CH 4

Chapter 4: Future Wife

Beneath Toad Peak, Huang Sanyuan took inventory of the casualties with a sunken expression.

Truth be told, there wasn’t really anything in terms of casualties. Besides Lin Shaoyu who was missing, everyone else was just fine. However, the young master’s betrothed was kidnapped by bandits, and given the city lord’s brutal nature, Huang Sanyuan can’t even imagine what might await them when they return to Blackstone City.

“I’m asking you guys now. Do you want to die or live!” Huang Sanyuan suddenly spoke up.

A soldier gathered his courage and spoke, “Official Huang, of course we’d want to live…”

“Since you want to live, I’ll ask you now, how many bandits attacked us today?”

“One…” The soldier suddenly got an inspiration, “A full one hundred!”

“A hundred!” Huang Sanyuan snorted, “Are you blind? There were obviously over 300 bandits. We fought with all our might and killed over a dozen bandits, but we unfortunately failed to protect the young mistress. And Sir Lin went missing as well.”

Huang Sanyuan pulled out his short sword and used it to cut a wound into his arm, making it bleed, before shouting, “Return to the city with me and ask for reinforcements!”

The soldiers copied him and inflicted various wounds on themselves. They tore openings in their leather armor and cut wounds into their flesh. Every one of them winced in pain at the doing, but compared to the sheer brutality of the Blackstone City’s lord, that much was nothing.

As the group slowly left, a person came out of the bushes. It was Lin Shaoyu. As he looked up at the stars in the sky, Lin Shaoyu let out a long sigh.

“I, Lin Shaoyu had considered myself a wandering hero, and Official Huang had also trusted me so. Yet, in the end, Miss Su was still abducted by bandits.” Lin Shaoyu tightened his grip on the iron spear in his hand, “Worry not, Official Huan. This Lin Shaoyu will definitely save Miss Su for you. This I swear!”

…

Name: Xu Shenji (Infamously terrible strategist)

Age: 49

Skills: None

Hidden setting: A worthless strategist who will always be wrong.

[Even a fool must have something going for them, but this is an existence more foolish than a fool. For there to be someone in this chaotic world who would take him in, the only possible explanation for that is kindness]

Cheng Dalei looked at Xu Shenji with a despairing expression. He had originally thought that [normal] was the lowest level, but only now, having looked at Xu Shenji, did he know that there was a [terrible] rank below even normal. And that hidden setting especially…

Others might not have any good ideas, but your ideas are always wrong. What the heck is even the point of keeping him around? Keep him as a mascot?

Xu Shenji spoke, “Boss, boss. What happened?”

“Nothing. I might just having some bad luck.” Cheng Dalei rubbed at his face, “Alright, what is it?”

“Boss, I just interrogated that woman. Her name is Su Ying. She’s the fiancee of the son of Blackstone City’s lord. Us abducting her is serious trouble. You don’t know just how mighty Blackstone City is. It was during a battle with Blackstone City that the old boss took an arrow and died of sickness. But now we’ve provoked them again! If their army comes at us, then we’re doomed for sure.”

Qin Man and Xu Linger also came by around now, so Cheng Dalei asked, “Who here knows the current status of Blackstone City?”

“I do.” Qin Man said, “Blackstone City is a hundred some miles from Toad Peak. The Lord is named Han Huju. He’s incredibly lusty and brutal. The city itself is supposed to hold 5000 elite soldiers.”

“5000 vs 2. Boss, do you think you can take them?” Xu Shenji took the initiative to remove him and his daughter from consideration.

“Then what do you suggest? We’ve already abducted her after all. Or do you want to send her back, apologize, and kowtow to him? See if he’ll spare you then.” Cheng Dalei spoke.

“That… Please pretend I didn’t say anything.”

Cheng Dalei had long since lost all expectations for this strategist of his. He instead looked toward Qin Man. Perhaps he had some talent for strategy?

“Qin Man, what do you think we should do?”

“I think that rather than giving up the initiative and defending, we’re better off attacking. We’ll slaughter our way through to Blackstone City and kill Han Huju. Given that they wouldn’t be expecting us, we should have at least a 70% chance of success.”

Cheng Dalei and Xu Shenji both stared at Qin Man disbelievingly. Four people vs. 5000, and he’s saying that they have a 70% chance…

Well, it seems he’s got another reckless idiot with a 0 in his intelligence stat. It looks like he can only rely on himself to carry the heavy burden of coming up with a plan.

“By my estimations, it’s better if we just grabbed everything we can and ran for it. We should hurry too, as it’ll be too late if we wait any longer.” Xu Shenji advised.

Xu Linger and Qin Man both nodded, “At this point, that’s the only option left…”

“Escape is not an option.” Cheng Dalei spoke with certainty.

“Why?” Xu Shenji didn’t understand why Cheng Dalei was so certain.

Cheng Dalei wanted to run at first as well, but Xu Shenji’s hidden setting is just too terrifying. That guy’s hidden setting is that he’ll always be wrong after all. In other words, any idea he gives will definitely be the wrong choice. Therefore, if they ran like he suggested, they’ll definitely end up meeting a bad end.

“There are three reasons. One, the person we abducted is the fiancee of the son of the city lord. She may or may not actually be all that important. After all, do you really think the heir of the city would lack choice for a wife? Therefore, there’s no way that they’d send 5000 against us. Maybe one or two hundred at most. The second reason is that we’re a god hundred or so miles from Blackstone. It’ll take them some time to get there and then come back, and that time will be our opportunity. If we used the terrain skillfully to ambush them, then it’s not impossible for us to win.”

Beep. Quest received [First Base Defense]. Quest difficulty exceeds current faction strength.

Even the system is giving him notice. It just goes to show how serious the situation is.

Well, since he received the quest, might as well do his best and give it a try.

“What about the third reason.” Xu Shenji asked, stunned. He never imagined that Cheng Dalei could sound so logical here.

“As for the third reason…” Cheng Dalei took a look around, “My father, the previous boss of the Toad Bandits died due to his arrow wound from a battle against Blackstone. Qin Man also has a blood feud against Han Huju. There’s no way that we can leave those grudges unpaid. Therefore, we have to win. We have to win even if it’s impossible.”

“Yes!” Qin Man slammed his fist into the table, “Boss, from now on, my life is yours!”

Xu Shenji wasn’t as excited as Qin Man was, nor did he really understand what Cheng Dalei meant by [winning even if it’s impossible]. After thinking it over a bit, Xu Shenji asked, “There are two paths from Blackstone City to our base. One is an official road, wide enough to accommodate two carriages side by side, while the other is a goat trail that passes through a narrow valley. If we’re going to ambush them, then how can we know which path they’re taking?”

“That depends on you, the strategist.” Cheng Dalei show a mysterious smile, “Think on it carefully, strategist, which way do you think they’ll take?”

Xu Shenji knit his brows together and used what few brain cells he had before definitively stating, “They’ll definitely use the official road!”

Chen Dalei laughed happily in response, “I know which path they’ll be taking then.”

Xu Shenji was even more confused now. Not even he was all that confident in his deduction, so why is Cheng Dalei so confident in his answer?”

Xu Shenji let out a long sigh, “To be truthful, boss, I don’t have any real hopes at all.”

“Originally, I had no confidence either, “Cheng Dalei patted Xu Shenji on the shoulder, “But now, I feel like we have a 50/50 chance.”

Everything has its place after all. Cheng Dalei now deeply appreciates the meaning of that saying. Who says that Xu Shenji is useless? He’s a superweapon capable of eliminating the wrong choices after all. From now on, if Cheng Dalei ends up with a grudge against someone, he could just send Xu Shenji over to advise his enemy, and said enemy would end up utterly ruined soon enough.

As he thought that, Cheng Dalei got in a great mood. Thus he whistled as he headed toward his room.

It’s about time he met his future wife to be.