"George, I think we need to send soone to Victor Town. We need to know what's happening on the front lines—Hathaway might need our help."
At the breakfast table on the morning of the seventeenth day of the month, Fila spoke with a furrowed brow, once again attempting to trigger a storyline event.
"So, Mom, do you want to go to Victor Town yourself? You could have Shelt escort you—he's actually a very powerful rcenary." Li Wei was telling the truth. Over the past couple of days, he had chopped enough firewood and stockpiled sufficient at, so during the dayti he would join the wall patrols and practice sword-and-shield drills with the two rcenaries using wooden swords.
They hadn't been slacking off either. Maintaining their training and vigilance was essential, and sparring with Li Wei wasn't rely a courtesy—teamwork, coordination, and chemistry all mattered.
Besides, Li Wei was no slouch. Although he'd never received formal close-combat weapons training, his Agility and spatial awareness allowed him to pick things up remarkably fast, holding his own against both rcenaries in back-and-forth exchanges.
In Shelt the rcenary's own words, Li Wei bounced around like a monkey with too much energy and nowhere to spend it!
"No, I won't leave the protection of these walls. George, I'm frightened. I keep thinking about your father—back in Kakh City, I was nearly scared out of my wits. You can protect , right, George?"
"Don't worry, Mom. I'll protect you."
Li Wei gave Fila a hug, though sothing felt off to him. Even as a rear-echelon mber, anyone who had reached Four-Star Chef must have seen her share of serious situations. 'So what is she really after?'
"George, I need you to go to Victor Town. Leave today, co back tomorrow. We need to establish contact with Hathaway at the front. The two young rcenaries can hold down the fort here—just make it a quick round trip."
'What?'
'Did you forget Hathaway's orders?'
Although Li Wei couldn't fully trust Hathaway, he believed she wasn't foolish enough to make that kind of blunder.
Everything needed to happen in the right order.
She wanted Kakh City, sure—but she couldn't afford to lose the family camp before actually taking the city. That would imdiately trigger a ga-over scenario.
The correct sequence should be: defend Victor Town, kill the Final Boss, then compete with Ron for Kakh City.
So even though the situation at the front seed bizarre, and conditions there might be complicated enough that Hathaway couldn't spare the attention to send a reply, she would absolutely never—could never—abandon the family camp.
If Hathaway and Ron managed to push all the way to Kakh City, the worst outco would simply be clearing the mission without incident.
Li Wei would lose the Rookie King title at most—what did Fila stand to lose?
'Oh right, she's an independent player. She wants to grab so benefits for herself—and how could she get any without participating in the Final Battle?'
"Mom, I don't think that's a good idea. Before she left, Hathaway told us to hold the family camp."
"But George, before she left, Hathaway also said that I get to decide the camp's daily affairs!"
Fila locked eyes with Li Wei, refusing to budge an inch. While it wasn't quite enough to trigger a ga-over, it was more than sufficient to kick off a side quest—oh wait, a Monthly Main Task.
[Since Fila is the camp administrator entrusted by the Head of Household, and since only two family mbers currently remain at the family camp, she now issues you a Monthly Main Task: scout the road between Victor Town and the family camp, and investigate conditions on the front lines to facilitate tily support for Head of Household Hathaway.]
[You must complete this task within three days, but if special circumstances arise, you have the authority to adapt as you see fit without ti constraints—the general in the field need not obey every order from ho!]
[Due to the current Final Battle storyline phase, solo reconnaissance outside the walls carries considerable danger. Your task reward will be elevated to the highest tier. Upon completion, you will receive 80 Contribution points. Any enemy targets eliminated during this period will also earn campaign points and additional Contribution.]
'Holy crap!'
Over the past half month of frantic labor—combined with hunting a Two-Star sika deer, various One-Star ga, and gathering all sorts of One-Star mountain goods—his Contribution had climbed from zero back up to 213 points. 'So could this push to 500 Contribution by the end of the month?'
"Alright, Mom. As you wish—I'll head out right away!"
"Be careful out there, George. I've already packed food for you!" Fila bead. As a Four-Star Chef, her culinary prowess was nothing short of extraordinary—Three-Star quality venison jerky crafted from Two-Star deer at, white bread, bacon sandwiches, and more. The spread was almost absurdly lavish.
She had packed a mountain of food regardless, and from a logistics standpoint, Fila was absolutely the most capable person for the job.
Li Wei accepted everything without hesitation. With a base Strength of 20, he could shoulder fifty kilograms of supplies and still cover fifty kiloters in a single day. That was how formidable he had beco.
Of course, he couldn't forget the essential gear.
His Three-Star War Bow went into the bow case, along with three Two-Star armor-piercing sniper arrows—since they were each nearly 1.2 ters long, they fit better in the bow case than a quiver.
Twenty standard steel Bodkin Arrows, fifty easier-to-carry hardwood arrows, and one self-made shortbow.
Two daggers, the Bloodthirsty Spear, and one close-combat Iron Spear.
One waterskin. That was everything.
After checking in with the two rcenaries, Li Wei set off down the road to Victor Town with a light step. This trade route he had painstakingly carved out now seed to have beco little more than a decoration—and might even bring catastrophe down on the family camp. The irony wasn't lost on him.
But after heading ten kiloters south and turning toward the mountains, Li Wei quickly left the road and slipped into the forest alongside it, maintaining a distance of one to two hundred ters from the trade route.
This would slow his pace and drain more Stamina, but it was undeniably safer and more discreet.
The journey proved remarkably quiet. Apart from so wildlife, he didn't spot a single soul.
Even Cabin Station No. 1, which he had built himself, was completely deserted.
'So what the hell is going on at Victor Town?'
Li Wei frowned slightly and pressed on through the forest.
When he finally reached Cabin Station No. 2, he spotted people at last.
Penny was stationed there with five rcenaries. From a distance, they all looked bored out of their minds. And stretching from Cabin Station No. 2 all the way to the King's Highway, Victor Town cavalry were running patrols.
So there was no need to go to Victor Town after all. There was no war—Mad Baron Mark had not marched north this month.
No wonder it had been so quiet!
But what exactly was keeping Mad Baron Mark from making his move?
If this were a ga, Li Wei would have called a GM. If this were history, he would wonder whether so ti-traveler had altered the storyline.
But the reality demanded considering far more complex possibilities.
Because this was a real world.
The natives here could observe, think, and make shrewd judgnts of their own.
After mulling it over, Li Wei decided not to reveal himself. Instead, he continued south through the forest. He wanted to see Kakh City with his own eyes.
'I've co this far—might as well.'
From there, Li Wei headed south at an unhurried pace, avoiding the main roads entirely and weaving through the dense mountain forest. He didn't need to check directions—whenever he encountered unfamiliar terrain or places he had never been, he would stop to observe and commit every detail to mory.
It was pure rote morization. He wouldn't move on until he had locked down the surrounding topography and integrated it into his ntal map.
Well, it was also great for farming scouting experience!
The whole journey ended up taking two full days, but he managed to completely map out the irregular quadrilateral stretching from Kakh City in the south to Victor Town in the northwest, the family camp in the northeast, and the bandit camp due east.
Mountains, streams, valleys, forests—he couldn't claim to know the position of every last rock, but the broad strokes were solid. Where the ridges rose, where the valleys dipped, where the terrain shifted—he had it all catalogued.
And he successfully accumulated 400 scouting experience points.
On the fourth day—the twenty-first of the month—Li Wei finally caught distant sight of Kakh City.
At first glance, nothing seed different. Outside the farmsteads, farrs harvested golden wheat. The barking of stray dogs carried faintly from over five kiloters away, and their numbers seed to have grown.
But there were two particularly significant changes.
First, the sky held far more crows than before.
He rembered that six months ago, when he had last been here, the crows circling above Kakh City numbered around five or six hundred. Now? He would eat his words if there were fewer than three thousand.
And Li Wei would have sworn that among this massive flock—which took to the air like a dark cloud blotting out the sun—there was definitely more than one blood crow. Possibly three, maybe even five.
It was a sha his blood crow skull had already been activated and bound as a hunting pet, or he could have confird right now whether the Black-Robed Witch was inside Kakh City.
Even without that confirmation, it wasn't hard to guess. These thousands of crows occasionally perched right on Kakh City's walls.
As if nothing within the city could prevent the witch's return any longer.
It struck Li Wei as deeply strange. He had always been curious—according to the storyline, Mad Baron was the one who had ordered the great witch Luna's husband hanged. Yet Hathaway and Ron had sworn up and down that the two sides would definitely form an alliance. Even between blood siblings, that made no sense.
Unless there was more to the story than t the eye.
Oh—and the second, even more striking change: cavalry patrols had appeared outside Kakh City.
Along the King's Highway and the roads leading to the various farmsteads, mounted soldiers rode in circuits, totaling around twenty riders.
What was particularly eerie was that these riders never grouped together. Each one patrolled alone, solitary and silent. They were supposed to be on patrol, yet watching them from afar, Li Wei couldn't shake the feeling that every last one of them was a ghost—devoid of thought, mory, or emotion, knowing nothing but rciless slaughter.
This imdiately brought to mind those Three-Star Fallen Garrison Knights. Could it be—?
'Holy shit!'
If Mad Baron and the great witch had joined forces, did that an they could mass-produce Fallen Knights?
Even if the Garrison Knights themselves were limited in number, mass-producing Fallen Knight Squires, Fallen Soldiers, and Fallen Foot Knights should still be entirely feasible!
No wonder things had been quiet—they had been holed up at ho, frantically powering up and churning out troops.
And what were Hathaway and Ron doing in the anti?
There was absolutely no way they were just sitting in Victor Town waiting for the enemy to co knocking.
Li Wei's gaze swept across the surrounding forests. He was almost certain that both Hathaway's and Ron's forces were hiding sowhere in these woods, picking off minor enemies on the plains outside Kakh City.
But with blood crows leading the murder of crows to surveil the skies by day, they wouldn't dare strike in daylight. 'So they're making their moves at night? Spending all this ti out here farming campaign points and Contribution?'
At this thought, Li Wei felt a surge of excitent kindle in his chest. Grinding mobs—what a distant yet familiar concept.
'Who didn't love grinding mobs?'
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