The City’s map was sold in the City’s Library. Even though the price wasn’t cheap, the various large guilds couldn’t be bothered over such a trivial matter given the current situation that they were in.
Shortly after, all of the guild leaders arrived at the meeting hall in the City Lord’s mansion, each with a copy of the city’s map in their hands.
The previous time everyone had gathered at this place, the City Lord was still an NPC. They couldn’t help but sigh at how things had changed so drastically in such a short period of time.
Of course, none of them came to reminisce about the past.
After all of the guild leaders had gathered, Wang Yu and the others from Quan Zhen Sect made their way over to the meeting hall from the backyard of the City Lord’s Mansion.
Seeing that the people from Quan Zhen Sect had arrived, everyone immediately became silent.
“Everyone, take a seat.”
Seeing that nearly all of the key figures in Twilight City had gathered, Wang Yu nodded his head in satisfaction.
After hearing what their Boss said, everyone hurriedly found a spot to settle themselves down.
At this moment, Fearless asked Sanguine Warflag, “Have you brought the maps?”
“Brought it!” Sanguine Warflag hurriedly took out a City Map from his inventory and handed it over to Fearless.
Twilight City was situated in the Neutral Zone, in between the Light and Dark Faction camps. Cities like Twilight City which were located along the boundaries all had a special characteristic, they were easy to defend and difficult to attack. This was the only advantage that Twilight City had.
After analysing the map for a while, Fearless inserted the map into a magical projector. Shortly after, a huge map of Twilight City was projected on the wall.
At this moment, Fearless asked the various Guild Leaders, “How many players are we able to mobilise currently?”
“This…” After gathering the numbers for a while, one of the guild leaders replied, “Less than two hundred thousand.”
“Less than two hundred thousand?” After getting ahold of this information, Fearless couldn’t help but frown. To think that for a home city like Twilight City with a population of over 300,000 citizens, after excluding the tens of thousands of players that did not belong to any guilds, only two-thirds of the players remained.
Actually, this was to be expected. All of the large guild guild leaders here all had a few thousand subordinates under their command. The smaller guilds on the other hand still had at least a thousand.
The larger the guild was in the game, the more experts the guild had. All of these players had their own pride and things at stake. Naturally, they would not just stand by and await their deaths. The smaller guilds, however, were different. Most of them did not even have a Guild Headquarters in the city. It was pointless for them to participate in such a hopeless battle.
The players in the virtual world were the most practical people, they would not be willing to sacrifice their blood, sweat and tears when there’s nothing in it for them.
When the various guild leaders totalled the number, they felt even more depressed.
Even though 200,000 wasn’t a small number, in comparison with the number of players from the Light Faction, such a number was insignificant.
Even with the full strength of 300,000, everybody didn’t feel confident. To make things worse, they were even short of a hundred thousand players now.
“Seems like we have no hope of victory this time around.”
“That’s right, the difference in strength is just too absurd.”
All of a sudden, some of the large guild guild leaders had an expression of fear plastered on their faces. They started to harbour thoughts of retreating from this battle.
Everyone here had experienced a City War before. However, it was always one city up against another. Being the target of so many other home cities, this was truly a first for everyone here.
At the end of the day, everyone here were just gaming freaks. Regarding how to fight a war in which they had close to no chances of winning, all of them here haven’t the slightest idea of how to go about doing it.
The absurd idea of 200,000 players going up against countless enemies was in the head of every one of these guild leaders. They simply did not see a way of how they could emerge victorious in such a situation…
On the contrary, the bunch of players from Quan Zhen Sect that were used to fighting with a disadvantage in numbers were all extremely calm in the face of such a situation, they were even a little excited. Seeing the cowardly faces of all the guild leaders, Ming Du couldn’t help but sarcastically comment, “Ke ke! How could such timid people like you all run guilds?”
“This…”
The various guild leaders were speechless after receiving that slap from Ming Du. Compared to the players from Quan Zhen Sect, they were definitely more courageous and daring. They could only mutter a response, “We were only stating the truth…”
Wang Yu laughed and said, “Since you guys think that what you are saying is the truth, do you mind me saying a few words as well?”
“Go ahead, go ahead.” Everyone still held a certain degree of fear towards Wang Yu.
Wang Yu coolly said, “I think that we will definitely win this time!”
“This…” Everyone was momentarily stunned upon hearing Wang Yu’s statement, “And?”
Everyone initially thought that Wang Yu was about to give a motivational speech to stir their spirits, who would have known that all he could offer was one short phrase.
“Is this one sentence not enough?” Seeing everyone’s reaction, Wang Yu couldn’t help but question back.
“Er…” Everyone was at a loss for words.
“Fine, seems like I’m truly not cut out for such motivational talks…” Wang Yu sighed and said, “You’re up!”
“…”
After a moment of pondering, Fearless stood out and said, “What City Lord said was right. Even though the odds that are against us are glaring, the advantages that we have are extremely obvious as well. Thus, there shouldn’t be a reason why we will lose this battle this time.”
“Oh?” Sanguine Warflag and the others knew how scheming Fearless was. Upon hearing what he said, they couldn’t help but ask, “What advantages do we have?”
Fearless coolly replied, “Home ground advantage!”
“What do you mean?” Everyone knew the benefits that a home ground had, but none of them knew how it would help them win in the battle against such a large enemy.
“Hehe!” Fearless took out a magical staff and pointed at the map projected on the wall and said, “Twilight City is a city located along the borders. It’s easy for us to defend the city yet hard for others to attack us. With such an advantageous geographical advantage, can’t all of you see it?”
“So what? Aren’t we in the midst of defending out city? What has this got to do with our geographical advantage?”
Everyone was familiar with how a City Defense would play out. Under normal circumstances, one would rely on the city walls and defense mechanism to deal with the invaders. The supposed geographical advantage simply did not play any role in this.
Fearless sighed and said, “Your way of thinking is too conservative. If both sides were of equal strength, relying on the city’s defenses would naturally work. Now that we are in this situation, do you think two hundred thousand players can withstand the onslaught of such a huge enemy?”
“This…” Everyone was rendered speechless.
Of course, in normal situations whereby both parties were of equal strengths, the defending party would normally emerge victorious in a City War. However, now that the enemy was the entire Light Faction Camp, given the difference in firepower, they couldn’t bank on the city walls holding off the enemy. Furthermore, with such a huge target like the home city, it was easy for them to focus their firepower on it.
“So what do we do?” Everyone’s interest was piqued.
Fearless smiled and said, “That’s simple! We eliminate the reinforcements!”
“Eliminate the reinforcements? What do you mean?” Everyone was confused once more.
Eliminating the reinforcements was a strategy of war used in ancient times. With regards to these gamers, it was a relatively hard concept to grasp.
Fearless calmly explained, “Let me give you guys an example. There is a piece of meat placed on the table. A single ant on its own would not be able to move it. Thus, it would have to rally its companions to combine their strengths and shift the piece of meat together. So long as we are able to prevent these ants from working together by eliminating the reinforcements, they would not be able to do anything to the meat at all!”
