Chapter 4: Hack Leveling!

“Eh? Something is wrong!”

As Jiang Fei was moving some items from his character’s inventory, he found that several items in the ring’s stock were missing.

“Hmm? Did I lose them somewhere?”

Jiang Fei held the ring up to his eyes. At that moment, he heard a tiny chime.

“Ding!”

A chime so soft that one could have easily missed it. When the chime rang, a piece of Delicious Rabbit Meat disappeared from his very eyes.

“What the f-”

Jiang Fei gasped. Was the ring actually taxing him?!

He looked closer than ever, finally uncovering a new secret of the ring. On the surface, the ring seemed to come with 36 slots, but they worked very differently from a regular character’s inventory. It appeared to come in two portions, top and bottom. The top half of the ring’s inventory had a very faint blue in its background, while the lower half had a faint red. If he had not been paying attention, he would have never seen it.

This newly uncovered secret was the fact that any items placed in the red section of the ring’s inventory would eventually “disappear,” after every 10 minutes or so. It was not fixed. Each time an item was “consumed,” a crack-like mark would appear on the ring. It was just a mark, not an actual indication of any damage to the ring. The scar grew as the ring consumed more items. After two hours, the scar had grown so long that it had almost made a complete circle.

“Ding!”

As the last item vanished with the chime, the “crack-like” marks had formed a complete circle on the surface of the ring.

“Woosh!”

A bright light flashed, and the scar in the ring vanished, leaving behind a flawless, silver surface, as if it was freshly made out of the refinery.

“What is going on…?”

Jiang Fei cocked his head.

“Huh! What’s this? Bonus attribute!”

Besides the 36 slots that the mysterious ring provided, there was something a little extra! Luck +10!

Luck was a hidden attribute in the game. Players called it that way, since it could not be quantified or viewed on their Attributes Window. In the game, some equipment provided Luck as an additional attribute buff. This attribute affected a player’s Evade chance, Critical chance, and item Drop Rate, even!

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Luck induced Evasion was not determined by actually physically moving away from an attack. An attack may appear to fully land on a player, but the player would sustain no damage whatsoever!

It will be the same as Critical strike chances. Players may be able to deal three times the regular attack damage when one uses active skills to cause damage, or even when striking the enemy’s weak spot. Critical strikes relied fully on the R.N.G system. (Random number generator). A successful proc (Programmed Random Occurrence) would deal double the regular damage, while completely ignoring Defense value. In some situations such as fighting with an enemy with high Defense, a Critical strike would deal more than triple the damage commonly seen.

Drop rate has been and would always be a source frustration for all MMORPG gamers. There was nothing else that a player could do besides pray to the R.N.G. Lord and ask for His grace. However, when a player had enough of the Luck attribute, the odds would be in your favor, especially it comes to Drop rate. Still, great Luck did not necessarily mean that one would find a Celestial tier weapon from a Level 1 Chicken. Luck only involved the pre-set drop table of that particular monster. For example, if a Chicken had possible grade A, B, and C drops, high Luck enabled a higher chance of yielding a grade A drop. On the other hand, a luckless chap could only dream of living under the shadow of a grade A drop.

“Just what is this ring…?” Jiang Fei mumbled to himself. He was sure that the ring was not part of the game. It behaved less like a regular item and more of a hacking tool! It was not recognized by the system, but it was working in the game just fine!

“Crap… I don’t exactly condone hacking, not to mention how I might even get banned from this game… But if not for this ring, I would not even be in the game, to begin with!”

The dilemma infuriated Jiang Fei. However, it was also his only key to playing the game. There was just no other way.

At that point, Jiang Fei had gotten a fair grasp on the ring’s function. The mysterious ring gobbled items up to “level up.” The scar on the surface of the ring was the representative of its “exp bar,” and the red background in its inventory was the “killzone.” But, what of the blue colored ones?

After thinking about it for a moment, Jiang Fei could not come up with any explanation, nor did he find anything particular about it. As usual, he shoved it aside and enjoyed the game without any further care.

Seven to eight hours later, Jiang Fei returned to the village, lugging all the required quest items along with him. He was still Level 4. What a pain. Dawn Break was a slow and arduous process, as gaining levels sure took some time. It was the same for the drop rate. Even with 10 Luck, Jiang Fei had found it remarkably difficult to get a good fix on his desired items. The quest items had taken him almost an hour each!

“Bless you, adventurer! Bless you! You have saved me! Please take this Deer Skin Leather Jacket!”

“Ding! You have completed the quest “Collecting Deer Skin.” Obtained 550 Experience Points. Obtained Deer Skin Leather Jacket!”

After submitting the first quest, Jiang Fei had obtained little experience points and a White tier equipment. Although it was painfully cheap, it was the kind of reward one could expect from a lowly quest in the Beginner’s Village.

The game categorized equipment grades as such: Gray, White, Green, Blue, Violet, and Gold. Outside those categories were also Unique types, the Chromatic Evolving Equipment, and finally, the greatest of them all, the Celestial grade.

Gray equipment had been established as the lowest tier in the equipment grading, as only players in the Beginner’s Village would equip them. This equipment adds only less than 50% of the basic attributes (TL NOTE: Author did not explain what the basic attributes were). When a player outgrew the Beginner’s Village, any Gray equipment would most likely be sold to NPCs, as they were not even worth using.

White equipment was the bare-bones equipment that provided some basic attributes. Nothing additional would be gained from them. (TL NOTE: Again, no explanation of what basic attributes are). Equipment of this grade could be sold to NPC, but they could also be broken down into Metal Ingots and sold to players. Players would then use the Metal Ingots as materials for their Smithing skill. The end price would be higher than selling the equipment itself.

Green equipment was named Fine equipment. They provided 130% basic attributes and even provided one or two additional attributes. If the equipment had two additional attributes, it would be classified as the Refined amongst the Fine grade. Most players would be walking about with this.

Blue equipment were Superior Grade. They provide 150% of the basic attributes, and provided two to three additional attributes. Even if two additional attributes was equal to the Refined Green equipment, it still provided more basic attribute percentages. If it had three additional attributes, the equipment would be highly valuable and particularly strong. When the game reaches maturity with more and more players reaching mid-game content, players would wielded such equipment would be considered elites.

The next grade was coded in Violet text, and was called Epic. They provide 180% basic attributes and had three to four additional attributes. Likewise, even the lesser variety that only provided three additional attributes were already superior to their Blue equivalents. Violet equipment was like owning a premium sports car such as a Lamborghini, or a fancy Birkins handbag. Only a handful of players would be able to get their hands on them. One would already be formidable, even among professional players, if they had even one article of Violet tier equipment in their armory.

Gold texted Legendary equipment provided 200% basic attributes with an additional four to five other attributes. Like all the grades before this, their lesser varieties were still superior to those that provided an equivalent amount of additional attributes. (TL NOTE: Repeat… Repeat…). As the nickname implied, it was almost impossible to have a full set of Legendary tier equipment. Having one of them alone would already turn a player into an idol!

Chromatic Evolving equipment were special and Unique. They could only be obtained from Hidden Class Quests. Their power levels were similar to the Legendary equipment. What that set them aside was their potential to gain experience along with their wielders. It would be downright stupidity if one were to discard them! Also, Hidden Class Quests did not necessarily provide one with such a gem. Unlike the Hidden Race quest, which was only limited to 36 in the entire game, Hidden Class Quest was slightly less rare; but they are still notoriously difficult to come across! One required truckloads of Luck for this!

Lastly, at the top of the food chain was the Celestial Grade. One could only obtain such an equipment grade by slaying a God! The attributes alone could blow one’s mind and the road to procuring it was… Just as mind-blowing.