MMORPG: Divine Mech Hunter Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Hunter

EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Li Yao was gazing mindlessly at the electronic calendar on the wall, with his virtual gaming glasses still in his hand. Until now, he still could not believe the fact that he was reborn once more, reborn to more than ten years ago.

At this moment, he felt a vibration coming from his wrist. Li Yao touched with his fingers and a bright screen appeared from his wrist. The screen was the size of a palm, and it was suspended above his wrist. On the screen, he saw a beautiful teenage princess.

“Big Brother, you forgot to call me again. Mom and I miss you.”

Hearing his little sister’s innocent voice, he was distracted for a moment.

The memories from before his rebirth hit him like violent waves. He was born in an average household. After graduating from high school, he managed to get into the most prestigious university in Hua Xia, and he had always made his parents proud.

After graduating from university, his parents made arrangements for him to work as a civil servant. It was not difficult for him to become a civil servant with his excellent academic performance as well as the help of a distant relative. However, he had another dream job in mind. He preferred playing games, and it was at that time he dreamt of becoming the greatest, most famous streamer and commentator in Hua Xia and the entire world.

Of course, Li Yao’s parents would never agree to the thought of having their son working in a career that was seemingly unpromising. As he and his father were ultimately unable to see eye to eye on this matter, Li Yao left his home and went to work in the city alone. He became a streamer, and at the same time he made some other plans.

Since then, he had not returned home for several years.

Once, Li Yao cleared a stage in-game with a group called Golden Regimen from the Sheng Shi Guild. The streaming of the game clearly caught the group leader from the Sheng Shi Dynasty Group Two looting all of the rewards for himself, leaving zilch for the group. The viewers of the stream then shared the incident all over the internet, resulting in slanders from other rivalling guilds which greatly affected the Sheng Shi Guild’s reputation

In the end, the entire Sheng Shi Dynasty Guild was bitter and vented out their resentment on Li Yao. The guild members would use various spiteful methods to hurt Li Yao in game and in real life, making his life miserable.

His life was already made difficult. What made matters worse was that his family was unintentionally stirred into his pot of trouble when they helped to pay for his debts. His family was deeply afflicted and was left with a deep, irrecoverable wound.

Till this day, he could still remember the disappointment in his golden-aged parents’ eyes. The thought of it made his heart ache.

“What’s the matter Big Bro, are you okay? Is it because life out there is stressful? I think you should come back home,” his little sister asked, her voice was filled with concern.

“Don’t worry about Dad. He may be angry, but deep down, he loves you the most. He has been asking about you all the time.”

Li Yao took a deep breath and steadied his emotions. “I will be back soon,” he replied.

“For real? Could it be that you’re late on rent? I still have some rent money left, why don’t you use it,” she replied. “But don’t tell mom and dad,” she continued on.

Li Jia understood Li Yao the most. The brother she knew would not give up easily, and she sensed that his brother was in trouble again.

“No way, you really underestimate your brother. You should save up the rent fees for your future marriage,” said Li Yao. “You should focus on your studies, alright? I will be back home latest by the end of this year,” he continued, shaking his head.

“Hehe, that settles it then. Don’t you ever lie to me. Oh ya, check your bank account. It’s time to eat, bye bye.”

The image of Li Jia disappeared before Li Yao could even reply. He clicked on the device on his wrist and saw that five thousand credit points had been transferred into his account. He smiled bitterly.

“I will no longer make you all worry, and I promise to provide a better life for all of you, I promise,” he said to himself.

After his rebirth, Li Yao finally knew what he really wanted. In his past life, he really despised working as a civil servant and wanted to do his dream job as a streamer and commentator. Now, he realized that that was not the case, as all he wanted to do was to protect his self-esteem. He felt that he was already a grown up and did not have to rely on his parents to make arrangements for the rest of his life. In the end, he left them because he could not let go of his ego.

Looking back on his life, he realized that he was too naïve. Standing by the window of more than fifty floors high up in the sky, he overlooked the busy road with endless streams of floating cars below. He had finally sorted out his thoughts.

Li Yao had decided to start over at World of Ancient Gods again. In his past life, he was indeed a quasi-god player. Due to the betrayal he had once faced, he had to organize new tactics to survive and get familiarized with other players’ attacking tactics so he would not repeat the same thing. Until today, his mind was still flooded with countless gaming tactics enough to fill up the entire sea.

Besides that, the entire world was now a unified whole. Even the other planets in the Solar System had been explored and developed, turning the whole galaxy into one big country.

World of Ancient Gods was a virtual reality game created by the Solar System government. All major continents and administrative districts were connected to the same server. It was said to be done to tighten the relations between planets in the galaxy to promote future integration.

A deeper level of understanding for all of this was that the human race was entering the age of interstellar, and it was important for humans to understand the hardships of interstellar development. Hence, the game was created in such a way that it was extremely difficult, realistic and gory.

The goal created by the officials was that when all the twenty billion people from all over the Solar System were to connect to the game server, the system would still be able to run smoothly, allowing humans to adapt to the upcoming cruel and harsh interstellar age.

After his rebirth, Li Yao knew that what was said was all very true.

Due to aggressive promotion by the nation’s machines, the game had nearly one billion players on the first day. Before reaching the fifth year since its initial release, World of Ancient Gods had become ‘The Second World’.

In Li Yao’s mind, there were endless attacking strategies, tactics, and his quasi-god level skills as well as experiences. There was no way he would have chosen another path after his rebirth.

Based on his experience from the past-life, he would be evicted from his apartment if he were unable to pay for his expensive rent in another five days’ time. He would be living in the slums for the rest of his days.

Li Yao’s main priority was not about revenge, but to earn the three months’ rent to pay his landlord. If he were to fail to do so, he would have no choice but to leave.

After he had cleared up his thoughts, Li Yao put on his virtual gaming glasses and activated the device.

At this point, the World of Ancient Gods server had been running for two days, and Li Yao had a Level-2 Bandit character.

Now that he was reborn, he chose to be a Hunter after much contemplation and planning. In his past life, he was once a Bandit player for almost two years, but he could only become an advanced player. After he was forced to delete his account, he started off again but as a Hunter. Eight years of gaming experience as a Hunter made him a quasi-god player, and it was because of this he chose not to play as a Bandit again.

“Citizen Li Yao, you have two more chances to rebuild this character.” The system beeped. “Are you sure you want to rebuild your character?”

“Yes,” replied Li Yao.

“Please choose your race and class.”

It was said that World of Ancient Gods was made by mixing in and referencing many different genres of games made on Earth thousands of years ago. In the game, there were several continents, with various intelligent creatures inhabiting the different continents.

In general, each continent was divided into three factions, which were Light, Shadow, and Neutral

“I choose to become a High Elf, with Hunter as my class,” Li Yao replied without hesitation. Naturally, Li Yao understood everything about the game even after his rebirth.

According to each race and their area of expertise, the Ancient Elves and Amazonians were better suited to become hunters, but Li Yao could not choose that path. The first step of his plans was to become a High Elf in order to become a Mech Hunter. Becoming a Mech Hunter would mean that he would be the best amongst the top players.

“Please enter a name for your character.” The system beeped again.

“Liao Yuan.”

“Character name approved, enjoy the game.”

Citizens of the Solar System were divided by their respective administrative regions and different ethnicities. In the game, players were allocated to different regions based on their character selection.

High Elves would spawn at the Sun Tower, which was the novice village area for beginner High Elf players. Based on Li Yao’s understanding, the novice village area he was in was just a mirrored area of the Sun Tower as the game server was not able to accommodate the overwhelming number of players in just one location.

Two days had gone by. By now, the average player would already be at Level 2.

The novice village Li Yao was in was crowded as usual, with new players popping up here and there. Li Yao peeked at the Sun and reaffirmed his direction. He struggled as he paved his way through the crowd.

The players were mostly from different regions and were of different species, which made the entire scene more chaotic as they squeezed against each other. It took Li Yao more than ten minutes to find his way out of the newcomer’s square.

“I have twenty copper coins in my backpack, which is more than enough,” said Li Yao as he searched through his pouch. He let out a sigh of relief.

“I would like to buy a pickaxe and a pocket knife,” said Li Yao to an NPC in the merchant square.

“That would be two copper coins for a common pickaxe, ten copper coins for a higher quality pickaxe. Same goes to the pocket knife,” the merchant replied.

“I will have a common pickaxe and a high-grade pocket knife,” said Li Yao as he handed over the copper coins.

Pickaxes were made especially for players who enjoyed recreational activities, it was targeted at mountain climbing enthusiasts.

To Li Yao who was reborn, he understood that recreational equipment was far from useless for combat players. If used properly, the equipment could aid them in different situations.

Li Yao wanted to become a hunter who was able to own a mechanical pet. To do so, he must obtain a specific item that would be easily redeemable only for players in the later stages who had flying mounts. For now, he could only rely on his pickaxe.

A high-grade pocket knife also had its own unique purposes.

Li Yao used up his remaining coins and bought poor-grade arrows, which took up almost all of the space in his 16-slot backpack. He then slung on his beginner bow on his back and ran out of the village. Similarly, outside of the village, it was also packed with countless of players fighting off monsters.

As he was running, he came across players from Hua Xia area who had kindly invited him to join their team. He respectfully declined their generous offer. While on his way to his destination, he checked on his character’s attributes.

Character: Liao Yuan

Class: Hunter

Health: 100

Mana: 100

Stamina: 3

Agility: 5

Intellect: 3

Endurance: 3

Vitality: 3

Attack: 4-6

Defense: 4

Movement Speed: 105%

Passive skill: Arcane Affinity. Increases the flash rate of making magical objects by 2%.

Passive skill: Magical Resistance. Decreases magical damage by 2%.

Active skill: Arcane Wave. Disrupts enemies’ magic within eight yards, restores 30% of the user’s magic. Two minutes cooldown time.

Equipment: Beginner Short Bow, 1-2 Attack.

Ordinary Quiver: 10 slots, 1 Defense.

Every player that chose to become a High Elf and a hunter had the same attributes. The attributes would only differ based on different expertise and the attributes the player chooses to upgrade.

Thirty minutes had passed. Li Yao arrived at a Level-5 monster zone. Looking from afar, he could see the Tomb of Sunstrider from a distance. He had finally found his reference item.

The item Li Yao wanted was in a small valley, that was, in a mountain on the north of the Tomb of Sunstrider.

Looking from afar, most people would think that it was just chains and chains of mountain range. The only way to find the small valley was by climbing to the mountain peak.

Li Yao carefully sneaked past monsters and reached the base of the mountain. With his current equipment and level, it would be instant death if he were to encounter a Level-5 monster.

“The player will change operation setting from Locked Mode to Free Mode, please confirm.” The system beeped.

“Yes.”

In World of Ancient Gods, the operation setting was divided into two types, Free Mode and Locked Mode. Locked Mode is for the system to help correct and calibrate the player’s attacks and skills accuracy based on the player’s attributes. In Free Mode, the player’s movements, attacks and skills would be fully dependant on the players themselves. Hence, the player’s accuracy attribute would be useless.

Most players preferred using Free Mode after the officials gave out a detailed introduction on Free Mode setting.

Many of the monsters were given a weak spot and Complete Skill Mode.

The higher the completion of skills, the higher the damage dealt by the monsters, and their attack special effects would also become stronger.

Based on the explanation given by the officials, if the monsters were killed through targetting their weak spot, the monsters would drop special and rare materials which could not be obtained from Locked Mode.

In actuality, however, players that chose melee attacks would not be that much affected. Even if skill completion were not that high there would still be some damage.

Some changes were made on the game’s aggression settings. Unlike other online games, the monsters would not be pulled by MT1 and stand still while being attacked by players. Instead, the monsters were more agile which often led to countless complaints and whining from frustrated players.

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Mage players had a slight advantage against monsters. Spells and motions for novice players were easy, as long as the spells were casted.

When it came to bow and arrow, no one was born a skilled archer. Using archery against monsters was way harder than casting spells as a Mage. Because of this, Hunters would be easily killed if they were standing too close to the monster, and they would miss their shot if they were standing too far.

Due to the difficulties faced by players as Hunters, and the unwillingness of other players to have a Hunter in their teams, most hunter players had given up on the class.

After ten years since the game had started running, Hunter was the least played class amongst others. The number of Hunters did not even make up one-tenth of the entire warrior players’ population. The remaining Hunters continued their survival with the aid of their pets. Very few players could use bows and arrows well.

Only with the Hunters’ progression in levels, would they then be able to unlock crossbows, shotguns, ballista and other weapons. At that point, they would then be able to be more at ease.