To persuade a skeptic
"Yeah, thanks but no thanks, I ain't falling for something as obvious as that."
Ying snorted uncaringly, taking long strides in the exact opposite direction. Like the birds overhead, he seemed to not want to have anything to do with the commotion back there. Smart move, he thought.
Yet, as he moved further away, a flicker of curiosity gnawed at him. He almost felt the urge to throw his comical sword over his shoulder and plunge headfirst into whatever madness awaited.
Almost.
You see, Ying prided himself on being one of the very few advocates of common sense.
He thought of himself as a devout upholder of the ancient arts of basic intelligence—a last bastion of sorts, against the tide of foolishness that had washed over humanity over the ages.
'Don't let the name fool you; common sense is as rare a commodity as any,' he mused. 'Only a handful of people actually possess it.'
He chuckled to himself, recalling a particularly muscular youth whose name rhymed suspiciously with 'RX'. "Some people are blissfully unaware of it's very existence," he thought.
The shout screeched through the air, a clear sign of trouble. But instead of rushing in like some do-gooding knight in shining armor, Ying's common sense screamed at him to put as much distance as possible between himself and the chaos.
"It's like they say: when you hear a distressed cry, run away so you don't die. Cowardly? Perhaps. But it's simple logic that keeps you alive."
It was a virtual life, but that wasn't any reason to throw it away so easily. Ying was no hero, far from it really, so he wasn't compelled to lend a hand by some ambiguous complex.
With skepticism that ran as deep as his shadow, and trust which evaporated like morning dew—rarely lingering long enough for anyone to grasp. It made you wonder if he could even trust anyone at all…
"Hmm..." Well, considering his gray past, it wasn't really surprising that he had developed such traits.
"Ugh, twice today already…" he groaned. "Whatever. There are only two possibilities here…" he said, working through the options aloud.
"One: it's a trap—a really dumb one that'd end up with me getting killed. Or two: it's an actual distress call… which would also, most likely, end up woth me getting killed."
He wasn't wrong. The chance of this being a trap laid by players or malevolent NPCs was not just high—it felt practically assured. And If he fell into the clutches of such an embsrassingly basic scheme, he'd either end up dead or lose everything he'd worked for…
...or maybe both.
Yet what if it was real? That could spiral into its own set of catastrophic issues. Worst-case? Death, again.
Just as he continued to wrestle with his thoughts, another terrifying cry rang out through the forest.
"AAAAAAHHHHH! SOMEONE HELPP!!!!"
At this point, the pleas became more desperate, more direct.
"….Hmm, still a no." Ying was stalwart with his decision, just how much persuasion would it take to break a sceptic?
Yes.
"HEEEELLLP!!!"
"…Ugh, isn't someone going to get that?" Ying questioned air.
The cry came again, but it didn't end there. No, yet another one blared the forest, and then another, and another, and another, and another, and after that...? Another, of course.
The cries didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, and each time the crying canary ripped a new one, Ying would falter in his steps—his no's growing fainter by the minute.
The screamer did not relent though, terrorizing the forests with her yelps.
Eventually, after exactly the 31st holler, Ying folded.
"Alright, alright I'm coming! Geez! Fvck, Mr. knight in shining armour decides to take a break today huh, well screw you! I'll… I'll just do it myself. Can't trust someone I don't know anyways." Ying shouted in frustrated surrender.
Expecting the cry to pierce the silence once more, he turned west—but it didn't come. Strangely, the screams ceased the moment he resigned himself to the idea.
"Sigh… Fate's really messing with me, isn't it? Whatever. What's the worst that could happen? It's just a game after all," he shrugged, conveniently brushing aside some crucial details.
'Let's not forget about the sword. I might just need it,' he thought, signaling the importance of his trusty(?) weapon.
Despite his cavalier attitude, Ying was inherently cautious, then taking one last self-depricating sigh for the road, he commenced his journey.
…..
Along the way, Ying came across quite a few more beasts, four of which were even Mud Fangs. However, instead of the 2nd Realm of the Body Tempering stage, the ones he encountered were merely at the first realm.
SLICE
SLASH
CRACK
CRASH
With swift precision, Ying dispatched them with well-placed slices and slashes. They seemed almost tame compared to the alpha he'd battled before, their struggles almost laughable in their docility.
Perhaps he was simply that much stronger now, or maybe that earlier Mud Fang had been a leader, skirting the pack as the rest hid in its shadow. Who's to say? The theory made sense, but the world was vast and filled with unknowns.
Obviously, Ying harvested the Monster Cores as well as corpses of all the beasts he killed, stowing them all away without exception.
STAB
"Kuuueeek!!" A strange boar like monster shrieked in pain, before drawing its last breaths.
[You have killed Stone Pig: Body tempering stage-First Realm!]
[You have obtained a Beast Core!]
"That brings my total monster core count to eight…" Ying muttered idly as he dismissed the core into his inventory.
He was tempted to just take a take a seat on the floor and Cultivate with his boon right now, but he held himself back.
'I'm all ready too close. If I drop my guard down now, chances are that I'll get swept up into the conflicts ahead by force.' Ying deterred himself with the thought and maintained a sturdy pace onwards.
There was no point in allowing his hastiness to cost him.
CLANG
BANG
Soon afterwards, the clangour of metal reached Ying's ears and after discerning that he was undoubtedly close to his target spot, he sprinted down the grassy path before crouching down behind a particularly tall but unassuming bush.
Using his hand to clear open a view, Ying set his blade down and focused on the events unfolding before him. Honestly, he was genuinely surprised.
Clang!
Bang!
The sound of metals crashing violently against each other resounded across the woods like tiny explosions, causing dust to fly up everywhere with each collision.
"You coward! You knew that you could never match me on your own, so you shamefully ambushed me with your cohort! Do you really have no honour as a warrior?! Zhao Ming?!" A brown haired youth screamed hatefully while grasping his sword.
His grip was shaky.
The brown haired youth was in horrible shape. He was beaten, bruised, battered and had blood flowing from the wounds that littered his body. However, as far as Ying could see, the most serious wound was the one on his right shoulder.
'Hmm? It seems that they are having a fight. But… Three on one?' Ying pondered the fairness of the situation as he swiftly took in the entire area.
Standing across from the injured youth were three other similarly aged individuals, judging from their looks.
There were two boys and a single girl, and armed with different variations of the sword weapon, they grinned mischievously whilst looking down upon the injured young man.
Behind the lone youth was a female. A very beautiful, black haired female with pearl like skin, shiny black eyes, and stunning features. And although her curves were nothing to write home about, her face more than made up for it.
Seeing as how she was helplessly standing a few meters away from where the fight was going on, Ying reckoned that it was she who drew his attention with the screams…
...over, and over again.
'I see…' Ying thought as he slowly began piecing it all together, taking into account all the variables that presented themselves before him.
"Che… How unsightly, to think that a mere outer disciple commoner thinks so highly of himself…" The youth called 'Zhao Ming', clicked his tongue in a sneer, then licked his lips.
"I think we should do something about that..."