Outside Novice City stretched a vast plain called the Slime Plains.
Yu Xian had placed massive numbers of slimes here for Level 1 players to practice on.
However, in his mischievous nature, he had included every single variety of slime and made their spawns completely random. In short, if players tried to contest monster spawns, they would inevitably strike the instant a slime appeared.
That created a distinct possibility: someone might accidentally kill a Dung Slime and end up with a face full of feces.
In fact, during the early days, quite a few players had indeed gotten smeared with Dung Slime excrement, generating a great deal of amusement. Feng Mingge and Chi Feihong had even taken screenshots.
By now, though, the vast majority of players had leveled past Level 5. Very few people remained on the Slime Plains, so kill-stealing was no longer an issue.
Yu Xian and Zhang Buyao arrived on the Slime Plains to find countless slimes wandering the grassland, pausing now and then to munch on grass.
"Let's go!"
Clutching the Wolf-Tooth Umbrella, Yu Xian charged toward the nearest slime.
It was a Grass Slime—a creature that literally ate grass, whose sole skill was eating grass. Upon death, it exploded, splattering large amounts of acid.
He raised his arm and brought the umbrella down like a spiked club. The sharp spikes instantly punctured the Grass Slime's skin, sending a flood of slime oozing out.
Knowing the Grass Slime's traits all too well, Yu Xian immediately stepped back and popped the Wolf-Tooth Umbrella open.
The next second, the Grass Slime detonated with a boom. Green acid sprayed everywhere, but it all splashed against the canopy of the umbrella, doing Yu Xian no harm at all.
On the other side, Zhang Buyao manipulated her dagger, launching ranged attacks against another slime.
These slimes truly were low-level fodder meant for practice. So long as one avoided Dung Slimes, the rest went down easily enough.
The pair continued grinding monsters across the Slime Plains, their levels inching upward.
Yu Xian had always despised setups where players couldn't see their experience bars, so he had deliberately added an experience percentage indicator so he could track his progress.
After slaying over a hundred slimes in a row, his experience finally ticked from 0 to 1.
This was a percentage.
In other words, it was one percent.
With every level gained, the counter reset to zero and slowly accumulated until it reached 100 to trigger a level-up.
"Leveling in this game is way too hard," Zhang Buyao grumbled as she sat down to rest from the relentless grinding. When Yu Xian came over and took a seat beside her, she couldn't help venting.
Yu Xian chuckled sheepishly and scrambled for an excuse. "It's for the good of ordinary people. Normal folks have never touched transcendent power before. If they level up too fast, their egos will inflate uncontrollably, and rapid realm advancements would place immense mental pressure on them. That's why leveling requires a bit more experience—to give them a buffer period to grow."
"..."
Zhang Buyao eyed Yu Xian with deep suspicion.
Squinting, she said, "So... leveling is this hard all because of you?"
Well then.
They knew each other too well.
The moment Yu Xian started making excuses, Zhang Buyao realized that the agonizing leveling curve in the Zhen Realm had to be connected to him—in fact, he was probably the prime culprit.
"Ehehe."
Yu Xian opened his mouth, but only an awkward laugh came out.
He actually regretted tuning the experience requirements so high. He had originally intended to test everyone else, only to drop a rock on other people's feet and crush his own toes in the process.
***
Night fell.
When Gong Yinhu returned to Novice City, a pancake-faced fellow scurried up to him and whispered, "Boss Gong, Yu Xian seems to have logged back into the game."
Several other young men immediately crowded forward, talking over one another to recount their encounter with Yu Xian.
"Did Yu Xian not shatter the void?" Gong Yinhu asked, puzzled.
The pancake-faced fellow promptly asked, "Boss Gong, should we band together and drive him out of the game?"
"Yeah, exactly! Scum like him doesn't deserve to stay here! We can have a few hundred women surround him. The moment he steps out of line, the rule penalties will trigger.
"I guarantee he won't be able to take a single step in this game!" A yellow-haired youth full of spite piped up with the suggestion.
He had been the very first player to trigger the penalty rules back then, getting shocked until he wet himself. Now, he wanted nothing more than to see someone else suffer just as miserably.
"If Boss Gong rallies everyone, plenty of female players will surely step up. This plan will definitely work," another youth said excitedly, looking at Gong Yinhu.
Gong Yinhu was silent for a moment before shaking his head. "Forget it. The game doesn't encourage infighting right now. We should stick to honest leveling. Improving ourselves is what matters most."
Though he had lost to Yu Xian, he harbored no grudge.
If not for Yu Xian, he might never have attained true self-awareness or forged the heart of a true powerhouse.
Besides, he doubted Yu Xian would re-enter the game without leaving behind hidden contingencies. He clearly remembered the initial announcement stating that this world had been reshaped into whatever Yu Xian desired. How could someone like Yu Xian log back in without an ace up his sleeve?
Offending Yu Xian was by no means a wise choice.
All Gong Yinhu wanted now was to level up properly and become a true powerhouse as soon as possible. Everything else was merely fleeting smoke, meaningless vanity.
Evidently, however, not everyone shared his perspective.
Rebuffed by Gong Yinhu, the pancake-faced youth and his companions went to find Fathe'aim. Thanks to the Fish-Slaying Alliance, Fathe'aim enjoyed high prestige among the players, and even after changing his name to Shark, his reputation had remained considerable.
By now, Fathe'aim had switched back to his original name rather than Shark. Wary that the Zhen Realm might already be under Yu Xian's absolute control, he was keeping a low profile.
When the pancake-faced youth and the others approached him with the news that Yu Xian was back in the game, myriad possibilities flashed through Fathe'aim's mind in an instant.
He was, through and through, a pragmatist driven by self-interest.
Whether providing intelligence to the Class Hunter Society, strangling promising class holders in their cradles for them, or later forming the Fish-Slaying Alliance alongside Xia Donghai and the others, he had done it all for profit.
Yet they couldn't beat him!
The entire world had joined forces against Yu Xian, and they had still lost.
Now that Yu Xian had supposedly returned to the Zhen Realm, Fathe'aim's first thought wasn't vengeance, but whether he could ride his coattails instead.
"What is your plan?" Fathe'aim asked calmly, regarding the pancake-faced youth and his group.
The group eagerly babbled out their scheme. After all, they couldn't possibly carry it out on their own; they lacked the standing to convince female players to cooperate.
But Gong Yinhu and Fathe'aim were different.
Both had been prominent figures during the Fish-Slaying Alliance era, renowned throughout the player base. With a single rally, either of them possessed the clout to summon thousands to their banner.
Only figures like them could mobilize female players to corner Yu Xian and drive him out of the Zhen Realm!
Yet as Fathe'aim listened to their scheme, his expression remained perfectly placid while his mind was already made up: he was going to forsake darkness for light and report these fools straight to Yu Xian.
Chapter 582