I checked the shared task description: “There is a wild fox outside the village that has become a spirit and specializes in stealing chickens and ducks. Brave warriors, please catch or kill it!” I thought about it and felt something was off. None of the three of us had any weapons—were we supposed to go after the fox barehanded? When I mentioned this to Our Bun and the others, the two of them just grinned and each revealed ten throwing knives. Only then did I realize that you could actually claim weapons for this task.

Logically, I’m not that dumb, and I immediately figured out their plan: they wanted to use me as bait to lure the fox into biting, while they’d stand by and throw knives. How did I end up agreeing to such a stupid thing?

Seeing that I’d caught on, Our Bun hurriedly explained, “Drunken Blue Ox! Several people have already taken this quest, but none have completed it or learned the skill. We can’t even leave this village.”

“Damn! You’re trying to pull such a cheap trick on me!” I got angry right away and snapped, “Then why don’t you be the bait yourselves! I’m not in the mood for this!”

You always run into some selfish people when playing games—snatching experience, grabbing loot after teaming up, and you can’t really say anything about it. That’s why most veteran players would rather go solo than join random teams. Even when doing quests, they only look for friends they trust.

Seeing me lose my temper, Our Bun wanted to say something, but Mint Flavor turned away with a disgruntled face and said, “Come if you want, if not, go find someone else. We don’t even want to team up with you!”

Chapter Two: Fire Talisman

Already annoyed from the start, I wandered around the village and picked up every available quest before I started thinking about how to leave. In Shushan, if you want to join a sect, you have to head to the various sects’ immortal mountains. The sect I admired most, Emei, was a full seven thousand li from Qingcheng Mountain. Qingcheng Sect was much closer, but in “The Legend of the Swordsmen of Shushan,” it was a pretty weak sect. Even though the game balanced all the sects, emotionally, I still wanted to go the extra mile.

The village quests were probably designed to help everyone get familiar with Shushan’s controls and environment. After carefully studying things, I ran a few delivery quests, gained a bit of shallow experience, and most importantly, after handing my meager earnings to the purchasing NPC, I bought a rope and a roast chicken.

After weighing my options, I still felt that the wild fox spirit quest was the best to do first. Many people who took this quest went out in groups, all excited, but most came back dejected. I figured this fox couldn’t be beaten by brute force.

After listening to all the chatter, I more or less figured out the wild fox’s movements. Leaving the village, I found a suitable spot to set a trap and hid nearby, waiting for the fox spirit to appear. I didn’t believe it! This fox was, after all, just a set of computer data—could it really be more cunning than a real person?

After waiting for over ten minutes, people kept passing by, pointing and laughing at my ridiculous trap before striding off. Our Bun and Mint Flavor, who had teamed up with me earlier, even raised their voices on purpose and shouted, “There are actually people this dumb who think a fox will just jump in for a roast chicken and get caught by a rope!”

If I have any redeeming quality, it’s patience. Back in school, I fell for my first girlfriend, Lillian Clark. Many people said she wasn’t right for me, and my two dorm-mates, both seasoned in love, repeatedly warned me that my pursuit tactics were too old-fashioned and that Lillian Clark wouldn’t be moved. But after three months of relentless effort, my patience clearly wore down Lillian Clark’s defenses, and before I knew it, our relationship changed. Later, my buddies all admired my persistence.

“No matter how clumsy the method, what matters is achieving the goal!” That’s something I firmly believe.

Seeing that I wasn’t reacting, people gradually lost interest in me. When everyone else had scattered to look for the target, a red-furred fox finally appeared in my sight. It saw the roast chicken on the ground but didn’t go sniffing right away. Instead, it looked around warily for a long time before slowly approaching, but the rope loop around the chicken clearly made it hesitate. The fox crouched low, suddenly opened its mouth, and spat out a small fireball at the roast chicken, setting the surrounding grass and rope on fire.

“Damn! This fox really is cunning!” I cursed inwardly but kept my cool.

Sure enough, after destroying my trap, the fox let out a sly laugh and trotted over to snatch the roast chicken. Just then, the ground suddenly erupted, and a rope loop sprang up, catching its hind leg and hoisting it into the air.

Actually, the throwing knives you get for this quest are terribly inaccurate. So far, I haven’t seen any player actually hit the fox. But… if you just stab the target with the knife, accuracy doesn’t really matter.

With one stab, a “-80” blood flower floated up from the head of this wild fox spirit, whose abilities I still didn’t know. By the sixth knife, the fox turned into a beam of white light. Before leaving, it even shot me a look, as if to say that NPCs have their pride too. The fox, in its fluster, even dropped a wooden talisman.