GOR
“I can more or less understand what you mean. However, I am sorry to say I cannot accept that,” said Zhao Yun with a steely resolve. It was evident that there was no room for negotiation.
“I understand. For you, this is an insurmountable psychological hurdle.” Chen Xiaolian rubbed his nose; there was a helpless expression on his face. “For us, however, that is the easiest method. It is highly probable that by killing Liu Bei, this instance dungeon will end and you will return to being your former self.”
“There is still Cao Cao, what about him?” asked Zhao Yun coldly. “Earlier, when you fellows were speculating, the chances of Cao Cao being the quest objective should be higher, no?”
“However, that will be too difficult…” Lun Tai cast an honest gaze at Zhao Yun. “Last night, you tried it yourself with a surprise attack. You should know best just how powerful Cao Cao’s army is. Besides… … there are presently too many Awakened ones on his side. Even with your elite horse riders, you had failed to kill him. And now, their level of vigilance will be much higher while our side has too little people. By your estimate, what are the chances of us succeeding? At the very least, we should try it out with Liu Bei first. If it truly does not work, we will change our target to Cao Cao. You are a general under Liu Bei. It should be easy for you to get us close to him.”
“Killing one’s own Lord is something I will never do!” Zhao Yun’s face was ice cold and she continued, “Never speak of this again.”
“How can you be so unreasonable!” Bei Tai began growing restless. “We’ve already told you, this is all fake! This is an instance dungeon! Your real Lord had died long ago! How many times do we have to tell you before you get it? This Liu Bei is just an NPC!”
“All right, all right! Bei Tai! Enough!” Seeing Zhao Yun’s eyes glint with sharpness, Roddy hastily stepped forward to ease the situation. “Don’t get agitated! Just listen to me! Listen!”
“Err, Sister Yun… … your present level of knowledge should be that of an ancient folk, right?” Roddy cleared his throat and smiled. “Earlier, you could instantly trust Xiaolian when he informed you about instance dungeons, Awakened ones and Players. For me, that is an impressive feat.”
“As for what Bei Tai said earlier, although his tone may be a little harsh, his reasoning is correct. Before you became an Irregularity, you may have served under Liu Bei before. However, that is already history. This world we are currently in is just an instance dungeon created by the system. Of course… … I understand how you feel. At any rate, to suddenly ask of you to make such a drastic move is truly hard on you.
“So, let’s put this matter aside first. The NPC Liu Bei… … is indeed the biggest shortcut for us if we want to leave this instance dungeon. However, we will respect your opinion. Besides, we still have another matter to deal with. We need to find our companion, Qiao Qiao. Why don’t you tag along with us for now? Use this time to consider it. After we have found Qiao Qiao, we will make a decision, how about it?”
“This decision of mine will not change,” said Zhao Yun coolly. “However, I have no issues with tagging along with you all.”
“That’s fine!” said Roddy with a smile. “At any rate, who knows how long it will take for us to find Qiao Qiao. We’ll discuss it again after we find her.”
“Hey, Roddy! How do you plan on convincing her when the time comes?” Chen Xiaolian asked Roddy through their guild channel without revealing any change in his expression.
“How am I supposed to know? Just take it one step at a time,” Roddy replied through the guild channel. “Besides, we need to find Big Miss Qiao first. That will take quite a while. Who knows… … before we do, Cao Cao may have already killed Liu Bei. That is also a possibility. There are so many Awakened ones on his side after all. Eh, wait!”
Roddy grew shocked all of a sudden. “If we fail to find Qiao Qiao before Liu Bei is killed, what will happen?”
Chen Xiaolian was taken aback as well. “I… … am not sure either. I have never experienced this before.”
“I think… … I should be able to return to the outside world directly. After all, unlike Zhao Yun, I have my own self-awareness. I can also use the guild channel,” Qiao Qiao interjected with a sunny tone.
“That will be great…” Chen Xiaolian replied. Next, he grew shocked and cried out, “Qiao Qiao?!”
Flustered, Chen Xiaolian thought that he had misheard. However, when he saw expressions of shock on the others’ faces as well, he determined that the voice he heard from the guild channel earlier was indeed Qiao Qiao’s voice.
“You… … you… … how did you suddenly get the ability to talk to us? Where are you? Are you all right?” Roddy stammered as he shot out a series of questions before Chen Xiaolian could even respond.
“Is it strange that I can talk to you all?” Qiao Qiao sounded very spirited. “I am still a member of Meteor Rock Guild. Since I was not kicked out, why can’t I talk through the guild channel?”
“But you… … shouldn’t you have become an NPC? Like Zhao Yun?” There was a flabbergasted expression on Roddy’s face. It was as though he had just seen a ghost. “How can you still have awareness of your own identity?”
“Didn’t Xiaolian tell you all?” Qiao Qiao snorted. “Zhao Yun’s guess back then was very accurate. Back then, she said due to how weak I am, I will not end up getting restricted by the system like her. Thus, even though I was thrown into this instance dungeon like her, I could maintain my own mind. Additionally, I can use the skills I had back then and even props.”
“Why didn’t you tell us earlier? We have been in this instance dungeon since the middle of last night. Several hours have passed since we entered!” Roddy raised his head to look at the sky. It was already late in the morning.
“I was sleeping!” The righteous tone in her reply was truly befitting that of Big Miss Qiao.
“All right, then…” Roddy sighed. It was true. After the minor discussion they had when they first arrived in the middle of last night, they had stopped using the guild channel. It was only natural for Qiao Qiao to miss them while she was sleeping.
“Qiao Qiao, give me your location.” Chen Xiaolian, who had finally calmed down, threw a look at Roddy. “We will go pick you up.”
“I’m living in a small village located tens of lis south of Jiangling City. There are two small intersecting rivers beside the village. Just fly over with the Tidal Fighter and find it from up high.”
“All right. We are coming.” Chen Xiaolian suppressed the excitement in his heart. Raising his head, he exchanged glances with his other guild members and said, “Let’s go. We are going to… … pick up Qiao Qiao!”
…
Zhao Yun followed them up the Tidal Fighter. She had been maintaining an indifferent expression all this time; however, after the Tidal Fighter flew up, a trace of shock could be seen in her eyes as she observed – through the windows – the white clouds rushing past them from the outside.
“This is nothing wondrous. The past you had seen equipment that are much more powerful compared to this. Also, you could fly,” said Chen Xiaolian with a smile after noticing the look on Zhao Yun’s face. “Compared to the you I met in the past, the current you is much weaker.”
“Really?” said Zhao Yun coolly. “I personally feel that I have gotten stronger.”
“Naturally.” Chen Xiaolian smiled. “When moving out from World’s End, you were cut by the Lifehymn Music Score in order to fit into the ‘box’. However, you are still far stronger compared to the NPC Zhao Yun’s original setting. You feel stronger because of the false memories the system created for you. Were it not for that…”
Chen Xiaolian looked right at her. “You would not have led those horse riders and aim for Cao Cao’s head.”
“Mm.” After Chen Xiaolian brought that up, Zhao Yun’s face turned slightly despondent. “I failed to kill Cao Cao. I failed them.”
“You did your best.” Naturally, Chen Xiaolian was not insensitive enough to bring up the topic of NPCs at a time like this. He simply gave a few comforting words before shifting the topic. “Where is Liu Bei right now?”
“What do you want to do?” Zhao Yun cast a somewhat wary look at Chen Xiaolian.
“Relax. Before getting your consent, we will not go kill Liu Bei.” Chen Xiaolian hastily explained. “Normally, after entering a historical-type instance dungeon, we will use our knowledge of history to speculate the present situation and what will happen next. However, the surprise attack you launched last night… … that never happened in the historical texts. I believe that your appearance, you replacing the NPC Zhao Yun, has changed this instance dungeon’s storyline. Knowing what Liu Bei is doing will be advantageous for our next set of actions – even if it is to kill Cao Cao.”
“My Lord…” Zhao Yun was still incapable of ridding her habit of addressing the NPC as Lord. “I have always suspected that Liu Cong would surrender to Cao Cao. Thus, I have always paid extra attention to what Liu Cong was doing. Five days ago, I received news that he had decided to give Jingzhou up to Cao Cao and reported it to my Lord. After receiving my report, he gave up on defending Fancheng and sailed through Hanshui (Han River) to head toward Jiangling. As for me, I secretly led 500 horse riders from our army to find an opportunity for a surprise attack to kill off Cao Cao.”
“Secretly?” Chen Xiaolian was surprised. “You mean to say… … Liu Bei is unaware of what you did?”
“If he finds out, he will never agree,” replied Zhao Yun with a faint smile. “Regardless if I succeed or fail in killing Cao Cao, I will certainly die to the army in the end. Given his benevolent character, could he bear to send me to my death?”
“If Liu Bei did start moving out so quickly, he may have already arrived in Jiangling.” Chen Xiaolian considered it. “In other words, the historical Battle of Changban will never happen in this instance dungeon.”
“That may not be good news for us,” interjected Roddy, who was piloting the Tidal Fighter. “If we want to kill Cao Cao, having him lead his 5,000-strong Tiger Leopard Cavalry to chase after Liu Bei will provide us with a decent opportunity. However, if the entire army besieges the city… … that will be a headache!”
“We can slowly look for more opportunities.” Chen Xiaolian sighed. “Where are we?”
“We are already atop the target location.” Roddy switched the image on the monitor screen to connect to the surveillance devices beneath the Tidal Fighter and looked through it in detail. “There are several villages here… … two rivers… … intersecting… … all right, found it!”
Roddy laughed out and abruptly pushed the control shaft forward, causing the Tidal Fighter to rush down at a high velocity.
In order to stay hidden and not cause any ruckus, Roddy landed the Tidal Fighter within a forest some distance away from the village.
Before landing, Chen Xiaolian informed Qiao Qiao of their landing position. Thus, when the Tidal Fighter switched off its cloaking function, they could already see a figure coming from afar. It was Qiao Qiao.
She was no longer wearing the white robes that she wore back in World’s End. Instead, she was wearing a coarse-looking hanfu dress. Her hair was tied up to form two rings of hair and her face was devoid of makeup. Even so, she still possessed that exquisite and beautiful bearing.
Seeing Qiao Qiao, Chen Xiaolian felt his eyes growing hot.
Finally, he could meet the girl that he had been missing so deeply once more.
After closing the distance between them, Qiao Qiao, who had been running all the way over, slowed down her pace. Her fists were clenched and there was a slight redness in her eyes. Then, tears flowed down from her eyes.
“Chen Xiaolian…” Qiao Qiao bit her lip as she stared at the fair and familiar face before her. The calmness that had been in her voice when she was communicating with them through the guild channel had disappeared. “You… … why are you so late?!”
“Why are you crying?” Chen Xiaolian hastily stepped forward. He hugged Qiao Qiao and said, “Hasn’t it been only a few days since we left World’s End? You didn’t cry like this when I found you in World’s End.”
“A few days?” Qiao Qiao bit Chen Xiaolian’s shoulder and furiously hissed out, “It’s been half a year!”
“What?!”
Chen Xiaolian was stunned.