Chapter Sixteen: The Troublesome Little Stone Turtle

Huang Yunshuo lowered his head and swung his club.
-13!
His agility was high and his attack speed was fast; before the little stone turtle could strike him a second time, he landed another blow.
-9!
“My minimum attack is 11—it seems the little stone turtle’s defense is at least 2.”
-20!
The stone turtle landed a critical hit; Huang Yunshuo was left with 60 health points.
“Damn it.”
The pain of having no skills at this stage was that, regardless of occupation or race, all you could do was basic attacks.
If his movement speed weren’t restricted, Huang Yunshuo could have relied on his agility to dodge damage, but now he had no choice but to face the little stone turtle head-on.
-29!
A critical hit.
He could see the turtle’s health bar was almost depleted.
-10!
-10!
Two damage numbers floated above man and turtle at the same time; the stone turtle collapsed, and Huang Yunshuo was left with only 50 health.
What a rip-off.
He could kill a level 1 chick at full health, but this stone turtle, with just 10 more health and the same attack as the chick, had cost him half his life.
Three copper coins and a small earth-colored stone dropped to the ground; Huang Yunshuo quickly picked them up.
“The copper coins are a bit stingy…”
He muttered, then read the name of the earth-colored stone—Sluggish Gem Fragment (Rare).
Sluggish Gem Fragment:
Socket: Melee Weapon
Effect: 10% chance on hit to reduce opponent’s movement speed by 5% for 1.5 seconds
Collect nine fragments to synthesize one Sluggish Gem (Low Efficiency)
“Not bad.”
Huang Yunshuo nodded in satisfaction. The 10% chance sounded low, but with repeated attacks, it was bound to trigger eventually. Slowing an opponent by 5% for 1.5 seconds could be lifesaving at a critical moment.
He stowed the gem. Originally, he’d just come to the level 2 monster zone for a look before logging off, but now he decided to hunt another stone turtle.
He carefully searched the grass; perhaps the prairie was designed to boost the turtles’ camouflage abilities, for it took him over ten seconds to spot another stone turtle nearby.
“Hiding so well, aren’t you.”

Huang Yunshuo swung his club again; as -11 damage appeared above the turtle, he quickly withdrew.
The stone turtle stretched its neck, trying to bite him.
But with Huang Yunshuo wary and his agility at 32, a turtle could never catch up.
“Haha, I’ll kite you to death, you little bastard!”
He laughed, darted forward for another attack.
Watching the turtle slowly crawl toward him, powerless to do anything, Huang Yunshuo felt a surge of pride.
It seemed leveling in the level 2 monster zone was easy after all; high agility made everything convenient.
“Oh!”
Suddenly, his ankle throbbed with pain; his speed plummeted, and a slow icon appeared above his head—his movement speed dropped to only 10% for the next minute.
“What the hell?”
Huang Yunshuo was stunned; unable to turn quickly, he was bitten again by the stone turtle that had ambushed him from behind.
-20!
Another critical hit?
Frustrated and surprised, Huang Yunshuo thought the turtle’s critical rate was absurdly high—previously, the other turtle had bitten him four times and scored one critical, but this one was even more brutal.
“Bringing this on myself!”
Coming to his senses, he smacked the ambush turtle hard with his club.
By the time he finished off the ambusher, his face grim and blood at only 25, and turned around, the other turtle, still crawling slowly toward him, managed to bite him.
-20!
Damn it, another critical?
The ambushing turtle had scored three criticals out of five attacks.
And this one, biting him for the first time, also landed a critical?
With only 5 health left, Huang Yunshuo suddenly realized he was about to die.
The turtle had 38 health remaining; unless he scored two criticals in a row, he was probably doomed.
-13!
No critical.
He swung his club again, just before the turtle bit him.
-12!
Still no critical.
-10!
His vision darkened, and he heard the clatter of dropped copper coins, making his heart ache.

Appearing at the respawn point, Huang Yunshuo checked his backpack.
He’d started with 153 copper coins, now lost 5, leaving him with 148. With his current wealth, it wasn’t so bad, but for an average player, dying would be devastating.
He glanced at his level: 5, with 20/350 XP. At least his experience hadn’t been deducted.
He was about to remove his helmet when he noticed a slew of friend requests.
“It’s Jin Xiong and the others.”
Huang Yunshuo recognized their IDs and added them one by one, rejecting all other requests—those were surely from clueless viewers in his streaming channel.
He set friend requests to require a payment of one hundred million credit points, smiled, and logged off.
Removing his helmet, he realized eleven hours of game time had passed; he’d been online since noon without eating, and now his stomach was growling.
“Dinner is ready!”
Song Na’s pleasant voice came over the ship’s broadcast.
The ship had a dedicated dining hall, but everyone preferred eating at the observation deck, so over time, their meals moved to the spacious area with a view of most of the starry sky.
Everyone took their seats. Looking at the food before him, Huang Yunshuo’s appetite was mediocre.
The ship had a bio-cultivation chamber where vegetables were grown; meat was synthesized artificially.
Fortunately, the food systems hadn’t been damaged during numerous skirmishes with the Kong Sang people; otherwise, they wouldn’t be enjoying these dishes, not luxurious but flavorful and nutritious.
“Have you reached level 2 yet?”
Huang Yunshuo asked.
“Yin, Chu Jun, and I reached level 2; the others haven’t yet.”
Ye Piaoxue replied, then asked, “Da Huang, what sort of adventure did you have? I saw you fully geared up when I logged off.”
Everyone else expressed their curiosity as well.
To be fair, Huang Yunshuo’s abilities were impressive aboard the Mirror—his fighting skills matched Chu Jun’s and surpassed everyone else’s, and his gaming expertise was top-notch, though not overwhelmingly superior.
In the previous Second World, “Glacial Glory,” Huang Yunshuo had been the backbone of the Mirror; when the server closed, he ranked over 900,000th in the Hall of Fame, and reached over 600,000th in the Glory Leaderboard.
Don’t think those rankings are poor; in the era of the Great Interstellar, humanity’s population was immense—a single ordinary mothership carried billions of people, and a fleet civilization numbered in the tens of billions.
Huang Yunshuo was one in a million; unless he encountered truly monstrous players, he could carry a team wherever he went—a formidable presence.
“By chance, I completed a hidden quest related to the Guide, so I gained a hidden class.”
Huang Yunshuo casually lied.
He would never mention the Stellar Particle Impact; otherwise, he wouldn’t get any sleep tonight—Ye Piaoxue and Yu Shiyin would surely drag him to the tech lab for a night-long examination.