Chapter 52: Talk Much, Die Quick
The shadow wore a Zhao Army uniform. The shoulder area of his uniform was painted with three black feathers.
He wore the hint of a contemptful smile on his face. He looked pleased at himself as if he had every situation well under his control.
“I will introduce myself.” He said, “I am grandmaster Zhao’s subordinate scout. My name is Zhu Huai.”
While he spoke this Zhu Huai shook his clothes pretentiously, putting on a most carefree appearance. Compared to him, both Yue Qiang and Yin cut a sorry figure. Yin could only stand by leaning against Yue Qiang, and the latter hadn’t even recovered over 20% of his HP up yet.
He had fought through multiple consecutive battles, and he was literally a hair’s breadth away from death during the struggle against the two tigers. At the time, his nerves were extremely taut. When he acquired the quest reward ‘S/L Module’, he relaxed so much that he actually did not sense someone coming from behind them.
There was no doubt that this fellow was an enemy, and from the looks of it he wasn’t an easy enemy either.
“These two monsters are incredibly formidable, and yet they still died in the hands of a small fry like you. Moreover, you have suffered grievous injuries while killing them. It looks like I have arrived at exactly the right timing.” While speaking as if he was a calm general unruffled in the midst of chaos, Zhu Huai closed in slowly towards Yue Qiang. His face wore a leisurely smile, but he gripped a small knife in his hand.
Yue Qiang knew that he was in a bit of a pickle.
When he saw Zhu Huai’s Zhao Soldier uniform, he only needed to ponder for a moment to figure out the whole picture.
Why was he able to escape the Zhao Army’s watch so easily even though he was obviously a captive? Even if he had the a.s.sistance of that strange Ai Qian, he still had escaped the enemy’s watch a bit too easily. The only explanation was that Zhao Yan had let him leave on purpose.
There was no such thing as friendliness towards one’s captive during the war of two States at all. If he himself would not give up on the experience points that were surrendered to his hands, then on what basis must the enemies of this game capture but not kill their enemies? This was the first point. The second point was the sheer risk of his act of stealing from Zhao Yan’s residence. Not only did he take away the quest item, he even took the opportunity to steal the Ring of Earth beneath Zhao Yan’s pillow as well!
He once calculated carefully the Zhao Army General Zhao Yan’s true strength. If he a.s.sumed that the Zhao Soldier’s strength was 1, the Zhao Sergeant’s strength was 3, and his own strength after the culmination of three months of hard work and all sorts of good luck was around 4 or 5, then Zhao Yan’s strength was at least 50! Moreover, his strength could only be more than 50, and his upper limit being an unknown figure. To this day, he still could not imagine exactly what kind of ability one must possess to be able to catch a giant crossbow bolt with just the strength of two fingers, while looking like he still had unspent strength that he didn’t use.
Now then, here comes the question: Would an elite at General Zhao Yan’s level really had not noticed him at such close range?
At the time Yue Qiang merely thought that he was lucky, but after meeting this scout he knew now that it was nothing more but a delusion. Zhao Yan must have sensed him since a long time ago. He was simply too lazy to bother, or putting on an appearance. His true aim was to send someone to follow him and check out the happenings at School of Mo’s Great Camp. In fact, his aim might even
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be the ‘S/L Module’ in his hands!
That was why this scout named Zhu Huai had appeared, and during the moment he was about to acquire the final quest reward no less.
He had to say that Zhu Huai’s timing was impeccable. He must have followed his tracks all the way up to this point.
“You know, I actually quite admire your courage.” Zhu Huai continued to close in slowly, “Back in the room, you knew that grandmaster Zhao can kill you with a single finger. Yet you still dared to steal from him.”
“You were there?”
“I wasn’t just there, I saw everything clearly from the start to finish.” Zhu Huai smiled and said, “Not only do you have quite the skill on a battlefield, your improvisation abilities are also quite impressive. You actually managed to figure out all sorts of ideas to prevent that woman from screaming. Otherwise, grandmaster Zhao would not have been able to continue pretending anymore.”
“It is thanks to you that we realize the abnormal situation in this area. It is also thanks to you, that we do not need to face these two terrifying beasts ourselves. I have no idea how you manage to take down these two tigers. I would not have the confidence to succeed at all if I was you.”
Zhu Huai continued to speak, but he never slowed his approach either. Just as he walked to a point that was very close to Yue Qiang, he suddenly made a turn and kicked right at Yin!
Yin was already severely injured due to the female tiger’s attack. Later on, she forcefully used the Eye of Truth to damage the enemy and appraise his items, so she was now incredibly weak. There was no chance she could have avoided Zhu Huai’s kick at all, and so she fell sideways on the ground and rolled far, far away. The white bedsheet wrapped around her body was also torn to shreds due to the crushed rocks on the surface of the ground.
“It would be fantastical to think that your strength alone was enough to kill the two tigers, so I thought that the little girl might hide some tricks up her sleeves. But I suppose I overthought things.” Zhu Huai continued to smile leisurely and approached Yue Qiang once more.
Every since Zhu Huai had appeared abruptly in this little room, Yue Qiang made almost no moves at all. He simply listened to Zhu Huai chattering and taunting incessantly, and even when the man had sent Yin flying away with a kick, Yue Qiang merely frowned a little and continued to make no moves at all.
However, when Zhu Huai reached about three meters away from him – which just happened to be the maximum attack range of the iron rod – Yue Qiang moved.
He neither used ‘Killing Style, One’, nor used Basic Jabbing Skill.
He typed a few words:
“Do you wish to escape death?”
Once he was done typing, Yue Qiang then decisively tossed out a small log at Zhu Huai. The item he tossed out was the dim wooden log.
Yue Qiang had prepared for this strike for a long time.
This Zhao Scout Zhu Huai had appeared from behind his back, so there was a huge possibility that he never saw the ‘S/L Module’s’ true appearance and only heard about Yue Qiang and Yin’s discussion. Even when the scout showed himself, Yue Qiang had consciously blocked the rainbow light emanating from the small wooden log.
Zhu Huai had heard of Yue Qiang and Yin’s discussion. Therefore he extended a hand and attempted to catch the small log flying in the air. This movement would split Zhu Huai’s attention and slow him down.
Therefore, this was an opportunity.
If Yue Qiang wanted to kill him, then he must create such a deliberate opportunity. He did not know how powerful this Zhao Scout Zhu Huai was, but he must prepare for the worst and do his best to increase his chances of victory.
When Zhu Huai reached out to grab the log, Yue Qiang also used the fastest speed in his life to equip the iron rod.
Right now, his HP was still below 20%, which was why his gauge was recovering continuously and thus at full bar. His stamina bar was also full.
He activated Basic Jabbing Skill, and Run LVL 2 to increase his speed at the same time before stabbing out with his fastest speed.
His attack immediately scored a penetration damage!
The iron rod had actually pierced right through the scout Zhu Huai’s right chest and exited through his back. The force of his attack still did not fade as it nailed Zhu Huai right onto the ground!
Contrary to expectations, Zhu Huai’s defense was unbelievably weak.
Yue Qiang came to realization instantly. This scout Zhu Huai was a kind of a.s.sa.s.sin cla.s.s personnel. His close range damage was extremely deadly, and his agility was pretty high as well. Judging from the way he appeared, he probably had some sort of concealment skill as well. But in contrast, his defense was also far weaker than an average soldier’s. He could not see Zhu Huai’s health bar, but from the single jab of his iron rod alone he could more or less guess that this guy’s defense and health was probably incomparable even to a normal Zhao Soldier’s!
If this scout was given enough s.p.a.ce to hide and time to lurk, then he could probably take out several Sergeant level people on his own. But seeing that his condition and Yin’s were terrible, and he was afraid that Yue Qiang would employ his ‘S/L module’ item to regain his strength, he had appeared beforehand and actually gave Yue Qiang the opportunity to fight head-to-head instead.
In reality, Yue Qiang’s face-to-face combat prowess was pretty amazing already.
He nailed his opponent to the ground with a single Basic Jabbing Skill. Then he immediately followed up with a fully Rage enhanced ‘Break Fist – Killing Style One’! It was nearly impossible for him to miss a fixed target in close range.
There were no popping numbers. The system no longer gave out a numerical indicator for damage.
Yue Qiang blew his head off with a single punch.
After he walked over and picked up his iron rod, he then arrived at Yin’s side and supported her. He typed, “Those who talk too much, usually die quickly as well.”