Guard Contract

This kind of fat old man would've been a scammer in the real world. How could he have this much strength now?!

He was every bit as fearsome as a tiger!

"Since she's willing to join East Wolf Village and become one of its guards, she's one of us now. You two can't lay a finger on her from now on," he said calmly.

Xu Qi couldn't help threatening him. "Fourth Elder, this is a dispute between players."

"Your village may be powerful, but it only has 1,254 people. Xu Corporation, on the other hand, governs Xu City in the real world, with a population of 4.95 million. Don't be fooled by the fact that we only control a few dozen player accounts," Lao Ba added.

"Each player may only have one life, but every time someone dies, we can replace them. In truth, we have 4.95 million people in reserve."

"You'd better think this through."

At that, the calm expression on Fourth Elder's face turned grave.

He drew a deep breath and stayed silent for a long time, seemingly weighing the pros and cons.

Gao Linzhi watched everything unfold with an indifferent gaze.

Lin Qing, however, looked perfectly calm, with a hint of confidence. "Fourth Elder, my Purple Talent is actually..."

She glanced toward the courtyard behind him.

"Oh, then come with me," Fourth Elder said with a nod. He led her into the courtyard and into a room.

Lao Qi and Lao Ba could only watch helplessly as the two left.

A long while later, they came back out.

Lin Qing looked relieved now, and there was a hint of superiority in the way she looked at the others.

Fourth Elder, meanwhile, was beaming with joy.

"Your Xu Corporation is far too arrogant!" he declared righteously.

"Heaven values life, yet you oppress your own kind at every turn. You'd even snatch away someone else's chance by force. That's utterly despicable!"

"As the Saint said, 'Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.' Your actions are downright mad!"

"East Wolf Village won't tolerate anyone bullying Rogue Players, and we won't let you lay a hand on Miss Lin again!"

Hearing this, Gao Linzhi understood that Lin Qing's talent was definitely far more powerful than anyone could have expected!

What could it be?

Brother Li had entered the game at a very early sequence number, so his successor's talent should be excellent.

But the number of the Game Character he created himself was much later. Clearly, that was an extra game account given to him by the Game System.

The two weren't the same thing.

Lin Qing was the one who had truly inherited Brother Li's Game Character.

It seemed that each Game Poster represented one game qualification.

Lin Qing's actual talent was definitely more than Purple. It could be Gold, or even Red!

Only a talent of such high quality could make Fourth Elder willing to defy a company with 4.95 million people in reserve for the sake of a Rogue Player.

"What? You actually..." Lao Qi stared in disbelief.

Did Fourth Elder have any idea what would happen if he made an enemy of them?

To put it bluntly, they could just keep sending people to harass the village from outside until East Wolf Village went bankrupt!

After all, they had plenty of people to spare.

Lao Ba tugged at him and immediately said, "Come on, we need to report this to the Young Master."

Then the two said nothing more and hurried away.

Gao Linzhi's thoughts stirred, and he checked the Game Minimap.

To his surprise, the two were rushing toward a relatively lavish mansion in the village, a five-courtyard residence.

That must be Xu Tianlang's home.

Just then, Fourth Elder enthusiastically started to lead Lin Qing away, completely forgetting that Gao Linzhi was there.

Lin Qing was the one who noticed him and pointed him out.

"Oh, right, you're here too. The older you get, the more forgetful you become. Come along," Fourth Elder said, smacking his forehead.

Then he led the two of them toward the east of the village.

They walked in silence.

Fourth Elder, however, told them all sorts of things about the village.

For instance, the village's future: with players here, the economy was thriving, the population was growing rapidly, and its land was expanding. Soon, it would become a town...

In short, East Wolf Village had a bright future and a smooth road ahead.

His sales pitch rivaled that of any company executive.

Before long, the three arrived near a large mansion.

There were no other houses nearby, but there was a vast green bamboo grove.

Some players and villagers dressed in rough hemp clothes were chopping down green bamboo.

The players were all working hard, while the villagers took breaks after every short spell of work.

After chopping down the bamboo, they used saws and hatchets to split it into strips.

Once they had gathered enough, they handed the strips to an old steward at the mansion's entrance.

The old steward wore fine ramie clothes and had a goatee. He was counting the bamboo strips and bossing the players around:

"Dinosaur Express Ultraman, 1,000 strips, one Bing Gong."

"Riding a Horse to See Flowers, 3,000 strips, three Bing Gong."

"Just Love Playing Games, 2,000 strips..."

Fourth Elder explained to the two of them, "This is Third Elder's place. He oversees Talisman Crafting."

"Let's go see the old codger first and get you some talismans for protection."

"Usually, newcomers who come here to learn skills have to cut 100,000 bamboo strips first, to build character and train their hand-eye coordination and strength."

"Then they go into the courtyard to learn how to make bamboo talismans. Once they pass the bamboo talisman test, they learn to make Paper Talismans. After passing that test, they can make jade talismans."

"Since you're willing to sign a Guard Contract, you won't have to bother with all that. The village will provide you with whatever talismans you need," Fourth Elder explained.

"Er Gou, tell your Third Master to come out," Fourth Elder called to the old steward.

"Oh, it's Fourth Elder! I'll go right away," the old steward replied, bowing and scraping.

Some of the busy players paused their work and curiously eyed the two newcomers.

"Well, that's a novelty. Another player's joined the guards. Do they really think this is an ordinary online game?"

"Heh, looks like we've got another hardhead who wants to soar to success overnight."

"They won't learn until they're staring death in the face. A few others tried taking this shortcut before, and they all died horribly."

"Exactly. The village can help you grow quickly, but you only get one life in this game—and there are also unstoppable anomalies!"

"That's right. Demons are easy to avoid, but anomalies are hard to defend against! When we run into an anomaly, we can still log off and hide. But if they sign the contract, they'll have to fight to the death alongside the village!"

A hint of disdain flashed in Lin Qing's eyes at that, but it quickly disappeared.

Before long, Third Elder appeared.

He was a short, skinny old man with a stubborn expression.

He looked at Fourth Elder with a rather displeased expression, as if Fourth Elder owed him thousands of gold coins.

Reluctantly, he took a stack of jade talismans from his robes and handed them to Fourth Elder.

"Fifty Blue Grade Defensive Jade Talismans, fifty Blue Grade Offensive Jade Talismans, and four Purple Grade Escape Jade Talismans. Use them sparingly. My two Descender apprentices and I worked hard to make these."

The players all stared, drooling with envy, their eyes turning red!