Volume 5: Protracted War Chapter 30: Horseless Evolution
I looked at A Feng in amazement, speechless for a moment. What was the inevitable connection between the failure of the contract and being a "traitor"? Was he going to betray the Tongxin League? But this would not help!
A Feng sighed, and seemed to be a little scared. "Fortunately, the contract was signed successfully. If it had failed, I would have to apologize to you and ask for your forgiveness."
This still sounded so weird, and it confused me even more. I just felt more and more confused. "What on earth are you talking about? Stop keeping me in suspense and just say it clearly."
A Feng climbed onto my shoulder and said, "If the cross-level contract fails, I will lose the capital to compete with the masters. Not to mention dealing with Hua Mantian, I think I can't even keep my position as a director of the 'Resistance Alliance'. Moreover, my evaluation level will definitely get lower and lower. Staying here will no longer be of any help to you. Therefore, I plan to withdraw from the 'Resistance Alliance' and switch to become a Knight of Light. If I start all over again, I should still have a chance to compete with Hua Mantian. However, because you are my guarantor for joining the alliance, my withdrawal and 'betrayal' will definitely have a negative impact on you, and may even jeopardize your position as a director. So I'm sorry for you. Anyway, we are brothers, you will definitely understand me, right?"
"What?" I almost jumped up, "You...you..." I kept saying "you" for a long time, but I couldn't say a word. Thinking about it carefully, this is indeed the best solution. If I change my job to become a Knight of Light, I can choose a pet again as my level increases, which is equivalent to having another way out. Naturally, I don't have to worry too much about the impact of the failure of the contract signing. Of course, I have already been promoted to the sixth-level profession. It is a bit disadvantageous to change my job to the light profession now. Compared with the players who changed jobs before, it has delayed a lot of time and is relatively backward in development. Generally speaking, no expert players will make such a choice again, but it is undoubtedly a smooth road for players who failed to sign a contract for a higher level. Unless you can endure the loneliness and work hard to reach the ninth-level profession and then develop slowly, changing jobs should be the best choice. It is indeed a good plan. On the surface, it is for the players' sake, but in fact it is a move that is beneficial to the Church of Light. Those expert players who are more suitable for the Knight and Magician professions of Light Knight and Light Priest can naturally boldly choose to sign contracts with higher levels. This opportunity will surely attract some unlucky losers to join. This method is really too clever.
A Feng patted my shoulder and said, "If I really did this and it affected your future in the Resistance Alliance, you definitely wouldn't blame me, right?"
After I figured it out, I came to my senses from the shock. "Blame you? It's like I know your original intention of playing games. We are brothers, how can I blame you? But..." My face changed, and I turned over and pinched his neck viciously. "Since you have had this plan for a long time, why didn't you tell me earlier? I have been worrying for so long in vain. I have been thinking about how to make up words to comfort you in case the cross-level contract fails. You are so unfriendly. You deliberately want to laugh at me, don't you?" I was really worried about him during those days, especially when signing the contract. I was so worried that I almost didn't dare to watch. If I had known that he had such a plan, would I be so nervous?
"Let go, let go quickly, you want to murder me!" A Feng pried my hands apart with all his might, breathing heavily, kneading my neck, and muttering softly, "You kid, you're too cruel, and you didn't even listen to my explanation first."
I looked at him unhappily and continued to rub my fists, "The facts are clear, you have admitted it yourself, what else is there to explain? Get ready to accept my righteous punishment."
"Stop, stop..." A Feng hurriedly jumped to the other side of the sofa, waved his hands at me repeatedly, asking for a "pause", and then laughed dryly at me, "Actually, it was not my idea to change my job after failure. I was really determined to give it a try. If I didn't succeed, I would die. At most, I would temporarily stop and rely on your help to get to the ninth level of my job, and then stand up to compete with Playboy. I didn't consider anything else. At that time, I was also very nervous. I pretended to be calm on the surface, but in fact, I couldn't eat well, couldn't sleep well, and was often distracted in the game . I didn't have much confidence. It was not until the time to sign the contract that Wuxia, who probably saw that I was too nervous, reminded me that there was such a way out. It really calmed me down. It was not intentional to make you worry."
"Oh, it was Sister Wuxia who reminded you. No wonder she dared to choose to sign a contract across levels and acted so casually and confidently. It turns out that she had prepared for this a long time ago." Xue Wuxia's fighting level is not as good as Afeng's, but she is slightly better in game experience and understanding of some things. It is not surprising that she has such insights.
Afeng sat back next to me with a smile on his face. "Originally, I didn't want to cause you any trouble, but what Wuxia said makes sense. There is no distinction between camps in professions themselves. The key lies in the person who chooses the profession. Even if we change our profession to a bright profession, we can still be in Cao's camp but our hearts are with Han. We will still stand on the same front with you and will never covet the benefits of our positions and turn against the dark camp. At most, we will not get the final mission reward, and that is not my ultimate goal. And the most important thing is that the Church of Light has no regulations that forbid infighting and settling personal grudges. Even if we are both bright professions, I can still cause trouble for Hua Mantian and oppose him everywhere. As long as I don't openly betray the Church of Light, I won't be punished. At most, I will just get a relatively low evaluation and cannot improve my status."
After listening to Afeng's explanation, I hesitated for a moment and looked at him seriously. "Although it is understandable, as a brother, you actually wanted to 'betray' me. I am so frightened that I cannot forgive you easily. How about this, you do the laundry, cooking and housework for a month, and then this matter will be over."
"So I was the one who took the initiative to confess this matter, otherwise you would still be kept in the dark. Confession will be rewarded with leniency. I think a week will be enough." Afeng looked unwilling and bargained with me.
"As brothers, of course we can't lie to each other. This is what you should do. There is no such thing as a wall that is impenetrable. Even if you don't tell me now, I will know about it later, and the nature of it will be even worse by then. Half a month, no bargaining, no more negotiations."
"Okay, deal!" We held hands tightly. Actually, I also understood that Afeng just wanted to express his gratitude and apology to me. He felt guilty for having to withdraw from the "Resistance Alliance" and become a Knight of Light, which indirectly harmed my interests. So he did not intend to hide it and confessed it to me directly. Actually, from my point of view, in order to deal with Hua Mantian, even if the situation forced me to betray the "Resistance Alliance", I would do it without hesitation.
Now that Afeng's pet has been solved, it's time to plan Xue Wuxia's affairs. I can't take the credit for this matter. With Afeng, the new dragon knight, by my side, I must be sensible and not steal his limelight or take away his first credit. In line with the principle of making the best use of everything, as long as I participate, Xue Wuxia will definitely try his best to reflect the use value of me, the "world's number one wizard", and will not waste any of it. In this case, Afeng will hardly have too many opportunities to show off. Anyway, finding pet eggs is not something that can be done by strength alone, so I simply don't get involved. I use the excuse that something happened in the "Dead Spirit Space" and slip back to continue to develop my own power and prepare for the "World Heroes Conference" more than a month later. I don't care much about some false reputation. What I care about is the prize money of the competition. According to the official distribution plan, whether it is an individual competition or a team battle, if I am lucky enough to enter the "Top Ten", the prize money will definitely be quite generous, enough for me to make a small fortune. A "Phoenix Feather Cloak" has drained almost all of my profits, and I'm in urgent need of additional income to supplement it. Earning money from treasure hunting is hard-earned, and it is both time-consuming and laborious. The randomness of item drops cannot guarantee income. It's not as direct as participating in a competition where you can earn money just by winning a game.
Originally, something happened was just an excuse, but I didn't expect that before I could stay in the "Dead Space" for two days, "suffering" came again. Taotao, who was taking a "magma bath" in the "Hell Volcano", hadn't made any movement. Wu Ma, the dark knight I conquered first, was useless because of his lack of strength. The acquired knight Wu Ma, who I let go, actually began to evolve.
This guy, through continuous crazy and bloody killing, absorbed and transformed a large amount of soul energy of his kind, almost without stopping for a moment. Now, as he wished, he finally accumulated enough strength and reached the requirements of evolution. And he also chose a safe and good place. Knowing that I, the master, was the boss of the zombies, he took a dozen dark knights and black warriors that I assigned to him as bodyguards and ran to the zombies' territory. He turned into a black and opaque pupa and began to evolve into a higher level of undead creatures. Of course, I, as the master, need to provide him with sufficient mental power as a supply to create a better evolutionary environment for him. Most of his mental power was plundered by him, leaving only a basic bottom line for me, which greatly reduced my strength and made it inconvenient to do many things.
In fact, from the bottom of my heart, at this stage of development, I don't think much of Wu Ma's evolution this time. If the Dark Knight goes up one level, it will only be a Terror Knight. Now I have hundreds of Terror Giant Bear Knights, and there are also a dozen Terror Tiger and Wild Lion Knights of higher levels. One more or one less of it is not much, and it is insignificant at all. Even if it is lucky enough to undergo another alienation and evolve into a more unique Terror Knight like Red Star, I don't have another "law enforcer" for it to improve its strength, and it is difficult to reach the level of Red Star. The room for growth is limited. At most, it can be estimated to be as strong as the blood bat, and there is nothing unique. In the near future, such subordinates will be everywhere, and there is nothing to make me happy.
Of course, as the first dark knight I own, Wu Ma can be said to have made great contributions to my rise. Since I chose to let it go, I should have expected this day. Its evolution has more symbolic significance than practical significance. Based on the principle of treating everyone equally and with the precedent of Red Star, I cannot neglect such a meritorious minister and waste its hard-earned opportunity to "wash away the shame, start a new life, and make a name for itself". I can only temporarily suspend the work of expanding my power and try my best to absorb the spiritual power of other undead creatures and provide it to Wu Ma to support its evolution. Although Red Star and others can still defeat the Horror Giant Bear Knight and then let me subdue him, Wu Ma's interference indirectly affected my state, and the efficiency of subjugation is much lower than before.
Time is passing day by day, and I can't help but feel a little regretful. This Wu Ma is simply a "bottomless pit" that can never be filled. Its appetite is astonishing. It absorbs as much mental power as I supply. It seems to be more greedy than the original Black Star. You know, my current mental power is much higher than when Black Star evolved, and my strength is a bit stronger. This is not evolution at all, it is clearly a waste of my precious time. With so much mental power absorbed by it, I have wasted more than ten days. I could at least subdue twice as many Horror Giant Bear Knights. No matter how much Wu Ma evolves, he will probably just be a Horror Knight. He can't evolve to be more powerful than the current Red Star.
Especially after Taotao finished his ten-day "magma bath" and left the "Hell Volcano" and returned to me, he urgently needed to evolve to improve his strength to meet the challenge of soaking qualification three months later. He needed to absorb and transform a lot of soul energy to replenish himself, which made me very busy. Most of the spoils were allocated to him, and I could only subdue a few of them occasionally when the spoils were more abundant. For this reason, I wanted to give up Wuma several times, no longer deliberately providing him with spiritual power, and instead help Taotao, who has a more promising future, grow. Even if Wuma completed his evolution, it would not have much use value. Would he be kept as a pet like the original Red Star? Don't be funny, even the Horror Lion Knight is not as good as the sixth-level Warcraft, how can it be worth wasting a sixth-level professional "pet scroll"?
Gritting my teeth, I made up my mind and persevered. The key is that I have invested so much in the early stage. It would be even more uneconomical to give up now. It means that all the previous efforts may be wasted. Wouldn't it be a waste of hard work? I want to see what kind of form Wu Ma can evolve into after getting so many benefits, and whether it can bring me an unexpected surprise.
