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Chapter 3: The Undead
"Brandon, Brandon?"
Roma nudged his arm while Su Fei was immersed in checking his attributes. With only 1 unit of strength, he couldn't help but curse at the unfair treatment he received after becoming an NPC. After all, even a skeleton had 1.5 units of strength.
All numerical values on the attributes were measured in Oz, an abbreviation of the ancient script Oauth, referred to as units. One unit of strength approximately meant being able to lift about fifty kilograms of weight, with punching force not exceeding one hundred and fifty kilograms, roughly equivalent to the strength of an adult man.
Initially, in the game, players had basic attributes of 2 units of strength, 2 units of agility, 2 units of constitution, and 1.5 units each of intelligence, will, and perception, roughly twice that of an ordinary person. And absolute strength—also known as combat power—was about 5, indicating the capability to handle 5 ordinary people simultaneously.
Yet, Brandon, despite being a militiaman trained for several months, had such a huge gap in attributes. While players boasted heroic attributes at the start, it didn't seem reasonable to be this extreme, did it?
In the past, he often wanted to poke fun at players who boasted of being heroes from the get-go, yet their combat prowess barely surpassed that of two skeletons. But now, viewing things from Brandon's angle, he suddenly grasped that those players in the past were truly heroes cloaked in the protagonist's aura.
As soon as he thought of possibly being unable to defeat even a single skeleton, it filled him with sorrow.
Su Fei touched his arm, the pale green number mischievously lingering in his retina. He found that this world had some differences from the world he knew. In the game, a bandage should restore 1 point of health per minute, and theoretically, the 6 points of health of civilians should be restored in six minutes. But here, it would take several days.
This was not a good sign.
Fortunately, the usage of skills was mostly consistent. As long as he recalled the "basic knowledge" obtained from the civilian identity, he could remember some common knowledge about this world. By recalling the "military organization" obtained from the militiaman identity, he could remember common knowledge about the military structure of Eruin.
Although there were still some differences, this knowledge seemed to exist directly in his real memory. Like swordsmanship, he could clearly feel that it was the skill accumulated bit by bit in his every move after months of training. Such as posture during attacks, where the center of gravity should be, what to pay attention to at the feet, where his sword should strike—where the enemy's sword was, feints, what the intention of the attack was.
In the game, however, the system would offer only a handful of preliminary swordplay strategies before the player initiated their attack, then seamlessly assisted in refining their maneuvers mid-action. Here, intricate details were unnecessary; he didn’t need to understand why things worked in certain ways—he just needed to grasp how they worked.
Although some experienced players might have their own insights, they still relied on the system's assistance, so one wouldn't see gaming enthusiasts becoming swordsmanship or martial arts masters in reality.
Some things had no shortcuts.
Su Fei couldn't help but squeeze his hand. The feeling of being able to master his body was great, unlike the stiffness of controlling his character in the game. The memories he obtained here felt more like a part of himself, something he could use at will.
Naturally, as he pondered these thoughts, Roma nudged his arm once more, prompting him to snap to attention. His ears twitched slightly, already detecting faint sounds emanating from outside the room.
"Brandon, did you hear that?" the merchant girl asked softly, circling behind him.
Su Fei nodded. Outside came the sound of clattering footsteps, and there were quite a few of them. His heart skipped a beat, immediately guessing that the vanguard of the Madara army had arrived. He gestured to the girl to keep quiet and immediately pulled her back.
The Madara vanguard arrived faster than expected, catching the countryside of Elsen-Goran still deep in slumber. At this moment, no one would anticipate the impending disaster.
Except him.
The urgency of the situation made Su Fei frown. He led the merchant girl into the room at the southern end and then gently closed the door behind them. The room was filled with dust, making both of them cough involuntarily—it was a guest room that hadn't been used for a long time. But he knew that from the window here, they could safely observe everything happening outside.
Su Fei walked to the window, gently brushed away the dust, and lifted the curtain—
"Where did these things come from, do you know, Brandon?" The girl discreetly withdrew her hand and asked somewhat curiously.
"These are Madara's troops. War has broken out," he answered, casting a cautious glance outside: indeed, it was the Madara vanguard. Su Fei couldn't help but take a deep breath. Not far from the house stood a dark mass of skeletal soldiers. He counted three squads, totaling forty-five of them, with dim red dots flickering in the darkness. On the periphery, there were also three skeletal wizards, who commanded the horde of lesser undead. They epitomized the classic image of skeletons draped in robes, wielding bone staffs, their eyes flickering with eerie green light as they assessed the subordinate Madara soldiers.
Brandon's grandfather's old house was located on a hill not far from Buchi, overlooking the village below. It was more like a small estate on the outskirts of the town. Originally, there were five or six households, but they had all moved away, leaving only Roma and her aunt.
The girl took a deep breath in the darkness.
"Where's Aunt Jenny?" Su Fei asked in confusion.
"She went to the nearby town and will be back in a week."
Su Fei couldn't help but glance at her. In the darkness, he only saw a pair of bright eyes, shimmering with inexplicable excitement.
"Aren't you scared?" he couldn't help asking again.
"I'm not sure," the merchant girl replied softly, lifting her head. "But my heart is pounding, like it's something thrilling."
Su Fei was speechless. The train of thought of this young lady was somewhat different from that of an ordinary person. But some people were born for adventure; perhaps Roma was one of them.
He pretended not to have heard and turned his gaze back to the window—the skeletal wizards' gaze hadn't swept in their direction yet, so Su Fei could continue to observe. In the distance, shadows flitted in the woods, indicating that there were probably many more enemies in that direction.
Roughly estimating, the Madara vanguard exceeded one hundred in number, which was not a small figure. Such a large-scale force must have a necromancer apprentice manipulating behind the scenes, which he considered extremely bad news.
In the game, Madara's necromancer apprentice was roughly equivalent to a player at level ten. Even if one fought alone, it would not be easy for seven or eight trained adult men (soldiers or militiamen) to deal with it, let alone there were only him and Roma here, while the enemy had a large army.
Su Fei couldn't help tapping his fingers on the windowsill.
It would take at least five minutes for the guards from Buchi to arrive here, which meant that if they encountered the enemy, they would have to hold on for at least five minutes to wait for reinforcements.
That was assuming Buchi discovered that this side was under attack.
But how could they signal over there?
For a moment, he couldn't help but feel troubled. The best way was to start a fire; bright flames and smoke could be seen from afar in the dark night, serving as a clear warning for both people and animals. But whether to start a fire, and how to start it, was still a problem.
"Brandon? Are we going to die?"
"Hard to say."
The dark room fell silent.
In the darkness, there was only a deep silence, with only a corner of the window casting a cold moonlight into the dim room, illuminating a silver path.
Su Fei pondered for a moment, about to lower the curtain and then calm down to think of an escape plan. But at this moment, a conversation came from outside:
"Where's that poor wretch’s body? Bring him out and let me see. Wasn't the intelligence saying that only two women lived in this estate?"
First was the voice of a young man, but it sounded cold and sharp.
The next voice sounded hoarse and old, like the creaking of a broken dead tree: "He's just an unfortunate soul, master."
This conversation made Su Fei's heart tighten. He looked out again and quickly found the source of the two voices under the shadow of a large tree: there, a figure in a loose black robe was talking to his skeletal wizard underling.
Su Fei's gaze quickly fell on the sleeve of the figure, vaguely seeing only a circle of gray-white bone ornamentation. This proved that the person was indeed a necromancer apprentice.
He wasn’t wrong.
"...remember, I don't need your opinions, you just need to follow my orders," the necromancer apprentice covered in black robes suddenly stopped speaking, raising his head to look in Su Fei's direction.
Su Fei's heart skipped a beat as he hastily lowered the curtain, a sudden realization dawning upon him: he had made a foolish mistake! For a while, he had forgotten his true identity, still thinking himself as the seasoned warrior with a level exceeding 130, oblivious to the fact that the other party's perception level far surpassed his level of concealment.
This wouldn't immediately expose him, but it would certainly arouse suspicion from the other side.
Sure enough, he immediately heard the guy outside saying, "Alright, hurry up and do it. I feel like there are living people in that house. Be careful, recently, I've been having a strange feeling that they've already caught wind of our plan—"
This was very bad. As soon as the other side noticed Brandon's 'body' missing, they would immediately take action, Su Fei's thoughts raced. He immediately thought of the door behind the kitchen, but Elsen-Goran was a natural pasture, and there was nowhere nearby to hide.
There was a small forest below the hill, but there was still a stretch of over 100 meters of open ground without any cover in between. What should he do?
"Brandon?" the merchant girl looked at him with questioning eyes.
"Come with me," Su Fei gritted his teeth, taking it one step at a time.
He opened the door, just in time to witness a skeletal wizard and two skeleton soldiers entering from outside. The skeletal wizard, clad in a woven robe, immediately caught sight of him and Roma. It swiftly raised the bone staff in its hand, but Su Fei was quicker. Without hesitation, he raised his right hand, pointing the ring on his index finger at the undead, and spoke ancient Vaughnzel words, invoking the power of the wind: "Oss!"
He could only pray that the ring was still effective—
Fortunately, Su Fei immediately felt the ring heat up slightly, and the air in front of him seemed to suddenly expand, creating a loud bang.
It was as though a hurricane had erupted, engulfing the skeletal wizard, its two skeleton companions, and even the door of the house in a violent explosion. In an instant, countless wood chips, stones, and bone fragments were hurled outward, cascading down like a myriad of butterflies dancing in the sky.
At the moment of the explosion, five golden specks of light flew out from the shattered bodies of the skeletal wizard and skeleton soldiers, then quickly merged into Su Fei's chest, all of this happening in the blink of an eye, even Su Fei himself didn't realize it.
However, after the blast, a huge radiating pattern was left on the ground.
When everything quieted down, Su Fei found himself completely stunned. While it was true that the Wind Blast, capable of dealing 30 points of air damage in the game, could instantly kill low-level skeletal wizards and skeleton soldiers, what unfolded before him seemed a bit exaggerated.
A huge hole had appeared on the door of the old house, once belonging to his grandfather. But Su Fei didn't have time to dwell on its significance. In that instant, he quickly realized he needed to make his escape.
"Brandon, you're a wizard!" Roma exclaimed in surprise from behind.
"No, I'll explain later," he took a deep breath, grabbed her hand, and rushed downstairs. The kitchen was on the ground floor, he had to reach there before the other side reacted.
"Wait, Brandon, I can't keep up with you...!"
"Watch your steps, we're going downstairs!"
"Ah!"
The sudden explosion had made the skeletons outside all turn their heads, but lacking intelligence, they only instinctively reacted to the sound. So they still stood there motionless, passively waiting for the skeletal wizards' orders.
One skeletal wizard beside them suddenly raised its bone staff, a flicker of flames flashing on the staff's head.
"Don't use fire, you idiot!" the necromancer apprentice in the black robe, who appeared suddenly, pressed down on its bone staff, cursing through gritted teeth. The previous explosion probably already attracted the attention of the Buchi people, at this point, showing flames would only serve as a reminder to the humans in the village.
He immediately turned around and pointed at the house: "Soldiers, get them!"
In perfect synchronization, the skeletal soldiers produced a series of rattles as they drew their swords in unison, before surging into the house.
At this juncture, Su Fei had already dashed downstairs. He caught sight of the skeletons charging toward the kitchen door, their eerie red eyes piercing the darkness, sending a chill down his spine. Yet, lacking the status of a seasoned warrior of over 100 levels and with his ring still charging, he could only grit his teeth and press on.
Once those skeletons got hold of him, he would likely end up minced by their swords...
"The trouble just doesn't seem to end," Su Fei couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness washing over him.
Despite the intense pain in his chest, he managed to reach the kitchen ahead of the skeletal soldiers. With a swift motion, he closed the door behind him, barely having a moment to exhale before several swords pierced through it with a series of sharp thuds.
Fortunately, he acted quickly. Otherwise, he would’ve probably been nailed to the door panel.
"That was close!" Su Fei's heart raced as he surveyed his surroundings. The kitchen's exit lay on the other side, but he knew he couldn't leave just like that. He had to find a way to alert Buchi to the danger. Only then could he hope to save himself.
Also, flames could block low-level undead.
"Brandon?" The merchant girl gasped for breath, bending over at the side. She couldn't help but lift her head to look at him, taken aback by Brandon's sudden display of decisiveness and bravery, qualities she had never seen in him before.
"Miss Roma, you stay here and guard the door," Su Fei didn't have the mind to explain anything at this point, he had to make every minute count.
Crack, crack, crack—
"Crack, crack, crack—" The sound of swords piercing through the door echoed as skeleton soldiers on the other side began their assault on the kitchen's wooden door. This door, originally unprepared for defense, quickly showed signs of vulnerability as several gashes appeared on its surface.
"Me?" Roma blinked.
"Yeah, give me a moment."
"What are you going to do?" the merchant girl asked curiously.
"I need to find a way to alert the people in the village. This is Madara's undead army, we must warn the others." Su Fei tried to calm himself down as he answered, while searching around for flint.
He remembered he had put that thing somewhere in the kitchen.
"Oh, okay. Leave it to me." Roma immediately walked over and stood between Su Fei and the door.
“Are you sure you gonna be okay?”
"Of course," the merchant girl said, raising the stonemason's hammer in her hand with a hint of assurance. "I will do my best. After all, I am destined to become a great merchant in the future!"
Su Fei stopped and looked at her, nodding unconsciously. "You will, Miss Roma."
"Thanks, Brandon."
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