More than a thousand years ago, Taranthan was a renowned battleground in the continent of Navalon where the armies of the eastern and western nations clashed. Lots of blood was shed, and many lives were sacrificed in the dense force and marshes, leaving behind countless remains.
After many years, the wars had long passed, and Taranthan transformed from a fiercely contested territory into a lawless wasteland. However, the old transportation routes that were once established by the nations for deploying troops and transporting supplies still bore faint traces.
The dirt roads that once witnessed the passage of great armies were now completely covered by overgrown grass and, in some places, had become part of the surrounding jungle. Nevertheless, they were still passable, at least for the cargo tricycles.
On this windless night, the land beneath the dark sky was shrouded in a thin veil of mist. The air was filled with the delicate chirping of insects and the distant roar of beasts. Predatory birds lurked in the shadows of hazy trees, while snakes and bugs rustled through the dense vegetation.
Accompanied by a pleasant jingling, the sight of a zombie clad in tattered armor, with a sword at its waist, pedaling a cargo tricycle laden with supplies, emerged amid the tall grass of the wilderness.
Not far behind the zombie, hundreds of skeletons either jogged alongside or rode on similar tricycles, also loaded with cargo, forming a long procession.
At the beginning of their journey, the players, who were amazed by the exquisitely crafted world outside the town, reminiscent of a romantic adventure in a wild landscape, fell into a profound silence.
"I have a… ominous feeling," murmured Tang Jia, mechanically pedaling at the front of the procession along with the rest of Unceasing Entropy's small team. "With the sh*tty nature of this game, I suspect that this 'expedition team' might truly be embarking on a real expedition."
"You don't say," said Jia Luo in frustration as she jogged alongside Tang Jia. "We've been out for almost an hour, and the scenery hasn't changed much. I can't believe they would design a dynamic plotline quest that feels like endless traveling. What the hell goes through the mind of these damned game developers?!"
In front of Tang Jia, Ji Tang silently pedaled his tricycle without uttering a single word.
He reckoned that this "quest" of continuous traveling might not just take half a day but potentially several… well, several in-game days.
Ultimately, Ji Tang was also a youngster and could understand the mentality of his fellows. At this moment, he understood why players always cursed the design and development team. Had he been in their shoes, he would want to curse too.
If it were a disaster relief and emergency operation, young volunteers would willingly endure hardships and rough it out for ten days or longer because they knew they were saving lives. However, in the game, players were lured under the pretext of quests to rescue people. It would be truly bizarre that players would willingly suffer this ordeal when it was all just mere data in their opinion.
When they set off, there had been 18 teams with over 150 players online (not counting the remains of offline companions). But within an hour of travel, between 20 to 30 players used various excuses to log off and left their "remains" in the cart of their own team's tricycles.
Ji Tang was worried that these players, upon seeing that the journey was still ongoing when the day broke, would simply choose to abandon the expedition and return to the city… Players were certainly capable of such behavior.
Each team was responsible for two cargo tricycles, in addition to the one ridden by the zombie general, making a total of 37. If half the players ran away, safely escorting the 37 cargo tricycles to the location to "set up the base" would become a serious problem…
Ji Tang was already troubled by the "people of Camore" awaiting rescue. As he pedaled a tricycle, a pile of bones wrapped in clothes on his carts suddenly moved on its own and rearranged to form a human skeleton.
Behind him, Tang Jia and Jia Luo, who was jogging by the side, weren't the least bit scared at witnessing such a horrifying sight. On the contrary, they exclaimed in unison, "You're on already, Sis Ying?"
"Yes, I'm here." The skeleton, now fully formed, supported itself with one hand and jumped off the cart. While putting on clothes, Yang Ying said, "I ran out of food at home, so I went downstairs for a midnight snack. Luckily the soup dumpling shop at the entrance of the estate opened 24 hours, or I would have gone hungry."
"Keep some individually packaged cakes at home. They are filling enough and have sufficient calorie content," said Jia Luo. "I relied on those and cola when I was grinding Ranger reputation."
"I don't really like sweet stuff," said Yang Ying, putting on leather armor over her beginner clothes and fastening the straps. "Ji Tang, Tang Jia, are you guys tired of pedaling? Wanna switch?"
"No need. We won't get tired anyway, and riding a bike isn't too boring," was Tang Jia's response.
Ji Tang also said there was no need.
Now fully geared up with a steel blade at her waist, Yang Ying jogged alongside Jia Luo and engaged in soft, idle chatter.
Their small team only consisted of five people, including their leader. When organizing as a group for the quest, they had added four random players. As these players weren't familiar with them and felt awkward getting close to the girls, they hung behind Tang Jia's tricycle.
Such a monotonous journey offered no opportunity to check their phones or do anything interesting. The four random players found it unbearable and were about to suggest giving an excuse to store their "remains" and log off.
But before they could say anything, the zombie general leading the way suddenly halted. Not only did General Edgar stop his tricycle, he even leaped off it and shouted with vigor at the large formation of players while raising his zombie fist. "Prepare to fight the enemy!"
The bored players immediately perked up, and cries of "monsters?" and "time to farm monsters?" rang out as they stopped their carts and drew their steel blades.
Not long after, the forested area nearby rustled and crackled with a cacophony of sound. A grotesque giant toad, the size of a small truck, covered in bumps and oozing strange liquids, emerged, breaking countless branches as it surfaced.
"The f*ck?!"
"Holy!!"
"What is that thing?!"
Players were shocked and horrified by the creature's appearance, some covering their eyes in disgust.
Of course, there were also players who weren't shaken by the ugliness and, in a display of their quick-thinking gaming skill, cast "Identify" on the gigantic toad:
———
[Demonized Toad]
[Lv3]
[A low-level monster that roams through dense forests and swamps. Adept at sonic attacks, it secretes highly toxic bodily fluids.]
[Possible drops: Toxic Crystal (Rare), Magic Essence Residue (Rare), Pure Magic Crystal (Rare)]
———
As soon as the players saw three items on the drop list in purple font, their initial shock turned into excitement. "Whoa! Three rare materials! It's an elite monster!"
At present, players could barely survive encounters with the spider monsters, and collecting ten common Spider Venom Sacs could be exchanged with Lord Yang for 200 points of reputation or sold for at a market rate of about one to two copper coins.
Uncommon-grade materials like Spider Venom Globules and Magic Residue could be exchanged for 20 points of territory prestige, and their market price was ten times as much. These were even considered priceless commodities since territory prestige was closely tied to the opportunity of becoming town mayor, and there were always people waiting near the entrance of the Spider Cave to purchase these drops.
Rare-grade materials, on the other hand, had never been seen before by players.
But regardless of if they were never before seen, players were certainly interested to grab good drops. Without any need for the zombie general's mobilization, the players charged forward like rabid dogs.
CROAK!
The giant toad lurking in the dense forest probably hadn't expected these tiny creatures to voluntarily rush toward their own demise. It opened its mouth and let out a croak.
Sonic attacks couldn't be considered mental attacks; they leaned more toward physical attacks since they targeted the eardrums and disrupted the sensory balance of living beings.
However, the skeleton frames, which were controlled by the players' souls projected on them, couldn't be considered living beings…
Therefore, the toad didn't accomplish anything when it let out the croak. Instead, as it finished, the players at the forefront stabbed at it with their steel blades.
"F*ck! It won't cut through!"
"We can't break its defense!"
"Use your skills, idiots!"
"Those who haven't advanced jobs yet, step aside!"
Brother Lahong and Qin Guan, the two big shots with experience leading teams to fight monsters, stepped forward to halt the chaotic crowd of players and directed their elite forces to take the frontline.
Several players who had become knights were enveloped in a red aura (the visual effect of the Basic Battle Roar). They took the lead, followed closely by those who had become walkers. Armed with the small daggers given by their job instructor upon successfully advancing jobs, or their familiar steel blades, they relentlessly slashed at the mutated toad's bulky and massive body.
Despite also being a level-3 monster, the mutated toad, due to its different "enhancement" path, didn't have the same tough hide and thick flesh as the giant rat in the town. Its ugly skin was quickly pierced, and its toxic fluids splattered everywhere.
Upon contact, this toxin, which was deadly to any ordinary creature, didn't scare the players who weren't considered biological beings. However, they disliked being covered in this sticky substance and quickly backed away.
"Don't back down! It's trying to escape!" Brother Lahong, seeing the mutated toad attempting to retreat into the forest, grew anxious and swiftly brandished his steel knife, leading the charge.
The demonized toad became enraged and charged at the players with its bulky and massive body.
This rather slow charge… couldn't compare to the giant rat in town that was like a speeding bullet. However, due to the dense host of players and the undead's vulnerability to collisions, bone arms and legs were scattered all over the ground.
Ji Tang picked up a player whose legs had been knocked off, helping the latter fasten the straps of his armor, and tossed him aside before bellowing in a deep voice, "Spread out and maintain a distance!
"Pay attention to rescuing teammates, don't let anyone die!
"This monster can only charge forward and sideways! Keep moving and attack from behind! Don't be greedy for high damage output! Retreat when it turns to face you!
"Knights, block the direction toward the forest!"
In the midst of chaos, players instinctively followed the voice that provided clear guidance. The once tightly packed and cumbersome group scattered. The undead, who already possessed agility as an advantage, turned into a swarm of piranhas, relentlessly chipping away at the elite monster's health.
Brother Lahong, who had lost command in the blink of an eye, and Qin Guan, who had yet to make a significant contribution, stared with mixed feelings at the composed Ji Tang, who seamlessly coordinated the players' attacks and personally confronted the mutated toad head-on, effectively drawing its attention.
"The monster's movements are slowing down! Warriors, charge!" Ji Tang issued another command.
"Coming!" Yang Ying and Tang Jia immediately activated their Basic Battle Roar and charged straight on at the mutated toad.
Wanderers, upon reaching their first advancement, could only learn two melee weapon skills (including daggers, knives, and swords) and two bow skills. Since players temporarily didn't have access to ranged weapons, and melee weapon skills had short cooldowns and consumed less mental energy, even players like Jia Luo, who was dedicated to becoming a ranger, temporarily adopted a melee combat style.
The four skills of knights leaned more toward defense, although they still weren't good at enduring charges. However, when dealing with lighter-weight creatures like spiders, their Shield Strike and Shock abilities could briefly immobilize the spiders, reducing damage toward themselves.
Warriors were different. All four of their skills were offensive and berserk.
Yang Ying and Tang Jia simultaneously charged with a left-right approach. With a weight of at least three to four tons and a low center of gravity, the giant toad was still visibly shaken by the impact.
The two girls, who already cooperated very well in monster hunting, simultaneously unleashed Sword Storm.
This "windmill" technique invented in traditional online games back on Earth, where one spun in place while wielding a weapon, inflicting significant damage to surrounding enemies, didn't exist in this world. After all, normal fighters wouldn't be foolish enough to transform into a spinning top during battles where the enemy would just run away. And how stupid was it to leave one's back open in reality?
But Yang Qiu still imitated the traditional warrior skill from Earth's online games and created Sword Storm. The reason being, firstly, this skill was simple, direct, and could quickly deal a substantial amount of damage. Secondly, players usually engaged in group fights while farming monsters and knights would be at the forefront, so briefly exposing vulnerabilities wasn't a big deal.
With an apt understanding of the weaknesses of the warrior profession, Ji Tang allowed his two teammates to join the fight against the weakened demonized toad, making the creature "bleed." As the two warrior sisters spun in a whirlwind of swords on each side, toxic body fluids and bits of skin were sent flying. Players using "Identify" observed the "health bar" of the demonized toad decreasing rapidly.
"Damn, that's so cool!" Many players that had yet to advance jobs were worked up at the sight. "I'm not going to play as a wanderer anymore, I want to be a warrior too!"
The Sword Storm skill of the two warrior sisters ended, and in perfect synchronization, they activated Blade Dance, a skill that existed in this world. It involved swiftly swinging one's weapons and continuously attacking within a 30-degree angle in front of them. Top-tier warriors could even use dual-wielding techniques to create an impenetrable wall of blades with this skill.
Yang Ying and Tang Jia had only reached their first advancements and had only been focusing on practicing with a single weapon during their monster farming efforts. They were still far away from even touching dual-wielding.
However, even with a single weapon, their graceful sword movements were enough to make non-advanced players envious and catch the attention of those who had done the advancement to wanderers and knights.
"Unfortunately, warriors have weak survival abilities. They can't endure attacks like knights, nor can they escape like wanderers. Otherwise, I would have also played as a warrior," Brother Lahong lamented as he watched on with envy.
When Brother Lahong spotted Vanilla Pudding (Qin Guan) next to him with his mouth agape, he couldn't help but blurt out, "Vanilla, aren't you also a warrior? Why don't you join in and practice?"
"Uh…"
If not because he knew Brother Lahong had a solid character despite being a competitor, Qin Guan would have suspected the former was looking for an opportunity to mock him.
Although Qin Guan was also a warrior and had completed his first job advancement, he usually focused on commanding and rarely engaged in combat personally. He wasn't all that skilled in his abilities, so wouldn't he make a fool of himself if he joined the fight?
After Yang Ying and Tang Jia used their skills, Ji Tang recalled them and personally took to the field again to adjust the monster's position, creating a favorable situation for wanderers to unleash their damage.
Once Yang Ying's and Tang Jia's Rage Meter (the mental energy required to use rune skills) naturally returned to full, Ji Tang let the two warriors out again.
Skilled players indeed had greater combat ability than most ordinary people.
However, having skills didn't necessarily mean one knew how to use them. It was like modern weapons on Earth, which were completely different in the hands of soldiers trained in industrialized countries compared to militiamen from tribal or makeshift national armies. It wasn't unheard of for thousands of several thousand militiamen of less developed countries scattered in panic after clashing with a few hundred well-trained mercenaries.
Yang Qiu needed the players to develop a certain level of combat ability, but he couldn't force players to train collectively. Therefore, he provided monster hunting grounds, allowing players to gradually develop synergy and teamwork, while he manipulated dynamic plot quests behind the scenes.
Elevating Ji Tang, a disciplined soldier, to the position of commander made perfect sense.
The players didn't know that Ji Tang, who had undergone systematic training and had practical experience in executing military missions in the real world, would definitely find a way to organize their combat power and do everything possible to preserve lives, given the premise that they were rescuing real people.
Take, for example, the situation with this demonized toad. If it weren't for Ji Tang's excellent arrangements and efforts to create a safe environment for players to deal damage, having a number of casualties on their side would be normal, given the player's chaotic style of fighting…
After about 20 minutes of intense battle, the severely injured toad let out a mournful cry and collapsed to the ground. There was no need for players to "loot the corpse" as its battered belly peeled off, revealing a large pile of dangerous glossy green crystals.
"HAHAHA! What great loot!"
At this time, nobody minded getting the sticky toxic fluids of the giant told on themselves as they eagerly rushed forward to collect the drops.
Unceasing Entropy had logged off to sleep, and Ji Tang, despite not liking troublesome matters, had to take the lead in gathering the dropped materials and conducting an auction within the team while on the move and distributing the proceeds to the players who had participated in the battle.
While Ji Tang was busy calculating, about 200 kilometers away from the main player force, in the wilderness near the eastern body of the Duchy of Shiga, Yang Qiu, atop his undead horse, faced off with a spear-wielding knight clad in full body armor.
The temperatures in Taranthan were quite low at night, and more than three hundred Camore weavers, who were rushing through the night with Yang Qiu, were freezing. Their lips were pale, and they huddled together a short distance behind Yang Qiu.
Not a single of these people were in their prime. Even slightly younger boys and girls were absent. The people with Yang Qiu were all elderly, weak, sick, or disabled individuals who were no longer capable of weaving or cultivating cotton.
Initially, the heads of the Eugene and Bennett families that managed the local weaver unions had intended to send troublemakers that normally defied their authority to go with Yang Qiu. But upon realizing the significant number of useless, elderly, weak, sick, and disabled individuals within the weaver community, they changed their minds.
Even unruly troublemakers would have to work if they wanted to survive, and they had to be paid for their work. In any case, Black Mage Yang hadn't explicitly stated that the two families had to provide healthy, able-bodied individuals, nor did he exclude the elderly, weak, or sick. So, why should they have any issues with doing what benefited them the most?
And so, these rejects who were despised even by their own families were handed over to Yang Qiu.
True to his word, Yang Qiu did not discriminate, and he forked out some money to purchase a few dilapidated carts to accommodate those who had lost their ability to care for themselves.
When Yang Qiu left Camore with this group of people, everyone, whether it was the lower-class weavers or the dignified upper-class onlookers in the main streets, all believed that this black mage couldn't be up to anything good by taking away these weak and disabled.
While Black Mage Yang was active in town, those people were walking on eggshells. Regardless of whether it was Viscount Lynn, whom Yang Qiu had visited, or the mayor, everyone treated him with respect and courtesy.
Only after Yang Qiu had traveled a sufficient distance away from Camore did those respectable citizens release the contingencies they had prepared…
"Black Mage Yang."
The silent standoff lasted for a while until the knight in full armor spoke again with his aged yet imposing voice, "Indeed, it is you."
"Good evening, my friend," Yang Qiu replied calmly. "It seems that we are acquainted. Shouldn't friends be more open with each other when they meet?"
The knight fell silent and raised his visor, revealing a face marked with deep wrinkles. He exuded a dignified and righteous aura.
"Pardon my tact, but I seem to have no recollection of you," Yang Qiu said.
"Of course, you wouldn't recognize me." The knight, despite his aged appearance, had a physique even stronger than young men, said in a deep voice, "When you intruded Sir Knight's manor and cruelly tortured him in front of everyone, I was just a squire, making my first entrance into social gatherings under my father's guidance. I—"
Yang Qiu interrupted the knight. "So you're a local from Camore, right? Typically, young individuals from respectable families are introduced to social occasions by their parents upon turning 18. It serves two purposes: inheriting the connections of their elders and seeking potential marriage partners. In other words, at that time, you should have been an adult capable of distinguishing between good and evil."
This seemed to ignite the knight's anger as he declared angrily, "Do you think my description of your 'cruel' actions is inadequate?"
"Yes," Yang Qiu asserted confidently.
The knight almost laughed out of frustration. "As expected of the Nightmare Butcher! Such wanton and heinous acts! And yet, there was never a trace of remorse for your evil deeds! The Radiant Sun Church should punish themselves for letting a demon like you roam freely!"
The helmet of the knight bore the Goddess of Prosperity's emblem, indicating that he belonged to the Goddess of Prosperity's faith. It was normal for them to disdain the Radiant Sun Church.
When Yang Qiu had gone to "visit" Viscount Lynn, he had said that the esteemed viscount could inform the Radiant Sun Church about his whereabouts should he wish. At that time, the viscount didn't turn hostile on the spot because they were seated in his garden reception room.
In short, Yang Qiu's provocative behavior was actually an attempt to enrage the followers of the Goddess of Prosperity, enticing them to take matters into their own hands and "eliminate the evil Black Mage Yang." After all, there were still many things yet to be accomplished in Exile Town, and Yang Qiu had to focus on its development. So, temporarily avoiding a direct confrontation with the fanatical members of the Radiant Sun Church was the best.
In response to the furious accusations from the knight of the Goddess of Prosperity's faith, Yang Qiu not only remained unbothered but even chuckled. "If my calculations are correct, you must be around 130 years old. Yet, you still can't distinguish right from wrong. These years have truly been wasted on you.
"You consider my actions towards Sir Hans as cruel and evil. But have you ever considered that if I hadn't broken the limbs of that scoundrel, leaving him bedridden for the rest of his life, how many innocent young boys would be harmed over the years given that he had the same proclivities as the bishops of the Radiant Sun Church?"