Chapter 41

The defense mission announcement by the Chaotic City Lord would appear immediately on the Mission Panel at the Chaos Temple and was no longer displayed when preparations were ended. It was in the dead of the night at three o’clock when Li Hanqiang had decided to end his preparations. He thought to himself that there were probably not many who would have seen it.

However, the three squatting King of Endurance had chanced upon it at the Chaos Temple in Tianfeng City.

These three Kings of Endurance were Zhen Deqiang, Zhen Dejun, and Deity Robber.

In fact, they had noticed the first mission announcement that was issued by Li Hanqiang and it was that particular mission notice that had kept them up until the announcement of the second one. In particular, they were waiting for the mission information from Chaotic City No. 68.

In Zhen Dejun’s view, Li Hanqiang was provoking him. He did not have any more Messaging Props for the Entire Server left or he would have sent something back as soon as he could.

“This Li Hanqiang is really trying to jump the leaderboard. Let me count…” Zhen Deqiang counted with his fingers. “He has just opened three waves of monster attacks in a row, how can he handle them on his own?”

Zhen Dejun said, “I just want to know what the 0/0 at the end of the mission announcement actually means? Deity Robber, you should explain it to us.”

Deity Robber was full of complaints in his heart as he had also been working part-time today. He glanced at Zhen Deqiang and thought in his heart that he was an extraordinary president to always be extremely free. He left the big guild without any monitoring, not bothering to tell them to train to level up or kill monsters. Instead, he followed him to squat at the Chaos Temple. He was also calculative with his money, calculating every penny with his own fingers to make sure he was accurate by even a single silver coin. Deity Robber had been trying to earn gold coins for the whole day, but could not even earn a single dime.

Even after the aunties went offline, he still made himself continue until he damaged his liver, squatting stupidly at the Chaos Temple.

Unfortunately, he was the boss of them all and Deity Robber could only yield.

Deity Robber thought for a moment before saying, “There is only one explanation for this. It probably means that there are no idle Chaotic Stone Slabs at Li Hanqiang’s Chaotic City. I think he has filled all of them with defensive towers. He has a standalone city defense and does not want the support of any adventurer players.”

“How many defensive towers would he have needed to build then?” Zhen Deqiang counted with his fingers again but could not seem to figure it out so he only said, “It seems that this guy must have a lot of gold coins. How much did he collect?”

“Brother, what should I do? I yelled out about it so loudly previously. Isn’t what Li Hanqiang is doing right now just like a slap to our faces[1]?” Zhen Dejun said.

Zhen Deqiang pointed at Deity Robber. “You! Come up with some other ideas!”

‘I will say fart…’ Deity Robber cursed silently in his heart. Li Hanqiang was not short on money if he could defend the city alone. What could be done about this?

After holding back for a while, Deity Robber could only say, “I will not level up in the future and just wait for his city defense mission. As long as players are allowed to receive it, I will bring the aunties over with me. As long as he fails at least once to defend the city, the development of his city will fall behind. He cannot keep relying on the Defensive Towers all the time. He will still need to rely on other players in the end.”

“Stupid!” Zhen Deqiang stared at Deity Robber. “What if Li Hanqiang releases his city defense task in the middle of the night? There is no way the aunties will be able to go online on time! Are there no other methods that involve a bit of violence? Can we not just directly attack his Chaotic City!”

Deity Robber shook his head. “Don’t even think about that at this stage. It might be possible when we get our hands on void airships after the release of Empire Camps in the future. However… I have also heard that there is a kind of prop known as ‘Siege Order’ during the closed beta test. This prop is dedicated to the Chaotic City Lord and can be used to start a siege on a designated Chaotic City. However this prop can only be dropped after the death of a Level 20 BOSS or higher and the probability of it dropping is extremely low. If you can get one, maybe it can be used to attack Li Hanqiang’s city.”

“A Level 20 BOSS?” Zhen Deqiang thought about this for a while before saying, “I will send someone to refresh for the BOSS at dawn. If it’s just a Siege Order, can’t I just buy it off someone even if I can’t fight for it? Even then, we will still need a Chaotic City Lord if we want to attack his city, right?”

“Elder brother, why don’t you contact Chun Sanyue of the Qiankun League!” Zhen Dejun said. “He is a Chaotic City Lord!”

Zhen Deqiang nodded and said, “I have grown up together with that useless Chun Sanyue. While he isn’t a brave person, he can sure do surreptitious things!”

He looked at Deity Robber and said, “You will still have to continue with your espionage. It’s better to find out what is going on over at Li Hanqiang’s place and get more information on the types and numbers of defensive towers that he has. Knowing the enemy and yourself will ensure you are unscathed even through a hundred battles[2]. Since Li Hanqiang seems to have a limited IQ range, this task should be very simple!”

“Sure!” Deity Robber nodded…

Back at Li Hanqiang’s place, the monster attacks had already begun and he was having his regrets over it.

To give himself a short moment of enjoyment, he had opened up the eighth wave of monster attacks just to send out that particular mission notification. However, this wave of monster attacks was not as easy to defend against!

The monsters attacking the city were Level 18 Saber-Toothed Tigers with 1,600 to 2,000 HP. Including the Beast Hunter, Li Hanqiang only had four Defensive Towers that could fight and its damage output could not keep up.

The team of little gremlins were useless and Li Hanqiang could only glare at them anxiously. When the Elite Monster, the Level 18 Iron Claw Saber-Toothed Tiger, appeared from the Space-Time Wormhole, it made things turn from bad to worse[3] as the monsters were finally able to cross the defense line.

The missing Saber-Toothed Tigers pounced towards the Chaos’ Core and disappeared as if jumping directly into a black hole. Following that, the Chaotic Energy within the Chaos’ Core decreased accordingly.

Fortunately, Li Hanqiang still had the Small Chaotic Bottles with him and not many of the Saber-Toothed Tigers had leaked through his defensive lines. As soon as he saw any escaping Saber-Toothed Tigers beyond the Defensive Towers’ attack range, he infused more Chaotic Energy into the Chaos’ Core. Eventually, all the Chaotic Energy in the Small Chaotic Bottles were fully exhausted. At the end of the battle, he had managed to preserve three points of Chaotic Energy in the Chaos’ Core.

The monster attacks ended and Li Hanqiang received a shameful evaluation of city defense. Because of this, he did not receive any perfect city defense rewards.

“Extreme joy turns into sorrow[4]. Those who play too much shall die!”

Li Hanqiang sighed and was almost terrified by his own devilish impulses. He saw in detail what had happened to Fat Tiger Really Doesn’t Know after he had failed to defend the city. If he himself had failed his own city defense this time, it would be as good as failing on a good chess game[5]. That would have really made him weep inconsolably.

As if in response to Li Hanqiang’s shameful city defense, all the rewards given to him for defending the city were extremely useless. Li Hanqiang only got a single Chaotic Stone Slab, causing him to rage and almost knock his head against the wall.

At that moment, the sky was already bright. Li Hanqiang sighed and went offline in shame. However, at the headquarters of Qiankun Technology Company, Chun Sanyue has just signed in online.

Chun Sanyue felt particularly refreshed that day. Last night, he bought himself a batch of gold coins and together with the reserves in his own Chaotic Treasury, he finally managed to upgrade his Chaos’ Core.

“It is said that when the Chaos’ Core reaches Level 2, I can get a Chief Officer. Today, I shall take a look at what is so mysterious about this political officer.”

Chun Sanyue stood in front of the Chaos’ Core. With a single thought in his mind, together with the consumption of 1,000 gold coins, the Chaos’ Core quickly expanded to double its original size. A light shined from above and it was now upgraded to Level 2.

Following that, system notifications began to sound.

[Ding, the Chaos’ Core has upgraded to Level 2. The limit of Chaotic Energy has been increased to 1,000. A consumption of 5,000 gold coins can be used to upgrade the Chaos’ Core to Level 3.]

[Ding, respectable Chaos City Lord, the Chief Officer is being created for you. The Chief Officer has a random talent ability that can help you manage the Chaotic City more efficiently. As the level of the Chief Officer increases, many functional buildings will be unlocked. May the players explore the details by themselves.]

[Ding, respectful Chaotic City Lord, please pay attention and protect the Chief Officer. The Chief Officer has its own personality setting and cannot be resurrected once dead.]

[Ding, respectful Chaotic City Lord, your Chief Officer has been created and is coming!]

[Ding, respectful Chaotic City Lord, you can now choose to join one of the Empire Camps. After successfully joining, you will get an Empire Ranking and a void airship. The currently available Empire Camps are: Red Dragon Empire Camp, Magic Dragon Empire Camp, and Star Dragon Empire camp.]

[1] The original term in Chinese is [打脸] and means to slap one’s mouth or their words are inconsistent. In this context, it means that Zhen Dejun is worried that his words are inconsistent with his current actions.

[2] This is a Chinese idiom from Sunzi’s ‘The Art of War’. ‘The Art of War’ is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). It contains 13 chapters and each one is devoted to an aspect of warfare and how it applies to military strategy and tactics. The idiom used in the context by the author is [知己知彼,百战不殆] and the meaning is when you understand your enemies, you would be able to win a hundred battles.

[3] This is a Chinese idiom [雪上加霜] and the direct translation means to add hail to snow. The author used this to show that one disaster is happening on top of another.

[4] This is a Chinese idiom [乐极生悲] and the direct translation means to not celebrate too soon as things could still go wrong.

[5] This is a Chinese saying, it means to have a bad outcome for a good situation. The original term in Chinese is [下烂了一盘好棋].