Chapter 00067: Killing the Chicken to Scare the Monkey
# Killing the Chicken to Scare the Monkey
Chapter 67
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 67: Killing the Chicken to Scare the Monkey
At the same time, on the southern side of the Spine of the World Mountains.
The aged General had just concluded a battle conference with his advisors, deciding on the operational details for tomorrow's attack on Sailing Harbor.
While the group was resting, an advisor suddenly said:
“By my calculations, the Tandelon fleet should be arriving at the Leon Territory soon. They're in luck, a northeastern wind is blowing today.”
“I heard they also brought along a secret weapon that's still in the experimental phase.”
“Oh, oh, I heard about that too. It seems to be some kind of Magitech Weapon, but there's no more intel. They're keeping it under tight wraps.”
The General, who was resting with his eyes closed, didn't care about these things.
After all, capturing the princess wasn't his job.
However, regarding Tandelon's new weapon, the General still maintained a childlike curiosity.
No soldier dislikes weapons.
Any weapon that could help them achieve victory on the battlefield was a cherished treasure.
Don't be fooled by the Coalition of Four Nations currently working together to carve up the Avarus Demon Kingdom.
Once the resistance forces were dealt with, it was hard to say if the four nations wouldn't turn on each other.
It was only natural to pay close attention to the new weapons of a potential future enemy.
By that time, however, the General would surely have long since retired.
His age was indeed no longer suitable for a military career.
If not for the great importance of this operation, he would have wanted to go home and play with his grandchildren right now.
As for the advisors' discussion about whether they could capture the princess, the General didn't chime in.
It was just idle chat during a break, anyway.
But soon, this matter was no longer none of his concern.
A faint, colossal rumble echoed from the distant sky, causing the water in the cups to ripple.
The sudden tremor interrupted the advisors' conversation.
No one paid it much mind, assuming it was just thunder and that rain was coming.
But the General, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly had a change of expression.
He opened his eyes and strode briskly out of the tent.
The advisors looked at each other, not knowing what was wrong with the General, but they had no choice but to hurry after him.
Outside the tent, the rumbling sound became clearer and was continuous.
Looking towards the towering Spine of the World Mountains to the north, they could see faint flashes in the sky.
It was as if lightning was trying to rip the heavens apart.
“What... is that?”
“Thunder?”
“Impossible. I've never seen such dense lightning.”
The advisors were whispering amongst themselves, but the General turned to them and said:
“Contact the Tandelon Demon Kingdom immediately. Ask them if there's any news from the fleet they sent. I want any news at all.”
If this abnormal weather phenomenon was the Tandelon Demon Kingdom's new Magitech Weapon, they would soon send news of Princess Viola's capture or death.
In the future, they would become a terrifying opponent.
But if it wasn't...
Her nation had fallen, and she had desperately fled to the borderlands.
Princess Viola had already been forced into a dead end by the Coalition of Four Nations.
But for that very reason, a person cornered would struggle with no regard for the consequences.
Gazing at the distant lightning, the General couldn't help but murmur in a low voice:
“Princess Viola, what kind of monster has she unleashed...”
–‐‐——–‐‐——
“Achoo!”
Li Chengxi, the one being called a monster, sneezed.
The air conditioning in his house was probably set too cold.
The sneeze caused the hand reaching into the desktop computer's screen to wobble a bit, but it didn't matter.
The fleet had already lost its combat capability.
He rinsed it in the saltwater as if washing his hands, not forgetting to shake off the water, before pulling his hand out of the screen.
On his hand was an orange-yellow rubber glove, the kind he only wore when doing a big cleanup at home.
He took off the glove and quickly placed it in a plastic basin to his right, to prevent the water on it from dripping onto his computer desk.
And in the basin, there was already something.
A slightly warped egg beater.
That's right, an egg beater.
Viola had begged Li Chengxi for help, and since Li Chengxi considered Viola and the others his own people, he naturally wouldn't just stand by and watch.
The feeling was actually like you had carefully raised a tank of goldfish, and one day, another school of fish suddenly swam into the fish tank, competed for food with your goldfish, and even wanted to eat your fish.
What would you do?
You definitely wouldn't just watch and do nothing, but how to handle it was another question.
At first, Li Chengxi thought he would just do what he did before: reach in and flatten the fleet.
That would be the end of it.
But on second thought, that wouldn't work.
Firstly, it was too simple and crude, and it didn't feel very intimidating.
Viola might even think Li Chengxi had run out of tricks.
Secondly, the fleet was at sea, which was different from being on land.
There were still quite large gaps between the ships, so a single slap wouldn't be very effective.
If he pulled the camera view back far enough for a single slap to cover the entire fleet, the area of effect would be too large.
The resulting tsunami might completely destroy the entire coastline, which would be a blow to both friend and foe.
So, Li Chengxi pondered on a method that was both effective and had some style.
The first thing he thought of was a diver's flippers.
One sweep, and the entire fleet would be sent flying.
But then he thought again, doing that wasn't much different from a slap.
So he was quite troubled this morning, until Lei Lei gave him a reminder.
A propeller was hard to find, but rotation was a good idea.
Li Chengxi immediately thought of an easy-to-find and useful tool: the egg beater.
He had bought a hand-cranked egg beater with a rotating handle.
It was cheap and effective, not just for beating eggs, but also for beating fleets.
Looking at the screen now, the sea surface was covered in wooden fragments of all sizes, along with quite a few collateral marine creatures.
This thing was useful, but there was one problem: it lacked style.
Li Chengxi knew that to the NPCs in the game, his slap would look like the earth shaking and mountains trembling, but a giant egg beater?
It just didn't feel right.
This was where the thing he had placed on his left came in.
It was a laser pointer...
He had bought it when he was a child.
It came with a dozen interchangeable heads.
Without a head, it was just a straight line.
With one, it could project patterns of different shapes.
He remembered how not long ago, when he shone a flashlight at the screen, he had accidentally given the half-dead white dragon a bath in holy light.
Since a strong light could enter the screen, a laser pointer should be able to as well.
So, before making his move, he deliberately found a magic circle pattern that looked the most profound and mysterious.
The people on the ships saw the light spot slowly rotating because Li Chengxi was screwing the head onto the laser pointer...
This move had both style and accomplished the goal.
Quite nice.
He picked up the plastic basin, went to the bathroom to rinse it out, and threw the bent egg beater into the trash can.
But he kept the glove; he would need it for future cleanups.
When he returned to his computer, he saw several small fishing boats heading out to sea.
He figured they were probably going to capture prisoners.
At the same time, the fleet's three remaining ships immediately turned around and fled into the depths of the sea without looking back.
After a short while, they disappeared into the pitch-black fog of war.
There was no need to worry about these three ships; Li Chengxi had deliberately let them go.
Although he could have wiped out the entire fleet, if he had, who would be left to spread the news?
He had to make Viola's enemies understand that rashly coming to bother her was unwise.
They had to be mentally prepared for their whole family to ascend to heaven.
This move counted as killing the chicken to scare the monkey.
Li Chengxi was very satisfied.
(End of chapter)