Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 97: The Terror of Veteran Players

The moment the vote concluded and Li Wei accepted the task, the family — all warmth and harmony just seconds ago — rose from the table and scattered.

Three-Star Hunter Old John didn't hesitate. He scooped up all three recurve bows that had originally belonged to Li Wei, every last arrow, and swept the lot clean. Not a single shaft remained. He also took an iron spear and a dagger.

Well — everything except Li Wei's two-star composite bow, which he'd purchased outright and was entirely his personal property.

Braised Egg Pete grabbed the previous Leon's entire collection of fish baskets and makeshift nets, plus an iron spear and a short blade, and headed off to fish without a backward glance. He was a Three-Star Fisherman, after all.

Clyde similarly took an iron spear and short blade, then began tidying up the material yard and blacksmith shop on the camp's south side, preparing to rebuild the blast furnace. Three-Star Blacksmith.

This version of Leon took spear and blade to the quarry — likely a Three-Star Mason, also capable of building structures and repairing walls.

This version of Penny began inventorying supplies in the warehouse. Apparently, she was a Three-Star Tailor?

Sophie grabbed a shovel and headed to the creek. Whatever she was planning remained unclear, but she definitely wasn't a Three-Star Farmer.

As for Fila, armed with spear and short blade, she headed out to forage. A Three-Star Chef, naturally — though unlike her predecessor, this Fila marched straight into the deep forest. Now there was someone with real audacity.

The whole scene was a whirlwind of frenzied activity.Without question, everyone was preparing to grind Contribution like maniacs. There was no Head of Household this month, so apart from the one triggered Urgent Task, everyone else was essentially freelancing.

Exactly what Li Wei and the previous versions of Penny and Fila had done in their very first month.

Li Wei watched the veteran players bustle about with keen interest before strolling over to the warehouse. The salt-purchasing task hadn't specified which goods to sell — he could pick freely. But the moment he touched an item, a family minimum price appeared.

For instance, the two-star leather armor that Margaret had crafted in the previous cycle. As a valuable family asset, no other member had the authority to touch it. But when Li Wei picked it up, a price of 5 gold coins appeared — meaning he'd need to sell it for at least 5 gold and use that to buy salt.

Honestly, that would be no small feat.

However, if Li Wei used his own standard gold coins to buy the item, that was a different story entirely. The task description explicitly stated this wasn't considered cheating — after all, standard gold coins were universal currency.

After rummaging around further, Li Wei spotted fifteen ash wood poles. The previous Penny had harvested these last autumn. Initial processing was complete, and they'd been left in the warehouse to cure.

Back then, they'd been Penny's private property, and Li Wei hadn't had a chance to touch them.

But post-settlement, they'd reverted to family assets, since non-one-star items couldn't be carried out of this world.

Li Wei examined each one. Prices appeared automatically.

The finest — a perfectly straight pole about two meters long — was valued at 5 silver coins. The poorest specimen fetched only a single copper coin.

All of them could be fashioned into weapons — long spears, javelins, even arrow shafts.

Li Wei mulled it over. His attitude might be casual, but when the time came for action, he always gave one hundred percent.

'These veteran players are flawless in their execution. Don't expect them to make mistakes within their own specialties. Theoretically, my only chance of not being eliminated is to keep pace with them.'

'So there's no rush to depart for Kakh City. I need to prepare sufficient weapons first.'

'And I need to activate my third profession — that alone would net another five Free Attribute Points.'

He checked his experience reserves. Current totals: 595 Hunting experience, 50 Woodcutting experience, 32 Disassembly experience, 27 Scavenging experience, and a 200-point universal experience pack.

But what should his third profession be?

'Should it complement my first two, or should I branch into something entirely different?'

After some deliberation, Li Wei ruled out the entire Artisan tree — Blacksmith, Mason, Carpenter. None were viable. He lacked the deep professional knowledge required. Jumping in blindly would only repeat the previous Leon's mistakes — wasted effort for minimal returns.

'What about Chef, Butcher, or Fisherman? Those would synergize somewhat with my Hunter card. But would they meaningfully improve my current situation?'

Li Wei shook his head again. Decent as they were, he believed his third profession had to enhance his combat capability.

'I'm definitely going down the ranged path. But I can't put all my eggs in one basket — if something unexpected happens, am I going to call for infantry protection every time?'

'So before warfare enters the gunpowder era, I need to be capable of self-rescue.'

'That comes down to three things. First: rapid fire. Overwhelm enemies with quick, flexible shooting to prevent them from closing distance. But this is tricky — there's a ceiling on bow rate of fire. Even the fastest hunting bows have limits. So rapid fire is a useful tool, but not a complete solution.'

'Second: kiting. As long as I'm fast and agile enough, enemies can't catch me. This requires higher Agility and exceptional Stamina endurance. But it only works against small squads.'

'Third: transform into a melee archer. Lead with a javelin headshot, then in-your-face work with a long spear. It's no match for a dedicated infantry fighter, but it might buy a few critical moments.'

After careful analysis and weighing the characteristics of every profession card he'd encountered, Li Wei settled on the Mountaineer profession. Not only could it gather various precious mountain goods, but the key perks were +1 Agility and +10% movement speed on mountain terrain.

'The problem is that the Mountaineer Card requires 500 gathering experience. Even if I use the 200-point universal pack, I'd still be 300 gathering experience short. Can I pull it off this month?'

Li Wei hesitated again.

The salt-buying trip would need at least twenty days of reserved travel time — possibly twenty-five.

Even if he went into full gathering frenzy mode during spring, there was no way to accumulate 300 gathering experience in ten days.

'So I actually have no choice at all!'

Li Wei sighed, but his gaze quickly hardened with resolve. Without hesitation, he converted the 200-point universal experience pack into Woodcutting experience. Combined with his existing 50 points, that meant his deficit was only 250.

The critical difference between woodcutting and gathering was this: as long as Li Wei had sufficient strength and sharp enough tools, he could feasibly earn 40 Woodcutting experience points per day.

Of course, there was the transport element — logs had to be delivered to the camp's material area to be donated to the family treasury.

When the old ox had been alive, this was never an issue. Just hitch the ox and drag everything back.

For most of last year, the entire family's logging had relied on that ox. It may never have plowed a single field, but it certainly hadn't been a freeloader — it had given sweat, blood, and ultimately its own meat for the family.

'Day thirty-one of missing the old ox.'

Li Wei sighed. For now, he'd have to forgo the Contribution from donating and focus purely on Woodcutting experience.

Time to get to work.

Among the current family members, no one seemed to hold a Three-Star Woodcutter card or any related profession. So both steel axes sat unused. Li Wei grabbed one and made a beeline for the forest across the creek. Without a word, he started felling trees on sight.

After each tree fell, he trimmed it into a raw log, which earned the corresponding experience based on unit standards.

The formula was constant.

One unit of raw timber equaled one cubic meter. Felling earned 10 experience points; transporting it back to camp and donating it to the family yielded 1 Contribution point.

Similarly, one unit of iron ore weighed 50 kilograms. Mining earned 10 experience; transport and donation also yielded 1 Contribution.

One unit of stone weighed 150 kilograms. Quarrying earned 10 experience; transport and donation likewise yielded 1 Contribution.

Other resources followed roughly the same pattern with minor variations.

Since Li Wei couldn't donate right now, he didn't bother with transport — just focused on felling and trimming for experience.

From morning to noon, then noon straight through to nightfall, chopping until stars dotted the sky. He secured a clean 40 experience points — an impressive number by any standard. If the old ox were here and he could transport and donate all those logs, that would be 4 Contribution in a single day!

Well, hypothetically — dragging logs back and forth with an ox would actually take considerable time, but 60 Contribution per month should be achievable.

Of course, all of this hinged on Li Wei's outstanding attributes. His current Strength was 13, Stamina was 170, and even though lunch and dinner were already saltless, it wasn't a problem — yet.

Throughout the day, the family members remained eerily quiet. During both lunch and dinner, not a single word was exchanged. Not a punctuation mark, not a glance.

Li Wei returned under the starlight, half-expecting his childhood sweetheart Sophie to share some intimate moment. After all, those burning eyes from this morning had left quite an impression.

But when he got back, he realized he'd been overthinking. It was just a role — nothing more.

Like TV drama leads who clung to each other passionately when cameras rolled, but could barely keep from rolling their eyes in private.

At least dinner had been set aside for him — Fila had thoughtfully placed his share by the fireplace to keep it from going fully cold.

But his old room was gone. His "sweetheart," childhood flame Sophie, had claimed it and appeared to be sleeping already. Still, the curve of her body as she lay on her side, the golden hair spilling like clouds — in the dim firelight, his heart did skip a beat or two.

'No way. Are the veteran players giving me a bonus perk?'

'Truly worthy of veteran players. Terrifyingly impressive. I love veteran players.'

But just then, a voice rang out from behind him — Penny's, dripping with assertive authority.

"George, you're in my way."