"Damn it! You're asking for it!"
Before Yuncheng Gutianle could finish his sentence, he swung his longsword at Jiang Bai's chest.
As a ranged class, being approached by a melee attacker was clearly a big no-no, a fact Jiang Bai was well aware of. But he didn't care.
Because with Jiang Bai's staggering 20 points of defense, coupled with the damage reduction attribute of the Abyssal Cloth Armor, Gutianle's sword strike produced a number that shocked everyone present!
"-1!"
"Holy crap!!!"
One strike and Gutianle was left questioning his existence. Although he wasn't a full-on attack class like an archer or mage, as a swordsman he had a 4-star attack growth talent. Plus, the weapon in his hand had an attack value of 4, making his total attack, including attack strength, 24 points!
Facing Jiang Bai, a ranged class with thin health and low defense, how could the damage be a mere -1?
The mandatory -1 was a system rule; no matter how high the defense, there had to be at least -1 damage, or else it would be a miss. There was no such thing as -0 damage.
Watching Gutianle's name turn red as he was hit, Jiang Bai immediately nocked an arrow and fired a Vibration Shot.
The two were so close that Gutianle had no time to react. By the time he saw the arrow embedded in his chest, the number that popped up above his head shocked everyone once again.
"-64!"
"-20"
The red number above was Jiang Bai's normal damage, while the "-20" below was the 20 points of true damage granted by his weapon!
In other words, Jiang Bai's single arrow dealt 84 points of damage, instantly killing Gutianle, who had only 80 health points!
With one arrow, Gutianle turned into a flash of white light and vanished on the spot.
For a moment, the entire area fell into a deathly silence.
The only sound was the "clang" as Gutianle's weapon, a 4-point rare item, dropped to the ground.
The equipment drop rate for red-named players was relatively high, which was part of Genesis's punishment mechanism.
"Holy crap!!??"
"Dead?"
"????"
The remaining two players were completely stunned, staring at Gutianle's corpse with their mouths agape, wide enough to fit an egg.
Not breaking through the defense was one thing, but being able to instantly kill a swordsman with a single attack—was this a level 2 archer?
Even if Gutianle had maxed out his attack stats, his 3 points of defense growth talent still gave him 7 points of defense. How could a player of this level deal such powerful damage?
"-84!"
This number shattered their worldview. After they came to their senses, they swallowed hard, and their eyes were filled with nothing but fear. Any thoughts of killing and looting were long gone.
At the same time, Yuncheng Gutianle was frantically shouting in their team chat, "Damn it, my weapon dropped! Get back here, retreat to the city immediately. This guy hits too hard. Don't throw your lives away!!!"
The two, already terrified and without any will to fight, didn't think twice and fled as fast as they could. As they ran, the bushes behind Jiang Bai rustled, revealing two more archers lying in ambush in the distance. Judging by their IDs, they were also players from the Yuncheng guild.
As for the rare weapon that Gutianle had dropped, they didn't dare to even glance at it, for fear of losing their lives.
"No wonder they dared to provoke me even knowing I had purple gear. They had backup in the shadows."
Jiang Bai watched the direction the four players fled with a cold smile playing on the corner of his mouth, but he didn't chase after them.
Since the other four players hadn't attacked Jiang Bai, if he initiated an attack, his name would definitely turn red. Without an absolutely safe environment, if he were ambushed by other players while red-named and his equipment dropped, he would be in deep trouble.
Moreover, these four players weren't worth Jiang Bai's time.
At the beginning of the game, development was the most important thing!
"Delightful."
Admiring the longsword that Gutianle had dropped, Jiang Bai hummed a cheerful tune. It was also a level 2 weapon, but this longsword had 1 more attack point than the dagger, making its value considerable.
This was also a small mechanism in Genesis. When equipment dropped, there was a certain probability that it would have attributes higher than the normal values for that equipment. Such equipment was considered a "rare" item.
Undoubtedly, Gutianle's longsword was a rare weapon with a slightly higher attack value. Jiang Bai opened the trading market and was delighted to see the bustling equipment trading interface.
Jiang Bai was one of the first players to enter the game, but globally, there were still a large number of players who hadn't or had just entered the game. This extended the early game period of Genesis, making these low-level weapons even more sought-after.
The level 2 weapons with an attack value of 3 were now being traded for over 7,000 copper coins, indicating that the popularity of Genesis was still rising rapidly.
"This situation will last for at least another three to six hours before the mainstream players will move out of the low-level stage."
Jiang Bai searched for the level 4 rare items and found that there weren't many, with the lowest price being over 1 gold coin.
"Ten thousand in the bag, hahaha..."
Jiang Bai wasn't greedy and casually listed the item for 1 gold coin.
He was well aware that these plain, low-quality items were only valuable during the early game phase. Otherwise, they wouldn't be worth so much, and their value would drop quickly. The sooner he sold them, the better.
After listing the equipment, Jiang Bai didn't stick around but stepped into the territory of the level 4 monster, the Iron-Backed Boar.
It was a gloomy thicket. As far as the eye could see, Jiang Bai was the only player around. Basically, he was the only one daring to venture into this area at the moment.
Aiming at a distant Iron-Backed Boar that was chewing on leaves, Jiang Bai nocked an arrow and fired a Vibration Shot. With a "whoosh," the arrow pierced the air and embedded itself into the boar's spine like a nail.
"-55!"
"-20!"
The boar's health was instantly reduced by a quarter!
"Ooof..."
With the boar's painful cry, the quills on its back exploded outward, and it charged at Jiang Bai.
But due to the 20% speed reduction from Vibration Shot, the already slow Iron-Backed Boar found it difficult to close the distance with Jiang Bai.
With his impressive 9 points of agility, Jiang Bai had already begun to kite the monster. As he retreated, he drew his longbow to full tension and fired another arrow.
"-55"
"-20"
The boar's health was now down to half, but it was still nearly twenty yards away from Jiang Bai.
"Damn, the speed reduction from Vibration Shot is amazing!"
Jiang Bai was overjoyed. If things went as planned, he might be able to kite this boar without taking any damage.
By the time the third arrow was fired, the boar had regained its normal speed, but unfortunately for it, Jiang Bai's longbow was already drawn again.
"Whoosh!"
The arrow shot out like an aurora flash, piercing the boar's right eye socket in an instant!
Critical hit!
"-110"
"-20"
With this arrow, the boar, which had finally reached Jiang Bai, collapsed helplessly to the ground.
"Is the eye socket a weak point of the boar?"
Jiang Bai stared thoughtfully at the few copper coins that the boar had dropped on the ground.
In Genesis, critical hits were not rigidly determined. On one hand, they depended on the critical hit chance, but on the other hand, they also depended on hitting weak points. If a weak point was hit, it would be a guaranteed 100% critical hit.
"You have killed the Iron-Backed Boar, gaining 0 experience points."
Hearing the system prompt, Jiang Bai shrugged. He wouldn't gain any experience until this quest was completed.
"But..."
A sly smile appeared on Jiang Bai's face. "Old man, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you!"
"Time to grind!"