Chapter 24: Elimination and Lock

A player used an item on themselves or on the Slime King, causing the Slime King to mutate. It could only be one of these two possibilities.

As for which one, Chen Mo leaned toward the first possibility.

In both pieces of news about the Mutant Slime King, there was no mention of other players being present. So it was very likely that another player used some kind of item from a distance, which caused the Slime King to mutate.

However, it could not be ruled out that the two people who posted the news intentionally hid the important clue about the mutation condition.

But regardless of which possibility it was, the item that caused the Slime King’s mutation was definitely obtained from the Starter Village or the surrounding areas.

The item was not very common and was somewhat difficult to obtain. Players could actively use it. The item description probably had nothing to do with the Slime King, and causing the Slime King to mutate was just a hidden property of the item.

There were not too many items in the entire Starter Village. With these conditions, even if they couldn’t immediately identify which item it was, they could eliminate a large portion of possibilities.

Items obtained in the Starter Village came from only three sources: dropped by monsters, bought from shops, or rewarded from quests.

Chen Mo quickly eliminated the items bought from shops after walking around Earl Town.

In Earl Town, the items sold in shops were pitifully few. There were only the starter weapons given by the System, beginner HP and MP potions, and some miscellaneous quest items. For example, fishing rods, shovels, hoes, etc., which were needed in some quests.

The remaining items were those dropped by monsters and those rewarded from quests.

There were many items dropped by monsters, and Chen Mo knew he couldn’t figure them out quickly. However, for items rewarded from quests, he could find out about ninety percent by checking the forum.

The game had been open for over a day. For the Starter Village quests, there were already various guides on the game forum, clearly describing the quest process and rewards.

Chen Mo went to the forum and started looking through the quests one by one.

He had only completed some of the earlier quests in the Starter Village, and later he only completed the skill quest for the Slight Poison Crossbow.

“Overall, the most likely ones are ‘Braised Puffer Fish,’ ‘Expired Strong Alcohol,’ ‘Corroded Apple,’ ‘Tempting Poison,’ and ‘Discarded Dog Food.'”

Chen Mo finally locked onto five items that could only be obtained through quests.

Braised Puffer Fish: A chef in Earl Town would ask players to get a puffer fish. To obtain the puffer fish, players needed to buy a fishing rod from the grocery store and go fishing in a river outside the town. Only then might they catch a puffer fish.

The chance of players catching a puffer fish was not high. To complete this quest, players needed to spend a lot of time. After completing the quest, players would receive 10 pieces of “Braised Puffer Fish” from the chef.

The effect of Braised Puffer Fish was that after eating it, it increased all of the player’s Attributes for 10 minutes. However, because the puffer fish was toxic, during those ten minutes, the player would lose 5 Health Points every second.

Completing this quest was not easy. To catch a puffer fish, it would take at least half an hour. Spending half an hour to get an item that increased all Attributes by 10 points for 100 minutes but also made you constantly lose Health was not worth it. So players who knew the reward were not interested in this quest. There were not many Braised Puffer Fish in the game, and since the item was toxic, it was highly likely to cause the Slime King to mutate.

Expired Strong Alcohol was obtained by completing a request from a drunkard in Earl Town. The effect of Expired Strong Alcohol was to instantly restore 300 MP for the player. However, in the ten minutes after using it, the player could not use any more MP recovery potions.

Corroded Apple could be obtained when accepting the quest from the orchard owner outside the town to clear weeds in the orchard. Corroded Apple was not the final quest reward item, but while clearing weeds, there was a chance to pick up this special item, Corroded Apple. It could not be found anywhere else. This thing had the dual effect of restoring HP and MP, but after eating it, the player’s Strength and Intelligence would both decrease by 10 points. Like Braised Puffer Fish, it was an item with negative effects.

Corroded Apple had a chance to appear; not every player who accepted the orchard clearing quest could get it. So naturally, it entered Chen Mo’s candidate list.

Then there were “Tempting Poison” and “Discarded Dog Food.”

Tempting Poison was actually a quest item. Many mice appeared in the basement of a resident in Earl Town. After accepting the quest, players could obtain Tempting Poison through the quest. Using Tempting Poison in the basement would kill the mice and complete the quest.

However, Tempting Poison was not limited to being used only in the quest location. Some players had tried using it in other places, and it could be used, but the poison effect did not work on other monsters.

But would it work on the Slime King? That player hadn’t tried it, so Chen Mo naturally wouldn’t overlook this kind of thing.

And then there was Discarded Dog Food.

This item had a strange origin.

A resident in Earl Town wanted to dig a well. After players accepted the quest, they bought a shovel from the grocery store. During the well-digging process, there was a small chance to obtain Discarded Dog Food.

What this thing was used for was still unknown.

But when Chen Mo saw Discarded Dog Food, he knew it was most likely used to distract the hunting dog guarding the mayor’s house.

But getting the dog food was not easy; the chance of it appearing was less than one percent.

Chen Mo took some time to investigate the items dropped by monsters in the Starter Village.

He originally thought it would be very complicated, but after a quick check, Chen Mo eliminated most of the monster drop items.

The reason was simple: among the items dropped by monsters that players could use, almost all were potions. The remaining equipment and materials could not be used directly by players.

Of course, many monster materials could be exchanged through quests for items that players could use, but Chen Mo had already eliminated those quest reward items.

So it seemed that next, he could use those items suspected of causing the Slime King to mutate for confirmation.

However, these items were not easy to obtain. If he tried to get them all himself, it might take half a day and he still might not get them all. It would be a waste of time.

Moreover, after confirming the Slime King’s mutation condition, he still needed to buy a pair of top-grade shoes that increased movement speed limit.

All of these required money. Chen Mo had saved up five silver coins by reaching level ten, but it was impossible to buy so many things with that.

After thinking about it, Chen Mo decided to post a paid thread to earn some extra money!

“Become Stronger—Revealing the Free Skill System!”

A few minutes later, a paid viewing thread appeared on the forum.

The Free Skill System would not remain a secret for long. Right now, he definitely wasn’t the only one who knew about this system, but other players hadn’t made it public, probably each with their own motives.

Chen Mo actually didn’t want to reveal this system too early either, because the Free Skill System was like a key. Once players knew about it, some would surely be inspired, and people would also realize that the Holographic Virtual Network was more powerful than they imagined.

But to get some starting funds, Chen Mo thought about it and decided to reveal it anyway.

If he failed to complete the commission this time, at least he wouldn’t be at a loss.

After posting the thread, having been online for so long, Chen Mo felt hungry, so he logged off to get some food and drink.

After eating and drinking his fill, Chen Mo returned to the forum to see how much income his thread had brought him.

“What’s going on? Only a little over ten thousand people paid to view it?”

Chen Mo had left the forum for almost half an hour. In half an hour, he thought at least a hundred or two hundred thousand people would have paid to view it. He didn’t expect that only a pitiful ten thousand plus people had paid.

Chen Mo quickly found the reason.

“The Tycoons Club, Decrypting the Free Skill System for You for Free!”

Just a few minutes after he posted his thread, someone called “Brother Jiu” posted such a thread.

“Damn! You stupid Tycoons Club!”

Chen Mo quickly scanned the content of the thread and couldn’t help but curse.

This time, he was badly screwed over by The Tycoons Club.