Lived Greatly, Died Absurdly

"Neighhh!!"

A tall horse stopped before the blood-smeared He Zhao. The Cavalry Captain merely glanced at him and silently thought that this mob was truly vicious. The child's face was ruined; finding a wife in the future would be harder than climbing to the heavens.

"What's your name? Which Hundred-Household are you under? Who's your captain?"

"M-my name is Li Gou. I'm from H-Hundred-Household Wu's t-team. M-my captain is W-Wu Quan."

He Zhao replied in a hoarse, stammering voice, looking as if he were in excruciating pain.

This time, he was not pretending. It hurt so badly that he truly could not breathe.

Having his head chopped off with a single blade several times, on top of the wounds on his face—how could it not hurt?

"Disarm him. Get on the horse!"

Someone surnamed He was extremely cooperative. He handed his steel blade over with both hands to one of the cavalrymen, then climbed onto the horse with the leader's assistance.

"Hold on tight. We need to get back and report in time, so don't fall off. If we're late, Lord Ten-Thousand Household will surely drag us out and behead us as a warning."

As soon as he finished speaking, he dug his heels into the horse's flanks, and the fine steed immediately sped up.

The group gradually vanished into the dusk. Behind them lay the burning village, along with faint, intermittent groans from within.

Along the way, they even encountered a large force of infantry encircling and suppressing vagrants—at least five hundred men.

These soldiers went around delivering finishing blows. Several people pretending to be dead were discovered along the way, turning He Zhao's face green.

It was not that he had never considered killing the infantryman before the village and fleeing. He had simply gotten carried away in his clash with the Simulator.

Now that he thought about it, if he had truly run, he would definitely have run into a Xuandu Army unit and ended up hacked to death in a storm of blades.

About half an hour later, the sky had gone dark.

"We're here. Dismount."

"Bleurgh—"

He Zhao knelt beside the road and vomited. It had to be said, being cavalry was not a job for humans. The jolting ride had made his five organs and six bowels feel as though they had been twisted together.

If he had not forced himself to endure it, he would have turned into a human fountain halfway there.

"Hahaha, ride more often and you'll overcome it sooner or later." The Cavalry Captain patted He Zhao's shoulder in comfort. Back then, he had gone through the same thing—and had vomited even worse than Someone surnamed He.

"We'll report in first, then take you to Hundred-Household Wu. That way, you won't go wandering around the camp. If the military clerks see you and mistake you for a spy, wouldn't it be a terrible injustice to get chopped down?"

He Zhao nodded. He knew the Cavalry Captain was not exaggerating.

From the real Li Gou, he had learned that the Xuandu Army's discipline was extremely strict. Many flagpoles stood throughout the camp, and the paths between them were guarded by dedicated personnel. Without a token as proof, one was forbidden from passing freely.

To move about the camp, one had to travel in groups of at least three, supervising one another. They could not split up or act alone, much less communicate or speak with outsiders without authorization, lest spies within the army leak information.

Every camp gate had military clerks assigned to guard it. Anyone who crossed into another camp zone and disrupted order, or forcibly passed through a camp gate, could be executed on the spot by the guarding clerks, who would bear no responsibility whatsoever.

"Token!"

The Cavalry Captain pulled out a Wood Tablet and handed it to the military clerk guarding the gate. After inspecting it carefully, the man respectfully returned it and let them through.

There was no helping it. Cavalry held a higher status than infantry.

He Zhao followed the dismounted cavalry unit, proceeding without obstruction all the way to the main command tent in the camp. The captain went inside to report, while everyone else waited outside.

Before long, the Cavalry Captain emerged from the main tent.

"Liu Er, come with me and take him to Hundred-Household Wu. The rest of you, return to your tents and rest."

"Yes!"

The three of them traveled as a group. When they passed a certain flagpole, they asked a military clerk for directions, then headed toward the camp zone where Hundred-Household Wu was stationed.

After arriving at their destination, the two men led He Zhao inside after the soldier on guard reported their arrival.

"Li Gou?"

"Sir!"

He Zhao clasped his fists and bowed, acting timid and submissive.

"I have bad news for you. Wu Quan's unit was wiped out while resisting the mob. Of the entire unit, you alone survived," Hundred-Household Wu said in a deep voice from the seat of honor.

"???"

In an instant, Ruthless He Zhao's expression turned incomparably ugly. His whole body trembled uncontrollably as visible grief spread from him.

The three men in the tent saw this and silently thought that his bond with his comrades was so deep. Truly, he was a loyal and righteous man.

Bullshit!

He Zhao simply felt that it was not worth it for himself. Did they know what he had done to ensure his infiltration plan was foolproof?

Damn it!

So he had ruthlessly disfigured himself for absolutely nothing?

Because everyone who knew him had gone into the box.

"Go to the medical soldiers first and have the injuries on your face treated. Once you recover, I'll assign you to another unit that's short-handed."

"Yes!"

The three men left. He Zhao, meanwhile, was escorted to the medical soldiers by Hundred-Household Wu's personal guard.

By the time he came out and was sent to the Wounded Soldier Camp, his face had been wrapped up so thoroughly that only his eyes remained exposed.

The medical soldiers applied Golden Wound Medicine to him, then used strips of cloth that did not look particularly clean to wrap him into a mummy.

Three days flashed by in the blink of an eye.

Over those few days, He Zhao had thrived. Through the wounded men in the camp, he learned a great deal of information.

For example, this feudal dynasty was called Great Xuan. Natural disasters and man-made disasters had caused unrest to spring up everywhere. Ambitious people had also raised their banners and answered with a single call, setting beacon fires blazing in all directions.

Armies across the nation were frantically suppressing the Rebel Army. One mob numbering over ten thousand had once fought all the way to the gates of the Great Xuan Imperial Capital. This had led to the Xuandu Army's expedition, which now roamed the surrounding regions, slaughtering these serfs who could no longer survive.

"Whew. Better be a dog in peaceful times than a person in an age of chaos."

During these three days, He Zhao had witnessed what true human tragedy was. Those wounded soldiers were either missing arms or missing legs. Every day, someone failed to hold on and breathed their last.

Although the Xuandu Army was an elite force of Great Xuan, the vagrants were no pushovers. Since they could not survive anyway, what difference did it make how they died?

When the two sides fought, the cowards were truly cowardly, and the ruthless were truly ruthless.

Among the tens of thousands of vagrants, some would throw away their weapons and flee at the mere sight of the army banners. Yet countless others charged in suicidal assaults without fearing death.

At first, He Zhao could not bear to watch. Later, after seeing it enough, he accepted it.

"My head hurts."

He Zhao lay in bed, weak all over, resting.

Late at night.

Ruthless He Zhao suddenly woke from his dream. His breathing immediately became exceedingly difficult.

His trembling hand stretched out, trying to call loudly for help and draw someone's attention.

Unfortunately, no one saw him in the darkness.

Then every muscle in his body convulsed. He Zhao clenched his teeth as his heart rapidly failed. The arm he had raised to attract attention fell from midair moments later.

"Gasp... gasp... gasp..."

He Zhao woke up in his bedroom, sucking in huge breaths of air.

That suffocating feeling was truly unforgettable. Feeling death swallow him bit by bit was simply a form of torture.

[Congratulations. You survived for 4 days, setting a record in the history of the Simulation Scenario! You were patient and ruthless, even willing to disfigure yourself to survive. Yet because of Clostridium Tetani, you died midway through your great undertaking before it was complete, in a bafflingly absurd manner.]

[Grade: G.]

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

[Reward: 2 Simulation Coins (grade), 1 Simulation Coin (enemy killed).]

[Would you like to replay your simulated life?]

He Zhao: "."

Simulator, do you think you're fucking funny?