Chapter 11: Reading Too Much Into It

After a great deal of effort, Mo Ming finally managed to slay the elite-grade Mine Rat—an elite Mine Rat had a maximum of 400 health points.
Even after losing nearly 1/3, it still had over 200 left, which meant Mo Ming had to swing his sword more than two hundred times.

After killing this elite monster, the generous experience from killing a higher-level monster directly boosted Mo Ming’s level to 5.
If the level leaderboards weren’t set to open only after a player reached level 10 and left the novice village, Mo Ming’s level would have shocked a great number of people.

The leveling speed in 【Horizon】 was extremely slow.
Up until now, besides Mo Ming, the highest-level player was only just level 4.
The reason for the slow leveling speed, however, wasn’t due to excessive experience requirements, but rather the way the game was played.

With the game’s extreme realism, players were basically no different from how they were in reality, and the same applied to grinding monsters to level up.

In 【Horizon】, a player needs 100 experience points to go from level 1 to 2.
The level 1 mobs near the village give 5 experience points, so killing 20 of them would be enough to level up… It sounds very simple, but the reality is quite different.

In past games controlled by a mouse and keyboard, fighting monsters often just required clicking the mouse and pressing keys.
But in 【Horizon】, fighting 20 monsters was almost the same as doing it in real life—for those who might not even know how to properly hold a kitchen knife, the difficulty was extremely high.

If it weren’t for the system’s assistance and the fact that the in-game characters had much more stamina than the players’ real-life bodies, the game would probably have driven away half its players right from the start.

What’s more, when the servers first opened, all players were level 1 and needed to kill level 1 monsters, so the phenomenon of too many people and too few monsters was very severe.
A monster would be taken down by a flurry of blades just a few seconds after spawning, and a single person would typically only get 1 experience point, meaning they would have to tag a full 100 monsters to reach level 2.

Although going to an area with slightly higher-level monsters meant no one would be competing for them, players would also lose their numerical advantage, making the fights very difficult.
When competing for mobs in the level 1 monster area, one wouldn’t feel much since the monsters died as soon as they spawned.
But in a real one-on-one fight, even a single level 1 mother hen could send a person into a flurry of panic.

Picking up the green-quality staff and two copper coins dropped by the rat, Mo Ming finally left the mine… Since he wasn’t a magic-type class, he didn’t even glance at the staff’s stats before tossing it into his bag.

The night sky in 【Horizon】 was exceptionally beautiful, filled with stars that twinkled with a dreamlike glow.

Although this starry sky was based on the real one, the in-game version was undoubtedly more brilliant… Having said that, the stars had already become invisible in the real world’s night sky many years ago.
Images of the starry sky only existed in planetariums and paintings, impossible to see with one’s own eyes.

Mo Ming stood there quietly, looking up at the stars for a few minutes, before striding in the direction of the village.

In contrast to the dazzlingly bright starry sky above, the surrounding night environment seemed to have intentionally blocked out some of the light, appearing exceptionally dim.
However, this level of darkness posed no trouble for Mo Ming, who possessed night vision.
Although his range of visibility was much worse than during the day, he had no problem seeing his surroundings clearly.

After returning to the village, Mo Ming immediately ran to the Blacksmith’s Shop, intending to turn in the quest… Looking at the already repaired roof, he had a feeling he’d been tricked.

With the exception of some special shops, general stores had business hours and would close after a certain time—NPCs needed to rest too.

At times like this, it wasn’t that the NPCs were completely unreachable; most of them lived directly in their shops.
However, disturbing their rest would lower their favorability.
Apart from a completely hostile relationship, having an NPC’s favorability towards you drop too low was definitely not a good thing.

However, because Mo Ming had a quest in hand, he didn’t have to worry about this, so he knocked directly on the back door of the Blacksmith’s Shop.

“Who is it?!” The door didn’t open; only Blacksmith Hu’s gruff voice could be heard from inside.

“It’s me, Born Without a Name,” Mo Ming replied, knocking on the door again.

This time, the blacksmith finally came to open the door.

“Let me be clear, besides the Essence of Holy Light, I won’t give you any other help, and don’t even think about weapons.”

Blacksmith Hu said to Mo Ming as soon as he opened the door.

“Is this what you wanted?” Mo Ming didn’t bicker with the blacksmith and directly took out 【Vivienne’s Resolve】, dangling it in his hand.

At first, Blacksmith Hu didn’t react, just nodding at Mo Ming and saying, “That’s right, this is it.
Just bring it to me…”

But halfway through his sentence, Blacksmith Hu suddenly realized something, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

“What?
You’ve already brought it back?
So quickly?!”

When he had given out the quest, the reason Blacksmith Hu had asked Mo Ming to bring the item back within 3 days was that he thought Mo Ming was too weak and wanted to give him more time to prepare.
After all, it wasn’t easy for even a player with normal stats to complete this quest, let alone a naturally handicapped person like Mo Ming.
If it weren’t for the Proof of Valor, he would never have sent such a handicapped person to their death.

“Mm,” Mo Ming nodded with a deadpan expression, as if he had just picked up a stone at the village entrance.

“In any case, come in first,” Blacksmith Hu stepped aside, gesturing for Mo Ming to enter.

“Hello there~” As soon as Mo Ming entered the house, before he could take in his surroundings, he heard a woman’s voice from the side.

“…Hello?” Since someone was greeting him, Mo Ming naturally wouldn’t ignore them.

The reason for his slightly questioning tone wasn’t because he couldn’t see who it was, or didn’t know who she was—the one who had greeted him was the owner of the tailor shop, Qiuxia.
Mo Ming had accepted a quest from her earlier… but why was she here?

“I didn’t expect you to bring it back so quickly.
You really are something special,” Qiuxia smiled and poured Mo Ming a cup of tea.
“Born Without a Name, when do you plan to complete my quest for me?”

“Later,” Mo Ming replied, taking the teacup.

Although Qiuxia had said the latter part of her sentence in a joking tone, Mo Ming had originally planned to go out and fight monsters after turning in this quest, so his reply was serious—the quest Mo Ming had accepted from Qiuxia was to bring back 10 rabbit pelts, and the reward was a gray-quality rabbit-pelt chest piece.

The nights in 【Horizon】 were very dangerous.
Not only would monsters’ attributes increase slightly, but some powerful monsters that only appeared at night would also emerge.
Of course, along with the increase in their attributes, the experience and item drop rates from these monsters would also increase, and those powerful monsters that only appeared at night would also provide rich rewards if they could be killed.

However, no players chose to go out and fight monsters at night.
This wasn’t because the monsters became stronger, but because of the visibility issue… After nightfall, players’ vision would be greatly suppressed.

Although the general store sold illuminating items like torches for players to use at night, for the current players, those things were too expensive—at their current level, the profit from using a torch to fight monsters wouldn’t even cover the cost of the torch itself.

For a Transcendent Being like Mo Ming, vision was never a necessary attribute.
Even without using his eyes, Mo Ming could still move about freely.
Although his in-game character’s body was much weaker than his own, fighting small mobs was still no problem… Only a walking cheat like Mo Ming could so blatantly disrespect the game’s design.

“You didn’t just go straight into the mine, did you?” Blacksmith Hu walked over, looking at Mo Ming as if he were a monkey.

“Is there a problem?” Mo Ming asked in return.

“…No problem.
Give me the ring,” Blacksmith Hu shook his head and held out his hand to Mo Ming.

Mo Ming nodded and placed the ring in Blacksmith Hu’s hand.

【Player Born Without a Name has completed the quest “Find the Ring,” receiving 100% of the current level’s experience as a reward.
Favorability with Hu has increased.
Favorability with Qiuxia has increased.
Favorability with Gray has increased.
Favorability with Kate has increased.
Favorability with Fengmian has increased.】

As the system notification appeared, a golden light flashed around Mo Ming, and he leveled up to 6, officially leaving the Tier 1 level bracket.

And Mo Ming knew all five of the names mentioned in the system notification.

Needless to say about Hu and Qiuxia, the other three, Gray, Kate, and Fengmian, were the general store owner, teleporter, and pharmacy owner of the novice village, respectively, encompassing all the functional NPCs of the village—while wandering around the village earlier, these three had also given Mo Ming a small quest each.

But setting aside why this quest would involve three other NPCs, Mo Ming had another question.

“Um, I have a quest—”

Before Mo Ming could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Blacksmith Hu: “I know you have many questions, but now is not the time to tell you.
Come back when you’ve become stronger.”

“No… I was just wondering, why is Qiuxia here?
Isn’t she the owner of the tailor shop?” Mo Ming asked, pointing at Qiuxia.

“Because I’m his wife,” Qiuxia answered, showing Mo Ming the ring on her left ring finger.
“Is there a problem with me coming back to my own home?”

Due to the angle, Mo Ming hadn’t seen the ring on Qiuxia’s hand before.

“Huh?
Wife?” Mo Ming blinked, looking as if he hadn’t processed it.
“Then this ring…?”

“I told you, when you become stronger, I’ll tell you,” Blacksmith Hu shot Mo Ming a glare.

“…” Mo Ming, who had originally thought this ring was the wedding ring of Blacksmith Hu’s deceased spouse, suddenly felt a bit foolish.
After all that, he had been reading too much into it.

However, the ring Mo Ming had obtained and the ring on Blacksmith Hu’s hand were indeed not the same style.
Because he had been wondering about Vivienne’s identity, he had overlooked this point.

“Oh right, this is for you.
The reward I promised,” Blacksmith Hu pulled out a pair of metal bracers from somewhere and tossed them to Mo Ming.

What Blacksmith Hu gave Mo Ming was a pair of level 6 green-quality bracers.
Besides defense, they also provided 5 points of Strength, which was quite a good piece of equipment, and it also helped a little with Mo Ming’s low attack power.

Because he had leveled up to 6, the attack power boost from 【Death’s Pity】 had doubled, reaching 14 points.
Combined with the Novice Sword in his hand and his own attributes, Mo Ming’s attack power barely broke 20.

Although most level 6 players’ attack power could probably surpass this number, for a handicapped person like Mo Ming who had been fighting with “-1″s, it was already high enough.

After leaving the Blacksmith’s Shop, Mo Ming headed straight for the area outside the village and disappeared into the boundless night.