Volume 10 Bugs Chapter 73: Rush, Competition among Mountains, Fields and Swamps
Next to the north side of the riding training ground, there is a very large area, which is what Feiyin mentioned as the cross-country competition field. This is a place for adventurers to compete in mounts. According to my later observation, this vast area should also be cast with a huge magic of "copy". Although there are no less than hundreds of people participating in the competition here almost every moment, after participating in the competition, you will not see anyone else except your opponents or teammates in the same field.
Generally speaking, those who are involved in the air like to call this place "racecourse" or "racetrack" - but in fact, we all know that the "horses" who come here to compete are actually a minority. More people will choose animals like various exotic tigers and leopards or mutant chocobos and velociraptors to participate. Here you can choose two different ways of competition. One is the individual competition. Each person only needs to pay 25 gold coins to participate in the competition in his or her own name. A maximum of eight people are allowed to participate in a competition. After the competition, the top three fastest ones will be selected. The first place can get a reward of 100 gold coins, the second place is 50 gold coins, the third place is 20 gold coins, and the remaining 30 gold coins will be collected as the management fee of the competition venue; the other is the team competition. Each team can send up to six people to participate in the competition. The entry fee ranges from 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 gold coins. Only two teams that pay the same entry fee can compete in the same field. The team whose members can reach the finish line first will win. The winning team will take the entry fee of the loser, and the competition venue will also draw 5% of the prize money.
I believe that the background of the owner of this off-road race course must be extraordinary, because not only does it accept adventurers from the Continental Alliance to participate in the competition, it also allows adventurers from the Doomsday Empire to participate - as everyone knows, the other side of the Onzeklar Mountains is the territory of the Empire, and the evil alien invaders are also capturing mounts in this mountain range - and team competitions usually take place between the Alliance team and the Empire team. This adds a strong political flavor to this originally beneficial sporting activity and entertaining gambling activity for the public. It has become another battlefield for winning glory for the country besides the mutual killing in the stalemate zone.
In order to prevent every team race from turning into a bloodbath, the owner of the competition field has invested a lot of money. He cast a strange magic on the field in an unknown way. Under the effect of this powerful spell, each contestant cannot take back their mount, and all combat skills except the mount's own skills must be used when not riding. At the same time, under the protection of this magic, no one will be hurt by any collision, fall, or other accidents in the competition field. This naturally makes each contestant focus on "racing" instead of fighting each other.
We chose the team competition, and since there were only five places available, we had to eliminate one person between Changgong Sheri and Xian Ge Yayi. The mounts of these two people seemed completely unsuitable for participating in the racing competition - Changgong Sheri's camel "Full-time Four-hoof Drive" only had two carrying skills, and Xian Ge Yayi's turtle "I Walk at My Own Speed" had a "Swimming" skill that could barely be considered a speed skill, but its basic land acceleration effect was only 60%.
In the end, we chose to let Stringsong Yayi participate. The reason why Longbow Shooting Sun was excluded had nothing to do with his mount, but mainly because we felt that it was too dangerous to let a dwarf who couldn't even see the road participate in the race with us in such harsh terrain conditions.
Since Xian Ge Ya Yi's participation in the competition basically has no positive effect, our team is actually four against five, so none of us has any illusions about this game. Miss Fei Yin was so upset when she thought of this that she stamped her feet and beat her chest, regretting that she shouldn't have proposed to participate in the competition. Under such circumstances, you certainly can't expect her to pay much money to participate in the competition - in fact, even if she only paid a hundred gold coins to pay the entry fee, our president would be reluctant to let her daughter go like a mother who just married her daughter, and she would cry as if she was holding the dozen gold coins as her precious treasure.
After paying the competition fee, a female knight wearing a suit of armor that only covered half of her buttocks and chest and basically had no protective effect, a rapier that was thicker than a toothpick and thinner than a pen and basically had no offensive effect, and a pair of black long earmuffs on her head that looked like a rabbit and had no idea what they were for. They led us into a small house. In the middle of the house was a magic notice board showing various terrains and maps. Since we entered this house first, we had the right to choose one of the twenty competition maps. Although these maps had names that sounded very different, such as "Lava Volcano", "Naga Lakeside", "Secret Path in the Forest", etc., they were actually comprehensive tracks with mountains, water, cliffs and dense forests, which were fair to contestants with any skill mounts.
Feiyin picked a "random map" at random, and we sat down and waited. Not long after, a team from the Doomsday Empire also came to the room. Ten people from both teams clicked the button to agree to participate in their respective seats. In an instant, we were all enveloped in a milky white magic vortex and teleported out of the room.
As the magic vortex dissipated, each of us summoned our own mounts at the same time under the huge magic that enveloped the entire arena. At this time, I found that we were teleported to a forest marsh. In front of us was a huge oak arch. Two sturdy short goblins stood at both ends of the arch, pulling a rope with a red triangular flag tied to it straight.
Another fat goblin with a top hat on his head stood farther away from the archway, holding something that looked like an ordinary musket, but was short enough to be held in one hand, and a thick burning and smoking straw roll in his mouth - this group of underground residents who were keen to try all kinds of new things called this thing a "cigar". To be honest, I really don't see the point of rolling such a large bundle of hay with shredded paper and burning it under the nose to produce a puff of thick smoke - he said to us in a hoarse voice made by the smoke:
"I know you all dislike each other, and here is a chance for you to compete. Although no one is allowed to die here, as far as I know, it's not bad to leave the opponent far behind and eat dirt and drink cigarettes. When my starting gun sounds, you can run. There is no supervision, no referee, no prescribed route, and no restrictions. The only rule here is: you can win if you run faster than others! Listen carefully, I will count down to three, and then I will fire the gun. Three... bang!"
He only shouted "count down to three" once, and the short musket in his hand made a loud noise, and at the same time, the fire shot out from the muzzle. The goblins standing on both sides of the arch immediately threw the ropes in their hands to the ground and ran to both sides without looking back. We hesitated at the same time, and after a moment, I and the troll rider next to me reacted at the same time and rushed out of the arch first. The moment I rushed out of the arch, I heard the goblin holding the starting gun complaining:
"Damn it! How could this broken gun go off again?"
The troll that rushed out of the starting point with me was called "Malu". His mount was a red, ferocious-looking flaming rhino named "The Rhino of Love". As soon as he rushed out of the starting point, he used a sinister trick: while galloping, the rhino suddenly raised its thick hoof and stomped heavily on the ground. My warhorse was shaken by the ground and staggered, and its speed immediately slowed down. He took the opportunity to whip the bull and rushed out.
It seems that the skill of this rhino is very similar to the racial characteristic of the Tauren, "War Trampling", which can not only slow down the enemy, but also shake the opponent off the mount. Fortunately, my Shanxue has the "Tenacity" skill, otherwise, although no one will fall off the mount due to the protection of the magic on the field, they will also be affected by the corresponding immobilization effect.
As soon as I slowed down, the others behind me immediately overtook me. Niu Baiwan saw that I was ambushed, and roared in anger. He aimed at the troll in front of him and activated the "charge" skill of his mount. The bull under his mount immediately rushed forward and butted the rhino in front of him on its butt. The rhino and its owner were immediately knocked aside and could not move due to the impact of the collision. Niu Baiwan took this opportunity to take the lead.
In a moment, even Xian Ge Ya Yi surpassed me. He obviously understood that it was meaningless to run along the road like others at his speed, so he quickly controlled his turtle and turned sideways into the river beside him. According to the map, this waterway twisted and turned eight or nine times, and it had to bypass a huge mountain in the middle. I don’t know how many more paths it would take. I optimistically estimated that when some of us ran to the end, it would be good if the Elf Archer could finish half of the journey.
The road ahead of the starting point was not very long. We entered a wilderness in less than a minute. At this time, everyone made different choices based on their own mounts: Feiyin rode her "Money Embrace" into the deepest part of the jungle, where her mount's climbing skills could be maximized. She entered the jungle with a dark elf riding a thick two-headed snake; Chang Sanjiao urged his skinny donkey to run towards a rock, where I believe he would find a shortcut to the end. An undead magician made the same choice. His mount was a huge gray-brown lizard; a blood priest rode a hell demon nightmare with a black body and red flames on its four hooves and rushed into the deepest mud pond in the swamp; I didn't rush to change the route because I found that there were quite a few cliffs at the fork in the road ahead. Running with me on this relatively spacious forest road were the elven female animal tamer Yan Zhen, the troll who had just plotted against me (he had fallen behind me), a demon riding a skeleton horse, and a dark elf riding a giant moose. In this fierce competition, all my attention was focused on the road ahead, and I had time to distinguish the names of each opponent.
Hey, it seems like there's one person missing?
By the way, where did Niu Baiwan, who was originally in the front, go?
I suddenly remembered the unbearable journey of this directionally challenged paladin in the past, and my heart suddenly sank. A very bad premonition immediately came to my mind.
It was not until three minutes later when we were climbing a dirt hill along a spiral road that I spotted Niu Baiwan in a dense forest. To be precise, I did not see his "figure", but the names of him and his mount were so eye-catching that they could not be blocked even in the depths of the dense forest. I saw his figure struggling forward in the jungle, and I deeply admired the noble sentiment of a paladin who was not afraid of danger and was indomitable. However, this poor man with a poor sense of direction really used all his good qualities in the wrong place. Judging from his route, he was undoubtedly rushing towards the starting point when we came.
At the beginning of the game, each of us was extremely pessimistic about this game, but the saddest thing was that even so we found that our estimates were too optimistic - this was not a four-on-five game, there were only three of us who could really be of use.
After climbing up the dirt hill, I also left the widest road and turned to a fork in the road. The troll knight riding the "Love Rhino" behind me hesitated for a moment, but still ran away along the main road. I guess this kind of mount with offensive skills will not be very useful in the racing field, and can only play a supporting role. Once it is thrown away and cannot attack again, it will be completely harmless.
This fork in the road was much narrower than the previous one, and branches on both sides often grew across the middle of the road. I lowered my helmet and crouched down, using only the peripheral vision of my eyes to look at the road not far ahead, silently memorizing the terrain I saw on the magic map board. Soon, there was a small turn to the right in front of me, and I was immediately startled and adjusted my riding posture - I remembered that not long after this turn, there was a cliff across the mountain stream.
Just after turning the corner, a cliff appeared ahead as expected. I shook the reins suddenly, and Shanxue took two quick steps, stepped on the edge of the cliff, and flew into the air. A whistling crosswind immediately passed by my ears.
As I crossed the cliff, I saw Chang Sanjiao riding his donkey and climbing the rocks below with difficulty. Not far from him was the necromancer riding a lizard. Although the lizard was not good at climbing on small rocks, it could use its strong claws to firmly grasp the rocks and crawl slowly at an angle perpendicular to the ground.
I guess the key lies in the choice of the road ahead by the Yangtze River Delta. If he can quickly find the donkey's foothold and choose a convenient road to move forward, it is entirely possible that he will run faster than the slow-moving lizard. But now it seems that he is still slightly behind his opponent.
A violent jolt reminded me that I had crossed the cliff and entered the forest on the other side. Following the path I had planned in advance, I began to gallop down the hillside. After a while, I heard a series of "rustling" sounds in the jungle behind me, and a moment later I saw Feiyin riding her "golden money hug" out from behind a big tree. The beast moved among the thick branches in the forest with a lightness and agility that was completely disproportionate to its size, like a dancing ghost.
Just as I was celebrating our president's lead, a swift shadow whizzed past my head and swung to a giant tree in front of me. It was the two-headed snake belonging to the dark elf. It wrapped one end of its body around a branch and swung forward in the forest until the other end hooked onto another branch. This method of moving forward was not as steady and even as Feiyin's woodland leopard, but the speed of each swing was very fast.
The two of them took turns leading and soon left me behind - this was normal. In the woods, my mountain snow could not compare in speed with these mounts that were familiar with the environment. My advantage lay in choosing the right path and then overtaking them with beautiful leaps again and again.
After crossing three cliffs in succession, I finally came to the difficult second half of this journey: in front of me was a huge mountain that towered into the clouds, with many winding roads winding around the mountain. If you don't plan to climb the mountain, you can go around the foot of the mountain in a big arc - this is also a ridiculously long road. Our destination is behind this mountain. Whoever passes the mountain first will have half the chance of winning.
I didn't hesitate and rode my horse around to the right. Almost at the same time, the blood priest riding the nightmare came out of the swamp and went around to the left side of the mountain. Apparently, the skill of this nightmare beast could weaken the swamp's restraint on the movement of creatures, so he was able to pass through this most difficult but shortest straight road in the shortest time.
Except for Niu Baiwan and Xiange Yayi, the others soon appeared one after another. Most of them chose to take a detour like me. Only Chang Sanjiao, Yan Zhen and the demon riding a skeleton horse rushed straight up the mountain. The dark elf riding a moose who had been following Yan Zhen and the others from beginning to end finally parted ways with them and followed me to turn onto this mountain road. As a result, he fell behind - in fact, I didn't see his mount show any special skills until the end of the game. I suspected that this tall and strong moose, like the camel with a long bow shooting at the sun, was a load-bearing mount rather than a speed-type mount.
It was not surprising to me that Chang Sanjiao chose to climb the peak. His mount's climbing skill allowed him to find a shortcut on the steep mountain road, while the lizard's crawling skill was too slow and only made sense when taking a shortcut that could significantly shorten the distance. It was useless in the face of such a towering mountain. But I didn't understand why Yan Zhen and the demon riding a skeleton horse chose to climb the mountain. Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered that at that time, it seemed that we were all attracted by the cute appearance of Yan Zhen's little wild boar, but no one asked what skills it had.
The "250CC twin-cylinder four-stroke" of the Yangtze River Delta showed its strong power among the rocks. With its rock climbing skills, it did not need to move forward along the winding spiral road at all. It spent more time looking for a shortcut from the lower mountain road to the upper mountain road. Sometimes I was really worried about how long it could support the bloated body of the Yangtze River Delta - in my opinion, it was a miracle that it was not crushed to death by the Yangtze River Delta.
When I went around the side of the mountain, the Yangtze River Delta was already halfway down. In my opinion, he had already gained a considerable lead, and the goddess of victory was already waving and smiling at us.
At this time, the "Zhu Dudu" of the wild geese also finally climbed to the top of the mountain. Just as I was imagining how it would roll down from the top of the mountain with its fat body, it suddenly climbed onto a huge rock protruding from the top of the mountain and jumped...
"This is ridiculous! This pig can actually fly?"
The one who exclaimed was the necromancer riding a lizard. It was not until this moment that I saw clearly that his name was "Boss Xilika" and his mount was called "Talis" - to be honest, it was extremely uncoordinated to put such a beautiful girl's name on such an ugly animal, but from my interactions with my space-related friends, I also understood that sometimes some male creatures are always unable to resist the temptation of "riding" with some female creatures, so that when it is obvious that they cannot succeed, they change the names of the things they are riding. They often call this behavior YY, and some soul magic books that I have come into contact with because of the need to study alchemy usually call this behavior "the psychological distortion caused by the collision of the individual's strong id enjoyment principle impulse and the self-reality principle, the psychological distortion caused by the extended psychological weaning period under the influence of the irreconcilable contradiction of the group of material abundance and ideological scarcity in the post-industrial era, the projection of unrealized desires is concretely manifested, and the clinical manifestation of neurosis projected on the second object through transference."
Well, I think YY is easier to say...
…
I don't want to discuss how a wild boar can glide in the air at this time. This may be a mistake made by the Supreme God when creating it, or it may be just his bad taste. But the pig is slowly sliding to the ground, which is undoubtedly a fact happening in front of me. Judging from its current landing speed, the landing speed may be faster than that of the Yangtze River Delta. After this mountain pass is a wide and straight bridge, and the end point is at the other end of the bridge. At this moment, only four words can emerge in my mind, that is, "victory is in hand."
No matter when, never be too happy before the results appear. This is what countless adventures in my previous life have told me again and again. However, we always forget it again and again when we are so close to happiness.
Just when I thought we were sure to win this time, the demon riding a skeleton horse on the top of the mountain began his earth-shattering comeback:
He rushed down from the top of the mountain with unparalleled momentum, stepping into this rugged and difficult winding mountain road without hesitation. When facing the bend in front of him, he did not slow down at all, but instead accelerated the skeleton horse. Just when I thought he would definitely rush out of the mountain road and fall off the cliff, the strange skeleton horse turned around, with all four hooves on the ground, and the whole body slid sideways. The dirt and rocks on the mountain road were pushed and splashed, and its horseshoes rubbed against the ground violently, making a loud "squeaking" sound that made people's teeth ache. When its whole body turned around and faced the next mountain road, it shot forward again without hesitation until it performed this amazing turning skill again in front of the next bend.
I have never seen any creature that can go down the mountain so vigorously and gracefully. Although this is undoubtedly related to the skills of the skeleton horse itself, I have to say that such a difficult technique absolutely requires superb skills from the rider. The timing and position he chose at every turn reflected his extraordinary courage and precise control. More importantly, all of this must be based on his extremely detailed understanding of his mount.
It took less than a minute and a half for it to clear the advantage that Chang Sanjiao had worked so hard to build. When he passed Chang Sanjiao, the butt of the skeleton horse twisted twice, as if to express his mockery of the opponent. When the "flying pig" in the wild goose formation finally landed after a long gliding process, the skeleton horse just passed by its side and took the lead with a half-horse head advantage.
There was a straight road ahead, and since everyone's mounts had a 100% speed bonus, the rankings could no longer change. Chang Sanjiao had barely gotten out of the mountain pass until this moment, and activated the mount's "gallop" skill, but it was obviously too late. Fei Yin also activated the mount's "sprint" ability, but she was even further away.
It was a huge irony that we had worked so hard to build up such an advantage, with almost everyone one step ahead of their opponent, but in the end we were completely defeated by one person from the opponent. We took second, third and fourth place, but it was all meaningless because there was only one winner in the whole game.
Oh, let me say one more thing. The demon who staged a shocking comeback at the last moment was named "Fujiwara Takumi". The name of his skeleton horse was a bit weird. It was a combination of some common language characters and some unfamiliar symbols. It seemed to be like this:
"Fujiwara Tatsumi Store (for home use)".
