The next day, Wu Shuang woke up early and continued scavenging and transporting supplies from the northern district.
After two rounds of searching, he returned to the attic. Only then did he see a private message from Dr. Zeng. She had messaged him to say goodbye because, with the help of the Hero Alliance, she had completed her Main Quest and was among the first batch of players to leave.
By the time Wu Shuang saw it, she had already teleported away. His reply yielded a system prompt indicating she was out of the region, though her avatar remained lit up.
Apprentice Heroes could not communicate across regions—that capability was unlocked only by Official Heroes, and even then, only between Official Heroes.
"Work hard... I need to find a way to become an Official Hero soon, too."
He muttered to himself, his mind already turning to how he might become an Official Hero. With Argus, it wasn't impossible for him to kill goblins, but he needed to further strengthen his physical attributes and ideally master how to stimulate his Humanity into Red Humanity.
Over the past few days, his Humanity had remained above 140, but after being drained by the darkness last night, it had dropped to 137, reducing his EXP bonus to 10%.
Currently, his Strength attribute was still over 40 EXP short of upgrading to Level 5. He had to pick up the pace. He planned to do another round of scavenging today, then spend the remaining time at the estate working on his combat skills.
Once fully prepared, he could set out for the Ruined Church to complete the Grave Digging side quest.
He had his own ideas and plans. Through his previous fights, he had realized the importance of throwing weapons and seizing the initiative. Thus, he had developed his own combat style, intending to enhance his throwing skills and archery to strike first and gain an advantage.
Because victory and defeat were often decided in an instant, the initiative offered a tremendous advantage. This was where long weapons excelled, and even more so crossbows, bows, and firearms.
He intended to follow this route. Combined with Argus, loaded with two rounds, he wouldn't be completely helpless even when facing two living corpses.
...
Soon, afternoon came on the sixth day. It had been nearly a week since Wu Shuang transmigrated.
Inside a spacious room on the fourth floor of Baron Raymont's Estate.
The windows here were all boarded up with wooden strips, and even tattered clothes were hung as curtains, leaving only the minimum light necessary to see.
Wu Shuang was practicing his combat skills here, using a doorless wooden cabinet as a target, drawing a circle on it with charcoal to practice throwing.
He felt he had some talent after all; hitting targets previously hadn't been a coincidence. Especially the hand axe—after restoring it with a whetstone until it shone brightly, it felt amazingly comfortable in his hand, becoming his current favorite weapon.
Then there were shortswords, daggers, a hunting knife taken from the hunter's home, and a short hammer he had bought. He possessed a wide variety of weapons now, and he tried practicing slashing, hacking, striking, and throwing techniques with all of them, making rapid progress.
As for the bow and arrow... he wasn't sure if the rough-quality hunting bow was too trashy or if the arrows were bad. Not only was their power low, but they also didn't fly straight, spinning in the air. Wu Shuang had temporarily put them aside, feeling he needed higher-quality fletched arrows or to switch to a crossbow to unleash their true potential.
He looked at the high-end wooden cabinet he had beaten beyond recognition, deriving a sense of accomplishment from the holes peppering the black circle.
Now, when throwing weapons, nine out of ten attempts hit the target within five meters. Farther out, at eight or nine meters, his accuracy was still seventy percent, making hitting a person relatively easy.
Combined with his shield, Argus, and his Strength attribute upgraded to 5, he was ready to head to the Ruined Church. He planned to set out early tomorrow morning, and a side quest had refreshed as well.
The small goals he had set earlier were mostly completed, except for finding a water source and mastering Humanity transformation.
However, he was sure to find the former as his exploration area expanded; as for the latter, he was truly clueless.
Wu Shuang had tried over the past few days, repeatedly attempting to enrage himself and even slapping himself twice, but none of it worked. It seemed that the more deliberate he was, the less he could enter that state.
That made sense; if controlling Humanity transformation were that simple, a convenient item like smelling salts wouldn't be necessary. It was likely an ability most people couldn't master, so Wu Shuang stopped rushing it, deciding to figure it out later.
Currently, his Humanity had dropped below 120 to 113. If every night were like this, it would probably fall below 100, so he might as well research ways to increase Humanity instead.
Wu Shuang stopped training and checked his stamina, which was down to 34%. He decided to call it a day and return early to rest, as tomorrow's task would be heavy.
He checked the chat channel. As expected, the online count had dropped below 100 to just 91, which included people from the Hero Alliance who had come to help complete Main Quests. By tomorrow, this number would plummet further, perhaps even down to single digits.
"Though over these past two days... I don't seem to have seen many newly transmigrated players."
Wu Shuang suddenly remarked. Because the numbers had been dropping as people left, this detail had been overlooked.
Frowning, he recalled carefully. Lately, he really hadn't seen newcomers complaining in the chat channel about the outrageous tasks assigned by the system; the most recent time had been three days ago.
"Is it just my imagination?"
He muttered uncertainly. Scrolling through the chat logs, he hesitated briefly before inquiring with Li Yan, who was also surprised that Wu Shuang was paying attention to such minor details.
Li Yan offered an explanation for this.
"...Whenever the situation gets tense and the Royal City Defense War is imminent, the system reduces its summoning of Heroes, as if preparing to concentrate its power on the defense war."
"Does that mean the Royal City Defense War is about to start soon?"
"Yes. We estimate the next Royal City Defense War will take place within six months to a year, which is why we are so eager to recruit.
So, interested in joining us? Today is the final deadline, as we are preparing to evacuate," Li Yan replied, extending a final invitation.
However, Wu Shuang thought of an even worse possibility.
If the system actually needed to accumulate power, didn't that mean its power was finite? It wasn't guaranteed to win 100% and might even lose. If that were the case...
The more Wu Shuang thought about it, the worse it seemed. He didn't care much for Li Yan's invitation, but he felt an even greater sense of urgency. He needed to act faster.
After politely declining Li Yan, Wu Shuang returned to the attic, hastily ate dinner, and did some light stretches. When he checked his Humanity, he was surprised to find it had increased slightly, breaking back above 120.
"Humanity can increase like this?" He was somewhat surprised.
"Perhaps thinking more, experiencing more of this world, and enriching one's experiences can foster an increase in Humanity."
He thought secretly, feeling that this was a viable and effective method.
"When will this annoying darkness ever end..."
Wu Shuang muttered with a frown, already somewhat numb to the warnings of Humanity loss ringing in his ears. He casually lowered the brightness of the lantern by his bed, ensured there was enough kerosene, and lay down to sleep.
Rate on N.U.
