Chapter 88

With a loud thud, snowflakes began to scatter across the sky. It wasn't until a while later that Li Huailin managed to stand up from the large human-shaped pit, checked his health points, and was amazed to find that he had only taken a little over 400 points of fall damage, which was almost unbelievable. It seemed that the game had a setting to reduce fall damage when landing on a cushioning surface.

"What the hell is this?" Li Huailin looked around, and all he saw was a snowy field. Apart from the hole he had created, the surrounding area was a vast expanse of white, untouched by anyone. The unfamiliar scenery made him wonder, "Where the hell is this place?"

"Huh? What's that?" While looking around, Li Huailin suddenly noticed what seemed to be a human structure on the other side of a nearby mountain. However, he could only see a shadow, and with the snow covering everything, it was hard to make out clearly.

"Whatever, I'll go check it out first." Li Huailin was genuinely curious, so he started walking in that direction.

To his surprise, the knee-deep snow did not hinder his movement as he had expected. Instead, it seemed to increase his speed. He checked his buff bar.

Thick Snow: Increases movement speed by 20%.

As he walked a bit closer to the structure, Li Huailin got a better idea of what it was. The corner of a city wall came into view. As he approached, he finally saw the outline of a city hidden behind the mountain. From the outside, it appeared to be a small city. Li Huailin could only see the outer walls and a slightly elevated fortress-like building in the center. The rest was hidden by the walls. Estimating by the area, the city was only about one-tenth the size of the Divine City, making it a small city.

"I'll go check the situation first." Since he had already seen the city, Li Huailin naturally wanted to check it out.

It was still a bit of a distance to the city. Just as Li Huailin was about to head over, he heard a wild animal's roar from behind. Turning around, he saw a white leopard charging towards him, its fierce eyes indicating it was about to attack.

"Huh?" Li Huailin calmly used his detection skill to check the leopard. The result surprised him. Apart from seeing the name "Enraged Snow Leopard," everything else was "??" indicating that the leopard was at least level 23, while Li Huailin was level 18.

"Higher level is good." Li Huailin noted that the low-level monsters near the main city didn't even make him lose health. It seemed that higher-level monsters were needed.

Standing still, Li Huailin waited for the leopard to attack. However, the leopard's first physical attack was very disappointing.

-42

"Ah... indeed, a bit disappointing." He had hoped that the leopard, whose level he couldn't see, would give him some challenge, but it only dealt about 40 points of damage. While it was stronger than the usual low-level monsters near the main city, it wasn't much of a threat to Li Huailin, who had over 4000 health points. The leopard would need over 100 attacks to kill him, not counting his health regeneration.

"Alright, you're useless." Li Huailin pulled out his bronze sword and dealt a critical hit of over 1400, instantly killing the leopard.

Battle Log: You killed the Enraged Snow Leopard, losing 55 experience points.

"55 experience points is quite a lot. It seems to be a common monster for leveling up." Li Huailin said disappointedly. The monsters here seemed to be of average strength, but the area's level was higher, making the monsters higher level. He estimated that level 25 and above would be suitable for leveling up here.

The snow leopard didn't drop anything, so Li Huailin sheathed his sword and continued towards the snow city.

After about ten minutes, Li Huailin finally reached the city wall. Compared to the main city's walls, this one, which was less than 8 meters high, was not very tall. The city was also smaller than he had estimated.

Not far away was a city gate, with two guards standing there, exhaling warm breath. Compared to the well-equipped guards in the main city, these guards looked like super noobs. Their armor was old and worn, with dents and sword marks visible. Their weapons were even worse, with wooden spears and swords that looked like they were picked up from the back alleys of the main city's weapon shop. Li Huailin sighed, thinking that even guards could be so different.

To keep warm, the guards wrapped themselves in cloaks to block the cold wind, and they wore dark fur clothing underneath, but they were still shivering. Despite this, they were very professional and stopped Li Huailin from entering the city.

"Hello, this is Yorkmok City. We are currently under martial law. Please state your name, identity, and purpose for coming here, such as for trade or other reasons," one of the guards, named Derek, said to Li Huailin.

"Li Huailin, from the main city. I came here not knowing what to do," Li Huailin replied, a bit puzzled. The guards in the main city never stopped players from entering, as there were too many players to handle. Here, there were fewer players, and Li Huailin hadn't seen any yet, but it was still strange for the guards to stop him.

"Oh, I see." Derek nodded and surprisingly let Li Huailin pass, "You can go in. Recently, Yorkmok City has been a bit unstable. Please be cautious when you go out."

"Oh, what's unstable?" Li Huailin asked, recalling that the guard had mentioned martial law.

"Actually, it's not a big deal. Recently, bandits have been very active, attacking many merchants. It wasn't a big deal until last week when they ambushed a military outpost and stole a lot of military supplies. Lord Barian was furious, and that's how it is now," Derek explained.

"Oh, I see." Li Huailin nodded, guessing that this might be a quest available in the city, such as eliminating bandits, but he had no intention of taking it.

As expected, Yorkmok City was small, not as large as the Divine City, which required dividing into different areas. The shops and residential buildings were built without much planning, but they were easy to find because they had signs.

"Strange." Li Huailin was puzzled that he hadn't seen a single player since entering the city, only NPCs with green names. This made him feel a bit out of place after seeing so many players in the main city.

"Has no one reached this city yet?" Li Huailin thought, and it seemed possible. He hadn't seen any photos of other cities on the forums except for the main city.

Since the city was small, Li Huailin quickly got a general idea of Yorkmok City. Despite its size, it had all the necessary facilities, including a pharmacy, blacksmith, general store, bank branch, and pet supply store.

"It seems to be just a regular leveling-up hub." Li Huailin also chatted with a few NPCs and found that there were indeed some quests, all related to bandits. According to his understanding, there were multiple bandit groups in the area, and the quests he could take mentioned three of them, but he didn't take any.

"Alright, I've seen enough. I'll head back." Li Huailin hadn't realized that his curiosity had led him to wander for over two hours, captivated by the magnificent snow scenery.

He opened his inventory, took out a return scroll, and started the activation. However, after 10 seconds, a very tragic thing happened.

"Huh? Why am I still here?" A white light flashed, and Li Huailin found himself back in the square of Yorkmok City, only a few hundred meters away from where he had used the scroll.

"Don't do this, return scroll. I just praised you for working." Li Huailin had a bad feeling.

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