The Secrets of Firewood Chopping (Bonus Chapter for Silver Alliance Leader Gallant Lazy Sheep)

Beep—beep—beep!

Listening to the busy tone on the other end, Xiao Jie let out an unsurprised cold laugh.

Liu Qiang, Liu Qiang... did that really get under your skin? You were still the same as ever.

He knew Liu Qiang far too well. Playing along or pretending to be clueless was useless against someone like him. Liu Qiang had some small cleverness, after all. Since Han Luo was already dead, the grudge between them had been forged. No matter how Xiao Jie pretended nothing had happened or acted like he did not care about the hatred between them, Liu Qiang would never truly believe him.

Trying to make peace was an even worse option. A bottomless bastard like Liu Qiang would never give up his hatred just because Xiao Jie sought reconciliation. Instead, Xiao Jie's weakness would only make him act even more recklessly.

Only by showing strength could he make the other party uncertain of his true capabilities and force him to hesitate before acting.

Of course, Xiao Jie was not completely confident in this. Liu Qiang had disappeared for so long. Who knew how powerful he had become? If he had grown strong enough to ignore the laws of physics and reality, then simply cast a spell from afar and kill him, there would be nothing Xiao Jie could do no matter how cleverly he handled things.

Although he had sounded arrogant just now, he was nowhere near as calm inside as he had appeared.

Liu Qiang had played Old Earth for so long that he was surely powerful, and he also knew where Xiao Jie lived. If he really came after him, Xiao Jie would have no way to escape.

Of course, he could choose to move and hide. But in this information age, as long as someone had money, manpower, and technology, finding a person was far too easy. Moving would not make him safer. It might instead expose just how weak he truly was.

That was the stupidest thing one could do when dealing with wolves and hyenas.

So he simply would not hide. He would brazenly mock Liu Qiang and make sure he could not see through him.

He had calculated that Liu Qiang would not dare act. The man might have a little cleverness, but he cared too much about his own interests. He would never do anything that lost him money. Hurting others for his own benefit was fine, but hurting both others and himself was absolutely unacceptable.

That was why he would rather use two precious activation codes to set a trap than personally step into the fray.

Still, he had to prepare for the worst. If Liu Qiang had truly been provoked into losing his mind and decided to attack him, then it was time for the second step.

Xiao Jie sat before his computer, exported the recording, and quickly edited it.

Gaining power in the game would take too long. Who knew when he would be able to take revenge if he relied on that? If Liu Qiang really came after him, then even if he died, he could not let the bastard get away.

And if he could use the Black Windbreaker's power to deal with Liu Qiang in advance, that would be even better.

The recording was soon edited.

Xiao Jie directly dialed the number the Black Windbreaker had left behind.

"Hello."

"What is it, Mr. Xiao?"

"Liu Qiang called me just now. He threatened me. He said he was going to kill me, that killing me would be as easy as crushing an ant. Aren't you going to do anything about this?"

As Xiao Jie spoke, he sent over the edited recording.

"Uh, Mr. Xiao, your editing technique could use some work."

"...Fine, I did edit it a little. But if he hadn't said those things, I wouldn't have had anything to edit. So he still wants to kill me."

"Sorry, but this evidence is indeed not particularly strong. Besides, recordings have long ceased to be recognized as valid evidence. Still, rest assured. We will strike without mercy against any criminal who dares violate the Player Management Act. If Liu Qiang truly attacks you, he definitely will not get away."

"What if he hires someone to kill me? That guy must be loaded."

"If he hires someone to act, we can still uncover him through interrogation. Please rest assured that when it comes to maintaining law and order, we will not allow anyone to harbor any illusions of getting away with it. Especially when it comes to managing game players, there is absolutely no room for negotiation."

Then wouldn't I already be dead? Though revenge required him to disregard life and death, it was still better not to die if he could help it.

"Can't you send a few people to protect me?"

"Heh heh, Mr. Xiao, you must be joking. How could that be possible? There are too many conflicts between players, and our manpower is limited. We cannot protect everyone. It cannot be that anyone who gets into trouble comes to us for protection. We are a law enforcement agency, not a security company. All we can promise is that we will not let a single criminal escape."

Xiao Jie was not particularly surprised by that result. He was merely an ordinary person. What right did he have to demand their protection? As long as they promised not to let a single criminal escape, that was enough.

After hanging up, Xiao Jie sighed.

At this point, he could only place his hopes in the power of the state.

He believed there was an eighty or ninety percent chance Liu Qiang would not dare attack him directly. And if he did, there was an eighty or ninety percent chance he would go down with him.

But relying on others to determine his fate still made Xiao Jie deeply uncomfortable.

He was still too weak. He could only rely on other people's protection.

If he were strong enough, none of this would be necessary.

Anyone who dared provoke me, I'd kill their whole family. What he had said to Liu Qiang earlier about pursuing power had not been entirely an act. Part of it had come from the bottom of his heart.

For a moment, Xiao Jie nearly could not resist withdrawing all his money to buy gold, then doing what I Want to Become Immortal had done that morning—getting himself a set of equipment and heading outside the village to grind monsters and level up.

But he ultimately restrained himself. Expressionless, he picked up his bowl of noodles and started eating. After one bite, his face filled with helplessness again. What a waste of noodles. They had gone completely soggy.

After finally finishing lunch, Xiao Jie returned to his computer.

He opened the help post in Boundless Sea of Knowledge about how to chop firewood. It had already accumulated a whole pile of replies.

[People still chop firewood to make fires these days?]

[Probably some wilderness survival blogger.]

[What tricks could there possibly be to chopping firewood? Just chop it.]

[Use an axe. What the hell is a Firewood Knife?]

[I chopped firewood when I was young. You need to chop along the grain. There are patterns where branches fork. If you follow those patterns, they come off easily.

Never chop straight into the trunk. It is easy to chip the blade that way.]

[First, do not chop hard places such as knots. Second, the blade alignment must be correct. When chopping at an angle, there needs to be an angle between the direction of the blade and the direction of the chop.

Because the blade is wedge-shaped, the cutting edge receives tangential torque when swung. You need to leave an angle in advance so it can correct itself.]

Xiao Jie's eyes lit up. So that was how it worked. There truly were professionals for everything. Even chopping firewood had so many details to it.

But put simply, it was about avoiding the strong points and striking the weak ones, while controlling the angle and force.

In other games, such precise control would be difficult to achieve. But in Old Earth, the graphics were realistic enough to display every detail of the branches, and the mouse could control the angle and force of attacks. It was entirely possible here.

Of course, it required a great deal of skill. But that was no problem for him.

He searched online for some pictures of tree branches and compared them. After looking over the two answers again, he quickly understood the concept of chopping along the grain.

Entering the game once more, Xiao Jie went to the Back Mountain, found a dead tree, and carefully examined it.

Sure enough, the branches around the trunk had many forks, and every fork had a slanted joint.

Xiao Jie raised the Firewood Knife and aimed at one of the slanted joints. After thinking for a moment, he tilted the blade slightly, leaving a bit of angle for torque, then fiercely slashed downward at an angle.

Crack!

System Prompt: Dry Firewood +1.

He brought the blade down again.

System Prompt: Dry Firewood +1.

Haha, so easy!

But joy turned to disaster. The mouse only trembled slightly, and the blade struck the trunk instead—crack!

Firewood chopping failed!

Fortunately, it had only failed. No durability had been lost.

Xiao Jie steadied himself, found the right angle, and brought the blade down again.

This time, there was no mistake.

Crack—crack—crack—crack!

With every swing, Xiao Jie chopped off one piece of Dry Firewood. After more than a dozen strikes in one go, a dead tree was stripped down to a bare main trunk.

Xiao Jie immediately moved on to another tree. In less than five minutes, he had chopped enough firewood for a bundle. His efficiency had increased by around one and a half times.

The more Xiao Jie looked at it, the happier he became. Now he could definitely make money.

Crack!

When the branches of yet another tree had been completely chopped away—

System Prompt: Your Firewood Chopping skill has leveled up. It is now Proficient Level.

[Firewood Chopping (Proficient)

Passive Effect: Stamina consumption while chopping firewood is reduced by 20%, and critical hit rate increases by 20%.

Skill Description: Through repeatedly chopping firewood, you have successfully mastered some firewood-chopping techniques and methods, raising this seemingly ordinary craft to the Proficient Level. You can now chop firewood faster and better.]

Firewood chopping could crit too? What kind of effect was that?

The answer appeared soon enough after five or six swings.

Crack! One strike actually chopped off two branches at once.

Firewood Chopping Great Success—Dry Firewood +2.

Well... at least it added a little sense of achievement to the tedious work of chopping firewood.

As the number of critical hits increased, Xiao Jie actually became a little excited. It was only a simple firewood-chopping game, yet it gave him a rare sense of accomplishment.

At the very least, it was much more interesting than those boring, tedious online games currently on the market.

He spent the entire afternoon chopping firewood. Sure enough, after finding the right method, his gains increased dramatically. Not only did his stamina decrease more slowly, but the durability of the Firewood Knife barely dropped at all.

By three in the afternoon, his inventory was packed full of Dry Firewood.

This time, he exchanged it with Wang Da Niu for a full 200 coins in payment.

After buying four Steamed Buns and filling his Satiety all the way up, Xiao Jie continued chopping firewood.

When he raised his Firewood Chopping skill from Proficient to Expert, a system prompt made him overjoyed.

[System Prompt: Through continuously chopping firewood, you have gradually mastered techniques for using bladed weapons. From the [Firewood Chopping] skill, you have comprehended the related skill [Blade Weapon Mastery (Beginner)].]