Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Mutated Serpent Beast

Translator: 549690339

Song Jian brought Wang Qi to a place outside the residential area where several poplar trees grew side by side, pointing to them and said, “This is where we collect wood.”

After that, Song Jian stepped forward and brutally punched one of the poplar trees.

These poplar trees were just ordinary ones, and even after being completely harvested, they would reappear in just five or six hours. Only precious trees would permanently disappear after being harvested.

Boom, boom, boom-

Watching Song Jian’s fists smashing into the sturdy tree trunk, Wang Qi was stunned and couldn’t help but gawk as the tree shook continuously.

“Brother Song, is this how you gather wood?” Wang Qi’s lips trembled as he asked, “1 am not very educated, so don’t deceive me!”

“Yeah, it’s perfect for collecting resources while practicing your skills at the same time.” Song Jian continued to punch the tree while speaking. After two days of adaptation, the pain of hitting the tree with his fists was much less than before, and his fists seemed to have grown harder too.

“Can’t we use tools to gather?” Wang Qi asked.

“Of course, we can…” Song Jian explained, “But using tools would be too expensive. A stone axe can only collect wood from seventeen or eighteen trees before the durability runs out. It’s not as satisfying as using your fists.”

At first, when Song Jian used his fists to gather wood, he could only harvest seven or eight trees in a day. But now, he could collect wood from a poplar tree in just about twenty minutes, significantly increasing his efficiency.

“Wood is collected like this, then what about stone?” Wang Qi’s heart sank, suddenly remembering that building a safe house required stone as well.

“Probably the same.”

The reason Song Jian didn’t collect stone material was precisely that; after all, rocks were much harder than tree trunks.

“I… I’d rather choose a smaller house as my safe house,” Wang Qi muttered, shaking his head.

Watching Song Jian gathering wood, Wang Qi wanted to try it himself. He took a deep breath and threw a punch at a poplar tree.

“Ouch!” Wang Qi screamed in agony as he clutched his broken, bloodied fist. A tear welled up in Wang Qi’s eye from the pain.

“Hold on!” Song Jian encouraged.

By the time Song Jian finished harvesting the wood from one tree, Wang Qi finally managed to collect 2 units of wood.

“Brother Song, I’d rather fight monsters to make some money and buy tools to gather resources,” Wang Qi said with a defeated expression, looking at his bloody hands.

“All right, just be careful.” Song Jian’s nonchalant response revealed he didn’t mind. At this point, his fists were also red and throbbing in pain, but it was much more tolerable compared to the excruciating pain he experienced two days ago.

Wang Qi turned back and glanced at Song Jian, who was still pounding trees. He felt a bit unwilling to give up, but gathering wood with bare fists was indeed challenging for an ordinary person.

“It’s just a game, is it necessary to be so desperate?” Wang Qi wondered.

Song Jian glanced at Wang Qi’s departing figure with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, but disappointment in his eyes. The reason Song Jian didn’t directly bring Wang Qi to the small forest was to see if he could endure such hardship. If he could, Song Jian would regard Wang Qi as his true companion and share the secret of the mutated snake beasts in the small forest.

Unfortunately…

As far as this game was concerned, Song Jian had already realized that if he wanted to stand out, he had to work hard, even harder than he would in the real world. Sadly, many people who entered this game didn’t realize this and treated it as just a game.

For several days, Song Jian gathered wood during the day and returned to the villa at night. Soon, he had collected more than a thousand units of wood. After Wang Qi left that day, he never returned to help, but Song Jian saw that Wang Qi had chosen a single-story storefront as his safe house just a street away from his villa.

“The snake beast needs to eat a pine nut every day, and now there are less than ten nuts left. I can’t let it continue eating like this…” Song Jian looked out the window at the city shrouded in darkness, thinking to himself.

After a few days of use, both Chopping Skill and Fist Mastery advanced by one level. Skills such as these could advance from level one to level two with just one or two days of training. To advance from level two to level three, it only took Song Jian about four in-game days.

This caused Song Jian to regret a bit, for if he had known, he could have saved three skill points. He had been somewhat reckless with the skill points he had gained from leveling up earlier.

Early the next morning, Song Jian left the villa and headed towards the small grove outside the highway.

The tree stumps left from gathering wood yesterday had all disappeared, replaced by tall trees. Song Jian found that not only could these trees recover quickly after being cut down in the game, but they also grew back at an extremely fast rate. In just a few days, these trees, which were originally only as thick as a bowl, had grown even thicker.

Song Jian walked straight towards the depths of the grove, stopping ten meters away from the light golden pine tree. The warning range of the “mutated snake beast” was ten meters. Once you entered this range, it would stare at the approaching person. If you got within three meters, it would initiate an attack.

This was the information Song Jian obtained after several attempts.

Now, more and more people were gathering wood, and the longer the time passed, the greater the chances of people coming to the grove, and the higher the probability of the light golden pine tree being exposed. Song Jian didn’t want to wait any longer.

Since the mutated snake beast remained in the tree, Song Jian’s “Earth Teeth Assault” couldn’t hit it. He could only start by using a pistol.

Bang, bang, bang-

Aiming at the mutated snake beast, Song Jian rapidly pulled the trigger. Bullets pierced its body, waking up the snake beast that was wrapped around the tree branches. Its body inflated like a balloon.

Whoosh-

The snake beast, which had coiled around the tree several times, sprang towards Song Jian like a spring.

More than a dozen bullets were fired, each one hitting the snake beast and knocking off hundreds of its vitality points. Level 4 [Basic Gunpowder Weapon (Pistol)] significantly increased its accuracy and power.

In the two to three seconds it took to fire over a dozen shots, the snake beast had already approached within three to four meters of Song Jian. He withdrew his pistol, grabbed the double-barreled shotgun, and pulled the trigger just as the snake beast bounced off the ground.

Boom, boom-

With its powerful force and strong impact, the double-barreled shotgun hit the snake beast head-on, knocking it back several meters and crashing into a willow tree.

Unexpectedly, this strike caused a dizzying effect, and a dizzy symbol appeared above the mutated snake beast’s head.

“Great opportunity!”

Song Jian pulled out his dagger and lunged toward the mutated snake beast, stabbing at its throat area.

The Tiger Fang Dagger easily tore through the scales at the neck of the mutated snake beast, burying itself to the hilt.

The snake beast let out a heart-wrenching cry, waking up from its dazed state, and its body, as thick as an adult’s arm, whipped Song Jian like a leather whip.

With a “thump”, Song Jian felt a severe pain in his back where the snake beast had hit him, an itchy sensation in his throat, and a sweet, fishy taste in his mouth.

Quickly pulling out the dagger, Song Jian lunged forward, rolled on the ground, and fiercely grabbed at the Earth Teeth Assault.

“Earth Teeth Assault!”

A tusk-like blast of energy, as fast as a bullet, shot towards the snake beast. The blast knocked the snake beast, which had just awakened from its dazed state, into the air and violently crashed into a willow tree behind it.

The snake beast’s attack had taken more than 30 vitality points from Song Jian, and after using the Earth Teeth Assault, his vitality was now at half.

Looking at the struggling snake beast, with almost 300 vitality points left, Song Jian frowned. Continuing to fight like this, he clearly couldn’t beat the snake beast. After hesitating for a moment, he finally gritted his teeth and pulled out a scroll from his bag.

“It looks like I’ll have to use this trump card!”

Squinting his eyes, Song Jian fiercely tore open the scroll and threw it at the Level 5 mutated snake beast.