Retrograde Gaming

Chapter 18: A Successful Practical Lesson

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

Inside the brush, just outside the northern gates of the City of Divine Protection, Li Huailin and Red Face Drinks Water crouched down as they hid underneath the grass. Since it was Red Face Drinks Water’s first time on a robbery, she was uncontrollably excited and couldn’t help but cast a glance all over the place. This happened all the while Li Huailin looked like he had a headache.

“Brother-in-law! Brother-in-law! Speaking of which, I still don’t know what you’re called,” Red Face Drinks Water suddenly asked.

“My in-game name is Open-Minded Like A Forest, and my real name is Li Huailin. You can call me whichever one you want.” Li Huailin didn’t think much of it, since it wasn’t a secret anyway, he simply gave his full name.

“Erm…” Red Face Drinks Water knit her brows in contemplation. “Forget it, I’ll just call you brother-in-law, I can say it more smoothly.”

“…”

“Oh right, brother-in-law, why are we crouching in this brush?” Red Face Drinks Water asked.

“It’s to give people a sense of terror from our sudden appearance.” Li Huailin now started to seriously fabricate things to dupe the little kid. “Robbery relies on an imposing manner, this is the most basic of basics. Remember, an imposing manner, do you understand?”

“Yes…” Red Face Drinks Water pondered for a bit before she shook her head.

“An imposing manner is, to put it simply, is to frighten the other party, to make the other party afraid of you. In that way, they’ll be willing to hand over money. Think about it, if the other party isn’t afraid of you, why would they give you money?” Li Huailin continued to make things up, “This is why we’re crouching inside this brush, once we suddenly appear and scare someone, the other party will be less imposing once they’re frightened, the chances for success will then be increased.”

“Brother-in-law, you know so much!” As she said this, Red Face Drinks Water was tricked to the point of having twinkling stars in her eyes.

“Naturally, when talking about robbery, there really aren’t many people in the world who know about it more than I do.” Despite Li Huailin having only just succeeded in two ‘robberies’, he already had an inflated opinion of himself.

“Brother-in-law! Brother-in-law! Someone’s coming!” Red Face Drinks Water suddenly said excitedly.

Once Li Huailin took a look, he found a person heading this way as expected. The latter looked to be a Warrior player, an offensive-type Warrior at that. The player carried a two-handed sword on his back and his equipment was pretty good—there were three to four pieces of equipment that were suffused with cyan light.

“I’m in charge of this mountain, these trees I’ve grown! If you want to pass through here, leave your money as a toll!” Right away, Li Huailin jumped out of the brush and then shouted this passage habitually.

Since this was Red Face Drinks Water’s first time, she was slightly started after seeing Li Huailin say so many lines, she wasn’t prepared and didn’t even know what lines to say herself. After a while, she popped out and said, “Brother-in-law is right!”

“What? Robbers?” The Warrior player was startled at first, he then sized up the two people who suddenly appeared out of the brush. The female priest looked rather normal, she had two pieces of Bronze-grade equipment—this wasn’t bad at this point in the game—however, what was with this guy who wore the beginner newbie’s three-piece set?

“What the f*ck are you lookin’ at!? Hurry up and hand over the money or else this old man will drop you!” Li Huailin said fiercely.

“Brother-in-law’s right!” Since Red Face Drinks Water still didn’t know what lines to say, she simply continued to repeat her previous words.

“Why are you only repeating a single line?” Li Huailin said gloomily.

“What? It’s my first time, I don’t know what to say yet.” Red Face Drinks Water threw up her hands as a gesture of innocence.

“Forget it, just say what you want…”

Although the Warrior player was momentarily startled, he immediately felt a little irked. What the heck was with this robbery done in broad daylight? Not to mention, it was done by these two ‘newbies’, especially the one with the newbie set who spoke quite rudely. Thus, he said in a grave and low voice, “Get lost! This old man has to go level up, I don’t have time to play with you guys.”

Li Huailin was ecstatic on the inside, he finally encountered a slightly normal player—it seems like there was hope in dying this time!

“Brother-in-law, since he’s not handing over the money, what do we do?” Upon seeing that the Warrior player wasn’t going to pay them the toll, Red Face Drinks Water asked anxiously.

“Of course we hit him once! If he still hasn’t come to his senses, then we drop him,” Li Huailin said. He naturally wanted to attack the other party first, this way, he would be considered the ‘attacker’ by the system and gain 20% experience upon death.

“Oh, I see.” Red Face Drinks Water nodded as if she ‘learned a new move’.

“You dare attack me first? If you have the guts, then bring it.” The Warrior player was really surprised, he naturally didn’t want to initiate an attack on the other party. Because if he did so, then his Infamy would increase—he didn’t want a red name on top of his head. After taking a look at Li Huailin’s equipment, with him wearing the newbie’s three-piece set, he thought it would be fine if Li Huailin attacked first.

“That’s the normal reaction.” Li Huailin watched the unyielding warrior player, he instinctively nodded before raising his sword, then, he thrust it at the Warrior’s chest while saying, “Who the fu*k do you think you are!?”

-461.

A red number floated out, the Warrior player and Red Face Drinks Water were both stunned.

“What the f*ck!? This is impossible!” The Warrior player cried out in surprise, and then, he immediately looked at his own Health Points. He only saw a sliver left, any random attack would kill him now. What was with this player wearing the plain cotton clothing three-piece set? Why was his attack so powerful? Even without using skills, a normal slash almost killed him!

“Are you… afraid now?” Red Face Drinks Water herself was shocked. However, she suddenly recalled that she was still in the middle of a robbery. And so, she followed what Li Huailin taught her in ‘terrorizing’ the other party’s will, trying to put it into practice.

With a ‘plop’ under Li Huailin’s stunned expression, the Warrior player on the opposite side knelt down.

“Big brother, I failed to recognize you as a formidable person, please let me live,” the Warrior player said this in a heart-wrenching voice.

“What big brother? I’m a robber you know? Aren’t you furious at being robbed? Don’t you want to hack me to death?” After being temporarily startled, Li Huailin kindly reminded the Warrior player.

“Yes, didn’t you say earlier that you were going to hack us to death?” Red Face Drinks Water lifted her head with a proud expression.

“There wasn’t such a thing! How could I dare attack you? You can casually move a finger to annihilate me.” The Warrior player had an ‘I’ve already repented’ expression written all over his face. After he said this, he then quickly fished out 20 Silver Coins, “I’ve only got this much on me, please don’t kill me…”

Li Huailin was really caught between laughter and tears, he painstakingly urged the Warrior, “This player here, just think about how difficult it was for you to earn this money, how many monsters have you fought to make this little bit of money…”

At the side, Red Face Drinks Water was slightly confused when she heard Li Huailin’s words. Just when she found it strange, she suddenly had a lightbulb moment. ‘Brother-in-law probably discovered that this person didn’t hand over all his money—he’s probably dissatisfied with the amount of money given—right! I should probably coordinate with brother-in-law right now.’ With this in mind, Red Face Drinks Water feigned a vicious look. “Yeah, you fought so many monsters but you only have this little bit of money? Hurry up and hand over all the money on you, or else my brother-in-law will stab you to death!”

Once the Warrior player heard the words ‘stab you to death’, his body trembled, he immediately took out a dozen more Silver Coins and Copper Coins. “I… I’ve given it all to you guys, I really don’t have any more money.”

“…” Li Huailin really wanted to roll his eyes.

“Okay, since you’re so honest, we’ll let you live. You can go now.” When Red Face Drinks Water saw that Li Huailin didn’t speak, she assumed that this person was probably robbed clean now. However, she didn’t know how Li Huailin could tell whether the other party handed over all his money or not, she simply felt that Li Huailin was quite impressive and that she needed to learn more.

“Thank you, thank you.” The Warrior player quickly ran back to the main city’s safe zone, feeling deeply grateful at them for letting him keep his life.

“Hooray! My first robbery is a success! Brother-in-law, take a look—let me count, there’s 34 Silver Coins and 60 Coppers Coins here—I’m so impressive! No, brother-in-law is so impressive!” After watching the Warrior player leave, Red Face Drinks Water quickly picked up the Coins in her hands and jumped up and down.

“Is that so… hehe…” LI Huailin could only say ‘hehe’ at this moment.

“Oh, brother-in-law you don’t seem too happy…” Red Face Drinks Water was confused at first, and then she seemed to have understood something. “Oh right! Brother-in-law, since you’re already a veteran at robbery, then robbing this little bit of money is probably the least amount in your entire robbing career. It seems like we still have to try harder—no… I mean I have to try harder!”

While Li Huailin looked at Red Face Drink Waters’ excited expression, his face turned stern. ‘What the heck am I doing… If things keep going on like this, I’ll really become a Master-level robbing expert.’