Chapter Thirty-Seven, A Chance Encounter

Many starter villages have chickens, but not all of them do; at the very least, the one Lin Zheng started in did not. After browsing the forums for a while, Lin Zheng teleported to starter village number 011. Appearing at the teleportation point, Lin Zheng, clad in black leather armor, was undeniably eye-catching, immediately drawing the gazes of many novice players. Under the "spotlight," Lin Zheng charged toward the village entrance without hesitation.

While many low-level players excitedly wondered what incredible quest he was undertaking, Lin Zheng dashed into a flock of chickens that few people bothered to hunt. With a single Stomp, he wiped out a whole group of roosters instantly! The novices were left shouting that they had been duped! Was this guy here to kill chickens just to soothe his ego after being bullied by high-level monsters?

However, the novices soon realized they had guessed wrong—he was actually here to harvest chicken meat! Those who knew more about the game were shocked. What kind of player was this? How could he be harvesting level-3 ingredients so early on? If they knew his harvesting skill had already reached level 5, they would have been terrified!

With a dagger in hand, Lin Zheng harvested the meat rapidly. Chickens in the starter village could only be harvested once, but that didn't matter; the sheer quantity made up for it, and they respawned incredibly fast! After each harvest, Lin Zheng would use Stomp, instantly killing another large group of roosters. For a time, it was utter chaos outside the village, and the scene was incredibly lively! Lin Zheng spent the entire night harvesting chicken meat. A player’s initial inventory has 40 slots; now, Lin Zheng’s was full. Excluding one slot taken by his evaluation medal, he had 39 stacks of chicken meat—that was 3,900 portions! His proficiency had increased by 50,700, though he was still a long way from the 150,000 required for level 6. Life skills became exponentially harder to level up as one progressed!

With his inventory full, Lin Zheng stopped harvesting. He cleared a space and began crafting Hainanese chicken. Watching the portions of chicken appear in his inventory gave him a real sense of accomplishment. Just then, a sudden "Boom!" startled him. Looking toward the sound, a familiar sight greeted him: an explosion! A Sword Dancer had used the skill Explosion! But the damage... it was pitifully low! A few hundred points? Was that really an Explosion? Lin Zheng couldn't help but sweat.

What was going on? Why would a first-turn Sword Dancer use a powerful skill like Explosion in a starter village? Lin Zheng stared curiously at the flickering flames in the distance, waiting for them to fade to see what had happened. Soon, the fire vanished, and six well-equipped first-turn players appeared in his line of sight. As it turned out, they were ganging up on a single Sword Dancer! Lin Zheng frowned. It wasn't that he had some sudden burst of righteous indignation—player killings were normal in games—but he actually recognized the attackers! They all had the prefix "Proud Sword," including that tragic Swordsman who had been "rear-ended" by Xiao Meng’s sword earlier.

This wasn't the first time Lin Zheng had encountered people from Proud Sword. Neither experience left a good impression; he had already labeled them as a gang of thugs. As Yang Qi had said, these guys were simply hired goons for the wealthy young master, Proud Sword Zhonghua, and their conduct was appalling. Seeing injustice, Lin Zheng decided to intervene. He didn't even need to guess to know that this bunch of idiots was throwing their weight around again.

"Ding!" The besieged Sword Dancer suddenly received a party invitation. Startled for a moment, they chose to accept. As soon as they did, they saw a Sword Dancer sprint over in a few swift strides. "Explosion!" a sharp shout rang out. Suddenly, the grass, already scorched by fire, was engulfed in violent flames once more. "Boom!" Six massive damage numbers floated above the heads of the Proud Sword members, each exceeding 8,000! It was the same skill, but the sheer power of this Explosion was staggering!

"Heh," Lin Zheng walked up with a wicked grin, looking at the Proud Sword members. "Everyone from Proud Sword, didn't you say you wouldn't let me go? I'm right here now. Why don't you try standing up and proving it?" The players on the ground recognized Lin Zheng. This guy had already demoralized them once; they had been planning to wait until they leveled up and got better gear to get their revenge. But this "Explosion!" had shattered their spirits once more! The damage was monstrous—even a Warrior couldn't withstand it. How was the gap between them growing even larger?!

After mocking them, Lin Zheng ignored the corpses and looked up to see who exactly had been chased all the way back to the starter village. Uh—! The figure was small, wearing basic male novice gear, holding a crude sword-bow. They were having a rough time! Lin Zheng was slightly surprised. Was this person brave or just foolish for picking a fight with Proud Sword with that kind of equipment? He looked at the Sword Dancer's face. Wait? Lin Zheng paused. It was a delicate, cute face like a porcelain doll. Of course, the fact that a boy looked like a girl wasn't what surprised him; it was that the face looked exactly like someone he knew!

"Are you... Lan Xiran?" Lin Zheng asked tentatively. The little Sword Dancer’s face immediately froze in surprise. "Eh?! How do you know my name?"

"It really is you!?" Lin Zheng was stunned!

Seeing Lin Zheng’s shocked expression, Lan Xiran frowned. This guy clearly knew him, yet he acted as if they had never met. What was going on?

"How do you know me? I don't know you!" Lan Xiran asked, confused.

"It doesn't matter if you don't know me! It’s enough that I know you!" Lin Zheng collected himself and asked, "How did you end up fighting with those Proud Sword people? Look at you—no gear, no levels. Fighting those guys is just asking for trouble! And besides, if you couldn't beat them, couldn't you have asked for help? If you’d just called someone, you could have stomped those birds into the ground!"

"They insulted me!" the little one cried out indignantly. "They said such nasty things! I couldn't take it, so I fought them, but there were too many of them, they were higher level, and they had better gear. I died several times, lost all my gear, and got knocked back to the starter village, and then those jerks chased me here!"

"You little idiot! Why are you so hot-headed!?" Lin Zheng glared at Lan Xiran. "You knew they were numerous and higher level, and you still went and fought them?! Why didn't you look for backup!?"

"I'm playing alone, I haven't met anyone yet! No one was there to help me!" Lan Xiran said, feeling wronged, with a pitiful, teary-eyed expression that made Lin Zheng roll his eyes. "What are you whining about? How old are you? You’re acting like a child. You need to learn to be independent!"

"Hmph—who are you, anyway? You have no right to lecture me! This is who I am, I'll be like this my whole life, and I'm not changing! So there!" Hearing Lan Xiran's petulant words, Lin Zheng was amused despite his anger. He reached out and pinched his cheek. "You little brat, you dare talk back? You think you’re in the right, don't you? Nobody’s looking after you, huh!?"

"Even if someone needs to look after me, it's not going to be you! Let go, you jerk! It hurts!" Lan Xiran cried out in pain, squeezing out real tears. A pampered little young master, indeed! Lin Zheng thought to himself, but he let go, glaring at the immature little thing. "What are you staring at? Be careful or your eyes will pop out!" Lan Xiran held his face and glared back at Lin Zheng.

Lin Zheng stared at the kid for a long time before his expression finally softened. In truth, the little guy was quite pitiful. No one at home had time to take care of him. His grandfather was a very busy man, and his parents were buried in state affairs every day. When he was younger, he had an older sister to look after him, but now she was busy too. He was basically a child no one wanted. If he hadn't avoided bad company, he could have turned out much worse. The fact that he was just a little spoiled was something to be thankful for.

"Forget it, just follow me from now on," Lin Zheng said helplessly.

"Why should I follow you? Who do you think you are!?" Lan Xiran said defiantly. Lin Zheng immediately flicked his forehead. "Just because your father is my godfather and your mother is my godmother! I have the right and the duty to discipline you, you little brat!"

"Ouch!" Lan Xiran rubbed his forehead, looking miserable, but then he cheered up. "Are you serious? You're my parents' godson? Does that mean you're my older brother?!"

Seeing Lan Xiran’s sudden excitement, Lin Zheng felt a pang of sadness. The kid was just starved for affection; it was no wonder that at eighteen, he still hadn't grown up. Lin Zheng didn't answer; he just reached out and patted his head. "Come with me. Let's get you back to level 10 first!"

"Okay!" Lan Xiran replied. This time, he was very obedient, following closely behind Lin Zheng. Lin Zheng led Lan Xiran to a wild boar forest; level 13 boars were the highest-level monsters in the starter village. Seeing Lin Zheng bring someone in novice gear, several other novices training there couldn't help but apply to join his party, hoping for a boost. Lin Zheng was here to power-level someone anyway, and it didn't make a difference if he had one person or five, so he accepted the first four applicants. The players who hadn't applied were left wailing in regret!

Power-leveling these novices under level 10 was simple for Lin Zheng. The boars couldn't even break his defense, and he rampaged through the forest, killing boars wherever he went. The efficiency was staggering! The low-level players saw their experience bars skyrocket and were ecstatic! Lan Xiran had only dropped to level 9, so reaching level 10 was fast. However, Lin Zheng decided to be thorough and brought all the low-level players in the party to level 10, leaving them all incredibly grateful. Before leaving, Lin Zheng gave them a tip to do their best on their first-turn promotion quests. As for their future, that was up to them. He then took Lan Xiran and left the starter village.