The Calamity of Qichi Village

"Whew, she finally fell asleep..."

Lu Guan let out a long breath and gently laid Dania, who had been sleeping soundly on his chest, down beside him.

"Next... it's time to go take a look over there."

He changed his clothes and took his terminal. Before leaving, he took another long look at Dania's sleeping face. Then, under cover of the deepening night, Lu Guan left the Jinzhou Frontier Court, avoiding the checks at the city gates and the checkpoints along the way as he headed straight for Qichi Village.

"You said you were a little hard to woo, and wanted me to give up when I saw how hard it was~"

"You can't outrun me. Believe it or not?"

"Nigerundayo!"

"Hehe, I have to survive!"

With three speed boosts active and the Ring of Favor chiming as it switched, Lu Guan took only half an hour to reach the spot marked by "Sora" on the system interface.

The center of Qichi Village.

Following the system's guidance, Lu Guan looked at the golden, four-pointed star-shaped Tacet Mark on the ground. It was one of the signs of a Tacet Field...

"Looks like... it's still in its dormant phase." Lu Guan reached that conclusion after bending down to examine it. "Could I have come too early?"

Generally speaking, the more recently a Tacet Field had formed, the longer its dormant phase would be. Lu Guan had looked up the relevant information before coming, and the Qichi Village Tacet Field should have formed a long time ago...

Just as he was about to leave, the Tacet Field seemed to sense something and suddenly let out a piercing burst of sound.

Countless echoes constantly reflected, intertwined, and overlapped within the Tacet Field. White sound strings flashed incessantly, and with a demonic roar, a huge goat-headed Tacet Discord wreathed in purple flames appeared before Lu Guan.

"I've never seen this Tacet Discord in the game..." Lu Guan's expression grew somewhat grave. "Could this be the Desolation?"

Though it had the face of a goat, its two forelimbs ended in a pair of enormous, jarringly mismatched claws. Its goat eyes glowed a dangerous red, and its whole body radiated a savage aura. Its presence alone was enough to make Lu Guan feel pressured.

This Tacet Discord was definitely at the Calamity Class level! It was even among the stronger ones of its class!

A Tacet Discord's instinct was to devour the frequencies of other food sources, and this Goat-Headed Wolf Tacet Discord, which had arisen under the influence of the Desolation, was clearly no exception to its biological instincts.

In its eyes, Lu Guan was nothing more than an exceptionally delicious dessert. Driven by instinct, it struck first, opening its bloody maw and biting at him.

Naturally, Lu Guan wasn't going to sit there and wait for death. Out of caution, he hadn't canceled his three speed boosts, and by a twist of fate, that saved his life.

He narrowly dodged the Goat-Headed Wolf's first attack, breaking out in a cold sweat. He finally understood why "Sora" hadn't wanted him to deal with the Desolation now.

Even the weakest Desolation was Calamity Class at a minimum!

"At my current strength, I absolutely can't fight it head-on!" Lu Guan's mind raced, and he soon came up with a tactic.

Having failed to land its first attack, the Goat-Headed Wolf grew considerably more cautious. It arched its back and paced slowly around Lu Guan like a cunning, hungry wolf, trying to find an opening.

It wasn't a mere beast. It was actually quite intelligent!

Lu Guan kept a close eye on the Goat-Headed Wolf's movements. Though it kept circling, the distance between them was slowly shrinking. Clearly, it was using this method to creep up on its prey, intending to launch a lightning-fast strike before Lu Guan could react.

"Whatever the case, let's try attacking first!" Lu Guan pressed two fingers together and aimed at the Goat-Headed Wolf.

"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!"

Then he raised his other hand.

"Almighty Push!"

The two repulsive forces repelled each other, producing an exceptionally powerful thrust and, naturally, an exceptionally high initial velocity!

With Almighty Push behind it, the red sphere representing Red shot toward the Goat-Headed Wolf's midsection so fast it scarcely left an afterimage, punching straight through its waist!

Copper head, iron bones, tofu waist. The weak point of every wolf-type enemy should be its vulnerable waist. As long as...

But to Lu Guan's surprise, even with its midsection pierced, the Tacet Discord merely staggered. As its body swayed, the wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Though his first move had failed, Lu Guan wasn't discouraged. While the Goat-Headed Wolf was still recovering, he jumped backward onto a rooftop in Qichi Village and began singing "The Day I Shot My Lover."

"Nibamme no kioku... (memories of the second playthrough)."

A longbow appeared in Lu Guan's left hand and a repeating crossbow in his right. He held the crossbow in both hands, loaded it, and fired a bolt, then canceled with a backward jump. He immediately switched out the crossbow in his right hand for a greatbow.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Countless giant arrows seemed to materialize from the void. As Lu Guan's bow-wielding right hand twitched incessantly, the arrows rained down on the Goat-Headed Wolf below.

The power of the left-hand bow, kid!

He couldn't control his aim like this, but fortunately, the attack covered a wide area. Even though the Goat-Headed Wolf was fast, the rain of giant arrows still left it with several wounds pierced clean through.

Its injuries only made it fiercer. With an angry roar, it pounced at Lu Guan on the rooftop.

"How much cunning can a beast possess? It only gives us cause to laugh!"

Trash talk aside, he still had to dodge the attacks. After evading the Goat-Headed Wolf's furious strike, Lu Guan began carrying out the tactic he had prepared.

Which was...

"Nigerundayo!!!"

Whether the Goat-Headed Wolf understood what Lu Guan had just said or the previous attacks had drawn enough aggro, it chose to pursue him as he fled northwest.

"OK! Looks like I've got its aggro!" Seeing the Tacet Discord chasing relentlessly behind him, Lu Guan felt reassured.

If you didn't chase me, I wouldn't have a way to deal with you!

But there was something even more important...

He needed to figure out this Desolation's mechanics!

Lu Guan couldn't understand how it could recover in an instant when its weak point had clearly been pierced. Even for a Desolation, wasn't that ability a little too overpowered?

Unless... that wasn't its real weak point.

As he pondered, Lu Guan arrived at an unstable patch of ground. He stopped, turned around, and taunted the Desolation.

"You... come over here!"

The taunt skill hit! It was super effective!

The red light in the Goat-Headed Wolf's eyes intensified. Its whole body sprang into the air, pouncing toward Lu Guan.

"Polar Reversal!"

Ekko's ultimate-Chronobreak!

As Lu Guan spoke, his body abruptly vanished, then reappeared where he had been four seconds earlier.

The Tacet Discord, however, couldn't overcome its momentum. It landed on the spot where Lu Guan had just stood, smashing through the already unstable ground and falling straight in.

Anyone who had played the game knew that an Overlord Class Tacet Discord, the Thundering Mephis, was hidden in a cave northwest of Qichi Village!

Lu Guan also knew that the Overlord Class Thundering Mephis alone couldn't stand up to the Goat-Headed Wolf.

His first purpose was to trap the monster in the cave.

His second was to test whether the Desolation and ordinary Tacet Discords would attack each other.

For now, though... it seemed they would.

The Goat-Headed Wolf made short work of the Thundering Mephis, then fixed its gaze on Lu Guan at the cave entrance. It let out a deafening roar and moved to pounce at him.

Unfortunately, its jumping ability seemed inadequate. It tried several times but couldn't reach the entrance, leaving it to rage helplessly.

"Ah, I already made this clear." Lu Guan wagged a finger. "How much cunning can a beast possess? It only gives us cause to laugh!"

Next came the part all players who liked archers loved to see: shooting down from the high ground at an enemy below.

After singing "The Day I Shot My Lover" several times in a row, Lu Guan finally managed to turn the Goat-Headed Wolf into a porcupine.

Goat-Headed Wolf: "Prime Minister! I've borrowed the arrows!"

Watching the Desolation collapse, Lu Guan didn't go down immediately to inspect the results.

It might be playing dead to trick me!

So he unleashed another rain of arrows.

Sure enough, when playing dead failed to lure Lu Guan down, the Goat-Headed Wolf stopped pretending. It dodged the rain of arrows, ran to one side, and pulled out every arrow in its body.

Within a few breaths, its body had returned to its original state, apart from a little wool missing from its back. It was as though Lu Guan's attacks had never worked.

"What the chovy! What kind of sneaky crap is this?"