Act III: The Undead

"Brando, Brando?"

Romane poked his arm from the side. Su Fei was currently immersed in checking his own attributes; his Strength was only at 1 Energy Level. He couldn't help but curse that NPCs had no human rights—even a skeleton had 1.5 Strength.

All numerical units for attributes were in Oz, an abbreviation for the ancient language Oauth, referred to as Energy Levels. One Energy Level of Strength meant the ability to lift roughly fifty kilograms, with a punching force not exceeding one hundred and fifty kilograms, roughly equivalent to the strength of an adult man.

Back in the game, a player's base attributes were 2 Energy Levels in Strength, Agility, and Constitution, while Intelligence, Willpower, and Perception were all 1.5 Energy Levels—meaning they were roughly twice as strong as an ordinary person. Their Absolute Strength, or what was known as combat power, was about 5, indicating they could handle 5 ordinary people simultaneously without issue.

Yet Brando was a militia member who had undergone months of intensive training, and the gap in attributes was still this vast. Even though players started with Hero-tier attributes, it shouldn't have been this absurd, right?

He had always wanted to complain that players claimed to have a "Hero" start, yet their combat power was only about the same as two skeletons. He hadn't expected that now, standing in Brando's shoes, he would realize that the players of the past were truly hero templates shrouded in plot armor.

The moment he thought about how he might not even be able to beat a single skeleton, a sense of sorrow welled up within him.

Su Fei touched his arm; that pale green number remained mischievously displayed on his retina. He discovered that this world still had some differences from the one he knew. In the game, bandages were supposed to restore 1 HP per minute; theoretically, a commoner's 6 HP should have been fully restored in six minutes, but here, it would take several days.

This was not a good sign.

Fortunately, the usage of skills was basically the same. As long as he recalled the "Basic Knowledge" gained from his identity as a commoner, he could remember some common sense about this world. Recalling the "Military Organization" gained from his identity as a militia member allowed him to remember the common knowledge regarding Eluin's military structure.

Although there were some differences, this knowledge seemed to exist directly within his real memories. Take swordsmanship, for instance; he could clearly feel that it was a skill gathered bit by bit into his instincts through every movement after months of training. For example, his posture when attacking, where his center of gravity should be, what to watch out for under his feet, where his sword was—and where the enemy's sword was, feints, and the intent behind an attack.

In the game, the system would only provide a few rough sword-swinging paths before you attacked and then assist you in correcting your strikes during the attack. Here, you didn't need to know the "why," knowing the "how" was enough.

Although some veteran players had their own insights, they still relied on system assistance, which was why you wouldn't see game nerds becoming masters of swordsmanship and combat in reality.

There were some things for which there were no shortcuts.

Su Fei couldn't help but clench his hand. That feeling of being in control of himself was exceptional. Compared to the stiffness in the game, the memories he mastered here felt more like a part of himself, allowing him to use them as he pleased.

Of course, while thinking about these things, he remained alert enough to turn his head immediately when Romane poked his arm. His ears twitched slightly, and he had already heard the faint sounds coming from outside the house.

"Brando, did you hear that?" the Merchant's Daughter asked in a whisper as she circled behind him.

Su Fei nodded. A series of clicking footsteps came from outside, and there were quite a few of them. His heart skipped a beat, and he immediately guessed that the vanguard of the Madara army must have arrived. He made a quiet gesture and immediately pulled Romane back with him.

The Madara vanguard had arrived even faster than expected. At this very moment, the countryside of Eirson-Golan was still in a deep slumber; no one could have predicted the impending disaster.

Except for him.

The urgency of time made Su Fei frown. He led the Merchant's Daughter into the room at the far south end and pulled the door shut behind him. The room was filled with dust, causing both of them to cough muffledly—this was a guest room that hadn't been used for a long time, but he knew that from the window here, he could safely monitor everything happening within the manor.

Su Fei walked to the window, gently wiped away the dust, and lifted the curtain—

"These things came from there, you know, don't you, Brando?" The girl pulled her hand back unobtrusively and asked with some curiosity.

"This is the Madara army; the war has broken out." As he answered, he carefully took a look outside: it was indeed the Madara vanguard. Su Fei couldn't help but take a light breath. In the center of the manor stood a dense mass of Skeleton Soldiers. He counted three squads, totaling forty-five, with patches of dim red light jumping in the darkness. Beside them were three Liches controlling this group of low-level undead—their classic appearance was a skeleton wearing robes, holding a bone staff, and patrolling these lower-level Madara soldiers with eyes flickering with green phosphorus fire.

Brando's grandfather's old house was located on a hillside not far from Buchi, from where one could look down at the village. It was more like a small manor on the outskirts of the town; there had originally been five or six households, but they had all moved away later, leaving only Romane and her aunt.

The young girl took a soft breath in the darkness.

"What about Aunt Jenny?"

"My aunt went to a nearby town and won't be back for a week."

Su Fei couldn't help but turn to look at her. In the darkness, he only saw a pair of bright eyes, yet they were flashing with an inexplicable excitement.

"Aren't you afraid?" he couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know," the Merchant's Daughter replied in a low voice. She raised her head: "But my heart is pounding; it feels like it might be exciting."

Su Fei was speechless. This young lady's way of thinking was indeed somewhat different from that of ordinary people. However, some people were born for adventure; perhaps Romane was such a person.

He pretended not to hear and pressed his gaze back against the window glass—the Liches' gazes hadn't swept in this direction yet, so Su Fei could safely continue to observe—in a forest in the distance, shadows were flickering; there must be quite a few enemies in that direction as well.

A rough estimate put the size of the Madara vanguard at over a hundred, which was not a small number. A force of this size must have a Wizard Apprentice secretly manipulating it from behind, which, in his view, was terrible news.

In the game, a Madara Wizard Apprentice was roughly equivalent to a level ten player. Even fighting alone, they were more than a match for seven or eight well-trained adult men (soldiers or militia), let alone the fact that he and Romane were only two people, while the opponent had a whole army under their command.

Su Fei couldn't help but tap his fingers on the windowsill.

The Guard Detachment in Buchi would take at least five minutes to arrive here. This meant that if they encountered the enemy, they would have to hold their ground and protect themselves for at least five minutes before reinforcements could arrive.

That was assuming the people in Buchi even discovered that this place was under attack.

But how could he alert them?

For a moment, he couldn't help but feel troubled. The best way was to set a fire; bright flames and smoke could travel very far in the dark night, and fire was an obvious warning to both humans and animals. But whether to set a fire, and how to do it, remained a problem.

"Brando? Are we going to die?"

"Hard to say."

The pitch-black room fell silent.

The darkness was profound, with only the cold moonlight spilling in from a corner of the window, casting a small silver path across the gloomy room.

Su Fei pondered for a moment and was just about to lower the curtain to calm his mind and think of a way to escape, when at that very moment, a conversation drifted in from outside:

"Where is that poor wretch's corpse? Bring it out and show it to me. Didn't the intelligence say that only two women lived in this manor?"

The first was the voice of a young man, but it sounded somewhat cold and sharp.

The next voice sounded dry and old, creaking like broken deadwood: "Just an unlucky wretch, Master."

This dialogue made Su Fei's heart tighten. He looked outside again and quickly found the source of the two voices in the shadow of a large tree: there, a guy wearing wide black robes was questioning the Lich under his command.

Su Fei's gaze quickly fell on the other's cuffs. He vaguely saw only a ring of grayish-white bone patterns, which proved that the other party was indeed a Wizard Apprentice.

He had not miscalculated.

"...Remember, I do not need your opinions; you only need to follow orders." The wizard, shrouded from head to toe in a black robe, suddenly paused mid-sentence, lifted his head, and looked toward Su Fei's direction.

Su Fei's heart gave a violent jolt, and he immediately dropped the curtain. Damn it, for a moment he had forgotten he was no longer that veteran warrior of over level 130, completely overlooking the fact that the other party's perception and stealth-breaking levels were far superior to his own.

He wasn't discovered immediately, but he had surely aroused the other party's suspicion.

Sure enough, he immediately heard the guy outside say: "Alright, go do it. I sense there are living people in that house. You lot, be thorough. I've been suspicious these past few days that the other side has already caught onto our plan—"

It was over. As soon as they discovered Brando's "corpse" was missing, they would take immediate action, Su Fei's thoughts raced. He immediately thought of the door behind the kitchen, but the Eirson-Golan region was all natural pasture; there was simply nowhere to hide in the vicinity.

There was a small grove of trees below the hillside, but there was a stretch of over a hundred meters of exposed slope in between. What was he to do?

"Brando?" Miss Romanee looked at him with an inquiring gaze.

"Follow me." Su Fei gritted his teeth; he would take it one step at a time.

He opened the door. He happened to see a Lich and two Skeleton Soldiers walking in from outside the hall below. The Lich in the woven robe spotted him and Miss Romanee at once—the undead creature immediately raised the Bone Staff in its hand, but Su Fei reacted faster than it did. The young man raised his right hand without hesitation, aiming the ring on his index finger at the opponent: "Oss!"

(Note: Vonder Ancient Language, Wind.)

He could only pray that the ring still worked—

Fortunately, Su Fei immediately felt the ring grow slightly warm. The air in front of him seemed to expand violently, followed by a loud "crash."

Like a hurricane sweeping through, the Lich, along with the two Skeleton Soldiers beside it and the front door of the mansion, shattered with a roar. Countless wood chips, stone fragments, and bone shards expanded outward in an instant, then fluttered down like countless butterflies dancing and drifting in the sky.

At the moment of the explosion, five golden light spots flew out from the broken bodies of the Lich and the Skeleton Soldiers, then rapidly merged into Su Fei's chest. All of this happened in the blink of an eye; even the young man himself did not notice.

However, after the blast, only a huge, outward-radiating pattern remained on the ground.

Everything went quiet, and Su Fei was so astonished he didn't know what to make of it. In the game, Wind Bullet dealt 30 points of wind-element damage, which was more than enough to one-shot low-level Liches and Skeleton Soldiers, but the visual impact shouldn't have been this exaggerated, right?

A huge hole had appeared in the gate of the old mansion. This was his grandfather's property, but Su Fei had no thoughts of "it's all over" at this moment; he immediately realized he still had to escape.

"Brando, you're a wizard!" Miss Romanee exclaimed in surprise from behind.

"No, I'll explain later." He took a breath, grabbed her, and rushed downward. The kitchen was on the first floor; he had to reach it before the enemy reacted.

"Wait, Brando, I can't keep up with you...!"

"Watch out, we're going downstairs!"

"Ah!"

The sudden explosion made the skeletons outside turn their heads, but they lacked intelligence and only reacted to the sound by instinct. Thus, they remained standing where they were, motionless, passively waiting for the Lich's orders.

The green ghost fire in the eye sockets of the nearby Lich jumped violently. It immediately raised its Bone Staff, a flicker of flame flashing at the tip.

"Don't use fire, you idiot!" The black-robed wizard who had appeared suddenly pressed down on its staff, cursing through gritted teeth. The sound of the previous explosion had likely already alerted the Bucci people; showing fire now would only serve as a warning to the humans in the village.

He immediately turned back and pointed into the house: "Soldiers, seize those two!"

With a clatter, the Skeleton Soldiers drew their longswords in unison and surged into the house.

By this time, Su Fei had already rushed down the stairs. Seeing the Skeleton Frames surging in one after another, and the countless red light spots in the darkness, he couldn't help but feel his scalp tingle. But he was no longer that veteran warrior of over level 130, and the ring in his hand was in a recharging state. At this point, he had no choice but to bite the bullet.

Once entangled by these skeletons, he would likely be hacked into mincemeat by their swords...

"Misfortunes never come singly." Su Fei couldn't help but feel a sense of powerlessness in his heart.

The wound on his chest hurt terribly, but he still managed to reach the kitchen a split second before the Skeleton Soldiers. The young man immediately slammed the door shut, but before he could even catch his breath, several sharp swords pierced through the wood with a "clatter-clatter-clatter."

It was a good thing he pulled his hand back quickly, or he would likely have been pinned to the door panel.

"That was close!" Su Fei's heart pounded. He scanned his surroundings; the other side of the kitchen was an exit, but he knew he couldn't just leave like this—he had to find a way to alert the Bucci side; only then could he save his own life.

Also, fire could block low-level undead.

"Brando?" Miss Romanee was leaning against the wall, panting. She couldn't help but look up at him; she had never seen such a decisive and brave side to Brando before, and she was filled with astonishment.

"Miss Romanee, you guard the door for a moment." Su Fei had no time to explain anything; he had to seize every second.

Clatter, clatter, clatter—

The Skeleton Soldiers began attacking the kitchen's wooden door from the other side. The door hadn't been built for defense, and soon several holes were opened in it.

"Me?" Romane blinked.

"Yes, give me some time."

"What are you going to do?" the merchant girl asked curiously.

"I have to find a way to warn the people in the village. This is the Undead Army of Madara; we must alert the others." Su Fei tried his best to stay calm, searching for flint as he answered.

Where did he remember that thing being kept?

"Okay, I'll do it." Romane immediately walked over and stood between Su Fei and the door.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Of course." The merchant girl raised the stonemason's hammer in her hand, taking it for granted: "I will do my best. I'm going to be a great merchant in the future!"

Su Fei stopped and looked at her, unable to help but nod.

"You will, Miss Romanee."

"Yes, Brando."