Chapter 1 Carol City

At the Carol City teleportation point, a team of more than twenty players were gathered, chatting.

"I think that guy is just a con artist. How could he possibly know a strategy for the Forsaken Wizard Camp?"

"I don't think he's a con artist. Otherwise, how could he have guessed where we wiped? He must have an extremely detailed understanding of this instance to know where we'd fail."

Opinions differed, and it was hard to come to any clear conclusion.

"Shitou, what did he say?" a warrior beside him asked. He was the team leader, called Half-Asleep Fox.

Shitou repeated Nie Yan's words.

The Holy Word Priest pondered for a long time, then looked at the team members and asked, "Do you think it's credible?"

"Hard to say," a player next to him said. The Forsaken Wizard's checkpoints were too difficult. They hadn't even seen the Forsaken Priest before they wiped.

"Maybe Nie Yan did the Forsaken Wizard Camp instance with a group before."

"He is indeed a master. He told me about the monster spawn point outside the Forsaken Wizard Camp. He said he used to play a warrior character, but deleted it and started a Thief. I think his warrior must have been at least Level 4 to know so much." Fei Lai Shitou defended Nie Yan, trusting him implicitly.

"Should we try his method?"

"Everyone prepare. We'll set off in ten minutes," the Holy Word Priest decided.

"Fox, are we really going?" another mage asked.

"I think his words have some credibility. Otherwise, he wouldn't know so much about the Forsaken Wizard instance. Let's try it. If that guy is a con artist, I'll make him pay the price." Half-Asleep Fox said confidently. He could still tell truth from lies. If they hadn't wiped in the Forsaken Wizard Camp before, he wouldn't have had Shitou ask Nie Yan for help.

Nie Yan was still farming water spiders, collecting fine silk. The process was quite tedious.

He was dealing with a water spider, about to kill it, when *squeak*, the water spider let out a sharp cry.

Six distant water spiders were alarmed and surrounded him.

Dealing with two water spiders at the same time was his limit. If he encountered more than two, he wouldn't have a chance of winning.

Nie Yan lunged forward, landing a Vital Strike, killing the low-health water spider. He grabbed the copper coin the water spider dropped. The six water spiders had already pounced.

Nie Yan quickly plunged into the water, swimming towards the bottom.

The six spiders crawled on the surface, searching for Nie Yan.

Nie Yan swam away. After more than a minute, he felt a bit suffocated. He looked up at the surface. There were more and more water spiders on the surface. Going up now would be certain death.

To avoid drowning, Nie Yan could only activate the underwater breathing skill on the Waterspout Pearl and prepare to swim back to the surface where there were fewer water spiders.

A beam of light shone down from the lake, illuminating the deep, dark lake bottom. Nie Yan vaguely saw a flash of gold in the lake bottom. His heart skipped a beat. Could it be a treasure?

In any case, the Waterspout Pearl's underwater breathing time was still long. Nie Yan swam down into the deep lake.

It was bottomless. The deeper he swam, the greater the pressure on Nie Yan's abdomen.

The lake bottom was full of strange rocks, between which it was dark and narrow, with a visibility of only about two yards.

Nie Yan could see that the rocks at the bottom of the lake were covered with black iron crystal stones and other minerals, but unfortunately he didn't have mining skills and could only give up.

Streams of cold water gushed out from between the strange rocks, hitting Nie Yan and making him feel chilly.

A huge golden eel suddenly swam out from between the strange rocks, passing by Nie Yan.

Nie Yan was startled. When he saw it clearly, he realized it was a golden electric eel!

The golden light he had seen earlier was this golden electric eel!

Golden electric eels were a rare type of monster, ranging from Level 0 to Level 20. They were gentle and never attacked players first. Only when players attacked them would they fight back, releasing a strong current from their tails. In the water, this was a powerful killing move.

If you killed a golden electric eel, you would usually get some good equipment, at least bronze-grade.

Golden Electric Eel: Level 0, Health 80.

Fortunately, it was only a Level 0 golden electric eel. If it were a little higher level, Nie Yan wouldn't be able to hurt it at all.

Nie Yan followed the golden electric eel, observing its body, looking for its weakness. The golden electric eel was three meters long.

The golden electric eel didn't care about Nie Yan's presence at all, even swimming around him a few times.

It was said that the golden electric eel's vital point was its neck. Nie Yan looked over there and found a patch of red scales on the golden electric eel's neck.

That was the golden electric eel's weak point!

Nie Yan followed the golden electric eel to a narrow gap between the rocks. He raised his dagger and stabbed it into the golden electric eel's neck with Assassinate. A stream of bright red blood gushed out.

−11.

The golden electric eel didn't expect the player next to it to attack it. It struggled violently, trying to get rid of Nie Yan.

Nie Yan held onto the golden electric eel's body tightly, but the golden electric eel's body was covered in slippery mucus, making it difficult to hold on.

The golden electric eel flicked its tail, and a powerful electric current blasted towards Nie Yan.

−32.

The electric current hit Nie Yan, and his body felt as if it were being gnawed on by ants, a numb feeling that made his whole body weak.

The golden electric eel's electrical attack had a paralyzing effect!

In a daze, Nie Yan felt the golden electric eel trying to escape. The dagger in his hand stabbed into the golden electric eel's body, getting stuck near the spine.

Nie Yan held onto the dagger tightly.

The golden electric eel swam forward, dragging Nie Yan along. Another electric current blasted Nie Yan, and a damage value of −23 floated above Nie Yan's head.

The golden electric eel was a special monster, stronger than a leader-class monster. If it were a little higher level, Nie Yan would have been dead long ago.

Nie Yan's consciousness was a little blurred. He mustered his energy.

The golden electric eel swam very fast, moving through the cracks between the strange rocks. Streams of blood spurted from its body, turning the surrounding water red.

After a while, the golden electric eel released another electric shock, hitting Nie Yan and dealing 16 points of damage.

The amount of electric current in the golden electric eel's body was limited. The more it used it, the weaker it became.

The golden electric eel swam with Nie Yan for five or six minutes, constantly attacking Nie Yan. Nie Yan's health continued to decrease, leaving only twenty-three points. He laboriously used a bottle of Low-Grade Instant Health Potion.

The electric current paralyzed his whole body, making it very difficult to move.

The golden electric eel was tired and stopped. Nie Yan seized the opportunity and stabbed the golden electric eel's neck with a Vital Strike.

The golden electric eel struggled non-stop, wrapping its body tightly around Nie Yan, completely coiling him. A strong feeling of suffocation came from his abdomen.

−5, −5, −5, damage values floated above Nie Yan's head. His health was only 15%.

Seeing his health getting lower and lower, Nie Yan accelerated his attacks, constantly stabbing the golden electric eel's neck with his dagger.

−8, −8, −8, the golden electric eel's health finally bottomed out. It slowly loosened its grip and rolled over, showing its white belly.

Nie Yan finally broke free from the golden electric eel's control. He reached out with his right hand and picked up the equipment dropped by the golden electric eel, a pair of bracers.

Soft Leather Bracers: Bronze-grade, Unidentified.

The equipment dropped by a Level 0 golden electric eel should be Level 0. He had to go back to the city to identify the stats. Since it was leather armor, a Thief could definitely use it.

He threw the Soft Leather Bracers into his bag. The paralysis effect gradually disappeared. He didn't know where the golden electric eel had taken him. Nie Yan swam upwards.

Moving through the dark, strange rocks, Nie Yan noticed a small grass swaying in the distance.

It was a small grass, half an inch long, with three spindle-shaped green leaves, soft as silk.

Judging from its appearance, it was a Water Scale Grass!

Nie Yan's eyelids twitched. There were six recipes for Low-Grade Instant Mana Potions. Water Scale Grass was one of the main ingredients in one of the recipes. A bottle of Low-Grade Instant Mana Potion was worth thirty copper coins, so this Water Scale Grass was worth around twenty copper coins.

Two bright red water snakes swam past the Water Scale Grass.

Flower Scale Water Snake: Level 3, Health 100/100.

Nie Yan waited for a while, then swam towards the place where the Water Scale Grass grew after the Flower Scale Water Snakes had swum away. Like a gecko clinging to a rock, he plucked the Water Scale Grass and put it in his bag.

This should be a Water Scale Grass growing area. Nie Yan looked around nearby and found two more Water Scale Grasses. The harvest was not bad.

Nie Yan floated to the surface. He broke out of the water. Staying in the dark environment at the bottom of the water for so long was really depressing. He finally took a breath.

This was still the water spider spawn area. Nie Yan continued to farm water spiders. As the game neared closing time, Nie Yan dropped a Holy Light Slash skill book for Holy Word Knights. Holy Light Slash was a basic skill for Holy Knights, and its current price should be around 30 copper coins.

Good luck. In the water spider farming area, the drop rate of Holy Light Slash was definitely no more than one in ten thousand. Some people could farm water spiders for several days and might not get a Holy Light Slash.

System: The game will be closed in three minutes. Please prepare to log out.

Nie Yan found a relatively safe place to hide. After three minutes, his vision darkened and he logged out of the game.

At nine o'clock in the morning, a new day began. People went to work. Because of the three-hour work system, one hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, their time was very flexible. Students began their summer entertainment.

Nie Yan had breakfast and started his morning exercise. His father was from the military and was very demanding of him. He had a good foundation. Back then, to assassinate Cao Xu, he had insisted on exercising for two years, using training methods from special forces on the Internet. The training methods were very perverted. Because he was older at the time, he missed the best training time, so the effect was not very strong, but he could easily take down two or three adults.

The concept of these two or three adults referred to adults who had trained a little. The development of productivity had freed people from heavy labor. Modern people were paying more and more attention to elite education. In addition to basic courses, free combat, taekwondo, boxing, etc., were listed as elective projects and started learning from a young age, so that everyone's physical fitness was good, and at least they would have a little fighting skills. Various large fighting events were enduring. To be precise, today was a martial society.

There was no equipment at home. He could only do some simple training. When he had the financial strength in the future, buying equipment and some biological agents would have a more obvious effect.

After an hour of exercise and twenty minutes of combat training, Nie Yan began to review his lessons. In this era, the role of knowledge was very important. The knowledge in the textbooks encompassed everything, from simple physics and chemistry to the manufacture of various polymer compounds, aircraft, small nuclear batteries, etc. If he thoroughly understood the knowledge in the textbooks, making space shuttles and mechs would not be a problem.

People in this era, under the stimulation of drugs and bioelectricity, had an average IQ of over 160, and some could reach 260, but they could not integrate all the knowledge accumulated by their predecessors in their lifetime.

In high school, it was already very good to get fifty or sixty points on a hundred-point paper. There was no passing or failing grade in the exam, but each exam result was recorded in the individual comprehensive assessment.

Nie Yan's grades were in the top three in the first and second years of high school. After transferring to a noble school in the city, his grades could only be at the bottom. In this world, money might be able to solve many things, but knowledge determined a person's status. Nie Yan's father might be able to pave a broad road for Nie Yan with money, but whether he could continue to walk down it depended on Nie Yan himself.