Chapter 118: Hunting Beyond the Village

Chen Hao’s tactic was quite shameless. His cavalry unit patrolled just a kilometer outside the village, ignoring players entering the village and targeting only those who emerged. Shangzhai was the mission distribution point closest to the railway, attracting a steady stream of players. Yet, whenever they stepped out of the village, full of ambition after accepting their quests, they were met with bullets and blades.

The twelve riders split into pairs, roaming the area to hunt down quest-takers, leaving a trail of fallen players in their wake. Chen Hao was paired with Xia Weiwei. Originally, she was supposed to be with "Fishing Passerby," but Chen Hao claimed that Fishing Passerby was a machine gunner with poor individual combat skills and insisted on taking Xia Weiwei under his wing to level up.

Xia Weiwei had no objections, though a faint blush touched her cheeks, assuming she was being favored for her beauty. Seeing her shy demeanor, Chen Hao felt a pang of internal frustration, thinking to himself that if he weren't afraid of his cover being blown, he wouldn't bother babysitting her at all.

Chen Hao’s initiative was driven by a desire to keep her from interacting too much with Fishing Passerby; he feared that if she discovered Fishing Passerby was an impostor, any future real-life meeting would be incredibly awkward. He resolved that after this mission, he would make sure she and the impostor never crossed paths again to avoid living in constant anxiety.

A player emerged from the village after accepting a mission. Once the player reached a distance of 300 meters, Chen Hao and Xia Weiwei charged on horseback, aimed, and pulled their triggers.

The player was agile; hearing the gunshot, he rolled on the ground, dodged the bullets, and flipped behind a dirt embankment. Chen Hao had been patrolling outside Shangzhai for a long time, usually firing within thirty meters, rarely missing. Even if he missed, Xia Weiwei’s covering fire ensured success. This was the first player to escape his aim.

The player, Donghuang, was still shaken. Upon entering the game, he had rolled the individual special ability "Dodge," which granted a 20% chance to evade an attack when targeted. The enemies had fired from thirty meters away; the tall girl had missed, but the male player was dead accurate. It was only thanks to the 20% dodge chance that he had narrowly escaped.

Huddled behind the embankment, Donghuang pulled his Hanyang rifle from his satchel, checked the safety, and used a wooden stick to lift his hat above the edge.

*Bang.*

A gunshot rang in Donghuang’s ears, and his hat was shredded. His heart sank. He had hoped to trade shots if the enemy’s marksmanship was mediocre, but it was clear that idea was naive—his opponent’s aim was better than his own.

Clutching his rifle, Donghuang scrambled eastward, the brush crunching under his feet. After running about ten meters, he stopped, carefully pushed aside the branches, and began to crawl slowly in another direction along the embankment.

Only by catching them by surprise from the flank could he hope to take down the two cavalrymen.

The embankment was over twenty meters long. Donghuang crept to the edge, feeling relieved when he heard hoofbeats from the position he had just vacated. He slowly poked his head out to observe, only to find the male player he had encountered earlier standing right in front of him with a pistol pressed against his forehead.

Donghuang instinctively tried to raise his rifle, but the opponent pulled the trigger first. Donghuang fell to the ground, filled with resentment. Chen Hao looted the bullets Donghuang had dropped and shook his head. "Quite cunning, but unfortunately for you, you met me."

After shooting Donghuang’s hat and realizing it was a decoy, Chen Hao had become interested in the player hiding below. Hearing the crunching sounds, he had sneered. He had scouted the terrain long ago; while there were branches under the embankment, one could easily move without making such noise. The player had clearly made the sound intentionally to draw his attention.

Thus, Chen Hao had dismounted, told Xia Weiwei to lead his horse in the other direction, and crouched his way to the end of the embankment. Donghuang had judged by the hoofbeats that both enemies were on the other side, never expecting Chen Hao to abandon his horse and wait for him at the embankment's edge.

Donghuang had set his respawn point to Baoding. After reviving, he was deeply frustrated. He had intended to level up quickly during the regional event, but ended up dying before even killing a single enemy. Why were players siding with Nie Shicheng appearing at a Boxer Rebellion mission site? Full of questions, he logged onto the *War* game forum.

"Mysterious cavalry unit deep in the south of the railway; over eighty players slaughtered."
"The vile cavalry unit—I was killed before I could even find a party after taking the quest."
"Video of the Zhongming Village Massacre: players siding with the Boxers in the Hebei region, beware."
"Looking for players to join a revenge mission against the 12-man cavalry unit—let’s drive them back to the north of the railway..."

Donghuang logged in to find the forum flooded with news about the mysterious cavalry, including combat footage of the massacre at Zhongming Village. After watching for a while, he posted a reply: "I encountered two cavalrymen at the entrance of Shangzhai Village; it’s likely the same unit you’re talking about."

"I was also killed after taking a quest at Shangzhai. The ones who killed me were two women—did you run into them?"

"The ones who killed me were a man and a woman," Donghuang replied. "It’s definitely that twelve-man cavalry unit. They are guarding the outside of Shangzhai Village; anyone who comes out with a quest gets hunted down."

"Twelve people daring to go this deep into the south? I want revenge! Let’s gather and surround the cavalry unit at Shangzhai."

Donghuang was furious, but he was a realist and had no intention of traveling all that way back to fight the cavalry. Even if he joined hundreds of players to get revenge, he wouldn't gain any personal advantage; it simply wasn't worth the trouble.

Not everyone was as pragmatic as Donghuang. Once the news of the cavalry unit’s deep incursion went viral, a massive number of players began converging on Shangzhai Village. The village was backed by an 800-meter-high mountain, and Chen Hao had Yudie climb up every two minutes to scout for incoming large player groups.

After the cavalry’s activities were exposed on the forum, no more players entered Shangzhai to take quests. Chen Hao and his team had killed over 100 people, and just as he was preparing to withdraw, over thirty figures suddenly charged out of the village.

Leading the charge were a dozen men with bare chests, covered in various mystical symbols, wielding broadswords and spears, shouting slogans. They were the NPCs of the Boxer Rebellion. At the front was Xu Erzhu, a gate leader under Zhao Sanduo.

Xu Erzhu had waited a long time without seeing any "outsiders" accepting missions, and those who had already accepted them stayed inside the village, refusing to leave. He sent his men to investigate and, upon learning of the government lackeys causing trouble outside, he flew into a rage. He immediately issued a mission to deal with the twelve lackeys, promising that whoever helped wipe them out would be taught martial arts by Xu Erzhu himself.

The players in the village, originally too cowardly to leave, were spurred on by the reward. One by one, they accepted the quest and surged out, following the "invulnerable" Boxer NPCs.