"Hah… Hah… Hah…" Kang Xue was breathing heavily while scanning the surroundings. Four hours of battle was still too much for her but she was still standing on her feet despite the exhaustion.
She then noticed she was far from the wall, near the forest. The girl did not realize that she had gone far from the fort. Her focus was on the battle, especially when the stage-2 ogre started to appear. She could not afford to be careless, so she did not pay attention to his surroundings but the ogres.
"You should join your brother into the formation, the next wave will be tougher than this wave," seeing the girl was having a hard time even breathing, Tang Shaoyang suggested.
Kang Xue did not reply but looked toward the formation, she saw a big pile of ogre's dead bodies strewn around the formation. They were still standing, sturdy and unbreachable.
"I guess I will join the formation in the next wave," Kang Xue nodded her head. Even though it was a pity that she could only kill fewer monsters if she stayed within the formation, she had reached her limits. She knew her limitation or she would be just a burden for her man, holding him back. That was the last thing she wanted to happen.
"Can you walk?" Tang Shaoyang asked with a smile. Looking at her, bringing back memories where Lu An could not move after fighting zombies too long. Kang Xue replied with a nod as she was busy stabilizing her breathing.
"So, how many this time?" He loved to check her progress over time. Once again, she only raised four fingers, indicating she gained four levels in this battle. He could see her smile while she told him how many levels gained.
They slowly walked back to the fort, side by side, "I am jealous of you, two battles, seven levels while me only one level for two battles," Kang Xue punched him in the waist, "Your level is way higher than mine, why don't we swap our level?"
"Fuhuhu," Tang Shaoyang let out a chuckle while feigning covered his waist, "Even if there's a way to swap our level, I will never swap our levels," Kang Xue rolled her eyes, "Of course, you don't want to. Your level is way higher than mine. You will be the most stupid men in the world if you are willing to swap our level,"
"No, that's not the reason," Tang Shaoyang's answer surprised her. She looked at him curiously, wanting to know what his reason was, "Then what is it?"
"If I swap my level with yours, you will start your own harem," he answered with a serious look on his face, "I don't want to share my woman with other men," she jabbed his waist with her elbow, but she let out a chuckle afterward.
"Why are you smiling? You are not considering creating your own harem, don't you?" Tang Shaoyang asked her suspiciously, "Nah, I will kill your harem if you dare to," he then shrugged his shoulder lightly.
"Selfish b*stard!" She spat out but Tang Shaoyang grinned in return.
Soon the couple met with the formation, Captain Cao and Wei Xi were chatting. Mostly, Captain Cao was expressing his thanks for helping them.
"Good job, you two!" He placed his hand on their shoulders, "You and your subordinates have four hours to rest, sleeping, eating, taking a shit, or talking. I don't care what you want to do, but you have to go back to your post in four hours!"
After that, he walked past them into the fort. Wei Xi smiled while Captain Cao looked surprised while his eyes followed the man's back. Sure he was still cold to him, but it was much better where he would not even spare a glance at them.
Entering the fort, Kang Xue looked at him once again with her curious gaze. Even she could tell that Tang Shaoyang's attitude to the military changed, "What's that?"
"What?" He asked back without looking at her, "You change your mind? Are we going to work together with them from now on?" Only then Tang Shaoyang turned toward her woman with a surprised expression, "Was that too obvious?"
"Yeah," Kang Xue nodded while Tang Shaoyang smiled without answering her. The reason? He had heard from Wei Xi where he changed their approach to recruiting the soldiers. After he heard everything from Wei Xi's mouth, he decided to act less cold while maintaining his role as a bad cop.
"Where are you going? Are you going to get some sleep?" Kang Xue changes the topic. Sleeping, that was what she needed now.
"Nope, I am going to get my dinner and watch the wall, you can go sleep if you want to. Don't forget to lock the door, or I might kill the man that lost to your room," he ended his words with a joke about the harem thingy.
They parted their way, under the dim light from the moonlight and the torches, he made his way toward the food shop. Without electricity, torches and moonlight were the source of the light they could have. He ordered 4 Soft Breads and 2 Cream Soups. With a tray of food in his hand, he headed to the north wall.
Upon reaching the top wall, he saw a man standing next to the bell. Bai Yuan was standing on his post, watching over the forest, "You can go rest, I will be doing the night watch!" He shouted at the man.
"It's okay, Boss. I can still go ahead without resting," Bai Yuan replied in a firm tone. "Suit yourself, what about you get your dinner while me watching over for the time being," he sat on the edge while putting the tray on his lap.
"Then I will get my food as well," Bai Yuan nodded his head this time. Tang Shaoyang merely waved his hand while holding a loaf of bread. He tore the bread and dipped it into the cream soup.
Four hours of rest, there was a reason behind his decision. It was not just a random decision, he calculated the time of the next attack. He predicted the next wave should be around five to six hours.
This was a game, there were always rules for a game or even pattern. From the first wave, until the second wave appeared again, he created two patterns. 9-hours cycle and 6-hours cycle.
9-hours cycle, it was the interlude between the first wave attack to the second wave attack. There was an interlude of 9-hours. Since they defeated the second wave in four hours, that meant they had 5 hours before the third wave attack.
The second theory was a 6-hours cycle, the new wave would appear 6 hours after they defeated the last wave. If this was the case, they would have 2 hours of spare time. But of course, these were just his theories he thought of based on the interval between the first and the second. The attack could be random as well or with a pattern but more complicated than he could think of.
Tang Shaoyang finished the first bread when he was about to get his second bread, he felt a presence walking toward him. He thought it was Bai Yuan, he turned his head to the side only to find Kang Xue walking over with a blanket covering her body.
"I thought you were going to sleep?" He asked as he did not expect her to come. "I am," she nodded while taking out a folded blanket and placed it next to him, "The night wind is cold, I bring you a blanket," after putting the blanket, she yawned and walked to the other side of the wall.
Kang Xue sat down with her back leaning against the wall, fixing her blanket before she closed her eyes. She planned to sleep on the wall, she thought of this the moment she heard her man was going to watch the wall.
Tang Shaoyang stunned and blurted out, "You can go sleeping in the lodging house, you know? You don't have to accompany me here,"
Without opening her eyes, she replied casually, "I am sleeping here so you can kill the lost man who tried to approach me," her joking answer caused him to smile.
With a silly laugh, he took a bite on the second bread without dipping it into the cream soup.
Bai Yuan wanted to have a meal together with his Boss since he looked so lonely. But he backed away the moment he noticed Kang Xue.
Meanwhile, on the south wall, Lu An was having a tray of food for himself. The same menu as his Boss's while Hu Feng accompanied him next to him.
"You can go rest, Uncle Feng. Leave the night watch to me," Lu An tried to have his vice-captain to sleep, but the older man shook his head, "No, let's this old man accompany you, Captain. I would be ashamed if I had done all the work by yourself," Hu Feng shook his head while stirring the Cream Soup with his bread.
"Wu Xing can replace me in the next watch, for now, let me accompany you," he was firm with his choice so Lu An did not have any choice but let him accompany him for the night duty. He volunteered for the night because he knew his Boss would do the night duty as well on the other side of the wall.
The young Lu An wanted to be like his Boss, being a responsible leader for his team.