Yun Miao honestly didn’t understand how things had turned out like this. At the time, she was busy sorting her bundle while calculating how to obtain a storage item in this game as soon as possible.
As a hoarder + immersive + grind king + leopard-head zero-spender, one of her greatest joys in open-world games was to fill her in-game backpack to the brim—every item, all maxed out to 999!
But then, a scream shattered her daydreams. A Male NPC rushed into the temple, and an incredibly ugly giant spider appeared at the Ruined Temple’s doorway.
Next, a group of NPCs began chattering away, advancing the story.
Yun Miao’s first reaction was to open the System panel and look for a skip cutscene button.
Unfortunately, after searching for quite a while, she regretfully discovered that the story in Wen Dao Three Thousand couldn’t be skipped.
Fortunately, this bit of plot was actually quite interesting when savored.
Especially when the Mountain Spider started crawling along the outer wall of the Ruined Temple and then poked its head through a hole in the roof—even as a player, her heart couldn’t help but beat faster.
But that wasn’t the main point. The real issue was… where was the health bar for this spider monster?
As everyone knows, the Health Bar is a crucial feature in most games on the market.
Wen Dao Three Thousand had health bars as well: as long as Yun Miao stared at any NPC for more than three seconds, a prompt box would float above their heads.
Male NPC: Realm: Mortal Realm, Health Bar: 88 points
Tall Thin NPC: Realm: Mortal Realm, Health Bar: 75 points
Young Girl in Black: Realm: Mortal Realm, Health Bar: 96 points
Granny Hua: Realm: Qi Refining Ninth Layer, Health Bar: 1463 points
Yun Miao’s current character was also in the Mortal Realm, with a health bar of 100 points.
Only the just-arrived Male NPC and the Mountain Spider didn’t have health bars above their heads—clearly, something was off.
Just as she was puzzling over this, a flickering red light outside the threshold caught her attention.
She squinted for a closer look, and saw a Little Spider, only about the size of a thumb, but with a health bar hovering above its head.
It stood upright on its hind legs, front limbs waving through the air in front of it.
Because it was so tiny, and everyone else’s attention was focused on the Mountain Spider on the roof, only Yun Miao—who was sitting on the ground—noticed this odd scene.
Realm: Qi Refining Fifth Layer
Health Bar: 674 points
Unlike other NPCs, whose health bars only appeared after staring for three seconds, this Little Spider’s health bar appeared directly in Yun Miao’s field of vision.
The long health bar frame even glowed with a conspicuous red light, as if afraid she might miss it.
Yun Miao didn’t understand why the terrifying Mountain Spider had no health bar, but this thumb-sized Little Spider did.
But she realized something else: any monster that revealed its health bar right away like this was obviously a hostile red-named monster.
So, after thinking for just one second, she decisively pushed aside Granny Hua at the doorway, took off her shoe to use as a weapon, and started her attack.
Hah! Just a Little Spider, and it dares show her a red name? Take my shoe!
But as her straw shoe whooshed through the air toward the upright Little Spider, it sensed danger at once. Its jaws opened, and it spat a foul-smelling line of green liquid at Yun Miao.
Pa!
Yun Miao’s shoe landed squarely on the Little Spider, and a prompt floated above its head: [Health -80]
At the same time, the thread-like green venom splattered onto Yun Miao’s arm. Her vision instantly went black.
***
[You have been poisoned]
[Poison Resistance +1]
[You have died. Please choose to respawn from last save or revive on the spot. Note: To prevent intelligent NPCs from experiencing cognitive errors, players who choose to revive on the spot will be rewound to one minute before death.]
In the pitch-black Death Space, the enormous Bronze Armillary Sphere in the background spun rapidly, while the System prompt hovered before Yun Miao’s eyes.
The first two lines of prompts paused for a few seconds before disappearing, leaving only the last line floating there, unmoving.
Huh? Wait a minute… she died just like that?
Yun Miao rubbed her arm. Since she’d set pain sensitivity to zero ahead of time, she didn’t feel any pain—just a bit annoyed.
She’d only just entered the game, not even an hour in, and she was already dead?
Was this a scripted death? Was the game telling her she had to rely on Granny Hua at Qi Refining Ninth Layer to clear this stage?
As a stubborn player, she refused to accept the game’s arrangement. Yun Miao opened her character panel and saw a new stat: ‘Poison Resistance: 1’. Suddenly, an immature idea sprang to mind.
Yun Miao: Eh-hey 🙂
A moment later…
[You have died]
[Poison Resistance +1]
[You have died]
[Poison Resistance +1]
[You have died]
[Poison Resistance +1]
[Poison Resistance +0.5]
[Poison Resistance +0.1]
Player Name: Yun Miao
Gender: Female
15…..8.5……12.6……
***
After dying more than a dozen times, Yun Miao had transformed from a fragile newbie who got one-shot by a single venom spray into a tough girl who could tank three shots and still bounce around full of life!
In the pitch-black Death Space, Yun Miao looked disdainfully at the line [Poison Resistance +0.1] and decisively chose to revive on the spot again.
Grinding any further would be too inefficient—it was time to clear this event.
No one else realized just how hard a player could work to grind stats.
All they saw was that odd child push aside Granny Hua and sit at the doorway, inexplicably grabbing a shoe and swinging it at the empty ground outside the threshold.
Only Granny Hua and Huaxin, who were close by, finally noticed the Little Spider outside the threshold thanks to Yun Miao’s movements.
Compared to the giant Mountain Spider, this Little Spider was so tiny it was almost like dust. It looked just like an ordinary spider—until it started spraying venom, which made the two women’s hearts skip a beat.
Granny Hua immediately wanted to use her long blade to shield the strange child from the attack, but saw instead that the girl seemed to have predicted the move.
At the very instant the venom shot out, she raised her arm and easily dodged.
Pa!
As the green venom hit the ground, the straw shoe struck the Little Spider hard.
The man who had been screaming suddenly went limp and collapsed to the ground, while the Mountain Spider on the roof let out an enraged screech, pulling back from the hole and stomping furiously atop the roof.
In an instant, countless tiles rained down like hailstones, beams warped severely, and even the roof began to deform, making a tooth-aching creaking sound.
Granny Hua didn’t understand why the Mountain Spider had suddenly gone berserk. Was the Little Spider its offspring? But it didn’t look like it…
Now wasn’t the time to ponder, though. She stomped hard on the ground and, as nimbly as a hawk, soared up to the roof through a hole in the northwest corner.
“Looks like things can’t end peacefully today. Enough—Xin’er, take everyone and get out of here, I’ll handle this beast!”
Huaxin knew about Granny Hua’s condition. “No, Granny, you’re too old…”
Granny Hua’s raspy voice held a laugh:
“Haha, don’t worry about me. I may be old bones, but if it comes to a fight, I can still knock out this spider’s front teeth!”
As she spoke, she was already clashing with the Mountain Spider. Blade and forelimb collided, sending sparks flying.
Huaxin could only turn back to the others and shout, “Hurry, follow me!”
“Oh, oh, oh! Wait, let’s drag him out together!”
The Male NPC and Tall Thin NPC, panic written all over their faces, glanced at the ever-widening hole in the northwest corner of the roof, then huddled together and rushed to the rear, trying to carry the unconscious man to safety.
Seeing this, Huaxin turned back to the strange child at the door and called, “The temple’s about to collapse, run!”
She then ran deeper into the Ruined Temple, intending to help the Male NPC and Tall Thin NPC.
But the stubborn player pretended not to hear.
As the Ruined Temple shook and tiles rained down, Yun Miao sat unmoved at the threshold, wielding her shoe and unleashing a flurry of strikes at the Little Spider.
Pa! Pa! Pa!
Eighty! Eighty! Eighty!
At first, the Little Spider could still spit venom in retaliation. Yun Miao dodged when she could, and when she couldn’t, she just tanked it.
In just two breaths, she’d beaten the Little Spider down to its last sliver of health.
The once-fierce Little Spider finally lost its nerve, its remaining five legs scrambling frantically as it tried to flee.
But it was too small and too slow—before it could get far, the massive shadow of Yun Miao’s shoe came crashing down again!
Yun Miao was so focused on fighting that she didn’t notice the Ruined Temple’s shaking had stopped at some point.
The tiles no longer fell, and even the temple itself and the Mountain Spider’s figure began to flicker strangely.
Granny Hua was the first to notice something amiss.
She frowned at the now-phantom Mountain Spider for a few seconds, then suddenly did a nimble flip and jumped back into the Ruined Temple, her gaze fixed deeply on Yun Miao at the doorway.
Huaxin hurried to Granny Hua’s side and followed her gaze to the strange child at the door. “Granny, what’s…?”
Granny Hua raised her hand to signal for silence.
The Male NPC and Tall Thin NPC, who had reached the man’s side, kept their heads down in confusion as they looked at the now-peaceful Ruined Temple, then turned to stare at the odd child still swinging her straw shoe.
In this bizarre, silent moment, with all eyes on her, Yun Miao landed the final blow on the Little Spider.
Pa!
The Little Spider’s health bar was completely emptied. At the same time, as if something invisible had popped, the entire Ruined Temple and the giant Mountain Spider vanished in an instant.
Where the Ruined Temple had stood was now a Wild Grass Wasteland, sparse weeds glowing silver in the moonlight, while the firelight flickered in the wind.
The Male NPC and Tall Thin NPC huddled together in panic.
“What’s going on?”
“Where’s the temple? Where’s the Mountain Spider?”
Granny Hua looked around thoughtfully, then sheathed her long blade. A trace of loneliness appeared on her aged face.
“So that’s how it is… I’m getting old, my eyes are failing—I can’t believe I didn’t see through this. In the end, it was a little child who saved us.”
“Truly, the Yangtze’s waves push the old before the new—each new wave stronger than the last. Heroes are born young…”
Huaxin walked over to hold Granny Hua’s hand, though her gaze remained on the distant figure.
Yun Miao, meanwhile, kept her eyes fixed on the Little Spider’s corpse, where two tiny glimmers reminded her not to forget her loot.
So she tentatively reached out, pried open the spider’s broken head and abdomen, and pinched up the two shimmering items inside.
[Poison Gland of Unknown Spider]: Contains a small amount of spiritual energy; filled with venom deadly to mortals on contact with blood.
[Silk Gland of Unknown Spider]: Contains a small amount of spiritual energy; use unknown.