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Chapter 15 – Degenerate
Chen Mo first spent about 10mins to get back to Level 3, then headed to the left-hand outskirts of Ayr Town to look for an old-man NPC named Boude to accept a quest guarding Jade Pheasants.
This quest can only be accepted by players Level 3 and above. Not many players knew of the quest. On top of that, Boude was a distance from Ayr Town and there was hardly any monsters in that area.
Chen Mo knew of this quest not from forums but from the data he had hacked.
Guarding Jade Pheasants was an easy job. The problem was that it wasted time. After accepting the quest, he would have to protect the Jade Pheasants for 10mins from Eagles in a quest map.
The Eagles’ attacks were low and of no threat to players. Players have to be on the alert and block the Eagle’s attack path when it begins swooping from the air.
“Hoho, brave adventurer! Complete the task I give you and I guarantee you, you’ll get a nice reward!”, said Boude merrily as he waved Chen Mo into the quest map.
Though it was dark outside, the quest map was not affected by the outside environment. Chen Mo appeared in a small backyard with a large grassy field behind it. The field had only a single proud male Jade Pheasant and in the azure sky above it circled several Eagles.
Boude had not mentioned any specific reward but Chen Mo had done his research on the forums. Boude would give players 10 bronze coins and 100EXP as a reward. It wasn’t bad for a Level 3 player but for those Levels 4 or 5, the reward was puny.
Of course, Chen Mo was not here for the reward.
The quest begun and an Eagle lowered its head and started to descend, shooting down from the sky towards the Jade Pheasant.
Chen Mo should stand between the Jade Pheasant and the Eagle – but he didn’t. Before the Eagle got to the Jade Pheasant, he had shot it with a crossbow bolt.
The Jade Pheasant had only a little bit of HP so it died right away.
The airborne Eagle was stunned. With its target gone, it sulkily returned to the skies.
System prompt: You have intentionally killed your protectee. Your World Prestige has decreased by 10 points!
“I knew it.” Seeing the system prompt, Chen Mo was not surprised. It was as he had found from the hacked data. Who knew how that person knew how to deduct World Prestige in this way?
Though the Jade Pheasant died, the quest was not yet a failure. This was because the quest was to prevent the Jade Pheasant from getting attacked by Eagles – if the Eagles don’t manage to hurt the Jade Pheasant, the quest will not be failed.
After 10 seconds, a light flared in the yard. A Jade Pheasant had spawned.
Chen Mo did not wait for the Eagles to make a move this time. The Jade Pheasant died with one shot.
System prompt: You have intentionally killed your protectee. Your World Prestige has decreased by 10 points!
His World Prestige dropped by 10 again. Chen Mo’s current World Prestige was -20.
Chen Mo did not stop. After 10 seconds had passed, one more spawned and he killed it.
The Eagles in the sky were at a loss as to what to do. Their mission was to attack the Jade Pheasant but there were none for them to even shake a talon at.
… … …
System prompt: You have intentionally killed your protectee. Your World Prestige has decreased by 10 points!
System prompt: Your World Prestige has dropped to – 100. All NPC will refuse to render you service. After death, you will resurrect in “The Land of Exiles”!
System pompt: You have gained the achievement title “Degenerate”!
Achievement Title: Degenerate
Description: A special title obtainable only when World Reputation drops to -100 and below. Attributes take effect only when equipped.
Attributes：
Strength +10
Stamina +10
Agility +10
Intelligence +10
Spirit +10
Movement Speed +2
Special effects: Can only be taken off 3 hours after equipping. When equipped, the player cannot enter human cities. Penalties upon death are increased. Additionally, the equipped title may increase Favour with certain NPC.
“The info’s good!” Chen Mo nodded in satisfaction. It was worth him spending all that time hacking into that guy’s computer after all.
The Degenerate title’s attributes weren’t very high – it was the same as him getting the same attributes as players 2 or 3 Levels above him. However, the consequence of getting this title was nothing to sneeze at. It won’t be easy to get his World Prestige back up to zero again. On top of that, The Land of Exiles had difficult quests and those were impossible to complete for low-level players. That was why Chen Mo did not opt to receive this quest at first.
And even if Chen Mo decides to commit suicide right then and there, it was not a title to be worn carelessly.
“You bastard! What have you done?!”
When Chen Mo had killed 10 Jade Pheasants in all, Boude charged in angrily and sprinted towards him, yelling.
Next, Boude will seize Chen Mo, jail him for at least 4 hours, then expel him from Ayr Town and he’ll resurrect in The Land of Exiles after death.
Chen Mo had never been to The Land of Exiles before but he knew it could not be very comfortable at all for a player below Level 10.
Therefore, there was no need to even think about it. Before Boude could lay hands on him, Chen Mo chose to commit suicide.
Back in the character creation room, Chen Mo did some minor modifications and entered that game once more.
His character appeared in the Goblin Valley again. Looks like if he doesn’t delete his character, or get it over Level 10 and leave Ayr Town, he’d always appear here whenever he commits suicide.
His backpack contained just a worn crossbow, 100 crossbow bolts and a Basic Trap Technique skill book. The Ordinary Crossbow, Goblin Shoes and Wild Wolf Leg-guards he’d gotten previously were not in his backpack but in his Storage. He’d have to get back to Ayr Town to retrieve them.
However, the “Light-Speed Death” title and “Freedom Leader” title were on his attribute page. He only had to twitch his fingers to equip them.
The high-attribute “Degenerate” title was there too. Unfortunately, Chen Mo had gotten it at Level 3 so he could only equip it at Level 3 – otherwise he’d be able to kill the White Goblins in the cave easily.
With prior experience, Chen Mo did not waste much time in killing the 6 White Goblins and getting to Level 2.
When he opened the treasure chest in the cave, he only got a Quake Trap skill book this time. There was no Ordinary Crossbow.
He didn’t get the Ordinary Crossbow this time but it didn’t affect him much. After a mere half an hour, there was just one Black Goblin left in the valley.
Chen Mo had left this one last goblin to try make it mutate again.
He silently counted the number of times the Black Goblin recovered its HP. It had mutated after 30 times previously but this time, it mutated after 20 times.
After the Mutated Black Goblin died, Chen Mo found that the items it dropped was much less than previously.
It had dropped only 60+ bronze coins in all and one Low Level Mutated Strength Drug and one Low Level Mutated Agility Drug. There was nothing else.
Chen Mo could not help but be moved by his wisdom in deciding not to spend time making the Black Goblins mutate repeatedly for drops.
After being transported to Ayr Town, Chen Mo was in no rush to level up. It was too crowded now to worry about levelling. Now, he had a goal. He had to find some way to attain some good low-level equipment.
“Ah! A portion of players have left Ayr Town and entered the 3 main human cities. The 3 main cities only drop equipment that’s Level 11 and above?” Chen Mo read the forums. In the hour since he had committed suicide, the players who levelled the fastest had left the beginner villages and arrived at the 3 main human cities.
The 3 main cities were East Sea City near the Sea of Miracles, Storm City, which sat on the Stormy Desert and Shadow City in the Forest of Shadows.
Besides these 3 main human cities, there were several small towns which have yet to be explored by the players.
Chen Mo had originally planned to go to a main city to acquire some good equipment for his showdown with Enoch in Ayr Town but it looked like that wasn’t an option anymore.
It seems only Ayr Town was selling equipment for Levels 10 and below.
However, Chen Mo was keenly aware of the poor drop rate of equipment in Ayr Town. Excellent equipment? Pfft, don’t even talk about it.
If Chen Mo was a rich guy like Green Mountain he’d consider using cash to get hold of a nice set of equipment.
It was only some low level equipment. The stock in Ayr Town was limited – even if he had the cash he might not have anything to buy. The best equipment he could find on the forums was just Green equipment – which was 1 level above Blue.
Purple equipment seemed to have appeared too but rumour had it that only the Level 10 Slime King BOSS on the outskirts of Ayr Town dropped them.
