The female player watched the Shadowwood Panther sprint straight toward her, and her Novice Healing Potion slipped straight from her hand to the ground. She crouched down, hugging her knees, and burst into terrified tears.

  She thought another monster had spawned, about to launch an attack on her.

  But the next second, the panther leaped gracefully over her head and landed steadily between her and the Corrupted Rat King. Its amber eyes locked dead on the colossal beast before it, a low, threatening growl rumbling in its throat.

  The surrounding players froze for a beat, then realized the panther was not a wild mob at all, but a player's summon. A wave of chatter exploded at once.

  NoFoolingAround: What class is this? I've never seen it once since launch. Did they transfer over from another region?

  CantTakeIt: Never heard of a class like this in the novice zones!

  NoCherry: What do you mean, never heard of it? I saw it in the novice village before the cataclysm. That's definitely him!

  BunLover: Oh my god, yes! Look at his ID! That's the guy who was first to reach Silvermoon Town!

  DontBeJealous: Tch, so he was first to the safe zone and got a few rewards. Big deal. He really thinks he can play hero now?

  Every eye in the area locked onto Kairon, waiting to watch him get one-shot by the rat king in an instant. But in the blink of an eye, Kairon was gone from his spot.

  No way? He just put on a show and bailed?

  That was the exact thought that crossed every single player's mind at once.

  But the next second, a blinding red critical hit number floated up abruptly over the Corrupted Rat King's head.

  -234!

  Over a fifth of its total health bar was gone in a single hit.

  The crowd followed the source of the damage and saw pale green thorny vines erupt from cover to the side, piercing clean through the rat king's soft, least protected underbelly.

  The Shadowwood Panther, meanwhile, had already circled to the rat king's rear, its sharp claws sunk deep into the fresh wound.

  Every player there stared, dumbfounded.

  A critical hit dealt 1.5 times normal damage. That meant the base damage of his single skill was over 150 points!

  Holy shit, did I see that right? What kind of insane damage is that?

  Fuck, I can't hit this hard even with 20 auto attacks!

  That's a level 5 BOSS! He's only level 4, right? How the hell did he do that?

  While the crowd gaped in shock, the Corrupted Rat King spun around in a fit of rage and charged straight for Kairon behind cover.

  But Kairon weaved around the rat king using the terrain, his footwork placing him perfectly in its attack blind spots every time. The Shadowwood Panther stuck to the rat king's back like a leech, relentlessly striking its weak points with [Rip] over and over.

  The pair moved in perfect sync. The rat king's massive frame spun in circles like a top, unable to get even a single hit on the hem of Kairon's robes.

  The watching players shifted from shock to outright awe. That footwork, that control over the mob's aggro, there was no way a brand-new player who'd only been in the game a few hours could pull that off.

  [Rip], [Basic Attack], [Rip], [Basic Attack] ...

  -164, -43, -159, -47...

  Damage numbers floated up one after another, and Kairon had already calculated the BOSS's stats in his head. It had a total health pool of 2000 points, and its defense wasn't particularly high.

  That was standard for novice zone BOSSes. If their defense was stacked too high, low-level players would never be able to pierce it, making them unkillable.

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  But he did not dare take a single hit of its attack power. It was a BOSS, after all. A single bite would one-shot even a Warrior Tank, let alone a Nature Mage with his relatively frail frame.

  And so he used his movement speed and aggro control to pull off a masterclass in kiting.

  Before the stunned eyes of every player present, the Corrupted Rat King let out one final, shrill scream, and its massive frame crashed to the ground.

  Ding! Congratulations on completing the world first kill of the level 5 BOSS [Corrupted Rat King]. The System will issue a server-wide announcement. Would you like to hide your character name?

  "Hide."

  Kairon froze for a split second, then stepped forward quickly to grab the treasure chest the BOSS had dropped, vanishing from the crowd's sight without a sound.

  At almost the same moment, a server-wide announcement blared across every corner of World of Eldrath.

  Ding! Server-Wide Announcement: Player [****] has claimed the world first kill of the server's first BOSS, [Corrupted Rat King]. Rewards will be sent to the player's mailbox. Please check your inbox for details!

  Hot on its heels came consecutive announcements for the war zone first kill, regional first kill, and Novice Village 1314 first kill. The rewards for each announcement were sent straight to Kairon's mailbox in sync.

  Kairon leaned back against a tree in the woods, a faint, satisfied smile crossing his face. First kill rewards were always generous, especially world firsts, which almost always came with rare skill books and massive amounts of in-game currency.

  He opened his portable mailbox, first finding the Novice Village first kill reward: 10 Silver Coins.

  Gold drop rates in World of Eldrath were abysmally low. The average player would kill a dozen mobs just to get a single Silver Coin to drop on rare occasions, and Gold was the universal currency of the game, required for everything from gear repairs to forging and enhancement.

  Luckily, thanks to his [Wishing Box], he didn't need to spend a single coin on enhancements, only Enhancement Stones.

  In his past life, even when he'd hit level 120, killing mobs of the same level would only net him a few Gold Coins on rare occasions.

  10 Silver Coins in the early days of launch was already a small fortune. But when he opened the rest of his reward emails, he realized those 10 Silver Coins were nothing at all.

  War Zone First Kill Reward: 1 Gold Coin.

  Regional First Kill Reward: 10 Gold Coins.

  World First Kill Reward: 100 Gold Coins, Skill Book [Nature Blade].

  I'm rich. Not only is breakfast covered, but I won't have to worry about money for a long, long time. Kairon stared at the pile of Gold Coins, his eyes lighting up, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth that he could barely hold back.

  He remembered that in the No.1 Novice Village of the Eastern War Zone, a wealthy player was buying up Gold at a rate of 100 Credits per Silver Coin.

  He'd thought about crossing over to the No.1 Novice Village to sell his coins, but he knew it wasn't realistic.

  The border zones between novice villages were crawling with level 30 elite mobs. Even with his power far outstripping other players at his level, there was no way he could cross that massive level gap. Not to mention that with a level gap that big, even stealth skills couldn't hide him from high-level mobs' detection. He'd be spotted the second he stepped into their aggro range.

  World of Eldrath's official real currency exchange system wouldn't launch for another six months.

  Right now, if he wanted to cash out his coins, his options were to go through a trusted middleman or do a private player-to-player trade. He didn't have time for an in-person meetup, and there was zero trust between strangers for private trades. The best option was to go through a middleman.

  He remembered it clearly. There was exactly such a person in Novice Village 1314. He'd done dozens of trades with him in his past life, and his reputation had always been rock solid.

  He opened the friend request menu and typed in the ID: Honest007.

  Ding! The other player has accepted your friend request. Real-time voice chat is now available.

  Kairon sent a message straight away: "Hey, you buying gold? Got a large amount. Name your price."

  A few seconds later, a reply came back: "You're the guy who got the BOSS first kill?"

  Kairon was caught off guard: "You know who I am?"

  Quit messing around: "Yeah, you hid your ID in the announcement, but who in Novice Village 1314 hasn't heard your name by now? Soloed a level 5 BOSS. No one else in the entire novice zone can pull that off."

  Reading the reply, Kairon felt no excitement, only a flicker of wariness. So many people had watched him kill the Corrupted Rat King. Even if he'd hidden his name in the announcement, people would figure out who he was anyway.

  In his past life, it was his overblown reputation that had let Zareth and Virella set up that trap for him.

  Guess I need to lay low from now on.

  When he didn't reply, the other player sent another message: "Current rate is 0.6 Credit per Copper. How much do you have? If it's a large enough amount, I can bump the rate up for you."

  Seeing the rate, Kairon knew the score. Gold prices were at their peak on launch day. He knew full well that in two weeks, the rate in Novice Village 1314 would stabilize around 0.3 Credit per Copper, and it would be much the same in every other novice village, except for the No.1 Novice Village in the Eastern War Zone, where all the wealthy players were clustered.

  He thought for a moment, then sent a reply: "100 Gold. You good for that?"

  He hadn't originally planned to sell all his gold, but when he thought about upgrading to a top-of-the-line full-dive gaming pod, he changed his mind.

  When the other person didn't reply right away, Kairon didn't mind. With the gold in his inventory, he'd have no trouble finding a buyer.

  If the middleman was buying at 0.6 Credits per Copper, he could shout in the World Channel and sell it for 1 Credit per Copper, and people would be fighting to buy it from him.

  He hadn't wasted a second this entire time, continuing to make his way toward the town.

  Suddenly, he remembered the skill book from his world first kill reward, and immediately opened his inventory.