Chapter 955: Sect Mission
"Little Fatty, how are you doing? Have you washed your ass yet? I need to queue up." Old Qin said in the voice chat.
Zou Zhuo's mouth twitched slightly: "Can you be a little more civilized? Stop talking like a crude northerner! I haven't finished looking through these sect skills yet..."
"Oh, just check them out once we're in the game. You're not familiar with the skills, and neither is anyone else. We're all noobs here, so we can learn as we play." Old Qin was clearly very confident.
In fact, the combat system of *Jianghu* shared some similarities with *Dark Souls* and *Monster Hunter*, so it was no wonder Old Qin felt so self-assured.
"Alright, alright, let's queue up for a match and see." As Zou Zhuo spoke, he pushed open the door beside the backyard.
A flash of white light passed, and the inn along with the surrounding scenery quickly dissolved into streams of data and vanished. In the next instant, Zou Zhuo found himself standing in a courtyard. The ground was paved with neat blue stone slabs, and in front of the main hall ahead stood a bronze incense burner with thick incense sticks burning; the plaque above read three large characters: "Hall of Righteousness."
This time, the players' starting area was Mount Hua, much like the spawn island in a battle royale game. It was random; they could have been assigned to another sect.
Around him were martial artists of all kinds, each wearing different attire. Zou Zhuo had already memorized the different sect uniforms back at the inn, recognizing disciples from Shaolin, Wudang, Mount Hua, Tang Clan, and other sects.
There were many of them—probably over a hundred. Some stood motionless, gently stroking the longswords at their waists; others looked around, scanning their surroundings; and some simply wandered about.
At that moment, a line of prompt text appeared at the upper-right edge of Zou Zhuo's field of view.
[This match has 24 players. Total number of sect disciples: 108. All currently alive.]
[Current identity: Wudang disciple.]
[Objective: Defeat all competitors in the Martial Arts Tournament to become the Martial Alliance Leader, and eliminate all evil sects.]
Zou Zhuo was startled: "This is a multiplayer competitive game?!"
In truth, he had already suspected as much. Being able to duo queue with Old Qin clearly meant this wasn't a single-player game.
He looked down at his own outfit. It was indeed Wudang sect clothing: a dark long robe with wide sleeves and a loose fit, the hem falling to the top of his leather boots. It looked ethereal and elegant, very dashing.
"Old Qin, what sect are you in?" Zou Zhuo asked.
After two seconds, Old Qin replied very reluctantly: "Sha... Shaolin."
Zou Zhuo almost burst out laughing: "You can't go three sentences without talking about being gay, and now look—you really can't get close to women anymore."
Old Qin: "...You're just a damn Taoist priest. Can *you* get close to women?"
Zou Zhuo: "Sorry, but in the novels, many Wudang disciples are allowed to marry and have children."
Old Qin was a bit speechless: "I don't really get this game's matchmaking system. We're in the same squad, and it still splits us into two different sects?"
Zou Zhuo: "Uh... maybe it's to prevent us from being exposed. Think about it: 24 players across 12 sects. If two people were always assigned to the same sect, wouldn't that make the team relationships way too easy to guess?"
Old Qin: "Makes sense... By the way, if we chat like this, no one else can hear us, right?"
Zou Zhuo looked around: "No, the system already notified us that our voice chat is limited to the squad. Strictly speaking, all other players—whether righteous or evil—are our enemies. Just like in *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*, we can't communicate with them."
"Good." Old Qin looked around curiously, "108 disciples, but only 24 players. Can you guess which ones are players?"
Zou Zhuo shook his head: "I really can't tell."
In theory, players and NPCs should be easy to distinguish. But ever since the mobile version of *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*, Chen Mo had started playing tricks. The NPCs were programmed to behave exactly like players—some even jumped around randomly, making movements that didn't fit NPC behavior at all... but they were still NPCs.
And visually, they were completely indistinguishable.
Different sects had different features and accessories in their uniforms. For example, with the same Wudang robe, a player could hang a jade pendant at the waist, attach a tassel to their sword, or wear a unique hairstyle. Of course, these were special appearances obtained from loot boxes, just like the little skirts in *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*.
But NPCs could also randomly get some of these accessories. So having a special accessory didn't necessarily mean someone was a player, and not having one didn't mean they were an NPC. Relying on appearance to identify players was unrealistic.
Old Qin didn't seem to care much: "It's fine. There are only 24 players in total, way fewer than in *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*. We probably won't even run into real players early on."
Zou Zhuo: "You northerners are always so optimistic. I feel like I might not even be able to beat the NPCs..."
The two chatted for a while. One minute later, the game officially began.
A goshawk swept across the sky.
"Screech!!"
Zou Zhuo's view quickly pulled upward, rising high into the sky, where the entire map was laid out before him.
There were mountains, rivers, dense forests, and deserts.
There were also many cities and sects, all labeled with text UI.
Among them, the three evil sects were located on the edges of the map: the Dragon Sect in the northwest, the Five Poison Sect in the southwest, and the Flower Palace in the southeast. Sects like Carefree, Emei, Tang Clan, and Mount Hua were positioned more inward, surrounded by special locations such as the Great Desert, Western Region villages, bamboo groves, and so on. Further inward were the three major sects—Shaolin, Wudang, and Beggar's Sect—along with the three cities of Luoyang, Hangzhou, and Chengdu.
At first glance, there were many locations, but spread across the map, they were easy to remember.
For example, Wudang Mountain, right at the center of the map, felt a bit like Pochinki in *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*. The Dragon Sect in the northwest corner was somewhat like Georgopol. The other scattered locations were like the various abandoned towns in *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*, neatly distributed across the map.
Then, the goshawk dove straight down, heading toward Wudang Mountain.
At this moment, Zou Zhuo's game character was in the Wudang Sect Leader's bedchamber. The sect leader was sitting cross-legged on the bed, meditating to heal his injuries, his face pale and grim.
Beside him, one of the senior uncles addressed the disciples with a grave expression.
"Recently, the sect leader's complexion has been poor. I thought it was just a minor cold, but unexpectedly, his condition has worsened rapidly. I went through great trouble to invite the divine physician from Forget Sorrow Valley, only to be told that the sect leader has been poisoned with Heart-Eroding Poison! This poison spreads slowly and won't be life-threatening immediately, but it has a severe impact on the internal organs. If not cured in time, the sect leader could lose all his martial arts skills, and if it reaches the heart, it could be fatal!"
"The divine physician said that to cure the Heart-Eroding Poison, we need two medicinal ingredients: one is the Seven-Colored Flower from the Tianshan Mountains, and the other is the Golden Carp. I must stay here to protect the sect leader, so this heavy responsibility falls on you. You have all trained at Wudang since childhood. Now that the martial world is in turmoil, this is the perfect time to show your skills. Remember, report back immediately once you find the ingredients. This will be a great merit, and I will personally teach you advanced inner techniques!"