Noob Player

Shen was standing at the entrance of the village. If he went ahead, he would meet the same chicken monster.

He observed the surroundings carefully. The village was in the middle of a forest. Trees, grass, and boulders what he could see around. He looked over the minimap.

The minimap was still dark since he had been fighting the chicken and getting used to the skill. The one thing he realized from the game was that this new game was totally different from the Universe Online he played before.

The game was mechanically different, it was so surreal that it even took him some time to get used to the skill. In Universe Online, it only took him a short time to adapt to the skill.

"But a few people managed to reach Level 5 on the first day," He checked the level ranking before logging in. Seventeen people in China Server reached Level 5.

Those seventeen figures were famous, and he saw one of them was Yue. She got to Level 5 on the first day. It was clear that the girl was not just having a pretty face to be the brand ambassador, but also a good player in the game as well.

"Let's catch up, Shen," He encouraged himself before he turned toward the left direction. He felt good in this direction.

Shen went on foot, slowly, sneakily walking forward. After a certain distance, he started to hide from one tree to another. He felt this was the distance where the monster would start to appear.

If the chicken was a common monster around, then he would be one-hit killed by the chicken as soon as it discovered him.

After a couple of minutes of walking, Shen found the first monster. It was the same black-feathered chicken with two tiny hands, "Who designed the monster? It looks so weird," He muttered in a low voice as he took a half circle to avoid the encounter.

Not long after the first chicken, he found another chicken a minute later. At this point, Shen concluded that the chicken was a common monster around the village.

There was a certain pattern in a game where usually the weakest monster stayed near a safe zone like the village or city. If the chicken stayed near the village, that meant the chicken was the weakest monster around.

"I hope it's not the case for this weird area. I hope it's the opposite pattern," Shen prayed that it was not the case.

Sneaking around like a little thief, Shen continued his journey of finding hope. There was one time he encountered the chicken moving in a group, there were four of them.

He hid behind the bush and stayed there for like fifteen minutes to let the chickens move away. He did not dare to take a detour because he had encountered a lot of chickens.

Shen was afraid of meeting another chicken and he would get pincered, chicken on the back and chicken ahead. That was the least situation he wanted in.

Especially after he was this far from the village. He did not want to waste another fifty minutes to get back here. It was always better to be safe than sorry.

Another forty minutes passed by, his effort paid off as he finally entered a new area. He could tell he entered the new area as he spotted different trees.

The tree of the chicken area was lush with leaves and branches. But the trees in this new area were similar to a pine tree with the fewest leaves. The tree stood straight with sparse branches and trees.

The area was pretty open and he hardly found a spot to hide. The tree trunks were not that big despite how tall it was. No bushes around but just red soils, it was an open area.

Looking at the newly discovered area, Shen was hesitating to cross over. The red soil and the grass made a clear line, indicating the two sides were different areas.

"I have arrived, I should check the area!" Shen muttered in a low voice as he entered the new area.

He walked slowly, looking around to make sure he did not overlook any anomalies. He walked from one tree to another even though the tree could not cover him.

Ten minutes into the new area, Shen did not discover any monsters around. It was just red soil and trees.

He stopped next to a tree, scanning the surroundings once more. He tried to find something out of the ordinary about the new area.

At this moment, he felt something coiling him. It was something big as he could feel it from the touch. Shen was brought down but he could not see anything coiling.

"Urgh!" He grunted in pain as the thing was coiling him very hard. Having a hard time breathing, Shen's vision started to blur. At the final moment before his death, he heard a clear bone creaking noise and saw the creature coiled him.

The creature had scales like a snake and it was red in color. Then he blacked out, he died again without knowing what creature killed him.

Shen stood in a daze on the respawn spot. An hour of the journey went to waste as he died without getting any information. He tried to attack, but the creature coiled his body. He could barely move his finger, but scratching the scale did not do any damage to the creature. Hence Shen failed to identify the creature that killed him.

"Hah, in the end, it's the same pattern. The further I go away from the village, the stronger monsters are," He let out a sigh, "No, this is too early to give up, Shen! There are more areas to be explored."

Once he got outside, he opened his pitiful status window. Despite his abnormal dexterity and agility, he could not survive in this cruel and unknown area.

"At least, I don't need to look for food for my hunger," Shen muttered in pity.

Health Bar, Stamina Bar, and Hunger Bar were back full again after he died. He did not need to worry about hunger.

Shaking his head, Shen went in a different direction. He did not want to go back to the red soil area anymore. He was sure that he would die again if he went back to the area.

He could not see the creature until it attacked. There were two possibilities. First, the creature was too fast for the naked eye. Second, the creature had camouflage skills hence he could not see it.

Shen was leaning toward the latter, "The monsters can camouflage, it's a suicide to go there again."

This time he headed toward the right direction of the village. He did the same as before, sneakily walking forward while avoiding the chicken.

A little over an hour later, Shen stopped in front of a wide river. The river was around fifteen meters wide, it was impossible to jump to the other side.

He walked over to the edge. It was not a shallow river as he could not see the bottom of the river. The calm stream made the river look dangerous.

"Swimming? There are likely water monsters inside. It's a suicide," Shen shook his head and looked to the upstream, "There's might be a bridge…"

Shen did not finish his words as he heard the water splashed. He looked toward the water and saw a fish with a snout-like spearhead. The fish shot toward his chest from the water.

He failed to react in time as the fish pierced his left chest.

"Arghhh!" Shen screamed from the pain. He was not used to the pain tolerance in the game yet.

-80

He lost 80 HP in one attack. Shen was about to pull the fish from his chest, but he fell into despair at the sight of the three same fishes in the air. He gave up and closed his eyes.