Chapter 203: Step 203, [The First Step for a Genius]
Translator: 549690339
Lu Xun was increasingly pleased with his current appearance.
The handsome mature man look was always a hit, and he knew he looked pretty damn good.
“Didn’t expect a high-spec Mr. could be this handsome!” he thought to himself.
There’s no denying that charisma 10 was powerful; the extraordinary charisma couldn’t be covered up even by illusion techniques. It felt like it had somehow harmonized with Heavenly Dao!
“This elegant appearance surely gives off an intellectual vibe. If only this world had glasses,” he chuckled.
As for the name of his new identity, he had no plans to name it.
Mystery and the unknown have a fatal attraction for casual players—they have no name, no background, appearing out of thin air. That kind of effect is just perfect.
Because players are very good at filling in the blanks, and human imagination is boundless!
“Looking at the time, quite a few players should have finished some rookie tasks.”
“Hehe, they should have some silver taels and experience points by now.”
“Let’s go!”
Lu Xun took out a paper crane and flew towards a nearby beginner’s village.
Black Bamboo City, a small city within the territory of the Demon Sect.
Lu Xun had no plan to enter the city, lest he cause any disturbances and trouble.
The small forest outside the city was a good choice.
The small forest was the perfect place for business.
Some of the newbie tasks in Black Bamboo City required players to dig some wild vegetables in the forest, which brought quite a few player characters into view.
“Humans are truly odd. In real life, walking a few steps feels exhausting. But in games, they’re tireless when it comes to foraging, delivering letters, mining…” Lu Xun mused.
Wanting to catch the attention of all the players in the small forest, Lu Xun put away the paper crane, perched on a tree, and performed a string of “Qinggong”.
With a light tap of his toes, he darted back and forth between trees, making a circuit in the air above the forest and heading wherever there were players.
His antics halted the casual players below—they stopped digging vegetables altogether.
Initially, they found digging wild vegetables quite fun, savoring the game’s realism—the worms in the soil were as lifelike as could be—such detail!
But having something to contrast it with instantly changed their tune.
The vegetables in their hands suddenly seemed a lot less appealing.
“What the hell! I want to fly too!”
“So cool!”
“Damn, that’s so suave, isn’t it?”
Once their internal exclamations died down, an identical thought emerged amongst the players here—”I want to learn!”
But the mature handsome man, who appeared out of nowhere, moved so quickly. He must’ve just been passing through here; there’s no way they could catch up.
So, they simply watched the white-robed middle-aged man gracefully land before them.
Well, what are they waiting for?
“Charge!”
The players rushed towards the spot where Lu Xun landed.
Male and female players started to gather in front of Lu Xun. They immediately started examining Lu Xun’s basic information, all they saw were question marks.
But amidst these question marks, they managed to deduce something.
A few casual players started exclaiming, “A yellow-named NPC! Finally came across an NPC with a colored name!”
When Lu Xun revealed himself with his true identity, his name was also displayed as a question mark, but it was a purple question mark.
Now, by using illusion techniques, combined with the boost from his [Charm] special attribute, he effectively concealed his true identity.
In his current state, his real strength was the standard. He was a level 14 NPC.
Without the bonuses of his identity and status, his name was displayed in deep yellow.
Murong Yan may be over level 20, but she is known as only a deep yellow named NPC.
As far as the early game goes, an NPC with a yellow name is considered a master. It’s more than enough.
Too high would actually not work out well.
“Last time, the players called me the ‘Purple Palace’, this time I changed to yellow, they surely won’t call me ‘Yellow Palace’, right?” Lu Xun joked to himself.
Lu Xun glanced around at the players, put his hands behind his back, and adopted the bearing of a master.
Given his stunning appearance and extraordinary demeanor, he truly looked the part.
“Why have you all pursued this old man?” Lu Xun asked.
“Old man? He looks middle-aged. Why does he refer to himself as an old man?” The players began to speculate.
Doesn’t this imply that his actual age is much older than he appears?
If he’s not a cultivator, then what is he?
The players started to get excited.
They all began to use words to “probe” Lu Xun, thinking about whether they could trigger some tasks or reap some chances.
Those with good eloquence have already started bootlicking, making all kinds of flirty remarks and spewing rainbow farts.
Those with lively creativeness had begun concocting stories, describing their backgrounds as exceedingly tragic, trying to invoke sympathy.
Of course, these are just a minority. Most are watching, looking to see if these overly enthusiastic players have any effect. If they do, they’d copy them!
“Oh, you guys want to learn something from me?” Lu Xun squinted his eyes, speaking with a belated realization.
He took out a prepared wine jug from his storage ring and pretended to exclaim, “How come there’s no wine left?”
After saying this, he issued a group task to the players, asking them to get him some wine.
There are no experience points as rewards, no silver tael as rewards, the sole reward is—the opportunity to learn skills!
Compared to the previous two things, skills are more attractive to current players!
Having just started playing the game, having finally an opportunity to learn skills, there’s no way they could resist such temptation, right?
The reason Lu Xun gives such a task is just to find an excuse to teach players skills.
He understands players well. Directly teaching them is inelegant.
The players, holding the hard-earned money from their newbie tasks, rushed into the city to buy wine for Lu Xun.
This news gradually spread.
They are playing games after all, calling friends and posting on forums to catch people’s attention are commonplace.
It’s impossible for all players present to keep this news secret and not tell others about such an NPC here.
Gradually, even more players flocked here to try their luck.
Lu responded to all, handing out wine-fetching tasks to all. As long as they brought back a jug of whatever wine, they all had a chance to learn skills from him!
Not to mention the newbie players in Black Bamboo City, newbie players from nearby areas were also hurrying over.
Because the skills Lu Xun offered are simply too all-encompassing, so attractive.
Dozens of skills are on display with a bit of everything.
Who could resist?
Is he an NPC? He’s more like a moving library with his multitude of skills!
Each skill is labeled with the experience points it costs to learn, all values are standardized by the system. The minimum value can be zero, but the system has a limit for the maximum value.
So it might be potentially free, but he can never price it outrageously high.
This doesn’t matter. Most importantly, all these experience points have been credited to Lu Xun’s account!
Yes, other NPCs don’t possess the player’s ability and can’t digest experience points, but Lu Xun can!
Although learning a low-tier skill only requires a few hundred experience points, once the number of learners piles up, the aggregate value becomes quite considerable.
At this moment, players are choosing skills like shopping in a mall.
Since they don’t have much experience points at their disposal right now, they can basically only afford one skill.
“This Clear Shadow Sword Technique is nice, it’s just that the experience cost is a bit high.”
“What else is there to choose! Definitely learn this Eagle’s Claw!”
“Eagle’s Claw +1, I also want to learn this!”
“Exactly! Early game skills are all just transition skills, any of them would do, and this Eagle’s Claw is unique, I choose it, hehehe!”
The final result both surprised Lu Xun and seemed reasonable—the best seller is the Eagle’s Claw …
Watching as the players finished learning, they satisfyingly pointed their fingers towards the sky, then laughing to each other, a slight twitch creeping up Lu Xun’s mouth.
Female players are different, they cared about whether the skill names sound good. If the name is attractive enough, it can immediately sell better …
Watching as his experience points kept increasing, Lu Xun was also quite satisfied.
He didn’t plan to stay here for too long. These entry-level skills are only in high demand at the early stage of the game, they basically won’t be of any use later, so he naturally can’t stay here all the time, how big is this market!
It’s good to move around a bit, both to make a name and to expand the market.
Always fixating on the same few sheep won’t work, it’ll make one go bald!
After hanging around the small grove for a while, Lu Xun laughed heartily, saying:
“I enjoy travelling around. I heard the wine in Red Mountain County is not bad, I won’t stay here long. Thanks for your good wine!”
After saying this, he disappeared from this place.
Those who heard the news too late and missed the chance were left sighing and regretting.
And the words Red Mountain County were clearly important information!
This NPC’s next stop is Red Mountain County!
With this thought, a lot of players had started posting on the forum.