Chapter 537: Zhang Bo’an
The following day, at 3 PM.
Twenty miles south of Kun'an City lies the site of the decisive battle.
Tens of thousands of huge bonfires were densely arranged around the position, and the towering flames tore through the darkness for dozens of miles around, illuminating the open field as bright as day.
On this battlefield shrouded in flames, a full 600,000 troops had already formed ranks.
Three hundred meters above, three hundred and sixty-seven flying human warriors spread out in a fan shape, evenly spaced, covering the entire line of defense.
Five hundred meters above them, Zhou Guosheng and his two companions, Lin Feng and his two companions, Yinlong Fengxue, Raymond and Isabella stood suspended in mid-air.
Lin Feng had already drawn the Prairie Spear, its tip pointing diagonally forward, his gaze fixed on the unfathomable darkness to the south.
...
At the very front of the central army, Zhang Bo'an, a Tang Dynasty swordsman, held a round shield in front of him, with his sword resting on the edge of the shield.
His position was in the very center of the entire battle line, in the first row, {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} directly facing the direction from which the Nightmare army was about to surge—a position with virtually no chance of survival.
But his breathing was steady, and his hand holding the knife did not tremble.
He is forty-one years old this year. On Earth, a man of this age should be sending his children to school, paying off his mortgage, and having barbecue and drinks with friends on weekends.
But at this moment, he stood at the very front of the 600,000-strong army, waiting for the monsters born from the depths of the nightmare world to surge out of the darkness.
It's kind of funny, but when he awakened to his true potential at the age of eighteen, he was the only one among more than forty students in his class.
An Awakened One—what a rare status!
As the purple light representing awakening emanated from his body, the prettiest girl in the class sitting in front of him turned and glanced at him.
He remembered that look in his eyes for over a decade. It wasn't admiration, but envy—pure, undisguised envy.
When he came home from school that day, his mother had prepared a large table of dishes, and his father, unusually, opened a bottle of liquor that he had been treasuring for several years.
When he drank the third cup, Dad's eyes reddened, and he said, "Our Zhang family has produced an awakener."
He felt his father was a bit embarrassed at the time, but later, when he got older, he truly understood his father's feelings back then.
On the day he descended into the Nightmare World, he was assigned to the main city of the Great Xia Dynasty.
Luck, pure luck.
Among the awakened ones who arrived in the same batch, some were assigned to villages deep in the wasteland, only to be sent back to their hometowns by a beast horde composed of nightmare creatures on their first night.
Some people were assigned to the wilderness in the area contaminated by the aura of the undead, and were killed by skeleton soldiers less than half an hour after they arrived.
He was assigned to the main city of Great Xia. At that time, although Great Xia was a city-level territory, there were not many awakened people, and all the major guilds offered generous conditions to recruit newcomers.
He joined a small guild whose leader was a rich second-generation heir a few years older than him. The guild leader led a group of newbies to grind monsters, complete quests, accumulate merit points, and teach them how to survive in the Nightmare World.
Back then, the Nightmare World had only been around for seven years, resource points hadn't been monopolized, and the density of monsters in the wild was much higher than it is now.
You can easily find several lone monsters in any grove of trees, unlike today's young people who fight tooth and nail for a resource point.
As long as you are willing to work hard, you can always find your place. He rose from a newbie to a core member in the guild over several years, reaching level 10.
Then the main city of the Great Xia Dynasty was upgraded from a city-level territory to a main city, and the number of special troops was doubled.
The allocation method is by lottery, which is fair and just, and no one can cheat.
His palms were sweaty when the lottery was being drawn that day.
Pull the slip of paper out of the box and unfold it. It reads: "Great Tang Swordsman - Job Change Qualification".
He remembered the president slapping him hard on the back, so hard that he almost fell over.
When the news reached Lan Xing's family, his mother cried on the phone, and his father kept saying "good, good, good" on the other end of the line, unable to say anything else.
The days that followed turned magical.
Those distant relatives who didn't usually visit suddenly started coming to his door frequently, trying to establish connections through various means, hoping he could get his son into the army in the main city of Daxia.
There was a distant cousin whom he had only met twice in his life. Yet, this cousin actually carried two bottles of wine and a bag of fruit and ran several miles to his house, and immediately started talking about it.
“Bo’an, your cousin is eighteen this year and has awakened. He’s been assigned to a county next to the main city of Great Xia. Do you think he could be placed in your team?”
Another distant aunt went even further, moving in next door with her son and saying, "Once your cousin awakens, you can just bring him in; it's all just a matter of a word from you."
What can he arrange? He's just a lowly swordsman; at most, he can help them secure a county soldier's spot. His level is locked at level nine, with no hope of changing jobs, leveling up, or fighting high-level monsters.
He told them the truth, and the expressions on their faces changed.
The uncle who brought the wine immediately looked dejected. Without even putting the wine down, he said, "Never mind then, I'll think of another way," and turned to leave.
He never saw that cousin again.
However, a relative of one of his high school classmates, whom he arranged to serve as a county soldier, would come to pay New Year's visits every year.
Carrying the pickled vegetables he had made, he said, "Brother, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't even be able to cross this threshold."
The pickled vegetables weren't very tasty, but he collected them every year.
Days passed by, year after year. Twenty-three years had passed on Earth. His son would turn eighteen next year and awaken, or perhaps not.
He has seen too many people place all their hopes on awakening.
If you guess right, great; if you don't, life goes on.
He hopes his son will awaken, but he won't be disappointed if he doesn't.
Being an ordinary person is fine too; at least you don't have to stand here.
Just then, the earth suddenly began to tremble violently.
A dull tremor came from the horizon, as if countless giant beasts were trampling the earth.
Zhang Bo'an's thoughts were instantly pulled back to reality.
He raised his head, his gaze passing over the top of the shield and looking straight ahead.
At the edge of the wilderness illuminated by the firelight, dark purple specks of light were emerging from the darkness.
First there were a few scattered spots, then a small patch, and then a vast, overwhelming area.
He took a deep breath of the smoky air and raised his shield even higher.
If you die in battle, go back and spend some time with your wife and kids.
He said to himself.