Chapter 46: Chapter 46 – run-hit-run
Ren Woxing and Ren Feifan encountered a few more snakes and brown bears along their journey but managed to defeat them without any trouble.
Ren Feifan also became braver and more courageous. He used a wooden stick to pierce through the body of a brown bear and killed it. Who says an enemy must be shot dead with a gun when a stick can pierce through the enemy to achieve the same outcome?
Interestingly, however, Ren Suo could only control Ren Woxing as the player of the game. He could not control the actions of Ren Feifan.
Ren Suo thought that it could be because of the fact that he had selected Ren Woxing as his game character at the start of the game. However, according to the game settings, Ren Woxing would only be able to live until the age of 24. Which character would Ren Suo control then after Ren Woxing dies?
Nonetheless, the tigers, bears, and wild boars that the Ren brothers had killed allowed them to replenish their food stores—they had brought along with them 20 units of food, and when they arrived at Taibai Plains, they had only used up 4 of them.
Ren Feifan said, “Big Brother, your cooking is terrible…It’s so bad…How could you waste such good meat…”
Ren Woxing replied, “There are memories of culinary skills in the transmission of knowledge, you should learn too.”
“You and Ren Feifan have entered Taibai Plains when suddenly a young girl appeared in front and was escaping in your direction. There were odd-looking troops, looking like half-human and half-ghost, who were following behind her while laughing loudly.”
“Ren Feifan cried out shrilly, ‘Xiao Cui!’, as he dashed over to her and led her away, along with one of the Demons, leaving the remaining four Demons to his beloved Big Brother.”
Ren Suo scolded Ren Feifan in his heart for leaving his brother behind as the screen broke into the fighting scene. He was only in control of Ren Woxing, who was about to go against four zombie-like Demons who were clad in broken armor!
[Demon: Attack 9, Defense 0, Scout 0, Movement 0, Recovery 0.]
“I’m dead now…” Ren Suo was at a loss what to do and randomly attacked one of the Demon Troops.
After his wooden sword turned into a beam of light and killed one of the Demon Troops, it returned back to Ren Woxing’s hand. It was now the Demons’ turn, and they all moved forward a step.
“Eh?”
It was only then that Ren Suo realized that on the turn-based battlefield, there were movement distances that melee characters like the Demons had to move sufficiently close before they could attack Ren Woxing.
Ren Suo was overjoyed upon realizing this and remarked, “Hahaha eat this! Biubiubiu!”
With the Sword Master skill, Ren Woxing easily defeated the Demons. On the other hand, Ren Feifan had just reappeared with the young girl. He said righteously, “Big Brother, this is Xiao Cui whom I met the last time I went to the market…She lives with her family in the village on the other side of Taibai Plains, which has already been infiltrated by the Demon Army…I want to take revenge on them for Xiao Cui!”
Ren Woxing rolled his eyes and retorted, “You did not even dare to fight a tiger previously, and now you want to fight the Demon Army with a spear?”
[The battle has ended. You found 1x Perfect Straight Sword, 1x treasure, 6x Reiki crystals on the Demon Troops. Ren Woxing was directly equipped with the Perfect Straight Sword, Fighting Ability +0.3.]
[You and Ren Feifan continue on your quest. One day later, the Demon Army was spotted entrenched in the remains of the destroyed village.]
[Do you wish to lure the Demons out individually, or do you want to infiltrate directly?]
Without hesitation, Ren Suo chose to lure the Demons out one by one. The game prompted, [Select bait character: Ren Woxing, Ren Feifan, Xiao Cui.]
Ren Suo pondered for a while. Since Ren Woxing was a character with ranged attack who should optimally remain at a distance at all times, Ren Suo decided to send Ren Feifan to lure the Demons out. He had not turned crazy such as to send Xiao Cui as bait.
There were at least thirty Demon Troops in the village, and Ren Feifan lured them out one or two at a time. They were not that clever and Ren Suo managed to kill more than ten of them on the western side of the village.
However, when Ren Feifan reached the center of the village and attempted to lure the Demon Troops out, the remaining 18 of them emerged at the same time!
Ren Woxing hollered angrily, “Are you trying to kill me?!”
Ren Feifan cried as he shouted, “Big Brother…I’m sorry, Big Brother. I saw them eating… eating…and I could not control myself and attacked them…I…”
The game prompted: [Select your battle strategy: Leave Ren Feifan and Xiao Cui behind and escape, or let Ren Feifan stand in front of Ren Woxing and take on the Demons while retreating?]
Without a doubt, the selected choice was the latter!
The screen jumped into the battle scene. Ren Woxing and Ren Feifan were on one edge of the battlefield, and 18 Demons were attacking towards them. Ren Suo utilized the ‘run-hit-run’ strategy directly, allowing Ren Woxing to retreat while using his Sword Master ability to kill the Demons. He had slain eight of the Demons when the Demons finally closed in on them!
Ren Woxing, who was standing in front of Ren Feifan, took three consecutive hits from the surrounding three Demons. He let out a loud cry as he pierced the three Demons to death in one swift movement! He shouted again as he pierced yet another one of the Demons!
“What on earth, I thought that this melee spear-armed troop is useless! So his attack has a large area of effect and he can even attack twice in one round?” Ren Suo said to himself as his eyes lit up. Previously, he had defeated the tigers and brown bears within seconds and there had not been any opportunity for the spear wielder to s.h.i.+ne, thus Ren Suo had no idea about the characteristics of the spear wielder.
Most importantly, Ren Suo was not able to control the spear wielder, and hence he could not control any of Ren Feifan’s attacks…
Now, he could use a flying sword as a ranged attack and a spear as a close-range attack. It was the perfect combination for a fight, capable of defeating this army of Demon Troops!
The fight that continued after that was a child’s play. The only more challenging enemy was a ‘Demon Leader’ with Attack 2 and Defense 1, but was killed after a hit each from the sword and the spear.
The battle between the trained warriors and the demons seemed to be from a fantasy novel…The opponents would simply compare their attributes to determine the winner: Oh, you’re in the Foundation Refining stage, but I’m in the Core Formation stage, so you’re dead.
[The battle has ended. You found 2x Perfect Straight Sword, 3x Perfect Spear, 4x treasure, 40x Reiki crystals from the Demon Troops.]
Ren Suo finally let out a sigh of relief after the end of the expedition. The risks he took and the long process of luring the Demons out individually during the expedition took an unexpectedly long time to complete. Even though it was a simple turn-based game, Ren Suo had spent the entire afternoon on it.
[Ren Feifan led Xiao Cui over and hopes to bring the poor girl home; otherwise, she would not be able to survive in the chaotic outside world. Do you agree?]
Ren Woxing said, “You may bring her home, but…I can’t stop Second Brother from scolding you.”
Ren Feifan blushed and said, “It doesn’t matter, it is my duty to save people!”
When they returned home, Ren Changsheng appeared…along with three other girls.
Ren Changsheng said, “Brother, this is Miss Zhuo and her servant. I heard their cries for help when I was on the mountain and realized that their car had broken down on the mountain road. They almost died but fortunately, I had learned a healing technique…They would like to seek shelter and remain here for at least a year. They are willing to pay 3000x treasures. Patriarch, please make a decision.”
3000x treasures were no small amount, and Ren Suo would naturally not decline the offer. Furthermore, this could be an important part of the game scenario.
The pretty girl said, “h.e.l.lo, Master Ren. I am Zhuo Yu and I’m pleased to meet you.”
Ren Woxing replied, “No problem, my brothers and I will build a house for you two. Coincidentally, we need to arrange a place for Xiao Cui to stay too.”
The scene turned dark as night fell. Ren Woxing and Ren Changsheng were in the midst of a discussion.
Ren Woxing questioned, “Second Brother, why did you let outsiders stay in our house? We are pract.i.tioners, how inconvenient would that be?”
Ren Changsheng explained himself, “Brother, we must think of this in the long term. In the future, we need to defeat all the demons and slay all the ghosts while gathering Reiki crystals for us to continue our bloodline. At the same time, we have to traverse all the lands and kill all the evil demons in search of more elves. The earth elf from Taibai Plains will fall into her slumber again after just one spiritual exchange.”
“The three of us have a limited ability to achieve all of this. Our family has to prosper and thrive so that we have more subordinates who can function as our eyes to gather information from the different parts of the land. In this way, we would not need to spend time to search for information about the demons and elves from across the land,” he continued.
Ren Woxing was confused. He asked, “Prosper and thrive? How can we prosper? We can’t bear children.”
Ren Changsheng said, “While we are not able to bear children, the place that we live in is a safe haven for the people in the chaotic world outside. We can take in these people and ensure their safety. In exchange, they would become our subordinates, which can be considered as increasing our family size and prospering. Big Brother, didn’t you agree to save Xiao Cui and bring her back because of this?”
Ren Woxing replied, “…Yes!”
Ren Changsheng let out a long sigh. He said, “However if only we could be in control of one of the political parties…We can use the powers of us as Pract.i.tioners to support him and not only would we be able to unite the states, we would also be able to—AH!”
All of a sudden, Ren Changsheng fell to the floor as if he turned mad. Ren Woxing held onto him quickly and asked, “Second Brother, Second Brother, are you all right?!”
Ren Changsheng regained his breath as he shook his head and said, “I’m fine…It’s just that Emperor Guangwu’s grip tightened. We swear on our lives to protect the Han Dynasty, and not be corrupted with political powers… Even though we may not be able to fulfill the first clause, the second part is still forbidden.”
“Let’s not talk about this anymore… I learned from Zhuo Ji and Zhuo Yu that there are many evil Demons at Hulao Pa.s.s, and the Demons which infiltrated Taibai Plains are a small part of those at Hulao Pa.s.s.”
“Patriarch, if we are able to kill all the Demons in Hulao Pa.s.s, we would have sufficient Reiki crystals to perform a spiritual exchange with the earth elf from Taibai Plains, and we would be able to continue our lineage!”