Chapter Seven: Exterminating the Opium Fiend

Chen Hao chose to be born in Penglai mainly to find that great scholar and improve his culture, and to take the opportunity to meet the alumni from the Baoding Military Academy. He allocated all 20 of his free political attribute points to culture; only in this way could he become the great scholar’s disciple as soon as possible. As for the 20 free points in the military category, he invested them all in combat ability, determined to specialize in close-quarters fighting thanks to his Bloodbath skill.

All the possessions the War system gifted him were a set of tattered clothing and a coarse cloth satchel—no weapons at all, not even a broken wooden sword.

Item name: Coarse Old Clothes (cannot be dropped)
Item attribute: Appearance +2, satiety decreases 5% slower
Durability: 68/100

Item name: Coarse Cloth Satchel (cannot be dropped)
Item attribute: 6 inventory slots, maximum load 5 kg
Durability: 68/100

The War game was highly realistic; Chinese players entered the game as ordinary people in the late Qing Dynasty, and their first task was to survive. At the top of the character attribute interface was a bar displaying satiety, which started at 100 upon entering the game but would decrease over time.

This meant that even if a player didn’t leave the city to train, if they didn’t earn money to buy food, their character could starve to death. When satiety was above 60, activities in the game were unaffected. Once it dropped below 60, several individual attributes declined; below 10, the player lost the ability to act and could only wait for rescue, and below zero, death by starvation followed.

The ratio of real time to game time was 1:4; in a single game day, players needed to eat three meals just as in reality. If they were out training or battling monsters, or training for extended periods, satiety would decrease more quickly, just like in real life—hard labor made people hungry faster.

There was a wide variety of food in War; every kind of dish that existed in China at the end of the Qing could be found. Prices and satiety boosts varied accordingly.

The most cost-effective way to increase satiety was to buy coarse grains, but Chen Hao would never buy low-quality food to replenish satiety. It wasn’t about the taste, but because of the Strength attribute under individual attributes.

A player’s base attributes could be increased not only by leveling up but also by other means. The Strength attribute, which affected endurance, speed, resistance to blows, and recovery, could only be increased by proper nutrition and reasonable training.

If a player lived on coarse grains for a long time to save money and avoided meat, they could maintain satiety, but their Strength attribute would never rise. Over time, the system might even judge the character as suffering from malnutrition and cause the Strength attribute to decrease.

Low Strength would not only affect endurance and speed but also make illness much more likely in the game. If a player could afford to maintain a balanced diet and train regularly, their body would gradually grow stronger.

Once a player recruited NPC subordinates, they had to solve their subordinates' food problems as well, since NPCs also had satiety. Players who wished to train elite troops couldn’t be stingy with army rations; though they could set the pay however they liked, too little pay would lower loyalty, and poor food meant weak troops and low combat effectiveness.

Chen Hao was a solo player with limited resources. Recruiting subordinates required money for upkeep, so in the early stages, he chose to go solo. Players entering as teams could assign many roles among themselves, but Chen Hao had no one he could absolutely trust, so he planned to develop with mostly NPCs in the future, which meant he would need to accumulate large amounts of wealth.

Chen Hao didn’t rush off to find the great scholar. His memory told him that to earn the scholar’s favor, his Culture attribute needed to reach at least 25. Currently, he was level zero; even after assigning all 20 free political attribute points to Culture, it wasn’t enough. He’d have to reach at least level five to trigger the quest.

The system-gifted clothes were just for modesty and warmth, so their attributes related to appearance and satiety. Appearance was a hidden attribute, increased only by dress; a high appearance meant NPCs would treat you with more respect, and you couldn’t access certain special venues without enough appearance.

Besides clothing, hairstyle played a big role in appearance—such as the queue trailing from the back of his head.

When the Manchu entered the pass, they proclaimed, “Keep your hair, lose your head.” From then on, Chinese men wore a queue. In War, the queue had a double effect: cut it off and you’d get +10 appearance with revolutionary NPCs, but with official NPCs, you’d lose 10 appearance and might even be executed.

Chen Hao chose to believe in constitutional monarchy. Though he disliked the queue at the back of his head, he had no choice but to keep it until 1912 in game time.

When it was cold, people grew hungry faster, so wearing clothes also reduced the rate at which satiety dropped. Equipment in the game usually had these two basic attributes; better clothing increased appearance and slowed satiety loss more. Only very rare special outfits added other attributes.

Besides his shabby starter clothes and satchel, the system gave him five copper coins—enough for a single bun at late Qing prices. Chen Hao followed the stone road toward the West Gate, passing many other players. In 1900, there was an anti-imperialist Boxer movement in Qingzhou, so many chose to be born there.

Players hadn’t yet realized how hard it was to survive in War; nearly all were focused solely on leveling up. Outside the West Gate wandered many Opium Fiends; players could gain experience by killing these monsters—the most standard leveling method. When Chen Hao reached the gate, it was crowded with players looking for teams.

“Combat 10+ NB leveling team! Absolute speed, two spots left!”

“Combat 15+ high-level team, three places open, no trash allowed!”

“Self-reliant, self-sufficient, Combat 5+ team, just one more and we set off!”

Half a day had passed in real life; it was now the afternoon of January 2, 1900, in game time, and players were beginning to understand the game. Solo players were best suited for leveling up. Guns rarely dropped early on, and Opium Fiends didn’t require firearms to defeat; teams most wanted players with high Combat attributes.

Those on political or command paths who were reluctant to assign free points to individual attributes could only rely on others to help them level up. Those unwilling to waste points and unable to find help could still level by seeking out non-combat quests in the city, though it was much slower than for solo fighters.

Players received a modest experience bonus for leveling in teams, with a maximum of five per group. Chen Hao ignored the shouting crowd. After leaving the West Gate, he walked north for five hundred meters and found an NPC named Zhao Si.

“Young man, you mustn’t touch opium! More and more people in Penglai County are addicted, and when they run out of money, they go around stealing. My home has been robbed several times now…”

After Zhao Si rambled on for a while, Chen Hao received a system prompt: “Player Chen Baxian, NPC Zhao Si has given you the quest ‘Eliminate the Opium Fiends Who Steal Chickens and Dogs.’ Quest completion: kill 20 Opium Fiends. Reward: 5 copper coins.”

This reward was worth a single bun, which restored 10 satiety. Chen Hao didn’t immediately attack the Opium Fiends after accepting the quest; instead, he headed to a nearby grove, occasionally picking up a dry branch and swinging it experimentally.

The game offered no starter weapons; bare hands sufficed against Opium Fiends, but having a tool helped. After searching for a while, Chen Hao finally found a suitable wooden stick, which gave him +2 Combat. With it, his Combat attribute became 22, and with his Bloodbath skill boosting close combat by 20%, his effective Combat was around 26.

He made his way to the far side of the grove, to a less crowded leveling spot, and soon found an Opium Fiend. The man’s face was sallow and thin, his queue long and his clothes tattered, lying on a pile of grass in the sun. When he saw Chen Hao with the stick, he scrambled to his feet and watched warily.

Chen Hao strode forward and swung his stick at the Opium Fiend. As he did, he instinctively sensed the system correcting his attack angle, just like it adjusted shooting accuracy based on attributes; with differing Combat stats, the system would tweak close-quarters combat as well.

The Opium Fiend cried out in pain, but instead of fighting back, turned and fled. Even monsters in the game had some intelligence—if attacked by a player with around 10 Combat, an Opium Fiend would fight, but Chen Hao, at level zero, now had an extraordinary 26 Combat and a stick in hand. Faced with such a tough target, the fiend’s decision to flee was hardly surprising.

There was no blood bar in the game, but there was a hidden resistance attribute, and death was decided entirely by the system. Chen Hao’s stick was just an ordinary, broken branch; no matter how fierce his blows, the system wouldn’t immediately judge his opponent dead.

With a Combat attribute of 20 and the Bloodbath skill, Chen Hao could handle a level 2 Opium Fiend handily. He had chosen the stick precisely because he anticipated the fiend might try to escape. Chasing after a fleeing monster with bare fists would be pitiful; with a stick, he had more reach.

Chen Hao pursued the fiend, swinging his stick repeatedly. After about three minutes, the Opium Fiend finally collapsed, foaming at the mouth. To Chen Hao’s frustration, the fiend was so destitute that it dropped not a single copper coin.