The next day, at eight o'clock. Ye Yun, full of energy, ate breakfast and then contentedly logged into the game from his dilapidated bed.
Character: Jie Ming
Level: 1
Class: Priest
Life Beast: Black Ant (Physical)
Health: 100
True Qi: 30
Magic Attack: 10
Physical Defense: 2
Magic Defense: 2
Talent: SSS-rank
Free Attribute Points: 0
Talent Skill: Midas Touch (Unique in the entire server) – Better than a wave of the hand or a turn of the wrist, Midas Touch can strengthen anything you wish. Cooldown remaining: 5.1h! (Note: Cooldown doubles after each use. Killing wild monsters 10 levels higher than yourself can reduce cooldown.)
Skills:
1. Healing Spell (Beginner): Restores 3 health per second to an ally for 5 seconds. True Qi cost: 3. Cooldown: 10s.
Over the course of one night, with two breaks in between, Ye Yun used his Midas Touch talent skill to upgrade his talent to SSS-rank, a level ordinary people could only dream of.
According to the official website, a talent of this level grants a terrifying 192 attribute points for each level gained!
To reach this level using gold would cost over thirty billion, which for individual players or even most consortiums, was practically the ceiling of the entire game!
But was it worth it? Absolutely.
As someone who had been through this before, Ye Yun knew talent was more than just its immediate function. Otherwise, why wouldn't others spend billions to buy attribute points?
Upon its first upgrade, talent would activate hidden attack bonus attributes. For example, upgrading to C-rank provided a 5% bonus, B-rank 10%, A-rank 20%, and so on.
These bonuses would only appear on the player's attribute panel after reaching level thirty. This caused many big spenders, who had previously invested heavily in attribute points, to regret their decisions immensely.
In the early stages, most people felt that spending such a large amount to improve talent was less worthwhile than directly purchasing attribute points. By the time they learned about the hidden attributes, they were filled with despair and regret.
Ye Yun himself was one of them in his previous life.
After a night of hard work, the density of players in the beginner village's wilderness had not diminished at all.
It made sense. As a global game, there were only ten thousand beginner villages worldwide, each accommodating a staggering two hundred thousand players.
In the China region, due to dense population, some beginner villages housed over three hundred thousand novices.
Not just on the second day, but likely for the entire week, the areas around the beginner village with low-level wild monsters would be overcrowded.
Of course, this didn't mean no one could quickly break through level ten and leave the beginner village.
In his previous life, it took over thirty hours of gameplay for someone to break through level ten. It was said to be a leader from a crucial national department who had recharged two hundred billion. From the start, they could farm level 10 monsters and left the beginner village for the main city by the early hours of the third day.
Recharging two hundred billion, one could imagine how powerful that player's strength was after purchasing attributes! They wouldn't just be able to walk through the beginner village, but would have no pressure even in the level 20 monster zones of the main city!
Thinking of this, Ye Yun felt a surge of pressure.
After a moment's thought, Ye Yun headed to the village's clinic to purchase 500 bottles of Soothing Agent and 500 pills of Vitality Pills.
Soothing Agent: Restores 5 True Qi points instantly. Cooldown: 5s. Price: 1 gold coin.
Vitality Pill: Restores 20 health instantly. Cooldown: 10s. Price: 2 gold coins.
If you consider them expensive, they were outrageously so. If you consider them not expensive, they were only the price of a bottle of purified water.
This game was always a dilemma, loved and hated.
The beginner village was poorly designed. The village itself was rudimentary, and there were only two NPCs: Elder Wang, the village chief, and Granny Li from the medicine hall.
The NPCs in this game possessed a remarkable degree of autonomy.
Just now, Elder Wang, the village chief, was idly helping out at Granny Li's apothecary shop, occasionally teasing her.
"Youngster, I see you're buying so many potions. Are you planning to show off your skills in the wilds?" Elder Wang handed the potions to Ye Yun and asked with a smile.
Hmm?
Looking at the smiling village chief, Ye Yun suddenly recalled a hidden quest from his previous life.
Since it was a hidden quest, there were many subtleties involved.
If he answered "yes" or "no" at this point, he would generally only receive a regular quest.
However, in his past life, a literary youth managed to get the unique hidden quest of the beginner village from the village chief, obtaining rewards so generous they could influence a person's long-term development.
This hidden quest was not available in every beginner village. Its prerequisite was that the beginner village had to be sufficiently desolate with too few native inhabitants!
In Tian Dao, all equipment had to be obtained by players themselves by killing wild monsters or bosses. Given the drop rates in Tian Dao, players with equipment on the first day were one in ten thousand, which was linked to the global players' top-ups.
The higher the amount and quantity recharged, the higher the drop rate.
In his previous life, this hidden quest was discovered half a month after the game launched. It was said that the player spent five full days to complete it.
And tonight, players would start leaving the beginner village one after another. Thinking of the hidden quests and bosses in the main city, Ye Yun felt a sense of urgency.
"Alas, Village Chief, look at our Fengle Village. The name is pleasant, but it's too desolate."
"And yet, there are so many Outsiders in our village. You can barely see any wild monsters in the wilderness. I plan to buy more potions and check out some higher-level areas."
Yes, he was being intentionally verbose.
"Oh? I didn't expect the young hero to have such courage. However, young hero, I cannot allow you to speak so poorly of my Fengle Village."
"Consider that Fengle Village was once one of the ten great divine cities of the ancient era. Unfortunately, due to certain reasons, it suffered a curse from the gods, and over the years, it has declined to this barren state."
"Ten great divine cities? But according to historical records, there are only nine divine cities, aren't there? They are located high in the heavens, said to overlook all directions. How could..." Ye Yun was shocked by the village chief's words. This was clearly different from the hidden dungeon guide in his previous life.
Divine Cities! What level of existence were they?
Even after three years in his previous life, no player globally had ever reached a divine city! Because it was beyond the realm of human comprehension on Earth.
"Nonsense! That's because our Fengle Divine City offended the two Western Temples and the Three Realms of Bliss, and they struck us down to the mortal realm. The five divine cities jointly cast a curse." The village chief became angry upon hearing Ye Yun's words.
"Oh? I didn't realize our village was once so glorious. Village Chief, is there a way to break this curse?" Ye Yun frowned.
"There is a way, but it is exceedingly difficult. There is almost no hope!" the village chief sighed mournfully.
"Village Chief, why don't you let me try? Although I am an Outsider, this village is no different from my second home."
The higher the quest difficulty, the greater the reward!
"Good! Truly worthy of being the first Outsider to achieve SSS-rank talent! Then I shall trouble the young hero!" The village chief's eyes lit up upon hearing Ye Yun's words. He then took out a bamboo slip from his embrace and handed it to Ye Yun.
"System prompt: Congratulations to player for accepting the legendary hidden chain quest – Revival of the Divine City."
"System prompt: Congratulations to player for accepting the legendary hidden chain quest – Revival of the Divine City."
"System prompt: Congratulations to player for accepting the legendary hidden chain quest – Revival of the Divine City."
Was it that casual? Was it that domineering? I hadn't even said whether I accepted or not!