Five Elements Card Game (Card and Chess Player) Chapter 162: Strategy

"This efficiency is even higher than our Tribunal." Liu Dangren, accompanied by Guanshanting and Zhang Dingyang, exclaimed in astonishment as he watched Wu Hui bring Li Xiaojing to collect their reward for the fourth time.

Guanshanting wanted to say something, but stopped. Zhang Dingyang also stepped forward to greet Wu Hui.

The people from the Tribunal had shared battle experiences with Wu Hui. Although they rarely conversed, their relations were fairly good.

With the city currently facing a severe shortage of manpower and a mountain of affairs waiting to be handled, Liu Dangren suddenly felt an impulse to walk up to Wu Hui and strike up a friendship.

However, as he drew closer, Wu Hui showed no particular reaction to his presence.

Clearly, this was not a man easily swayed by mere words. Still, he had only come to make an acquaintance and nothing more.

Liu Dangren liked making friends.

Moreover, he was genuinely good to those he acknowledged as friends; otherwise, he wouldn't have opened his heart completely to Guanshanting so soon after meeting him.

Of course, making friends was merely the surface. In truth, he was searching for kindred spirits who shared his ideals.

Call it overestimating one's capabilities, or call it grand ambition. Liu Dangren ultimately harbored a lofty goal: to destroy the Demon God and end the game.

Naturally, up to this point, he only had the goal, completely lacking any strategic plan.

Hanging from Liu Dangren's waist was a tally, or rather, three tallies bearing the character "Liu". They came from Liu Yu, Liu Xiu, and Liu Bei respectively. Among these three, only Liu Bei's tally was activated, while the other two remained unsealed for the time being.

Emperor Wu of Song (Liu Yu during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period) and Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han), though perhaps less famous than Liu Bei, were undoubtedly military strategists in the history of the East Asian region who could contend for the top ten.

Well, both of their peak combat records involved hundreds or thousands of men holding down tens or hundreds of thousands.

In comparison, the Liu Bei tally that Liu Dangren had currently unlocked offered rather mediocre combat enhancements. However, it possessed a special skill that allowed him to recognize kindred spirits.

In his view, Wu Hui was a viable partner for cooperation.

That was why he had come forward today to make his acquaintance.

Faced with this fellow's inexplicable goodwill and enthusiasm, Wu Hui expressed profound incomprehension.

Compared to someone like this who would rush headlong into being a hero on a whim, Wu Hui was accustomed to looking ten steps ahead for every single step he took, always maintaining plans and preparations.

Their personalities could be described as vastly different, or perhaps complementary.

Yet the first meeting between Wu Hui and Liu Dangren was utterly mundane, totaling only three or four sentences, making it seem rather dull to many later historians who studied the era.

Instead, it was Zhang Dingyang who invited Wu Hui out for a meal, saying he wanted to treat him to drinks.

To this, Wu Hui replied that aside from the occasional times Wu Tong had ambushed him and forced drinks down his throat mouth-to-mouth, he strictly avoided touching the stuff at all other times.

He claimed it impaired his thinking.

That was quite boring. Zhang Dingyang felt somewhat disappointed, but he didn't press the matter further.

Wu Hui, meanwhile, turned to Li Xiaojing and said, "In next year's intermediate-tier joint tournament, if these people combine their forces, they will undoubtedly prove to be a formidable opponent."

Li Xiaojing asked, "The intermediate-tier joint tournament... are we supposed to participate in that?"

"I know that both you and your sister have been planning to stop playing once you reach Level 5," Wu Hui said. "Trust me, after becoming a player, even if you stop playing the game, you will still encounter danger. Just look at how many Level 5s have died in the city over the past few days."

"Only by growing stronger can we secure the most effective way to survive. After becoming a player—no, ever since the descent of the Demon God—this world could never return to the way it was."

These words left both Li Xiaojing and Li Xiaoyue, who was reading at home, in silence.

Reaching Level 5 and thereby escaping the game had been their primary goal up to this point. Yet Wu Hui was telling them that this goal was impossible to achieve.

It was somewhat cruel, but it was the reality.

Just look at the streets.

Though on the surface all the destruction had been repaired and pedestrians went about their daily lives as usual, their fates had long since been altered, and many people had died on those streets. Those people hadn't left behind even a trace, like anyone caught beneath a flood who proved unable to effectively protect themselves.

Some people had already seen through this, such as Wu Hui, Ren Yin, or Liu Dangren whom they had just spoken with.

While others still needed a wake-up call.

Clever people are often better at perceiving the harshness of a situation, which tends to make them pessimistic. But supreme intellect allows one to perceive the direction of victory, appearing optimistic and resolute instead.

In the game, Ren Yin had successfully led the Three Kingdoms coalition to defeat the Kingdom of Lihuo, greatly enhancing her prestige. At the same time, she stood her ground and won against the Kingdom of Cangling in the alliance, preventing those greedy fellows from suppressing her side with their restraining combat power.

Following this battle, the next step was to form the Five-Nation Alliance. Earth and Water posed no problems, but the Gold and Fire nations would likely have little interest in joining an alliance not led by themselves.

Nearly a year had passed in game time—though subjectively it hadn't felt that long to her, merely half a month or so. Yet this was already the longest single game Ren Yin had ever played.

For a Dramaturge's game, taking days or even months was commonplace, and at higher levels, playing a single game spanning over a decade was entirely possible.

This was an extremely patient Demon God, willing to spend a remarkably long time watching a play.

To achieve a high evaluation in such a game, one had to perform the play well.

Assuming the identity of the queen, she rallied everyone to form an alliance in preparation for an enemy from beyond the world. Ren Yin guessed that this enemy would be the Demon God.

Only, she temporarily didn't know in what form the Demon God would descend. According to Wu Hui, not every world had the chance to play games with a Demon God. This game seemed to consist entirely of events that had happened in the past.

The Five Elements Cards... were they the power system left behind after the destruction of this world?

And the Marks as well.

What about the Nightmare Chess Pieces, those spellbooks, and the tallies?

Behind every single item or ability system, was there a destroyed world?

She wondered if she could change the ending. If she could... that would mean the Demon God possessed the ability to reverse time and space.

In any case, she would give it a try.

Ren Yin took a deep breath and began to take action. Forming an alliance was a very difficult task, especially before the enemy had even appeared. She decided to start by establishing an academic and commercial organization to strengthen ties between the various nations.

She would control them through financial means, though the Kingdom of Cangling's financial system was also already budding. Since she wasn't a professional, she didn't hold a hundred percent advantage in this regard. Hmm...

Ren Yin fell into deep contemplation.

She drew a deep breath, beginning to comprehend the difficulties of being a supreme leader. By comparison, serving as the vice president or president of the student union was simply too easy.

Outside, Wang Xiaodie was massaging Wu Hui's shoulders. "Big Boss~ Is it comfortable?"

Li Xiaoyue reminded her, "You've got it wrong. You should call him Master, and then address us as Mistress. Tee-hee... This is still a bit embarrassing."

Wang Xiaodie rolled her eyes at her.

"What is it?" Wu Hui asked, looking at Wang Xiaodie, who wore an expression that suggested she needed a favor.