Chapter 130: At Last, I Have a Mount

With the long-awaited opening of the public map in New World, players from all nations were finally able to travel to a shared domain. This news electrified the game’s PK fanatics; before the public map, PK was restricted to attacking players of one’s own nation.

Killing a player added ten points of "Sin," immediately turning the perpetrator's name red. If a player with a red name were to be defeated and sent back to the city, the consequences were dire: not only would they be thrown into the "dungeon," but the drop rate for their equipment would skyrocket. One could easily lose their best gear, a prospect that would break any player's heart. Consequently, in the month since New World launched, PK activity had been remarkably restrained. Even in their own nation of Chu, aside from a few major incidents stirred up by Zhang Shan, there had been no large-scale battles. Even when skirmishes broke out over bosses, the number of participants remained small. The cost of going "red" was simply too high; no one could guarantee they wouldn't die. Once red-named, a player had to hide in a secluded spot to slowly grind away their Sin points, unable to return to the city. If they were spotted by other players while red, they would almost certainly be hunted down.

Now, however, everything had changed. With the public map open, players could PK to their heart's content. If they saw a player from another nation, they would strike at every opportunity. Looting equipment from a fallen enemy felt even better than defeating a boss, and even if nothing dropped, as long as one survived, it was a net gain. The Tianmen Pass, too, appeared to be a monster-infested map; it was hard to imagine how players would manage to hold their ground there without a massive, organized team.

Another point of intrigue was that the activation of national wars was linked to the level of animosity between players of different nations. To trigger these wars sooner, the top players would surely be even more frantic in their hunt for victims. It was a fascinating mechanic. Although the central theme of New World was the war between Humans and Demons, that was merely the narrative backdrop. To the players, the demons were nothing more than monsters to be farmed. The true factions were the seven nations, each representing a player base. The chaotic battles between these factions were where the real fun lay. As for the revamp of the monster siege event, it was only natural; as players grew stronger, fighting bosses while huddled inside a city had become obsolete. Even with a high volume of bosses, they were no longer enough to satisfy the growing player base. A rework was inevitable, though the specific format remained to be seen.

They would have to wait for the official announcement.

Once he reached level thirty, Zhang Shan’s Agru’s Hand Cannon could be unsealed once more. He wondered what the stats of a level-thirty artifact would be. He checked it:

Agru’s Long-Barreled Hand Cannon (Artifact): Physical Attack 4000-4000, Agility +400. Equipment Level: (Sealed), currently Level 30. Artifact equipment gradually unseals as the player levels up, unlocking once every ten levels. Durability: Indestructible. Bound to player Six-Tubed Bodhisattva, cannot be dropped.
Effect 1: Heavy Attack – Physical attack power increased by 10%.
Effect 2: Fever – Attack speed increased by 10%.
Effect 3: Divine Strike – Attacks have a 1% chance to trigger a Divine Strike, ignoring target defense and dealing tenfold damage.
Effect 4: Suppression – Suppresses targets equipped with gear below artifact grade, reducing their defense by 50%.

"Holy cow, that’s insane!" It was a doubling in growth. Could it be that it doubled every ten levels? It made sense, though; a level-thirty red-tier weapon could reach an attack power of over 1,600. Fengyun Qingqing’s spirit-tier weapon already had 1,300 attack at level twenty and would surely hit over 2,000 at level thirty. If Zhang Shan’s artifact cannon only gained 1,000 attack, it would only be at 3,000—hardly distinct enough to reflect the value of an artifact. Doubling the growth was only logical. Besides, boss health pools were skyrocketing; if the players' attack power didn't scale accordingly, how would they ever kill them?

With the cannon unsealed, Zhang Shan’s attack power surged, far surpassing other players—perhaps triple that of anyone else. This was the true advantage of leading in levels: being the first to equip higher-tier gear. The raw stat points gained from leveling up were negligible compared to those provided by a single piece of red-tier equipment. Only at much higher levels would the cumulative stat points from leveling start to rival gear.

The artifact unsealed, doubling both attack power and agility. Perfect. The only slight disappointment was that the special effects remained unchanged. Perhaps they were fixed upon creation? Did unsealing only increase the base stats? That was fine; the effects were already powerful enough. Any further buff would be excessive.

Although Zhang Shan had hit level thirty, he had no new gear to equip. The three red-tier items he already possessed were still stored in his warehouse, and the remaining missing pieces would require a trip to the auction house in the city. Since he couldn't upgrade his gear yet, he turned his attention to his Red Hare horse. He summoned it, eager to take it for a spin.

"Haha, what do you think? Looking sharp?" he asked Boss Wu after mounting the steed.

"Damn, do you have to be so smug? But that horse is gorgeous. Does it have any stats?"

Zhang Shan checked the attributes:
Red Hare: Exclusive mount of an ancient legendary general. Movement speed increased by 200%.

"It only adds movement speed—200%. No other stats."

"Crap, 200% movement speed? That’s basically flying! That speed is broken. I wonder how much speed the horses we buy at the royal capital will have?"

"Who knows? Once you hit thirty and go to the capital, you'll find out."

"Can you grind monsters while mounted? Try it out—is it a combat mount, or just for travel?"

Zhang Shan tried to fire his weapon at an army ant while mounted, but he found he couldn't attack at all.

"Bummer, no attacks. It's not a combat mount; just for transport."

"So even the rewarded Red Hare isn't a combat mount? Does New World not have combat mounts? You have to dismount to fight?"

"Hard to say. When you're moving that fast, you couldn't fight anyway—you'd never be able to lock onto a target."

"True. Even if you could attack, you'd only get one or two hits in unless you stunned them."

"Whatever. The Red Hare looks cool and runs fast; that's enough. Getting from Dangyang City to here now only takes ten minutes, tops. No more wasting huge amounts of time running across the map."

"Yeah, that's the most important thing. The maps in New World are so huge that traveling wastes way too much of a player's time."

"You keep grinding here; I'm going to scout around and see where the boss for this map is hiding."

With that, Zhang Shan spurred his Red Hare and galloped off across the Ant Mountain map.