Chapter 3
“Boom, boom, boom…”
“Lord Bai Ye, thank you for crossing the realms to come here…”
As the ethereal whispers faded in and out, the grand door before Ye Bai slowly creaked open, engulfing her figure in a brilliant light.
…
Twilight Town.
“This is your reward.”
“Thank you.”
The player who handed over the beast skin received five copper coins from the hunter in the town.
The hunter wore a satisfied expression, casting a look at the player that suggested he was a fool, before quickly shutting the door.
As the player named Lie Yang left, he noticed a system prompt and smiled.
Hunter Qiao Ba’s favorability +1, current favorability (5/100)
After selling beast skins at a low price to this greedy and stingy hunter, he finally raised the hunter’s favorability to 5 points. Coupled with the favorability from a few other residents, Lie Yang’s relationship with Twilight Town shifted from cold to neutral on the faction relationship panel.
【Neutral: Most residents of Twilight Town are willing to attempt communication with you.】
“Finally!” Lie Yang sighed. There were only a few NPCs in Twilight Town willing to issue quests under a cold relationship, and their numbers were limited each day, with other players competing for them.
However, once the faction favorability reached neutral, quest opportunities increased significantly. The time spent over the past three months was worth it.
Feeling satisfied, Lie Yang logged out of the game and reported his progress to his faction’s research team. Nowadays, all forces across the universe were placing great importance on the game “Wan Jie,” with substantial investments in both personnel and resources.
The research team brought Lie Yang some exciting news: “Your route for increasing favorability in the town is correct. Just now, the Night River civilization from the Virgo Cluster released news that their players have joined the town, no longer classified as vagrants. Our intelligence channels have confirmed they’ve also entered the big city, seemingly engaging in class transfer quests.”
“The Night River civilization, one of the first to contact Wan Jie?”
“Exactly. They discovered it three years ago when Wan Jie first launched and have been at the forefront of exploring the game. Tsk… they were originally a mid-tier civilization, but now they’ve achieved rapid development by selling game strategies to other civilizations.”
The civilizations that first discovered that Wan Jie could enhance mental strength quietly amassed wealth. It wasn’t until the player base grew too large to hide that the information became widely known. Most players in the game had only recently flooded in, and unlike other games on the Star Network, Wan Jie was notoriously unfriendly to players—there was no guidance, and the monsters were strong. To avoid unnecessary detours, it was best to buy strategies from the earlier civilizations that had explored the game.
“Cities? Class transfers? Just as we suspected, class transfer quests can only be found in the big cities!” Lie Yang’s expression brightened, and he immediately opened the cosmic news.
There was no need for dedicated game forums anymore; nowadays, at least five out of ten trending news stories on the Star Network were about Wan Jie.
Soon, Lie Yang came across today’s headline news with a screenshot attached: 【The Era of ‘Vagrants’ is Over!】
Three years since the launch, all players started as ‘vagrants,’ with a low status. Most NPCs had a cold or even hostile initial favorability, forcing players to operate near small villages and towns. Approaching a big city would result in relentless pursuit by the city guards, and attempting to enter for a class transfer was a pipe dream. The worst off were those born in the wilderness, who had no choice but to delete their accounts and start anew.
Now, finally, someone was different.
Character: ** (hidden)
Level: 20
Status: Free Citizen
…
As the entire galaxy marveled at the birth of the first non-vagrant identity, Ye Bai glanced at her own unremarkable standard initial panel.
Character: Bai Ye
Level: 0
Status: Blood of the Gods (Bloodline Level: Thin)
Life: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Psyche: -/- (Unawakened)
Strength: 1
Endurance: 1
Speed: 1
Resistance: 1
Spirit: 1
Skills: None
Stepping out of the stone chamber, Ye Bai found herself surrounded by desolate mountains and wilderness, utterly alone.
She paused, then opened her backpack, her face lighting up with surprise—she had stumbled upon a stroke of luck!
Due to the game’s infrastructure elements and background settings, there was no standard beginner village in Wan Jie. Each player’s spawn point was random, categorized into three types: city, village, and wilderness.
Each type of spawn point had its pros and cons. Being born near a city allowed for earlier access to high-end professions, but there were fewer quests for newcomers and no suitable monsters for leveling. Villages offered more leveling opportunities but only had entry-level professions. The wilderness was fraught with danger and lacked quests, appearing far less frequently than the other two.
At first glance, spawning in the wilderness seemed like a hard mode, but to Ye Bai, it was a hidden jackpot.
In her backpack lay a solitary initial item, a golden legendary-grade artifact.
【Void Gate - Creation】
【Description: Opens an alternate space containing the ‘Seed of Creation.’】
【Status: Activatable】
This was the standard dungeon key every player received at birth. The ‘Seed of Creation’ dropped by the dungeon boss was essentially a city-building permit; once used, players could claim land and become a local lord.
However, the key had one restriction: it could only be activated in an area more than thirty miles away from any town—after all, one couldn’t just build a city on another lord’s territory.
Yet in this land, the further one was from a town, the stronger the monsters became. Normally, players born in towns had to reach level twenty and complete their first class transfer before they could venture that far.
The wilderness spawn point had nothing to offer, but its unique advantage was that it was guaranteed to be over thirty miles from any town, allowing for early land claims!
The sooner one became a lord, the sooner they could use the resources of their territory to strengthen themselves. Ye Bai had no idea how long the game had been live, but this start undoubtedly minimized the gap between her and the earlier players.
Next, Ye Bai didn’t immediately use the dungeon key; instead, she searched the area and soon found several remains.
To prevent players born in the wilderness from dying right at the start, the area within fifty meters of the spawn point was a safe zone where monsters wouldn’t spawn, and it would consistently generate remains containing five types of basic whiteboard weapons: a longsword, a wooden stick, a shield, an axe, and a bow.
Wan Jie had a weight system, and before expanding her backpack space, it was best to carry only two weapon-type items; carrying more would affect her movement speed.
Ye Bai quickly made her choice:
【Old Wooden Sword】
Level: Crude
Attack Power: 5
Attack Speed: 1.0
Description: It’s old and made of wood, but at least it looks like a sword should.
【Unreliable Shield】
Level: Crude
Defense Power: 5
Description: It’ll do for now; what else can I do?
She chose this because, although the wooden stick and axe had higher attack damage, their attack speed was slow, and both required dual-wielding. The wooden sword could be used in combination with the shield.
As for the only ranged weapon, the bow, it looked tempting, but Ye Bai knew that without specialized skills for precise compensation before level twenty, the hit rate for ranged weapons was dismal, and the damage was laughable—making it the most useless weapon of all.
After selecting her weapons, Ye Bai immediately found a tree nearby to test the combat system.
This was also the aspect she was most uncertain about—
The Wan Jie she had created a millennium ago allowed for operations with just a flick of a finger, but this version of Wan Jie felt like a real world, where every action was immersive, and combat seemed to be the same.
“Bang!”
Ye Bai swung the wooden sword forcefully at the tree.
The trunk honestly displayed a ‘-1.’
“…”
The tree had no defense value, so normally, with the longsword’s attack, the standard damage should have been 5 points.
Ye Bai took a deep breath. Was this immersive game similar to what web novels described, requiring players to master combat skills themselves? She had never even killed a chicken in real life!
As these doubts arose, the relevant ‘game settings’ naturally surfaced in Ye Bai’s mind.
【Pain Sensitivity: 100%】
【Free Combat Mode: Activated】
The former was easy to understand, but the latter… Ye Bai’s gaze shifted, and she began to hack at the tree in a haphazard manner.
Damage values kept popping up: ‘-2, -1, -1… -6!’
Ye Bai shook her hand, which was sore and numb from gripping the hilt, and quickly grasped the meaning of this free combat mode thanks to her professional instincts.
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