Chapter 103: Hal looks like a human now?
In the town hall of Exile Town, Hal sat on a high-back chair with one hand on the armrest, his palm supporting his chin, his head slightly lowered, staring at his own shadow expressionlessly.
Through the fading shadows, he could see two overlapping, yet distinct, double images.
The ghost in the picture is fighting the devil in his heart, just like last night.
What’s a little different from last night is that... these undead’s fighting is more methodical, unlike those undead who fought randomly last night.
The undead holding shields know how to restrict Jim's movements, the undead holding swords, daggers, and long knives know how to attack Jim's lower limbs, and those holding rough wooden staffs will use crude black magic to slow down Jim's movements.
Hal was not confused about how Yang made these fragile undead understand the use of fighting skills and even cast crude black magic. He, Tattle and Pansy had already privately concluded that these suspicious Tarantan undead were by no means ordinary undead, but were probably great demons summoned by Yang from some unknown demon world. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why these undead possessed intelligence close to or even exceeding that of ordinary people.
What puzzled Hal was that these undead spirits of mysterious origin should know that the monsters in the alienated spiritual realm were just projections of someone's distorted mind, and that there was no point in killing them. So why were they still keen on doing this useless work?
If they have some kind of obsession and must destroy the monsters in the alienated spiritual realm, then wouldn't it be more reliable to attack him personally than to deal with the twisted mental projections?
It couldn't be that these undead spirits were so persistent in going in and out of his twisted mental projection just to humiliate him...?
When Hal thought about this, he suddenly felt that this might be the truth.
But thinking about how these undead died so miserably in his twisted mental projection... he felt that it was not quite like that.
These undead spirits who are not afraid of death will still avoid death. When he raises his knife to chop them, they will always try their best to escape.
Forget it, let's not try to understand these guys.
Hal closed his eyes and relaxed for a while. After a while, he opened his bloodshot eyes again and looked at the double image tiredly.
He has become numb.
Anyway, the most embarrassing side has been seen by so many undead, not to mention that guy Yang... It's like a person who is forced to run naked. At the beginning, he was all kinds of crazy and ashamed, but after getting used to it, it just feels like that.
He even had the mood to comment on the attack strategy of the undead... When the undead holding the shield tried to use his body to block "Jim", Hal couldn't help but complain: "How stupid, idiot! What can that little body do?"
Before Hal could finish his complaints, the aggressive undead was crushed by the heavy triple weight of "Jim" and disappeared in white light.
"We should keep our distance——and still go?!"
Another undead with a shield rushed forward and tried to pick up the things dropped by his comrade, but was slapped away by "Uncle Harrington".
Hal uttered a "tsk".
The two with shields died, and the remaining undead realized that they could not resist head-on, so they quickly dispersed and circled around "Jim" relying on the slowing effect of black magic.
Hal couldn't help shaking his head.
The undead are persistent in attacking "Jim", a strategy that is really stupid.
This monster was born from Hal's twisted mind, and "Jim" is the main body, "Uncle Harrington" and "Olive" are extensions of "Jim".
When two groups of people go to war, who will bite the hardest bone first? Of course, they will break through the weakest point first. If the undead really want to defeat this projection monster, they should give priority to attacking "Olive" and "Uncle Harrington".
After about three or four minutes, this team of undead was defeated one by one, wiped out collectively, and the ghosts disappeared.
The undead in another ghost image, after persistently attacking "Jim" for more than ten minutes, seemed to finally realize that there was something wrong with their attack strategy and turned to tentatively attack "Olive".
Unfortunately, they changed their attack strategy a little too late. The undead holding the thick wooden staffs were exhausted and could no longer cast black magic to slow down Jim's movements, and they still ended up being wiped out.
Hal felt inexplicably complicated as he watched these undead spirits stubbornly trying to launch what seemed to him a futile attack at the last moment before they turned into white light.
He really didn't understand why these undead would do such a meaningless thing - even if he succeeded in killing it, as long as the Void Realm was still there and his "real body" was still there, this monster could still be resurrected infinitely.
"...How stupid." Hal said to himself, "They are really brainless guys."
More than an hour later, when Hal was feeling a little drowsy, the undead came back again.
More than an hour later, the undead reappeared in Hal's alienated mental realm.
When Hal saw the two teams of undead in the double image for the fourth time, Tuttle and Rex were both asleep, and he was the only one still awake in the room.
It was just these two teams of undead going back and forth, nothing else.
Hal heard clearly their quarrels, discussions, and encouragement to each other, and even... remembered the names of some of the dead.
Some of these "names" with strange formats sounded familiar to Hal, as if he had heard them many times; but he didn't care about these undead spirits before and couldn't wait to get rid of Yang and these guys, so he didn't take them to heart.
His impression of these undead had long been one-sided and shallow: madness, chaos, and unreasonableness - and now, Hal seemed to have suddenly realized... it turned out that these undead also had their own emotions.
They are not as identical as their uniform skeleton appearance, they each have their own personality.
Some of the undead are cowardly and weak, easily retreating; some are optimistic and positive, and like to act recklessly; and some are calm, smart and steady.
These undead with their own personalities, under the command of the undead holding a rough wooden staff, worked together to fight the devil in his heart. No one questioned whether it was meaningful to do so, and no one deserted.
Hal stared at them blankly, and thoughts began to surge in his mind.
Yes, they are just doing useless work. There is no point in defeating the twisted mental projections that materialize in the void.
But... isn't winning also meaningful?
In a person’s life, how much of our efforts are meaningful?
Hadn't he done many meaningless things himself?
Wanting to win and working hard to win is a meaning in itself.
Hal, who was extremely tired and in a delicate state of relaxation, suddenly felt his whole body relax.
Hal was stunned.
It seemed... something that had been weighing on his heart for a long time was removed, and he felt a lot more relaxed all over.
Hal slowly sat up straight and looked at his body in surprise.
The fatigue from not getting enough rest for two consecutive nights was quickly fading away, and he could feel the energy quickly returning to his body.
Not only did he feel physically light, but mentally he also felt clearer than ever before.
It's like waking up naturally after a sufficient sleep, feeling energetic, refreshed and full of motivation.
The light in the room was not sufficient. The lantern hanging on the wall could only illuminate the area within four meters from the wall. Places a little further away were shrouded in darkness and could not be seen clearly.
But at this moment, Hal's eyesight seemed to have suddenly improved. He could even see clearly the spider hiding in the shadow of the cupboard and close to the ground.
Hal was stunned for a moment, realizing what had happened.
His inspiration...has improved!
His mental strength is also improving!
Only the powerful mental strength of high-level spellcasters can truly strengthen the body and complete an extraordinary transformation in physical abilities; spellcasters who have not reached a high level, like Hal, a professional level, can only enjoy the brief pleasure of the body being fed back when their inspiration and mental strength are enhanced.
While feeling inexplicably happy, Hal also felt a dull pain in his heart.
I see…I see.
It turns out that he himself knew what his problem was all along.
It wasn't that he was inferior to others in any way. The hardships he had gone through were enough to make up for the difference in talent. He shouldn't have been unable to find the "door". He shouldn't have let a brat like Rex, who was more than ten years younger than him, ride on his head...
All this was just because—he gave up on his own.
He cleverly divided everything into valuable and worthless.
He considered all things as worthless, as if they were impossible to accomplish even if he tried his best, as if they were meaningless even if he won by a humiliating means, and as if he could not see any benefit even if he succeeded.
He hid his incompetence, cowardice, timidity and fear of fighting under the "cleverness" of "not doing stupid things".
He could have saved Jim. Jim's words to encourage everyone to become workers and take the right path would have put Jim in danger. People in the gang had already begun to be dissatisfied with Jim. Other teenagers could not see this undercurrent, so how could he not see it?!
He is the young master of the Maxwell family, and he has been learning this stuff since he was old enough to understand!
He felt sorry for Uncle Harrington, but there was actually a way to make amends at that time - he just had to turn around, take responsibility for his aunt and little cousin, and use ten or twenty years to atone for his youthful recklessness.
But he didn't do that.
He fooled himself with the idea that he had lofty ideals, wanted to make a name for himself, and could not be dragged down by women and children. In the final analysis, he just did not dare to face such heavy pressure.
Olive...same.
He could have helped her, even if not as an admirer.
Hal stared blankly at the double image. He didn't look at the dead souls. What flashed before his eyes and reappeared in his mind over and over again was no longer the painful past that he couldn't bear to look back on, but... his ugly self.
It's not that he was forced to be a scumbag or a villain, he is not that tragic.
No one forced him, he just felt it was easier to be a scumbag and a villain.
"Is this what it means to face yourself?"
Hal relaxed his tense body, rested his elbows on the armrests again, and rested his chin on his palms.
His body felt no discomfort, only an unprecedented lightness.
He just felt so painful in his heart, so painful that he couldn't even express the pain in any form.
Yang was right. Since he couldn't even look at himself, he had no right to call himself... strong.
The undead in the double-image were still fighting the devil projected by his twisted mind. After repeated lessons of being wiped out, their attack rhythm became more decent, and they achieved initial results... The remains of "Olive" were destroyed by them.
The undead were very excited. They cheered each other loudly and attacked .
Hal's gaze fell on the slowly disintegrating remains of "Olive" in the picture.
"I'm sorry... I'm actually not qualified to admire you."
"I am not even qualified to keep you in my heart."
It was already light when Rex woke up yawning.
"Another night when no undead came to see me the whole night..." Rex looked out the window with mixed feelings. He was already prepared, but he was left hanging. This was a very annoying feeling.
When Rex looked away, he saw... Hal's face.
Rex suddenly felt something was wrong.
Hal is a very difficult and aggressive person. Even when he is nice to others, he looks at them as if he is measuring their value.
But now... Rex met the gaze of Hal who was sitting on the chair across from him, and he actually felt that this guy had become more like a human being...
"Have you seen enough?" Hal said unhappily.
"Excuse me." Rex quickly turned his head away.
He was probably confused after sleeping so much. When did this leader of a band of thieves ever behave like a human being?
"Go eat something and then go back." Hal stood up with the help of the handrail.
On the way out of the town hall and heading towards Life Lane, the three of them once again encountered groups of undead heading towards the cross street.
The attitude of these undeads... was completely different from yesterday morning. They were in such a good mood that even the tops of their round skulls were shining, and they waved happily at them: "Morning, Halsan!"
"What's wrong with these guys?" Tuttle asked in confusion.
"They defeated my mental projection." Hal said expressionlessly.
"Is this something to be happy about?" Tattle frowned. The mental projection being defeated did not mean it was completely destroyed. As long as that guy Yang could move the breath of the void over, those damn things could be resurrected as many times as needed in the alienated mental realm.
"Who knows?" Hal said indifferently, "As long as they are happy."
Now not only Rex, but even Tuttle looked at Hal with a strange look.
Something is wrong, something is very wrong! According to Hal's character, shouldn't he laugh at these undeads for being so stupid and wasting their energy on useless work? !
Who are you! You are not Hal!
Cleaning the sewer in Westham, which had been blocked for years, was more difficult than anyone had imagined. Rex and the twenty or so young prisoners he brought to clean the sewer yesterday worked hard for a whole day but couldn't even clean out a small alley. More help was needed today.
But it would be more troublesome to manage too many people. After all, the security team is short-staffed and has to work in shifts. If one of them is not kept under watch, these guys who have been locked up until they are green-eyed may escape or go to some resident's house and cause trouble.
When Rex was discussing with Ji Tang how many people could serve as laborers to look after the place... Hal came up to him quietly.
"Just give them a task to be an overseer and ask them for help." Hal said coldly, "They may not be willing to clean the disgusting sewers, but they should be able to be overseers."
Rex: “???”
Not to mention Rex was shocked, even Ji Tang, who was about to come up with the same idea, looked a little stunned.
It's not that they couldn't think of Hal's suggestion, but ...this guy actually knows how to think about others and give them advice? !
Hal ignored them, gave them advice and turned away, yelling at the prisoners who were not queuing up properly and trying to steal other people's food.
Rex & Ji Tang: "..."
"Hal seems to be a little weird these days?" Ji Tang asked tentatively, "He wasn't like this before."
"I think so too." Rex looked confused.
Seeing that Rex was also confused, Ji Tang changed the topic to the supervision task...
These natives have more or less grasped the players' mentality and know that players are keen on novel tasks, but when it comes to understanding the players, Ji Tang, a Chinese, has the final say - Rex wanted to send this overseeing task to the casual players, but Ji Tang directly rejected it and instead advised him to send the task to the Blood Alliance.
Soon, Brother Lahong and Vanilla Pudding, two of the blood alliance leaders who received the directional mission, happily ran over with their reorganized monster-killing teams...
The prisoners held in the former militia headquarters are not good civilians. They have been tormented by Hal and his vicious former thieves for many days and have not been able to behave themselves. It is not certain that the casual players can subdue them.
If you want the Blood Alliance to do this kind of non-stimulating, non-monster-killing mission, just give them enough rewards and incentives - 50 territory reputation points for one hour of supervision, and 100 territory reputation points for subduing a prisoner who tries to escape, and these Blood Alliance members are guaranteed to arrange the supervision tasks properly!
Ji Tang had already seen the successful opening of the Heart Demon Edition on the forum before he went online. The two teams led by En Buzeng killed the monsters in Hal's Heart Demon Edition one after another and successfully passed the level.
The system prompts for "all server" players also clearly mark the rewards for completing the game: all players who participate in killing the dungeon BOSS will have a chance to enchant and strengthen their existing equipment.
This number of enchantments can be saved until you get good equipment, or it can be accumulated and used later after multiple enhancement opportunities.
For example, if a member of the pioneering elite team gives me medicine, if he is willing to use up the enchantment times now, he can take his critical strike dagger to find Lao Yang and add special effect suffixes such as defense breaking damage, critical strike bleeding, poison, probability of interrupting spell casting, etc. to his dagger, which already has critical strike attributes - you can choose which special effect you want!
In other games, you have to spend money to enhance top-grade equipment, and there is a chance that the weapon will explode if the enhancement fails. This game not only does not require spending money, but also has a 100% chance of enhancement success. If Ji Tang is really a player, he might even organize a team to play the game...
Clearing dungeons can enhance top-quality equipment, and to obtain top-quality equipment you need to exchange territory reputation at the Undead Chamber of Commerce (players are already tired of complaining about this bad setting that equipment doesn't drop when killing monsters). Even the materials that can be exchanged for territory reputation have increased in price. Tasks that directly give territory reputation must be popular!
Watching the undead happily escorting a group of prisoners to do hard labor, Rex hesitated and asked Ji Tang reluctantly: "I'm a little curious... Why are you only interested in Hal's alienated spiritual realm?"
Ji Tang, who was about to leave, almost slipped...
Even if he is not a pure player, it is quite funny to be asked by an "NPC" in person why you don't come to play my dungeon...
"Well, I didn't participate in the dungeon exploration, but from what others said, it seems that Hal's inner demon secret realm is easier to fight...you can see monsters when you go in." Ji Tang explained while suppressing a strong sense of incongruity.
Rex was silent for a moment, then asked out of curiosity: "What does my...inner demon look like?"
Ji Tang: “…”
It turns out that even the indigenous people who serve as "materials" don't know what their inner demons are like? !
Wait!!
Didn't Lord Yang Bie force these natives to serve as "materials"? !
Speaking of which, Miaobi Shenghua did successfully use Hal's inner demon, this monster, to force Hal into surrender!
The "plot" of the "Secret Realm of the Heart Demon" is a private matter that these natives are ashamed to tell to outsiders - you are really not a good person, Lord Yang!
Ji Tang had a surging desire to complain...but when he said it, he said, "Haha...I haven't been in there, so I don't know. How about I ask for you later?"
Caroline walked out of the house early in the morning and hurried to the north end of Martin Street and entered the alley between Martin Street and the residential area to the north.
There are not many households in this alley, and the vacant houses are important playgrounds for the children in the town. When Caroline was a teenager, she often went here with children of all ages. They would choose a relatively clean room in the abandoned houses and create a secret base belonging only to their small group.
In the dilapidated old house that was used as a secret base by countless children, the three young men who had returned with Caroline in the same car yesterday were already waiting inside.
"I'm sorry I'm late." Caroline took off her headscarf and said apologetically, "My mother talked to me a lot last night and I overslept."
"It's okay, we just got here too." A young man with dark eyes and a strangely excited look waved his hand, "How was your night?"
"I don't know how to put it." Another taller young man said with a wry smile, "Westham obviously doesn't look much different from before, but he feels so unfamiliar to me."
"I think so too." The last short boy said in confusion, "A few years ago, my family paid a huge price to send me to Innadri as an apprentice, but now my mother said... she hopes I can come back."
"Did your mother say that?" The dark-skinned young man said happily, as if he had found a fellow human being. "My grandmother also told me not to go to Innaderi, especially after my uncle came back last night. He did a day's odd job on the main road in the town and actually brought back thirty copper coins!"
"Hey, calm down. Do you remember why we agreed to meet today?" the tall young man said quickly, "Don't say you are possessed."
"As long as you work, you can get paid. What's the big deal about being possessed?" the dark-skinned young man said immediately. "Alan, you and I have worked in the factory for so long, and we only make eight silver coins a month. We have to pay one silver coin to the union. Even if we don't use the gas in the dormitory and try to save money, we still have to spend two or three silver coins on living expenses every month. We can't save much money at all. It's better to stay in the town and do odd jobs."
"How long can odd jobs last? Can they keep you going?" the tall young man named Alan asked. "Yes, I admit that the new lord Rex seems to be a very good person and is very kind to the people in the town, but who can say for sure how long Mr. Rex can serve as the mayor? He became the new lord with the support of a black magician. If someone has his eyes on Westram, this would be the best excuse to start a territorial war against Mr. Rex. Aren't there enough reports of the dirty deeds between these nobles in the newspapers?"
"Why should we care about things that may happen in the future?" The young man with dark eyes said impatiently, "If you have the opportunity to make money now, make it first. It would be stupid to miss it."
The little boy was worried that they would quarrel, so he tried to persuade them: "Alan, Simon, stop arguing and listen to Caroline's ideas."
Alan and Simon, who had dark circles under his eyes, looked at Caroline at the same time.
"I..." Caroline hesitated and gritted her teeth, "I want to stay."
