Absolute Death Game

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System Prompt: Extortion successful, obtained item 'old hen' x1, villager favorability -50, your Prestige in Black Stone Village is indifferent.

Old Hen: A hen that can lay eggs. Placed in the inventory, it produces one egg every hour.

Wow, that's awesome. Xia Zuowei thought this thing was really good. Why could he only extort eggs before, and now he got an old hen? Could it be that his Extortion Skill had leveled up?

With this thought, Xia Zuowei used his Extortion Skill once again.

System Prompt: Extortion failed.

He saw the chicken-raising woman fall into a Fury state instantly, pulling out a chicken-killing knife from somewhere and charging at Xia Zuowei. One slash reduced his HP by over ten points.

"Are you trying to kill me? I'm going to fight you to the death today."

Xia Zuowei hastily controlled his character to retreat while swinging his stick to fight back. In the midst of the chaos, he glanced at the woman's head and saw a new BUFF—Fury, attack speed increased by 30%.

If he had been in full health, he might have stood a chance to fight, but now that she was in a Fury, and he was at half health, he was no match for her. Xia Zuowei didn't dare to stay and commanded his character to flee quickly. Fortunately, his speed was quite high, the only good attribute he had.

The woman chased after him for a while but was gradually left far behind and eventually returned to the chicken coop.

He hadn't expected that pushing NPCs to their limits would cause them to go berserk, but with experience, things would be easier. This time, Xia Zuowei continued to target those who seemed easy to extort, sparing no one, from the weak to women and children. He only extorted once or twice from each before making a quick getaway to avoid pushing anyone into a corner.

Of course, there were times when he misjudged, like with an old man in front of a house who seemed one step away from the grave; after using Extortion on him, the old man almost instantly released a Giant Fireball that nearly wiped Xia Zuowei out, though he narrowly escaped death by dodging in time.

Overall, though, it was quite smooth sailing. After more than an hour, Xia Zuowei opened his bag to find it full of a mess of items extorted from others: steamed buns, apples, old clothes, with most of them just replenishing Physical Strength or simply trash. The only somewhat useful items were a pair of cloth shoes and a worn cotton jacket.

Cloth Shoes (White—Boots): Cloth-made shoes that can provide a slight benefit. Speed +1.

Worn Cotton Jacket (Gray—Chest Armor): A worn cotton jacket that provides a bit of defense and some protection from the cold. Armor +3, Freeze Resistance +1%.

After equipping the jacket and shoes and selling all the useless stuff to a shop, he even managed to gather 132 copper coins. It's really hard to earn money in this game. He approached Scar-faced Li again, who immediately started yelling as he saw him coming.

Scar-faced Li: "Kid, what have you done now? You've gone and upset everyone in the village. They're coming after you, and you're still not running away?" Below, two options appeared.

1, Oh my God! Big brother, what should I do?

2, Why run? If they come after me, I'll slash them all down one by one.

Xia Zuowei originally wanted to choose the first option, but after some thought, he chose the second.

Xia Zuowei: ""Why run? If they come after me, I'll slash them all down one by one."

Scar-faced Li said: ""Bullshit, you don't even have a knife. What are you going to slash with?"

Xia Zuowei thought, 'These options are what you gave me.'

But then Scar-faced Li added, ""Kid, I can see you're made of sterner stuff. Most people would've been scared witless by now, but I like your spirit. To tell you the truth, I'm an undercover agent sent here by the Black Mountain Brotherhood. If you're willing to join the Brotherhood, I'm prepared to vouch for you. But there's a journey to Black Mountain.

It's up to you whether you're brave enough to go."

System Prompt: Occupation 'ronin' triggered, do you want to change classes?

(Another chance to change classes? My luck's not bad at all.) Without any hesitation, Xia Zuowei chose to accept.

System Prompt: Class change to ronin successful.

Ronin: Skilled in martial arts and acts based on personal whims, often leaving home to seek adventures. Most do not meet good ends.

Xia Zuowei thought to himself that the description of this occupation didn't bode well.

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Scar-faced Li: "Since you've chosen this path, you better leave here as soon as possible. I've been a ronin before and have some experience in this area, so let me give you some advice."

After saying a bunch, Xia Zuowei couldn't be bothered to pay attention, but the final system prompt caught his eye.

System Prompt: Learned skill 'Ronin Swordsmanship', learned skill 'Wilderness Survival', learned skill 'Begging'.

Learning three skills all at once was beyond his expectations. Explore stories at My Virtual Library Empire

He took a look at the descriptions of the skills.

Ronin Swordsmanship LV1: A set of 'swordsmanship' skills thrown together haphazardly, seems to do nothing but intimidate others and is hardly practical.

Wilderness Survival LV1: Your Physical Strength consumption when moving in the wilderness is reduced by 10%.

Begging LV1: Begging from people, with a chance to receive food or a small amount of money. The lower your charm, the higher the success rate, with an increased success rate when you have DEBUFFs.

Such trashy skills, thought Xia Zuowei, but it's still better than nothing. Just then the system prompt popped up again, and this time it was not good news.

System Prompt: Your Prestige with Black Stone Village has reached Hostile status, triggering a Black Stone Village Militia pursuit quest. The pursuit will begin in twelve hours.

Scar-faced Li said, "Then you should hurry on your way. Here is a Black Mountain Token, remember not to tell anyone the route you took to leave. Black Mountain is directly to the north of the village; keep going for two days, and you'll be there. As long as you show this token to the brothers of Black Mountain, you'll be safe."

System Prompt: Obtained quest item 'Black Mountain Token', accepted quest—The Brotherhood's Newcomer.

Since he was leaving, Xia Zuowei took out all the copper coins from his bag, intending to buy some equipment to change into, but his Prestige was already hostile so no one would sell to him. He had to buy a few pieces of shabby leather armor from Scar-faced Li at a high price. Although they were gray and of poor quality, at least they provided some armor.

He also switched to a rusty Dagger, then ran out of the village. When he reached the village gate, he saw Qin Dahai again. He thought to himself, having met him once, it would be impolite not to say goodbye.

So he walked over.

"Eh, nice equipment, brother, you seem to be doing quite well," Qin Dahai teased. Xia Zuowei chuckled, "That's right, I've even taken on a hidden quest."

"Oh, that impressive? Can you share it and let me have a look too?"

Xia Zuowei said, "What's stopping me?" and recounted his experiences over the past hour or so.

Qin Dahai went silent for a moment before asking, "So you're about to be wanted?"

"Yeah, this game is pretty interesting, huh? I even get to be wanted. Anyway, I've got to head to Black Mountain, so I better get going."

"Wait a second," Qin Dahai suddenly said, "At night, there are more monsters, and they tend to be stronger. How about you wait until tomorrow morning to go? It's probably safer that way. There's an abandoned thatched cottage not far from the north side of the village where you can log off."

Hearing this, Xia Zuowei thought it made sense and happily said, "Thanks a lot, I'll log off after I leave the village, and I'll continue tomorrow."

After saying this, he walked towards the outside of the village. Qin Dahai watched his leaving figure for a long time, seemingly deep in thought about something.

Xia Zuowei ran north of the village for a while and easily found the thatched cottage. Once inside, the area was marked as safe for logging off, which comforted him. The saying 'a friend in need is a friend indeed' truly made sense. This Qin Dahai was really a good person, he mused. It would have been difficult in the pitch darkness without him.

Seeing it was getting late and he was feeling tired, Xia Zuowei logged off the game.

Rubbing his bleary eyes, he walked towards his bedroom. As he reached the door, a faint sigh sounded from behind. Xia Zuowei jumped, whirling around, but there was nothing there.

It must have been an illusion, he thought, scaring himself like that. While thinking about it, he went to bed.

PS: Why does it always become a mess in the comment section whenever I set up suspense or create a foreshadowing? Does everything really need to be explained right from the start for it to be understandable? Have a little patience, would you? (To be continued. If you like this work, you're welcome to vote for it with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on qidian.com.

Your support is my greatest motivation.)