Fuse “A Bloodstained Garment”?
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Item Description: “A Bloodstained Garment”: This is an extravagantly expensive silk gown for a woman, exquisitely embroidered throughout.
It is beyond the means of any ordinary wealthy family.
Yet now, together with its owner, it has been hacked apart with a blunt weapon, reduced to a vessel for blood and mud.
Zhang Yang was bored, so she fused the bloodstained dress fragments into a single garment.
She stared at the item description for quite a while.
Every person has their strengths and weaknesses.
Her weakest suit was anything that required painstakingly piecing together clues.
Just looking at it gave her a headache, so Zhang Yang decided to ask someone outside the scene for help.
“Shude, do you know why someone would hack my arms and legs off with a blunt weapon, hang me from a roof beam, and then make my head go somewhere else?”
What kind of person could hate “herself” that much?
Was cutting off her arms not enough?
They had to chop each one into three pieces?
Killing her wasn’t enough, either.
They had to hang her from a roof beam?
A single bloodstained dress had been brutally reduced to more than thirty pieces.
Not far away, Shen Zhi’s back stiffened for an instant, and the name above his head rapidly changed color as well.
In the darkness, she heard the restraint beneath his calm voice.
“Does Your Highness seek revenge?”
Zhang Yang said, “You ought to know how you died and why, so you can carefully consider what to do next.”
Considering the quests players had handled in the game, Zhang Yang truly didn’t dare swear that every player involved in the story was entirely innocent.
More than once, players had been used to accidentally kill, mistakenly kill, or unjustly kill someone, bringing about a tragedy.
Who knew what players had done in the Homestead Side Quest?
Shen Zhi was silent for a while.
“I don’t know either, but I can guess at some of it.”
“Was it the rebels?”
She remembered Shen Zhi mentioning the rebels before.
Shen Zhi shook his head.
“Not necessarily the rebels.”
Zhang Yang could tell there was more behind his words.
“Do you have someone in mind?”
Shen Zhi looked toward Zhang Yang.
A flash of lightning happened to illuminate half his face, revealing the complexity in his eye.
“It could also have been betrayal.”
Zhang Yang carefully turned over the deeper meaning behind those words.
Shen Zhi continued, “Though Your Highness has lost your memories and remembers nothing of the past, there are still some things you ought to know. Your reputation has always been abysmal, and you were cruel and brutal to your subordinates. In a time of flight and hardship, it’s hardly surprising if someone harbors ill intentions.”
Back when she was still a royal princess, she could naturally throw her weight around.
But once a tiger fell to the plains, who would be willing to keep putting up with her?
At least in Shen Zhi’s eyes, she deserved to die.
It was just a pity she hadn’t died after all.
Shen Zhi sighed inwardly.
Tsk.
How had she still managed to survive even that?
Zhang Yang sensed something was off.
Over the past decade or so, she had observed at least a thousand player samples, if not ten thousand.
Players certainly did enjoy all kinds of violent brawling.
They fought within Base 135 on odd-numbered days, outside Base 24 on even-numbered days, and on weekends they would march out in force to attack mutated beasts and zombie-infected creatures.
When they won, they’d howl as they stripped the corpses of the defeated.
They also often acted foolishly during the game’s main quests.
But none of that had anything to do with having a terrible reputation or being cruel to subordinates.
In fact, players had an excellent reputation.
They were welcomed as honored guests at bases run by all sorts of factions and gangs.
Everywhere she went, she was surrounded by friends.
She suspected the Homestead Side Quest might be a standalone story arc designed by the game developers.
Similar ones had appeared in previous updates.
If it was a standalone story arc, everything made sense.
Zhang Yang also knew why Shen Zhi kept having murderous impulses from time to time.
He really did hate “herself,” and wished “herself” would die.
Still, Zhang Yang didn’t fully believe what he said.
Who knew how much of it was true and how much was a lie?
The thunderstorm raged all night, only letting up to a light drizzle the next day.
Zhang Yang tore a long strip from the bloodstained clothes to use as a belt, straightened herself up, then woke Shen Zhi, who had only managed to close his eyes and fall asleep in the early hours of the morning.
While he slept, the energetic Zhang Yang had searched the ruined house from top to bottom, stuffing every item with a description into her game inventory.
Yesterday, between the downpour and the darkness, her view had been obstructed.
It was only in daylight that she noticed the problem.
Outside, as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but yellow earth.
Not a trace of green was in sight.
After resting for half the night, Shen Zhi looked a little better than he had yesterday.
“Your Highness, what are you looking at?”
“Why can’t I see any greenery?”
In the game, all the large and small bases where humans had gathered were made of concrete and steel.
The streets and alleys were so narrow that only one person could pass at a time.
The fallen city outside the base was in ruins, but thick with vegetation, far more soothing than the base, which felt oppressive and cold.
Why wasn’t there any greenery here?
Shen Zhi’s answer sounded rather listless.
“Because it was all chopped down.”
Even though she’d lost her memory, she was still as detestable as ever.
How could anyone casually toss around the words “Why not eat meat gruel?” as if they were perfectly reasonable?
“Chopped down? Why would they do that?”
Zhang Yang hurried after him and asked.
“The common folk need firewood to cook, while the nobles build grand projects.”
Given Zhang Yang’s limited education, she could only choose to ignore the second half of his answer.
“Can’t they use gas stoves or induction cooktops?”
“What sort of royal treasure are gas stoves and induction cooktops?” These terms were unfamiliar to Shen Zhi, but he could guess what the two things were for from their names.
“Ordinary households have a hard enough time making a fire. How could they afford the precious things Your Highness speaks of?”
Zhang Yang: “…”
Were those things really so precious?
She often heard observation subjects active in the wilderness complain about the game’s backward setting.
What age was this, still using such clumsy, inefficient cooking tools?
Zhang Yang silently pushed the era in the Homestead Side Quest forward again, then followed Shen Zhi barefoot.
Shen Zhi had noticed her bare feet long ago.
But he didn’t meddle by offering her his own shoes.
He’d heard his older brother say more than once that a single pair of this noblewoman’s shoes was worth the people’s hard-earned wealth from goodness knows how many households.
She was extravagantly indulgent, yet still never satisfied.
The moment she arrived in her fief, she stirred up one bloody upheaval after another, giving the rebels an opportunity to strike.
Some hardships, she deserved to suffer.
It was nearly noon when the two finally crossed a mountain ridge.
At first, Zhang Yang didn’t ask where he was taking her.
But before long, she had no choice but to.
She clamped a hand around Shen Zhi’s wrist and yanked him forcefully back toward her.
Before he could react, she seized his throat with her other hand.
“Shen Shude, are you trying to lead me to my death?”
Shen Zhi frowned impatiently.
“What’s gotten into you?”
It didn’t take long for him to realize Zhang Yang wasn’t acting crazy.
They were in a rather unusual spot: they could easily see what was happening at the foot of the mountain, while the people below had no way of spotting them.
The moment Shen Zhi saw the banners down there, his expression changed.
In Zhang Yang’s eyes, though, all she saw were Red Names packed together.
She’d only ever seen a Red Name tide this spectacular on weekends.
A sea of Red Names would pour out from anywhere.
Shen Zhi lowered his voice, as if afraid a third person might overhear.
“They’re all rebel troops.”
Zhang Yang lowered her voice to match his.
“Are they coming for me?”
No, at this scale, were they treating her like a boss to be taken down?
Not long after she spoke, the troops that had been resting in place began moving again.
One after another, celestial visions of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise appeared overhead.
Zhang Yang couldn’t help clicking her tongue.
“How much gold did they spend on these special effects?”