ChargeForward: "Charge!"

StudCadre: "Let's do it, bros!"

AffairsWithStewardess: "Fck yeah, let's fcking GO!!!"

EmperorHandlesMyriadChicks: "Oh? Do it? How do we do it? Do what? Do who? Would the little bro below please elaborate?"

SurvivingInTheCracks: "Allow me to answer. Bros, just do the wife of the guy above, and we're set. As for how, let the little bro below continue."

BoundlessSky: "Continuing from above, regarding how to do the wife of the guy above the guy above, I have three points to make. These three points will be elaborated upon by the little bro below."

PlanetaryDevastation: "Continuing from above, regarding these three points, I feel we should go at it... hard... vigorously... fiercely... nine shallow, one deep... and DO IT!"

AffairsWithStewardess: "You three above, F*CK YOUR MOTHERS..."

You really had to admire the 'talent' in the chat area. However, Jiang Bai didn't dare look too long; seizing every second was crucial right now.

Time was money. Even the very first piece of trashy White-tier gear could potentially sell for an exorbitant price during this initial phase!

Faced with the players' unprecedented enthusiasm, reality delivered a harsh slap across everyone's face.

A Mage waving a novice staff hadn't even finished casting their skill before being instantly killed by a rabbit's 'Rabbit Kicks Eagle' move right in front of them.

A burly Warrior hadn't even managed to throw a punch before being ganged up on and killed by two rabbits.

In an instant, fiery passion turned into widespread wailing. The monsters' stats were far higher than any player had anticipated.

Immediately, waves of cursing echoed non-stop.

“Holy sh*t! How are we supposed to fight this?”

“I got my sshole stabbed by a rabbit!!!”

“System, FCK YOUR MOM'S **, my weapon dropped! Is there any humanity left? Even novice gear can drop on death?”

Batch after batch of players charged into the wilds, only to turn into streaks of white light and reappear at the resurrection point, completely bewildered...

“Who am I? Where am I? Did I really just get killed by a f*cking rabbit?”

Jiang Bai watched this scene, utterly dumbfounded.

“This doesn't make sense. Are newbie monsters really this strong?”

The players who had suffered losses retreated to the safe zone and started cursing.

“GM, get out here and explain! How are we supposed to play?”

“I'm gonna report this!!!”

“Everyone calm down, let me say something fair: Officials, did your moms die?! Huh?! Did they?! Why make the game difficulty so damn high?”

Jiang Bai used [Inspect] and saw the Demonized Wild Rabbit's stats.

[Demonized Wild Rabbit]

Level: 1

Attack: 20

Defense: 0

HP: 80

“How the MMP are we supposed to fight this!”

At this point, players lowered their proud heads. Soloing was clearly impossible; teaming up was the only way.

“LFG LFG! LoL Diamond expert leading, need 3 DPS...”

“Hardcore party starting soon, need Priest, 4=1...”

“LF1M, already have Priest, need female DPS, need female DPS...”

Instantly, the entire beginner village buzzed with activity. Jiang Bai hesitated, wondering who to team up with.

To be honest, after years of gaming as a lone wolf, Jiang Bai usually avoided teaming up—it was often too much trouble.

But given the current situation, it seemed impossible not to.

Just as Jiang Bai was spacing out, he suddenly saw his mailbox icon light up.

“Hm!?”

Jiang Bai paused for a second, then opened his mailbox.

“I don't have any friends in the game yet...”

Opening the mail, he saw the sender was "Genesis Official."

“Esteemed player 'Old Dream of Empty City', congratulations! You have been selected in the 'Lucky Player Draw' event to receive the server-unique reward 'Heart of Genesis'. We wish you an enjoyable gaming experience.”

“HOLY F*CK!!!??”

Instantly, Jiang Bai's jaw dropped, his mouth forming an "O". Only now did he remember the system mentioning something like this when he first logged in. He'd never imagined he'd be the lucky one and had completely forgotten about it. Had Lady Luck truly smiled upon him?

“Heart of Genesis... sounds incredibly powerful!”

Filled with excitement and elation, Jiang Bai claimed the mail attachment. A black gemstone abruptly appeared in his inventory.

[Heart of Genesis] (Rank E, Upgradeable)

Effect 1: Infinite Inventory Space

Effect 2: Wielder gains the [Fusion] skill. Allows merging two pieces of equipment of the same slot, same quality, and same level into one piece of higher quality. The fused equipment becomes bound and cannot be sold or traded. (Currently, can fuse up to Epic quality.)

Upgrade Requirement: 100 Reputation

Note: System Unique Item. Indestructible, Undroppable, Untradeable, Not lost upon death.

Following this, a "Fusion" button appeared at the bottom right of Jiang Bai's inventory screen.

“Such... such f*cking awesome effects?”

This heaven-defying prize left Jiang Bai stunned. What was Infinite Inventory Space worth? Looking at his current bag with only eight slots, countless whales would probably go crazy for this.

As for this [Fusion] skill...

“This is probably game-breaking...”

“Does this mean... as long as I have enough trash equipment, I can theoretically fuse my way up to top-tier Legendary gear!?”

“Even though it's untradeable, considering 'Genesis''s drop rates, forget Legendary gear, even a single purple Epic item is extremely rare!”

“Doesn't this theoretically mean I can always be wearing top-tier equipment?”

“Exactly! I knew it! Even though I'm not one of the chosen ones with an exclusive Talent, the heavens still favor me!!!”

“Isn't this Heart of Genesis way more badass than those crappy Tier 3 or Tier 2 Talents?”

“From now on, call me Rich Man Jiang!”

With this thought, Jiang Bai opened the Trading Market.

“Holy moly!”

Looking at the market interface, Jiang Bai realized he might have oversimplified things.

Over an hour had passed since the server opened, with billions of players worldwide, yet the number of items currently for sale on the market was pitifully small!

Moreover, almost all of them were Crude quality, with the best being merely Common tier.

“A single Common quality Level 2 weapon costs 5,000 copper coins? At the current exchange rate, that's 5,000 RMB!”

(Translator's Note: 1 RMB ≈ $0.14 USD, so 5000 RMB ≈ $700 USD)

Simultaneously with the game's launch, players could buy in-game currency with real money at a fixed exchange rate: 1 RMB = 1 Copper Coin.

In-game, 1 Gold Coin = 10,000 Copper Coins.

The reason the rate was fixed was that "Genesis" had announced at launch that officials would buy back players' gold coins, specifically to stabilize the exchange rate.

As for why the officials were running this seemingly loss-making operation just to generate hype, nobody could guess.

“What the hell kind of drop rates are these?”

Jiang Bai clicked his tongue inwardly. He knew that this kind of low-level vendor trash would eventually be worthless, stuff people wouldn't even bother picking up.

Of course, this could also be due to the excessive demand for equipment in the early stages of the server.

“So if I fuse some green or blue gear, won't I basically skyrocket?”

“And this Heart of Genesis is upgradeable! Since it has 'Effect 1,' it must have 'Effect 2,' 'Effect 3,' and maybe even more...”

“This is theoretically infinite 2-for-1 fusion!”

Thinking this, Jiang Bai opened the "Fusion" interface. Two slots appeared side-by-side: a main slot and a secondary slot. The main slot was clearly for the primary item.

Jiang Bai looked at the novice longbow in his hands.

“Hmm... still need one more...”

Just as Jiang Bai was worrying about this, his gaze inadvertently fell outside the beginner village. Scattered across the wilderness were faint glimmers of light—these were novice items dropped by players who had died earlier. Because they were worthless, some players hadn't bothered picking them up after respawning.

Others simply hadn't had the chance to retrieve them yet.

“Talk about someone sending a pillow just when you're feeling sleepy!”

Jiang Bai's eyes lit up. He dashed out of the beginner village in large strides and began picking up the unwanted novice equipment.

“Buddy, what are you doing? That stuff's useless, just toss it. Can't even vendor it.”

“Hey bro, what gives? That's the novice weapon I dropped! Dammit, don't pick it up...”

“Guess he's desperate?”

...

He couldn't be bothered with them right now. After a quick sweep, Jiang Bai's bag contained eight additional novice weapons and eleven pieces of novice cloth armor.

Although many players had died, the drop rate for novice gear upon death was intentionally low as a protective measure. Finding this many items already made Jiang Bai grin from ear to ear.

Filled with anticipation, Jiang Bai opened the Fusion system again. He placed his equipped novice longbow into the main slot and a novice shortsword into the secondary slot.

“Same level! Same quality! Both weapon slots! All three conditions met. Even though these weapons aren't for the same class, it shouldn't matter, right?”

Taking a deep breath, Jiang Bai slowly pressed the "Fusion" button.

The fusion process was surprisingly fast. Jiang Bai hadn't even fully braced himself when, with a flash of white light, a brand-new bow appeared before his eyes.