Chapter 123
"Finally! Finally, it's here!"
"We're going to have a war campaign again? I'm so excited right now! It's been a long time since we fought one!"
"God damnit! Why only 50 people? And why are you all so fast?"
"Hesitation will make you lose!"
"I didn't get the mission, but can I follow you? I don't mind if there's no reward, I just want to watch the cutscene!"
"We are selling Goblin Bazookas! It's the big clearance sale with only 5 silver coins apiece! If you don't buy, it's your loss! Come and take a look!"
"Give me one first, I'll pay later!"
"Go away!"
At the west gate of the outpost.
A large group of players, armed with their weapons and ammunition, ran to the clearing in front of the trench to gather.
It was so lively that it didn't look like there was going to be a war; it looked more like a festival.
One of the players even went to the warehouse to rent a cart, so he could load the gun barrel, gun mount, and shells on it. Moreover, he also hired a strength type newbie to help pull the cart.
"B, bro! Can, can you let me fire it once?" The newbie asked excitedly on the side of the cart.
Mosquito couldn't help laughing when he heard this. He patted the player on the shoulder and said. "Of course! Brother! Just listen to my instructions later, and then you can fire as many times as you want."
"Okay!"
It was so lively that anyone with eyes could see it.
The nomads who returned from fetching water from the lake looked over in surprise. They looked at each other and whispered.
"What are they doing?"
"Is there going to be a battle?"
"They all have guns in their hands!"
"Who are they fighting against? Marauders? Or mutants?"
Carrying two plastic buckets full of water, Autumn Weed and Autumn Leaves looked curiously at the Administrator who came out of the west gate.
The eyes of the two fell on that impressive sledgehammer on his back.
"It's so big..."
"That hammer must weigh at least dozens of kilograms, right?"
"That armor also looks heavy, is it made of steel?"
"Is he not tired?"
"Don't keep staring at him. It's rude to keep looking at other people."
"Oh, okay… Wait! Why is it just me? You were also staring at him."
Autumn Weed repeated with a blushing face. "You, you just shouldn't do it. It's disrespectful."
More and more nomads were attracted by the movement outside the outpost.
From a distance of dozens of meters, they watched the warriors in front of the trenches curiously, discussing what happened.
Is it going to be a war?
People will die in battles.
But why do those soldiers look so excited?
Don't they fear death at all?
Many nomads couldn't help but feel awe in their hearts. The morale of these blue-coated people was even more impressive than the weapons in their hands!
Just as they were talking, their leader Iron Axe walked out from the crowd with several hunters carrying bows and arrows and javelins.
In front of the administrator, Iron Axe Wu clasped his fists and said respectfully. "Sir, these people behind me are the elites of our tribe. As long as you nod your head, we will be the sharpest spear in your hand!"
Taking a glance at him, Chu Guang was about to politely decline his kindness when he suddenly had a new idea, "Just stay near me later."
"Yes! Sir!"
Signaling Yu Hu, Iron Axe Wu, and others to wait in place, Chu Guang walked up to the players. In anticipation of the players, he opened his mouth and read out the line that took him ten minutes to come up with.
"For too long, the people of Bett Street have endured the town mayor's oppression. Under his tyrannical rule, they suffer from hunger and poverty, struggling to survive everyday. The money extorted from those poor people by his tyranny has lined his pockets alone, satisfying only his insatiable greed.
"His list of crimes is endless. But now, he has crossed a line that we can no longer tolerate. He has not only targeted us but has also joined forces with our archenemies, the Bloodhand Clan, forging secret alliances and even instigating aggression against us!
"Justice may sometimes arrive late, but it will never be absent. The time has come to show that greedy old leech what the consequences are for provoking us. His actions have ignited a fire within us, a fire that will consume all that is unjust.
"Everyone, follow me into battle!"
In the open space in front of the trenches, the roars of excitement were deafening.
"Liberate Bett Street!"
"For Xiaoyu!"
"Awooo!!"
…
In the castle at the center of Bett Street.
With a forceful push, the guard, clad in a deerskin coat, flung open the study room doors on the top floor, and swiftly dashed through a lengthy row of bookshelves, arriving promptly before the town mayor.
"Sir! We've spotted a lot of people coming from the north! There, there are more than fifty of them!" The guard said urgently.
"How many?!" The town mayor instantly got up, his expression changed quickly. Before the guard could respond to him, he rushed out of the study, quickly running through the corridor connected to the tower, the highest place of the castle, and hurriedly climbed up to the top of the tower.
The north wind whistled fiercely outside the tall tower.
He who came out of the study without putting on his coat was shivering in the cold. Ignoring the coldness, he grabbed the binoculars hanging on the side and looked towards the north.
What he saw was a group of people wearing fur coats, carrying guns in different sizes in their hands, and looking more like marauders than actual marauders. At the moment, they were marching aggressively in the direction of Bett Street.
On this cold day with the north wind howling fiercely, a drop of sweat actually oozed out of the forehead of the old town mayor.
Turning his head sharply, he grabbed the guard who had followed him to the top of the tower, and roared loudly. "Quick, gather all the guards! Ask them to pick up their weapons and go to the north gate!"
"Also, send someone to Charlie and ask him to mobilize the hunters on Bett Street! Gather all men over 14 at the door of the armory!"
"Go now!"
"Yes, yes!" The guard nodded repeatedly, his legs trembling.
Not long after, the castle's bell rang rapidly, breaking the tranquility of Bett Street.
The survivors standing on the street had no clue what was happening; they thought the marauders had arrived. In a flurry of panic, they dashed toward their homes, hastily gathering belongings, preparing to flee, utterly bewildered and disoriented.
Hearing the rapid bell, Old Charlie didn't panic at all, but heaved a sigh of relief.
If it was destined to happen, the only thing he could do was make it happen faster.
For example, if the bomb was ignited before the foolish town mayor did something more outrageously stupid, fewer poor people would be implicated.
If there was no accident, that foolish town mayor would soon send someone to find him, asking him to mobilize the hunters of Bett Street to stand on the walls and fight those blue-coated people to the end.
Drawing the curtain of the grocery store, this old man picked up his cane and hid into the panicked crowd.
At the same time, the door to the armory on the side of the castle was opened.
The guard wearing the deerskin coat took the iron-barreled rifle and ammunition from the captain and rushed to the north gate to guard behind the cover.
However, the cover made of scrap metal pieces and concrete garbage did not give them much sense of security.
Apart from a few aging veterans whose faces were lined with wrinkles, many young guards wore expressions of panic and unease, their hands gripping the guns were moist with nervous sweat.
A big force like Bloodhand Clan would not come after receiving the protection fee.
Normally, their adversaries were only mutants, and the most dangerous among them were just a few mutated brown bears. Only in very rare cases would they encounter marauders who, out of sheer recklessness, came knocking at their door for extortion. These individuals usually had dismal combat abilities, so destitute that they didn't even possess a rifle, often inferior even to the town's hunters.
This was the first time that those young guards had encountered such a situation!
Looking around at the guards around, a look of solemnity appeared on Old Walter's face.
Including him, they could only muster a total of eleven individuals, with half of them being the gatekeepers from the old mayor's residence. The combined count of bullets fired by them in a year might not even reach 30 rounds.
The captain of the guard on the side scolded his subordinate. "Where's everyone? Is this all we have? What about the hunters in town? Give them guns and let them scatter into the buildings outside!"
"Old Charlie went to gather them… they, they should be here soon," said a young guard, holding his rifle, tremblingly.
"It will be too late," Old Walter looked out of the cover and said, "Those people are already here."
On the snow-covered street.
A group of soldiers clad in fur coats, carrying rifles and handguns, had appeared at the end of the street, led by a heavily armored man. They quickly dispersed behind nearby cover along the street.
Both sides were only 200 meters apart now, well within firing range! Yet, neither side made a move; they simply stood nervously locked in a standoff.
At this moment, Walter's brows frowned suddenly. He just spotted a jet-black gun barrel being pushed out from the street corner on the opposite side!
They also have a cannon? !
The cannon's barrel was about as long as a leg, probably a cast-iron barrel. Its wall was quite thick, and its black muzzle exuded a penetrating cold light.
Although it looked crudely made, no one dared to underestimate its power.
Swallowing hard, the captain of the guard on the side finally couldn't help shouting loudly towards the opposite side. "Who are you? What are you doing here!"
Isn't this obvious?...
Do you need to ask such a stupid question?
Walter complained in his heart. He silently loaded the shotgun in his hand, pointed out the barrel, and aimed at the opposite side.
However, at this moment, his pupils shrank suddenly.
He saw a man wearing a fur coat, raising both hands in a gesture of not being armed, stepping out from behind cover.
Old Walter squinted his eyes.
After guarding the gate for decades, he recognized almost every face on this street.
Apparently it wasn't just him who recognized the identity of the man; there were several young guards nearby who also recognized the person.
"Zhao Rat?"
"It seems... It's really him!"
"What the hell... Isn't he dead? I saw his family arrange a funeral for him with my own eyes."
"I also remember it! It was last month. I heard that he ran into someone from Bloodhand Clan when he went out hunting a deer herd in the north... and the second child of the Yang family was also caught by them."
"You mean Yang Seconddog?"
"Yes, yes, that guy!"
While the guards were discussing, Zhao Rat, who had walked 10 or 20 meters forward, stopped and shouted loudly. "Everyone, I'm Zhao Rat! I'm here to help you!"
"Help us?" The captain of the guard behind the cover sneered and shouted to Zhao Rat, who was standing in the snow, "help us, how are you going to help us?"
Seeing the captain of the guard, Zhao Rat became nervous instinctively.
But thinking of the dozens of soldiers behind him, and the words the administrator had said to him earlier, the flames rekindled in his eyes, and his back that had just bent a little straightened up again.
Looking at the fellow town people behind the cover, he raised his voice and said loudly. "One month ago, the second child of the Yang family and I went to hunt deer in the north. Unfortunately, we were captured by the marauders of Bloodhand Clan and thrown into their dungeon. Just when I thought that I was going to die, our neighbor… these people behind me rescued me from the marauder's dungeon."
The guards behind the cover burst into a commotion, their faces showing surprise.
He was rescued from the marauder's dungeon?
Does this mean that the Bloodhand Clan has been taken out by them? !
Zhao Rat continued without pausing. "Not only did they give me food, clothes, fuel, but they also gave me work and shelter to keep me from starvation and cold. They took in not only me, but other captives who were rescued by them. The reason why I'm telling you this is that, I just want you to know that they are not our enemies—"
"Bullshit!" the captain of the guard yelled, "You ungrateful piece of shit! Just because an outsider threw you two bones, you start to wag your tail at them, willing to be their dog, and even baring your fangs at your fellow town people! Where is your conscience?"
Zhao Rat roared in anger. "Conscience? Are you not ashamed to say this word? You tell me, who is the ungrateful piece of shit! We scavenge, hunt, and trade our lives for chips, but what do we get? We have to pay tribute to him every year, endure his exploitation, and use the money we made to buy the leftover garbage! But that's not all. We also have to live in fear every day because of marauders!"
"Tell me, where was he when I was thrown into the dungeon by the marauders? He never protects anyone. He only cares about himself, and when we needed him, he didn't even step out of his castle!"
"From the very beginning, the vampire who lives in the castle is the same as the people from the Bloodhand Clan! He uses the fruits of our labor to honor those marauders, and even aids those bastards in sucking the life out of us! If you think I am kidding, here's the letter that that vampire actually wrote to the Bloodhand Clan. He even wanted those marauders to attack our neighbors!"
With that, Zhao Rat took out a letter from his arms and raised it up high. "Want me to read it to you?"
Old Walter's eyes widened when he heard this.
The young guards next to them also showed shocked expressions on their faces.
The old town mayor and the Bloodhand Clan are working together?
Is it real? !
As he observed the wavering expressions of the surrounding guards, beads of sweat formed on the forehead of the captain of the guard.
His first reaction was that these words were definitely not thought up by this hillbilly who didn't even know a word.
Someone must have taught him what to say!
If he let this guy continue to talk, probably this battle would be lost without a fight.
As the person who worked directly under the town mayor, he also had a vested interest in protecting the town mayor. So it didn't matter if it was real or not, the captain of the guard had already decided that he must be on the side of the town mayor.
Besides, the situation was not that bad. Although there were dozens of people on the opposite side, there were hundreds of survivors on Bett Street.
Now that the armory was open, as long as Old Charlie mobilised the survivors in the town, this fight may not necessarily be lost!
After making a quick judgment, the captain of the guard roared while looking at Zhao Rat who had already started reading the letter. "Fire!"
However, the gunshot did not sound, and no one responded to his order.
Listening to the almost flattering and sycophantic words in the letter, not only the young guards, but also Old Walter fell into silence, staring at the shotgun in his hand for a long time without saying a word.
The captain of the guard gritted his teeth, his eyes blazing with anger.
Not wanting to wait any longer, he picked up the rifle in his hand, aimed at the hillbilly pretending to read the letter 150 meters away, and pulled the trigger.
Pa!
Whoosh-
The first bullet flew past Zhao Rat's face and hit the snowdrift behind him, frightening him into immediately jumping aside and hiding behind the wreckage of the car buried in the heavy snow.
Old Walter's expression changed. He looked at the captain of the guard who was pulling the bolt to continue shooting in shock.
"Are you crazy!?"
The captain of the guard glared at him viciously, then at the guards huddled behind the cover. "Why do I have to listen to a marauder's nonsense?! Fire your guns with me if you don't want to die!"
Across the street, looking at the bullet mark that appeared not far away, the players not only did not panic at all, but instead shouted excitedly.
"Boss! The other side opened fire!"
"Stop wasting time talking to them! Let's do it!"
"Let's rush!"
Although it was somewhat different from the plan, since the other side opened fire, Chu Guang did not hesitate to make the decision. He looked at Mosquito not far away, and waved his right hand forward in his excited gaze.
"Fire!"
"Okay!" After receiving the order to fire, Mosquito gave the newbie an eye signal, and shouted excitedly, "Fire!"
The newbie of the strength type immediately lit the fuse behind the iron cannon, and then covered his ears.
"Bang!"
Jets of fire and white smoke erupted as artillery shells, akin to thunderbolts, arched through the sky, landing upon the north gate of Bette Street.
"Boom!"
In the thick white smoke and scattered fireworks, the door made of wood exploded like it was struck by lightning!
The captain of the guard, who was standing behind the cover firing his gun, was suddenly frightened into retreating behind the cover.
At this time, a whistle sounded from the far side of the street, followed by a wave of earth-shattering battle cries. It was like billowing waves rushing towards the defensive position.
"Fire! Fire!" He ordered the guards next to him to fight back, but no one listened to him.
The morale, which was already low, was shattered by the blast of the cannon. Listening to the sharp whistle and loud shouts, let alone sticking out their heads to shoot, it was already brave enough not to escape immediately.
Seeing that other guards were terrified, Old Walter couldn't help remembering what happened a long time ago.
Long, long ago, when he was still young, Bett Street was once looted by Bloodhand Clan's marauders.
At that time, there were 12 members in the guard, but they suffered heavy losses against only 11 marauders, leaving only two survivors in the end.
Even if the hunters in the town were successfully mobilized, nothing would change. These were the ruthless people who took out the Bloodhand Clan. They could probably defeat them with just one wave of charge.
Besides...
Old Walter had just recognized the man who ordered the attack. It was the blue-coated man who had been on Bett Street for a while and later went missing.
If these people truly came out of a shelter, it was unlikely that they would treat them badly.
"Let's surrender... The reinforcements are still not here, and they probably won't come here at all. There are only 11 of us here. There's no way we can stop them." Old Walter put down the gun in his hand and said.
Looking at the captain of the guard who had turned his gun to point at him, he said with a sigh. "What's the point? While neither side has lost lives yet, perhaps they won't treat prisoners too badly.".
The face of the captain of the guard turned pale and his fingers trembled. "Don't make me."
Old Walter grabbed for the barrel of his gun, not moving an inch, and looked at him seriously. "If you want to kill me, then pull the trigger!"
"A lot of people will die today. It's not a bad thing to leave this world first."
Watching the captain of the guard whose expression changed from stern to stiff, and from stiff to despair, Old Walter let out a sigh of relief. He slowly took the rifle out of his trembling hands and said.
"Thank you, you gave us all a chance to live."
Forcing himself to show a weak smile on his pale face, the captain of the guard said weakly, "I hope so."...................................................................................................................................
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