Noob Player

"The famous noob on the forum?" Lu Yao creased his brow and glanced at ZhenZhen. He did not understand what Shen talked about, and he thought Shen was an amazing player based on his conversation with ZhenZhen. The young man did a lot for the village, more than anyone. How could a player that could hunt a level 32 monster become a noob? That did not make sense at all.

"You don't know?" ZhenZhen smiled while shaking her head. The famous noob was a title Shen brought with him from the previous game. She did research about her friend and got to know why Shen got the title. It was ridiculous to call someone noob for not following the meta.

ZhenZhen glanced at Shen and asked. "It's okay if I tell him about you, right?" She asked the person directly. This was an uncomfortable topic for sure, but she still asked. She was not insensitive, but because she felt that the title was ridiculous, she felt Shen was not a noob.

"I am okay with that, and I have embraced that title as part of myself. Thanks to that title, I earned a lot of money from the forum." Shen shook his head with a big smile on his face. He was not ashamed, no longer ashamed, or to be exact, he could never get rid of that title. Since he could not get rid of that title, he embraced it as a part of himself. 

ZhenZhen showed a post on the forum to Doctor Lu Yao. Mostly it was the posts from Shen's haters, and they tried to tell the players of the Tribe Online that came from other games than the Universe Online that Shen was a big noob. The threads often insulted Shen and so on.

ZhenZhen even showed the past hot topic when Volt and his friends bullied Shen. When Doctor Lu Yao reached that part, he could no longer hold it back as a frown formed on his forehead.

Volt was around twenty-six to early thirties by his appearance. Lu Yao could not believe that someone that old would stream something like this. Bullying was an extreme case, especially for young people in middle and high school. A tumor that was almost impossible to get rid of, but this man streamed the bullying.

The young people who watched his stream might copy what he did since their idol bullied someone in the live stream. He just could not believe this and shook his head. "It seems I have found a target for who to use my poison for. This kind of person deserves to be poisoned to death!" Lu Yao muttered in a low voice, but Shen and ZhenZhen could hear it clearly.

"I agree with that." That was ZhenZhen's response. "You have to make a unique poison for this man only."

Shen shook his head and stood up. "It seems I am not needed here. You two continue, I am going to hunt the chicken." He waved toward Lu Yao and ZhenZhen as he headed out of the village.

However, Lu Yao caught and put his hands on Shen's shoulders. "Shen, don't listen to these people. You should play whatever you like, as long as you have fun; that's what matters."

Shen's eyes widened in surprise, but then he smiled. He appreciated the encouragement, as Lu Yao was the first one to encourage him. Even Ming and Dale tried to persuade him to follow the meta instead of becoming the fastest in the game. He grinned in response. "Don't worry, Doc- Brother Lu. Following what those people said will not give me the sense of achievement or even money to fill my belly, and I am still doing whatever I like. I will still be the fastest in the game until no one can kill me in the game!"

Lu Yao nodded his head and tapped Shen's shoulders. "It seems I am doing an unnecessary thing. Good luck with your hunting." After saying that, Lu Yao turned around and returned to the table.

When he returned to the table, his eyes were still on Shen. After some time, he noticed something weird about Shen. He noticed Shen had a missing arm. "Huh? What's wrong with Shen? He does not have a left arm?" the retired doctor asked the retired cook in a surprised tone.

*** ***

The routine continued. The new member did not cause any change in the village, and each of them was still doing what they had to do. There would be no significant change until the tenth player arrived in the village.

Shen was doing his arduous grinding. He would spar against Yosu in the game's morning time and hunt the chicken after finishing the training. He did not stop the training, even though he focused on hunting the monsters to level up. Of course, the training became less effective for Shen, and he only got like 1 Endurance and 1 Agility, or sometimes 1 Strength.

Just like that, another week passed.

"Hah… Hah… Hah… Hah…" Shen breathed heavily as he sprawled on the ground. A brand new day, but still the same beating. Yosu kept beating him, as he still failed to land even a single hit on the old man.

[You have trained your body to the limit!]

[Congratulations! You gained 12 Vitality and 2 Endurance!]

The only comfort was the notification after the beating. To his surprise, he kept getting more and more Vitality as the sparring continued. Yesterday, he got 11 Vitality, today he got 12 Vitality. Of course, sometimes he would get 8 or 9 Vitality.

"You have improved a lot, and you can read many of my feints as well. That's a huge improvement." The old man sat next to him and looked at the same sky.

"You don't have to cheer me, Master. I am not that weak-willed to give up halfway. We will continue the spar until I can land, at least a single hit on you!" Shen said it with determination. He thought Yosu was cheering for him so he would not give up halfway, as he did not see any improvement.

"Silly Boy, I am not cheering you or anything else; I am telling the truth. You can't feel the change, but I can see it." Yosu shook his head. "You are not wrong that landing a hit on me is an improvement, but it will take you years to do so. If you can land a hit on me just after a few months of practice…."

The old man did not finish his words, but Shen could guess the remaining words by himself. Shen realized he was too arrogant for thinking of landing a hit on his Master. His Master was not a normal NPC, a named NPC who gave him Legendary Potential Class. If he landed a hit on his Master, then it would be crazy.

Silent followed afterward as the Master and Disciple exchanged no words. After a while, Yosu got up. "That's for today. We will continue the sparring at the same time tomorrow. I am going to eat my breakfast. That lass is catching up with that old hag.…."

Shen stayed behind, still looking at the same sky. It was two weeks away until the Open Qualifier for Tribe Online's first official tournament. "That thing will open today…."

Shen was talking about a separate server that Sky just opened. A server dedicated to PVP, Battle Arena Server. Sky would hold the tournament on a different server while the primary server was still running as usual. Sky opened the server today, letting the players test out the server. The players could also use the server to have a friendly battle. Even if you die in the battle arena, the player did not lose the experience.

"I have to set the alarm. I promised Yue to have a spar with her…." Shen muttered in a low voice. He was afraid that he would forget that. "But I don't think this will be a fair fight since my level should be higher than her."

Yue just started hunting the monsters a week ago. Even though she was more experienced and mechanically better than him, he had a big advantage. He had higher stats since he started the training earlier, and Yue's level was lower than his. On top of that, he had something that other players did not have, the Elemental Force.

Shen opened his window status and checked his progress so far. From the amount of the experience for him to level up, he was sure Yue was still a few levels below him.

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Name: Runner

Race: Human

Class: Yosu Legatee

Affiliation: -

Elemental Force: Frost

Level: 25

Experience: 37,892,200/149,502,00

Health Point: 2870

Stamina Point: 3520/3520

Mana: 160

Hunger: 12

Armor: 2

Status:

Strength: 230

Agility: 298

Vitality: 287

Endurance: 352

Dexterity: 310

Intelligence: 16

Status Point: 0

Skill:

Void Sword Technique: [Void Draw - Level 1], [Void Step - Level 1], [Void Critical - Level 1 (Passive)], [Void Thrust - Level 1]

Elemental Force Skill: [Frost Assault (Passive)] [Ice Bolt] [Frozen Spear]

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