(Happy reading on weekends, know when to stop, rate, recommend.)
Missing eighteen years of memory does not mean that Xia You lacks common knowledge of ordinary people.
After confirming that the creature above her head was a Pterosaur, Xia You lay on the ground, pretending to be a corpse, and tried hard to search in her memory for the era when dinosaurs lived. Her impression of dinosaurs was still stuck at the several dozen meters long dinosaur fossil displayed in the Bazhou City Museum.
The Pterosaur in the sky spread its wings, as big as a spray plane, and when it flew close to the ground, the low trees made a terrible creaking sound.
"Heaven has a path you chose not to take, and space has no door yet I don't know how you entered. The remaining hundreds of players entered a trial ground for newcomers from more than 10,000 years ago, which is the New Stone Age," Little Eight saw Xia You's pathetic state, and couldn't help but worry. This mentality was like that of parents who are disappointed their child is not making steel, or like a pro player babysitting a newbie, unable to scold or bite, only able to drown in saliva.
"Military Road" is not a fully intact system; in addition to the main battlefield set for ordinary players, there are special spaces that are only opened under specific conditions. Little Eight is specifically responsible for overseeing these special spaces. Since "Military Road" system had never been publicly tested before, "she" had basically nothing to do over these years, shuttling through spaces when interested, and playing missing when in a bad mood. Basically, an easy job, but the appearance of Zero broke "her" leisurely days.
"I have confirmed that you are the first outsider to enter the 'space', so if you can complete your space task, you will enjoy the system's additional rewards," Little Eight finished stating this seemingly tempting condition.
No sooner had Little Eight finished speaking than an additional line appeared on Xia You's task manual: "Prehistoric Task One, escape from Dinosaur Forest and return to Government Army."
If it were someone else, after receiving Little Eight's promise of rewards, they would be overjoyed, wholly intent on completing the system task quickly. However, Xia You was someone who didn't believe in pie falling from the sky, and she didn't quite see it that way.
Telling the China national men's football team to participate in the World Cup, and then telling them they would get a million bonus each from the national football association after winning the Hercules Cup, would that make sense?
The Pterosaur in the sky was still flying, and Xia You, facing down, observed closely the monster ants nearby which were significantly larger than regular ants. The ants, as big as her pinky finger, were biting at a leech's corpse at an alarming speed; soon, the bloody insect corpse was completely cleaned up, leaving only a wrinkled leech skin behind.
"Let me ask once more, just once, do those players who entered the Stone Age also encounter these unlikable creatures?" The Pterosaur in the sky, and the flesh-eating ants, the monster ants comparable to them – judging from the current situation, Xia You would prefer to go to the Stone Age to discuss the art of fire-making with Primitive People.
Little Eight was stumped; she thought, it seems this player numbered Zero isn't too foolish, her query indeed hit the nail on the head, "As members of the Stone Age, their daily tasks include: sewing, gathering fruits, hunting, patrolling, defending against invasions from external tribes. Once they accumulate enough Merit Points, they can exit 'Military Road'."
"Complete gender equality? No differential division of labor?" Xia You initially thought there might be different roles for male and female players.
"All players entering 'Military Road' possess a neutral physique, lacking the capacity for conception and fertilization, which means here, the abilities of men and women do not differ due to gender; everything is decided by capability alone." This point, is a unique feature of "Military Road."
"You just need to progress step by step, according to the system's instructions, complete the tasks displayed one by one," after Little Eight finished speaking, Xia You breathed a sigh of relief; the Pterosaur had flown away.
A suspicious shaking started from within the fern jungle opposite, and a little girl crawled out.
Were there humans 70 million years ago? On the World History course Xia You had taken, the so-called five thousand years referred to the emergence of human civilization.
The little girl in front of her was about the same age as Xia You's sister Maggie, with straw-colored hair and a face full of freckles, Caucasian. On her, there was no attire of animal skins or any other Primitive People's dress, instead, she wore a denim jacket, albeit somewhat worn, definitely a product of modern industry.
In the little girl's light brown pupils, after reflecting the image of Xia You with yellow skin and shoulder-length hairstyle, they suddenly contracted sharply.
"Zero, danger, immediately run to the eastern part of the forest," as a responsible "Space Demigod," Little Eight had anticipated the impending threat.
The girl's hands and feet bore sporadic wounds; her expression panicky. After seeing Xia You and clearly taking note of her attire, she stepped back several steps; however, behind her... a flurry of flapping sounds, more urgent and more condensed than the earlier Pterosaur's.
Xia You looked towards the distance; from the dense fern jungle, she saw a multitude of moths, dark and dense.
"Mutated Moth Dragon. Zero, why are you still dazed? Run, don't worry, I have at least two ways to ensure your safe escape," Moth Dragon? Is it a moth or a dragon? Xia You didn't have time to ponder. Seeing Little Eight's reaction, she knew there was only one path left, to flee.
The little girl also seemed to realize this, despite her small size, her speed was not slow. After spotting Xia You, she fled towards Xia You's position and disappeared into the north side of the jungle within moments.
Little Eight had initially directed her to the eastern part of the forest. That little girl? Xia You called out to her from behind, but the girl didn't respond, so Xia You had no choice but to run towards the east. After running for a while, she heard running sounds behind her again.
The little girl had changed direction and was now following behind her.
Physical Ability 33, Physical Ability 32, the physical ability numbers displayed on Xia You's shadow kept dropping; it was about to hit the critical line of 30.
A large river appeared in front of them, about two meters wide. Xia You looked back again and saw a group of swiftly flying Moth Dragons closely pursuing her.
"Jump in, Moth Dragons are afraid of water," Little Eight gave another prompt, allowing the inexperienced Xia You to enter this space, which was the biggest mistake of the system Little Eight had seen so far; she could only try her best to remedy it.
Following her guidance, Xia You jumped into the water. The little girl stopped by the riverbank, anxiously hopping around.
"Quick, jump into the water," blurted out Xia You. The girl was about the same age as Maggie, which invoked a protective feeling in Xia You.
"Government Army, I don't need your sympathy," the little girl rejected Xia You's gesture outright, her tone and eyes full of hostility, leaving Xia You somewhat perplexed. She wondered how she had already offended someone just by entering this prehistoric society.
"Don't bother with that obstructive NPC; just focus on saving your own life. With your current physical strength, a Moth Dragon could swallow more than half of your health in one bite." The perilously low 31 points of physical strength, and there she was, still bothering about an inconsequential person.
"If I can only take a couple of hits, what about her?" Xia You wondered. As an adult, she could only endure a few hits, so that girl on the shore was certainly doomed.
"What else but death? Prehistoric societies refresh a batch of NPCs periodically; just let her die," amid Little Eight's alert, Xia You held her breath, ready to dive under the water to avoid the overwhelmingly large group of Moth Dragons.
"Mom, brother, Maggie can't return anymore, farewell." The little girl knelt by the riverbank, as if praying before her death. Unfamiliar with swimming, even though she knew Moth Dragons were afraid of water, she had no way to avoid the chase of these fierce mutant dragons.
"She is also called Maggie," Xia You's face submerged in the water, hearing the little girl's prayer, hesitated. The Moth Dragons had already reached the shore, about to encircle NPC Maggie.
"Number 0," Little Eight urged urgently.
Xia You grabbed a handful of pebbles the size of fingernails, continuously throwing stones as the Moth Dragons swooped towards NPC Maggie.
"Idiot," though called Moth Dragon because its body is light as a moth, it possesses the attack power of a dinosaur, and a Moth Dragon's most formidable weapon is its teeth, which can easily bite through a player's military uniform and skin.
Was this novice foolish enough to attempt killing a Moth Dragon, which had higher agility than humans, with small stones?
To kill? Xia You wasn't so overconfident. She only meant to disrupt the Moth Dragons' attacking formation by jumping into the water, that was all.
At the critical moment, all Xia You could see were the fluttering Moth Dragons; the stones in her hand were her only means of survival, her knees slightly bent. Years of being active kept her nerves highly sensitive; a step forward was to attack, a step back was to defend, this back and forth left her comfortably dealing with the Moth Dragons.
Her accuracy? An ordinary player, in a flash-like moment, managed the most precise response.
The river, once splashed by countless water droplets, became gradually calm. Clear reflections of Xia You and NPC Maggie appeared; for an instant, several fuel bombs skillfully passed between Xia You and Maggie.
Thick smoke billowed and post-combustion animal corpses' burnt smell spread throughout the forest, black ashes fell, NPC Maggie joyfully shouted towards the other side of the river: "Colonel Washington!"
"Enemy forces!" A cold female voice came from behind Xia You. Without turning around, from NPC Maggie's suddenly pale face, Xia You could sense that an equal number of fuel bombs were aimed at her.