Dodging small monsters, checking cards, wandering around.
Twenty minutes later.
Yun Ling, wearing cloth shoes, carrying a wooden bow and a quiver of arrows on her back, appeared at the entrance of the park.
She stopped and gazed ahead, seeing a card floating in the air not far away. It was surrounded by a charming orange light that made her irresistibly drawn to it.
Unfortunately, there were five goblins guarding it.
"...I don't know if it's an equipment card or a skill card," Yun Ling muttered.
Equipment and skills both have four levels, which can be distinguished by their colors.
Normal equipment and C-level skills shine with white light.
Fine equipment and B-level skills emit blue light.
Rare equipment and A-level skills emit purple light.
Legendary equipment and S-level skills emit orange light.
If she spends a lot of effort only to find out it's an S-level skill that doesn't fit her, she'll be at a loss.
As Yun Ling was pondering her strategy, she suddenly heard someone ask, "Want to cooperate?"
Following the direction of the voice, she saw a young man in his mid-twenties standing three meters away.
He had distinct facial features, with deep black eyes and a high nose bridge. In his left hand was a round shield, and in his right hand was a half-meter-long wooden stick. He also wore a backpack on his back, giving him both offensive and defensive capabilities.
A shield!
Yun Ling's gaze was fixated on the round shield and she couldn't bear to look away.
Although the initial card rain in the game included both skills and equipment, the proportion of equipment cards was too low.
Along the way, she had checked nearly fifty cards and only found two equipment cards. One provided cloth shoes and the other provided a wooden bow and quiver of arrows.
To be honest, she was used to playing melee. Shooting with a bow and arrow from a distance was not her strong suit.
Carrying a wooden bow and a quiver of arrows was purely due to the scarcity of equipment in the early stages of the game. Even if she couldn't use them, she could sell them later when she returned to the camp.
"What kind of cooperation do you have in mind?" Yun Ling asked.
The man replied, "Use archery to attract the goblins' attention and lure them over, and then kill them one by one."
"How will the loot be divided?" Yun Ling asked again.
The man answered, "Equally split."
"And what about the orange card?" Yun Ling pressed.
"After killing all the goblins, we'll see how to distribute it," the man replied.
It sounded reasonable enough.
Yun Ling thought for a moment and agreed, "It's settled then."
After that, she took off her wooden bow and took out a few arrows from her quiver.
[Name: Wooden Bow]
Quality: Common
Equipped Effect: Strength +1.
[Name: Quiver]
Quality: Common
Equipped Effect: Automatically replenish arrows every minute, with a maximum capacity of 10 arrows.
She aimed and shot, but no matter how hard she tried, the arrow fell short of the goblin due to the distance.
"I'm carrying a bow not because I'm good at archery, but because I couldn't find any other weapons," she shrugged. "If I continue shooting like this, I'm just wasting arrows. How about I give you the wooden bow and quiver, and I'll carry the shield?"
The man glanced at Yun Ling and said, "Okay."
With the wooden bow in hand, the man's eyes immediately became fierce. He threw a wooden stick to Yun Ling, took out an arrow from the quiver, pulled back the bowstring, aimed, and shot it out.
Yun Ling watched as the man swiftly loaded his crossbow and took aim at the goblins charging towards them. The arrows flew true and struck the goblins' chests with deadly precision. The goblins retaliated, but the man was calm and collected as he continued to shoot. His arrows hit their mark, piercing the goblins' legs and stomachs.
One goblin fell, then another. Yun Ling marveled at the man's skill, realizing that he must be a seasoned player. She also noticed that he carried a shield, while she had a bow. It seemed that they had complemented each other's strengths.
Together, they took down three goblins, and Yun Ling emptied her quiver in the process. Just when she thought they had won, the man pulled out an orange quiver from his pocket and shot a burst arrow that exploded on impact, killing the last goblin.
Yun Ling was astonished. She had met a skilled archer during the beta testing who had a purple quiver with arrows that had a 20% chance to inflict special effects like piercing, exploding, freezing, or burning. She wondered what the chances were for the orange quiver's enchanted arrows.
The battle ended, and the man announced their loot: 16 copper coins, two spools of silk thread, and a block of wood. Yun Ling was grateful for the man's assistance and impressed by his abilities.
Yun Ling calmly backed away without a word. Unconsciously, the distance between them grew larger. If the man made any sudden movements, she wouldn't hesitate to turn around and run!
The man didn't seem to mind and went over to examine the card. After a moment, he regretfully said, "Thorn of the Bramble, an S-rank close combat skill, not suitable for me."
Yun Ling stopped in her tracks and said, "I want it."
The man proposed, "You can have the card, but the drop is mine?"
Yun Ling replied, "Sure."
After reaching an agreement, the man quickly left without even bothering to retrieve his wooden stick. Yun Ling picked up the card after he was out of sight and confirmed her decision to use it.
[Name: Thorn of the Bramble (Passive Skill)]
Quality: S-rank
Skill Effect: When attacked, reflect 50% of the damage.
"Skilled at fighting monsters and equipped with advanced gear, could he be a survivor from the public beta test?" Yun Ling wondered to herself.
Unfortunately, with the man's departure, her question would remain unanswered.
"Never mind, meeting him was a stroke of luck. Not only did I get the round shield, but I also acquired a counterattack skill. If it were just me, I'd have to withstand the damage and rush in and out," Yun Ling thought to herself.
She couldn't help but imagine herself surrounded by five goblins and feeling a sense of resistance.
"Fortunately, I met him," Yun Ling couldn't help feeling grateful.
**
On the way back, Yun Ling no longer searched for equipment cards and just kept her head down and walked.
Avoiding monsters wasn't difficult.
As long as she stayed calm and found a concealed place to hide or saw them from afar and took a detour, she could easily avoid them.
If they ran aimlessly, they would not only waste energy but also risk encountering new monsters.
It took Yun Ling about twenty minutes to reach the Lingyun camp. As he was about to put the wooden stick in the warehouse, he saw three college students sitting around the stone campfire.
The bespectacled student frowned and said, "I called the police station, but no one answered. I also called my parents, but couldn't get through."
The short-haired girl said, "When we were escaping, I observed that there were monsters not only in the school but also everywhere on the streets."
"I don't know where we are, but after we came here, the monsters stopped chasing us."
"If we rashly go out, we will probably encounter danger again."
The other acne-faced boy couldn't help but worry, "We have no food, no water. We won't last long! What do we do after that?"
The three of them looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
At this moment, the bespectacled student noticed Yun Ling and asked, "Excuse me, where can we find a wooden stick and a round shield?"
In his opinion, if the three of them were equipped with weapons, their safety factor would be relatively higher. Even if they had to go out to find food, they would at least have some means of self-defense.
Yun Ling didn't hide it, "Didn't it rain down cards just now? I found an equipment card. If you confirm to use it, you will have a weapon."
"Equipment card?" The bespectacled student was stunned.
The acne-faced boy whispered, "I remember now. Earlier, Zhou Ming picked up a card and then became very powerful and skilled. He could beat all the monsters!"
Yun Ling guessed that Zhou Ming should be someone they knew. "He probably picked up a combat-type skill card. After using it, he immediately gained combat ability."
The bespectacled student couldn't believe it, "It's another card and another skill. Isn't this just like a game?!"
Yun Ling nodded, "It does seem like a real-life holographic game."
The short-haired girl grumbled, "Sounds like an April Fool's joke."
"I've said all that needs to be said. It's up to you to wait for rescue or go out to find cards and supplies," Yun Ling said, and walked towards the warehouse on his own.
It had been a while since she left her residence, and she was eager to return home and transport some supplies.
Entering the warehouse, she set down her wooden stick and the inventory panel automatically popped up.
Upon inspection, Yun Ling found that the list only showed one item: "Wooden stick *1."
Closing the panel, she opened the territory attribute panel, where the list of unlockable buildings was displayed:
Mission Hall: Can issue tasks, attract and recruit NPC talents, requires 100 copper coins to build.
Carpenter's Workshop: Can craft simple weapons, provide wooden household items, requires 100 copper coins to build.
Tailor's Shop: Can make clothes and armor, requires 100 copper coins to build.
Restaurant: Can offer various foods, requires 100 copper coins to build.
Barbecue Shop: Specializes in barbecue, requires 100 copper coins to build.
...
There were more than fifty unlockable buildings, some with similar functions, such as the restaurant and barbecue shop. Others had unique functions, but the camp needed to be upgraded to unlock them.
Yun Ling pondered, "The number of unlockable buildings in the camp is limited. Just building one with similar functions is enough."
However, she couldn't unlock any of them at the moment, as she didn't have any copper coins.
Moving, killing monsters, leveling up, saving copper coins, collecting materials, and searching for supplies, Yun Ling quickly formulated her goals for the next stage.
As she walked out of the warehouse, a bespectacled young man shouted after her, "Can we go out with you?"
Yun Ling replied, "No. I can only guarantee my own safety. I can't protect others who follow me."
"Well, forget it then," the bespectacled young man sighed.
Yun Ling gradually moved further away and disappeared from the sight of the three men.
The acne-faced young man whispered, "She had a wooden stick before, but when she left, she only had a round shield."
"Are you saying..." the bespectacled young man licked his lips nervously.
The acne-faced young man bluntly stated, "The wooden stick was left in the house. Since she doesn't need it, we...we can borrow it."
The girl with short hair remained silent. She felt that it was not a good idea, but her life was in danger and she had no way of speaking up to stop them.
"If you guys don't object, I'll go get it," said the boy with acne as he walked towards the warehouse.
"Hey..." the boy with glasses tried to persuade him, but soon his friend came back.
"What happened?" he was very confused.
"They wouldn't let me in. They said only those whose names were on the access list were allowed to enter the territory's warehouse," the boy with acne said with a worried look.
For some reason, the girl with short hair breathed a sigh of relief. "It's okay, let's think of another way."