Recalling the various predicaments faced by the eighteen companies he had made bankrupt, the originally timid and fearful Jiang Yuan actually felt a bit nervous, excited, and even eager to try.
Of course, the excitement was based on having a retreat option.
If it really doesn't work out, just quit the game and not play. Considering the direction the two mini-bosses are heading, hiding in the straw hut won't avoid being discovered. He has to face them eventually and can't afford to lose his life over a relatively realistic cheat that helps glitch out farm products.
Be honest and continue looking for a job. Maybe some company might be impressed by the power of a commercial nemesis and offer a high salary to hire him as an undercover agent.
With this plan in mind, Jiang Yuan felt more confident and lay on the bed, thinking quietly before re-entering the game.
Almost the moment he entered, he tapped his stick made of jujube wood on the ground, his eyes unfocused, lightly tapping the ground with it. Using the professional acting skills of pretending to be blind from his drama club in school, he pretended not to see anything and slowly turned towards the dense forest.
At the same time, he thought if he couldn't bluff his way through, he could always swing the stick and quit the game, then re-enter and swing again, to see if he could exploit a time-stop glitch.
If he couldn't pull it off or bluff through, he could only painfully give up, as he couldn't afford to easily die himself. Just like in those animated shows, death in the game means no revival and could even affect the real world, leading to total collapse.
With no escape and other tricks, trying out doesn't cost anything!
Pretending to be a defective blind person could lower the attack power of adult males, making the foe lower their guard; it also meant he could openly carry his weapon without suspicion for emergencies. When it's time to act, he could swing the stick and take the initiative.
Moreover, as a newcomer to the game, Jiang Yuan had no understanding of the wilderness and didn't want to confront the monsters head-on.
The ones capturing miners would definitely choose young and strong individuals without defects first. Discovering a blind person might let him off the hook, allowing him to escape a disaster.
With this hopeful mindset, he walked while using the corner of his eye to observe the two Flame Rats.
"Hey, look at that guy, he's blind. We're both starving, haha…" In the next moment, Flame Rat No.1, with a tail long and thick like a steel whip, spotted its target. Rubbing its paws and nudging its companion with the tip of its tail, it licked its lips and smiled: "Anyway, the blind can't do any work. Let's just eat him!"
The job of capturing miners was indeed a bit tough, but it was worth it.
After all, without supervision, they occasionally ran into elderly, weak, or sick individuals to feast on. The taste was heavenly!
Suddenly, a progress bar jumped into Jiang Yuan's view, showing the threat level of Rat No.1 steadily rising from 0, the color turning red and increasingly oppressive.
Oh no! His heart sank as he immediately realized that pretending to be blind could lower attack power but also meant he couldn't work, not being a strong laborer. And monsters, they do eat people, right?
Suddenly turning from a miner to a dish, the threat from the rat monster was rising sharply!
What to do? Should he quit the game and think of a countermeasure?
Before he could leave, Rat No.2, carrying an iron chain on its shoulder, twitched its long, sharp nose and rolled its bright beady eyes. It sneered, "Is your mouth watering already? Today, we're responsible for capturing miners and have had bad luck, not even finding a small village. Wandering for so long, finally finding a human, what do you think the King would do if we returned empty-handed after eating him?"
"Then…bring him back?"
"Fool! Humans don't grow from the ground. A well-dressed blind proves there's a village nearby. And since he's blind and can't see anything, once we find out the village location, the elderly, weak, and disabled will be ours to pick and eat. Isn't that the perk of rotating field duty?"
The two Flame Rats whispered as they strode over, closing the distance quickly, and Jiang Yuan noticed the rat monster with the lower threat level muttering with its companion, slightly lowering its threat level and diminishing its killing intent, relieving the crisis momentarily.
Not knowing what had happened, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, aware that his back was a bit damp. He had to continue pretending not to see to lower their guard.
"Hey buddy, is there a village nearby?" Rat No.2 had a ferocious expression, with blood and flesh remnants on its yellow protruding sharp teeth, and its steel whip-like tail flexibly swayed, ready to attack at any moment, while the voice squeezed from its throat sounded quite gentle.
If Jiang Yuan hadn't seen it himself, he would have mistaken it for a friendly person asking for directions.
"Village?" He hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to randomly point in a direction to deceive them and make his escape.
[Doot doot doot! Danger! Danger!]
Jiang Yuan had just lifted his arm when his entire vision suddenly flashed with an oppressive blood-red color, and a system warning sounded in his ears. The two giant rats showed a look of greedy delight on their faces, evidently meaning he was doomed as soon as he pointed the way!
He suddenly realized that their task was to capture miners.
If he gave them information about nearby villages, as a "blind man," he would become a discard. The only way to get through this predicament was to make them believe he was useful enough to be taken along as a mining worker; otherwise, he might be devoured by the monsters!
"Around here..." Jiang Yuan, having figured it out, took a deep breath and replied, "There's no sign of human habitation. I was exiled here by the High Priest. These past two days, there's not been a single village—you're the first two living people I've encountered."
[Crisis Averted]
The blood-red color and the warning sound disappeared. The two rat spirits visibly expressed disappointment, letting their tails droop down.
"Brother, can you see?" The second rat waved its claw in front of him, puzzled at his lack of response, "How do you know there are two of us?"
Claiming he wasn't afraid would be a lie. At such close range, he could not only see the fierce visage of the human-sized rats but also catch a faint whiff of the blood and the distinct musky odor peculiar to rodents.
Previously, be it watching films or playing games, he'd seen plenty of these anthropomorphic monsters, but when one stood right before him, breathing hot air onto his body and flaunting sharp claws capable of dispatching him at any moment, the visual and psychological impact was overwhelming.
But lacking the strength to fight and unable to run, he could only opt to join them for now.
"Although I can't see with my eyes, my ears are quite sharp. Otherwise, having been exiled to this desolate place, I'd have died of thirst and hunger long ago." He feigned a vacant stare, trying hard not to look at the intimidating rat spirits, and tapped the ground with his jujube wood stick, replying, "I heard your footsteps; there are two of you."
"Ah, an exile." The second rat impatiently yanked his jujube wood stick, saying, "You're lucky today. Come with us. Behave when we get there, and if the King favors you, there'll be wealth and prosperity at your disposal. Maybe the King will be delighted enough to grant you a cultivation technique. If you succeed in achieving Foundation Establishment and regaining your body, you'll be able to see again."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Yuan thought, well, even the wild monsters in games make grand promises.
In the face of crisis, he had to put on an act. He pretended to be overjoyed and said, "Thank you both for leading the way. I certainly won't let you down and will perform well!"
The two rat spirits exchanged a taunting look and smiled, finding it convenient to have such a gullible fool who believed whatever they said, saving them the trouble of using a whip or locking chains, easily tricked to follow along.
Previously, encountering those humans who resisted fiercely was much more annoying; hitting lightly was useless, but hitting hard might cripple or kill them, leading to reprimands from the King when returned.
"It's a pity he's blind. Hopefully, the King is in a good mood today, or at least he doesn't lag behind. After completing the task easily, maybe we can find a weakling to share some meat with…" The second rat spirit thought as they led Jiang Yuan around a marsh, formally entering the mine.
From afar, he could hear the chaotic sounds of mining stones, from time to time mingling with the cracking of whips and curses, and the miserable wails of humans.
Following the two rat spirits into a mountain hollow, he saw a brightly lit quarry.
[A mine capable of producing Spirit Stone ore. The Ore can be processed into Spirit Stones at the Melting Workshop]
He was all too familiar with the concept of Spirit Stones: the universal currency in the cultivation world. So the rat spirits were using the captured mining workers to dig for money!
At a glance, about forty or fifty humans were mining stones, a mix of men, women, young and old. They were likely the unfortunate residents of a village that was completely rounded up; there were also about seven or eight Qi Refining Stage robust and ferocious rat spirits wagging their tails amidst the crowd, acting as overseers.
With his extensive job-seeking experience, Jiang Yuan immediately recognized this group of rat spirits as a hastily assembled, makeshift team, which explained why they were capturing people everywhere for mining, effectively treating living humans as consumables.
The camp was occasionally buzzed by lurking bats sneaking in to suck blood. The weak and ill, lacking proper tools, could only dodge. The loafing overseer rat spirits couldn't be bothered to drive away these minor nuisances, but would harshly whip the humans with their tails whenever they tried to avoid the bites, cursing them for being lazy and not working.
Aside from being whipped, the screams he heard were also from humans in unbearable pain from bat bites. The sight of a group of ragged, emaciated "miners" stirred pity, and he was about to join their ranks as one of them.
In reality, encountering such a petty company with rampant misconduct and an abundance of fraudsters, it wouldn't last even three days before being run into the ground. But being in this wilderness game, did his passive skills still hold any value?
Feeling uncertain, Jiang Yuan couldn't help but be a bit anxious.