves Town. On the way, many players saw the Flowing Cloud Sword in his hand, some jealous, some envious.

In a game where the drop rate of equipment was extremely low, owning a piece of equipment other than the beginner gear meant either being lucky enough to get it from a monster, being a wealthy player who bought it, or being given it by a studio leader.

Before long, Yang Xuan arrived at the area where the Elite White-Eyed Rabbits were.

At this moment, no other players had come to the Elite White-Eyed Rabbit area.

“It seems other players can’t handle Elite monsters yet. Perfect, no one to compete with me for monsters. I’ll just keep grinding here until level 4, trying to get as much equipment as possible.”

Yang Xuan gripped the Flowing Cloud Sword and walked directly toward an Elite White-Eyed Rabbit.

A level 2 player needs 200 experience points to level up to level 3, while Yang Xuan needs 400. Killing an Elite White-Eyed Rabbit gives 10 experience points, while a level 3 monster only gives 8. So even if Yang Xuan grinds Elite monsters, his leveling speed isn’t slow.

Most importantly, the drop rate of Elite monsters is ten times that of regular monsters, making them the best for grinding equipment and copper coins.

Facing the Elite White-Eyed Rabbit, Yang Xuan flipped his wrist, used his waist strength, and thrust the Flowing Cloud Sword at the rabbit.

“58!”

A direct hit with maximum damage!

The Elite White-Eyed Rabbit let out an angry cry and swiped at Yang Xuan with its claws.

“MISS!”

Yang Xuan easily dodged and struck again.

“58!”

The Elite White-Eyed Rabbit had 200 HP, so after four strikes from Yang Xuan, it let out a mournful cry and died.

“Ding!”

A system prompt sounded in Yang Xuan’s ear. He looked and saw a piece of equipment lying under the Elite White-Eyed Rabbit’s corpse.

“Got a piece of equipment right at the start of grinding Elite White-Eyed Rabbits, a good start!” Yang Xuan picked up the equipment.

After checking, he found it was a level 1 swordsman’s damaged gauntlet, adding 2 points of defense.

Although it was just a damaged piece of equipment, it was already quite good. In the tens of thousands of players in Falling Leaves Town, fewer than a thousand had such a damaged piece of equipment other than the beginner gear.

“Sister Xinran is a swordsman, I’ll give her this gauntlet when I meet her. Even though it’s just a level 1 damaged piece, she might not be able to get one from regular monsters in a few days, and if she does, she might have to hand it over to the studio leader.” Yang Xuan had already decided who would get the gauntlet.

Although he had never played an online game before, he knew some studio rules from forums. To earn a salary from a studio, you had to contribute to it first.

What is contribution?

It means handing over a large portion of the money, equipment, and items you obtain to the studio, which the studio leader would choose from first, then distribute to enhance the studio’s strength.

After putting the gauntlet in his backpack, Yang Xuan continued to kill Elite White-Eyed Rabbits.

At the beginning, players only had 20 slots in their backpack. Once they reached level 10 and left the beginner town to go to a level 2 main city, they could spend money to expand their backpack to 50 slots. However, many players wouldn’t be able to expand their backpacks in the short term because… it was too expensive!

According to the official website, expanding the backpack to 50 slots cost 100 silver coins, or 10,000 copper coins!

Currently, a five-person group might not even earn 100 copper coins in a day, let alone 10,000! Who knows when that would happen!

…

Yang Xuan’s attack power was nearly 20 times higher than when he was level 0. Back then, it took him about 3 minutes to kill an Elite White-Eyed Rabbit, but now it took less than 10 seconds!

Before long, Yang Xuan had killed over thirty Elite White-Eyed Rabbits, and suddenly, his body was bathed in golden light.

—

System Prompt: Congratulations, you’ve reached level 3!

“Level 3?” Yang Xuan smiled.

Indeed, with enhanced attack power, leveling up was astonishingly fast. It took ordinary players about a day to reach level 3, but Yang Xuan had done it in less than an hour and a half! And this was with double the required experience!

“Solo grinding is the way to go. When in a group, you only get one-fifth of the experience from killing a monster, and ordinary players can’t kill monsters without taking damage. They need to rest and recover HP and MP after each kill, making their grinding speed much slower than mine. No wonder the highest level in Falling Leaves Town is only 4.” Yang Xuan mused.

Then, he continued grinding!