Chapter Forty: Mo Yu’s Request

Hearing Li Pisen’s words, Chen Hao was stunned. He had no memory of the authorities searching Li Pisen’s residence. Wang Wu and Li Pisen had no connection whatsoever, so why had they become entangled together? Soon, he realized the reason: Sansheng Stone had always arranged for someone to follow him, and he would openly enter Li’s mansion, then quietly slip out the back door to his small courtyard. Thus, Sansheng Stone believed he was living there with Wang Wu.

A cold smile appeared on Chen Hao’s face. Sansheng Stone had made a blunder of epic proportions, causing quite a mess. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Master Li, there must be a reason for this. For the authorities to search your house so openly, someone must have framed you.”

Li Pisen wielded considerable influence. Chen Hao resolved to cast suspicion elsewhere. If Sansheng Stone had indeed reported Li, he would certainly earn Li Pisen’s enmity.

Li Pisen said angrily, “You’re right, Baxian. I’ll send someone to the county office to find out who slandered me. I won’t let them off easily.”

“Player Chen Hao, you and player Sansheng Stone have always been enemies. You’ve successfully redirected Li Pisen’s fury toward Sansheng Stone. Congratulations on mastering the skill ‘Borrowing the Knife to Kill.’”

“Player Chen Hao, you demonstrated political acumen in the search incident at Li Pisen’s residence. Your Machiavellian attribute +1.”

Receiving two system notifications in succession, Chen Hao was delighted. The attribute point was trivial, but acquiring a political skill like ‘Borrowing the Knife to Kill’ was a big win.

Borrowing the Knife to Kill: When players are in conflict with others, they can find ways to use a third party to deal with their enemy. When encountering similar situations and the player doesn’t think things through, there is a 20% chance the system will offer a reminder.

Political skills aren’t easily used, but if the system reminds players to borrow the knife, they can gain tremendous benefits.

After Li Pisen sent someone to the county office, his anger abated somewhat. He asked Chen Hao, “Baxian, have you completed your reading of the ‘Three Character Classic’?”

Chen Hao nodded. “Master Li, after receiving your gift, I dared not slack off for a single day. I have now mastered the ‘Three Character Classic’ completely.”

Li Pisen had Chen Hao recite the classic from memory as usual. Satisfied, he said, “Excellent! Such rapid progress shows you have a talent for study. I shall accept you as my disciple!”

“Player Chen Hao, the great scholar Li Pisen wishes to take you as his disciple. Do you accept?”

Chen Hao chose to accept, officially becoming the disciple of Li Pisen, the renowned scholar of Dengzhou, thus sharing the same mentor as the famous general of modern times. Becoming Li Pisen’s disciple not only would steadily increase his cultural attribute, but also gave him powerful backing in Dengzhou. However, benefits in the game never came free; Li Pisen would frequently assign him tasks, many of which offered no reward.

Li Pisen handed Chen Hao a copy of the ‘Analects,’ saying, “Today’s troubles have left me in no mood for lessons. Take this ‘Analects’ home and recite it. Once you have mastered it, return it to me. Be careful not to damage it.”

Item name: Analects
Item attribute: Culture +2
Item description: One of the Four Books annotated by the great scholar Li Pisen. If you read it thoroughly, culture attribute +2; master it, culture attribute +3.

The ‘Analects’ was superior to the ‘Three Character Classic,’ but Li Pisen was only lending it to Chen Hao temporarily, so the culture +2 attribute could be disregarded. Reading through the ‘Analects’ would take several times longer than the ‘Three Character Classic,’ yet the reward was only 2 culture attribute points, as the higher the attribute, the harder it was to improve.

To truly master the ‘Analects’ would require even more time; those 3 culture points would not come easily, and Chen Hao would not return the book until he had acquired all three.

Each day, besides practicing archery and swordplay, he would spend several hours reciting the ‘Analects.’ He didn’t plan to level up his spear skills until they were properly trained. Fortunately, reaching level 20 from level 10 required at least a month of in-game time, so he was in no danger of losing the reward for being the first to reach level 20.

As soon as Chen Hao left Li Pisen’s residence, a pigeon flew toward him. He took the note from its leg and instantly recognized the hideous handwriting of the notorious White Demon.

Sending messages by carrier pigeon was costly, so White Demon kept it brief, saying only that there was an urgent matter and asking Chen Hao to meet him in the southern part of town.

Thinking White Demon was in trouble, Chen Hao rushed to the southern city as quickly as he could, only to find White Demon and a player dressed in black standing together.

The game had only been running for a few days; making money was extremely difficult, and most players were still wearing starter gear. This player, who had splurged on a whole new outfit, was indeed unusual.

White Demon pointed to the player in black, saying, “Brother Chen, this is Mo Yu, a player who specializes in gathering intelligence. He wants to cooperate with us.”

Mo Yu was young but appeared calm and composed. Upon seeing Chen Hao, he smiled and said, “Brother Chen, I’ve long admired your reputation. Last time you and Brother Demon used me, so now I hope you’ll help me in return.”

White Demon had said Mo Yu wanted to cooperate, but Mo Yu himself said he needed their help, putting himself in a humble position. Chen Hao had a favorable impression of him and asked, “Brother Mo Yu, what kind of cooperation do you have in mind?”

Mo Yu shook his head. “It’s not really cooperation. Besides gathering and selling information, I act as an intermediary. This morning, four players approached me, saying they needed a melee expert for a quest, offering a reward of five silver dollars.”

Hearing about the five-dollar reward, Chen Hao became interested and asked, “What kind of quest do they want to do?”

Mo Yu hesitated. “If Brother Chen agrees to help, I can tell you the details. For now, I can say only that the quest involves fighting Boxer NPCs—four of them, each with a combat skill above thirty.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Hao immediately thought of the special quest tied to his gold ring. He knew Lin Xiaofeng and his group couldn’t manage it, so he had been waiting for them to seek his help, but hadn’t expected them to fail and go straight to an intermediary.

Originally, Chen Hao would have helped those four players for free. Yet after all their detours, they still ended up asking him—and offering five silver dollars. Chen Hao could only smile wryly, marveling at their integrity; refusing a free lunch, they insisted on paying for satisfaction.

Mo Yu continued, “The NPCs in this quest might even have a combat skill of forty. I thought of finding a shooting expert, but they said using guns would alert more NPCs. So to finish the quest, they needed a melee master. I remembered how last time Brother Chen single-handedly killed—”

“I’ll take the quest,” Chen Hao interrupted, agreeing immediately. Helping them would earn him five silver dollars, and he could proceed to the second stage of the quest. Of course, he wouldn’t miss this opportunity.

After Chen Hao agreed, Mo Yu explained the task. Lin Xiaofeng’s team had found Xiao Wang Village and sent their youngest member, Chen Feng, to infiltrate the village. He confirmed that Podolsky was being held in the ancestral hall, guarded by four NPCs.

The situation matched what Chen Hao had explained. The quiet girl Yudie in the team suggested Lin Xiaofeng contact Chen Hao, but Liu Zixuan disagreed. She insisted they not seek out the self-important Chen Hao and decided to try on their own. The four of them sneaked to the ancestral hall but were soon discovered by the Boxer NPCs, and each of them was defeated.