“Through the days and nights, as I tear the heavens apart, glorious light will shine and cleanse even the specks of dust on earth~”
Ren Suo wiped the saliva off the corners of his lips as he subconsciously reached out for his mobile phone with his right hand, when he felt a bolt of pain rush through his body from his palm, jolting him awake slightly.
He held up his mobile phone and glanced at the display to see who was calling. His eyes widened in confusion as he picked up the call and said, “Hello? What’s up?”
It was Li Qingxuan who was on the other end of the line. She said, “Were you still sleeping? It’s almost noon. You were injured, weren’t you?”
“Ah, well, every man stays up late at least thirty days a month…How did you know I was injured?” asked a slightly surprised Ren Suo.
“We’re in the same division,” said Li Qingxuan with a laugh. “You’re in Team 3 and I’m in Team 6!”
Ren Suo slapped his head as he remembered that more familiar faces had joined the Countermeasure Division over the last few days—other than Qiao Muyi, Li Qingxuan, Xie Qiansi, and Zhao Huo had also joined the division.
They entered the division later than Ren Suo as they needed slightly more time before they passed the transformation phase. However, as they were not posted into Team 3, Ren Suo had only found out about their joining the Countermeasure Division through WeChat. In fact, he had never seen them before in real life.
They naturally did not have much opportunity to meet each other as all of them in the Countermeasure Division had been dispatched to various schools over the city and had not spent much time in the office.
“News about you subduing an Awakened teenager has made its rounds in the office,” Li Qingxuan replied. She said, “I heard that you remained unfaced even though one of your hands was injured and continued using the [Lock] skill on him until the others from the Countermeasure Division arrived to take over…That’s so amazing!”
Upon receiving such a compliment from a pretty girl, even a slightly slow-witted like Ren Suo could not help but grin in satisfaction. He smiled as he said, “Well, I’m just slightly better than you guys…”
“Come on, don’t be so narcissistic. I merely gave you a small compliment and you’re so proud?” Li Qingxuan said, “Anyway, we really need your help, great master. Xiao Qiao told me that your [Clothes] skill is quite good too. You could even pass your team leader’s test?”
“Eh…” Ren Suo blinked and said, “Yes.”
“You are able to use [Clothes] and [Lock] so well, looks like you really are a beast in Reiki,” commented a slightly impressed Li Qingxuan. She continued, “When I first entered my team, my team leader trapped me without any difficulty with his [Lock], and yet you were able to train your [Clothes] and [Lock] to such a proficient and skillful level in such a short time…I suppose different people indeed have different talents, and even with the same resources, people like you would still perform better…”
“Anyway, since we have been given two days off, I was intending to train at the training stadium these two days, so I was wondering if I could get some help from you, great, master. My [Clothes] skill saw some improvement but my [Lock] skill is still a far cry from your level.”
Ren Suo stammered, “…Ah?”
“I’m not asking you out on a date,” Li Qingxuan said. She continued, “Qiao Muyi, Li Jiamin and the rest of the girls would be there…I’m not sure about the guy’s side though.”
“So are you going to come this afternoon? We have agreed to meet at 3 p.m. at the training stadium.”
Ren Suo was fully awake now. He sat upright on the couch as he looked at the timestamp “Year 222, Spring” on the top left corner of the television screen in front of him. He remained silent for a few seconds before replying, “I…I think I shall give it a miss, I won’t be going.”
Li Qingxuan kept silent for a few moments and said, “All right, I suppose it’s not very convenient for you to leave your house in your current state?”
“Ah? Eh? Yes…” Ren Suo replied.
“Well then, I will let Jiamin and the rest know that you aren’t feeling well and won’t be able to turn up. But you cannot reject us the next time, grandmaster,” said Li Qingxuan with a laugh before hanging up. Ren Suo looked at his mobile phone for a good while before he finally regained his senses.
“She’s such a gentle and warm-hearted person…” Ren Suo muttered. He was not one who liked to talk much, but that did not mean he had low emotional intelligence.
He knew that Li Qingxuan had helped him find an excuse for not turning up, and even said that she would help to explain to the rest, making sure that Ren Suo would not seem like a “selfish” brat. Furthermore, they had wanted to learn from him as they were not as proficient in their Reiki techniques, and it would not have reflected well on Ren Suo had he turned them down without any reason.
Otherwise, they would have thought that Ren Suo was on a high horse and looking down on them, and he could even be seen as trying to keep a secret technique he discovered to himself, especially in a time when mastering Reiki techniques was important.
After all, they were of the same social standing and jealousy was not unexpected. If Ren Suo continued in this way, he could easily paint a negative image for himself and lose personal connections with others.
Such personal connections with others might not be easily felt, but once a person loses all of such connections, he would feel as if life was going against him—this was something Ren Suo had previously experienced.
However, even if Ren Suo had the time, he would still have turned them down.
That was because he had merely equipped the two skills [Clothes] and [Lock]!
It was just like bringing in a cheat sheet into an examination!
How could he teach such an experience to them? Not unless they had the Mini Worlds Gaming Console!
Ren Suo could easily equip himself with [Skill: Clothes] and [Skill: Lock], and he would naturally be able to use those skills, without any prior practice. It was as if he had directly maxed out the levels of the two skills.
What he had overlooked, however, was that everyone else had just started learning the skills. At the most, some of them would have a stronger foundation and be more proficient at one of the skills, but to be able to train both of the skills to a decent level like Ren Suo seemed to have, it required at least a few months of training which only the first batch of Practitioners had have!
“I must be more discreet…” muttered Ren Suo to himself. He had realized that he had been slightly overdoing it recently. “If the higher-ups start to think that I am capable and transfer me to Team 1 or Team 2, I will have to be involved in the fights and that would be troublesome…”
Ren Suo did not want to have to pretend to be fond of fighting while fearing it. He would definitely prefer and enjoy a more relaxed life where he did not need to be involved in combat. Otherwise, why would he have gone for the civil service entrance examination and apply to work in the district office?
Was that not because it was a financially stable job that did not require much work?
Even though he now had the Mini Worlds Gaming Console and had become a Practitioner, Ren Suo would still rather lead a peaceful life. Was playing the computer not fun? Was watching movies not appealing? Or were the recent novels coming to an end? Why would anyone choose to go to a place where their lives would be endangered to fight?
As Ren Suo looked at the screen, he felt like asking the same question to the Ren brothers—why won’t you all be good and not cause any trouble?
The current save file he was on was the thirty-sixth one he had created over the past few days. Apart from the first save file which he gave up after year 206, the other save files were used by Ren Suo to experiment.
When Ren Suo created the second save file, he found that, although the head of the house had the same surname and name, the gender, age, and names of the three characters were instead assigned randomly—the worst he had encountered was when one of the characters was already 20 years old at the start of the game and died just three years later!
But when he was lucky, the eldest of the three characters would only be 15 years old, and he felt that the difficulty of the game decreased significantly!
Through the process, Ren Suo also found that the character with the role of the head of the house in the game [Over My Dead Body] could be equipped with abilities in the [Game Characters] menu!
After many experiments, Ren Suo had figured out the effects the different equipped abilities would have on the main character in the game.
[Fighter Novice], Attack +0.1, while [The Lure of Sweet Dreams] had no effect. Both of those abilities were essentially useless when equipped.
[Skill: Clothes], Defense +1, while [Skill: Lock] interestingly added Attack +0.5 and Management +0.5—what had Management got to do with [Lock]….
The only ability that pleasantly surprised Ren Suo was [Unlimited Energy]!
When the patriarch character was equipped with the ability [Unlimited Energy], Ren Suo found that every round (every season), he would have action points +1!
The extra +1 action point was actually because the patriarch character could perform two actions each round, although neither of the actions could be an [Expedition]. If Ren Suo sent the patriarch character on an expedition, the additional 1 action point given would be automatically removed.
Under normal circumstances, however, the extra +1 action point meant that the lead patriarch character could train twice as fast as the rest of the family members!
Furthermore, when the elder patriarch character dies, the next generation patriarch would automatically be equipped with the ability!
For example in the current save file, the year was 222 and it was the third generation of “Ren Woxing”.
The first Ren Woxing passed on double attribute points to his own son before he died, who became the second generation Ren Woxing. His own daughter then acquired the second generation Ren Woxing’s attribute points after his further training. When the third generation Ren Woxing took over at the age of 17, younger than her supposed peak at 23 years old, she already had a combined attribute score 2.5 times better than the combat power of the second generation.
But this was not the most beneficial find. What amazed Ren Suo most was that when the patriarch character performed [Spiritual Exchange], the two action points were still effective!
What did that mean?
It meant that each time the patriarch character performed a spiritual exchange, it was assured that—
He could kill two birds with one stone!
As such, in the first 32 years of the current save file, Ren Suo would always let the patriarch character perform spiritual exchange first, unless the gender of the elf was incompatible, or if the patriarch character was younger than 14 years old!
It was simply a beneficial tool to increase their population!
However, even with such improvements, Ren Suo still found himself unable to complete the challenging game successfully after staying up the entire night and trying numerous times…
Of course, there was a crucial reason for this. In the year 217, which was the 22nd year of the Jian’an period, a great plague broke out in the Central Plains, resulting in a large-scale break out of demons that were strong and powerful. They spawned in extremely large numbers, and if Ren Suo could not eliminate all of them quickly, the demons would find their way to the Ren family house and destroy the entire family.
However, the plague in the year 217 was nothing harder than that of a small boss. The medium boss was the one Ren Suo was currently facing—the Battle of Yiling in the year 222!
Ren Suo had previously read the Three Kingdoms and was very familiar with the historical events occurring during that time. But in anticipation of the reader complaining that the entire historical portion is irrelevant, the summarized story is given below: In the summer of year 222, Lu Xun launched a fire attack on Liu Bei’s army, resulting in a devastating loss of 80 thousand troops!
More importantly, out of the 80 thousand troops who perished, many of them were troops hand-picked and trained by Liu Bei for a significant period of time. As they had been burnt to death, an “extraordinarily large” quantity of Fire Demons appeared in Yiling!
In the previous save file, Ren Suo had sent all of the Ren brothers to fight…but it was simply too challenging. After more than 10 years, the Fire Demons began killing the elves all around the map, and slowly found their way to the Ren family house…
In the current loaded save file, Ren Suo was still thinking hard about how to overcome that challenge. However, the non-playable characters had already helped him make the decision.
When Ren Suo wanted to send a character out on an expedition, a young man named “Ren Xing” suddenly appeared: “My patriarch, since you have concluded that the reign of Han Zhongwang is bound to fall, I am willing to sacrifice myself to convince Han Zhongwang to withdraw his troops!”
Ren Xing was a fourth-generation member of the Ren family and was the biological son of Ren Ying, the third generation patriarch. Fortunately, there was an option to stop Ren Xing, which Ren Suo immediately selected.
Ren Ying said, “Ren Xing, even if I have to break your legs, I will not allow you to send yourself to die!”
Ren Xing said, “Every one of us has to bear the responsibility for the prosperity of our…Ah—”
A system prompt appeared: [Ren Xing has been severely injured. As such, no actions are available this season.]
Who cares about not being to perform any action for one season, it was better than sending himself to death! At the least, Ren Xing was more responsible and bothered to tell his mother before he left, giving his mother a chance to…break his leg.
Ren Suo opened the panel showing the list of Ren family members. He looked at the five pathetic names and felt as if he would never be loved again.
In the last ten years in the game, he had populated the family with more than ten members, but only a few of them died naturally at their age limit of 23. Most of them had died from various strange reasons.
Some of them fell in love with Diao Chan;
Some of them colluded with Sun Ce instead;
Some of them even engaged in a conversation with Zhuge Liang;
There were many others who felt extremely righteous, or who plotted their own political revenge, wanting to assassinate Li Jue, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Quan, and even Sima Yi…
Ren Suo sighed in desperation before he pulled himself together and prepared to continue playing when he saw a text notification appear on his mobile phone.
It was Xie Qiansi, asking him out for a drink.
Ren Suo was about to ignore the message when his spirits suddenly fell.
Then it dawned upon him.
He recalled that Li Qingxuan seemed to have said that they were given off these two days…
That meant that despite his three days off, he was merely given one extra day off…
Oh heavens, what a sly move from that thick-browed and large-eyed You Xulong!
“Through the days and nights, as I tear the heavens apart, glorious light will shine and cleanse even the specks of dust on earth~”
Ren Suo wiped the saliva off the corners of his lips as he subconsciously reached out for his mobile phone with his right hand, when he felt a bolt of pain rush through his body from his palm, jolting him awake slightly.
He held up his mobile phone and glanced at the display to see who was calling. His eyes widened in confusion as he picked up the call and said, “Hello? What’s up?”
It was Li Qingxuan who was on the other end of the line. She said, “Were you still sleeping? It’s almost noon. You were injured, weren’t you?”
“Ah, well, every man stays up late at least thirty days a month…How did you know I was injured?” asked a slightly surprised Ren Suo.
“We’re in the same division,” said Li Qingxuan with a laugh. “You’re in Team 3 and I’m in Team 6!”
Ren Suo slapped his head as he remembered that more familiar faces had joined the Countermeasure Division over the last few days—other than Qiao Muyi, Li Qingxuan, Xie Qiansi, and Zhao Huo had also joined the division.
They entered the division later than Ren Suo as they needed slightly more time before they passed the transformation phase. However, as they were not posted into Team 3, Ren Suo had only found out about their joining the Countermeasure Division through WeChat. In fact, he had never seen them before in real life.
They naturally did not have much opportunity to meet each other as all of them in the Countermeasure Division had been dispatched to various schools over the city and had not spent much time in the office.
“News about you subduing an Awakened teenager has made its rounds in the office,” Li Qingxuan replied. She said, “I heard that you remained unfaced even though one of your hands was injured and continued using the [Lock] skill on him until the others from the Countermeasure Division arrived to take over…That’s so amazing!”
Upon receiving such a compliment from a pretty girl, even a slightly slow-witted like Ren Suo could not help but grin in satisfaction. He smiled as he said, “Well, I’m just slightly better than you guys…”
“Come on, don’t be so narcissistic. I merely gave you a small compliment and you’re so proud?” Li Qingxuan said, “Anyway, we really need your help, great master. Xiao Qiao told me that your [Clothes] skill is quite good too. You could even pass your team leader’s test?”
“Eh…” Ren Suo blinked and said, “Yes.”
“You are able to use [Clothes] and [Lock] so well, looks like you really are a beast in Reiki,” commented a slightly impressed Li Qingxuan. She continued, “When I first entered my team, my team leader trapped me without any difficulty with his [Lock], and yet you were able to train your [Clothes] and [Lock] to such a proficient and skillful level in such a short time…I suppose different people indeed have different talents, and even with the same resources, people like you would still perform better…”
“Anyway, since we have been given two days off, I was intending to train at the training stadium these two days, so I was wondering if I could get some help from you, great, master. My [Clothes] skill saw some improvement but my [Lock] skill is still a far cry from your level.”
Ren Suo stammered, “…Ah?”
“I’m not asking you out on a date,” Li Qingxuan said. She continued, “Qiao Muyi, Li Jiamin and the rest of the girls would be there…I’m not sure about the guy’s side though.”
“So are you going to come this afternoon? We have agreed to meet at 3 p.m. at the training stadium.”
Ren Suo was fully awake now. He sat upright on the couch as he looked at the timestamp “Year 222, Spring” on the top left corner of the television screen in front of him. He remained silent for a few seconds before replying, “I…I think I shall give it a miss, I won’t be going.”
Li Qingxuan kept silent for a few moments and said, “All right, I suppose it’s not very convenient for you to leave your house in your current state?”
“Ah? Eh? Yes…” Ren Suo replied.
“Well then, I will let Jiamin and the rest know that you aren’t feeling well and won’t be able to turn up. But you cannot reject us the next time, grandmaster,” said Li Qingxuan with a laugh before hanging up. Ren Suo looked at his mobile phone for a good while before he finally regained his senses.
“She’s such a gentle and warm-hearted person…” Ren Suo muttered. He was not one who liked to talk much, but that did not mean he had low emotional intelligence.
He knew that Li Qingxuan had helped him find an excuse for not turning up, and even said that she would help to explain to the rest, making sure that Ren Suo would not seem like a “selfish” brat. Furthermore, they had wanted to learn from him as they were not as proficient in their Reiki techniques, and it would not have reflected well on Ren Suo had he turned them down without any reason.
Otherwise, they would have thought that Ren Suo was on a high horse and looking down on them, and he could even be seen as trying to keep a secret technique he discovered to himself, especially in a time when mastering Reiki techniques was important.
After all, they were of the same social standing and jealousy was not unexpected. If Ren Suo continued in this way, he could easily paint a negative image for himself and lose personal connections with others.
Such personal connections with others might not be easily felt, but once a person loses all of such connections, he would feel as if life was going against him—this was something Ren Suo had previously experienced.
However, even if Ren Suo had the time, he would still have turned them down.
That was because he had merely equipped the two skills [Clothes] and [Lock]!
It was just like bringing in a cheat sheet into an examination!
How could he teach such an experience to them? Not unless they had the Mini Worlds Gaming Console!
Ren Suo could easily equip himself with [Skill: Clothes] and [Skill: Lock], and he would naturally be able to use those skills, without any prior practice. It was as if he had directly maxed out the levels of the two skills.
What he had overlooked, however, was that everyone else had just started learning the skills. At the most, some of them would have a stronger foundation and be more proficient at one of the skills, but to be able to train both of the skills to a decent level like Ren Suo seemed to have, it required at least a few months of training which only the first batch of Practitioners had have!
“I must be more discreet…” muttered Ren Suo to himself. He had realized that he had been slightly overdoing it recently. “If the higher-ups start to think that I am capable and transfer me to Team 1 or Team 2, I will have to be involved in the fights and that would be troublesome…”
Ren Suo did not want to have to pretend to be fond of fighting while fearing it. He would definitely prefer and enjoy a more relaxed life where he did not need to be involved in combat. Otherwise, why would he have gone for the civil service entrance examination and apply to work in the district office?
Was that not because it was a financially stable job that did not require much work?
Even though he now had the Mini Worlds Gaming Console and had become a Practitioner, Ren Suo would still rather lead a peaceful life. Was playing the computer not fun? Was watching movies not appealing? Or were the recent novels coming to an end? Why would anyone choose to go to a place where their lives would be endangered to fight?
As Ren Suo looked at the screen, he felt like asking the same question to the Ren brothers—why won’t you all be good and not cause any trouble?
The current save file he was on was the thirty-sixth one he had created over the past few days. Apart from the first save file which he gave up after year 206, the other save files were used by Ren Suo to experiment.
When Ren Suo created the second save file, he found that, although the head of the house had the same surname and name, the gender, age, and names of the three characters were instead assigned randomly—the worst he had encountered was when one of the characters was already 20 years old at the start of the game and died just three years later!
But when he was lucky, the eldest of the three characters would only be 15 years old, and he felt that the difficulty of the game decreased significantly!
Through the process, Ren Suo also found that the character with the role of the head of the house in the game [Over My Dead Body] could be equipped with abilities in the [Game Characters] menu!
After many experiments, Ren Suo had figured out the effects the different equipped abilities would have on the main character in the game.
[Fighter Novice], Attack +0.1, while [The Lure of Sweet Dreams] had no effect. Both of those abilities were essentially useless when equipped.
[Skill: Clothes], Defense +1, while [Skill: Lock] interestingly added Attack +0.5 and Management +0.5—what had Management got to do with [Lock]….
The only ability that pleasantly surprised Ren Suo was [Unlimited Energy]!
When the patriarch character was equipped with the ability [Unlimited Energy], Ren Suo found that every round (every season), he would have action points +1!
The extra +1 action point was actually because the patriarch character could perform two actions each round, although neither of the actions could be an [Expedition]. If Ren Suo sent the patriarch character on an expedition, the additional 1 action point given would be automatically removed.
Under normal circumstances, however, the extra +1 action point meant that the lead patriarch character could train twice as fast as the rest of the family members!
Furthermore, when the elder patriarch character dies, the next generation patriarch would automatically be equipped with the ability!
For example in the current save file, the year was 222 and it was the third generation of “Ren Woxing”.
The first Ren Woxing passed on double attribute points to his own son before he died, who became the second generation Ren Woxing. His own daughter then acquired the second generation Ren Woxing’s attribute points after his further training. When the third generation Ren Woxing took over at the age of 17, younger than her supposed peak at 23 years old, she already had a combined attribute score 2.5 times better than the combat power of the second generation.
But this was not the most beneficial find. What amazed Ren Suo most was that when the patriarch character performed [Spiritual Exchange], the two action points were still effective!
What did that mean?
It meant that each time the patriarch character performed a spiritual exchange, it was assured that—
He could kill two birds with one stone!
As such, in the first 32 years of the current save file, Ren Suo would always let the patriarch character perform spiritual exchange first, unless the gender of the elf was incompatible, or if the patriarch character was younger than 14 years old!
It was simply a beneficial tool to increase their population!
However, even with such improvements, Ren Suo still found himself unable to complete the challenging game successfully after staying up the entire night and trying numerous times…
Of course, there was a crucial reason for this. In the year 217, which was the 22nd year of the Jian’an period, a great plague broke out in the Central Plains, resulting in a large-scale break out of demons that were strong and powerful. They spawned in extremely large numbers, and if Ren Suo could not eliminate all of them quickly, the demons would find their way to the Ren family house and destroy the entire family.
However, the plague in the year 217 was nothing harder than that of a small boss. The medium boss was the one Ren Suo was currently facing—the Battle of Yiling in the year 222!
Ren Suo had previously read the Three Kingdoms and was very familiar with the historical events occurring during that time. But in anticipation of the reader complaining that the entire historical portion is irrelevant, the summarized story is given below: In the summer of year 222, Lu Xun launched a fire attack on Liu Bei’s army, resulting in a devastating loss of 80 thousand troops!
More importantly, out of the 80 thousand troops who perished, many of them were troops hand-picked and trained by Liu Bei for a significant period of time. As they had been burnt to death, an “extraordinarily large” quantity of Fire Demons appeared in Yiling!
In the previous save file, Ren Suo had sent all of the Ren brothers to fight…but it was simply too challenging. After more than 10 years, the Fire Demons began killing the elves all around the map, and slowly found their way to the Ren family house…
In the current loaded save file, Ren Suo was still thinking hard about how to overcome that challenge. However, the non-playable characters had already helped him make the decision.
When Ren Suo wanted to send a character out on an expedition, a young man named “Ren Xing” suddenly appeared: “My patriarch, since you have concluded that the reign of Han Zhongwang is bound to fall, I am willing to sacrifice myself to convince Han Zhongwang to withdraw his troops!”
Ren Xing was a fourth-generation member of the Ren family and was the biological son of Ren Ying, the third generation patriarch. Fortunately, there was an option to stop Ren Xing, which Ren Suo immediately selected.
Ren Ying said, “Ren Xing, even if I have to break your legs, I will not allow you to send yourself to die!”
Ren Xing said, “Every one of us has to bear the responsibility for the prosperity of our…Ah—”
A system prompt appeared: [Ren Xing has been severely injured. As such, no actions are available this season.]
Who cares about not being to perform any action for one season, it was better than sending himself to death! At the least, Ren Xing was more responsible and bothered to tell his mother before he left, giving his mother a chance to…break his leg.
Ren Suo opened the panel showing the list of Ren family members. He looked at the five pathetic names and felt as if he would never be loved again.
In the last ten years in the game, he had populated the family with more than ten members, but only a few of them died naturally at their age limit of 23. Most of them had died from various strange reasons.
Some of them fell in love with Diao Chan;
Some of them colluded with Sun Ce instead;
Some of them even engaged in a conversation with Zhuge Liang;
There were many others who felt extremely righteous, or who plotted their own political revenge, wanting to assassinate Li Jue, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Quan, and even Sima Yi…
Ren Suo sighed in desperation before he pulled himself together and prepared to continue playing when he saw a text notification appear on his mobile phone.
It was Xie Qiansi, asking him out for a drink.
Ren Suo was about to ignore the message when his spirits suddenly fell.
Then it dawned upon him.
He recalled that Li Qingxuan seemed to have said that they were given off these two days…
That meant that despite his three days off, he was merely given one extra day off…
Oh heavens, what a sly move from that thick-browed and large-eyed You Xulong!
