Update Time: 2014-02-09
The cornfield was on the other side of Wild Rabbit Slope, bordering Green Tree Forest, and the monsters there were levels 8-14.
When Lin Zheng arrived at the cornfield, he saw that the corn was growing splendidly; each stalk could produce several cobs, which seemed unscientific, and they were all so big and appetizing!
However, this abundant corn harvest also attracted many uninvited guests.
Giant Crow: Level 8, Physical Attack 65-174, Physical Defense 55, HP 500.
Grain-stealing thieves, they flock together and often leave the villagers with nothing.
Lin Zheng was currently level 5, gaining 5 attribute points per level.
He allocated them with 3 Strength and 2 Constitution, so his current Physical Attack was 100-168, Defense was 72, and HP was 800.
He was clearly much stronger than this level 8 crow, so fighting these crows should be stress-free.
He saw a few players, already level 7, killing crows here, but it looked like a struggle!
Bird-type monsters are generally more agile; they can fly, after all! Their advantage is too obvious.
When a Giant Crow flies and crashes into you, a player with poor control would most likely be hit, and you also need to attack it before it hits you, which further tests a player's prediction and control.
At least, the players Lin Zheng saw didn't have very good control; they barely managed to kill one crow, but their own health dropped by more than half, which was incredibly uneconomical!
"Damn it! Fighting these crows is too uneconomical, brothers, let's change locations!" a burly warrior cursed.
His companions nodded in agreement, and so a small team of people left.
Lin Zheng didn't feel much about it; although these crows were fast, they were much slower than real crows.
After all, they were game monsters; if they flew as fast as real ones, how many people would be able to hit them?!
Their current movement speed posed no difficulty for Lin Zheng.
"Hmm, I'll know if I try."
Lin Zheng threw his dagger at a Giant Crow, -96.
"Caw!"
The hit Giant Crow immediately flew towards Lin Zheng, and at this moment, Lin Zheng, having retrieved his dagger, threw it out again, -94!
The hit Giant Crow's attack action was interrupted, and it paused in mid-air.
Now, he needed to be quick.
Lin Zheng darted forward, swung his dagger, -82, -75.
The crow's Reversal claws scratched Lin Zheng, -65.
No problem!
He swung his dagger again, -78.
The crow squawked and fell to the ground, still with some health left.
No difficulty, keep killing.
Lin Zheng gripped his dagger and walked towards the next crow.
After killing seven or eight crows, Lin Zheng would stop and meditate for a while; his health would be nearly depleted, and meditating could accelerate health recovery.
In about 10 seconds, his health was fully restored, and Lin Zheng once again picked up his dagger to kill crows.
Soon, an afternoon passed.
During this time, waves of people came to the cornfield to level up, but then left, cursing, wave after wave.
Only Lin Zheng and a few scattered players with good control remained in the cornfield, killing crows.
The crows gave good experience; Lin Zheng was already level 8, but the glasses still hadn't dropped, which made Lin Zheng very conflicted!
This darn quest, surely it wouldn't remain uncompleted even after he reached level 10 and underwent his first class change?
Just thinking about it made Lin Zheng feel annoyed.
"Ugh, it's 8 o'clock; I'll log off, eat something, and then come back to grind!"
So Lin Zheng opened the interface, clicked exit, and left the game.
Emerging from the game pod, Lin Zheng stretched his neck and went to the kitchen, where he found Yang Qi already there, impatiently waiting for the water on the stove to boil.
"Are you boiling a lot? I'll make myself a bowl of instant noodles too!"
"Hey! You came at just the right time!"
At this moment, the kettle whistled, signaling that the water had boiled.
Yang Qi turned off the heat and, while adding water to her instant noodles, said, "Not too much, not too little; just manage with a little less soup!"
"Whatever, I can't drink all the soup anyway!"
"..."
Each carrying a bowl of instant noodles, they returned to the living room, eating with relish.
In between, Yang Qi asked, "How's your game going, Lin Zheng? What level are you? Want me to carry you?!"
Her smug expression made Lin Zheng want to punch her, if she were a man.
You're a professional, and he's an amateur; is it interesting to compare yourselves? Is it interesting?
Well, no need to say, Yang Qi must have found it very interesting and fulfilling!
"I'm level 8 now, doing a quest that's giving me a huge headache!" Lin Zheng said, feeling very depressed.
Yang Qi was surprised to hear that.
"Level 8 already! Little guy, you're leveling up pretty fast.
I'm only level 9 myself, still a bit short of level 10.
Not bad, kid!"
"Hmm, what quest are you doing that's giving you a headache?"
"Finding glasses for the village chief, darn it!
I've been killing crows all afternoon and they still haven't dropped.
I even doubt if I can complete it before the first class change!"
With that, Lin Zheng took a big bite of instant noodles, as if wanting to eat away and digest all the frustration of the afternoon.
Yang Qi listened, looking completely uninterested.
"Hah! I thought it was some awesome quest!
You should give up on these 'find item' quests early; there's no reward anyway, just a waste of time!"
"You don't know!" Lin Zheng said mysteriously, "The reward for this quest is ridiculously good; the prerequisite quest alone gave me one gold coin!"
"What! The prerequisite quest gave you one gold coin?! Holy crap!" Yang Qi jumped up.
"I, your sister, have had continuous adventures and worked hard all afternoon only to earn 13 silver coins.
What kind of quest is yours?
The prerequisite alone gave a gold coin! Damn it! Damn it!"
"What kind of quest is it? How did you get it? I'll see if I can take it too!"
After her outburst, Yang Qi stared at Lin Zheng with glowing green eyes.
A quest with a 1-gold-coin prerequisite, just thinking about it made her mouth water.
Lin Zheng didn't hide it from her and told her about his afternoon's experience.
Hearing that Lin Zheng had submitted an item dropped by a boss to complete the quest, Yang Qi immediately deflated; she couldn't take it!
However, Yang Qi quickly perked up again.
"The quest you're doing is called a 'Prop Quest,' it's described on the official website.
The conditions for accepting these quests are various quest items dropped by bosses, and they are very! very rare, you know?!"
Yang Qi licked her lips, her excitement undiminished as she said, "Regardless of the difficulty of these quests, the monetary rewards are incredibly generous!
You saw it, an item dropped by an 8-level boss gave one gold coin for the prerequisite!
There will be even more later!
And the most, most rare thing is!" Yang Qi held her breath, clearly extremely excited and on the verge of losing control!
It made Lin Zheng's heart pound too!
"Equipment! Completing these quests will definitely yield a piece of attribute equipment, and its attribute level will not be lower than the boss that dropped the item.
You just said the boss was Bronze, right?!
What a pity! If it were Gold, you'd at least get a Gold-tier equipment!" Yang Qi said, both excited and regretful.
Lin Zheng rolled his eyes and said, "Gold-tier? Then it wouldn't be us killing it, but it slaughtering us.
You didn't even look at what levels and equipment we had at that time!"
"That's true!" Yang Qi stroked her chin, then said to Lin Zheng with a mischievous smile, "You absolutely have to complete this quest, even if you reach level 10 and undergo your first class change, you still have to go back and continue doing it!
When you complete it, you'll get Bronze equipment!
Hopefully, it's a weapon, and a sword at that, then you mail it to me, and I'll wield the sword, sweeping through all directions and dominating the world! Hahaha!"
"Shameless!" Lin Zheng could only exclaim.
This female Liu Mang was truly a gem!
"Sweeping through all directions, dominating the world, do you want to build a harem along the way?!"
"Don't worry! When I build my harem, you'll be the Empress!"
"..."
Lin Zheng ignored this female Liu Mang; if he continued this topic, God knew what shocking words she would come up with next!
"By the way, what's your name in there? Add me as a friend after you go in, and let's keep in touch!" Yang Qi asked.
"I'm Yi Ping Daoist! I'm an Archer, and you?"
"Yi Ping Daoist? Holy crap! And you chose Archer, you should have at least chosen Mage and then changed to Daoist!
Being a Shengun so unprofessionally! I despise you!" Lin Zheng was, as expected, despised by Yang Qi.
Well, he had actually anticipated this result when he chose that name.
"I'm Hong Chen Yan Yu, a Warrior, and I plan to change to a Greatsword Knight for my first class change!"
"You're kidding me, right?!" Lin Zheng was stunned to hear that.
"A girl, why are you playing a Knight?!"
"I despise you!" Yang Qi gave Lin Zheng a charming glare.
"Who says girls can't be Knights?!
I, your sister, have been dominating games for decades, and I've always played Knights!
And haven't I still beaten down a bunch of those stinky men?!"
Lin Zheng rolled his eyes.
"Dominating for decades!" This girl was only 23 this year!
He wouldn't bother with this female Liu Mang; quickly finishing his food was more important!
When Lin Zheng logged back in, there were even fewer players in the cornfield.
Lin Zheng didn't pay much attention, but first opened the interface and added Hong Chen Yan Yu as a friend.
As soon as he added her, a message popped up: "Player Hong Chen Yan Yu has accepted your friend request!"
Oh!
This girl logged in pretty quickly too.
"Little Linzi! Which Newbie Village are you in?!"
"Uh-huh... Newbie Village 017, and you?" Lin Zheng looked at the map and replied.
"Oh! That's far away!
I'm in Newbie Village 011.
Let's meet in Tianshuang City after you level up and undergo your first class change!
You finish your quest first."
"Okay! That's it then!" After saying that, Lin Zheng closed the communication and, holding his ornate beginner's dagger, once again went to kill the Giant Crows, secretly praying for a drop.
He didn't want to have to run back to do the quest after his first class change; how frustrating would that be!
However, his prayer was clearly useless; he kept killing until 1 AM and it still didn't drop, and his experience was already at 97% of level 9, about to reach level 10 and undergo his first class change.
Lin Zheng inevitably became a bit irritable; anyone who spent half a day trying to get an item to drop and it still didn't would go crazy, right?
He estimated that nine out of ten would have given up.
Only because he knew there would be generous rewards did Lin Zheng not want to give up on this cursed quest.
"Congratulations on reaching level 10! You can now return to the village and find the village chief to accept your first class change quest!"
He finally reached level 10.
Lin Zheng pouted; he still hadn't gotten the glasses.
Forget it, he'd go complete the first class change quest first.
Yang Qi had already undergone her first class change at 12 o'clock and had shown off to him for quite a while.
From Yang Qi, Lin Zheng heard that there would be a weapon reward after completing the first class change quest; although it was a white-grade item, it was still much stronger than the beginner's dagger!