Calamity Messenger

Chapter 174 - 138: Red Name

The firewood crackled and popped as it burned brightly.

The campsite chosen by Pharmacist’s Wish was quite excellent, approximately a hundred steps from a water source, easy to fetch water yet not damp. It was backed by a large rock, with no dead branches or stones overhead; the ground was a level grassy area... It’s unclear whether she originally possessed wilderness survival knowledge or had quickly learned it in her days of fleeing.

Yan Qing was very curious about Pharmacist’s Wish, Duke’s daughter, on the run, with the strength of a third rank, heading to the Demon Path Evil Land to inherit the Foundation Establishment legacy, accompanied by two faithful maids who would live and die with her... The only pity was that she wasn’t male; otherwise, it would indeed be a perfect revenge story.

In fact, when Pharmacist’s Wish proposed forming an alliance, Yan Qing hesitated because helping her seek revenge would certainly be an interesting task chain. But Yan Qing quickly gave up the idea: even without an alliance, the Rabbit Heroine could still get involved; with an alliance, it seemed like he had an inexplicably added bond to care for.

In the end, the smurf account would eventually give everything for Yan Qing’s interests in the future. He shouldn’t establish overly close relationships with others; he didn’t want anyone to mourn the death of his smurf account. It’s one of his few acts of kindness as a player.

Wuqiu and Shidong had already set up a large tent inside, which could sleep four people. Naturally, the tent was provided by the Rabbit Heroine—stolen from the Ping City Military Camp—and no one was surprised. They believed wholeheartedly that the Rabbit Heroine’s brother was a well-meaning yet somewhat unbalanced sibling, who prepared everything for his sister’s travels.

The Rabbit Heroine sat by the fire, repairing a token. The Seven-Step Chanting was only half durable, and the Hand of Melting Hundred Phases had lost one-third as well.

In today’s battle, Yan Qing took repeated hits for so long before countering because the cost of failing a perfect parry was too high. If he had constantly resorted to ordinary blocking, the Seven-Step Chanting and the Hand of Melting Hundred Phases would have already been gone. Yan Qing needed absolute certainty before daring to attempt a perfect parry.

The benefits of success were also unimaginable. Not only could he block attacks without damage, but he could also cause durability damage to the enemy’s token. If Helan Que continued fighting him, it wouldn’t just be the Rare Scimitar that would be destroyed; even the Soul-Breaking Spear wouldn’t be safe.

Theoretically, regardless of close combat, even a Foundation Establishment Messenger might be defeated with this method, but it seemed clear that Foundation Establishment Messengers possessed wide-range or even distant attacks. However, below the Foundation Establishment level, Yan Qing was confident this method could deal with all enemies without too many limitations, unlike the Bingzi Pepper Forest, which would explode all defensive weapons with a single use.

Pharmacist’s Wish was also repairing a token, but she didn’t use a repair kit. She used a gel-like substance, applying it to the damaged areas of the Soul-Breaking Spear and then wrapping it with cloth, making it seem less like a repair tool and more like a healing method.

Noticing the Rabbit Heroine’s gaze, Pharmacist’s Wish said, "This is Pharmacist Glue. Although the repair effect isn’t as good as those from the Secret Realm, it’s affordable and effective for all tokens. It’s one of the most important strategic products of the Zhou Kingdom."

"Pharmacist Glue?"

"It’s a technique developed by the Yao Family over a hundred years ago using Secret Realm materials," Pharmacist’s Wish explained, glancing at the tool kit just used by the Rabbit Heroine. "The Hidden Sword Manor Tool Kit... it’s an item only produced in the Hidden Sword Manor Secret Realm of the Qi Kingdom."

But she merely mentioned it without questioning, more like boasting of her knowledge. After repairing his token, Yan Qing planned to log off, but then Pharmacist’s Wish stood up and asked, "I’ll keep watch for the first half of the night, and you for the second half?"

Oh right, wilderness survival requires night watches.

Previously, Yan Qing had always logged off directly, and while new corpses would occasionally appear near his smurf the next day, he clearly didn’t care about this risk—after all, who would pull an all-nighter to keep a smurf safe?

"If you’re willing to trust me, I can keep watch for the whole night," said the Rabbit Heroine. "I can stay alert while sleeping, even if you tell me to sleep, I’ll remain in this state. These days I’ve traveled alone without any hiccups."

Pharmacist’s Wish thought for a moment and nodded, "Alright, I’ll be well-rested by around 3:00 AM, and we’ll set off at 5:00 AM. I’ll come out then to switch places with you to let you sleep."

Yan Qing was a little surprised, given they had only known each other for a day, leaving security entirely to the Rabbit Heroine seemed too trusting. But on second thought, he realized Pharmacist’s Wish’s intention: Look, I trust you so much, shouldn’t you be moved? Shouldn’t you hurry up and call me a good elder sister?

After setting up the nighttime security program, Yan Qing went on with his nightly training as usual, followed by a bath. After bathing, he glanced at the screen and found that the three maidservants had already gone to sleep in the tent and seemed to have already fallen asleep.

That was only expected; today was just a slightly interesting game for Yan Qing, but for them, it was a thrilling escape, followed by a day of long-distance travel. Falling asleep the moment they touched the pillow was only reasonable—yes, there were pillows in the tent too.

Yan Qing hesitated for a moment and added a ’trigger alarm for enemy encounter’ to the Rabbit Heroine’s program evolution.

Because it likely wouldn’t trigger. The place looked like it wouldn’t have bandits come by, and with the fire, even wild beasts probably wouldn’t approach, he thought.

...

...

"Buzz... buzz... buzz—"

Yan Qing quickly reached out to grab the game console, instinctively pressing the power button to stop the buzzing sound. It took him a full three seconds to realize what had happened. Upon checking the console, he found that the Rabbit Heroine hadn’t entered combat, nor had anyone come within ten meters of the campsite.

This was not normal since Yan Qing set the Rabbit Heroine’s enemy encounter program as ’unknown target initiating attack’ or ’unknown target entering within ten steps.’ The former could directly counterattack, while the latter would warn three times before counterattacking. If neither condition was triggered, even if someone observed the smurf from a dozen steps away, it wouldn’t count as an enemy encounter.

But as Yan Qing looked at the screen, he immediately understood why the automatic evolution program considered it an encounter.

Because in the game world, there’s this kind of person who, even if they don’t attack you, don’t approach you, as long as they appear in front of you, you know they are your enemy.

This kind of person usually has one obvious characteristic:

Red name!

By this time, Pharmacist’s Wish and the others had also been awakened by the Rabbit Heroine’s warning. They came out to see that there were no beasts or enemies and asked, "What’s going on?"

The Rabbit Heroine pointed at the woods thirty steps away and shouted loudly, "Hundred Poison Hands Ye Kai, Little Poison Hand Chen Afu, come out."

A moment later, two figures emerged from the bushes; one tall and one short. The short one was a middle-aged man, and the tall one was younger. The short middle-aged man had a gloomy face, his nostrils seemed to spew a sinister air, and he said coldly, "Eagle eyes? Owl? Not only discovering, but even recognizing us in the dark, you’re no ordinary little girl."

"No matter how extraordinary, she must die!" The tall young man reached into his crotch, drooling as he glanced at Wuqiu and Shidong by the campfire, "Master, hurry up, it’s been too long since I’ve left Yongzhou without encountering such a fine specimen."

"Sister," Pharmacist’s Wish walked up behind the Rabbit Heroine and asked softly, "Do you know these Demon Dao thieves? What kind of tokens do they carry?"

"No, this is my first time seeing them. I don’t know what kind of tokens they have."

"Hmm!?" The short middle-aged man frowned, "Little girl, you haven’t met us before? Then how did you recognize us?"

Pharmacist’s Wish felt a chill in her heart: they were still over a dozen steps away from the Demon Dao thieves, and her voice had been lowered when she spoke to the Rabbit Heroine. If they could hear her, then either they had enhanced hearing reconnaissance tokens, or their spiritual souls were unexpectedly strong, either of which indicated their strength was not weak.

"Because I am a Female Knight, and a Female Knight can directly see the names of bad people." The Rabbit Heroine pointed at their heads, "My brother says, anyone whose name I can directly see is an irredeemably evil villain."

On the heads of the short middle-aged man and the tall young man, respectively, were the names "Hundred Poison Hands Ye Kai" and "Little Poison Hand Chen Afu". This was the first time Yan Qing had directly known someone else’s name and appearance outside of a Secret Realm without obtaining intelligence.

Moreover, they both had red names, meaning they were enemy units upon appearance, receiving the same treatment as Secret Realm Demon Fiends.

"Wuqiu and Shidong, stay behind us, not too far but not too close either," Pharmacist’s Wish instructed, then asked, "Shall I deal with the older one, and you handle the younger one?"

"Let’s switch it up; quickly kill the younger one and help me handle the older one."

"As you say, sister." Actually, Pharmacist’s Wish thought the same but worried about proactively suggesting to handle the weaker one, which might reduce her sister’s goodwill.

Hundred Poison Hands Ye Kai laughed in extreme anger, "Interesting, it seems you are quite capable Foundation Establishment Messengers. If given time to gradually experience trials, you might carve out a niche in the mountains."

"Unfortunately, you encountered us, master and disciple!"

All four charged simultaneously, with the Rabbit Heroine facing off against Ye Kai and Pharmacist’s Wish engaging Chen Afu.

Yan Qing was somewhat surprised to find that Ye Kai didn’t use weapons, and his attack tokens seemed to be a pair of gloves, remarkably a rare fist and palm messenger.

Below the fourth rank, weapons far surpassed fists and palms in both attack power and safety. Thus, most Martial Arts Messengers practiced weapons; even Qian Gongyu used claws to enhance lethality. Ye Kai was the first pure fist and palm messenger Yan Qing had encountered.

Fist and palm blocking was more subtle, and Yan Qing initially dodged and counterattacked. However, Ye Kai also had defensive tokens, where the Seven-Step Buddhist Chop would trigger a barrier upon hitting him. Ye Kai was very agile, attempting to bypass the sword enclosure and approach the Rabbit Heroine, but Yan Qing would never give him such an opportunity, keeping the optimal attack distance while walking and fighting.

Suddenly, Ye Kai struck an airborne palm at the Rabbit Heroine, maintaining a sword’s distance. Although Yan Qing dodged in advance, Ye Kai had anticipated this, slapping his left hand in the direction the Rabbit Heroine dodged. A violet-green smoke swiftly traveled towards the Rabbit Heroine’s head.

Poison smoke?

Yan Qing wasn’t concerned, having defensive tokens. Poison smoke was meaningless apart from obscuring vision, unless it was acid-level poison that could rapidly corrode the defensive barrier, but with the Mountain Heart-Protecting Mirror——

-3, -4, -5...

The Rabbit Heroine’s health began to decline, with a poison icon appearing above her health bar!

Yet Yan Qing noticed the Seven-Layered Barrier of the Mountain Heart-Protecting Mirror remained intact, not being breached.

The combat log on the right rolled out several pieces of information:

"You are taking damage from ’Purple Luo Smoke’."

"You have been poisoned."

"Assessment in progress..."

"Based on your spiritual soul, you will gain very limited battle information."

"You are under attack from the Asura Token·Hundred Poison Silk Hand!"

Simultaneously, on the other battlefield, Pharmacist’s Wish’s stern voice rang out:

"Sister, these two are murderously malicious villains, using Demon Dao tokens capable of bypassing defensive tokens to some extent!"