Loser System and Berserker Me

Chapter 151: You Call This a Calamity?

Zhujubo was a strategic location between Shule and Khotan.

Located west of Khotan, east of the Pamir Mountains, and north of the Kunlun Mountain, it was an important route for the Tibetan Empire in the Western Region.

In Zhujubo’s City Lord Manor…

“What did you say?” Zhujubo’s city lord widened his eyes in shock. “The Shu army is causing trouble again?”

The cities in the Western Regions were highly autonomous, and their city lords were as good as kings on their turf. Many of them had previously undergone conferment as Great Tang’s vassals.

But when the Tibetan Empire attacked the Western Region, the Tibetans found these group of people jarring as they bore a resemblance to the Tangs, so they guarded against and oppressed them. A few city lords were massacred and replaced.

Those who lacked the strength to fight back could only lower their heads and secretly finance the resistance to stir trouble for the Tibetan Empire, though more often than not, their operations were more of an inconvenience than a threat.

The original city lords of Zhujubo and Shule were the unlucky ones; they were killed.

So, Zhujubo was currently under a Tibetan noble’s rule.

“Are you sure you aren’t pulling my leg?” Zhujubo’s city lord found it hard to accept what he had just heard. “You’re saying the calamity was caused by the Shu army’s mage?”

The Shu army? I have heard about them, but wasn’t the Shu army suppressed and massacred?

The person who had reported this matter to him was the spy he had planted in Shule’s army, and his loyalty was unquestionable, but Zhujubo’s city lord still wondered if the spy had gotten it wrong.

“City lord,” the spy pointed to his bandaged wound and cried miserably, “what I have said is true! Do you doubt my loyalty?”

While the Tibetan military powerhouses weren’t at war with one another, they weren’t on good terms either. Spying on another military powerhouse’s army was extremely risky; the spy would be subjected to the most severe torture before a mage turned them into an artifact.

The spy felt indignant that the city lord was doubting the intelligence he had risked his life to bring back.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but the intelligence you have brought back is hard to believe,” Zhujubo’s city lord replied with a sigh.

I mean, listen to what this spy is saying!

You’re saying that Rajmaya declared that a bunch of pathetic slaves are behind the recent bizarre happenings around Kucha, and she gathered an army and headed over to suppress them.

There, she encountered a huge skeleton army summoned by a young mage who appeared to be a Shu clan’s descendant, and her army clashed with them. They were winning the fight, so they chased the mage and the skeletons into the Eternal Blight.

Little did they know that there was an ambush. They were immediately swarmed by hundreds of thousands of skeletons, and no one knew whether they were alive or dead.

…Sounds like bullshit! That reeks of nonsense weaved by a deserter to shirk responsibility!

The spy shook his fist in agitation and cried out, “City lord, I’m not lying! There is a sea of skeletons, and there are so many of them that my estimate of hundreds of thousands is already a conservative one. If I hadn’t noticed that something is amiss and ran here to report the matter, I would have been killed too!

“City lord,” the spy looked at the city lord with fearful eyes, “I don’t think Shule stands a chance. Bikna and Rajmaya have likely died to those skeletons. The necromancer might be advancing here as we speak. We need to make preparations!!!”

“You’re going too far!” Zhujubo’s city lord spat. “You weren’t that thick-skinned! How can you lie without your face turning red?”

“CITY LORD!!!” the spy cried in despair.

Ignoring the spy, the city lord turned to his aides and ordered, “Send some scouts to Shule to investigate the situation.”

He figured that Rajmaya might have suffered a loss, but he was not inclined to believe the spy’s account of the situation—there might have been some falsehoods or exaggeration weaved into the report.

“Get to the bottom of the situation.”

If Rajmaya really suffered a crushing defeat, I guess I’ll have no choice but to shoulder the heavy responsibility of rescuing Shule.

The city lord had coveted Shule for a long time now.

Just then, his guard leader barged into the audience room, turned to the spy, and spat at the latter, “You fucking coward! Spewing nothing but lies! You deserve to be killed a thousand times over!”

“Hey, hey! Calm down. There’s no need to blow your top over something as trivial as this,” Zhujubo’s city lord quickly placated his guard leader.

“Hmph!” The guard leader turned away, but his rage remained unabated.

“Haa!” Zhujubo’s city lord sighed. “He might have exaggerated things a little, but…”

“Exaggerated?” The guard leader looked at the city lord in disbelief. “Not at all! He concealed the severity of the matter! He reported false military intelligence, not to mention that his report came in too late! So he has put us in a highly vulnerable position!”

“Ah?” Zhujubo’s city lord was stunned.

Wait, what do you mean by concealing the severity of the matter?

The guard leader, with cold sweat dripping down his face, pointed outside, followed by the floor.

It was only at this point that Zhujubo’s city lord belatedly realized that the ground was shaking, and dust was raining raining from the ceiling beams above too.

“What’s going on?!” Zhujubo’s city lord shot to his feet in astonishment.

“He lied!” The guard leader glared at the spy. “He claimed that our enemies are slow-moving skeletons with inferior strength, but they are actually a terrifying army of terracotta soldiers! The Tang army has already reached the outskirts of our city!”

“…” Zhujubo’s city lord was momentarily stunned before rushing out of the audience room, all the way to the city walls. He looked outward, and what he saw turned his face ghastly pale. With a quivering voice, he asked, “What are those?”

Seconds later, he howled once more, this time with desperation like a pig in a slaughterhouse, “WHAT ARE THOSE?! IS THIS THE TANG ARMY?!”

The plains outside the city were cloaked with dust that rose to the clouds, seeking to cover the entire sky. Beneath this cloud of dust were countless skeleton-faced terracotta soldiers rallying under bright red Great Tang flags.

And they were charging toward Zhujubo.

Zhujubo, despite being an important fortress, was like a lone boat in the face of a furious storm, looking like it would capsize at the first wave.

“City lord!”

The guard leader marched forward and inflicted two tight slaps on the face of the dazed Zhujobo’s city lord. As a hero-class warrior, his strength was not to be scoffed at. The other party’s cheeks immediately swelled up.

“City lord!” the guard leader roared. “We don’t have time to waste! Please make a decision!”

The impact returned composure to Zhujubo’s city lord. He turned to the spy with clenched jaws and spat, “You bastard. How dare you utter such brazen lies in the face of such a calamity?!”

The spy was confused. “This isn’t right. All I previously encountered were skeletons. I have never seen these terracotta soldiers before! C-could the necromancer have just conjured these troops?”

“SCRAM!” Zhujubo’s city lord wasn’t in the mood to entertain the spy’s nonsense.

Just conjured them? Do you think that this many troops can be conjured out of nowhere?

Just my luck to have this idiot serving me!

“Huu, huu…” Zhujubo’s city lord took a deep breath to compose himself before he began analyzing the situation. “From the looks of it, the Tang army has at least 300,000 soldiers. How is the Tang mage able to conjure so many troops? Did he spend many years preparing for this?”

Regardless of the truth, he understood that…

“We won’t be able to fend against this army on our own.”

Even 300,000 civilians armed with crossbows was a menace, let alone 300,000 terracotta soldiers. Not to mention, the enemy had quite a number of cavalrymen.

Zhujubo’s city lord could tell that he would suffer huge losses if he fought against such an army, so he ordered, “We need reinforcement. Send requests for reinforcements to all nearby cities, both through scouts and pigeons! Make sure that a letter reaches Khotan by hook or by crook!

“Other than that,” Zhujubo’s city lord hesitated for a second before saying, “request reinforcement from the Lizard Queen and Antlion Whisperer. We’ll accept all their demands! Send the envoys right now! They must leave before we’re fully encircled!”

The Lizard Queen and Antlion Whisperer were renowned powerful mages in the area, each wielding a powerful army of monsters. With their aid, along with the reinforcements from other cities, they might just be able to protect Zhujubo from the Tangs.

“Remember! Find those with slick tongues!”

Requesting for help was an art in itself.

If the envoys described the enemies to be too weak and promised too little benefits, those they were requesting reinforcements from might just take their own sweet time to travel over.

Similarly, if the envoys described the enemies to be too strong, so much so that the reinforcements didn’t think that they could make a difference, they might just refuse the request.

Thus, the envoys needed to have a good brain to adapt to the situation.

“Yes, milord!” The aides of Zhujubo’s city lord quickly headed off to find envoys.

“Huu!” Zhujubo’s city lord breathed a sigh of relief as he started making defense arrangements. “I’ll have to hold on for at least a month.”

Fortunately, he didn’t think that this would be too tough.