Chapter 7: The Skull-Cracker Hammer

"Whatever, I'll just see what's going on with this NPC!" After careful deliberation, Liu Kongkong decided to keep running his blacksmith shop!

He'd been gaming for years, and every day it was the same grind — farming gold, power-leveling for clients. He was sick of it. Now he had a chance to experience a completely different playstyle, and the earnings weren't bad either. Why not give it a shot?

"Consider it a little indulgence." Liu Kongkong figured that with his understanding of games, even as an ordinary player he could make decent money — the fundamentals of earning in any game were essentially the same. But playing as an NPC was something entirely new to him.

My expectations aren't high. I just want to make enough to get by. Liu Kongkong reassured himself, then solemnly selected the second option.

"Congratulations, player Liu Dameng, on successfully completing your Special Class Change! From this point forward, you will continue your journey as a native inhabitant of the Xingye Continent. To ensure the best possible experience, you will receive an in-game mail. Please read it carefully at your earliest convenience.

"Hunt Heaven — where starlight is hunted and the moon is drawn by the bow, where heaven tilts to the northwest and I stand at the summit! Friend from another world, may your wisdom save this land of suffering."

Save this land of suffering? Liu Kongkong stared at the system message. That's the business of those players outside! What could a blacksmith possibly do about that?

He dismissed the notification and opened his mailbox. Two new messages.

The first was a shop steward sent by the system. Without a second thought, Liu Kongkong set its appearance to look exactly like himself, then stashed it in the shop's storage.

The second was a lengthy text document detailing the backstory of the blacksmith Liu Dameng, along with his history with the villagers.

"So I accidentally gave myself the same name as this blacksmith? And that string of notifications I couldn't read — was that the system erasing him?" Liu Kongkong read through the contents. "Grew up in the village since childhood, quiet and reserved, made a living forging tools for the locals… Holy shit, why does this NPC look almost exactly like me?!" The mail also contained several images. Liu Kongkong stared at the gaunt man in the pictures — from every angle, the resemblance was uncanny. If this weren't a game, he'd have called his mom to ask whether he had a twin brother.

With the choice made, Liu Kongkong picked up his hammer. The most important thing right now was to raise his character's stats.

Back to crafting [Deadly Stick]!

He hammered away furiously and produced another hundred. Seeing that his experience bar had only risen by a quarter, he stopped. The shop's storage still had plenty of materials — enough to level up a few more times — but he also had to think about how to sell the things!

"The storage isn't just full of wooden sticks. There are some stones too. Adding a stone to a stick should increase the attack power."

A minute later, a simple stone hammer was born.

[Unnamed] — Attack Power: 2 | Attack Speed: 0.5 | Durability: 50

Garbage. Liu Kongkong looked at the stone hammer in his hands. The attack power was about the same as a wooden sword, but the other two stats were terrible. This thing would never sell!

But!

What if he added more materials on top of that?

Liu Kongkong refused to accept defeat. He grabbed another wooden stick and hammered again.

[Unnamed] — Attack Power: 2.5 | Attack Speed: 0.4 | Durability: 100

His last shred of hope died.

Liu Kongkong stared at the stone hammer before him. He'd just taken a wooden stick and thickened the handle a bit, producing Garbage Version 2.0. He'd also tried tweaking the stats, but the low-durability trick that had worked so well before had absolutely no effect on this weapon — dragging durability all the way down actually made the attack power drop.

"If piling on materials doesn't work, then maybe…"

Half an hour later.

Liu Kongkong looked at the spiked club bristling with wooden spines in front of him and nodded with satisfaction.

[Skull-Cracker Hammer] — Attack Power: 10 | Attack Speed: 1 | Durability: 100 (Equipment Level 5 | Attribute Requirement: Strength 30)

"Finally made a weapon with a level requirement." Liu Kongkong was very pleased with this creation. His shop already carried some level-5 equipment, but compared to those, his hammer had 6 more points of attack power. Because of the Strength requirement, the attack speed had also normalized to a standard rate.

"The only question is what level the outside players are at. If a lot of them hit level ten by tomorrow, this hammer won't be easy to sell." Liu Kongkong glanced at his experience bar — it had risen another small notch.

Earlier, a hundred sticks had given him a hundred experience points, but this one hammer was worth fifty sticks? Calculating the time, it was roughly the same — but the materials saved were significant. As for the price…

Honestly, if Liu Kongkong were a player choosing for himself, and there were no purchase limits, he'd still go for [Deadly Stick] — same attack power, no Strength or level requirement.

"I'll sell it for 25 silver coins." Liu Kongkong wasn't being greedy. With that Strength requirement, probably only certain Warriors could even use the thing. "Make five more and I'll level up. Today I'll log off once I hit level 3."

If he didn't pump up his Strength and Agility, even logging off would leave him a slow, feeble shrimp. Liu Kongkong never wanted to feel that kind of weakness again.

Two and a half hours later — Clang!

Finally, level 3! Liu Kongkong rapidly allocated his stat points and looked at his attribute panel with satisfaction.

Name: Liu Dameng

Class: Apprentice Blacksmith (Level 3)

HP: 101/101

Mana: 21/21

Strength: 4

Constitution: 11

Agility: 3

Intelligence: 4

Spirit: 3

Available Points: 0

A pentagon warrior — the trash edition!

First things first: work on getting all five stats up to a normal human level.

The internet said that stats could enhance your real-world body, but this was still just a game. And with a Game Pod that only cost 2,999 yuan, even if it could boost your constitution, the effect was probably pretty limited.

"The problem is that this identity doesn't grant fixed stat points or bonus point rewards, so my stats will always be much lower than a normal player's." But that didn't really matter — as long as he could make money. Liu Kongkong placed the six [Skull-Cracker Hammer]s into the shop's storage and logged off.

When he opened his eyes again, the dizziness was gone. He felt completely refreshed!

"Phew~" Liu Kongkong let out a long breath. Playing a game had nearly done him in! He immediately grabbed his phone — the 4,000 yuan withdrawal he'd made earlier, minus a 1% transaction fee, had already arrived: 3,960 yuan.

"Not bad earnings for the first day. Tonight I'll call Digua and we'll go out for a proper meal!"

Digua's real name was Wang Di. He was Liu Kongkong's only close friend in Ningcheng. Because Wang Di always kept a bowl-cut hairstyle, Liu Kongkong had taken to calling him Digua — "Sweet Potato." Like Liu Kongkong, Wang Di was also a gaming freelancer, though unlike him, Wang Di was a skilled player who specialized in ranked boosting and similar services, earning far more than Liu Kongkong ever did.

The two had met through another game. One of Wang Di's clients needed a power-leveler, and through a mutual contact, the job was passed to Liu Kongkong. After that, Liu Kongkong would occasionally refer clients who needed ranked boosting to Wang Di. One thing led to another, and the two became good friends.

"These days, everything takes skill." Liu Kongkong often lamented that sometimes he'd grind like crazy for a whole week and still not earn as much as Wang Di made in two days of ranked play.