Counterattack Requires Knowledge

The bloody haze before his eyes gradually dissipated, and the gray-white walls of the rental room came into view.

Shaking his head to clear the chaotic thoughts, Zhou Ming opened The Sims' task panel:

Task Map: Zhang Ergou's Counterattack Life

Game Character: Zhang Ergou

Game Status: Ended

Property: 1 (You have one dilapidated thatched cottage)

Status: 0 (Bottom tier, the very bottom)

Reputation: 2 (You were once slightly famous)

Partner: 0 (A life of solitude is your destiny)

Descendants: 0 (Nothing was left behind except a mound of yellow earth)

Lifespan: 18 (Your lifespan exceeded 28% of the villagers)

Achievements Gained: 21

Game Evaluation: F (You have not achieved anything noteworthy in this game except wasting your life)

Highest Achievement: 21 (Reach 500 points to unlock the next level)

"Damn it, 21 points? I stayed in there for 18 years and only got 21 achievement points? After deducting the lifespan item, I only actually got 3 points?"

System, are you messing with me?

Zhou Ming cursed loudly, immediately feeling like he had been cheated. At first, he was full of confidence, thinking he would easily dominate the game, but reality slapped him hard.

This game was not as fun as he imagined.

"Speaking of which, how did I die just now? Why did those people want to kill me?"

Coming back to his senses, Zhou Ming fell into a memory. He had felt things were going smoothly in the later stages of the game and was about to reap a massive amount of achievement points, but unexpected misfortune suddenly struck. Who exactly did I offend?

"Host can view game replay," the system reminded him at this moment.

Zhou Ming immediately clicked the replay button on the screen. In the pitch-black night, among a group of figures, he saw two familiar faces: one with a scarred forehead and a face full of flesh, and another with a sharp mouth, monkey-like cheeks, short stature, and eyes gleaming like a hungry wolf.

"Li Hu, Sun Dafu?"

Zhou Ming knew both of them. Li Hu was the head guard of the village chief Li Shouzhen's household, and Sun Dafu was the steward of Li Shouzhen's outer courtyard. These two were considered prominent figures in Niu Family Village. Every year in autumn and at the end of the year, these two were the most ruthless in collecting rent and debts for Li Shouzhen. Their reputation in Niu Family Village was almost enough to stop children from crying at night.

"Village Chief Li Shouzhen wants to kill me?"

Zhou Ming instantly understood who the real murderer was. Without Li Shouzhen's instruction, Li Hu and Sun Dafu wouldn't have come to kill him for no reason.

"It's just... I have no grudge against that Li Shouzhen, and I don't owe his family any land rent or foreign debt. Why would he want to kill me?"

Zhou Ming couldn't figure it out. From the beginning of the game, he had been very low-key in his interactions, so how could he suddenly attract a killing disaster?

"Could it be..."

With a jolt, Zhou Ming instantly thought that after his new agricultural planting method, which he had spent five years researching in the later stages of the game, was successful, the first to be affected would naturally be the family of Village Chief Li Shouzhen, who relied on collecting land rent for a living.

If the tenants in the village could all support a family of several people with the output of a few acres of poor land like Zhou Ming, what reason would those poor tenants have to continue renting Li Shouzhen's land?

With fewer tenants, income would naturally decrease, and the phenomenon of selling children to pay off debts would also decrease. The good days of Village Chief Li Shouzhen's landlord family would be gone forever.

Touching the interests of the landlord class was the fundamental reason he attracted a killing disaster.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ming couldn't help but complain, "I say, System, there's no possibility of getting high achievements on this map, is there? There are no resources for inventions and creations, and if you farm well, you touch the interests of the big landlords and attract a killing disaster. Every path is difficult to take. Tell me, how am I supposed to play?"

The first game ended in a crushing defeat. The 500 achievement points, which he had originally thought would be easy to break through, now seemed like an insurmountable mountain. For a moment, Zhou Ming even felt that this Sims system that had fallen from the sky was useless, like a chicken rib.

With 21 achievement points, he couldn't even afford the cheapest skill item in the system store, Elementary Farming Skill. What was the point of playing this game?

"Host, the difficulty of the novice map in The Sims is the lowest among all maps. As long as the host finds the correct counterattack method, Zhang Ergou's Counterattack Life is not very difficult for you."

"Are you telling the truth, System?"

"Absolutely true, as long as the host finds that correct path," the system said with certainty.

Alright, I'll believe you one more time.

Putting away his frustration and calming down, Zhou Ming began to summarize the reasons for his failure in the first game.

First, and most importantly, Zhou Ming realized that he was severely underprepared.

Not to mention important techniques like glassmaking and steel refining, he didn't even memorize the most basic chemical equations for making cement and gunpowder before entering the game, making inventions and creations almost impossible to talk about.

Furthermore, in terms of farming, Zhou Ming was like a half-empty bucket sloshing around. His research into new agricultural planting methods almost starved him to death. It wasn't until he found a little bit of a way in the later years that things got slightly better. If he had read some professional books on agricultural planting techniques before entering the game, he definitely wouldn't have taken so many detours.

Finally, and most importantly, a common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure makes him guilty. After researching farming techniques that were ahead of that era, he couldn't be too eager to share them. He had to proceed slowly and ensure his personal safety was absolutely guaranteed before doing anything else...

The next morning, Zhou Ming didn't enter the game again but went to the library in the city center.

He spent a hundred yuan to get a library card and found several professional books related to steel refining and farming among the rows of bookshelves. He immediately began to read them carefully. When he saw something of important value, he would even take out the paper and pen he carried with him and frantically take notes in his notebook.

For several days in a row, Zhou Ming spent his time in this intense state of learning, forgetting to eat and sleep. When he was tired, he would lie on the desk and sleep for a while. When he was hungry, he would take out the bread from his backpack and take a couple of bites, then gulp down a couple of mouthfuls of the plain water he brought with him. This diligent study even attracted the attention of some regular visitors to the library.

"Sister Xiangxiang, that boy looks so strange. Since we came here, he's been looking at the book in his hand and hasn't even lifted his head once."

Across from Zhou Ming, a petite girl whispered to the quiet woman with long hair draped over her shoulders and skin like jade. She thought to herself: Sister Xiangxiang is so much like a national goddess, more than half of the men around here are pretending to read and secretly looking at Sister Xiangxiang. I didn't expect the guy opposite to treat us like air, it's really infuriating.

Keep pretending, you keep pretending.

The quiet woman, who was immersed in a philosophy book, heard the petite girl's words and slightly raised her phoenix eyes. From the corner of her eye, she happened to see Zhou Ming writing furiously in his notebook: Sulfur + charcoal + saltpeter ignited in a mass ratio of 1:2:3, an explosion reaction occurs, producing potassium sulfide, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide...

Seeing Zhou Ming suddenly gesticulating and looking excited, the quiet woman smiled sweetly, revealing a fleeting glimpse of her stunningly beautiful face. She shook her head and said to the petite girl beside her, "He really is a strange person, Xiao Fei. Don't mind them. You're about to take the postgraduate entrance exam, let's continue reading our books."

"Oh~" The petite girl pouted, glared at Zhou Ming opposite her, and her gaze returned to the review materials in front of her.

About a week passed. Zhou Ming, fully recharged, took a deep breath and, with a hint of anticipation, opened the game panel.

"This time, I've memorized all the knowledge points I should! Whether it's inventions and creations or farming and breeding, nothing can stop me. This time, I must get over 500 achievement points!"

"Beep~"

"Player is entering the game..."