Chapter 857: Chapter 815 Skip! Skip! Skip! _1
“Can I first save the people, then not go into the city and wait here?”
Yi began pondering the “all-inclusive” gameplay.
The live streaming audience were indulging in the spectacle:
“Wow, taking a country girl into the lady’s carriage? What a Sea King move!”
“You take down 20 bandits on your own, won’t people avoid you around from a mile?”
“Could we go against the norm? Form a formidable team with the country girl and kidnap the lady of officials who comes after?”
“…Amazing! Try it, try it.”
…
Yi decided to respond to the audience’s voice and see if it works.
Yelang, on the other hand, didn’t have so many worldly wishes. He couldn’t bear to see the country girl die like this. As long as he could save her, he would immediately enter the city.
The vibrant world of Chang’an City was waiting for him.
*
At the same time, Super Tomato was still at the tutorial level.
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But he wasn’t there for the busty girl, but for the bandits.
The moment the bandits appeared, he played through the conventional storyline once. After waking up on the carriage, he decisively deleted the file and started again.
When the bandits appeared for the second time, he didn’t draw his sword throughout. Instead, he waited for the bandits to rush into the defense circle then loudly shouted:
“Brave men! Let me join you! I’ve long been dissatisfied with the damn emperor! Let’s revolt! Damn Li Longji!”
He wanted to see if he could infiltrate the bandits, to see their hideout—not that he genuinely wanted to become a bandit, but was simply curious if Yunmeng had designed it.
Also, he wondered if Yunmeng had arranged any content in the wilderness outside Chang’an.
But what he didn’t expect was: originally, only one bandit was charging at him, but after shouting those words, five bandits charged at him on the spot!
Even the bandit’s leader abandoned his original duties and charged at him.
Five swords, a flurry of hacks to death.
This time it was a straight-up death! When he opened his eyes again, it was just the beginning of the game, even the subsequent severely injured rescue storyline was gone.
“???”
Super Tomato was flabbergasted, “What’s the deal? Can’t I join the bandits? Even so, they shouldn’t all rush up to hack me, right?”
He pondered for a moment and finally came up with a guess: “Could it be… these bandits don’t like to hear the word ‘revolt’?”
“This kind of timid action won’t get big things done!”
Super Tomato was somewhat disappointed—looks like the “revolt” gameplay probably wouldn’t work.
But he still needs to check out the bandit’s hideout.
When the bandits appeared again, Super Tomato raised his hands high: “Brave men! Let me join you. I’ll earn my keep!”
As soon as he had spoken, the bandit that had been charging at him suddenly stopped and looked at him suspiciously: “You want to join us?”
“Yes!” Super Tomato was adamant.
“Pft!”
Suddenly, a piece of sword tip protruded from Super Tomato’s chest.
“??” He looked down at the sword tip, then turned his head painfully, only to see that the busty country girl who originally admired the protagonist, her eyes filled with pain and disappointment, even her hand holding the sword was shaking.
But she still stabbed him with this sword.
Super Tomato unbelievably fell down.
Still, the lady of officials’ storyline didn’t trigger, and the moment he opened his eyes, he was back at the beginning again.
Seeing the busty girl holding a pear with a smile on her face walking towards him, Super Tomato felt a bit complex—
“Young lady, are you always so righteous? Your quick action towards ‘upholding justice over family ties’ is really second to none!”
Super Tomato still accepted the pear, but shook his head to decline the invitation to have dinner together.
The bandits appeared again, Super Tomato distanced himself from the crowd, raised his hands high, and applied to join the bandits again.
After a series of drama, he finally succeeded in becoming a bandit this time.
The main task remained unaffected, still prompting him to seek clues about his sister in Chang’an. The only difference was that his background changed from “Ranger” to “Mountain Bandit”.
But Super Tomato didn’t care, he followed the bandits, pulling the wagon they grabbed from the merchant team, heading towards the mountains.
*
Warehouse Bird was quite satisfied with this loot from the bodies.
He first took the weapon of the bandit leader—a [fine] level one-handed sword which was a tier better than the starter [apprentice level] .
The weapons of the other bandits were ordinary—all [apprentice level] weapons.
But Warehouse Bird didn’t mind. Besides putting a bow with the highest durability in the weapon storage box, the rest were all wrapped up and taken.
Additionally, the biggest gain was a martial arts secret book—[Black Iron Sword Technique]—found on the body of the bandit leader.
[Black Iron Sword Technique]: The one who practices this sword is like black iron, weighing a thousand loads!
Beginner level effect: Only works when using a sword weapon, the power of the sword increases by 5%.
——
“Special effect!” Warehouse Bird was immediately excited and quickly swiped his hands to learn it.
—-Only “beginner level swordsmanship” comes with tutorial videos that players can follow.
Those marvelous special effects-imbued martial arts secret books with fancy names don’t have a practice method—-If a set of practice methods was arranged for all martial arts secret books, it would be too much work, and it might misguide players. Therefore, Lincoln decided to cut corners in this aspect.
Apart from the martial arts secret book, other “drops” were not valuable. The bandits were all paupers, and all the money bags added up were less than 10 taels of silver.
Warehouse Bird even wondered: how did these people afford these horses?
As for the horses, after the owner died in battle, most of them ran away, leaving only the mount of the last dying leader.
But Warehouse Bird couldn’t ride, nor did he have a stable, so he could only hand it over to the merchant team to turn it into money for him.
The horse alone was worth 25 strings of cash, which is 25,000 copper coins, equivalent to 25 taels of silver, or 2.5 taels of gold!
Score!
Yet, watching this money pile up and thinking about the horses that escaped, Warehouse Bird felt a chest pain so severe, he could hardly breathe.
Besides these material gains, there were some indirect ones:
The busty girl looked at him with even more admiration. Warehouse Bird felt quite confident that if he bought a house in Chang’an, he would have a good chance of inviting her to live with him.
There was also the gratitude of the merchant team: a small brass token engraved with the word “Xue”. With this token, he could get a 10% discount on purchases from any Xue family business in Chang’an.
The last was the Silver Achievement Trophy – [Friend of Justice]!
Even though there were small criticisms, Warehouse Bird was not surprised, decisively taking the girl aboard the carriage vacated by the merchants, and started studying the impact of increased mastery of his sword skills and what he could do with the 1 versatile point gained from leveling up.
Next up was: entering the city!
*
It had been an hour since the game’s release, and Warehouse Bird had only just finished the tutorial level and hadn’t even entered the city.
Other speedrunners had not only entered the city long ago, but their progress on the main storyline was skyrocketing—
Upon seeing a whole twenty bandits on horses charging at him, Roger instantly reacted:
“I bet this is the same setting as in Battlefield’s tutorial level!”
Then, without even drawing his weapon, he just stood in place waiting for death.
When the busty girl was shot in the chest with an arrow trying to protect him, he didn’t even blink an eye.
In the eyes of ruthless speedrunners, women only slow them down!
Roger watched the arrow flying towards him — he was fully capable of dodging it, but he didn’t. He only had one thought in his mind—
“Skip!”
…
Indeed, the storyline quickly moved to the next stage.
In response to the curiosity and concern from the elegant young lady, he wore a poker face, simply nodding or shaking his head to all her conversation topics.
When the carriage stopped at the entrance of Chen Mansion, the young lady was still eagerly asking, “Is it urgent to seek asylum with your relatives? Could you wait a few days and let me do my duty as a host?”
Roger was as cold as steel, “It’s urgent!”
“Okay then.” The young girl nodded in disappointment and with her shoulders slumped, she returned home.
As for Roger, he strode towards the task location in Guangzhai Square.
The [Tell the young lady a story] storyline – skip.
…
…
And that wasn’t even the worst of it.
Drawing a Snake With Horns didn’t even wait for the carriage to arrive at the Chen Mansion. When the carriage turned for the second time, he suddenly interrupted, “Excuse me, could you drop me off here up ahead? I’ve arrived, thank you.”
Second Miss Chen: “???”
Before she could even respond, Drawing a Snake With Horns had already hopped off the carriage.
As the Second Miss peeked out, “Where are you staying then? Wait a minute… ”
But Drawing a Snake With Horns was already sprinting far away, leaving only his back view for her, infuriating her to stomp her foot in annoyance.
*
Northeast of Chang’an City, outside the Imperial City, lies Guangzhai Square.
In the residential area west of Guangzhai Temple, Roger stopped outside an ordinary house.
This was the destination required by the main task: the home of the protagonist’s distant relatives.
These distant relatives were related through his father, but judging by the house, they clearly weren’t from a large clan.
Roger knocked on the door, and a woman came out.
He was just about to call out to her, but hesitated when he suddenly recalled: How do people of the Tang Dynasty address distant relatives of more than three generations?
How was he supposed to know?
But he didn’t want to waste time, so he gritted his teeth and called out, “Auntie…”
Fortunately, Yunmeng is very considerate of players in this aspect, NPCs won’t change their attitudes because of incorrect addresses by players.
The subsequent exchange went smoothly, Roger learned that his uncle was currently serving as a martial lord in Guangzhai Square — somewhat equivalent to a local police officer today, under the command of the Golden Guard. Of course, he could also be commanded by the county magistrate, primarily responsible for fire safety and public order within the square.
However, he was not at home because a strange case had occurred in the Teaching Workshop: a scholar had disappeared inside the Teaching Workshop.
All the martial lords were currently ordered by the county magistrate and the Golden Guard to find clues within a deadline. His uncle was also busy.
Following verbal directions, Roger found his uncle who was searching for clues along the wall of the Teaching Workshop.
“You’re here?” This distant uncle patted his shoulder.
Perhaps he was too busy; there were not many polite pleasantries. He went straight to the point, “I’m really tied up right now, why don’t you help me look at this case? You’ve been roaming the Jianghu for so many years, maybe you can see more than I can.”
Roger: “I can’t help, I need to find my sister.”
“Alright, I won’t push you.” His uncle sighed helplessly, “You go home and rest first. Tonight when I get back, I’ll tell you about Shirley, okay? All the officers are focusing on this case now, I really can’t get away.”
Roger: “No, I want to know now!”
“I see, finding Shirley is the top priority.” His uncle slumped his shoulders in defeat, “You go to the Huji Wine Shop outside Chunming Gate and find their boss. She might know more than I do.”
“Okay.” Roger nodded, turned around quickly and left.
[Strange Case of Teaching Workshop] storyline—skip!
…
Roger left efficiently.
But Drawing a Snake With Horns was caught off guard: “Investigate a case in the Teaching Workshop?”
The Teaching Workshop was different from ordinary brothels; ordinary people couldn’t enter, no matter how rich they were.
Drawing a Snake With Horns’ attitude changed promptly: “All these years, thanks to uncle’s care of my sister, so uncle’s matter is my matter!”
“I’ll definitely help with this!”