[Penny Burns cast [Charm] on you. Will check: Will is 0. Critical resistance failure! You have fallen into an illusion for 15 seconds. Each instance of damage allows another check.]
He had been guarding against this skill of Penny's all along, a perfect counter to him.
Earlier, outside the tavern, he had avoided direct eye contact, and it seemed his senses had only been affected slightly and briefly.
Now, forced to watch her to dodge her bullets, he had fallen for it again.
The Penny in the illusion dropped her guard and threw herself at him, her clothes disheveled.
Chen Xu held her off with his sword, but every time the blade struck her, she dissolved like smoke, then reformed elsewhere, gazing at him pitifully.
Honestly, he did not think this sort of illusion was particularly sophisticated.
The victim clearly knew they were in an illusion. Even someone "born defective" like him, with a Will stat of 0, could distinguish illusion from reality through the panel notifications.
It was precisely his innate deficiency that made this Charm spell seem so ridiculously powerful.
Outside the illusion, the other two finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Chen Xu standing still, swinging his sword wildly.
Penny stepped a little closer, aimed at Chen Xu's head, and pulled the trigger. Only when she heard a click did she remember that this was actually the first magazine she had emptied.
"Save your ammo. Let me." Sethis twirled his dagger as he approached the lamb awaiting slaughter.
Just as he was about to strike, Chen Xu, lost in the illusion, actually began to move.
If Charm affects my senses, then I simply won't use them. Both the illusory and the real Chen Xu closed their eyes, retreating swiftly through a spatial layout reconstructed entirely from memory.
In three precise steps, he cleared the fence behind him and charged into White Orchard's farm, beginning to slaughter the cows at the positions he remembered from before the illusion.
Blood sprayed, and the cows' agonized cries rang through the night sky. Chen Xu was completely unaware.
He could not count on the Nilfgaardians, and even if he survived these fifteen seconds of illusion, he could fall victim to it again.
His only way out was a gamble: kill the farm's dairy cows and try to summon White Orchard's ultimate boss-the Chort-through an Easter egg from the original game.
Penny watched Chen Xu's madness with interest. Her prey's death throes were rather too comical.
Sethis's dagger danced between his fingers. Despite this minor surprise, the man was still theirs for the taking.
But soon the ground began to shake, and a howl seemingly from ancient times rang out from deep within the forest!
"What is that?!" Penny screamed in terror. A monster a full three or four meters tall came charging toward them. Moonlight fell upon it, revealing its hideous outline:
It resembled a goat mutated by nuclear radiation, its head alone larger than a grown man!
Apart from the hair on its chin and hooves, its entire body was covered in bare, rough, yellow-black skin. Its muscles bulged in knots, and a strange, decaying-gray demonic eye protruded from its forehead.
Penny lost her composure, breaking [Charm]'s control early. Chen Xu's true senses returned, and he immediately felt an almost tangible killing intent right beside him!
The Chort's aggro was locked entirely on him. Was its lover or offspring among those cattle?
Under Penny and Sethis's terrified gazes, Chen Xu charged straight toward them. The terrifying beast close behind him crushed fences, smashed wooden houses, and destroyed everything in its path.
"Stay away from me!"
Faced with such an outrageous difference in size, neither could muster any courage to resist. All they wanted was to outrun the other.
Sethis had already reached Woesong Bridge, but with Chen Xu's sword wound in his thigh, he had actually fallen behind Penny.
He suddenly threw his dagger into his teammate's back, then grabbed her long hair and pulled himself ahead.
The backstabbed woman screamed and fell forward. Though Chen Xu was right beside her, he had no time to finish her off. The thunderous pounding of the Chort's hooves was drawing ever closer!
[[Commoner] Chosen Penny Burns has returned early.]
The first person to withdraw voluntarily had appeared.
Ignoring the notification, Chen Xu vaulted off the bridge and crawled into the corner at the base of its stone abutment.
Lying prone in the foul-smelling riverbank sludge, he briefly entered the Chort's blind spot.
The activation conditions for his newly acquired class skill, [Stealth Technique], had been met.
This technique was essentially the overarching framework of the Stealth skill branch, but it required Dark Energy. Forcing it to activate now meant fueling it with his own flesh, blood, and stamina!
His remaining energy drained away instantly, and his blood and meridians rapidly shriveled. His vision went black, and he nearly passed out on the spot.
Fainting now would be suicide. Chen Xu bit the tip of his tongue hard to gain a moment of clarity and put all three free attribute points from leveling up into Constitution. It barely gave his rock-bottom physical condition a little healing, and [Stealth Technique] successfully activated!
A layer of strange energy rapidly enveloped his body, blending him into the riverbank sludge like optical camouflage.
[Stealth Technique] · Basic application: activates Stealth state, consuming 10 units of Dark Energy to blend visually into the current environment; changes in the environment require a corresponding expenditure of Dark Energy to maintain. Cooldown: 30 seconds.
The Chort jumped down onto the riverbank, turning its bloodshot eyes as it searched for Chen Xu.
The insect that had killed its beloved consort had actually vanished right under its nose!
It paced furiously around the riverbank, occasionally lifting its head to let out terrifying roars at the moon. Every Drowner within hundreds of meters was frightened into diving to the riverbed and trembling there.
Chen Xu lay motionless in the muck. Unfortunately, the Chort had stepped on his right arm and snapped it, but even with the heart-wrenching pain, he dared not make a sound.
To move was to die.
After an unknown stretch of waiting, each second feeling like a year, the Chort finally grew weary. It let out a few more reluctant roars, then turned and left.
All fell silent. Several minutes later, an enormous head resembling a goat-cow hybrid suddenly poked over the bridge! It looked around.
The monster had returned after leaving, but still found no trace of Chen Xu. Finally giving up completely, it headed back into the forest.
Sensing that immense presence truly receding, Chen Xu quietly coughed out the riverbank sludge clogging his throat. Digging his left hand into the ground, he dragged himself laboriously up the embankment, inch by inch.
At this point, a single Drowner-or even a child-could easily end his life.
Fortunately, Sethis seemed to have been scared out of his wits and had not returned to pick up the scraps.
The damned Nilfgaardians and villagers might as well have been dead, too. None had appeared from beginning to end.
He lay on his back, panting for a long while, and recovered a little strength.
He pushed himself upright and walked onto Woesong Bridge. Several pools of blood remained on the stone surface, probably from Sethis stabbing Penny.
That woman had not died. She had returned early.
Chen Xu remembered Alexei, the red-haired boy torn apart by Drowners. He wondered whether the boy had been too poor to afford the points for an early return, or whether the Drowners had killed him instantly.
Most likely the former.
He was about to head back to get some herbs for his injuries when a dark lump nearby caught his eye.
He picked it up and examined it. It was the pistol knocked away when Penny fell. Apparently, her forced early return had left her no time to retrieve it.
Only when he checked the magazine did Chen Xu realize he had been tricked earlier. He had to admit, the woman did have some little tricks up her sleeve.
[Detection] activated:
-------- Item: gunpowder ranged weapon · Semiautomatic pistol · Beretta 8045F Quality: fine Attack: 13 Durability: 20/21 .45 caliber, 8-round capacity. A compact tactical model, easy to carry and conceal. The grip angle is too small, making aiming difficult. Replicated by Chosen Patron Orn using entry-level craftsmanship and a rare-grade lathe. Made of lightweight aluminum alloy. Can also serve as a light hammer when out of ammunition. Sale price: 75 points A common tool of old-time agents and assassins. Grid-converted; can be taken out of this world. --------
The matte-black coating absorbed light. Without being so close and possessing senses beyond those of ordinary people, he would have found it almost impossible to spot at night.
Still, there was little to celebrate.
In a medieval fantasy world, the points shop would not sell anything beyond the current era. There were no bullets for sale at all.
Making bullets by hand was also not feasible (it would be censored).
The world briefing had warned that items inconsistent with the world's setting would disrupt battlefield operations and might even cause the rules to collapse, potentially implicating the Chosen.
The only consolation was that it was worth some points.
Chen Xu headed toward the tavern, planning to find some alcohol to disinfect his wounds... He remembered that Penny had fired her first shot at him inside the tavern.