I Knew This Money Wouldn't Be Easy to Earn

[Congratulations, you survived for 59 seconds. Even if you chose to cling to life in disgrace, you still could not escape death.]

[Rating: No rating.]

[Reward: None.]

[Would you like to replay your simulated life?]

He Zhao had no time to pay attention to the Simulator. Both hands covered his face, and his entire body shook like a sieve.

Unlike the previous two scenarios, where death had been clean and swift—one burst of pain, then straight to Game Over.

After a brief daze, the Black Armor Soldier who had chosen, like him, to lie among the corpses and play dead, grabbed a steel blade from the ground without another word and brought it down across his face.

Nor did he stop there. Like a man possessed, he hacked again and again, only stopping once He Zhao's face had been reduced to mush. For a time, He Zhao had even felt as though his crown of the head had been chopped clean off.

After taking a long while to recover and finally feeling a little better, He Zhao gritted his teeth and tapped replay simulated life. At the same time, he picked up a stopwatch from his bedside table and started timing.

"Kill!"

"Run! The Xuandu Army is here!"

On the screen, some people chose to charge toward the oncoming cavalry, while most threw away the assorted farming tools that barely qualified as weapons and fled toward the village behind them.

Twenty-five seconds later, cavalrymen in black face coverings and full armor appeared. Forty seconds later, they had hacked and slaughtered their way into the ruined village. At forty-five seconds, he crawled out from the pile of corpses and met the Black Armor Soldier's eyes. The following fourteen seconds were the scene of his face being savagely cleaved apart by a steel blade.

"Just you wait until tomorrow!!"

Fuming, He Zhao pulled the blanket over himself. He barely slept at all that night; every time he closed his eyes, he saw a blood-soaked steel blade.

At dawn the next day, he entered the simulation scenario of [Campaigning] once more.

[Life after life, endless joy!]

As for the Simulator's sound effect, he always felt it ought to be changed to—death death death death, endless joy.

"Kill!"

"Run! The Xuandu Army is here!"

He Zhao was sick to death of hearing those two lines. Calmly, he clutched his manure fork and threw himself into the pile of corpses, playing dead.

Everything replayed just as it had yesterday. Twenty-five seconds later, the cavalry charged in, and forty seconds later, the sound of hoofbeats gradually faded into the distance.

With a whoosh, he sprang up from the corpse pile. Both hands tightly gripping the manure fork, he immediately spun around and viciously thrust backward.

"Puh—"

The manure fork plunged into the Black Armor Soldier's neck. The man's eyes widened in fury, his face a mask of utter disbelief.

He Zhao chuckled. During the day, he had repeatedly watched the simulation scenario, then scoured all of Guishi to buy a manure fork that looked roughly the same. He had rehearsed and calculated over and over in his living room.

And to ensure nothing could go wrong, he had even made a simple dummy matching the Black Armor Soldier's height, constantly practicing that backward thrust.

After countless simulations, he had determined that if he attacked backward at forty-three seconds, the fork would strike straight into the enemy's neck.

The guy was covered head to toe in black armor. Other than his throat and face, there was not a single fatal weak point.

Even if He Zhao's calculations were off, he would at least stab the man in the face and injure him.

"Puh—"

He yanked backward hard with both hands. A jet of blood burst from the soldier's neck, drenching He Zhao from head to toe.

Having experienced death three times, he merely wiped the blood from his face, stepped forward, kicked the man over, and began stripping off his armor.

"Good thing I came prepared."

Besides practicing the backward stab during the day, he had also searched online for guides on putting on ancient armor. From hundreds of videos, he found an outfit similar to the Black Armor Soldier lying on the ground.

Thank heavens for the all-powerful Bilibili!!

Scale Arm Guards, Black Armor Greaves, Neck Guard, Mountain Pattern Tassets, Scale Crotch Guard, Chainmail, Shoulder Cape with Mountain Pattern, Chest Beast Plate, Waist Guard with Banner, Lion Head Belt, Beast Helmet.

If he had not watched the video over and over, He Zhao would have been completely lost.

About ten minutes later, once he was fully dressed, he let out a long breath.

"Done. This should be foolproof now."

Just then, hoofbeats rang out.

He instinctively turned around, only to see Black Armor Cavalry galloping out of the village, charging straight at him.

Don't panic. I'm wearing armor, and my face is covered in blood. What ghost could tell who I am?!

"Clang!"

A curved saber left its sheath. He Zhao stared blankly as he bent backward, then a blade flash like a cold moon burst forth. Wearing the Beast Helmet, he watched an armored headless corpse remain standing where it was, turning into a human fountain.

The cavalryman who had chopped him down with a single strike wheeled around and returned. As he passed He Zhao's still-tumbling head, he muttered a sentence.

"I saw you putting on armor from the village entrance. You thought you could pass fish eyes for pearls?"

I'll be back!!

He Zhao let out an unwilling roar in his heart. Then his vision went black, and he returned to his bedroom.

[Congratulations, you survived for 11 minutes. If the cavalry had not been in the mood to watch a show, I fear you would never have achieved a breakthrough so unprecedented compared with the previous three simulation scenarios!]

[Rating: No rating.]

[Enemies killed: Xuandu Army New Recruit Infantry (1).]

[Reward: 1 Simulation Coin.]

[Would you like to replay your simulated life?]

"Replay."

With his arms folded across his chest, He Zhao was determined to see exactly when the Black Armor Cavalry had appeared.

The first forty seconds were identical to the previous attempts. He began stripping off armor at forty-five seconds, and the cavalry appeared at the village entrance at the six-minute mark.

Because he had been too absorbed, he had failed to notice them.

So, a group of cavalrymen stood there with their arms crossed, eagerly watching him clumsily put on the armor.

At ten minutes and thirty seconds, He Zhao was fully armed. Immediately afterward, the cavalry charged. The man at the front drew his curved saber and took off his head with one stroke.

"In other words, I have to completely strip him and put on all eleven pieces of armor within five minutes and fifteen seconds? No, there's also a pair of shoes."

He took a notebook from his bedside table, found [Episode 12: Ancient Armor Wearing Video] in his browser history, clicked the uploader's profile picture, located the business contact email, typed up a message, and sent it.

"Ding-dong! You have a new email. Please check it."

An uploader who was staying up late grinding out videos assumed it was another piece of spam. But when he opened it to delete it, his eyes suddenly widened.

"A daily payment of one thousand Alliance Coins? Food and lodging included, round-trip travel reimbursed. I just need to bring the armor from the twelve videos, make a few minor adjustments, and cooperate properly. Estimated duration: three to five days. Once it's done, there'll be double pay as a bonus?"

He made his decision at once and drove through the night toward Guicheng.

After finally meeting such a Big Spender, he could not let him get away!

The next day, He Zhao prepared to go downstairs and buy some breakfast.

"Hello, boss!"

"???"

The moment He Zhao left his residential compound, he saw a man standing before him in ancient armor, dressed up as gaudily as a peacock spreading its tail. His face went completely blank.

Eldest Brother, who are you?

"Boss, I'm the uploader AJiu. I got your email and drove over immediately. Heh, if your email profile picture hadn't been a selfie, I really wouldn't have recognized you."

"..."

"Fine. Come eat breakfast with me."

"Sure!"

The two left the residential compound, drawing countless stares.

It could not be helped. AJiu's getup was too flashy. If not for the popularity of ancient-style fashion in recent years, people might have never seen such a thing in person, but they had long seen it countless times online. Otherwise, a psychiatric hospital van might have arrived on the scene and hauled both of them away for electroshock therapy.

The two returned to Room 601, and He Zhao said to AJiu.

"Take it off."

"?!"

AJiu instinctively covered his butt. The money-fogged mind in his head suddenly cleared up quite a bit.

"I knew this money wouldn't be easy to earn!"

He Zhao: "..."

What the hell are you talking about!