Chapter 42 Players' Combat Power
Thousands of years ago, Tarantan was a famous battlefield in the Napoleonic continent. The armies of the eastern and western countries had shed their blood and lost their lives on this land, leaving behind countless corpses in the dense forests and swamps.
Many years have passed since the war, and Tarantan has changed from a battleground between the east and the west to a lawless wasteland. However, traces of the transportation routes opened by various countries in order to facilitate the deployment of military forces and the transportation of supplies can still be seen.
The dirt road that the army used thousands of years ago has been completely covered with weeds, and in some places it has become part of the jungle, but it is still passable, at least there is no big problem for tricycles to pass on it...
There is no wind tonight, and the earth under the dark sky is shrouded in a veil-like mist. There are the gentle chirping of insects and the distant roaring of beasts. Birds of prey crouch in the hazy shadows of the trees, and in the miasma-filled grass, the leaves are occasionally disturbed by snakes and insects.
A zombie wearing tattered armor, with a long sword at his waist and a green face... appeared in the wilderness covered with overgrown grass, riding a human-powered tricycle fully loaded with goods, accompanied by the sound of clear and pleasant bells.
Not far behind the zombies, hundreds of skeletons were either trotting along or riding human-powered tricycles , forming a long queue and following closely behind...
The players who were in a mood to marvel at the world outside the town, which was modeled as exquisitely as a blockbuster and had a unique sense of romance of wandering in the wilderness when they first set out, are now very silent, extremely silent.
"I have a... bad feeling."
Tang Jia of the Entropy-free Team at the front of the team mechanically stepped on the pedal and said numbly: "Based on the nature of this shitty game, I feel that our 'expedition team'... may not be a joke. We might really have an expedition..."
"You're not even needed to tell me." Jia Luo, who was jogging beside Tang Jia, said with a look of annoyance, "It's been almost an hour since we came out, and the scenery hasn't changed much. I'm really fed up. It takes so long to travel for a dynamic story mission. What on earth is going on in the minds of the planners of this game!"
In front of Tang Jia, Ji Tang, who was also riding a tricycle, bit his lip and said nothing...
He estimated that this "plot" of traveling would take not only half a day, but possibly several days... uh, several days in the game.
After all, Ji Tang is also a young man and can understand the mentality of young people. Now he especially understands why players always find the "target" to scold the shit planners and the shit production team... If he were in their place, he would also want to scold.
If it is disaster relief, young volunteers know they are saving lives, and are willing to endure hardships for ten days or half a month; but in the game, young players are tricked into saving lives under the pretext of missions, and it would be strange if players who only regard everything as data are willing to endure this pain...
When we set out, there were 18 teams and more than 150 online players (not counting the corpses of offline companions). Less than an hour into the journey, 20 to 30 people left their "corpses" in the cargo box of the tricycle that their team was responsible for and logged off, using excuses of other things.
Ji Tang was very worried. If these players found out at daybreak that they had to continue their journey, would they simply return to the city and die? Players were definitely capable of doing such things.
Each team is responsible for two tricycles, plus the one ridden by the zombie general, for a total of thirty-seven tricycles.
If half of the players run away, it will be a problem whether these 37 tricycles can be escorted to the place where the "base is established"...
Ji Tang was worrying about the "Kamoer people" who were waiting to be rescued. In the cargo box of the tricycle he was riding, the bones wrapped in clothes suddenly moved automatically, and a pile of scattered bones formed a human-shaped skeleton...
Witnessing such a horrifying scene, Tang Jia, who was following behind Ji Tang, and Jia Luo, who was running beside him, were not frightened at all. Instead, they all shouted, "Sister Ying is coming up?"
"Yeah, here I come." The human-shaped skeleton jumped out of the truck bed with its hands, and said as it put on its clothes and pants, "I ran out of food at home, so I went downstairs for a midnight snack. Fortunately, the soup dumpling shop at the entrance of the community is open 24 hours a day, otherwise I would have starved."
"Buy some more loose cakes and keep them at home. They are filling and high in calories." Jialuo said, "I relied on loose cakes to get through the time when I was gaining Ranger reputation, and I also had Coke."
"I don't like sweet things." Yang Ying put on his novice outfit and put on leather armor and buckled the leather armor. "Ji Tang, Tang Jia, are you tired of stepping on it? Do you want to switch hands?"
"No need. I won't get tired anyway, and riding a bike won't be too boring." Tang Jia said.
Ji Tang also said no.
After putting on his uniform and putting the steel knife on his waist, Yang Ying jogged after the car like Jia Luo, chatting in a low voice from time to time.
Their team consisted of only five people including the captain. Four independent players were added when the larger group was formed. Because these independent players were not familiar with them and were embarrassed to get close to the girls, they just followed behind Tang Jia's tricycle.
The four people were so bored that they had no time to check their phones. They gradually became tired and prepared to ask to log off and leave their "corpses" in storage...
Before the four wanderers could speak, the zombie general leading the way suddenly stopped.
Not only did he stop the car, he also jumped out of his seat, raised his zombie fist, and roared at the player group behind him with full energy: "Prepare to fight the enemy!"
The bored players suddenly perked up, shouting "Is there a monster?" "Are monsters spawning?" while stopping their cars and pulling out their steel knives one by one.
Not long after, there was a loud noise in the nearby jungle, and a huge toad the size of a small truck, covered with lumps, with a greasy and slippery body, and constantly flowing with strange liquid, appeared out of nowhere after knocking through countless branches and leaves...
“What the hell?!”
“Oh my god!!”
“What the hell!!”
The players who were shocked by the ugliness covered their eyes and screamed.
Of course, there were also some players who were not afraid of being embarrassed and threw an identification spell at the giant toad:
"Magic Clam"
"LV3"
"A low-level magical beast roaming in the dense forests and swamps. It is good at sonic attacks and its body fluids are highly poisonous."
“Possible drops: Toxic Crystal (rare), Pure Magic Residue (rare), Pure Magic Crystal (rare).”
When they saw three purple rare materials in the drop list, the players' shock immediately turned into surprise: "Wow! Three rare materials! It's an elite monster!"
Currently, players can barely keep up with the spider monsters that they spawn without being wiped out. Ten common spider venom sacs dropped by the players can be exchanged for 200 points of Lord Yang's reputation, and the market price is two to three copper coins.
Excellent-grade materials such as spider venom beads and magic residue can be exchanged for twenty points of territory reputation, and the price has increased tenfold, but there is still a shortage of people - after all, territory reputation is related to whether one can get the position of mayor, and there are always people squatting at the entrance of the spider's nest to buy them.
Rare materials that players have never seen before.
Regardless of whether they have seen it before or not, the players are definitely very interested in grabbing the good stuff. There is no need for the zombie general to mobilize, the players rushed up like mad dogs...
“Quack!”
The big toad hiding in the dense forest probably didn't expect that these little bugs would actually come forward to die so voluntarily, and he let out a roar.
Sonic attacks cannot be considered mental attacks, but should be considered physical attacks. After all, they are mainly aimed at attacking the eardrums of living creatures and destroying their sense of balance.
But... the skeletons controlled by the players with their projected souls are not considered living creatures...
So this croaking didn't accomplish anything. After it finished roaring, the players in front of it stabbed it with their steel machetes...
"I can't cut it open! I can't break the defense!"
"Use your skills, idiot!"
"Those who haven't changed their job, get out of the way!!"
Brother Lahong and Qin Guan, the two big guys who usually command the team to kill monsters, stood up, called out to the players who were pushing forward in a disorderly manner, and called on their elite troops to go to the front line.
Several players who had changed their professions to knights were covered in red light (an obvious characteristic of primary combat roar) and were the first to be attacked. A group of players who had changed their professions to travelers followed closely behind them. They took the small daggers given by their mentors after their successful job change or the steel knives they were used to, and slashed at the heavy and huge body of the demonized clam.
Although they are both level three monsters, the demonized clam is not as thick-skinned as the big rat in the town due to its different "strengthening" route. Its ugly skin was quickly cut through, and venom splattered everywhere.
This venom can kill ordinary creatures if they come into contact with it, so players who cannot be considered as creatures are not afraid of it at all, but they also hate being splashed with this sticky stuff and retreat away from it.
"Don't retreat! This thing is trying to run away!" Seeing that the demonized clam wanted to shrink back into the jungle, Brother Lahong became anxious and quickly picked up a steel knife and led the charge.
The entangled demonized clam became angry, and despite the severe pain, it rammed its bulky body towards the player.
This extremely slow collision... is totally incomparable to the racing-level collision of the big rat in the town, but because the players were crowded together and the undead were not resistant to collisions, their arm and leg bones were smashed all over the ground...
Ji Tang grabbed the leather armor button of a player whose legs were scattered, threw the player aside, and shouted in a deep voice: "Scatter, keep your distance!"
"Pay attention to rescuing your teammates, don't let anyone die!"
"This monster can only charge forward and to the sides! Keep moving around and attack from behind!"
"Don't be greedy for output! Turn around and retreat!"
"Knights, go block the direction of the woods!"
In the chaos, the players subconsciously followed the voice with clear guidance; the originally dense and bulky group dispersed, and the undead, which had the advantage of being light and agile, turned into a school of piranhas that bit the fallen hippopotamus, and gradually reduced the "blood line" of this elite monster.
In the blink of an eye, La Hong Ge, whose command was snatched away, and Qin Guan, who had no chance to show his ability, looked with mixed feelings at Ji Tang, who was calmly mobilizing the players to attack in groups, while personally going on the field to face the demonized clam head-on and using clever movements to pin down the demonized clam's direction.
"The monster's movements have become sluggish! The warrior team, go ahead!" Ji Tang issued another order.
"Here it comes!" Yang Ying and Tang Jia immediately started their primary combat roars and charged towards the face of the demonized clam.
The first level of the Walker system can only learn two melee weapon skills (including daggers, knives, and swords) and two bow skills. This is because players do not have bow weapons for the time being. In addition, the CD of melee weapon skills is short (actually it consumes less mental power), so even someone like Gala who is determined to play a ranger is still taking the melee route for the time being.
The knight's four skills are more defensive, although they are still not very resistant to collisions... But when they are fighting monsters with lighter weight such as spiders, their shield strikes and shocks can control the spiders for a short time to reduce the damage they receive.
The warrior is different, all four skills are violent attack type...
Yang Ying & Tang Jia charged at the demonized clam from the left and right at the same time. The clam weighed at least three or four tons and had a low center of gravity, so it was shaken by the impact.
The two girls, who usually cooperate well in killing monsters, started a Blade Storm at the same time...
This kind of "windmill" invented by earthlings in traditional online games, where you can spin your weapon in place and cause massive damage to monsters around you, doesn't exist in this world - a professional warrior with a normal mind wouldn't be so stupid as to turn into a spinning top in the middle of a battle, wouldn't the enemy run away? How stupid is it to turn yourself into a wooden stake and give the enemy an empty back?
But Yang Qiu still imitated the traditional warrior skills in the Earth online game and created a Blade Storm. The reason is that first, this skill is simple and crude, and can quickly cause a lot of damage. Second, players fight monsters in groups anyway, and the warriors are facing the knights in front, so it doesn’t matter if the open goal is exposed for a short time...
Ji Tang, who knew the shortcomings of the warrior profession very well, only asked his two teammates to "bleed" the monster after the demonized toad became sluggish due to injuries; in the storm of blades that the two girls spun left and right, the skin from the front chin to the left and right abdomen of the demonized toad was swept by venom and skin fragments flying all over the sky, and the "blood bar" (damage assessment) that the player can see after the appraisal operation dropped rapidly...
"Fuck, so cool!" Many players who hadn't changed their jobs were so excited that they pinched their thigh bones, "I don't want to play a walker anymore, I want to play a warrior too!"
When the two girls' Blade Storm skill ended, they also tacitly coordinated to use "Blade Flurry" at the same time - this skill does exist in this world. It allows you to quickly swing your weapons and launch continuous attacks on the area within 30 degrees in front of you. Top warriors can even use two swords and create a blade curtain in front of them that not even water can penetrate.
Yang Ying and Tang Jia are both only at the first level, and they can only skillfully use single-sword skills thanks to their active efforts in killing monsters. It will not be possible for them to use two swords in the short term; but a single sword is enough, and the beautiful sword light that dances out is enviable not only for players who have not changed their job, but also for those who have changed to walkers or knights.
"It's a pity that the warrior is too weak at protecting his life. He can't take a beating as well as the knight, and he can't run away as well as the walker. Otherwise, I would also play a warrior." Brother Lahong, who was extremely jealous, couldn't help but say.
Seeing Vanilla Pudding (Qin Guan) with his mouth wide open, La Hong couldn't help but say, "Vanilla, aren't you a warrior too? Why don't you go up and practice with me?"
Qin Guan: "Uh..."
If Qin Guan hadn't known that La Hongge was a competitor but a very good person, he would have suspected that he was looking for an opportunity to mock him... Although he was also a warrior and had completed his job change, he usually commanded people and had never killed monsters himself. He was not proficient in his skills. Wouldn't it be a joke to go up to him...
After using a set of skills, Yang Ying and Tang Jia were called back by Ji Tang, and they continued to lead the monster to adjust its position and create an output environment for the travelers.
After Yang Ying and Tang Jia's rage values (the mental energy consumed when using rune skills) naturally recovered to full value, Ji Tang released the two warriors again...
Skilled players are indeed more powerful than ordinary people.
But having skills does not mean that one will make good use of them - just like modern weapons on Earth, they are completely different in the hands of modern soldiers systematically trained in industrial countries and in the hands of militias cobbled together by tribal nation-states...The fact that thousands of tribal militiamen armed with "American aid" (everyone understands) equipment were beaten and fled by a few hundred mercenaries is not news at all.
Yang Qiu needs the players to develop a certain combat effectiveness, but it is impossible to force the players to train collectively, so he provides a monster spawning site, allowing the players to gradually develop a tacit understanding of team cooperation while spawning monsters, and also does some secret operations when releasing dynamic tasks. It is very meaningful to promote Ji Tang, a serious soldier, to the position of commander.
——The players don’t understand that Ji Tang, who has undergone systematic training and has experience in carrying out actual (real-life military) missions, will definitely find a way to organize the players’ combat effectiveness and do his best to preserve the players’ manpower, knowing that the players are trying to rescue real living people...
For example, if it weren't for Ji Tang's excellent arrangement and efforts to create a safe output environment for the players, with the players' chaotic fighting, it would be normal for the players to lose players, and it would be abnormal if they didn't lose players...
After more than twenty minutes of fierce fighting, the severely injured demonized clam let out a scream and fell to the ground. The players didn't even need to "peel off the body" because a large number of crystals with a dangerous green luster rolled out from under the fat of its chopped belly.
“Big explosion hahahaha!!”
Now no one mind the sticky venom of this big toad anymore, and everyone happily rushes forward to pick up the dropped venom.
En Bu Zeng went offline to sleep. Even though Ji Tang didn't like to do troublesome things, he had to take the lead in collecting the dropped materials, auctioning them while the team was marching, and distributing the money to the players who were online and participating in the battle...
While soldier Ji Tang was busy settling accounts, about 200 kilometers away from the main player group, in the wilderness near the eastern border of the Principality of Shiga, Yang Qiu, riding an undead horse, was confronting a knight in full armor and holding a spear.
The temperature in Tarantan was very low at night. The more than 300 Kamor weavers who followed Yang Qiu on the journey all night had their lips turned white from the cold, and they huddled not far behind Yang Qiu and shivered.
These people...none of them are young and middle-aged, not even young boys and girls; they are all old, weak, sick and disabled who are no longer capable of weaving and planting cotton.
Originally, the Eugene family and the Bennett family, the two families in charge of the weavers' union, intended to stuff those bastards who usually refused to obey into the team for Yang Qiu to take away, but after discovering that there were quite a few old, weak and disabled people among the weavers who were completely useless and counting the days to death, the two families changed their minds...
Even if they are unruly troublemakers, they have to work to survive, and to work they have to pay them.
Anyway, the Black Magician Yang did not explicitly state that they must give out healthy and normal people, nor did he say that the old, weak, sick and disabled do not count, so why should they go so hard with their own wallets?
Therefore, these useless people who were even despised by their own family members were dragged over and handed over to Yang Qiu...
Yang Qiu was indeed not picky, and even paid some money to buy a few dilapidated carriages to accommodate the people who had lost the ability to take care of themselves...
When Yang Qiu led this group of people away from Camor, both the lower-class weavers and the respectable people on the main street who were watching coldly felt that this black magician was definitely not taking these disabled people away for any good purpose.
When the black magician Yang was active in the town, respectable people were afraid of "hurting the jade bottle while killing the mouse", so no matter whether Yang Qiu was visiting Viscount Lin En or the mayor, everyone was respectful and polite.
When Yang Qiu was far enough away from Kamoer, the respectable people finally released the backup plan they had arranged...
"Dark magician, Yang."
The silent confrontation lasted for a long time. The knight in full armor spoke, his voice old and majestic: "It is you."
"Good night, my friend." Yang Qiu said calmly, "You seem to know me. It's like we're old friends, so why not be honest?"
The knight was silent for a moment, then reached out and pulled up his mask, revealing a face full of knife-like wrinkles and a dignified and upright look.
"Excuse me, but I don't seem to have any impression of you?" Yang Qiu said.
"Of course you don't know me." The knight, who had an old face but a stronger physique than a young man, said in a deep voice, "When you broke into the knight's house and cruelly tortured Sir Hans in public, I was just an apprentice knight who was entering a social place for the first time under the guidance of my father. I--"
Yang Qiu interrupted him expressionlessly: "So you are a native of Camor, right? Generally speaking, young people from respectable families will be brought into social occasions by their parents after they turn 18, one is to inherit the elders' network, and the other is to find a marriage partner. In other words, you should be an adult who knows how to distinguish between good and evil by then?"
The knight was vaguely angry. "Do you think my description of your 'cruel' behavior is not appropriate?"
"Yes." Yang Qiu said confidently.
The knight almost laughed out of anger: "You really deserve to be called the Nightmare Butcher! You are so reckless and so evil! But you don't show any signs of losing control. I guess you have never felt any guilt for your evil deeds! The Church of the Blazing Sun let a demon like you walk the world go. They really should commit suicide to apologize for their sins!"
The full-face helmet of this knight has the symbol of the Goddess of Prosperity. He is obviously a knight of the Church of the Goddess of Prosperity. It is normal for him to look down on the Church of the Blazing Sun...
Yang Qiu went to "visit" Viscount Lin En and said something like "Your Excellency, please tell the Church of the Blazing Sun where I am." Viscount Lin En did not get angry on the spot because Yang Qiu was sitting in the reception room in their garden...
In short - Yang Qiu's provocative behavior is actually to anger these believers of the goddess of prosperity and let them do the hard work of "eliminating the evil black magician Yang" themselves...
After all, Exile Town is still in ruins, and Yang Qiu is busy with construction. He doesn't want to confront those crazy people in the Fiery Sun Church head-on for the time being.
Yang Qiu was not angry at all about the angry accusation of the Knight of the Church of the Goddess of Prosperity. Instead, he laughed: "Calculating your age, you should be around 130 years old. You still can't tell right from wrong. You have been living like a dog these years."
"You think my behavior towards Sir Hans was cruel and evil, but why don't you think about this: if I hadn't broken the bastard's limbs and forced him to lie in bed for the rest of his life, how many innocent teenagers would this thing, who has the same fetish as the bishops of the Church of the Blazing Sun, have harmed in the few decades it could breathe?"
