Chapter 84

Anjou Fo.

As the saying goes, when it rains it pours, the current situation couldn't be more appropriate.

In order to cover up the deaths of Captain Li and Jianqing, she had come up with a plan: reluctantly abandon most of the corpses in the sauerkraut shed, raise a high-level ghoul, and then push the ghoul out to take the blame.

Of course, this strategy was riddled with loopholes, but as long as they could buy time, they could find ways to patch them. But they never expected that the players Yinlai had sent were all mediocre and incompetent—the least valued of the Yinlai Guild.

I don’t even have the qualifications to eat at Yong’an Restaurant.

Zhongsu Town has been popular for nearly a month, but they can only watch others eat with their mouths full of grease with empty stomachs. You can imagine how jealous they are.

After hearing what Wax Hand said, the hesitation of the Yinlai members disappeared, and they looked at him like hungry wolves.

Yes, NPCs love money, but they're also afraid of death! This is out in the wilderness, with not even a police station. What could be easier than robbing an NPC?

Most importantly, An Rou's businesses are making a fortune every day, and that's obvious to all! What a mountain of gold and silver she must have in her balance!

An Rou fell to the ground, barely raised her upper body and turned her head, looking fragile.

Why would Tang Lang send such a bunch of losers to die? Could these be the members that Yinlai Guild was preparing to eliminate?

Before they could figure out the outcome, the Yinlai Legion began to move.

Led by Lashou and Acheng, they slowly approached the courtyard.

Paopao flashed his ID level and waved his bone shovel demonstratively: "Don't mess around!"

Wax Hand chuckled and said, "I've heard that Boss An has a gamer dog by his side. So it's you. What's your name, Tao Yushu? What a cheesy name. It's easy to survive. Three conditions."

Paopao: “What are the conditions?”

Wax Hand: "First, the entire balance of this NPC. Second, the gold coins and items on you. Third..."

His obscene gaze wandered over An Rou, and he licked his lips: "We are all men, you know."

Paopao was stunned for a moment, then suddenly blurted out a curse: "I understand you, Mom!"

The bone shovel created an arc of light and slashed towards the wax hand.

At the same time, Wax Hand pulled out a knife and blocked the attack accurately. Ah Cheng, who was standing next to him, also reacted quickly, swinging his long whip towards Paopao's throat.

Paopao retreated, dragging the bone-burying shovel with him, dodging the whip. Suddenly, his hand felt heavy, and the whip entangled the shovel head and the long handle. Ah Cheng gave a strong pull, dragging Paopao forward. Simultaneously, Lashou's ring-handled sword slashed Paopao's head!

The two of them cooperated very well.

After so many times of eating fish, Paopao had become very skilled at stabbing people in the back, but he lacked experience in direct confrontation. By the time he realized he needed to drop the tackle and get away, it was too late.

A chill ran down the bone shovel and into his arm. Ah Cheng's whip was actually an elemental weapon with a built-in freezing effect!

clang!

The ring-handled knife struck Paopao's forehead. He instinctively closed his eyes, but felt no pain. When he opened them again, he saw the knife raised high, the violent rebound force causing Wax Hand to retreat several steps.

At the upper edge of the field of vision, there was a silk scarf emitting a blood-red light, fluttering in the wind.

"boss?"

An Rou suddenly appeared beside him.

The sound of running was quickly drowned out by cries of shock. The Yinlai Army stared at the scarf in An Rou's hand in astonishment, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"Am I hallucinating?"

"Isn't she an NPC? How come she has a weapon?"

"Impossible, there's no way an NPC can bind a weapon, let alone use it!"

An Rou's frightened expression had long since disappeared.

She patted Paopao's shoulder and looked into his eyes with a smile: "Just protect yourself, no need to stand up for the boss."

Then she twisted her waist and flirted with the Yinlai Legion: "Weapons? Are you talking about my scarf, or--"

Suddenly, An Rou took a step across several meters and hit Wa Shou's lower body with a knee.

"My shoes?"

The sharp pain from the shattered egg made Wax Hand hunch over, and he happened to see the shoes on An Rou's feet. They were not high heels, but a pair of long boots, the black leather tightly wrapped around the curvy calves, reaching all the way to the knees.

Weapon, this is also a weapon, a functional weapon with movement speed bonus!

Ah Cheng swung his long whip and lashed at An Rou. An Rou heard the sound of the whip breaking through the air, but she did not dodge or avoid it. The moment the whip touched her body, it seemed to suddenly lose its force and slid softly to the side.

A silver player's attack missed!

An Rou pulled down the collar of her cheongsam and tilted her head to look at the stunned Ah Cheng with a smile: "Oh, my fish skin armor seems to be a weapon too."

Under the slender white neck, the stand-up collar of the cheongsam is hidden, and the clear blue light flows.

"Bloody white silk, yellow weapon. Fish skin armor, yellow weapon. Goose feather boots are a little more powerful, green weapon. Oh, I just used this ice wristband, it's almost there, orange weapon..." An Rou shook the jade bracelet on her wrist.

Because of the existence of the perspective card, she was afraid of exposing her fake NPC identity, so she didn't dare to carry too many props with her. She usually only carried the Seven Souls Sword and the Ice Wristband, two weapons that were easy to hide.

But that didn't mean she had no weapons. On the contrary, all the weapons she'd picked up during missions and from the corpses in the sauerkraut shed were piled up on the farm, gathering dust. Paopao thought An Rou was just waiting for an opportunity to sell them, never realizing that, in the dead of night, she loved to caress these treasures the most.

The weapons An Rou had picked out were all passively activated weapons that didn't require binding. If they were put on the market, their prices would be much higher than weapons of the same rank!

Tonight she was wearing them all just in case.

What are antique cars and silk cheongsams and diamond-studded high heels? These are the real wealth. Wearing them is showing off your wealth!

It feels so good to abandon disguise and show off your wealth!

The entire Yinlai Legion, ninety-nine players, were all stunned.

Everyone had the same question: Is she an NPC? Is she really an NPC? Is she really not some high-level player hiding in plain sight, playing tricks on everyone?!

The next second, everyone received a light screen notification.

[Boss Anrou's favorability -5%, current favorability 50%, no favorability.]

For this group of bandits who broke into houses and robbed people, the word "indifferent" was full of irony.

This game... has a huge bug!!!

Wax Hand was the first to recover. The pain in his lower body made his cheeks twitch. "What are you still standing there for? Grab it! Yellow weapon, and there's also a green weapon!"

Even as the captain, the ring-handled sword in his hand is just an orange weapon!

A word of warning woke everyone up, and all the Yinlai members came to their senses. Their hands were faster than their brains, and they all attacked An Rou with their weapons.

Unexpectedly, an extremely dazzling light suddenly burst out from An Rou's body, and everyone, including Paopao, was blinded in an instant!

The giggling sounds spread throughout the courtyard, sometimes far away, sometimes near, sometimes high, sometimes low.

There is no doubt that the NPC activated the movement speed of the Goose Feather Boots again.

"What's the rush? I haven't finished yet.

"Have you seen my earrings? They have a nice name, the Eye of the Underworld. They're not worth much, just a red weapon, good for sieges—oh, excuse me.

"I almost forgot, you are all blind now."

The gentle tone suddenly changed, and it was cold and sharp: "Aren't you full? Eat, it's a buffet!"

The ghoul employees hiding in the dark could no longer contain themselves and rushed forward while suppressing their roars.

Who is the hungry wolf and who is the sheep will finally be revealed.

-

Akiji suddenly turned around, staring at the wall.

Concentrating all my attention, I finally made out the movement coming from inside - a ghoul!

As soon as the thought came to mind, a notification popped up on the screen.

[Mission Name: Ghouls Hiding in the Farm]

[Mission Location: Eastern Suburbs of Zhongsu Town]

[Ghoul Level: SS... (Highest)]

[Number of Ghouls: 63/63]

【Time limit: None】

[Difficulty Rating: SS...]

He, who was always calm, opened his mouth and couldn't believe his eyes.

The worker had been beside him and asked, "What's wrong?"

He had a bad feeling.

Akiji didn't bother answering his question, switching the screen to the guild channel. His hearing wouldn't be wrong, and the system couldn't be wrong either. A ghoul wave! A medium-sized ghoul wave was brewing at Yong'an Farm!

There was no doubt that the Yinlai Legion would be in great danger if they entered. Perhaps this was why Herring had asked him to find an excuse and let the Yinlai Legion take the lead?

But now that the Minister knows, he should send more people over! With only a hundred players, let alone setting up a control, they can't even put up the thinnest of defenses!

wrong……

Akiji's heart trembled. Herring asked him if he had seen the Minister...

Could it be that the Minister had already arrived at the farm and single-handedly stormed into the ghoul's lair?!

His finger hesitated for a few seconds on the branch team channel and switched back to the mission details. The number of ghouls in the details continued to rise. In a short time, it had exceeded 70!

It's impossible. If the minister were here, he would not allow the ghouls to continue to divide.

The number of ghouls is increasing uncontrollably, there is only one possibility - the minister is dead!

This speculation put pressure on Qiuci, and he quickly switched to the branch channel. After some thought, he simply switched to the headquarters channel. This was the large guild channel for the entire Ouli guild, with all 160,000 Ouli players in it.

The death of a minister is a big deal, and Herring, with his inexperience in leadership, is simply unable to handle such a situation.

However, Akiji hesitated again.

There are two kinds of death. If the boss is completely offline, he will report to headquarters without hesitation. But what if the boss is only temporarily dead? Will he willingly hand over a medium-sized ghoul tide mission to headquarters?

Giving it to the headquarters is equivalent to giving it to other branches.

Since the Minister has chosen to go deep into the Ghoul's Lair in advance, he must be unwilling!

After repeated struggles, he lost the opportunity to seek support.

The worker suddenly grabbed his arm and pointed behind him: "Someone is coming!"

Akiji perked up. Could it be support? The Minister had already known about the mission and had ambushed the support in advance. It made perfect sense!

He turned around and saw a phantom flash by.

The hot smell of blood rose into the sky.

Qiuci's eyes were still open, but his head had already fallen from his shoulders and rolled twice on the ground. His vision was fixed, and he was heading towards Zhongsu Town.

In the darkness, numerous figures were rushing towards him. In the moments before his death, his excellent hearing finally caught the low growls suppressed in the throats of those people.

It’s the same sound as the one inside the wall—ghouls, all ghouls!

Suddenly, the thought solidified in his mind. A hollow, ancient song rose from nowhere, drowning out the ghoul's roar and the worker's panicked screams.

Under the nearly one hundred astonished gazes of the Orli Legion, his body, which was split into two, began to change rapidly.

The handsome young man retracted his left hand, rubbed his fingers together, and smiled gently: "Don't shout, it's harsh."

A long-lost red bloodshot appeared in Wang Da's eyes.

After running for dozens of miles and separating dozens of Destined Ones lurking in the streets and alleys, it became extremely weak and extremely hungry.

At this moment, the situation changed, and it was not the farm that was surrounded, but the Orli Legion.

-

"Support, request support!"

"A ghoul tide! A ghoul tide has broken out on the farm!"

The two summonses petrified Herring's steps on the ground.

A ghoul tide? A ghoul tide on the farm?

He couldn't believe it for a moment. If it was Akiji who had sent the message, he would have taken action without hesitation and sent for support, but the one who sent the message was a migrant worker.

It is true that the worker was instigated to rebel, but after all, the emblem of the Yinlai Guild is still in front of his ID.

Who knows if it's a trap?

Even if it’s any other member of Orli who can send the message!

But no one in the temporary team of a hundred people responded to his message.

Herring listened to the message twice more. The worker's voice message was a waste of his message card, a sign of urgency. He was shouting so loudly that Herring couldn't discern any background noise, only the surrounding noise.

The legion was sent to destroy the farm, so the environment was a bit noisy... normal, right? However, no one from their own team responded, which was definitely not normal.

Just like Akitsugu, Herring, who lacked decisiveness, was caught in a dilemma for a while.

The window suddenly exploded with a bang and a man rushed in.

——President of Yinlai Guild, Tang Lang.

Tang Lang's expression was distorted. His incredible speed allowed him to quickly approach the herring and grab it by the collar. With his other hand, he held a needle against the herring's carotid artery.

"Let the Yinlai Legion die?! What about Dawn Darkness?!"

The needle pierced her skin, a tiny sliver of it, yet it sent herring's blood boiling. On the screen that popped up, her health rapidly dropped.

"Fire Needle" - can be stacked with fire element cards, Qingwu, Tang Lang's famous weapon.

Hot blood flowed throughout the body, not only the health points, but all the attributes of the herring were disappearing bit by bit, and it had no power to resist at all.

"I... don't know... either..." he said with difficulty.

Tang Lang shouted: "Share the light screen!"

Herring's screen appeared in the air, and the first page was a private message from the worker. Tang Lang clicked it and listened to it, his brows knitted together as a cold laugh escaped his lips.

The message he received came from someone else in the Yinlai Corps, and he subconsciously assumed that the worker was in danger, so he didn't report the situation. It turned out that the report had been sent to Ouli's home.

This traitor!

Tang Lang clicked on the "Temporary Team of a Hundred-Man Legion" and saw the message sent by Herring. His sneer disappeared immediately.

No one from the Ouli Corps reported the incident, except for the workers, who were even worse off than Yinlai.

It can be said that the entire army was wiped out in an instant, and there was not even time to report it.

What on earth was going on? Even if it was an unexpected ghoul wave, this wouldn't have happened!

Compared to the two hundred people sent out, this wave of ghouls is more like a well-trained army. Their ambush is deeper, their attack is more sudden, and their actions are more orderly!

"I ask again, where is the darkness at dawn!"

Herring's face flushed sickly, and she could only shake her head.

His health is almost running low.

At this moment, Tang Lang finally saw the private message from Herring to Captain Li. Captain Li did not reply - the message on the screen was right in front of him, and he could not lie.

Could it be... that this really wasn't a trap set by Oli?

Tang Lang pondered for a moment, then issued a directive to the "Ouli Zhongsu Branch": [Everyone in the branch, go to the East Suburbs Farm for support!]

After sending it, he issued the same command in his own guild channel.

If the 200-man army assembled by Yinlai and Ouli were completely wiped out, the number of ghouls would inevitably increase. 10-50 was only a small ghoul wave, 50-100 was a medium ghoul wave, and once it exceeded 100, it would become a large ghoul wave.

It is night time now and most people have gone offline to rest. With only a few hundred people from Yinlai Guild, it is impossible to achieve a complete blockade.

Even though he was extremely reluctant, Tang Lang had no choice but to rely on the power of the Ouli Guild. Furthermore, with Dawn Darkness's whereabouts unknown and Ouli leaderless, Yin Lai, with his God-level status, would certainly not suffer any loss at the mission site.

Using one hundred low-level guild trash in exchange for a medium to large ghoul wave as a reward... Tang Lang's mood quickly turned from gloomy to bright.

He threw the herring to the ground, and with a single step, his figure passed through the window and landed on the roof opposite. At the same time, the Oli player, attracted by the noise of the broken window, also arrived. When no one answered the door, he simply broke it open.

"Herring, what's going on?"

Herring was forced to drink a life potion before he could speak weakly: "Hurry... hurry to support the minister..."

He did not explain that the order was not issued by him. The minister disappeared in the ghoul tide, and there was only one urgent task: to rescue the president!

In an instant, the sleepy Zhongsu Town sprang to life, with the two major guilds, Ouli and Yinlai, pouring out in full force. Thousands of players, unleashing their mobility skills, surged through the streets and alleys like a tide, rushing at full speed towards the eastern suburbs.

In the huge Ouli Hall, Herring was the only one left.

He drank a few more potions and finally escaped his near-death state, his various attributes recovering somewhat. He turned on the light screen, reluctantly raised his hand, and opened the headquarters channel.

The minister was in grave danger, and the few remaining gold members in the Zhongxu branch were powerless to compete with Tang Lang. For the sake of national interests, he had to report to headquarters.

Besides the Lengbing City wall to the east, all three towns surrounding Zhongxu Town have Ouli branches. It'll take time to deal with the ghoul tide, so there's still time for them to rush over for support!

In the prop column, a communication card lit up. Just as Herring was about to speak, the sharp blade was pressed against his throat.

The sword blade was flawless white, and fine orange lines as bright as magma flowed slowly on the sword body. The burning sensation was several times stronger than Tang Lang's Lihuo Needle!

Phoenix Flame...

The old man’s top purple weapon, the Phoenix Flame Sword!

Herring was shocked and stared at the "coachman" in front of him.

The old man had a smile on his face, and every wrinkle on his dark and skinny face was extremely natural, not like a disguise.

"I'll report to headquarters. But not now. You understand?"

Herring's trembling eyelids blinked, and the Phoenix Flame pressing against his throat disappeared.

The mere contact caused the Phoenix Flame to scorch his throat. His slowly recovering health points dropped again.

Herring's voice was hoarse, like a broken bellows: "Our minister..."

"He's dead."

Herring clutched his throat, his eyes wide.

The old guy was a top super god. When Herring saw him, he felt that he saw a glimmer of hope and looked forward to him rescuing the minister.

But he never expected that before he could finish speaking, the old man gave him the answer nonchalantly.

The worst answer.

Despair filled his eyes, and in his mind, he recalled the minister's earlier judgment: the old man came to Zhongsu with other purposes.

Before his health dropped to zero, he asked one last question: "Why did headquarters... send you to Zhongsu?"

-

The first snow of this winter fell outside the window.

The holographic cabin has a constant temperature function. Although Captain Li was immersed in the nerve conduction agent, he felt that his whole body was wrapped in the cold of winter.

He remained in a half-awake position, and didn't even notice that his cell phone had been soaked in the conductive agent.

Half an hour ago, he was suddenly attacked by An Rou and the ghoul, completely offline. After regaining consciousness, he wanted to report to headquarters immediately, but a phone call came in first.

"Minister Liming, you finally answered the phone. Don't go online. The old guy is going to kill you!

“It was all thanks to Minister Morita who persuaded the Vice President!

"I contacted you as soon as I got the news, but you didn't answer. I can't log into the game either... Hey! Anyway, Minister Liming, please don't log in until we take care of headquarters..."

——It was the logistics person at the headquarters who took his money and did what he was supposed to do.

Unfortunately it's too late.

The other party talked a lot, but only one sentence kept circling in Captain Li's mind.

"The old one is going to kill you."

Why?

Why did headquarters abandon me?

I have managed the branch diligently, and now it is finally showing signs of improvement. But just because of Morita's words, the headquarters has abandoned me?

They wanted Zhongsu Town and the high-frequency mission zone, so why didn't they just say it directly? Why did they make such an arbitrary and crude decision?!

Tomorrow is the mid-year review meeting!

After the anger, frustration completely took over his heart.

Captain Li shuddered, finally feeling the cold, and walked out of the holographic cabin in a daze. He opened the door and heard a bang and explosion.

He looked up blankly and saw colorful ribbons flying in the living room.

Two small figures flew over, not caring about the slime all over him, and hugged his legs.

"Dad, you finally made it to my sister's birthday!"

Birthday... Yes, today is his daughter's birthday. Yesterday morning, when he was sending the two children to school, his son whispered to him, "Dad, it's okay if you miss my birthday, but you can't miss your sister's birthday."

Warmth welled up in my eyes.

Captain Li blinked his blurry eyes hard, released the two children, and walked into the living room. Standing upright against the wall by the dining table was a bodyguard in black.

"From now on, you don't have to come."

The bodyguard was puzzled: "Minister Li..."

Captain Li raised his hand to interrupt him, his smile revealing a polite indifference: "Let's go, Ou Li and I have nothing to do with each other anymore."

What branch, what director, what high-frequency mission area, what weird NPC that can use weapons and seems to be hanging out with ghouls... none of them matter anymore.

It has nothing to do with him.

-

The farm is in ruins.

The flames tried their best to dispel the darkness and illuminate the noisy smoke.

Faced with the sudden onslaught of ghouls, the Yinlai Corps bore the brunt of the attack, but the fastest to fall were the Ouli Corps stationed outside the farm. After all, the ghouls brought from the town were all trained by Wang Da, and under his control, they were like well-trained ghost soldiers.

The ghouls on the farm were separated by other employees. Although they were also regular employees, their rank and IQ were not as high as Wang Da's, so they were unable to immediately wipe out the Yinlai army. A few Yinlai members gathered together, allowing them to breathe a few more breaths of life.

The surviving members of Yinlai successfully broke through, but found in despair that there were also a large number of ghouls outside. They had to turn back and flee in a panic across the farm.

However, this does not mean that An Rou has the upper hand.

There are fewer surviving players and too many ghouls. Many uncontrolled ghouls have turned their attention to the courtyard.

After raising snakes for a thousand days, you are finally facing the risk of being bitten back.

Bang! A ghoul transformed into a ball of gold coins under the shovel. The ghoul's roar echoed behind him, and Paopao quickly turned around to see a giant hammer falling from the sky, smashing a living dead into a pulp.

Before it could complete its transformation, the giant hammer smashed down twice more, sending gold coins flying everywhere.

"Hammer!" Paopao shouted.

Wang Da turned around and glanced at him, and his expression startled Paopao.

Blood gushed out of its eyes, but it didn't stop, dragging its giant hammer and charging towards the other ghouls that were rushing towards it.

Paopao grabbed the bone shovel and ran back to Anrou: "Boss, there are too many of them, even Hammer can't control them! And the guild must have sent reinforcements. Let's run before they arrive!"

"Run?" An Rou's face was calm, and she looked up. She observed the battlefield situation through her staff consciousness, and drove them to kill the surviving Yinlai players and out-of-control ghouls.

"Where else can I go?" she said. "Besides, this is my place, I don't care who's in charge."

Paopao was so anxious that his face turned red: "How can we deal with this massive ghoul wave?"

An Rou suddenly lowered her head, her empty eyes focused on his face, and she smiled slightly.

"Help me protect the law."

"Protector... Protector?"

Paopao was puzzled, only to see An Rou raise her head again and whisper, "Zhang Da, it's your turn."

Now that the situation is spiraling out of control, let the reputation she has worked so hard to build play a role.

-

The commotion caused by the guild alarmed all the out-of-town players. Players poured out of all the shops, big and small, that were still open in Zhongsu Town. However, no one dared to follow and watch the excitement.

After all, there was a commotion in the afternoon, and those who followed were scared back by the guild army.

The same was true at the Yong'an Hotel. Dozens of diners crowded on the street in front of the restaurant, and many people jumped onto the roof to watch the guild army gradually moving away.

"What's going on? What kind of mission requires so many people?"

"Damn, Oli is really good at being mysterious!"

"Hurry up and ask on the forum to see if anyone knows the inside story..."

"Forum? Those cowards are still waiting for news from us!"

…

The noisy voices were suddenly silenced by a loud metallic knock. Everyone's eyes turned to the restaurant entrance. They all recognized the person standing there—Manager Jin.

Shopkeeper Jin held a bright yellow gong and drum in his hand, his expression anxious: "Gentlemen, dear masters of destiny! Help me, please lend a hand!"

The players looked surprised.

Just now during dinner, Manager Jin was greeting guests and seeing them off just fine, so why did he suddenly cry for help?

Shopkeeper Jin turned his head and looked at Zhang Da in the store, who nodded vigorously.

When he spoke again, there was a tearful tone in his voice.

"The gang is coveting my boss's wealth and wants to rob him! My boss sent me to ask for help from you masters. I'm willing to spend millions just to save my life!"