The newbie quest was naturally not to be missed. It seemed like it had never been so bustling before. The elderly village head, surrounded by a crowd, had his wrinkled face stretched into a chrysanthemum-like smile.
Quest: First Steps in the World (Difficulty: E-Rank)
Quest Content: Defeat 10 Demonized Rabbits.
Quest Reward: 50 Experience, 10 Copper Coins.
"Charge!"
Time was of the essence. Even the first piece of junk white equipment that dropped could potentially sell for a sky-high price at the beginning stage! Jiang Bai, who was well aware of this and eager to earn his first pot of gold, dared not waste any time. He immediately swung his newbie bow and arrow and charged out of the safe zone.
As soon as Jiang Bai charged out of the safe zone, he was stunned.
The anticipated scene of players enthusiastically and vigorously fighting monsters did not materialize. Instead, those seemingly harmless rabbits could easily kill a player with just a few moves.
In an instant, the entire wilderness was filled with wailing and cursing that rose and fell incessantly.
"Whoa! Why does it hurt so much?"
"Help me... bro, help me... ah..."
"This is crazy. Are these level 1 monsters? They're impossible to beat..."
Players charged out into the wilderness in batches, only to turn into a flash of white light and reappear at the respawn point, bewildered.
"Who am I? Where am I? Did I really get killed by a rabbit?"
The scene left Jiang Bai dumbfounded.
Especially when he saw a mage player who, after being attacked by a rabbit, lost more than half of his health with a single swipe, Jiang Bai was completely stunned.
"Is this even scientific? Do newbie monsters have such high attacks?"
Players who had suffered losses retreated back to the safe zone and began to curse.
"The developers are trash! Why make the game so difficult?"
"My weapon exploded..."
"I'm out of clothes, damn it..."
Jiang Bai cast a Scouting Skill and saw the attributes of the Demonized Rabbit.
Demonized Rabbit
Level: 1
Attack: 20
Defense: 0
Health: 80
"This is ridiculous!"
At this point, the players lowered their proud heads. Solo grinding was clearly not working; teaming up was the way to go.
"Form a group! A League of Legends diamond player leading the team, looking for 3 DPS..."
"The Power Squad is about to set off. Need a priest, 4=1..."
"Need one more priest, already have 4. Looking for a female DPS, looking for a female DPS..."
In an instant, the newbie village became lively, but this made Jiang Bai somewhat hesitant.
"Having been a lone wolf player for ten years, I don't like grouping up..."
After all, in his years of gaming, he had always been a lone wolf. Grouping up with real-life friends was fine, but these online, randomly assembled teams had too many unexpected situations. Jiang Bai was reluctant to group up unless it was absolutely necessary.
As Jiang Bai was daydreaming, he suddenly saw his mailbox light up.
"Huh!?"
Jiang Bai was taken aback and opened his mailbox.
"I don't have any game friends right now..."
Opening the mailbox, he saw that the sender was the Genesis official team.
"Dear player 'Empty City Old Dream,' congratulations on being selected in the 'Lucky Account Draw' event. You have obtained the unique reward 'Heart of Genesis' for the entire server. Enjoy your game."
"Whoa!!??"
Jiang Bai's mouth formed an "O" shape in an instant. He suddenly remembered that the system had mentioned something like this when he first entered the game. However, he had never thought that he would be the lucky one and had completely forgotten about it. He never expected that fortune would truly come his way.
"The Heart of Genesis sounds really powerful!" Jiang Bai, filled with excitement and enthusiasm, took out the email attachment, and a black gemstone abruptly appeared in his inventory.
Heart of Genesis (E-Rank, Upgradeable)
Special Effect 1: Infinite Inventory
Special Effect 2: The holder possesses the Fusion skill, which allows the fusion of two pieces of equipment of the same part, quality, and level into a higher-quality piece of equipment. The fused equipment is a bound item and cannot be sold or traded. (Currently, the highest level of fusion is Epic-level equipment)
Upgrade Requirement: 100 Reputation
Note: A unique item in the system, cannot be destroyed, discarded, or dropped upon death.
Subsequently, a "Fusion" button appeared in the lower right corner of Jiang Bai's inventory page.
"This is... incredibly amazing!"
This heavenly reward left Jiang Bai stunned. What was the value of an infinite inventory? Looking at his current bag with only eight slots, he realized that countless rich players would go crazy for it.
As for the Fusion skill...
"It's going to be game-changing..."
"So, as long as I have enough junk equipment, theoretically, I can fuse them to get a top-tier legendary piece of equipment through fusion!?"
"Although it can't be traded, considering the drop rate in Genesis, not to mention legendary-level equipment, even a purple epic-level piece is extremely rare!"
"Doesn't that mean I can theoretically always wear top-tier equipment?"
Thinking this through, Jiang Bai opened the trading market.
"Wow!"
Jiang Bai felt like he had underestimated the situation when he saw the trading market interface.
From the start of the game to now, over an hour had passed, and with billions of players worldwide, the number of equipment items currently for sale in the trading market was surprisingly few!
And most of them were of Rough quality, with the best being only Common level.
"A piece of junk Common-quality level 2 weapon costs 5,000 copper coins? That's 5,000 RMB according to the exchange rate!"
At the start of the game, players could use real money to purchase in-game currency. The exchange rate was fixed at 1 RMB = 1 copper coin.
In-game, 1 gold coin = 10,000 copper coins.
"What kind of drop rate is this?"
Jiang Bai was left speechless. He knew that these low-level white items would eventually be thrown away and unwanted. Of course, this also didn't rule out the reason that in the early stages of the game, the demand for player equipment was too high.
"If I fuse two pieces of green or blue equipment, wouldn't that be a huge boost?"
"And this Heart of Genesis is upgradeable. Since it has 'Special Effect 1,' there must also be 'Special Effect 2,' 'Special Effect 3,' and even more..."
"This is theoretically an infinite two-in-one!"
Thinking this through, Jiang Bai opened the "Fusion" interface and saw two slots arranged in a pin shape, one for the main and one for the secondary slot. The main slot was obviously for the primary weapon.
Jiang Bai looked at the newbie longbow in his hand.
"Hmm... I'm still short of one..."
Just as Jiang Bai was worrying about this, his gaze inadvertently fell on the weak glimmers outside the newbie village in the wilderness. Those were the newbie equipment items that had dropped from the players who had died earlier. Since they had little value, some players didn't bother to pick them up after respawning.
And some hadn't had the chance to pick them up yet after respawning.
"This is like someone handing me a pillow when I'm sleepy!"
Jiang Bai's eyes lit up. He took three steps as if they were two and ran out of the newbie village to start collecting those unwanted newbie equipment items.
"Dude, what are you doing? This stuff is useless. Just throw it away. You can't even sell it to the store."
"Hey, bro, what are you doing? That's my newbie weapon that dropped. Damn it, don't pick it up..."
"Are you crazy or something?"
...
At this moment, Jiang Bai couldn't care less about what others thought. After a quick sweep, his bag was filled with eight more newbie weapons and eleven newbie cloth armors.
Although many players had died, the drop rate of newbie equipment was inherently low to protect new players. Jiang Bai was already overjoyed to have collected so much.
With great anticipation, Jiang Bai opened the fusion system once again, placed the newbie longbow he had in his hand onto the main slot, and put a newbie shortsword in the secondary slot.
"The same level! The same quality! Both are weapon parts! All three conditions are met. Although these three weapons are not for the same class, it shouldn't matter, right?"
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Bai slowly pressed the "Fusion" button.
The entire fusion process was surprisingly fast. Before Jiang Bai could even get ready, a flash of white light appeared, and a brand-new bow materialized before his eyes.