Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Elite Wanderer

“Hahaha… Alright, so the monsters’ schemes don’t succeed, let’s get a good rest tonight and prepare to rescue our comrades tomorrow!”

Outside the rest point, the blizzard howled without end, but inside, the atmosphere was lively and warm.

Mo Fangyuan took the initiative to mingle with the soldiers, chatting and laughing, which put everyone at ease. The field army soldiers began to feel more at home with him, and gradually, their nerves relaxed enough for them to share tales of odd happenings and rare events from their own lives.

Of course, most of these so-called oddities were simple stories of daily life—how their harvests were getting better, or how the neighbor’s child had finally come of age this year.

“Li, you’re a sturdy young man now…” said an older soldier, also surnamed Li, clapping the younger Li on the shoulder with a hearty laugh.

This was Li Gao, tall as his name suggested, and the oldest in the group at thirty-four. He had once spent five years defending his village and was rich in experience. It so happened that he and the younger Li were neighbors and shared the same surname, which made their bond even closer.

“Take my advice, and settle down soon,” Li Gao went on, grinning. “That girl next door seems like a good catch—kind and sensible, and you both grew up together…”

It seemed that no matter the world, there was no escaping the fate of being urged to marry.

“Uncle Li, you know I have ambitions for the kingdom…” the young Li replied, his youthful face betraying a trace of a bitter smile.

Indeed, most of his peers had already married by now, or were at least making preparations. Only he remained alone, not even having a girlfriend. He remembered the girl next door, who once clung to him for play when they were younger. Now she was grown, graceful and charming, with adorable dimples that appeared whenever she smiled…

“Son, Xiao Cai has always been fond of you. You know how she feels. Why not marry her?” his parents had begun saying. And now even the neighbors had joined in, determined not to let up until he finally tied the knot.

He knew he liked her, too. But… in these troubled times, could there truly be a home?

Monsters roamed the land, disasters struck without warning—what did it mean to have a home anymore?

Unaware of this, Mo Fangyuan sat nearby, quietly stroking his diamond axe with an inscrutable smile.

Everyone, it seemed, had faced family pressure to marry at some point. Mo Fangyuan himself had once been unable to escape it, but now things were different.

After all—

“Who would dare urge me to marry?”

As the most powerful figure in the Block Kingdom, who would dare meddle in the king’s private affairs?

“Ah-choo!”

Far away, in the Block Kingdom, the upper echelons all sneezed simultaneously.

Night deepened, and gradually the lively rest point grew quiet. The exhausted soldiers, their bellies finally full, drifted into sleep one after another, leaving only a handful to keep watch.

It seemed that, in every world, snoring was a universal phenomenon.

“Purr-rr… purr-rr…”

Among these seven soldiers, two were snorers! Their snores rose and fell in turns, one picking up just as the other faded, as if they were performing some strange duet, making it impossible for Mo Fangyuan to get any rest.

Yet as king, there was nothing he could do.

He couldn’t just wake them up and say, “Hey! You two, stop snoring! It’s driving me crazy!” Could a king be so undignified?

“Crack!”

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but in a half-dream, half-awake state, Mo Fangyuan suddenly heard the sound of bones creaking.

Bones = Skeleton = Monster = Trouble = Danger!

Mo Fangyuan snapped to attention.

“Monster!”

The warning shout from the patrolling soldier prompted Mo Fangyuan to leap up immediately. Muscle memory took over—he instinctively drew his diamond axe into his right hand.

Skeletons attacked from a distance!

Remembering their attack style, he swiftly grabbed his shield for his left arm.

By now, the other soldiers had also roused from sleep. The two on guard drew their iron swords, ready for battle.

“Crack!”

The sound came from above.

“Overhead!” someone shouted.

Everyone looked up, but the noise vanished.

The rest point was suddenly dead silent, everyone’s nerves taut as they strained to detect any sound that might betray the monster’s position.

“Bang!”

A tremendous noise came from the iron door at the exit, which instantly sprouted a network of cracks.

Mo Fangyuan sucked in a cold breath.

A single blow had done that to the iron door; the attacker’s strength was terrifying.

“Bang!” Another crash followed.

The iron door was utterly destroyed, battered into debris by the unknown monster.

Freezing wind whipped through the now-exposed doorway, sending chills down everyone’s spine.

“Damn, playing ghostly tricks!” Mo Fangyuan cursed inwardly. The situation was turning grim. At night, visibility was low; the enemy was hidden, they were exposed. It seemed this monster was a ranged attacker, quick and dangerous—a real headache.

“Crack!” “Bang!”

Suddenly, the sound of bones colliding with the floor came from the left, followed by another crash as a block of wool, once shielding them from the cold, was reduced to a mere item.

“Damn!” If this went on, the rest point would soon be riddled with holes.

“Contract the defense! Build a new barricade!” Mo Fangyuan ordered at once.

Given the circumstances, the rest point would soon be beyond repair—they needed a new defense, and fast.

“Thump, thump, thump!”

Everyone hurried to construct a two-block-thick stone-brick wall on the right.

It was as if the monster realized something and unleashed a furious assault.

“Bang! Bang! Bang…”

The sounds of blocks breaking and hammers striking blended together.

Soon, the rest point was riddled with damage, but the stone defense was finally complete.

Gales howled through the battered shelter, bringing with them a brutal drop in temperature.

The block soldiers gripped their weapons tightly, nerves stretched to the limit.

“Boom!”

Another blow struck.

A huge hole was smashed through the blocks by the iron door, the remains of the wool blocks floating on the ground as if bewailing their fate.

“Crack! Crack! Crack!”

The clash of bones against the ground was piercing amid the wind.

A massive figure appeared at the threshold.

“That… a Stray? No! A Mutated Stray!”

The enormous pale-blue silhouette was instantly familiar to Mo Fangyuan.

One glance, and he remembered the Strays from “Minecraft.”

In the game, Strays were “cousins” to skeleton archers, commonly found in icy biomes, and their arrows carried a slowing effect—a far more irritating foe than the regular skeletons.

Killing them yielded the usual skeleton loot, but sometimes they dropped arrows with the slowing effect.

They were easy to distinguish from regular skeletons—Strays wore tattered pale-blue robes, while ordinary skeletons were unclothed.

The archer monster before him was huge, resembling a Mutated Skeleton Archer, but it wore a dark blue robe, with bones marked by pale blue spots.

Mo Fangyuan decided it should be called a Mutated Stray.

“Excellent!” he thought with glee. “In the dark, I can’t beat you, but now that you’ve shown yourself, I won’t show any mercy!”

“Fire together!” he shouted, drawing a loaded crossbow from his inventory.

Though the Mutated Stray was stronger, its weakness was obvious—it was large, making it hard to dodge, and in this enclosed shelter, it would be even more difficult to avoid attacks.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

At Mo Fangyuan’s command, all the ranged fighters brought out their crossbows and fired at the pale-blue behemoth.

Powerful though these mutated monsters were, without intelligence, they remained little more than beasts.