“Is it almost there?” After rushing for a long time, Shi Hao was somewhat panting and sweating.
It had to be said that that lackey of Wu Batian strictly followed Wu Batian’s hint. He led Shi Hao and others in the opposite direction of West Flower’s Novice Village. At this moment, they had already walked for a long time. In the game, the map area was much larger than the real world’s area, and the character’s movement speed was also a lot faster than the reality. They had already covered a long distance.
“Almost there, it’s just ahead.” Wu Batian’s lackey also changed his voice while replying.
It had already been a long time since Shi Hao, Feng Tianhao, Li Yi and his subordinates set out on this journey. The sky already had a hint of darkness. Shi Hao looked confused. These people had traveled such a long distance, moreover, at night, weren’t they afraid of being robbed by mountain bandits?
Shi Hao asked: “Did you all come like this? It seems the distance is somewhat strange. Did you take the wrong way?”
Wu Batian’s lackey was frightened. He tightly held his cloth to cover his face and replied in a trembling voice: “Lord Village Chief, we should reach there before dark.”
Shi Hao frowned. It wasn’t that Shi Hao had a doubt. It was very normal to take the wrong path. Merely, if they continued to keep going randomly, they might have to sleep in the open. But Shi Hao’s frown had a different meaning in the eyes of Wu Batian’s lackey.
Wu Batian’s lackey seemed to have already foreseen his imminent death. But after dying once, he understood the terror of death, and even more understood the terror of Wu Batian. By comparison, it was nothing if he died again. Besides, he had one last resort. Feign illness, pretend to be a mental case!
“Eh! Aren’t those my father and mother? This is not an illusion. Father, mother! I came to look for you.” Wu Batian’s lackey shouted. Obviously, he wanted to confuse Shi Hao and Feng Tianhao, making everyone thought that he had gone insane. Like that, he might have a bit of chance of survival. Merely, he had never thought that when he shouted and ran, he would truly run into a pair of father and mother.
“Child! You are finally back. We have been waiting for you for many years.” A pair of old married couple slowly walked forward. Among them, the grandpa was called Cui Tie and that grandma was called Mo Ye. They were regular NPC characters. They pulled Wu Batian’s lackey into their arms. As a matter of fact, Cui Tie and Mo Ye had been waiting here for a long time. They had also cried for a long time. At this moment, they had already cried so much that their eyes were already blurred. Their ears might not be particularly good either. They were basically unable to recognize whether the person they pulled into their arms was their son or not.
Wu Batian’s lackey was stunned. Sh*t! He was obviously pretending to be crazy, how could he truly bump into a pair of insane couple? But what could he do now? He simply had to carry it through, and keep acting to be crazy! With a pair of real lunatics as a cover, the possibility of survival was higher. He yelled: “Father, mother! I’m back.”
A hint of joy appeared in Shi Hao’s eyes. There were two reasons. First, the reunion of a ‘family’ naturally made him happy. Second, since a pair of an old married couple was waiting here, then the village Shi Hao was looking for was definitely not far away.
Shi Hao said: “Sorry to disturb you, the sky is already getting dark now. Let’s go to the village and talk slowly. Don’t keep crying here.”
“Okay, let this old man lead the way.” Cui Tie brought Shi Hao and others back to a village. The name of this village was Tranquil Water Village.
Looking from a distance, Tranquil Water Village’s area seemed to be less than half the area of Twin Dragons Village. However, the population of Tranquil Water Village was obviously far more than Twin Dragons Village. Moreover, the facilities of Tranquil Water Village were also much more complete, including a smithy and a tailor shop. Such a luxurious village naturally belonged to the Divine and Mighty Alliance.
“Hello! This is the first time for so many guests to visit our village. Please come in first.” A generous-looking middle-aged man walked over with many soldiers behind him. This person was Tranquil Water Village’s Village Chief, called Zhang Yang. As the Village Chief, Zhang Yang should be a historical NPC. In fact, Zhang Yang’s historical figure model also originated from the Three Kingdoms period. He had also served as the Prefecture Chief of Hanoi before. Merely, his ability was limited and he had already been swallowed by the river of history long ago. In short, Zhang Yang had a strategist profession, and the system assessed him as C grade historical NPC. His unique skill was called National Farming.
[Skill Name: National Farming]
[Skill Grade: historical NPC’s skill, no grade classification]
[Skill Type: Passive, no consumption]
[Weapon Restriction: None]
[Current Rank and Mastery: Level 1, 78/100]
[Skill Effect: Increases farming efficiency of all members of the village by 5%]
National Farming, this skill was a standard internal affairs-type supplementary skill. Naturally, there was no need to talk about Zhang Yang. He was a special internal affairs-type talent. However, Divine and Mighty Alliance was truly confident. Divine and Mighty Alliance actually let an internal affairs-type talent to become the Village Chief, but not a commander-type military general. It could only be said that Divine and Mighty Alliance was very clear about the hearts of other people. Basically, no one would dare to make trouble in their territory. Therefore, there was also no significant difference between making a civil officer or a military general the Village Chief.
“Village Chief Zhang is polite.” Shi Hao said with confidence: “I’m also the Village Chief of Twin Dragons Village next door. This time, I boldly came to disturb, I hope Village Chief Zhang will not blame me.”
Shi Hao’s confidence came from his strength. Although Twin Dragons Village might be inferior to Tranquil Water Village in the aspect of economic development, the military power of Twin Dragons Village was absolutely not lacking. From the momentum of soldiers behind him and Zhang Yang, Shi Hao could see that Twin Dragons Village’s soldiers held a clear advantage. Zhang Yang also could make out this point. Therefore, Zhang Yang was somewhat careful. Although Shi Hao had just a few soldiers, which was far inferior to the military reserve of Tranquil Water Village, Shi Hao’s soldiers seemed to have the courage to pit one against ten. Especially that big dark fellow Li Yi, he absolutely wasn’t simple. If Zhang Yang didn’t belong to Divine and Mighty Alliance, then he wouldn’t have dared to let Shi Hao and others into Tranquil Water Village. After entering the village, polite remarks were also inevitable.
Fanning himself with a feather fan, Zhang Yang said politely: “Village Chief Shi, you are so young and promising. I wonder what future development plans do you have with our two villages?” [TN: Zhang Yang addressed Shi Hao as Village Head Shi because the game-name of Shi Hao is Shake the Heaven (Shi Po Tian Jing in Chinese)]
Shi Hao also replied politely: “Of course, seek shared development, harmony and mutual benefits.”
A hint of vigilance in the eyes of Zhang Yang disappeared, and he kindly instructed his subordinates: “Quickly arrange accommodation for Village Chief Shi and others.”
The night passed, early the next morning.
Wu Batian’s lackey suddenly disappeared, but Shi Hao didn’t care about these trivial matters because a lot of serious news came today in a continuous stream.
“Congratulations to Divine Flower Continent’s XX player for establishing the second player village in <<Kingdom>>, XX Village. In order to encourage the players to continue their efforts, we hereby notify that the reputation of XX Village will be increased by 50 points, and player XX will be given an administration skill and three sets of items. Player XX may check their inventory promptly.” The system’s beep could be heard thrice.
“Congratulations to Divine Flower Continent’s XX player for establishing the third player village in <<Kingdom>>, XX Village. In order to encourage the players to continue their efforts, we hereby notify that the reputation of XX Village will be increased by 20 points.” The system’s beep resounded again, three times.
After this, there were many system’s beeps in succession. However, the rewards for establishing a village was basically the same or no reward at all. In the end, the number of villages set to receive rewards was reached, even the upper limit of the number of villages established set to be announced by the system was reached. The system no longer announced the creation of new villages.
Feng Tianhao didn’t care about these things. As Feng Tianhao saw it, the starting advantage of Twin Dragons Village had already been established anyway without a doubt. The principle of one step led, lead at every step was very clear. Moreover, the other villages might be destroyed by the bandit attack after five days.
However, Shi Hao’s expression was much more serious by comparison. Shi Hao was feeling great pressure now!
Originally, Shi Hao had estimated that it would still take a few more days before this happened. After all, Shi Hao and Feng Tianhao were just level 6. Although they always shared their experience with soldiers, their level was definitely among the front runners. This meant that those players who established villages were also level 6 or 7. With such a level, killing a level 10 Novice Village’s BOSS was not easy. Even if the BOSS had no intelligence, it had high attributes. Without the ‘kind-hearted’ sponsor of Wu Batian, that ‘god’s chosen person’, Shi Hao and Feng Tianhao weren’t confident in being able to deal with the BOSS even if they were level 7 at that time.
Shi Hao also knew the villages established by these people wouldn’t be torn apart by the bandits. Most of these people were wealthy figures with a powerful background. There was no lack of players under them. How many bandits would attack them? These players’ combined force might surpass them.
Therefore, Shi Hao flatly said: “We must not lose any time, it seems we have to quickly discuss cooperation matters with Village Chief Zhang!”
Shi Hao and Feng Tianhao came to the Council Hall of Tranquil Water Village and met Zhang Yang. Shi Hao then proposed a cooperation plan to Zhang Yang. This cooperation plan was made by Shi Hao yesterday in accordance with Twin Dragons Village’s current difficulties. The development of Twin Dragons Village required them to purchase a lot of goods and materials from Tranquil Water Village. The goods and materials that needed to be purchased mainly included iron ores, stone ores, lumber and gold. As long as they could get enough iron ore, stone ore, lumber and gold in a short time, Twin Dragons Village didn’t need to fear the pursuit of other players.
“Village Chief Shi, the matter of purchasing goods and materials with copper coins requires time in reaching a decision.” Zhang Yang obviously didn’t plan to exchange these valuable goods and materials with copper coins. Stone materials and lumber were fine as they were all over the place. But it was a pity that Tranquil Water Village already had more than enough copper coins. It was not necessary to waste effort. As for the gold and iron ores, their refreshing sites were very rare. The refreshing site of iron ores was on the northern side of Tranquil Water Village. It was also the key support for the development of smithy and tailor shops in Tranquil Water Village. As for the gold refreshing sites, there was none in the vicinity of Tranquil Water Village. Therefore, Tranquil Water Village never had enough gold. After the stock was used up, they had to go to Divine and Mighty Alliance for the supply.
“Village Chief Zhang, I know this matter is not easy, you can raise the terms.” Shi Hao didn’t give up. If this chance was given up, then he didn’t know where he could get a hold of so many goods and materials in a short time. Relying solely on Twin Dragons Village’s NPCs would definitely be inferior to the labor of those newly established villages’ large number of players.
“This…” Zhang Yang hesitated.
