Chapter 158: Rescue Mission

(Thanks to Jiangnan Junjun for the precious monthly vote. This makes up for the backlog, 2 episodes remaining.)

Li Hongbo was in a great mood. Not only did he receive an important task today, but he also picked up three fine horses along the way. He yielded his own horse to his subordinate, mounted the white horse previously ridden by Chen Hao, hummed a tune, and trotted up the path leading to Stone Stockade, preparing to execute the mission issued by the Boxer leader Zhang Decheng.

"Bang."

Li Hongbo suddenly heard a gunshot from behind. He wheeled his horse around and saw the subordinate at the very rear tumbling out of the saddle. A hundred meters away, a player mounted on a tall, majestic steed was aiming a rifle, and with a second gunshot, another player rolled off their horse.

Catching sight of that robust and imposing steed, Li Hongbo felt a pang of foreboding. Earlier, he had vaguely felt that the bullied player looked familiar, but couldn't recall where he had seen him. Upon spotting the horse with its four snow-white hooves, he finally remembered whom he had provoked. According to forum reviews, Chen Baxian was one of the most untouchable players in the entire game!

After famous personalities like Xuanyuan Jian, Sansheng Shi, and Guan Ning were thoroughly humiliated by Chen Baxian, a saying circulated on the forums: "You might as well commit adultery, but never provoke Chen Baxian." Many players believed that Chen Baxian was exceptionally skilled in the game, yet possessed a temperament that would never let a slight go unavenged; one must absolutely avoid crossing him.

Li Hongbo lacked any significant backing, carefully navigating his development within the game and never daring to provoke the major factions. He had never expected that a moment of greed would lead him to cross Chen Baxian. Seeing Chen Baxian once more raising his rifle to aim solo, and his own subordinates preparing to return fire, he hurriedly shouted, "Boss Chen Baxian, there is some misunderstanding between us. I'll return the horse to you, don't..."

"Bang."

The crisp sound of a gunshot was Li Hongbo's only answer. Chen Hao fired another shot, though unfortunately, it missed and flew wide. He spun his horse around to ride a short distance, widening the gap, and then raised his Mauser rifle once more to aim from a hundred meters away at a pursuing player, dropping him from his saddle with a single shot.

Li Hongbo's expression fluctuated between anger and dismay. Even though he had softened his stance, Chen Baxian showed no mercy whatsoever—truly as vengeful as the forums claimed! Since the feud could no longer be resolved, there was no need to act submissively; if he could kill Chen Baxian, he would also earn an extra two million. To Li Hongbo, that was no small sum.

Having made up his mind, Li Hongbo ordered the remaining players to form a fan-shaped formation and charge at Chen Hao. Seeing this, Chen Hao didn't hesitate for a second to turn his horse around and flee. Aside from the three fine horses he had forcefully bought earlier, the mounts ridden by Li Hongbo's subordinates were utterly ordinary; catching up to the Tixue Wuzhui was simply impossible.

Once the Tixue Wuzhui vanished from sight, Li Hongbo ordered his subordinates to halt. With a gloomy face, he turned his horse around and galloped toward Stone Stockade. As he spurred his horse forward, he glanced back from time to time, terrified that Chen Baxian might suddenly reappear. Only after riding three miles without sighting Chen Baxian did he finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Bang, bang, bang."

Three consecutive gunshots rang out from the flank. Two players behind Li Hongbo were knocked from their horses, and a bullet zipped right past his ear. Cursing aloud, he raised his rifle and fired blindly in the direction of the gunshots, only to see Chen Baxian astride the Tixue Wuzhui galloping away once more.

Li Hongbo felt extremely frustrated, wondering how he could have been foolish enough to provoke this star of misfortune. He had brought a total of fifteen players out on the mission, yet four had already been wiped out before even reaching the destination. He was extraordinarily unlucky.

He instructed his subordinates to scatter their formation and remain vigilant against the surroundings. Just as he tucked his rifle away into his saddlebag, another gunshot rang out from the flank.

Earlier, after knocking down two players and riding away, Chen Hao had circled around to launch a surprise attack. Li Hongbo had fallen into a pattern of inertia, assuming Chen Hao would circle wide again after this ambush. He never expected that this time Chen Hao hadn't gone far at all; after galloping only a short distance, he had wheeled his horse back around to fire, picking off three more players during the confusion of Li Hongbo's formation adjustment before calmly departing.

Li Hongbo was now left with only eight subordinates, his face dark enough to drip water. Every team that encountered a player like Chen Baxian would find it an excruciating headache. Chen Baxian rode an exceptional horse, possessed marksmanship superior to the vast majority of players, and employed deeply obnoxious combat tactics—always firing a couple of shots and immediately fleeing. He was impossible to catch up with, frustrating enough to make one vomit blood.

After Li Hongbo ordered his troops to spread out and watch all directions, Chen Baxian did not appear again, yet he still advanced cautiously without daring to relax in the slightest. In truth, his worries were entirely superfluous; after gunning down several players and observing Li Hongbo's route, Chen Hao had suddenly remembered a mission, and thus spurred his horse to go find Nie Shicheng.

The direction Li Hongbo's group was heading was precisely where Nie Shicheng's home was located. Historically, while Nie Shicheng was engaged in battle with the allied forces, the Boxers had gone to Nie's home to plunder his wife, children, and elderly mother. In the game, the system had generated a corresponding quest: players on the Boxer side could accept the mission to plunder Nie Shicheng's family, while players in the Front Guards of the Wuwei Corps could accept the mission from Nie Shicheng to rescue his family.

Nie Shicheng was still unaware that his wife, children, and mother were in mortal danger. At this moment, he was personally leading his troops to desperately fend off the invading Eight-Nation Alliance. Hearing Chen Hao's report, he felt as though his heart and gall were splitting apart. In a deep voice, he said, "Baxian, I have already resolved to repay the nation with my death. I entrust my wife, children, and family to you. Once you rescue them, head to Langfang; my personal guards are waiting for you there. Take my guards and escort my family safely to Qinan to be placed in the care of Yuan Weiting."

"Player Chen Baxian, Nie Shicheng has issued you the quest 'Rescue Family'. Quest completion conditions: Rescue Nie Shicheng's wife, children, and elderly mother from the Boxers, and deliver them to Yuan Shikai in Qinan City, Shandong Province. Quest reward: Unknown."

Chen Hao chose to accept the quest. He had memories of the quest concerning Nie Shicheng's family, but he hadn't known that the final destination for the escort was Yuan Shikai. Although the quest reward was listed as unknown, he could roughly guess that it was related to Yuan Shikai because by the time Nie Shicheng's family was rescued and delivered to Qinan, Nie Shicheng would have already died a martyr for his country, meaning the reward would certainly be paid on his behalf by Yuan Shikai.

Chen Hao accepted the task. A maximum of twenty players could participate in this quest, but he couldn't gather that many helpers on short notice. Recently, the passerby who went fishing had returned to the Front Guards of the Wuwei Corps to participate in combat. Because the heavy machine gun consumed an enormous amount of ammunition, the Front Guards provided him with a massive stockpile of bullets to practice his marksmanship, and he had accumulated a substantial amount of experience points from killing enemies.

As more and more allied forces landed, the pressure on the Front Guards mounted steadily, ultimately sealing their doomed fate of total annihilation. Remembering this, Chen Hao said to Nie Shicheng, "Sir, my friend 'Passerby Who Goes Fishing' has been serving under your command. Since I am thinly manned for this mission to rescue Madame, I earnestly request your permission to allow me to take him along."

Nie Shicheng nodded and said, "Fishing Passerby is still young. Having him accompany you is a good idea; I will summon him over immediately."

The passerby who went fishing soon rode over on a horse, followed closely by an NPC leading a horse that carried a Maxim heavy machine gun packed on its back. The NPC leading the horse was his ammunition bearer; when Nie Shicheng summoned the passerby, he had assigned this ammunition bearer, who coordinated seamlessly with him, directly under his command as an employed NPC.

Chen Hao also summoned Thief San, whom he had stationed in Langfang to gather intelligence. The group of four hurried toward the direction of Stone Stockade. Upon reaching the intersection of the main road and the path leading to Stone Stockade, Chen Hao had the passerby who went fishing and his ammunition bearer dismount the Maxim and construct a simple machine gun emplacement beside the road, while he and Thief San dashed along the small trail toward Stone Stockade.

Li Hongbo had already plundered Nie Shicheng's family at Stone Stockade. When Chen Hao accepted the quest from Nie Shicheng, Li Hongbo had received the prompt triggering a two-way quest, making him even more cautious. Nie Shicheng's family was placed inside a plundered carriage, with ten mounted players clearing the path ahead while he brought up the rear with twenty players.

When Li Hongbo accepted the quest, the quota had been set at sixteen players, so he had originally brought fifteen. Upon learning that the system had generated a bidirectional quest, to ensure absolute foolproof success, he had sent carrier pigeons to summon nearby subordinates to come reinforce him. These backup players participating in the quest were personal helpers privately recruited by Li Hongbo, yielding no rewards upon completion.

Chen Hao led Thief San along the trail for a stretch before pulling out his Zeiss binoculars to survey the area, spotting the convoy advancing in this direction. He instructed Thief San to lie in ambush in the nearby grass, while he spurred his horse to charge toward the opposite side, raising his rifle to wait for Li Hongbo's convoy to arrive.

"Bang."

Perched on his horse beside a vegetable plot on the flank, Chen Hao pulled the trigger, shooting down the player Li Hongbo had assigned as a scout, before charging his horse directly toward the carriage-escorting formation. A hundred meters away from the carriage, Chen Hao raised his Mauser G98 to fire a few wild shots, dropping one player before wheeling his horse around and fleeing.

Li Hongbo had been burning with rage all along, and this time, with an ample number of subordinates under his command, he had no intention of letting Chen Baxian off easily. He arranged for four players to guard the carriage and led a dozen or so others in pursuit of Chen Hao's escape route, but after galloping only a short distance, Chen Baxian vanished without a trace once more.

Because of Chen Hao's sudden harassment, Li Hongbo had forgotten to dispatch scouts for this short stretch of road. Thief San, hidden in the roadside grass, quietly slipped underneath the carriage. The players guarding the carriage were focused on the battle ahead, and Thief San, agile and stealthy, slipped inside the carriage unnoticed while their attention was diverted elsewhere.

Thief San's sudden appearance inside the carriage startled the three occupants, causing Nie Shicheng's eight-year-old son to cry out involuntarily. Thief San motioned for them to keep quiet, and Nie Shicheng's mother and wife quickly covered the child's mouth. At that exact moment, a player outside the carriage called out, "Madame Nie, what happened?"

Madame Nie forced herself to remain calm and replied, "It's nothing. The child was frightened by the sound of gunfire, I'm just soothing him."

The four players outside were all schoolmates of Chen Hao, having been tricked into joining Li Hongbo's gaming studio upon graduation. They held deep admiration for the historical figure Nie Shicheng; even within the game, they felt immense dissatisfaction toward Li Hongbo for taking on a quest to harm Nie Shicheng's family, privately cursing Li Hongbo's mission as a deed bound to leave one childless.

If NPC guards had been watching the carriage, they might well have lifted the curtain to inspect, but human players would not. Thief San inside the carriage let out a quiet breath of relief and whispered to Madame Nie, "I was sent by Lord Nie to rescue you, Madame. Rest assured, I will find a way to get you out safely shortly and keep you from falling into the hands of the Boxer bandits."