Chapter 129: Besieged from All Sides

Chen Hao and Xia Weiwei wheeled their horses around and fled. He threw a buried mine onto the ground, and when a Boxer NPC approached it, one of the NPCs fired a shot and detonated it.

The mine was not very powerful. The explosion only inflicted minor injuries on the nearby NPCs, but Chen Hao had detonated it mainly to alert his teammates in the other directions. Before the group had split up, they had already agreed that if one side encountered a large number of enemies, everyone in the other directions would immediately converge on them.

Not long after Chen Hao detonated the mine, the others came riding over as well, using their horses’ mobility to harry the enemy. Every Boxer NPC had trained in martial arts, and their close-combat ability was far superior to that of the players. Chen Hao, however, did not take them seriously at all.

These NPCs did not even know how to use firearms. No matter how skilled they were at martial arts, they could still do nothing but take bullets. The real trouble came from the players following behind them.

Because the Boxer NPCs had charged ahead so fiercely, they soon opened a considerable gap between themselves and the players behind them. Chen Hao and the other eleven riders stopped fleeing and began firing from horseback at a distance of roughly fifty meters. The Boxers were so convinced that they were invulnerable to blades and bullets that they did not even know to dodge, becoming nothing more than living targets.

“Player Chen Baxian, congratulations. You have shot and killed Xu Erzhu, the Boxer sect leader. You have gained 86,800 experience points.”

“Player Chen Baxian, the party you belong to has killed a high-level Boxer NPC. If you take Xu Erzhu’s head to Nie Shicheng, you can exchange it for a reward.”

Chen Hao was astonished to discover that killing Boxer NPCs yielded even more experience than killing players. Moreover, killing a high-ranking NPC leader allowed him to exchange the head for a reward. He began wondering whether he should specifically target quest-givers. These Boxer NPCs were foolish, provided abundant experience, and even carried bounties on their heads. Where else could one find such a profitable opportunity?

Once the Boxer NPCs had been completely wiped out, there was no longer any buffer between Chen Hao’s cavalry and the eighteen players. He spurred his horse into another mad dash, widening the distance once more.

The Boxer NPC who had issued the quest was already dead. The players had no idea whether killing the cavalry would still bring them any benefits, but since they had already charged out, turning back would only leave them exposed to attacks from behind. They had no choice but to continue forward.

Chen Hao kept his group roughly one hundred and fifty meters ahead of the players behind them. Then he drew his rifle and took aim from horseback. With a Shooting attribute of fifty-one, Chen Hao still had a twenty percent chance of hitting a target from one hundred and fifty meters away. He killed one of the players with his third shot.

Yudie, whose Shooting attribute had reached sixty-four, had a hit rate of over sixty percent against stationary targets at a distance of one hundred and fifty meters. She felled a player with her second shot.

Every veteran member of Chen Hao’s group had strengthened their marksmanship and was already far superior to an ordinary player. Yudie, Liu Zixuan, and White-Faced Freak all had higher Shooting attributes than Chen Hao because they had assigned their free attribute points to Shooting.

After six players had been shot dead, the remaining players no longer dared to fire back. They understood that the cavalry before them was beyond their ability to handle, and before long, some of them turned around and tried to flee back to the village. The players were already more than five hundred meters from the village. Out in the open, with cavalrymen behind them, how could they possibly make it back?

Any player who remained clearheaded knew that fleeing was the wrong choice. But not everyone was so rational. Once a few players turned back, the others could only follow, hoping to escape by sheer luck.

When Chen Hao saw the opposing players flee, he burst into laughter and led his group in pursuit, firing continuously at their backs. Of the eighteen players who had charged out of the village behind the NPCs, only three managed to make it back inside. Even they would not escape their fate.

There were only a few enemies left in the village. Chen Hao naturally intended to occupy it and sort through the spoils, and he would deal with those three players as well. The loot this time was varied. Besides rifles, pistols, and ammunition, some players had even dropped their clothes.

After sorting through the spoils, White-Faced Freak beamed and said, “Brother Chen, we’ve struck it rich. We sold everything for more than eight hundred silver dollars this time.”

Chen Hao nodded. He had only wanted to level up; he had never expected killing players to be so profitable. No wonder so many people in the game were willing to become villains.

As the saying went, if you walked the dark road often enough, you would eventually run into a ghost. In the game, if a player killed too many people without cause, the system would arrange for government NPCs to discover the murders. Once caught, the player would be sent to prison.

If a player was caught by the authorities for killing someone once, they could escape after being imprisoned simply by committing suicide. But if they had a prior record, they would be wanted throughout the country even after using suicide to escape. Killing people and taking their equipment and money was exhilarating, and many players behaved recklessly in the early stages of the game. Yet as more and more people were sent to prison, nobody dared to kill indiscriminately for equipment anymore.

Chen Hao was carrying out a mission this time. Killing players who had joined the Boxers amounted to helping the provincial commander suppress bandits and rebels. Not only would he avoid punishment, he would even receive rewards. Even if he accidentally killed a few innocent players and was caught by the authorities, he could simply invoke Nie Shicheng’s name. With a little money spent greasing the right palms, he would escape punishment.

Traveling to the Northeast would require a great deal of money. Even selling the blueprints might not be enough. Since this mission offered a chance to make money, he might as well earn as much as possible.

Although the group had killed even more players at Shangzhai Village, Chen Hao still had not leveled up. In the two-way quest, killing higher-level players yielded more experience. He was already level eighteen, while the players he had killed were around level fifteen, so the experience he received would only continue to diminish.

Chen Hao had Lin Xiaofeng purchase food supplies, while White-Faced Freak and Chen Feng fed the horses. He and Yudie climbed the mountain beside Shangzhai. Nearly a thousand players had gathered around the village, forming five large groups of more than a hundred people each. The groups had taken up positions on different sides and were slowly closing in on the village.

Seeing more and more players arrive, Yudie said worriedly, “Brother Chen, we should retreat. If these people surround us, it will be very difficult to escape.”

Chen Hao shook his head. “We’ve been traveling at full speed for a long time. Although our satiety is still above seventy, the horses are already running low on strength. We have to feed them before we leave. Otherwise, they’ll be exhausted after we’ve gone only a short distance.”

Yudie said anxiously, “But there are so many players around the village. We won’t be able to break through once they arrive!”

Chen Hao smiled and pointed below. “With so many players, it would indeed be difficult for us to escape. But look carefully. Originally, four groups would have been enough to surround us, yet these people have divided themselves into five groups. They are not working together, and they are unfamiliar with the terrain, so their coordination is poor. As long as we circle around this mountain, we can break out through the gap between them.”

On another mountain, Liu Shuo, one of the Four Young Masters of Kyoto, was also watching the players below with the beautiful celebrity Huang Jiaxin. Huang Jiaxin looked surprised. “I don’t understand why this cavalry unit hasn’t fled yet. Even with so many players hunting them down, they would still have had a chance if they had retreated earlier. Now they’re doomed.”

Liu Shuo shook his head. “Although cavalry can move as swiftly as the wind, a horse’s stamina is limited. Those twelve riders have raced through two villages in succession, and they have also relied on their cavalry’s mobility to kill so many players. They have to give the horses some time to rest. Otherwise, even if they escape the village, the horses won’t be able to run, and they still won’t make it home.”

Huang Jiaxin smiled faintly. “Then your arrangements were pointless. They’ve delayed for so long that the horses have recovered, but they still won’t be able to escape.”

Liu Shuo said calmly, “How about we make a bet? If that cavalry unit fails to escape, I’ll give you ten million. But if they do get out, you agree to what I mentioned to you last time.”