Five minutes earlier...
In one of Yanema's slums, Lin Ruoyu looked up at the brown wooden building with a beer mug sign at the end of the winding street ahead.
He turned around. The three players, including Home Alone, stood behind him. The four of them standing there had drawn the attention of nearby residents. Several young men were already loitering around them, their gazes hostile.
Lin Ruoyu ignored their scrutiny. He knew perfectly well that as long as he showed no fear, they would merely watch from a distance rather than approach recklessly.
"Once we're inside, I'll strike first. Then you pull out your weapons and cut down everyone around you. Whether they have weapons in their hands or not, kill them all!"
"Uh, buddy, isn't that a little extreme?"
Little Ghost was astonished. He seemed worried that such an indiscriminate attack would hurt innocent NPCs who had gone inside for a drink.
"Let me tell you something."
Lin Ruoyu spoke patiently in Chinese. He knew that unless he explained things clearly, his three companions might have psychological reservations when it came time to act.
This was probably their first time playing a Hundred House Game Studio title. They weren't veterans of Protectorate or Police Simulator. If they had been, they would already have charged inside and started slaughtering everyone.
"Back when Earth still had five permanent members of the Security Council, the police in France discovered something while suppressing demonstrations. When they fired during a crackdown, loading three live rounds first, followed by blanks, reduced casualties among the demonstrators more effectively than doing it the other way around.
"In actual cases, once the police opened fire, if the demonstrators heard gunshots but saw no one falling around them, their courage would surge. Then they would band together and charge the police formation.
"At that point, even firing live rounds at the demonstrators wouldn't do much good, because they could no longer stop quickly.
"For one thing, the scene would be chaotic. Demonstrators caught up in it would struggle to see anyone getting shot. Even if someone fell, they would instinctively assume that person had simply tripped.
"For another, once things got going, the demonstrators at the front would be fired up. Under the effects of adrenaline, they would basically become berserkers. Even if they were shot, they could keep going for a while.
"So the police in France believed the first three shots used to suppress a demonstration had to be live rounds. Only by shooting down the brave ones running at the front and frightening the others could they keep the situation under control.
"So when the fighting starts, you absolutely cannot hold back. You have to strike to kill and scare the thugs inside."
Lin Ruoyu spoke solemnly to them. Little Ghost swallowed and nodded. Only then did Lin Ruoyu give a relaxed smile.
"And don't worry about hurting anyone innocent. I just asked a kid. This place is a gang hideout. Anyone drinking inside is no good. We can slash and kill all we like. The police won't come in here."
"Well, that's great."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get in there. The axe up my sleeve is already thirsting for blood..."
"Then let's go. Keep your expressions under control. Don't look scared or vicious. Follow my lead."
With that, Lin Ruoyu took the lead and walked over.
He pushed open the tavern's wooden door and went inside. As he sat at the bar and spoke to the stooped owner, a casual glance to either side revealed people around the bar quietly changing positions to cut off the four players' retreat.
Seeing that, Lin Ruoyu felt reassured. He knew he had come to the right place.
What kind of normal tavern had people sneak around behind its customers to block their escape as soon as they arrived?
So Lin Ruoyu first spoke to the owner to lower his guard. Then, out of the man's sight, he drew the dagger from his sleeve, raised his hand, and slashed!
The most terrifying violence was often sudden and unprovoked. Lin Ruoyu's attack on the tavern owner came without any warning. One second, he was politely asking the owner a question; the next, he raised his hand and slit the man's throat.
As blood hissed out of the fat, big-eared owner's neck in a swift, slanting spray, the thugs sitting in the tavern, watching secretly and waiting for the owner's signal, were dumbfounded.
For a moment, they couldn't even process what had happened. Only when the other three players drew a cleaver, a hand axe, and a short sword and swung at them did the thugs react.
One of them pulled out a dagger, stood up, and shouted blusteringly.
"You've got some nerve! Do you know who we are?"
"Nope. Die!"
Lin Ruoyu lunged forward and drove his dagger into the man's chest, claiming his second kill.
The three players rushed forward, each trying to get ahead of the others, swinging their weapons at whoever was closest.
With their blood up, they no longer had time to worry about fear or hurting innocent people. Their hacking sent the tavern's thugs wailing for their parents.
Aside from Lin Ruoyu, whose professional training in edged-weapon combat let him kill a man with a single stab, the three players, including Little Ghost, were clearly novices. There was no technique to the way they swung their weapons.
But compared with the thugs, the players had one unmatched advantage... They weren't afraid to die, and they were far more willing to charge in and trade wound for wound.
"Kill!!!"
The young Little Ghost clutched his hand axe and lunged at two thugs, his face covered in blood. A gleaming knife was embedded in his shoulder, but it didn't affect him in the slightest. Ignoring the weapon held by the enemy on his left, he hacked straight at the one on his right.
Little Ghost's ferocity was terrifying. The thug on the left was frightened. Despite having an excellent opening, he took two steps back in fear, leaving the thug on the right to take several frenzied blows from Little Ghost's hand axe.
The dagger in the right-hand thug's hand was knocked away, and the left arm he raised to block was chopped off. Blood sprayed as his face twisted with pain and terror, and he wailed loudly.
"Spare me! I was wrong, I was wrong! Let me go..."
Little Ghost couldn't hear him. With his vision stained red by blood, he screamed an incoherent battle cry that even he couldn't understand. His hand axe hacked into the enemy again and again, sending flesh and blood flying whenever he pulled it free.
The thug on the left watched the enemy brutally chop off his companion's arm, then split his head open, spilling red and white matter. Terrified, he turned and ran.
Lin Ruoyu, who had just finished off his third victim, spotted the fleeing man. He pulled his dagger from the neck of the corpse on the floor and instinctively shouted to a player near the door.
"Block the door! Don't let them escape!"
PS: There should be one more chapter.