Chapter 4: What You Make Isn't Always Useful

"Alright, these things are pretty rare, so we need to seize this opportunity to make a name for ourselves in Starter Village No. 0113." Ye Weiliang finished distributing all the [Fatal Clubs] and also handed out the crude weapons.

In their party, he himself was the Warrior, his girlfriend Ye Weinuan was the Healer, and the others were [Hit Me Please] the Tank, [Heart and Soul] the Assassin, and [Eagle] the Archer.

"With these eight things, even I could deal nearly a hundred points of damage..." Ye Weinuan stared at the [Fatal Club] in her hand — a weapon with ten attack power. Even Ye Weiliang wielding a crude wooden sword only had that much attack. "Are these things expensive? It feels like if we had a few thousand or tens of thousands of them, we might be able to leave the Starter Village today."

"They're not expensive, just limited supply..." Ye Weiliang gave a wry smile. "That's what I meant when I said they were rare."

"It's a shame these showed up in the Starter Village. If we were a higher level, this would be my godly weapon." Heart and Soul gripped the [Fatal Club] — in the hands of an Assassin, this thing was incredibly powerful.

"Alright, save that kind of talk for after the first kill. Time is short right now. It'd be a real shame if some unexpected rival swooped in and snatched the first kill." Originally, the five of them had given up on the Stone Wolf King — they'd tried many times before and their damage was always a bit lacking. But now with the items Liu Kongkong had sold them, damage was no longer an issue. As long as nothing went wrong this time, the first kill was in the bag.

Liu Kongkong had no idea that what he'd made would affect the first kill — though even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.

I'm just here to make money. Whoever gets the first kill has nothing to do with me. Besides, he was busy experimenting with new weapons right now.

"These crude weapons with two attack points are really a problem." Liu Kongkong looked at the pile of junk in front of him. After the birth of the [Fatal Club], they had reverted back to being junk. "Leaving them here takes up space, and if they can't be sold for money, it's kind of a waste."

Liu Kongkong picked up a wooden sword and glanced at the wooden bow beside it.

"Weapons are finished products, so I can't adjust their attributes directly — but what if I use them as materials?" Liu Kongkong placed the bow on the table, then rested the wooden sword across the bowstring.

"If I hammer this, will they fuse into a single weapon..." Even as he said it, the iron hammer in his hand was already coming down.

Clang. Liu Kongkong looked at the sword and bow on the table — no visible change, but the sound just now was unmistakably the sound of forging.

Let's try a few more hits!

Liu Kongkong grabbed the iron hammer and went at the sword and bow with a flurry of strikes. Finally, after the eighteenth blow!

"Did... did it work?" Staring at the "weapon" that had fused together on the table, Liu Kongkong wasn't quite sure, because the thing looked absolutely bizarre.

On the surface it looked like a sword resting across a bowstring, but on closer inspection, the blade had merged with the bow — making it obviously impossible to actually fire the sword.

Whatever, let me check the weapon panel first.

[Unnamed] — Attack: 0.1 | Attack Speed: 1 | Durability: 500 (All classes usable. Special Effect: Equipping this item reduces Attack by 100%. Attributes adjustable within five minutes.)

Attack reduced by 100%?! Liu Kongkong was dumbfounded. Equipping a weapon could actually lower your attack power? What kind of insane thing was this! And "attributes adjustable"...

He tried dragging the durability down to its minimum. The weapon panel changed to:

[Unnamed] — Attack: 1 | Attack Speed: 1 | Durability: 1 (All classes usable. Special Effect: Equipping this item reduces Attack by 100%. Attributes adjustable within five minutes.)

A completely pointless adjustment!

Liu Kongkong dragged the attributes back to their original values, then gave it a grand name: [A Lifelong Promise]. He even thoughtfully added a weapon description: "Equip it, and let there be no harm between two people — only love."

Then he placed it in the most prominent spot in the shop, priced at 99 silver and 99 copper.

Gimmicks — if a weapon has no practical use, just give it a story! Liu Kongkong thought himself a genius. He'd find a wooden sign later to write out some tragic love story and sell it to some hopeless romantic.

Next one, next one. There were four types of weapons in front of him — mixing and matching them might produce something interesting.

But before he could even start, a system announcement suddenly rang out across the sky.

"The hunting wind chases shadows, shooting across the heavens; the celestial steed roams free, treading across the eight wilds! Congratulations to player Ye Weiliang's party from Starter Village No. 0113 for claiming the first kill on the Level 3 boss, the Stone Wolf King! All party members receive 5 free attribute points..."

"First kill on a Level 3 boss? Is that thing easy to kill?" Lonely as a Song was still out hunting wild rabbits when the system notification startled him. He was also Level 3 now, but he hadn't even seen a Stone Wolf...

Just because he hadn't seen one didn't mean other players hadn't.

"The Stone Wolf King? Is that the one we saw earlier?" A few players had gathered together — clearly a party.

"Probably. That wolf looked at least two meters tall. The gap between players is just too huge! We're struggling to kill regular Stone Wolves, and someone out there is already taking down bosses." The girl in the party sounded a little dejected.

"Don't be discouraged, girl. We're still pretty strong. Remember that idiot we saw earlier, killing wild rabbits like his life depended on it? At least we're clearly winning in the intelligence department..."

"Are you seriously comparing me to an idiot?!"

Liu Kongkong, who had been pondering what to use for his next experiment, also froze for a moment. He hadn't expected that Ye Weiliang would grab the first kill so quickly after buying his weapons.

"Looks like the [Fatal Club] made a huge difference." As a seasoned gamer, he naturally understood just how terrifying those forty clubs were. If they had forty people, each landing one hit, they could burst out hundreds or even thousands of damage in an instant.

"I can make more tomorrow. That guy will probably come back to buy more." Liu Kongkong opened the shop's storage — over a thousand wooden sticks were sitting inside, all brought by players who'd taken the quest. As for the first kill, that kind of thing had nothing to do with him, and he didn't care. Even if things had turned out differently, he still couldn't have gotten it — he'd always been a lone wolf, and this game didn't support multi-clienting anyway.

"The real way to go is to keep crafting good weapons and gear to sell." As he said this, Liu Kongkong picked up a dagger and a wooden sword and placed them on the table. Before he could even raise the hammer, a system notification chimed.

"Attention all players: the current time on Xingye Continent is 17:00. All shops are now closed for the day..."

"What the — the NPCs in this game actually clock out?!"

"Five o'clock and they're already off work? These NPCs leave earlier than I do?"

"Why are they clocking out? What gives?!" That last line was Liu Kongkong's. He was not happy — he'd barely made any money today!

He pulled up his trading account and checked the balance.

"Four thousand? That's not bad, I guess. Fine, let them clock out."

He'd never imagined he'd recoup his investment on the very first day of the game. Based on today's performance, tomorrow should be just as profitable — he just didn't know whether Ye Weiliang, that big spender, would leave the Starter Village overnight. If he did, that would be a big loss.

The next second, the shop automatically shut its doors. Liu Kongkong found himself in a pitch-black room with no way out, so he prepared to log off.

"Attention all villagers: I am the Village Chief of Starter Village No. 0113. Movement permissions are now enabled. All villagers, please come to my place for the daily summary meeting..."

Huh? The NPCs are holding a meeting?

Liu Kongkong looked at the logout button on his interface, thought for a moment, then closed it and headed off to the Village Chief's house.