The World Online

The two siblings stayed up for the Chinese culture of shoushui1 until around 11, Bing’er hugged onto Xue’er and went back to her room to sleep.

Ouyang Shuo turned off the television and rushed to his room, logging into the game. Similarly, it was New Year’s Eve but it was only 11 AM in the game.

The fireworks, couplets and new year goodies he bought days ago were sent to various families by the Material Reserves Department. Glancing out, he could see that every house had hung their couplets and lanterns. Although Shanhai town was simple and crude, the new year’s spirit here was thicker than in real life.

Seeing that Ouyang Shuo had finally come online, Qing’er who was hanging up lanterns in the backyard, mischievously saying, ”Big brother is so lazy, it’s the new year’s and you were still sleeping.”

When the player goes offline, in the NPCs’ eyes they went back to their rooms to sleep. Against Qing’er’s teasing, Ouyang Shuo had no good reply, he sulked and said, ”He! Saying that to your brother, do you still want your new year’s gift?”

Hearing about a gift, the eyes of the little brat shone. She didn’t care about the lantern that wasn’t hung properly and ran towards Ouyang Shuo, flattering him, ”Hehe, big brother is busy with work, occasionally sleeping longer can be understood.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, he didn’t bother to tease her, just taking out the jade from his storage bag and passed it to her. ”This is the gift that big brother is giving you. Happy new year!”

Qing’er took over the jade, she was smiling so brightly that her eyes could not be seen. This led the two maidservants Siqi and Siqin who were just hired to envy her profusely.

Ouyang Shuo looked towards Yingyu’s maidservant Siqin and asked, ”Do you know where Yingyu is at?”

Siqin bowed straight away, saying respectfully, ”She’s in the front yard distributing red envelopes!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and turned around towards the front yard.

As expected, the Finance Department was distributing red envelopes and Yingyu was at a side coordinating everything.

When she saw Ouyang Shuo, Yingyu walked out and smiled,”Big brother is up so late today.”

Ouyang Shuo didn’t care about her teasing and asked,” How’s the distribution of red envelopes going? Is it smooth?”

”Everything is going well. The reward for the soldiers has been sent to the army camp by little sister. General Shi and Lin Yi will be in charge of distributing those. Those for the civil service are nearly finished.”

”That’s good.” As he said, Ouyang Shuo took out another jade piece and passed it to her, saying, ”This is the gift big brother prepared for you. Happy new year!”

Yingyu received the jade, laughingly saying, ”Thank you, big brother, happy new year!”

”I still need to give Mr. Fan and Mr. Tian their gifts so I won’t disturb you any further.” Ouyang Shuo said goodbye and left, walking towards the Administration Department.

He gifted the two sets of four treasures to Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing and had a conversation with both of them. Before he knew it, it was already the afternoon.

After lunch, Shanhai Town started getting busy preparing for the New Year’s Eve dinner. As the first new year’s eve in Shanhai town, under the planning of the Material Reserves Department Director Du Xiaolan, it became many times more homely.

The whole dinner was designed as a traditional long street feast, the first table was in the meeting room in the manor, it stretched out from the yard to the commercial street all the way until the entrance of the town.

The feast started punctually at 6. At the head table sat Ouyang Shuo, Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing, General Shi, Cui Yingyu, Mu Qingsi, Lin Yi and Su Ze.

In the yard, there were two tables. In each table sat the various department directors and sergeants. The square had 30 tables and the soldiers and civil servants sat there. As you went down the commercial street, there were two tables in a line and a total of 108 tables were placed where all the town folks sat.

The drinking of beer and the casual conversations took place as the feast went on till 8:30 before ending. The system still had some humanity in that it didn’t send the Nian beasts to mess things up during the dinner.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that the Nian beasts will be invading the feast and instead of drinking beer, he just drank water. After hearing his orders, all the military personnel didn’t touch any alcohol.

In his last life, there were careless lords who got drunk during the dinner and when the Nian beasts came, they couldn’t fight back and the whole village was destroyed. A once joyous occasion became a tragic event.

”System Notification: Gaia first year February 29, at 9 pm in the night, Nian beasts will descend on the wilderness. May all the lords get ready in advance!”

”System Notification: Gaia first year February 29, at 9 pm in the night, Nian beasts…..”

”System Notification: Gaia first year February 29, at…...”

According to usual cases, one territory will be assigned one to two Nian beasts. A Nian beast in the first year will be level 30 on average and every year after, it will increase by 10 levels. Nian beasts will only attack the main base and not the secondary base.

Hence, if one made preparations, it normally wouldn’t cause much damage to the base. Instead, one would often get big rewards. After all, it was new year’s eve and the system didn’t want to ruin the mood. Coming up with such an event was to increase the festive spirit more.

Hearing the system notification, Ouyang Shuo signaled General Shi and Lin Yi, to bring the soldiers back to the army camp and wait for orders. He himself turned around to his room to get his weapon and got Black Tornado out from the stable, galloping out of the camp.

Walking into the camp, the soldiers were all dressed up and ready. As this was different from the usual war and fighting they were used to, they felt that they had the need to get ready beforehand. ”Guys relax. The attack by the Nian Beast, we prioritize cornering them instead of killing it. Hence, everyone needs to take care of themselves, I don’t want anyone to be hurt.”

”Yes, Sir!” The soldiers shouted in unison.

”Let’s go!” Ouyang Suo turned the horse around and rushed out of the camp.

Ouyang Shuo took charge of the north gate with Lin Yi bringing 50 cavalries by his side. General Shi brought the newly set up infantry to the west gate. Zhao Sihu and Li Mingliang brought the remaining 50 cavalries to the north gate. The Military Intelligence Division was in charge of the communications of the three sides. They used fireworks as the signal, the moment they found the Nian beast, they would group up immediately.

At 9:10, there was still no sign of the Nian beast. Ouyang Shuo told everyone to relax and be patient.

Ten minutes later, the two Nian Beasts rushed towards the south door. They saw that the Nian beast was more than 10 feet long and was covered in light green scales. Its neck and tail had a few golden fur and its head had grown a horn. Its eyes were like bells and its teeth were sharp, its murderous look made it seem fearsome.

The two Nian beasts were one big and one small, they galloped like the wind, roaring ”Nian” from time to time. These two Nian beasts should be a pair, the bigger one should be the male one and the smaller one should be a female.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Lin Yi to use the firework signal and checked the statistics of the Nian beast at the same time.

Name: Nian Beast (Spirit Beast)

Level: 40

Skills: Bloodthirst (Raise killing value 80%), Sprint (Raise attack power by 60%)

Combat Power: 80

Evaluation: Evil beast of legends, legends say at every end of the year, the Nian beast will attack the villages.

Any village that was occupied by the Nian beast would be under heavy slaughter. The horns on its head were killing weapons, after slaughtering everyone, the Nian beast will eat the heads of everyone.

He had got really lucky this time as not only did he get two Nian beasts, but their levels also exceeded the average by 10. Ouyang Shuo started to worry if the basic contract scroll would work.

Under the instructions of Lin Yi, the cavalry quickly formed a circle and ran in a clockwise direction, trapping the two Nian beasts in the middle. Before the infantry arrives, they would not engage in a close combat battle with the Nian beasts.

Being trapped and surrounded in the middle, the two Nian beasts were impatient. They kept on trying to charge to try and break the encampment. Sadly, the troops were too experienced and underwent too many wars. Every time the Nian beast moved, the trap moved too, keeping the two beasts at the exact same spot in the middle.

To increase the chance of taming them, Ouyang Shuo ordered the troops to shoot the beasts with arrows. As long as they don’t shoot the eyes or other important areas, to lower the threat and aggression of the Nian beasts.

After all, they were fierce beasts. After a length of time of pressuring the beasts, the horses of the cavalry started to tire and were not that fast anymore. There were many close calls in which the beasts nearly escaped. Thankfully at this time, General Shi’s troops from the west gate and Zhao Sihu’s men rushed here for backup after receiving the signal.

In the subsequent war, the infantry troops fought the beasts in front while the cavalry attacked from behind. In about 10 minutes both beasts had lost their fight and fell onto the ground.

Ouyang Shuo signaled for the troops to stop their attack and walked in front of the male beast. He took out the basic contract scroll, slowly opening it. The scroll turned into a white light and wrapped the Nian beast in it. Shortly after, a resounding notification appeared in his mind.

”System notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi who tamed the Nian beast, the Nian beast became the protector beast of Shanhai Town, reward fame 500 points!”

Under the effect of the basic contract scroll., the male beast had completely healed up. It nodded its head towards Ouyang Shuo, showing its allegiance. It then turned its head to the female beast lying beside it, begging as it looked at its owner.

Ouyang Shuo understood his meaning, nodding his head and saying,” Relax, I will heal it.”

The Nian beast was a very smart beast, especially after a contract had been set, it understood everything its owner said, happily nodding its head.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Lin Yi to arrange a stretcher and bring the female beast to the hospital. As for the rest of the men, they were to return to the camp. On the way back, he took the chance to see how the statistics of the male Nian beast changed after becoming the protector beast.

Name: Nian Beast (Spirit Beast)

Allegiance: Shanhai Town protector beast

Level: 40

Skills: Bloodthirst (Raise killing value 80%), Sprint (Raise attack power by 60%)

Combat Power: 80

Specialty: Deterrence (Enhance law and order in territory by 20%), Protect (Raise defense of territory by 60%)

Evaluation: Evil beast of legends. Legends have it that it’s the offspring of an evil dragon and ink qilin. Fierce personality. As a protector beast, can stimulate qilin bloodline, can evolve.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head with delight. It was deservedly a protector beast. Its two specialties were really useful and most importantly the super rare can be evolved into a qilin effect. Only this evolution condition wasn’t found out by Pig hero in his last life. In this life, he could only count on himself to figure out.

1shousui (守岁) : culture practiced as it is thought to add on to one’s parents’ longevity.