A sharp pain throbbed in his head.
After finally adjusting to the light before his eyes, the familiar gray-white walls of the rental apartment came into view again.
What had just happened?
Zhou Ming tried hard to recall. He only remembered using a kitchen knife to hack down two vicious, doglike servants loyal to Li Shouzhen's family. After that, a crowd had surrounded him, and then he remembered nothing...
He opened the familiar Game Panel.
Mission Map: "Zhang Ergou's Counterattack Life" Game Character: Zhang Ergou Game Status: Ended Assets: 5 (You have five mu of poor farmland and one bamboo-and-wood house) Status: 0 (Bottom tier, the very bottom) Reputation: 4 (You were once somewhat famous. Your final double kill left behind a legend in Niu Family Village) Partner: 0 (You once had a beautiful romance, but it also brewed a bitter tragedy) Descendants: 1 (Congratulations. You left, but you left behind a trace of your bloodline +10 Achievement Points) Lifespan: 16 (Your lifespan exceeded that of 23% of the villagers) Achievements Earned: 36 Game Rating: E (Your brief life once shone brightly, but that flash quickly faded) Highest Achievement: 36 (Reach 500 Achievement Points to unlock the next stage)
"Descendants? I have a descendant?"
Could it be?
Zhou Ming suddenly remembered that, in the game, in order to quickly win over Wang Xiucai's daughter, Wang Xiumei, he had adopted a "get on the train before buying the ticket" strategy. They had secretly shared a few intimate encounters. He had never expected the results to be so immediate.
Li Wenhao, Li Wenhao. So what if you stole my woman? You still ended up raising my child and wearing the green hat I gave you.
But...
No matter how Zhou Ming cursed, it could not change the tragic ending of his ruined family and shattered life. Compared to the little bit of green atop Li Wenhao's head, he himself had truly lost everything.
Anger, grievance, and despair all surged into his heart at once.
Why? Why did things always end up like this later on? Why was there always someone who came out to obstruct and destroy my happiness? Did I provoke them?
"System, tell me, how can Zhang Ergou rise up and completely wipe out the Li family?" Zhou Ming asked.
"The system cannot answer. Please find a solution yourself, host."
"Are there any skill cards or martial arts manuals that can increase a player's combat power?"
"Please search the System Store yourself." The system opened the store interface.
The System Store was filled with a dazzling array of goods, numbering in the thousands. They were divided into six major categories: items, characters, skills, technology, Cultivation Methods, and Opportunities. Only the item, character, skill, and technology sections were unlocked. Cultivation Methods and Opportunities remained grayed out and locked; they would only open after high-energy maps were unlocked.
Due to the restrictions of the system's rules, aside from a small number of items in the item section, all goods in the other sections could not be extracted in physical form. Character Cards in the character section, Skill Cards in the skill section, engineering blueprints in the technology section, and so on were all skill- or knowledge-based information that could only be brought into the game after being exchanged.
After browsing all the goods in the skill section, Zhou Ming found several Skill Cards that could increase a game character's combat power.
"Beginner Hunting Skill: After use, gain all hunting skills of a beginner hunter. Exchange requirement: 1,000 Achievement Points."
"Beginner Fighting Skill: After use, gain all combat skills of a beginner boxer. Exchange requirement: 1,000 Achievement Points."
"Beginner Body Tempering Skill: After use, gain all physical combat skills of a beginner martial artist. Exchange requirement: 1,500 Achievement Points."
Other than these three beginner Skill Cards, which could strengthen the body and defeat ordinary opponents, the other Skill Cards were basically useless.
"System, after using these Skill Cards, could I normally fight ten people by myself?"
Faced with the Li family's overwhelming numbers, one against ten was the minimum standard.
"No. Only after using intermediate Skill Cards such as Intermediate Hunting Skill and Intermediate Fighting Skill would it be possible to fight one against ten."
"Intermediate Hunting Skill?"
Zhou Ming flipped to the page listing intermediate Skill Cards. The moment he spotted Intermediate Hunting Skill, he was dumbfounded. Damn it, it actually required 5,000 Achievement Points to exchange. Intermediate Body Tempering Skill was even more outrageous, requiring 8,000 Achievement Points.
Then he looked at his account balance. He only had 57 Achievement Points in total. Forget intermediate Skill Cards; he could not even afford beginner ones.
He was so poor that he could not afford a single item in the System Store. How could he possibly talk about avenging himself and successfully rising up?
"For now, I can only slowly accumulate points in the game. Once I've saved enough Achievement Points, I'll make a big move..."
Zhou Ming decided to adjust his strategy. For the time being, he would not confront the Li family head-on. He would endure, avoid those landmines, and first save up more Achievement Points.
He entered the game again!
It was still the same beginning. He spoke at three months old, saved his older brother at three, saved his younger sister at six, then went into the fields to work, burned forests, and reclaimed land. Before turning fifteen, he had solved the family's food and clothing problems and even built them a two-courtyard bamboo-and-wood house. After his older brother Zhang Da Gou got married, it was soon time to consider his own lifelong marriage.
Sitting on the dirt slope beside the small river at the village entrance, he watched the laughing girls washing clothes by the river. They were all fifteen or sixteen, in the bloom of youth.
Who should he choose as his future wife?
When his gaze landed on the lovely woman surrounded by several girls like a peony among green leaves, his heart twisted with pain.
"Xiumei... I can't choose her. Li Wenhao gave Wang Xiucai betrothal gifts yesterday. He'll marry her in three days. She no longer belongs to me."
Although Wang Xiumei herself did not want to marry Li Wenhao as a concubine, Zhou Ming had considered taking her and eloping far away. But if he did that, given Li Wenhao and the Li family's temperaments, they definitely would not let the matter rest. Was he supposed to take his parents, siblings, and the whole family away with him?
That was clearly unrealistic.
"Forget it. I'll choose Xiumei's close friend, Li Er Ya. She may not be as pretty as Xiumei, but her figure isn't bad. Her skin isn't as fair either, but wheat-colored skin means she's healthy. And that butt of hers—my mother couldn't stop praising it. She'll do just fine..."
Temporarily setting aside his desire for Xiumei and settling for the next best thing, Zhou Ming began pursuing Li Er Ya like mad. There was no difficulty at all. Within just three to five days, the girl was utterly infatuated with him and insisted she would marry no one else.
After giving betrothal gifts and winning over his future father- and mother-in-law, he chose an auspicious day. Nothing unexpected happened, and he brought his wife home.
After getting married, Li Er Ya's belly proved productive as well. Before long, she was about to add another member to the family.
His older brother Zhang Da Gou already had a son, and his sister-in-law had become pregnant again not long ago. The family was about to gain another four or five mouths to feed, and their already modest circumstances became even tighter.
To support the whole family, Zhou Ming and his brother Zhang Da Gou had no choice but to rise before dawn and work until dark every day. Besides farming, they hunted in the mountains, fished in the river during the slack season, and did odd jobs for wealthy households. Zhou Ming also taught himself some carpentry, but lacking talent, the tables, chairs, and benches he made could only be used at home.
Winter turned to summer, spring gave way to autumn. In the blink of an eye, more than thirty years passed. Zhou Ming caught a chill by accident while working in the fields, and now he lay in bed, unable to move. His final days were clearly approaching.
After drinking a bowl of bitter medicine, and while he still had a brief burst of returning vitality, Zhou Ming asked his wife to gather all their children and descendants. He counted them one by one.
"One, two, three, four... Four. If you hadn't taken Chun'er with you when you went up the mountain to gather firewood that year, Chun'er wouldn't have been carried off by wolves." Zhou Ming sighed to his wife.
"Yes, yes, husband, it was all my fault. I didn't take good care of Chun'er..." Tears fell from Li Er Ya's eyes like a snapped string as she blamed herself.
"My precious grandchildren, come here. Let Grandpa look at you. Grandpa is leaving. You must all live well... Live well..."
The smile on his face gradually stiffened. The final trace of breath in his chest slowly faded, and his blurred vision grew even hazier. In the final darkness, he could only vaguely hear the heartbroken wailing filling the room...
"System, open the Game Panel."
"Certainly, host."
Mission Map: "Zhang Ergou's Counterattack Life" Game Character: Zhang Ergou Game Status: Ended Assets: 12 (You have ten mu of poor farmland and one bamboo-and-wood house) Status: 1 (Bottom tier, but you gained a little respect +10 Achievement Points) Reputation: 6 (You are somewhat famous, and people will remember you for some time) Partner: 1 (You had a beautiful marriage and stayed with her until the end +50 Achievement Points) Descendants: 12 (Congratulations. You left behind a considerable bloodline, and your family will prosper for generations) Lifespan: 48 (Your lifespan exceeded that of 78% of the villagers. You were one of the village's long-lived representatives) Achievements Earned: 246 Game Rating: C (Your life may have been ordinary, but you created much value) Highest Achievement: 246 (Reach 500 Achievement Points to unlock the next stage)
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