Vol. 1 Chapter 22 – Third Stage of the Collection Quest

The name above Ye Tian Xie’s head had turned bright red, indicating a crime value of 5. Once this value reaches 10, the name will start to darken, eventually turning a blackish-red.

Crime value was the last thing Ye Tian Xie cared about, because it could be washed away with money. Although the 『price』 of 1000 gold coins per point was unaffordable for most people, for him, as long as a problem could be solved with money, it wasn’t a real problem.

100 gold coins. After currency exchange opens, this might become an insignificant amount, but in the early stages of the game, it was a fortune that couldn’t be bought with money. These 100 gold coins were not just a random punishment from Ye Tian Xie; they would become a huge advantage for him in the novice village.

Novice Job Change Trial!

When a player reaches level 10, they can go to the village chief of the novice village to accept the job change trial. Only those who pass the trial are eligible to be sent to the cities of the world of 『Destiny』. The trials aren’t singular, but are divided into five difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Nightmare, and Abyss. The difficulty level is chosen by the player, and passing any one of them grants access to the next stage. However, the rewards differ depending on which trial is completed:

Easy: +1 to all four main attributes.

Normal: +2 to all four main attributes.

Hard: +3 to all four main attributes, +1 to Luck.

Nightmare: +4 to all four main attributes, +1 to Luck, +1 to Charm, and a random level 10 bronze equipment.

Abyss: +5 to all four main attributes, +1 to Luck, +1 to Insight, +1 to Charm, and a novice village hero badge. The names of those who pass the Abyss trial will be announced to the entire battle zone and permanently recorded on the novice village’s hero board.

All five trial difficulties can be attempted solo or in a group. A group can have up to 12 members.

Currently, the average player level was still far from level 10, but Ye Tian Xie had already started preparing for his job change trial. These 100 gold coins were part of that preparation. Though his actions appeared casual and mischievous, they were actually purposeful, much like when he increased his appearance by 20%. That wasn’t to satisfy vanity, but rather to increase his Charm stat in another form. Just like in the real world, the more pleasing someone’s appearance, the easier it is to leave a good impression. Talking to someone with a face full of acne would make anyone want to keep their distance… The same logic applied in the world of 『Destiny』. Every NPC here wasn’t much different from real humans in terms of personality.

After some back-and-forth, Ye Tian Xie arrived in front of the sealed old woman again. He took out 100 wolf eyes, though his backpack still had over two hundred more. He was eagerly anticipating the next step in this quest, hoping the old woman would ask for two hundred wolf eyes, at which point he could happily present the ones already in his inventory. Potions and small ordinary items could stack up to a hundred in a single inventory slot.

【Ding… You have completed the quest  『The Sealed Elder’s Request』, and received the quest reward: 100 experience points, 1 gold coin.】

Ye Tian Xie: “…”

Ten wolf eyes had given him 10 experience points and a single silver coin as a reward. Now, 100 wolf eyes had rewarded him with 100 experience points and just 1 gold coin. Ye Tian Xie suddenly felt like he was suffocating.

“Thank you, young man. These wolf eyes will be of great help to me. You seem very kind-hearted and brave. Could I trouble you to collect another 1,000 wolf eyes?” The old woman, with her hollow, lifeless eyes, looked at him, repeating almost the exact same lines as before… The only difference being that the number had jumped from 100 to… 1,000!

【Ding…The sealed elder has asked you to help her collect 1,000 wolf eyes. Quest type: Common. Quest time limit: None. Quest reward: Unknown. Will you accept?】

From 10 to 100, and now from 100 to 1,000… It was a tenfold increase each time. Would the next request be…?

Ye Tian Xie quickly killed the thought in his mind, firmly choosing to accept the quest, then left quietly. A thousand wolf eyes—at his current collection speed, it would take him less than a day to gather them all. This should be the final stage of this ongoing quest. Ten thousand wolf eyes? That was absolutely impossible. A player’s inventory had only 50 slots, and with 100 wolf eyes taking up one slot, it would require at least 100 slots. In the novice village, without any items or methods to increase bag capacity, no matter how much patience a player might have, it was simply impossible to collect ten thousand. Five thousand would be the absolute limit.

Ye Tian Xie retraced his steps back to the Wolf Valley. The wolf territory he had cleared earlier was once again filled with wolves, as if recognizing Ye Tian Xie—the person who nearly exterminated their entire population. Packs of wolves howled and lunged at him, as though someone had dug up their ancestors’ graves.

Facing these wolves, which posed no real threat to him anymore, Ye Tian Xie had no pressure in fighting them. Swinging Destiny’s Moment, he effortlessly weaved through the wolf packs. After more than half an hour, the wolf territory that had just been fully respawned was cleared again, not even a single strand of wolf fur left behind. Ye Tian Xie stood atop a rock, dragging Destiny’s Moment, feeling drowsy as he waited for the slow respawn of the wolves.

One thing worth praising was that the five Red Leaf Alliance players, whom Ye Tian Xie had sent back to the novice village earlier, hadn’t come back for more punishment. Feeling bored, Ye Tian Xie glanced at his experience bar and was so shocked that he almost fell off the rock. The experience required to level from 3 to 4 was five times that of levelling from 2 to 3!

If levelling was this hard during the novice stage, it was easy to imagine how much tougher it would get after leaving the village.

Time passed quickly in the monotonous task of slaying wolves. The wolf territory was located at the entrance to Wolf Valley, and further inside were even stronger wolf-type monsters. But for Ye Tian Xie, these wolves—ones he could defeat with two hits—were the perfect creatures for levelling up. In the world of games, if one wished to become truly strong, they had to learn to endure the dull grind of killing monsters for experience. Ye Tian Xie was long used to it and had even started to enjoy the monotony.

The opening of Destiny had made the once-bustling Jinghua streets unusually quiet. Its massive influence had swept over humanity and would only continue to grow. Perhaps, in the future, human lifestyles and even the global order would change because of this game.

Since noon, when Destiny launched, time had quietly marched on, with its hands swinging wider and wider. From afternoon, then into the early evening twilight.