After leaving Madam Ma’s hut, Feng Xiao noticed that four hours had passed in the game, yet his level was still 0, with 0%.

  “By now, there should be people above level 5, right?” Feng Xiao thought gloomily. First, creating the account wasted over two hours, then he spent another two hours dealing with two NPCs, only to receive an impossible task. One step behind, and now he's fallen far behind others.

  At this point, fewer pyers were gathered around the NPCs to take on tasks. After all, with 100,000 starting vilges in China, each vilge only had a few thousand pyers. Four hours should have been enough for everyone to have a turn.

  “I should go grab some tasks that don’t require killing monsters to level up.” Feng Xiao decided to head to the pharmacy, where there were fewer people.

  “Ding! Pyer Feng Hun, you have an incoming call in the real world. Do you wish to answer?”

  “Answer.”

  Using the game pod had the added benefit of allowing him to receive real-world phone calls through the wireless signals emitted by the game pod.

  “Boss, my game Reincarnation, woo woo woo~~” As soon as the call connected, Xiao Tian’s voice came through, crying dramatically.

  Xiao Tian and Chen Bing were Feng Xiao’s lifelong friends and the only two who knew his true identity. The two had extremely different personalities—Xiao Tian was lively, cheerful, and loved to joke around; Chen Bing, true to his name, was cold as ice.

  “Didn’t you say you were doing some devil training? How do you have time to make a call?” Feng Xiao asked, ignoring Xiao Tian’s wailing.

  “It’s meal time, I stole a communicator, hehe... Boss, how’s the game? It must feel amazing, right? What level are you now?”

  “Ahem, it feels great, just like real life. As for my level... you’ll find out when you come back. Do you think I’m just an average person?” Feng Xiao coughed twice to cover up his embarrassment. He couldn’t let Xiao Tian know that he was still at level 0, or he’d probably be ughed at to death.

  “Ah, you can’t understand my sadness. It’s like trying everything to get a beautiful woman into bed, only to suddenly find you have erectile dysfunction. Bing didn’t say anything, but his face... Ah!!~~ Who the hell threw an ice block at me... What? Old Ye’s here? Boss, no time to chat, when we get back, we’re going to dominate Reincarnation together!”

  After hanging up, Feng Xiao arrived at the new pyer vilge pharmacy. The old man, Wang, the pharmacist, was grinding herbs.

  “Hello, Old Wang… Ahem, Pharmacist Wang, is there anything I can help with?”

  “Ah, Feng Hun, I’ve almost used up all my herbs. Can you help me gather some more?” Wang looked at him and answered mechanically.

  “Ding! Pharmacist Wang has tasked you with gathering 10 herbs. Do you accept the task?”

  “Accept.”

  “Ding! You have accepted Pharmacist Wang’s task and learned the ‘Herb Gathering’ skill.”

  “Ding! Due to your high aptitude, you have comprehended the essence of Herb Gathering. The skill has advanced to intermediate, and you now possess Intermediate Herb Gathering.”

  Herb Gathering: Intermediate 0%, can gather intermediate or lower level herbs.

  “Wow, this is great, the skill directly leveled up? Looks like the 50 points of aptitude were well spent,” Feng Xiao muttered to himself as he ran toward the weapon shop.

  “Hello, bcksmith, if you have a task, hurry up and give it to me!”

  “Oh, hello, Feng Hun. I’m running low on ores, could you help me dig up some?” The bcksmith, Zhang, asked.

  “Ding! Bcksmith Zhang has tasked you with mining 10 ordinary ores. Do you accept the task?”

  “Accept.”

  “Ding! You have accepted Bcksmith Zhang’s task and learned the ‘Mining’ skill, receiving a Low-Level Mining Shovel.”

  “Ding! Due to your high aptitude, you have comprehended the essence of Mining. The skill has advanced to intermediate, and you now possess Intermediate Mining.”

  Mining: Intermediate 0%, mining speed +10. 50% chance of mining intermediate or lower ores, 2% chance of mining advanced ores, 0.0001% chance of mining spiritual ores.

  Low-Level Mining Shovel: Mining speed +2, can be used 200 times (breaks after 200 uses).

  “Seems like it’s another skill upgrade to intermediate. The 50 aptitude is really good,” Feng Xiao thought.

  What he didn’t expect was that with 50 aptitude, he wasn’t just “good” but a complete anomaly. For regur pyers, reaching intermediate level in Herb Gathering usually took level 30 or above, even with constant herb collection.

  “Hello, Vilge Chief, is there anything I can help with?”

  The new pyer vilge had only a few NPCs: Wang the Pharmacist, Zhang the Bcksmith, Madam Ma, the Strange Old Man, and the Vilge Chief, who also transported pyers above level 10 to the city.

  “Hello, Feng Hun, I’m the Vilge Chief, responsible for teaching you some basic life skills. Before accepting any tasks, please accept the skills I’m going to teach you,” the Vilge Chief said, with a worried look on his face, as if he was dealing with some troubling issue.

  “Ding! Vilge Chief will teach you basic life skills. Do you accept?”

  “Accept.”

  “Ding! You have learned the ‘Gathering’ skill. Due to your high aptitude, you’ve comprehended the essence of Gathering, and the skill has advanced to intermediate, now you possess Intermediate Gathering.”

  “Ding! You have learned the ‘Capturing’ skill. Due to your high aptitude, you’ve comprehended the essence of Capturing, and the skill has advanced to intermediate, now you possess Intermediate Capturing.”

  Gathering: Auxiliary skill, consumes 20 mana, gathers materials and items from killed monsters.

  Capturing: Auxiliary skill, consumes 30 mana, certain chance to capture a monster as a pet.

  “Newbie Vilge’s western area is being troubled by wild cats. Can you help me eliminate them?”

  “Ding! Vilge Chief has tasked you with killing 20 magical wild cats. Do you accept?”

  “Uh… Vilge Chief, to be honest, I’m a bit soft-hearted. I don’t kill animals. Could you change the task to something that doesn’t involve killing small animals?” Feng Xiao said somewhat “shyly” while sharing his 0% level status with the Vilge Chief.

  “Oh…” The Vilge Chief looked at Feng Xiao with approval. “It’s rare to see such a compassionate young man. While being merciful to these magical creatures might be a bit na?ve, it shows your good nature. Alright, go to the western side of the vilge and gather 10 Sun Grass. The monsters along the way won’t attack, but be careful…”

  Feng Xiao’s face turned slightly red. He quickly accepted the task and said, “Goodbye, Vilge Chief,” and ran toward the northern side of the vilge. He decided to do the Vilge Chief’s task first, since the Sun Grass for Wang the Pharmacist’s task also grew there.

  “…Be careful not to get too close to the cave on Sunset Slope… Hey, young man, I haven’t finished…”

  “Ah, young people these days, always in such a rush. Well, I guess he won’t be as unlucky as I was, right?” The Vilge Chief sighed as he watched Feng Xiao disappear into the distance.

  Feng Xiao jogged toward Sunset Slope, enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way. Butterflies flitted about, flowers bloomed in a riot of colors, and he felt as though he had entered a pure and beautiful natural world. Compared to the noise and pollution of the city, the newbie vilge was like a paradise.

  Along the way, he occasionally spotted a few cute monsters passing by, but as the Vilge Chief had said, they didn’t attack unless provoked. There were few pyers in the area since the monsters were rare.

  After running for over 20 minutes, Feng Xiao reached Sunset Slope, marked on the map. This was the territory of level 5 White Wolves, but strangely, these wolves didn’t attack either. What was even stranger was that no one was training here.

  Could it be that most pyers had already surpassed level 5?

  Not thinking too much about it, Feng Xiao began using his Herb Gathering skill to collect Sun Grass and other herbs scattered on the ground.