Chapter Three: Novice Village 10081

Entering the game

“Six-Barrel Bodhisattva, welcome to New World, Novice Village 10081.”

Damn, we’re already at over ten thousand novice villages? Just on the first day of launch, that’s an insane number of players. According to the official site, each novice village caps at 1,000 people—once it’s full, the next one opens automatically. And it’s already past ten thousand.

That means, in just a few minutes, over ten million people have entered the game. Zhang Shan’s first thought was how incredibly attractive this game must be. His second thought: there are so many people who don’t need to work. If he still had a job, he’d never have time to play at this hour—after all, it’s eight in the morning, peak work time.

The novice village was extremely basic, utterly incomparable to the grand city from the opening CG. Scanning the area, there were only three or four buildings and hardly any NPCs, just a smattering. But as players began to arrive, the place quickly filled with a bustling crowd.

“This New World is a letdown—couldn’t they at least make the novice village look nicer?”

“I don’t care about looks. I just want to know if there are any beginner quests, and where to get them. Anyone know?”

“Here.”

“Go find the village chief. He has a quest, but don’t expect much.”

“What kind of lousy quest is this? You get one copper for each monster?”

Listening to the chatter around him and thinking of New World’s quest system, Zhang Shan couldn’t help but shake his head.

The quests in New World were quite different from other games, characterized mainly by their scarcity.

According to the official site, quests only trigger when you meet certain requirements or obtain specific quest items, and they’re rare—each quest item is precious. Trying to curry favor with NPCs in hopes of getting more quests is pointless. Even the official site says quests are scarce, so there’s no point in hoping for more. Better to check out the beginner quest first.

Zhang Shan set off at a slow jog—if you could call it that. So much for agility classes having faster movement speed; this was more like an old man out for a stroll.

He arrived at the village’s only halfway sturdy-looking building and found the village chief, who had a question mark above his head—indicating a quest was available. Dozens of other players were already gathered around.

Luckily, the game allowed NPCs to converse with multiple players at once; otherwise, with everyone here for the beginner quest, the wait would be endless.

Zhang Shan approached and started the conversation: “Hello, Chief.”

“Oh, young man, I see great potential in you. I have a world-saving quest for you, and you must accept it!”

Zhang Shan was left dumbfounded—what was that supposed to mean? Then he noticed his quest log flashing.

Opening the quest log, he read the details:

Quest: Demon Extermination (Permanent)

Demon Extermination: The demon race has descended. Led by the Demon God, they wreak havoc upon the world. The Son of Heaven in the Eastern Capital has issued a decree to exterminate the demons, calling upon all heroes to rise up, take up arms, and destroy the demon race. Each demon slain rewards one copper coin.

After accepting the quest, his personal demon extermination quest appeared:

Quest: Demon Extermination

Completion: 0

Claimable Rewards: 0

Only one copper coin per monster. At first, that might seem appealing, but as players level up, no one will care anymore—maybe only when someone’s broke and needs some quick cash.

With the quest accepted, Zhang Shan headed out of the village while checking the newbie gear he’d received.

Beginner Musket: Physical Attack 1-5

Beginner Cloth Robe: Defense 1

And that was all—a weapon and a piece of clothing.

Checking his stats:

Character: Six-Barrel Bodhisattva

Class: Hunter

Level: 1

HP: 100

MP: 50

Physical Attack: 11-15

Magical Attack: 5-5

Strength: 5

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 5

Defense: 2

Luck: 9 (randomly generated between 1-10; hidden stat, never changes)

Talent: King of Passives (Each time you kill a monster, there’s a one-in-a-million chance to randomly acquire one of its passive skills.)

He opened the skill panel to check the starting skills granted by the system.

Skill 1: Headshot (Passive), Level 1. Each hunter attack has a chance to trigger a Headshot, dealing an extra 50 damage and stunning for 0.05 seconds. Trigger chance: 0.5%.

Damn, the first skill is passive? So he’d be auto-attacking his way through the world.

Still, not bad—an extra 50 damage is decent, especially early on. If Headshot triggers, that’s like three or four extra attacks in one. Plus, there’s a stun—even if it’s only 0.05 seconds, which seems negligible, it could still interrupt skills later on. Not a bad passive at all.

The only downside is it’s a huge gamble—just a 0.5% chance. Even if it levels up, the odds probably won’t improve much.

Passing the general store at the village gate, Zhang Shan stopped and opened his inventory.

Out of 20 slots, only two items: 1,000 rounds of standard ammo and a single small health potion. Plus, 100 copper coins.

Standard Ammo: Attack 0-1

Small Healing Potion: Restores 50 HP on use

Just one potion? That’s stingy. At least the ammo was abundant—1,000 rounds. With the hunter’s starting attack speed (2 seconds per shot), that’s thirty shots per minute, nearly 2,000 shots in an hour. So, he’d need about 2,000 rounds per hour of continuous fighting. Better stock up. With that, Zhang Shan went to the general store.

“Hello, young hunter. Looking to buy something?”

“Boss, how much for ammo?”

“There are two types. Which would you like?”

Zhang Shan checked the store’s inventory: Normal Ammo, 1,000 rounds for 100 copper; Premium Ammo, 1,000 rounds for 1 gold.

What? One gold coin? Who would have that now? One gold equals 100 silver, which equals 10,000 copper. No way anyone can afford that right now—the whole village only has 1,000 people.

But the premium ammo’s stats were insane: 50-100 attack. If Zhang Shan equipped that, he could one-shot monsters during the newbie phase.

Of course, that was just wishful thinking. Right now, everyone only had 100 copper each. It’d take the entire village pooling their money to buy a single stack.

Whoever said hunters were a low-cost class? With this ammo consumption, it was no less expensive than a mage’s potion bill. He’d have to learn to craft ammo someday, or his dream of making money in New World would be over before it began.

He bought another 1,000 rounds of normal ammo, spending all his copper.

Leaving the village, Zhang Shan saw players scattered about, killing chickens. With a max of 1,000 players per village and a large map, there was no crowding or kill-stealing.

He found a quiet spot and inspected a chicken.

Enchanted Chicken: HP 100, Attack 10. Skill—Peck: When enraged, delivers a peck for double damage.

Zhang Shan winced. The chicken’s stats matched his own, meaning after fighting one, he’d have to sit and recover HP. If the chicken used its skill a couple of times, things could get dicey.

No more thinking—time to act. He raised his musket and shot at the enchanted chicken. -11, -12, -11. By the time the chicken waddled over, he’d fired three times. Fortunately, the chicken was slow—should be manageable.

A few more shots and the chicken fell. Experience +5. Ding ding—two copper coins automatically dropped into his inventory. Auto-loot was a nice touch.

But now he had just over 30 HP left. He couldn’t even handle two in a row—time to sit and recover.

Checking the experience bar: Level 1 to 2 required 500 XP—so, one hundred enchanted chickens. Half a minute to kill, a minute to recover—pretty slow.

As Zhang Shan sat to heal, a berserker with an axe approached. He checked the player’s name: Lone Rider. Wasn’t that the guy on the forum who told everyone not to steal his name?

“Hey bro, want to team up? Easier to grind together.”

“Sure, you start the party.”

“OK, set to split money evenly, items distributed randomly. Sound good?” asked Lone Rider, clarifying the loot settings.

Since items dropped directly into inventory, party settings had to be determined in advance, or one player would get everything. XP was split based on level, or equally if levels matched.

“Fine, start the party,” Zhang Shan replied.

System: You have joined Lone Rider’s party. Party distribution: money split evenly, items distributed randomly.

“Let’s both attack the same monster. I’ll start, and when it gets close, we’ll both hit it,” Zhang Shan suggested.

“Sounds good.”

Once his HP was full, Zhang Shan aimed at a distant chicken and fired. When it reached melee, both of them finished it off with a couple of hits, suffering almost no damage—Zhang Shan only lost eighteen HP.

On to the next enchanted chicken.

“Hey, your damage seems way higher than mine. How much does your axe add?” Zhang Shan asked.

Lone Rider showed off his starter axe stats.

Beginner Axe: Physical Attack 3-8

That was three points higher than Zhang Shan’s musket. For a level 1, three points was a big deal—no wonder Lone Rider was hitting harder.

“Damn, your axe blows my musket away,” Zhang Shan couldn’t help but envy.

“Three extra attack isn’t much. Muskets are ranged—safer than melee. What’s the hunter’s starting skill? I didn’t see you use any just now,” Lone Rider asked, curious. The game had just started, so no one really knew the other classes’ starter skills.

“It’s a passive—Headshot. The chance is so low, it almost never triggers.”

Zhang Shan showed off the Headshot skill.

“That’s a godly skill! It’ll be amazing later on. Way better than our warrior skill, Falling Leaf Slash—only useful early game, basically just an auto-attack later.”

Lone Rider displayed his own skill.

Falling Leaf Slash: Warrior swings weapon at the target, dealing +10 damage. Cooldown: 10 seconds. MP cost: 5.

No special effects, just raw damage—not much, but decent for a starter skill, about an extra auto-attack’s worth. Probably the default skill for all warrior types: berserkers, guardians, magic warriors.

There were many skills in New World, and many were cross-class; some even universal.

The two chatted as they farmed.

“Are you the guy in the forum who was spamming in the announcements?” Zhang Shan asked.

“Haha, you read the forum too? That wasn’t me, but I liked the name—it had a heroic ring to it. I got in first. Wonder if the other guy’s mad.”

As they talked, they killed a dozen or so monsters. Suddenly, a white light flashed in Zhang Shan’s inventory.

“Looks like we got a drop,” he said.

“Quick, check what it is. Is it gear we can use?” asked Lone Rider.

Zhang Shan opened his inventory and found a piece of clothing.

Crude Iron Armor (White): Defense +5, Level 1, Durability 5/5, Armor Type: Plate

He couldn’t use it—plate armor was for warriors only.

“It’s yours—armor. I’ll trade it to you.”

He initiated a trade, passing the armor to Lone Rider.

“Haha, now I can tank! With this, I’ve got 7 defense—these chickens can’t hurt me. Thanks, bro! If we get something for you next, it’s yours.”

“No problem—it’s just a white item, not worth much.”

Of course, Zhang Shan was just being modest. Right now, everyone was in starter gear and weak as kittens; if he announced the drop in the village, someone would pay for it. Even the worst gear was in demand now—the server had only been up ten minutes, so any equipment was hot property.