Chapter 2 – Trapped

Title: Lightspeed Death

Description: A special title only attainable by the first player to die in the game. Must be equipped to apply effects.

Attributes:

Strength +1

Stamina +1

Agility +1

Intelligence +1

Spirit +1

Luck +1

Additional skill: Basic Heal – heals player for 50HP, cooldown 60 seconds.

After the system death prompt, Chen Mo found that he had acquired not just a title, but something else!

“I’m actually the first to die?”

Chen Mo felt like a lucky bastard; he got a title for dying!

Although Lightspeed Death has miserable stats of just +1 for all character attributes, the Basic Heal that can heal 50HP every 60 seconds looked like quite a good one to Chen Mo.

However, the skill was practically useless to him. With an added point in Stamina, his HP increased by 20 but these Black Goblins could still kill him instantly with a strike of their clubs. The Lightspeed Death title would not be of any use.

When players die, they enter a soul state. While in soul state, the player cannot communicate or interact with players who are alive and the only choice he has is resurrection.

Chen Mo chose to resurrect, hoping to return to the beginner village. Reality gave him a heartless smack in the face, though, for all his hopes he ended up in the same place he had begun.

He equipped the title he had just gotten and his HP rose to 80, then tried ways and means to get out of the valley. He quickly discovered that the entire valley had not that many Black Goblins but they walked about in pairs and were bursting with aggression. They also had overlapping attack ranges, leaving Chen Mo with no way to escape their surveillance net. He died several times without finding a way out of the valley.

“What? There’s actually a cave here?”

He had resurrected again and this time, he was further from the spot he had first appeared in. After resurrecting, he had spotted a dark cave in the rock walls behind him by chance.

“Let’s have a look.”

This valley can’t be entirely unescapable! The key to escaping should be in this cave.

The cave was about two body lengths wide and was not very deep – it was only about 30 metres deep. He walked up to the back of the cave without running into any monsters.

“A chest!”

Chen Mo was excited to discover a bronze chest at the back of the cave. This bronze chest might hold the very thing he needed to leave the valley!

However, before he could open the chest and get his mitts on the items inside, he had to first find a way to get rid of the 6 White Goblins around it.

White Goblin: Level 3, 400HP

The White Goblins were a level lower than the Black Goblins but Chen Mo still frowned as he looked at the chest.

With Lightspeed Death, he could probably survive two White Goblins if he were outside the cave.

Inside, however, was a narrow space with nothing to hide behind. If the White Goblins came after him, he could have no other option than to fight them head-on.

With his attributes, if he does not dodge a level 3 monster’s attack, he would die without question. Unless the monster was retarded he had no chance of winning.

Chen Mo had Basic Heal though, so he can heal himself for 50HP when in a pinch. White Goblins couldn’t possibly instant-kill him like the Black Goblins. That meant that Chen Mo had 130HP to worth with.

On the other hand, White goblins were just one level lower than Black Goblins so their attack wouldn’t differ by much. If Chen Mo rushed ahead, he would lose at least 40HP. If he took 43 damage or less, he could survive 3 attacks but if he took 45 damage or more, he would only survive two hits. Any more and he would die.

After a little calculation, Chen Mo walked towards the chest and pulled the White Goblins’ aggro.

“Damn you! Are you going to kill me or not?!”

Chen Mo then found that he had been too optimistic. The White Goblins in the cave were aggro-ed in pairs too and proceeded to attack him fiercely when he approached.

Chen Mo retreated in tears, but his speed was not a match for the White Goblins, or he could have led them out of the cave and whittle away at their health while hiding and dodging.

Two White Goblins caught up with him with just 10 metres or so to go from the cave mouth.

A White Goblin swung his club. Chen Mo had nowhere to run!

-47! +50!

Damn, it damaged him more than he’d thought!

The second goblin followed with an attack of its own but Chen Mo had reacted quickly and healed himself of 50HP the instant his health dropped.

-44!

The second damage number floated up. It was lower than the first but Chen Mo would have died if he’d been any slower!

Still alive!

Chen Mo continued to run – if he manages to get out of the cave and use the surrounding to his advantage, he’d still have a chance!

However, Chen Mo found that the cave had been designed too well. It was simply impossible for a Level 1 player to attract the white goblins and escape safely. With just 3 metres to go, the two White Goblins renewed their attacks. Chen Mo’s remaining HP could not hold out and he was dead once more.

“If I had a way to pull their aggro from further away, I could escape the cave.”

After resurrecting, Chen Mo analysed his situation.

He was only 3 metres from the cave mouth and the alert range for White Goblins is only 5 metres. If he could aggro them from 8 metres away, he could run out of the cave and find a way to kill them.

If he took the goblins on in the cave, he’d lose for sure. As a level 1 player, it’d be pretty good if he could even hit a level 3 monster for 30HP. A White Goblin has 400HP, so he would have to hit it at least 10 times to kill it. The time taken to hit it 10 times would be enough to let them kill him several times. Without anything to hide behind, he would die before the goblins do.

Chen Mo looked at the stones around him and suddenly thought, “Would throwing a stone at them work?”

In a traditional game, assassins would have no way of picking up stones to kill monsters but this wasn’t a traditional game… It’s a state-of-the-art, holographic virtual game that’s extremely close to reality!

“Haha, I actually can do it!”

Chen Mo tried it right away and, to his joy, really could throw stones around in the game!

“But this distance… it’s a bit short!”

Chen Mo had uncovered yet another problem.

It was still a game after all, and different from reality. A level 1 player is very weak and without a throwing skill, he could only throw a stone 7 metres – 1 metre shorter than the 8 he needed.

“I don’t care anymore, I’ll just try it and see!”

Thinking too much about it wouldn’t yield any results so Chen Mo took action immediately.

He entered the cave again, and when he came to the end, he did not rush to aggro the White Goblins with his stone.

When he saw the White Goblins, he suddenly had the thought that these White Goblins were not completely immobile. The cave was narrow but they would shift positions at times so there was a chance Chen Mo could still achieve the effect of 8 metres though he had a 7 metre range if he took into account the distance they would move. He could pull the goblins out of the cave!

Chen Mo lay in wait like a hunter waiting for his prey to fall into his trap.

Just a bit more!

There were a few times when the goblins nearly reached the required distance but it wasn’t enough.

“A chance!”

His patient waiting had awarded him a chance!

A White Goblin had moved half a metre more than the calculated distance!

Chen Mo did not let the opportunity go by him and flung the rock at the White Goblin!

Bang! -1!

A pitiful little damage number floated above the White Goblin’s head. Two goblins, standing one behind the other, looked at Chen Mo with eyes full of hate, and charged.

Chen Mo hurried back. If he still couldn’t get out of the cave this time, he was out of ideas.

Bang! Bang!

With less than 10m to go, Chen Mo suffered two attacks from the White Goblins.

Chen Mo knew from experience that he wouldn’t die from this. He used Basic Heal.

He ran with all his might and, before the White Goblins caught him, he finally got out of the cave!

Outside the cave, Chen Mo nearly went mad with frustration.

It wasn’t safe yet outside the cave! There was nothing to hide behind outside the cave. The closest thing to hide behind was more than 70 to 80m away.

A goblin had caught up with him and swung its club. Chen Mo could only dodge.

Being outside had its advantages. He had space to dodge.

Unfortunately, while he dodged the attack, the second goblin caught up.

The two goblins attacked together. Chen Mo had nowhere to hide and was killed tragically by them.

After killing Chen Mo, the two goblins turned around and scampered back into the cave.

After resurrecting, Chen Mo pondered in silence.

Maybe there was something else he’d missed and he would be able to kill the cave goblins after finding it.

Who knows when he’d be able to find it though? He was very interested in finding out what was in the chest in the cave but he was here not to play but to hack the system. He shouldn’t be wasting time here.

The items in the cave couldn’t be that good anyway and with or without it, it wouldn’t help him with finding loopholes in the game.

It could be seen from the Lightspeed Death title awarded to him. It only gave him a tiny bit more attributes than normal players.

Chen Mo decided to commit suicide and restart. He might appear in the beginner village that way but if he still appeared here, he would find a way to deal with it.

The assassin class didn’t work so well here, but there is a character class that, with some time, could kill all the White Goblins in the cave!