Chapter 3: The Qihai Gold Farming Studio and the Mutant Red-Mantled Tide Crab
The moment Chen Sui arrived, the nearby players had already noticed him.
The four of them were effortlessly directing their pets to kite the clumsy Red-Mantled Tide Crab.
They were the Qihai Gold Farming Studio — a crew that made their living grinding and farming in various virtual games. Right now, the hottest game on the market was Azure, and they had been among the very first wave of players to flood in at launch.
"Brother Hao, someone else showed up. Looks like a newbie."
"Plenty of newbies have been coming here. They're all pretty naive — in this game you have to work for the villagers first, get them to take you into the beginner pet-catching grounds, catch a pet with decent talent, and only then can you leave the fishing village."
"That's the information gap for you. As far as I know, only the top player on the leaderboard has a pet that can actually break through a Red-Mantled Tide Crab's defense. The rest of us have to slowly whittle it down. One person alone has absolutely no shot."
"After all, our studio has inside intel — nobody else can match that."
"Tsk, tsk. What a shame though. This game is incredibly realistic — if your character dies, you have to wait twenty-four hours before you can log back in. Should we warn that guy?"
The one they called Brother Hao was a tall man with prominent cheekbones. He let out a short laugh:
"Warn him? What for? The slower everyone else progresses, the more money we make. Let's pick up the pace — we still need to push forward and unlock that thing later. This Red-Mantled Tide Crab is almost done for. Right now, a Red-Mantled Tide Crab with the Hardened talent — thirty percent defense boost — can sell for twelve thousand yuan. If we can farm just one today, it's pure profit."
Hearing that, the others all nodded, unable to suppress the grins spreading across their faces.
This was a cushy gig, no question about it.
The current craze around Azure and its earning potential went without saying.
In other games, a full day of grinding might net a few hundred yuan at most. Where else could you pull in several thousand per person from a single drop?
Not to mention, they had stumbled into possession of that special item by a stroke of luck. As long as they kept up their development, Qihai was destined to become the top studio in Azure.
Wang Kai burst out laughing:
"I'd trade ten years of Ajian's single life for one Red-Mantled Tide Crab with the Hardened talent."
"Get lost!"
"Hahahahaha……"
The group chatted idly while running the clumsy Red-Mantled Tide Crab in circles.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Wang Kai happened to glance over toward Chen Sui and froze:
"Huh? That guy… he summoned a Fishfolk? Are there Fishfolk in the beginner pet-catching grounds?"
"Fishfolk?"
"Wang Kai! Don't joke around right now — we're fighting the crab, it's the final phase. One slip and we're done."
"Exactly. Where would Fishfolk come from? I've scoured the whole game and never heard of a sea beast called Fishfolk."
The others couldn't afford to look away. Fighting a Red-Mantled Tide Crab wasn't exactly mentally taxing, but it still didn't leave room for distractions.
"No, seriously, there really is one — Holy shit!"
Suddenly, one of them let out a startled cry.
His Flyfish misread the command and lurched forward in a sliding charge — straight into the Red-Mantled Tide Crab's claws, which snipped clean through its tail fin.
In an instant, the encirclement collapsed. The others had no way to stop it.
The Red-Mantled Tide Crab slipped through the gap and scuttled sideways into the sea. The group could only watch helplessly as the group could only watch helplessly as the crab's silhouette vanished beneath the waves.
"Wang Kai! What are you doing?!"
"Why did you suddenly yell like that? Did you see your mom or something?"
"We were so close to finishing off that Red-Mantled Tide Crab, and now you've let it get away."
The others all wore sour expressions. Even an ordinary Red-Mantled Tide Crab with any talent at all could sell for a few hundred yuan.
But now, it was just gone.
Wang Kai stood there in a daze for a moment before coming back to his senses. "No, listen—"
"What were you doing?"
Zhang Yuhao stepped forward.
"Sorry, sorry, everyone — tonight's foot massage is on me."
Wang Kai clasped his hands together in apology.
The others' expressions softened slightly.
"So what happened? What was all the fuss about?"
Someone turned to him and asked.
Wang Kai pointed in Chen Sui's direction:
"Just now… that guy's Fishfolk punched clean through a Red-Mantled Tide Crab in one hit."
"……"
Silence.
The moment those words landed, the atmosphere among the group became something like a rowdy classroom suddenly spotting the homeroom teacher standing in the doorway with a very pregnant belly.
"Wang Kai, forget the foot massage tonight — we'll all chip in for your medical bills. Go to the hospital and figure out whether you need psychiatry or ophthalmology."
"Are you joking? One-shotted a Red-Mantled Tide Crab with a single punch? Did the number-one player on the leaderboard show up?"
"Even Tianxing, the top-ranked player, can't do that — his Sword Ray only has that kind of killing power in the water."
"……"
"Stop arguing. See for yourselves."
Zhang Yuhao spoke up.
He was the studio's boss, and carried some authority. The moment he opened his mouth, the others fell quiet and turned to look.
Their jaws dropped in shock.
There in their line of sight stood a tall, green-skinned Fishfolk. At its feet lay the corpse of a Red-Mantled Tide Crab, a massive through-and-through hole punched straight through the center of its body.
"Is… is that real?"
"The Red-Mantled Tide Crab got smashed through?"
"That Fishfolk's arm is covered in blue blood — that's the Red-Mantled Tide Crab's blood…"
"……"
Wang Kai looked at their expressions and shrugged with a "told you so" look on his face.
"One punch? That Fishfolk did that? You're sure you didn't see it wrong?"
Zhang Yuhao was stunned inside, though his face betrayed nothing. He turned to Wang Kai.
"Absolutely certain."
Wang Kai nodded vigorously.
"Good grief… when did a player like that show up around here?"
"Playing dumb, huh? Dressed head to toe in newbie hemp cloth, this guy's got some serious tricks up his sleeve."
"Though it's also possible he just got insanely lucky. In Azure, players with good luck can catch rare sea beasts early on. Tianxing's Sword Ray, for instance — he bought it from some clueless newbie for over a hundred thousand yuan."
The studio members murmured among themselves, still struggling to believe what they'd seen.
Zhang Yuhao lowered his head in thought for a moment, then stepped forward:
"Come on, let's go talk to him. If he's a veteran player, we leave it alone. If he got that pet on his own, let's see if we can find a way to get it into our hands."
Chen Sui silently gave Wavecrest a thumbs-up.
Chen Sui felt like he needed to silently recite the Fishfolk's Brute Force talent ten times over…
He had originally assumed that, since Fishfolk were creatures that roamed the ocean, the webbing on their hands meant they could only perform at their peak in water. He never could have imagined — one punch, and it had one-shotted a Hardened crab a full rank above it.
Chen Sui collected the Red-Mantled Tide Crab and put it in his Inventory.
He opened his Inventory and saw a strange green egg sitting quietly inside.
"Can it hatch something one quality tier higher than the original?"
"Good thing there's a guaranteed minimum. Let's give it a try…"
Without a second thought, Chen Sui tapped hatch.
The egg began to shake. The cracking animation he'd seen before played out, and then a burst of white light bloomed forth.
A Red-Mantled Tide Crab clumsily appeared in the sea beast list.
But this Red-Mantled Tide Crab was noticeably larger than usual. Its shell had a faint dark tinge, and it bore unusual black Spines.
[Red-Mantled Tide Crab]
Quality: Common
Level: Wavecrest Rank, Tier 1
Talent: Spines (provides 50% defense boost; reflects 5% damage when struck)
A Red-Mantled Tide Crab with a mutated shell — it looks more dangerous than an ordinary one.
"Does this count as a good pull?"
Chen Sui looked at the Spines talent's fifty percent defense boost, thought of the Fishfolk's fifty percent strength boost from Brute Force, and instinctively felt it must be a solid talent.
He casually summoned the Red-Mantled Tide Crab. This one was far larger than normal — crouched on the ground, it looked like a massive black millstone, nearly reaching a person's waist.
He hadn't even had time to study it properly when a startled cry rang out from nearby:
"Holy shit! A mutant crab?!"
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Edited by Fat Goose