Chapter 26 Plan Changes

"So let's go our separate ways to prepare now. It's ten-thirty now, and we'll all meet at the village entrance at ten o'clock tomorrow morning, ready to set off. Remember to bring food and water. Any questions?"

Seeing no one spoke, Xiao Buli nodded, "Then that's settled."

"Wait a minute, since when do you get to decide when we start?"

Xiao Buli inwardly cursed himself for feeling shameful; he had grown accustomed to being a leader and had unconsciously started arranging everyone's actions, forgetting that this was no longer his studio.

Turning to see that it was Sun Bin who had spoken, he asked, "Do you have a better plan, then? I'm all ears."

Sun Bin said, "Of course I do. In fact, there's no need for such trouble. We can simply wait for the merchant caravan to arrive and then go. All Little Li needs to do is to go offline in the wild and hide for two days. When the caravan arrives in two days, he can log back on, right?"

"That might not be possible," Li Baocheng said hesitantly, "Would the company agree to that?"

All four sets of eyes suddenly focused on Li Jian, who had been listening to the conversation. He paused, then laughed, "Hehe, the company hasn't stipulated that you must log in every day. As I mentioned earlier, the company won't assign any tasks to you this month, so you are completely free in the game."

Sun Bin looked smug as if to say, I told you so.

After hearing this, Li Baocheng's face turned from green to white. He had been too flustered earlier to consider this and wouldn't have needed to distribute his money and equipment if he knew this was an option.

Damn it! How could this happen! Li Baocheng cursed inwardly, realizing he hadn't paid enough attention to the details. Otherwise, with all that equipment, his strength would have definitely far surpassed the others. Thankfully, he still had some reserves.

Despite his regret, he showed a relieved expression, "That's great, then there's no need to bother everyone. I felt a bit guilty earlier."

After speaking, he saw that the three others remained unresponsive, not mentioning the money and equipment they had just divided up, and he knew he wouldn't be getting it back. If he insisted, he would only isolate himself, so he sighed inwardly, resigning to consider it as buying favor.

After thinking it over, he felt unreconciled about letting the three off so easily, "Even so, I still need to leave the village a bit farther. Who knows how the villagers might react, or if they'll wait where I log off. So please, I ask you to escort me a little further outside the village."

They felt obligated to do this, as it was only a short distance from the village and not too dangerous, so they agreed to set out at ten o'clock the next day to escort Li Baocheng outside the village before dispersing.

Upon leaving the pig farm owner's house, Xiao Buli began purchasing equipment. He hadn't bothered before due to a lack of money, but now that he had some, he couldn't be frugal.

He went to the village leatherworker and selected some Light Leather Armor:

(Leather Armor—Chest) Armor +4.

A pair of Light Leather Boots (Leather Armor—Boots) Armor +2, Speed +1.

They were both common white-grade items, yet still cost him twelve silver coins—equipment in this game wasn't cheap. Then Xiao Buli stopped by the village inn to buy some steamed buns and a five-liter water bladder; as physical strength consumed in the game needed to be restored with food and drink, these items were essential.

He also bought camping equipment like torches and flint, since he planned to leave with the merchants in a couple of days, and it was necessary to purchase in advance.

Everything was prepared, and when lunchtime arrived, the group logged off and gathered in the restaurant. Thanks to the morning's gains, they all seemed very happy, even the wealth-parting Li Baocheng, who put on a forced smile, seemingly without regret about the morning's events.

Xiao Buli went to pick out food for his tray, and again saw Wu Tao. He intended to gather some intelligence for tomorrow's action, because some things were inconvenient to ask Li Jian, and this was a good chance to consult with Wu Tao.

Holding his tray, Xiao Buli walked over and pretended to be surprised, "Huh, it's you again, what a coincidence."

Wu Tao had no words for this approach anymore and could only nod his head with a chuckle, "Yeah, quite the coincidence."

"You don't mind if I sit down, right?"

"Do as you please, even if I wanted to stop you, I couldn't, right?"

With a slight smile, Xiao Buli sat down, eating his meat-filled burger while casually asking as if by accident, "That's Tao, right? I wanted to ask you something. How much do you know about the black wasteland outside Newbie Village?"

"The black wasteland?" Wu Tao's face showed a hint of hesitation, "What do you want to ask about it for?"

"Tomorrow, a few of us plan to leave the village for some business. I was wondering if you could tell me what kind of dangerous monsters are in the black wasteland."

"The black wasteland isn't too dangerous. The monsters at the village gates are mainly stray dogs. Once you leave the safe area beyond the gates, there are Corpse-eating Dogs and Walking Corpses roaming about."

"Are the Corpse-eating Dogs and Walking Corpses strong? Why would they appear in the black wasteland, a newbie area like this?"

"The black wasteland is said to have been an ancient battlefield in the past, so many human remains are buried beneath the wasteland. Due to the influence of Evil Demonic Power, some of the corpses have risen again. They are mindless Demon Creatures whose only purpose is to devour human flesh and blood. Those are the so-called Walking Corpses. Although it sounds scary, they are actually very weak monsters that newbies can easily handle, incomparable to Zombies."

"As for the Corpse-eating Dogs, after stray dogs consume a number of corpses, undead energy accumulates in their bodies, turning them into half-dead creatures, which are the Corpse-eating Dogs. However, these creatures aren't much stronger than stray dogs. Their health points double, and with half-creature, half-Undead attributes, their Rip and Bite skill turns into a poisonous bite, losing the Sprint skill, but other than that, there's not much change. They're not difficult to handle either."

"So that means the black wasteland isn't really dangerous, right?" Xiao Buli couldn't help but ask with a sigh of relief.

"It's not that simple. Sometimes, even low-level areas like the black wasteland can spawn relatively dangerous mini-BOSSES. A couple of months ago, there was an incident where a new team was wiped out by a Corpse-driving Warlock BOSS in the black wasteland. It took a group of enforcers from the White Tiger Group to take down that Corpse-driving Warlock, and a 'Reincarnation of the Corpse Ghost' Skill Book was dropped, which I couldn't learn because it didn't suit my class. Bai Yunfei, that kid, got it."

So, you could actually get Skill Books in this game, which kind of resembled "Legend." He thought for a moment, then asked, "What happened to those newbies who were wiped out?"

"What else could happen, they were kicked out, of course. Our elimination rate for newbies is very high. Once someone dies, they are kicked out immediately without any room for negotiation. So it's better if you're more careful and not rush out of the village too soon."

Realizing that the newbies were indeed expelled, Xiao Buli discarded the last bit of wishful thinking from his mind. However, he didn't plan to give up. He was just planning to leave the village to drop off someone, not to venture deep, so he shouldn't be so unlucky as to run into a BOSS, right?

While thinking this, Xiao Buli thanked Wu Tao and left with his tray.