Chapter 49: Chapter 49 – Saved File Gone to Waste
[In the summer of year 195, Ren Woxing passed away at the age of 23. His last words were: I really hope…to be able to catch the prawns in the river with my brothers again.]
[In the summer of year 195, Ren Changsheng took over the role of the head of the family, and his name was changed to Ren Woxing. Ever since then, the names of each generation of patriarchs would be changed to Ren Woxing.]
[In the autumn of year 199, Ren Changsheng passed away at the age of 23. His last words were: I have never regretted being born into the Ren family.]
[In the autumn of year 199, Ren Xiaobai took over the role of the head of the family, and her name was changed to Ren Woxing.]
[In the spring of year 206, Ren Luo, the child of Ren Xiaobai and the White Horse Elf, was born.]
[In the summer of year 209, Ren Buhui died at the age of 15 during the battle against the evil Demons at the Red Cliffs.]
At this juncture three days after he had acquired the game, Ren Suo knew that he no longer stood a chance at completing the mission, based on the current game progress.
The Practitioners of the Ren family could only start training from the age of eight, and they were only able to take part in battles and perform spiritual exchanges after they turned 14. Thus, the newborn children had no other purpose except to increase the Ren family population during their first eight years.
Ren Suo had previously thought that after Ren Woxing’s death, he would not be able to control any other character but only be able to watch the game continue by itself. He had not expected that each generation of patriarchs would have their name changed to “Ren Woxing”, which meant that the player would continue to be in control of the character.
In the year 209, the most significant and decisive battle which was fought at the Red Cliffs between Cao Cao and the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei came to an end. Ren Suo sent Ren Buhui, Ren Feifan’s daughter, on an expedition to the newly opened location [Ghost Demons of Red Cliffs] to acquire more Reiki crystals. Ren Xiaobai and Ren Buhui were the only two Practitioners in the Ren family who could be sent out on expeditions, and since one of them had to remain at home to look after the house, hence Ren Suo could only send Ren Buhui for the expedition.
Unfortunately, Ren Buhui was not the “Third Generation Ren Woxing”, and so Ren Suo could not control Ren Buhui’s actions. However, after he sent Ren Buhui for the expedition, only news of her dying on the battlefield returned. The fact that she did not even have a chance of escaping back home meant that the Demons at the Red Cliffs were far more powerful than Ren Suo had anticipated.
Now, there were only 3-year-old Ren Luo and 18-year-old Ren Xiaobai in the Ren family, but Ren Xiaobai passed away earlier at the age of 21 as she had two prior close deaths.
Nonetheless, even if Ren Xiaobai could live two more years until the age of 23, the Demons of the Three Kingdoms would still have grown stronger as time passed. Ren Luo, the sole member of the Ren family left in the game, would still have had to start his training from scratch, and would stand no chance against the Demons! If the Ren family could not defeat the Demons and earn more Reiki crystals, they would naturally be unable to perform spiritual exchanges with the elves!
At first glance, the game logic seemed impossible: the Practitioners of the Ren family would only be able to train between 8~23 years old, and the length of time they could train each season was the same. Although they could increase their training speeds with more villagers, the fact remained that once the older generation passed away, the younger generation would naturally be too weak and unable to succeed in the battlefield due to their short training period. Even if they spent more time to train, the Demons would continually grow stronger, and the time period during which they could perform spiritual exchange would also be shortened further from the typical 10 years of time they had!
However, even though the game had a 2-star difficulty rating, it did not mean that devising a strategy to complete it was impossible. There were two methods through which the Practitioners of the Ren family could suppress the Demons forever. The first method was to search for strong and powerful elves to perform spiritual exchanges with and give birth to children who would not only have special abilities, but also an increased training speed.
For example, Ren Xiaobai, the child of Ren Woxing and the Earth Elf of Taibai Plains, acquired the attack ability [The Technique of the Earth] after her training. While this ability was fundamentally similar to the [Flame] ability possessed by Ren Changsheng, the difference was that when Ren Xiaobai trained on Attack, her Defense attribute would gain +0.5 points as well, and when she trained on Defense, her Defense would gain a total of +1.5 points.
In other words, when Ren Xiaobai trained on Attack, her Attack and Defense attributes would increase by +1 and +0.5 points respectively; and when Ren Xiaobai trained on Defense, her Attack attribute would remain the same with +0, but her Defense would increase by +1.5 points.
And this was without taking into account the additional points contributed by the villagers!
Yet, the Earth Elf of Taibai Plains was one of the weaker elves—it was evident from the fact that a low price of only 300 Reiki crystals was required to perform spiritual exchange with her. If spiritual exchanges were performed with stronger and more powerful elves, it was not impossible for all the attributes of the characters to increase +10 in just one season. Of course, that would require the Practitioners of the Ren family to defeat more Demons and earn more Reiki crystals…
The second method was inheritance! In the spring of year 199, when Ren Xiaobai just turned eight and could begin training, a new function [Inherit] appeared on the left side of the main hall of the Ren family house.
[Inherit] allowed for the instantaneous sacrifice of the life of a chosen member of the family to pass on his/her attribute points to another member of the family. Based on the degree of consanguinity between the two members and the compatibilities of their individual attributes, between 25~50% of the total attribute points could be inherited by the receiving member.
Ren Suo opted for Ren Xiaobai to inherit the attributes from Ren Changsheng, who was close to the end of his lifespan. Ren Changsheng died immediately, and Ren Xiaobai inherited 35% of the attributes passed by Ren Changsheng. Without this boost in power, she would not have been able to clear the Battle of Guandu and obtain sufficient Reiki crystals to perform spiritual exchange with the White Horse Elf.
This was the most reliable and most cost-effective method to become stronger. With each subsequent inheritance, the next younger generation would always be stronger than the previous. They would then be able to keep up with the rate at which the Demons become more powerful, provided that each generation of the Ren family was able to mate and the bloodline did not break.
Furthermore, Ren Suo found that it was impossible to utilize the strategy of constantly training only and not battling any Demons until the characters became very powerful. Not only would the period during which they could mate be shortened, but the Demons would also continue growing stronger. More importantly, as the Demons became more powerful, they would move about and actively kill the elves living nearby!
This meant that there would be fewer elves the Practitioners of the Ren family could mate and perform spiritual exchange with!
In 200 AD, after the death of Ren Changsheng, and when Ren Xiaobai was still young, the Battle of Guandu took place. Cao Cao won a decisive victory and the Battlefield of Guandu became a massive source of emergence of Demons. There were no members of the Ren family capable of going on expeditions, and thus the Battlefield of Guandu was left undisturbed.
Yet, when it was the year 203, Ren Suo suddenly received the following piece of information: [The Demons of Guandu has killed the Elf of Liyang.]
It was only then that Ren Suo understood that the Demons would really actively seek and kill elves. He had thought that it had just been part of the storyline when the Elf of Taibai Plains sought the Ren family’s help!
At this juncture, Ren Suo had gotten a clearer idea of the gameplay, as well as the main sequence of tactics he should employ to successfully complete the game. Undoubtedly, the locations where Demons spawned were related to the locations where crucial events took place during the period of the Three Kingdoms. To be exact, the locations were where large numbers of people had been killed in history.
The places that had already appeared were Hulao Pass, Guandu, and the Red Cliffs. There were also Xiaoyao Ford, Han River, Jieting and other places that would appear later on. Additionally, there were also Demons that would spawn at locations where natural disasters occurred, such as where the Locust Plague, the Winter Storm, and the Flood of the Yellow River took place. In year 217, a pandemic broke out, turning the Central Plains into a massive Ghost Demon breeding ground. By that time, there would not be a shortage of Demons to acquire Reiki crystals from.
Family management, unpredictable human behavior, inheritance across generations…Ren Suo wrote down his thoughts on how to successfully complete the game. He read through it again and figured it was viable and got ready to restart the game.
Suddenly, at this moment, his mobile phone rang.
Ren Suo peered at the caller identification display and saw that it was an unknown local number. He picked up his mobile phone and said, “Hello?”
“Hello, is this Ren Suo?” said a girl on the other end of the line, in a crisp and clear voice.
“Yes, speaking, you are?”
“I am An Su’yu, a member of the Countermeasure Division for Extraordinaire Criminals. I am calling to inform you that you have been selected to be part of the Countermeasure Division for Extraordinaire Criminals. Please report to the Ministry of National Security at Number 220 Geming Street in Yuexiu District of Lianjiang City by tomorrow. You will officially start work tomorrow.”
Ren Suo was slightly shocked. He started, “I am still in my fourth year of university, so only in June can I…”
“I am also unsure of the basic remuneration,” interrupted the girl at the other end of the line. She continued, “But what I do know is that construction of the training facility in Lianjiang City has been completed, and for now, it is only open to civil servants of the nation…To be accurate, only members of the Countermeasure Division for Extraordinaire Criminals have the authority to access the training facility. Each person can stay in the training facility for an hour each day.”
“Alright, I will report in the afternoon!” replied Ren Suo immediately.
For Ren Suo, playing more games would merely earn him more rewards. On the other hand, becoming a civil servant who is a Practitioner a day earlier would grant him earlier access to the training facility where there is a high concentration of Reiki present!
Ren Suo was still one with reason—based solely on the fact that he had only bought the game console as it was on offer, it was not difficult to tell that he was someone who would work hard first and enjoy later.
It was not as if the Mini Worlds Gaming Console would run away if he left it alone. On the other hand, the next few years of his effort would determine if he could truly become the first batch of Practitioners in Xuan Nation, and be able to live a comfortable and worry-free life in the future!
Ren Suo suddenly remembered something as he picked up the game controller and returned to the main page. He selected [Game Characters].
He was currently equipped with the [Lure of Sweet Dreams] ability, and the back-up ability was [Unlimited Energy]. Since he would be out in the afternoon, it would not harm to be more careful and be equipped with the [Fighter Novice] ability. Furthermore, he was still not familiar and well-versed in the [Clothes] and [Lock] skills.
However, when Ren Suo saw the [Game Characters] list on the left and right side of the screen, he was stunned.
[Game Character]: Ren Suo.
[Equipped Ability]: Lure of Sweet Dreams.
[Equipped Props]: None.
[Standby Ability]: Unlimited Energy.
[Unequipped Abilities]: Fighter Novice, Skill: Clothes, Skill: Lock.
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[Game Character]: Ren Woxing.
[Equipped Ability]: None.
[Equipped Props]: None.
[Standby Ability]: None.