Chapter 2

This time, when Yang Rui left the newbie village, he changed direction. At the previous village entrance, it seemed like there were only white rabbits, and the experience gained was rather low. As he passed by the blacksmith's shop, Yang Rui tried something and unexpectedly received a quest to explore a mine.

Who knew that just after leaving the north gate of the village, he found that this entrance was also filled with white rabbits. Yang Rui had no choice but to start abusing the small animals again. In his memory, the newbie village seemed to have some gentle large herbivores, such as sheep and sika deer.

After bullying the white rabbits for about three to four minutes, Yang Rui leveled up to level 2 and allocated the 4 attribute points gained from leveling up to his Strength, reaching 10 points in Strength. His HP also increased.

Thus, Yang Rui decisively left the area with the white rabbits. With 10 points in Strength, he could almost kill a white rabbit with one hit, which did not affect the speed of experience gain. The key issue was that players were gradually increasing in number, and the refresh rate of white rabbits was barely keeping up with the players' killing speed. Almost every time a rabbit appeared, it was quickly taken care of by a player...

After entering a small forest, Yang Rui finally found the adorable sika deer lingering among the trees. Occasionally, a few herbs needed by the clinic would also appear, allowing him to complete the clinic's collection quest at the same time!

The level 5 sika deer were not aggressive, and their counterattack damage was not too high, but their defense was much higher than that of the white rabbits. Yang Rui almost had to hit them 5 times to kill one, and at the very least, 4 hits were needed to finish them off.

Fortunately, the experience gained was about six to seven times higher than that from the white rabbits, and with no one competing for the monsters, Yang Rui's leveling efficiency improved significantly. In less than ten minutes, Yang Rui's level quickly rose to level 3.

As usual, he allocated the 2 free attribute points to his Strength, bringing his current Strength value to 12. He could now kill a sika deer in no more than 4 hits, and if a critical hit occurred, he could finish one off in just 3 hits!

With plenty of monsters, powerful attacks, and low defensive pressure, what more could be said? Yang Rui swung his wooden stick with all his might, felling batches of sika deer, almost racing against time, never stopping!

If not for the fact that the newbie wooden stick and cloth armor had infinite durability, they would have worn out long ago!

Along with this, Yang Rui's experience bar also shot up rapidly. After about 15 minutes, Yang Rui's level was already approaching level 4! And he had also completed the clinic's collection quest!

However, the same problem soon arose. A large group of players had already spread into the small forest where Yang Rui was! This time, the influx was even more intense than before in the white rabbit area. The forest quickly became crowded, and the phenomenon of players competing for monsters began to appear.

Clearly, most players had already become familiar with the game environment, recognized their own strength, and were intensifying their efforts to level up! Some bold players even crossed the small forest and ran deeper into the map! What they did not know was that continuing deeper would likely lead them to face aggressive monsters!

After a brief hesitation, Yang Rui still decided to return to the village to turn in the clinic's quest. This quest was slightly more difficult, and the reward was expected to be enough to level him up to level 5.

Sure enough, after turning in the quest, the leveling aura enveloped him again. He gained 2 free attribute points, which he allocated to his Strength as usual, bringing his Strength value to 16.

Without any delay, Yang Rui did not even sell the deer meat and other items in his backpack. He turned around and left the newbie village. In the early stages of the game, taking the initiative was very important! Yang Rui's goal was to quickly reach level 10 and strive to receive the chain quest related to the village establishment order!

This time, he did not change direction. Yang Rui still left through the north gate of the newbie village and came to the small forest where he had previously fought the sika deer. The mini-map was already densely dotted with small green points, each representing a player of the same faction. It was clear that the number of players leveling up in this area had already exceeded the capacity!

Yang Rui decisively left the small forest again and continued to push deeper into the map. Although the area ahead was where aggressive monsters were located, which would likely result in more HP loss and require more time to rest and recover, it was still more efficient than staying with the large group of players competing for monsters!

After passing through the small forest, Yang Rui cautiously hid behind a rock and observed for a while. If he was not careful and died, he would lose experience, and most importantly, it would waste time!

Before him was a series of small hills, with flat areas, valleys, and slopes still teeming with sika deer, sheep, and other creatures. However, he could also occasionally spot a few hunting wolves, which were aggressive monsters!

After trying to kill a few level 5 sheep, Yang Rui found that the experience gained was slightly higher than from the sika deer in the forest. Unfortunately, his actions immediately drew the attention of three level 8 earth wolves, causing Yang Rui a lot of trouble, and he almost died.

After dealing with the three earth wolves, Yang Rui was left with less than a quarter of his HP. He could only hide in a patch of trees behind a rock to rest and recover. The danger in this area was indeed quite high!

It took about 2 minutes to fully recover his HP. Yang Rui then began looking for suitable monsters to attack, always paying attention to his surroundings to avoid being attacked by aggressive monsters!

However, every so often, there would be two or three earth wolves wandering around. Despite his best efforts to avoid them, the speed of the level 8 earth wolves was not slow, and Yang Rui inevitably encountered a few of them.

The most dangerous time was when Yang Rui was almost surrounded by four earth wolves. If not for his relatively full HP and his previous efforts to kill one of the wolves, he would have been completely surrounded! Even so, in the end, Yang Rui was left with only a few drops of HP, and just one or two more hits from the earth wolves would have finished him off!

Thus, he fought and rested, rested and fought, and Yang Rui's level wobbled up to level 6. He still allocated the 2 attribute points to his Strength, making it slightly safer to face the earth wolves.

Yang Rui calculated the time and found that it took him over 30 minutes to level up from level 5 to level 6. Although the experience required for leveling up had increased significantly, the efficiency was indeed not high!

Feeling a bit helpless, while resting and recovering HP behind a large rock, Yang Rui suddenly heard a system prompt:

"You have discovered an abandoned mine!"

Discovered an abandoned mine? Could it be the small cave he found while hiding and recovering HP in the grass?

The hesitation lasted only a moment. Yang Rui did not hesitate to crawl into the cave, which was only a few feet in diameter. In "World War," such small maps usually had some areas to explore, so of course he had to go in!

After crawling into the cave, Yang Rui couldn't help but exclaim, "What a pleasant surprise!" If he looked at the classic small map and connected it to the quest he received from the blacksmith, he would have remembered the content of the game from his previous life!

Yang Rui couldn't help but feel lucky that he had encountered the only map in the newbie village that was similar to a small dungeon. This cave was an excellent leveling spot in the newbie village, of course, only after someone had turned in the blacksmith's quest would it be officially open to players!

When Yang Rui first entered the game in his previous life, he was quite naive and almost leveled up to level 10 by killing white rabbits before leaving the newbie village, so he had no memory of the mine. However, there were detailed introductions on the forums, and later, Yang Rui also knew about it!

The monsters in the mine were all humanoid NPCs—controlled miners! As for how they were controlled, the game's background seemed a bit complicated, and Yang Rui couldn't remember it, but he was very clear that the densely distributed miners only knew how to work hard, and as long as they were not attacked, they would not react to anything happening around them! They were passive-aggressive monsters!

According to the forums, the final boss on the second level of the mine could drop some good items, but Yang Rui did not plan to go to the second level to fight the boss. The densely packed passive-aggressive humanoid monsters already made him very happy, and he could leave the newbie village soon!

The controlled miners were level 9 monsters with higher attack and defense than earth wolves. However, when facing a single miner, Yang Rui was not at all afraid. With his 18 points in Strength, he could knock one down in six to seven hits!

Most importantly, the monsters were densely packed, the experience points were high, no one was competing for the monsters, and he would not be mobbed! Moreover, the miners were humanoid NPCs, and killing them could drop some valuable items, such as clothes and mining picks, and occasionally a few pieces of ore and copper coins! Although the quantity was not large, Yang Rui was very satisfied!

After continuously fighting monsters for about two hours, Yang Rui's level had already climbed to level 9, and his experience bar was more than halfway full!

During this period, Yang Rui changed into a set of miner's clothes with 5 defense points, replacing the never-wearing wooden stick with a mining pick that had a higher attack power of 5-6! The free attribute points gained from leveling up were still all allocated to his Strength, bringing it to 24 points.

With the change in equipment and the increase in Strength, Yang Rui found it much easier to deal with the miners. Although he was about to reach level 10, he was somewhat reluctant to leave this place!

The rabbit meat, deer meat, and mutton in his backpack, which he had not had time to deal with, were all discarded because the 40-slot backpack was clearly not enough! In comparison, the ore was more valuable, and Yang Rui almost filled 26 slots, with each slot holding 10 pieces of the same type of item, totaling nearly 260 pieces! All of them were grade 3 iron ore.

Additionally, Yang Rui kept 140 sets of miner's clothes, occupying the remaining 14 slots, for any unexpected needs; as for the mining picks, except for the one he was holding, he did not keep any. Although they were useful at the moment, they were not specialized weapons with limited attack power, so their value in retention was not high.

In the end, when Yang Rui reached level 10, he had only cleared half of the first level of the mine. As for the boss on the second level, Yang Rui didn't even think about it and passed it by. Time was precious, and he could not afford to lose the big picture for small gains! Besides, the boss was not something that could be easily dealt with by one person!

He quickly ran back to the newbie village, turned in the blacksmith's quest, and then reported to the village chief.

"Lieryang, I am very pleased to see your rapid progress in such a short time. I believe you have gained a deeper understanding of this new world. I hope you will strive for greater achievements and seek higher goals... A new world awaits you..."

The village chief, upon seeing Yang Rui who had already reached level 10, gave a long speech, mostly encouraging words for players, but with no practical significance. However, this process could not be skipped!

Yang Rui patiently listened to the long-winded instructions and finally saw a black screen before him. The system prompt that followed made him feel relieved!

"Finally, I've left the newbie village!"

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