Loser System and Berserker Me

Chapter 116: Eternal Blight

The Tang army had returned, but it was different from what the middle-aged man had envisioned. They weren’t an army of living soldiers but armored white-haired skeletons riding on netherworld steeds.

These white-haired skeletons didn’t disappear even in the day; they moved freely under the sun.

The middle-aged man, despite his wealth of life experience, was still shocked.

Speaking of which, why does that flag look so familiar?

“Shu…” the middle-aged man murmured.

Just then, he saw a towering figure dressed in an oddly familiar getup walking over. A name popped into his head, and he blurted out in astonishment, “Vice General Mi?!”

He recognized the other party to be the vice commander serving Old General Shu and Young General Shu. Granted that he had never seen Vice General Mi’s real face, that getup was really one-of-a-kind.

Miazova turned around and assessed the middle-aged man. It lowered its head in contemplation before asking, “Little Liu? You’re alive.”

“Yes, yes! I’m alive!” the middle-aged man exclaimed as he wiped off his tears. “After I was captured by those barbarians, they first sent me to the fields for a few years before tossing me into the mines… they nearly got me for good!”

He chuckled a little before clasping his fist. “Xuanwu Army, Liu Eleventh, reporting in!”

“You shouldn’t be saying that to me.” Miazova eyed Shu Yichao. “Report to him instead. I’m still the vice commander, as usual.”

“…”

Liu Eleventh looked at the flag, which reflected Tang on one side and Shu on the other.

When he exchanged looks with Shu Yichao earlier, for a brief moment, he saw the silhouettes of a white-haired old general and a valiant female general.

“Could it be…”

“It’s as you have thought.” Miazova could see through Liu Eleventh’s thoughts. “He’s Shu Wenchang’s grandson, Shu Chuanfeng’s son.”

“…” Liu Eleventh squashed his face to check if he was dreaming. “You need not say anything else. We will throw our lots with General Shu! We will only rest after we send these barbarians packing!”

“Are you not afraid?” Miazova asked. “Our army is made out of skeletons. Shu Yichao has summoned these ghosts from Kucha.”

“What do I have to fear?” Liu Eleventh thumped his chest out. “There might even be seniors I know inside! I’ll carry the Shu flag on their behalf!”

He strutted over to the white-haired skeleton carrying the flag. With trembling hands, he asked, “Commander, I shall carry this flag on your behalf…”

The white-haired skeleton eyed Liu Eleventh, but he held the flagpole tighter than ever with his skeletal hands. A deep, guttural voice reverberated from his throat, “Scram, little brat! I’m still in my prime!”

“…”

“HAHAHA!” Miazova gloated over Liu Eleventh’s embarrassment. “Little Liu, you should obediently return to Kucha for the time being to recuperate.”

“This feels much better. Around 20 green dots and 200 white dots. I have added dozens of skeleton soldiers to his army, and I earned some reward from the mission too.” Shu Yichao tallied up his gains from the battle. “Let me see… I can build a Soul Summoning Tower and a residential area in Kucha, as well as an Eternal Blight here.”

Shu Yichao tapped on his screen and overlapped Eternal Blight on the mine.

Boom!

A black skeleton tower rose from the ground. Black smoke puffed out from the skeletons embedded in the skeleton tower, casting a cloud of death over the area. It felt like eternal night had fallen upon this place.

“What’s that?!”

Miazova instinctively pulled out a talisman when it saw the black smoke, but to its surprise, the seemingly terrifying black smoke didn’t harm any of them here. It was as if its only purpose was to darken the surroundings.

“Let’s go!” After conquering the mine with Eternal Blight, Shu Yichao leaped onto his steed and ordered, “Half of the skeleton soldiers will escort the survivors to Kucha, whereas the other half will be mining here. Hero troops, follow me. We shall continue our attack!”

For now, I shall conquer everything within reach and save all the captured Tang civilians!

Shu Yichao knew that Kucha, as a tier-2 city, could only evolve to a tier-3 city at the very most after gathering a sufficiently huge population base. This would be highly disadvantageous to an undead army, as early-game undead troops tended to be overly weak.

When Beacons of the Otherworld was still holding competitions, before its balance had completely crumbled, undead players had once retorted that the undead army was practically useless without any resources.

For one, the undead army was extremely slow. Often, a battle would have already concluded before they even reached the battlefield.

Other than that, the undead army had no stand-outs other than their ability to absorb mana. Granted that any physical damage they received was halved, the problem was that the physical damage they dealt was also halved as well.

It was hard to rely on them.

What about the late-game troops?

Yes, the undead army did have powerful late-game troops, such as the banshees and the terracotta soldiers, but that was a moot point as no undead player could survive long enough to bring them to the table.

For a long time, no one used the undead army in competitions… till the Ghost King appeared. He insisted on using the undead army for early-game battles.

He robbed his enemies of their vision with Eternal Blight before dispatching skeletons to dominate the mines spread across the map. That was a disaster to the other players, who tended to require a lot of mana to develop in the early stages.

By stacking Soul Summoning Towers and Soul Summoning Banners, he built up a huge army of skeletons and swiftly overran the enemies’ bases while they were still weak!

It was a massacre!

Not a single undead player had won the competition for 17 years prior to the Ghost King’s emergence, but in the 17 competitions following that, 13 of the winners were undead players!

And now, Shu Yichao was planning to replicate the Ghost King’s tactics.

“Howl all you want, but I’ll bring all of you down under the Eternal Blight!”

…

System 12345 was delighted to have made great strides as soon as it started its internship.

Those fools! How dare they look down on me? Those Systems are just jealous of my talent! Under my guidance, my host made an arrogant woman submit in just a day!

Has any other Systems in the world achieved such a feat?

?My host, I realized that you’re getting close to a place!?

It was busy browsing a sea of information when it noticed a capture target suited for the current Shu Yichao. Not only was the capture target close enough for Shu Yichao to travel to right now, her occupation would also prove to be an invaluable aid to him.

?My host, my host! Here’s the next target!?