Chapter 6

Chapter 6: System Bug

“Strategist. Truth be told, I always felt like I’ve been lacking towards you. You know, how about you go join Han Huju? You know the situation with our camp, so you can lead the way for him and use my head as a way for you to enter his service. This way, it’ll give you and your daughter a prosperous future. What do you think?”

Cheng Dalei thought it over back and forth, but he couldn’t figure out any way to defend against the oncoming attack. With only the four of them, even digging a pit trap would take two full days, so how are they supposed to defend here? The only way he could think of is maybe sending Xu Shenji over to use his ability to always be wrong and completely mislead the attacking force. If that worked, then it’s pretty much guaranteed that Blackstone will fall on its own within a couple of days. Then, he might even have the chance to become the new lord of Blackstone and he’ll be able to jump straight to having a city to start with. It would end up saving him a ton of work and troubles, and at that point, there would doubtlessly be tons of families who would jump at the chance of a marriage alliance with him.

Xu Shenji had actually considered this idea. Actually, he thought it over very thoroughly the previous night, but when he considered Han Huju’s cruelty, if he were to try to join Han Huju, then he may very well be killed on the spot without any chance to present any strategies. Thus, it might be better to follow Cheng Dalei instead. He looked very confident at least.

If Xu Shenji were to find out where Cheng Dalei’s confidence came from, it’s likely both of them would have collapsed though.

Xu Shenji turned red with excitement and pointed right at Cheng Dalei’s face, “You! You misjudge me! The old boss treated me like a brother. If you didn’t decide to take revenge for him, then I would have! What is death between our brotherly bonds? I’ll follow him even in death!”

Qin Man at the side perked up.

Cheng Dalei still felt that to be a shame. It was the only method that he’s thought up. He had no other real ideas after all.

“Strategist, do you think they’ll give us 5 days of time?” Cheng Dalei asked.

“No way. The way from Blackstone to here takes at most a day and a half, so a trip back and forth will only take 3 days. There’s no way that they’d give us 5 whole days of time.” Xu Shenji said.

Cheng Dalei nodded. In that case, they’d have at least 5 days. Those five days will be all the time he will have to make his final preparations.

[First Base Defense]

That’s the quest given to him by the Heart of the Bandit. It even gave him a special warning about the difficulty. Of course, the higher the difficulty, the higher the reward as well.

“Boss, boss. Someone’s attacking our base!” Xu Linger ran over in a hurry. She was covered in sweat, and her bosoms heaved with exertion.

“So fast!” Cheng Dalei was shocked, “How many are there…”

“One person.” Xu Linger patted her chest, the motion making Cheng Dalei feel dizzy.

“Just one?”

“Yeah. It’s just one person. A guy with a spear. He also looks pretty nice too.” Xu Linger spoke in an embarrassed tone.

“Let’s go then and take a look.” Cheng Dalei was even more confused now. Just who would be insane enough to attack a bandit camp on their lonesome. Of course, as he thought that, Cheng Dalie had completely forgotten just how he robbed people just the day before.

The four of them headed toward the gates of the camp. All the while, Xu Shenji muttered to himself: Look, I was right, wasn’t I? I told you to run for it as soon as possible.

Bang!

A hand landed heavily onto Xu Shenji’s shoulder. When he turned to look, he saw Qin Man towering behind him.

“W-what do you want?”

“Hey, I heard everything you said back there. I know that you’re a man with courage and integrity.” Qin Man punched Xu Shenji’s chest, “From now on, I’ll consider you my own brother!”

“Cough, cough, cough… That’s only natural. We’re all true men.” Xu Shenji rubbed at his pained chest helplessly. All the while, he was thinking that there’s really no way he could properly communicate with a barbarian with 0 int like Qin Man.

It’s better to instead act and pretend with Cheng Dalei instead.

In front of the fortress gates, a man and a horse stood, spear in hand.

“Worthless thieves of the Toad Bandits. Come out and meet your deaths!”

“If anything happened to the young lady of the Su family, I’ll kill each and every single one of you!”

When Cheng Dalie and the three with him arrived at the gates, what they saw was Lin Shaoyu riding on his horse, banging on the draw bar sealing the gate with his spear.

When he saw Cheng Dalei, Lin Shaoyu turned even more exited, “You four- no, you three. I won’t fight a woman. You three, come out and meet your deaths!”

Cheng Dalei originally though it was people from Blackstone who were attacking them, but it was just Lin Shaoyu. Thus, Cheng Dalei addressed Qin Man, “Bro, chase him off.”

Qin Man acknowledged the order and exited the camp. In response Lin Shaoyu placed his spear onto his back, “Go back and get your horse and weapon. I won’t take any unfair advantages against you.”

“What do I need that for?”

Qin Man rolled his eyes before stepping forward. He charged forward like a wild leopard, grabbed Lin Shaoyu’s spear, and used it to pull him off his horse. Then, Qin Man grabbed the back of Lin Shaoyu’s clothes and threw. Lin Shaoyu landed on the ground and started rolling off the slope, screaming all the while down the mountain.

“I’ll be back!”

“Don’t do anything to him when he climbs back up. Just let him take his horse and leave.”

Cheng Dalei got ready to head back in to consider how to defend against the oncoming attack from Blackstone. However, he froze on the first step he took. The reason for that is the line that popped up in his mind.

Beep. Successful completion of [First Base Defense]. Reee…ward…

Cheng Dalei froze. What the heck is this? The quest specifically noted as super difficult was completed just like that? No way, right? The system shouldn’t have noted such a simple quest as super difficult…

Cheng Dalei had a sudden inspiration and thought of a possibility: There’s something wrong with the system. In other words, this is… A Bug!

Cheng Dalei originally though that the [First Base Defense] means they’ll be defending against Blackstone City. That’s how the system triggered the quest. Then, due to the difference in the two sides, the system judged it to be a super hard difficulty quest.

However, something unexpected happened. No one could have predicted that Lin Shaoyu would suddenly get a hot head and try to attack the Toad Bandits on his own. He had ended up completely replacing the army that was supposed to come from Blackstone city.

Thus, what was originally a super hard quest became very easy instead.

Cheng Dalei’s heart pounded in his chest. The difficulty dropped by a ton, but the reward shouldn’t have done the same, right? An S ranked quest, now with E ranked difficulty. As for the reward… It has to still be S ranked, right?

Reee…waaard… Is…

The system is probably grumbling as well. Cheng Dalei felt like it was giving out the message particularly slowly and stuttered. Thus, he held his chest while his heart pounded on.

“Faster already. Given that things have already turned out this way, you might as well just get it over with and not procrastinate any further.”

Beep. Reward: Fine Iron Spear x1.

Beep. Reward: All mounts within base levels up.

Beep. Reward: Water well x1.

Beep. Reward: Camp skill: Healing (Healing rate increase within camp for all injuries and sicknesses).

Beep. Reward: Skill level up for one random member of the camp.

Beep. Reward: 10 acres of farmland.

Beep. Reward: Wooden chests x10.

Cheng Dalei’s legs wobbled and he fell to the ground. His whole face turned red, and his heard was pounding like a drum.

“Boss, boss…” Xu Shenji helped Cheng Dalie up, “What happened to you?”

“Motherload. We got the motherload…”

Cheng Dalei just muttered to himself. His voice ranged out in his head unusually loudly. He had never heard such a beautiful voice in his life. It was the voice of happiness.

Beep. Quest received [Second Base Defense]. Quest difficulty exceeds current faction strength.

That was the last message he got. Cheng Dalei knew that what he just got was the rewards for defending against Blackstone. Even so, it’s not like Blackstone wasn’t going to attack him anymore. Thus, even if he did successfully defend against Blackstone’s attack, there’s no way the reward would be as much as the first time.

Now’s not the time to be celebrating. The second attack is the real battle before him. That’s the real danger here.

At just that moment, a figure climbed back up from the bottom of the hill. He had an iron spear in hand and his clothes were torn.

“Haha. I’m back. Surprised?”