novelThe Divine Beast, White Tiger (1)
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Anyone who played games would definitely experience something like this at some point in their gaming life. It had only been a few days since Shen Jingbin last logged into the game, but she now felt as if the entire game had left her behind and she was unable to catch up.
After Shen Jingbin finished tidying up the house, she had logged into the game, her character still standing in front of the gates to White Cloud Temple. As she watched the players come and go, she felt as if a lifetime had passed since she'd last come to this place.
However, the strange looks she received from players naturally still felt very familiar.
Shen Jingbin glanced at her friends list and noticed that both Pure Crane and Quiet And Steadfast weren't online. Those from the guild who were online, were all in instance dungeons.
Playing games was only fun when one had many friends, and Shen Jingbin suddenly felt a tinge of sadness wash over her when the thought crossed her mind.
However, she didn't let that feeling consume her, remembering that she still had the important task of leveling up riding on her shoulders. These feelings of sadness flashed across her thoughts for a brief moment, before she then tossed them to the back of her mind.
Shen Jingbin summoned her old horse, deciding to return to River City. Upon reaching River City, she headed straight for the system owned shop, buying a few health and mana potions. Once done prepping, she headed on her way to level up.
River City was the main city in the game, therefore the system would naturally allocate many passerby NPCs around the area, giving off the impression of prosperity. To protect these normal NPCs from the attacks of wild beasts outside the city, a wide moat was erected around River City. Outside the city lay a desolate plain. Since it happened to be autumn, the sky was painted in the colours of dusk to represent the season.
This plain was one of the main leveling areas in the game. There were plenty of weak monsters here that didn't hit very hard, but still gave pretty good experience. The only drawback of this place was that there were slightly more people training here.
Once Shen Jingbin found a place where there were comparably less players, she recalled her mount and started fighting monsters.
"Hey, ugly! Move aside. Can't you see that we're occupying this place?" As she was fighting monsters, a hot female player wearing sexy clothes suddenly walked over, "Honestly, I'm not even in the mood to fight monsters anymore after looking at you. Hurry up and get lost."
"No one gave you permission to look at me." Shen Jingbin retorted without stopping her attacks.
"Are you courting death!?" The female player was immediately incensed and threw a spell at her.
The female player was a Dragonkin, but her skills weren't anything to write home about, so Shen Jingbin dodged her attack with ease. The female player felt as though someone had slapped her across the face when she saw a newbie dodge her attack so easily.
The female player had been put on a pedestal since entering the game. This was all thanks to the advantages that she'd gained through her looks. But now, an ugly newbie dared to embarrass her. How was she supposed to show her face if news of this were to spread?
As her train of thought flowed in that direction, she launched her attacks as though she were tossing money around. On top of that, as if she herself wasn't enough, she even turned her head while attacking and shouted, "Gentle Hawk, White Ink, there's a newbie here stealing our territory!"
Two high-leveled Swordmasters heard her call and rushed over.
"Who's the blind motherf*cker here who dared to steal our younger sister, Qi Mu's territory?!"
Qi Mu leaned cutely against these two Swordmasters as they approached her, saying, "It's this ugly monster over here. Gentle Hawk, quickly help me beat her to death."
The slightly shorter Swordmaster who went by the name of "White Ink" seemed to be a tad bit more intelligent than his partner and said, "Newbie, we're occupying this place. Why don't you level up somewhere else? Otherwise, don't blame us for hurting you when we clear this area."
Shen Jingbin fell silent for a few seconds as she glanced at the trio standing in front of her. She kept her weapon out and summoned her mount, disregarding the taunts from Qi Mu and Gentle Hawk who stood behind her. She then turned and left without saying another word.
Defeating those two Swordmasters was impossible with her current strength. Besides, she had no intention of engaging in a meaningless 1v3 battle. She could level anywhere, it wasn't worth her while to get involved in a fight to the death with those three.
Seeing as all of River City's surrounding areas were more or less occupied, Shen Jingbin could only head towards the mountain.
There was a mountain to the west of River City called Nameless Mountain. When Shen Jingbin first heard the name of this mountain, she wondered whether the game developers came up with this name after running out of ideas.
Nameless Mountain wasn't a very good training ground. There were only a few small instance dungeons from the foot of the mountain, till halfway up it. The monsters that gave high experience points were all concentrated at the mountain's peak. However, those were all red-named monsters with high attack and hit points. Someone like Shen Jingbin who made their way up there would just be sending themselves to death's door.
Unfortunately, Shen Jingbin didn't know about this since she was only a novice.
Even though Nameless Mountain sounded a little unpleasant, it still offered a pretty good view. The four seasons in the game were in line with reality, so since it was the start of autumn, the game was currently set to represent autumn as well. Ancient trees that seemed to have been growing since the start of time lined both sides of the winding mountain trail. The color of the leaves were gradually starting to change, filling one's vision with brightly colored leaves for as far as the eye could see.
In the game, River City was regarded as a central plain, with only South River and Thunder Marsh experiencing rainfall. The sunlight from the start of autumn unable to remove the remnants of the harsh summer weather. However, the dense and unevenly spread leaves blocked out most of the heat, so when the sunlight came in contact with her skin, it no longer scalded her with its scorching heat. Instead, it made her feel very comfortable.
As a child of a rich family, Shen Jingbin never had the opportunity to experience the joys of nature. City life was too fast paced, so trying to find a natural utopia such as this was akin to ascending to the heavens.
Shen Jingbin unconsciously slowed her horse, admiring the unknown wild flowers that were hidden by the side of the road as she enjoyed the warmth from the sun shining down on her body. At the same time, she indulged in her vicious sense of humor by scaring the small animals that occasionally popped out from the forest.
As a Southerner who had a poor sense of direction, it was only natural that she would get lost in the game very easily. Knowing that, she still chose to walk the road to ruin by getting herself distracted. Sure enough, she found herself lost after a moment of negligence.
Logically speaking, she should have run into the first instance dungeon if she had followed the trail for just a bit. But now...
Leaving aside the fact that she couldn't see the dungeon, there weren't even any living beings in her surroundings apart from herself! All of the various wild animals that were haphazardly clamoring about had all disappeared!
"Roar!" Suddenly, she heard the cry of a wild beast from out of her line of sight. It was a deep and low roar, filled with the wildness of an untamed beast. When she heard the roar, she immediately knew that it was definitely not your run-of-the-mill creature.
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