Where are he?
It's been about an hour since I started waiting for the merchant, but he's nowhere to be seen. I decided to occupy myself with something while I wait. After another hour, I started to notice a carriage in the distance. I immediately hid and decided to wait to see if the merchant had guards, and if so, how many. After a few minutes, they got close enough for me to find out that there were five guards.
Pretty bad for me. Even though I've been training lately and spending points on various upgrades, it's not enough. The best I can do is fight them one by one, but they're unlikely to act like that when they see a bandit. They'll probably attack in a crowd. So I decided to wait and follow them, looking for the right moment. When they got close, I blended into the terrain, and after they passed me at a good distance, I began to slowly follow them.
As the minutes passed, I began to notice that they were becoming quite relaxed. This was surprising, considering they were sort of next to a mountain full of bandits. Well, never mind. By the time the right moment came, it was already dark. They decided to set up camp, and then I decided to wait until they decided to go to bed. While I waited, I became increasingly impatient, because they were in no hurry to sleep. Suddenly, one of them went to sleep, then the other, and so on, until only one man remained on guard. Without wasting any time, I began to creep up, grabbing stones along the way. As I approached, I threw a stone to attract his attention and thereby lure him. And it seemed to work: when he heard the sound, he flinched and, getting into a suitable position for the sword, began to approach the source of the sound. As he approached, I quickly did my best to knock him out.
First, I hit him on the head with a big stick that I found, then I started to strangle him with my hands. And after he passed out, I, just in case, hit him on the head a couple more times, making sure that he was out. I entered the camp. I didn't want to stain my hands with blood yet, so I decided to look for something in the system store that would help me. And after a few seconds, I found it:
Chloroform - price 15 points.
After buying it, I poured it on a cloth and slowly began to knock everyone out until I reached the merchant. Approaching his tent, I decided not to stand on ceremony and immediately hit him in the face.
---
Merchant's Pov:
Bang!
Merchant: "Ow! What the hell? Who did this?"
The blow woke him up. At first, he was angry, but when he saw an unfamiliar figure in front of him, he got scared, and a cold sweat ran down his body. A second later, the figure grabbed him by the neck and lifted him above itself. He immediately realized that it was not one of his guards.
Fear points awarded - 5.
Merchant: "Who are you?"
There was a stuttering tremor in his voice.
Stranger: "I'm Batman."
That was the only thing the stranger said. After these words, the man swung his hand and hit the merchant, knocking him out.
--
Well, that was easy.
After these words, the glow of the Elf suddenly appeared in front of me and the inscription:
System: "Congratulations, kid, on completing your first task!"
Task completed: "Complete your first heist."
Because you completed it in a more stealthy manner, you also receive points as a reward.
Reward: "An unknown Outstanding Hunter Qin Man will join you soon. Also added 150 points."
Total points: 585.
Total fear points: 5.
After getting everything I wanted, I walked up to the horse and carriage with the merchant's goods and took them, heading towards the Fortress.
After a while:
While driving the carriage, I was caught up in my thoughts: it seems like there's about a week or so left before my father dies. I need to start convincing the people in the fortress more strongly that I'm competent to manage them, and thereby reduce the number of bandits escaping from the fortress. Next, I need them to grow various plants from the system store - this will become the basis of the Toad Village's economy. I also need to accumulate points for the Huashan School's technique. Although the training will definitely take more than a year, it will at least be worth it, because there are few people in this universe who can do anything to me with it.
in an instant, something distracted me from my thoughts. I felt someone looking at me. At first I thought I was imagining things, but soon I saw several bandits jump out in front of the carriage.
Looking at them, I thought they were from another fortress and mistook me for a merchant and wanted to rob me. I wanted to explain to them that I was from the Toad Fortress, but I was not sure if that would convince them to let me go. Why? Well, despite the fact that this is a mountain of bandits, there are unwritten rules here, and one of them is not to interfere with each other. Basically, we all cooperate.
When I approached them, I immediately introduced myself, but the answer surprised me.
First bandit: "I don't care! Get off the carriage and give me all the things!"
Second bandit: "If you pull any tricks, we'll kill you without a second thought."
And I immediately realized: these are ordinary bandits.