Skills aren’t learned for nothing, and people don’t care about the little money that newbie players have. In short, you have to do quests, you have to run errands. These errands are linked one after another. As the saying goes, a good start is half the battle. The first few quests are just errands without fighting monsters and seem the simplest, but they are actually the most important, because this is the “revolutionary” discovery of later generations of bored players.

It’s just an errand quest, but Jack Carter is fully prepared. He opens the town mini-map, triple-checks the shortest route, and he’s ready—go! Accept the quest, turn around, start running, cross the street, slip through alleys, jump over the overpass to take a shortcut, drink a stamina potion to keep up the speed, reach the armory without wasting time talking to any quartermaster, toss Audrey Collins’s letter, grab the bundle of arrows and dash off. On the way back, he can’t take the same route; he has to jump from the river bridge onto a small boat passing under the bridge. These small boats in the crisscrossing waterways of the Elven Port are like TAXIs. Toss 5 copper coins for the fare, don’t wait for the boat to dock, jump ashore midway, and then, and then he’s back. Total time: 3 minutes and 57 seconds.

He receives a small amount of experience and some copper coins as a reward.

Audrey Collins says in surprise, “You really surprised me, you got it back so quickly. I thought a newbie like you would take half a day just to find the armory. Since you’re so capable, could you help us with another small favor…”

This is the trick: if you finish this errand within 5 minutes, you get Audrey Collins’s praise. This praise is extremely important—it’s a good start, half the battle for a successful life.

After the praise, the follow-up quest is still given impartially: “There are so many newbies now, we’re a bit overwhelmed here. We ordered a batch of targets for the newbies to train with. Please go to the carpentry shop and pick them up for us. The sooner the better, I need them urgently.”

Of course, the faster the better. You get more praise, a bit of experience, some copper coins, and then again: “There are so many newbies, and we don’t have enough training wooden bows. Go get some…”

And then: “My colleague Fletcher injured her arm during training a while ago and has been recuperating in the hospital. I really, really miss her, but I’m very busy here. Could you go visit her for me and ask when she’ll be able to come back…”

Fletcher, another trainer at the training center, the king of skipping work—an NPC with this kind of setting is a rare existence in the game, and the reason for her existence is a mystery that power-leveling studios have never figured out.

Jack Carter finds Fletcher in the hospital, looking perfectly healthy.

Fletcher: “I’m really injured, I really still need to recover, I’m not slacking off on purpose because of my injury… Please tell Audrey Collins, thank her for her concern, and I’ll definitely be able to return to work in a while.”

At this point, the Audrey Collins questline ends. As long as you go back and report, she’ll teach you basic archery.

But if you really just go back now, all the praise you earned before will be wasted, a half-finished effort. As long as the player pays a little attention to the story, even a blind person could tell from their words that Audrey Collins is quite dissatisfied with Fletcher, so you can’t leave yet.

Jack Carter quietly waits by the hospital bed.

After a while, the follow-up event happens. Fletcher sighs deeply and mutters to herself, “It’s been so long since I’ve had apples from Moonlight Forest. I really miss that taste…”

OK, the Fletcher side quest is officially triggered. No need for words, Jack Carter turns and goes to the market to buy them—another 5 copper coins gone.

Fletcher is just a lazy foodie. Later, she’ll ask for “grapes from Mount Hyjal,” “red fruit from Crystal Song Lake,” “snow plums from Tianmu Prairie”—these are all randomly named, but fortunately, they’re all local specialties, and the town market will always have them.

Finally, she asks: “Human chocolate cream cake is really good…”

Jack Carter lets out a wail: Damn it, even after transmigrating, my luck is still this bad!

Chocolate cake is an imported good; you can’t buy it in a small town like this. You have to go to several big cities. The nearest one, Darnassus, is a day’s round trip by boat from here. But there’s no choice—even if it took a week, you’d have to go, because in the early stages, the time investment is absolutely worth it.

Chapter 3: Quest-Chain Rocket Leveling

A day later, Jack Carter returns from Darnassus.

Fletcher wipes her mouth, still savoring the taste. No matter how thick her skin, it can’t be thicker than a target, so she finally says, “Thank you so much for your attentive care. After eating so many delicious things, my injury has suddenly healed. I think I should go back to work today.”

At the hunter training center, Audrey Collins glares at Fletcher: “Good thing you finally showed up, or I’d be dead from all this work.”

Fletcher replies calmly, “I have to thank Jack Carter for the attentive care that let me leave the hospital early.”

Audrey Collins smiles at Jack Carter: “Now I’ll teach you basic archery. Also, to thank you for your enthusiastic help, I’ll give you this short bow.”

See, the reward has arrived—a fine short bow, 3-6 damage, 1 point higher than a regular short bow. You can sell it in the shop for 30 silver coins. For a newbie, earning 30 silver coins would take a long time. Jack Carter has been short on money after days of running errands, and the upcoming quests will also require a lot of money. Sell it without hesitation; if you don’t, you might even fail the later quests.