139: Chapter 139 New Celebrities

While the sky was still dim with the first light of dawn, the four members of the Dragon Country split up to take action.

Chen Aoyun headed straight outside the city, carrying several large bags. This time, he did not go looking for students; instead, he arrived immediately at a camp where merchants gathered.

Just as Chen Aoyun had said last night, the merchants were also trapped outside the city because of the 'Scar of Chaos'.

Merchants seek profit. With the funds provided by Fan Ling, Chen Aoyun had quite a lot of coins in his possession.

Offering coins as payment, coupled with the fact that the merchants were eager to enter the city and also needed MP3 players, Chen Aoyun reached a deal with several of them under this double inducement...

Two hours later.

Saku Kenichi discovered a student trapped outside the 'Scar of Chaos'. He had no intention of escorting the student; he was waiting—waiting for the Dragon Country person disguised as a merchant to appear.

Just as Saku Kenichi expected, a merchant with strange behavior soon approached the student.

The merchant said something to the student, then took out an MP3 player and put the earphones on the student.

This action was too obvious.

Saku Kenichi, however, felt something was not quite right. Just as he was about to order the others to continue observing, before the words could even leave his mouth, Kayahara Ao had already rushed out,

"The Dragon Country brat is right in front of us, what are you hesitating for? Last time he managed to escape, but this time he has fallen into our encirclement. Let's see how he escapes now!"

Kayahara Ao leaped out, his figure jumping several zhang high, before crashing down heavily. The merchant was instantly sent flying dozens of meters by the shockwave of the impact!

If not for the fear of injuring the student nearby, this blow might have already smashed the 'Dragon Country person' into a meat patty.

But the question was, was this merchant really a Dragon Country person?

The merchant didn't die.

The inexplicable attack filled him with resentment, and the power of chaos seeped into his body with his breath.

This merchant... had corrupted and mutated!

"Wrong! This is not a Dragon Country person! Don't let the other merchants nearby see this scene. Hurry up and kill him, otherwise, there will be big trouble!"

Being corrupted outside the city and being corrupted inside the city were two completely different things. The combat power of an NPC corrupted outside the city was ridiculously strong. It took all the effort of the four members of Sakura Country working together to finally subdue him.

Among the four, two were injured.

The most fatal problem was that the unrelated merchants outside the city were actually classified as the same faction: [Faction: Traveling Merchants]!

And this attack directly caused the favorability of [Faction: Traveling Merchants] towards the Sakura Country people to become 'Extremely Dissatisfied'.

One step further would be 'Hostile'.

Once it reached 'Hostile', as long as the Sakura Country people met such merchants, the other party would take the initiative to attack. You couldn't fight back; if you dared to fight back, they would corrupt and mutate.

Saku Kenichi clenched his fists tightly. Kayahara Ao's unauthorized action made him dissatisfied and furious. What made him even more furious was: this was clearly a trap set by the Dragon Country people for his Sakura Country, and the Sakura Country he led had just stepped into it so foolishly.

"Dragon Country! Chen Aoyun! After this Game of National Destiny ends, my Sakura Country will definitely let you know what the consequences of offending the Empire will be!"

It was also at this moment that the phone in Saku Kenichi's pocket rang incessantly.

They were all calls from the [Strategists] of various countries.

Thinking 'not good', Saku Kenichi answered one of them.

As soon as the call connected, a torrent of abuse came through the receiver:

"F*ck you! Is this how you play? Giving me, the Ottoman, false information! Saying that the merchants approaching the students were disguised Dragon Country people! Do you know what a huge price I paid for attacking the merchants over here? F*ck! Since your Sakura Country started scheming so early, don't blame me, the Ottoman, for disregarding any tacit agreements!"

Similar calls came one after another, and Saku Kenichi knew what the others were calculating.

The information was provided by him, but as for whether it was intentionally sabotaging others, he, Saku Kenichi, did not believe that those who could become [Strategists] could not distinguish good from bad.

The reason call after call came in was because they saw that his Sakura Country wanted to target the Dragon Country, and since they had just suffered losses, they were coming to demand compensation!

Chen Aoyun entrusted the MP3 players to the merchants outside the city to deliver to the students, saving worry, effort, and time.

The only drawback was that it cost too many coins, and the merchants who appeared outside the 'Scar of Chaos' were different every day, so he had to run to the merchant camp every day, which was a bit annoying.

Back in the city, Chen Aoyun did not meet up with the others, but went alone to find a 'Crime Zone' to try his luck.

Whether it was his own good luck or just the right time for a new 'Famous Scholar' to refresh, he hadn't even reached that 'Crime Zone' yet. As Chen Aoyun followed the crowd past a blacksmith shop with a strong feudal era atmosphere, another 'Famous Scholar' lit up in his compass.

[Character: Craftsman, Favorability Activated, Current Favorability: 0, Favorability Reward: Famous Item (Knife/Blade)]

Chen Aoyun immediately stopped in his tracks and looked suspiciously at the blacksmith in the shop.

"Not a 'Recommended Heroic Spirit', but a 'Famous Item'?"

At the same time, Chen Aoyun saw a line of small text in the corner of the shop; it was a hidden rule written in alphabetical order in english!

[Act I Rule B: The item rewards from a Famous Scholar can only be used by Battle Heroic Spirits; if the 'Famous Scholar' is not a Recommended Heroic Spirit but provides other rewards, then this 'Famous Scholar' does not count towards the quantity limit.].

Chen Aoyun's heart tightened. With the known [Act I Rule 6: Each faction can only reach 'True Friendship' with one NPC at the end of the month], the appearance of this [Act I Rule B] was equivalent to tightening the number of Battle Heroic Spirits available in the compass!

Among the 'Famous Scholars' in the ten compasses, how many were like the [Craftsman] who did not recommend Heroic Spirits but provided other rewards?

There were nine countries participating in this Game of National Destiny. If there were more Famous Scholars like the [Craftsman], then the 'Heroic Spirit slots' provided by the Famous Scholars would not be enough to go around!

In that case, wouldn't the difficulty of Act I be even higher for the Dragon Country?

Seeing Chen Aoyun stopping outside the shop, the blacksmith who was busy in the shop put down the hammer he was using to beat the steel billet, smiled, and said,

"If you want something, guest, feel free to come in and pick. If you aren't satisfied with anything, that's fine too. My master is about to hang up his hammer and retire. Before retiring, he intends to forge one last weapon. As long as you can collect the materials my master needs, the weapon he forges can be given to you! Many people are begging for this final work of my master. The materials you provide must be the best and the most abundant. Only then will the final weapon belong to you. Furthermore, regardless of whether the item ends up belonging to you or not, the materials you have already provided will not be returned. How about it? If you are interested, you can bring the materials to the shop. The dozen or so blacksmith shops in the city all belong to my master; you can deliver them to any one of them."

Searching for the materials needed by the [Craftsman]—this should be the task to increase favorability.

But was it useful to put energy into this kind of 'Famous Scholar' who didn't recommend Heroic Spirits?

The weapon forged by the [Craftsman] could only be used by Battle Heroic Spirits. If there were no Heroic Spirits, what was the use of a weapon?