Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
-15!
-21!
Damage points were appearing on top of the Mountain Giant’s head every moment. However as its health points decreased, its body mechanisms began to recover. With every move, it could crush numerous players—this was the true power of an Overlord!
-74!
-85!
A few abrupt, massive damage points notifications were hidden within the sea of damage points notifications floating above the Mountain Giant’s head. No one noticed it, except for the Mountain Giant. It tried to turn its body around but felt sharp spears of pain at its fragile critical weakness points. However, as that area of its body was hard to reach, coupled with the fact that it had not fully recovered its agility, the Mountain Giant could only use its hands to cover it.
‘Blade Aura Executioner!’
‘Blade Aura Executioner!’
Lin Jie stood underneath the Mountain Giant beside its feet and stabbed its ass continuously using the Blade Aura Executioner, making large amounts of damage. At the same time, the giant started to aim its attacks at him. It was stomping around the ground in rage trying to crush Lin Jie, but he avoided all the attacks. The Mountain Giant was just too slow for him.
“I have already killed 100 players, and your score is still zero?” In the midst of the chaotic situation, Dead Fish Eye actually managed to find time to send a message to Lin Jie.
“There’s no hurry,” replied Lin Jie.
In fact, he was still pondering if he should add a few pieces of meaningful advice like ‘an impatient person never succeeds’ to educate Dead Fish Eye when the Mountain Giant stomped its foot down at his face. Startled, Lin Jie jumped away, but he did not forget to parry another Blade Aura Executioner at the Mountain Giant.
At the same time, The Heavenly Shield, Silver Shield, and all the Shield Specialists stood in front of the army of the Kingdom of Glory in an extremely humiliating position. The ground was covered with their comrades’ bodies. It was strange. Players from the Ironwall Empire would die once they were touched by the players from the Kingdom of Glory, no one could figure out why that happened.
Cladded in a full set of black armor and a black helmet, a Paladin stood out and introduced himself, “I am Eighteen Massacres from the Kingdom of Glory.”
“The Heavenly Shield guild leader, I’ve long been looking forward to meeting you.”
The Heavenly Shield laughed coldly. “Sorry, I don’t talk to people who put me down. Brothers, kill yourselves, we are returning to the city! Eighteen Massacres, we will let you kill the Boss, but let’s have a battle between our guilds today, do you dare to accept this challenge? Our 20,000 people strong Ironwall Empire is not to be trifled with.”
Eighteen Massacres shook his hands, and dark shackles fell upon The Heavenly Shield’s body.
The Dark Cross: Once you are in the hunting range of the Avenger, your Movement Speed, Attack and Defense will decrease by 2%. You cannot use any Teleportation skills or items.
The Heavenly Shield’s pupils shrank.
Eighteen Massacres said coolly, “The purpose of my trip here today is not for the Boss. If you need it, you can take it. I came here to invite you to join our Kingdom of Glory, you can be the leader of the Ironwall Division in our guild. Are you fine with these terms?”
“To build up another division for the Kingdom of Glory?” The Heavenly Shield laughed incredulously.
“Leader, this suggestion doesn’t sound bad… At least, we can live on. Isn’t it such a pity to die now?” Silver Shield took a deep breath and commented in a soft voice, “besides, they are quite strong.”
“F*ck you, when did you ever see me hide behind others?” The Heavenly Shield flew into a rage and kicked Silver Shield out. He berated, “Get out if you want to!”
Silver Shield hesitated before saying aloud to the guild, “Brothers, how long was it since we got our last pay? At least, the Kingdom of Glory offers the lowest salary at 4,500 dollars. I will go over.”
“F*ck, scram!”
“Damn it, didn’t leader explain that he was tight on cash recently? Silver Shield, speaking from your conscience, has leader ever mistreated you?”
“Salary… Sigh, I also want to go and know what’s happening there.”
There was a great commotion in the guild’s group chat.
The Heavenly Shield folded his arms. Four of his longest known comrades stood behind him loyally. They had named themselves as the ‘Five Legendary Shields’ in their youths when they had been fooling around. They had sworn that as long as they were together, they would protect the guild!
“Either you join us, or you will be killed,” said Eighteen Massacres in a voice void of emotions. Behind him, the players of the Kingdom of Glory started taking out their weapons.
“Ah!”
A Mage from the Ironwall Empire was killed. Dead Fish Eye appeared beside the dead body and waved to the players at the scene,.”Please continue there, I will continue here too.”
The Heavenly Shield’s face flushed red from anger. He turned back and spoke softly to his brothers who were standing behind him, “Kill yourselves and get back, I will hold them here.”
The faces of three Shield Specialists turned red and looked firmly back at The Heavenly Shield. Only The Sea-Conquering Shield seemed to be somewhat unsure. Just as he was about to speak out, there was a shout, “The Heavenly Shield, dodge!”
The Heavenly Shield raised his head and saw a huge mountain peak crashing down on him!
In his fight against the Kingdom of Glory, he had almost forgotten about the Mountain Giant behind him!
“Run!” The Heavenly Shield pulled his four brothers and ducked to the left. They escaped in the nick of time, but the players from the Kingdom of Glory took that blow for them instead. There were just too many players standing around the landing spot of the Mountain Giant’s chest. As everyone panicked, chaos erupted within their originally disciplined assembly and made escape almost impossible.
BOOM!
The Mountain Giant fell down slowly, and the whole area sank down by nearly 10 cm! At the same time, numerous white lights flashed, signaling that at least hundreds of players from the Kingdom of Glory were killed.
The Heavenly Shield gaped at this scene. When the dust finally settled, a figure was seen standing behind the fallen Mountain Giant’s fallen body, looking coolly at its corpse.
Fu Sheng!
Of all people, never once did The Heavenly Shield expect to see him here!
Lin Jie’s score leaped to 140 points and surpassed Dead Fish Eye’s score immediately. This was really all thanks to the fact that the Mountain Giant’s critical weakness point was located at that particular area on its body. If it had been located at other parts of its body, Lin Jie would most probably have been smashed to death by the Mountain Giant.
As an Overlord, the Mountain Giant spawned handsome rewards, including six sets of equipment and all sorts of materials—most of it stone, of course, coming from a Mountain Giant. These stones could hardly be put to use, and their only use was mainly just to… occupy space. Other than that, they could help Lin Jie accumulate more score points in his bet against Dead Fish Eye.
If not for this, why else would Lin Jie set such a rule?
A small token plate shone brightly amidst all the items. It was the Guild Base Token! A few more months into the game, the Guild Base Token would not be as rare, but it should not appear so early in the game. Thus, it seemed extra precious now. Guilds could have a chance to fight for new guild bases only if they owned the Guild Base Token. To set up a guild base required huge efforts. Guilds would need to invest large amounts of money, manpower, and equipment to do so.
To be honest, Lin Jie almost had no use for such a thing.
“You’ve lost, but I will still tell you the place to look for pretty girls,” Lin Jie sent a message to Dead Fish Eye, “don’t forget your promise to me though.”
Walking towards The Heavenly Shield, Lin Jie threw a look at a stunned figure standing within the crowd of people and commented, “Let’s talk when we get back to the city.”
Teleportation lights shone, and Lin Jie disappeared together with the Ironwall Empire’s players.
After the dust settled, Eighteen Massacres’ cold eyes scanned the surroundings from beneath his helmet and snorted. “External help?”
“Leader,” Silver Shield furrowed his brows and commented, “The Heavenly Shield has a fiery temper, external help wouldn’t have arrived so soon.”
“Nothing binds people together as strong as common interests,” said Eighteen Massacres in a thoughtful manner. “Revive the Bandits and Hunters team, they shouldn’t be exposed yet. Tell them to be on standby for us in the Ironwall Empire.”
“Yes, yes.” Silver Shield nodded obediently.
——————
As an inn within a large city, the City of Light Inn provided quality facilities and services. They had many pretty bar girls and served generous amounts of food. Most importantly, one just needed to spend two bronze coins to be able to drink their fill of ale.
Lin Jie sat in front of a table and drank red wine heartily out of his cup. As a business for profit, the inn’s managers would definitely need to bring in money for themselves. Customers could drink as much ordinary ale as they wanted with two bronze coins, but high-quality wine would cost more. If one had money to spare, they could even order the wine “Tears of Dragon” which was only the Primordial Heroes had the privilege to enjoy. That wine was priced at 20 gold coins by itself.
In his previous life, Lin Jie had been lucky enough to taste it. The wine did taste fine. It was a pity that he could only drink it himself but not sell to others. However, after he had killed a dragon, he had discovered to his disgust that the “Tears of Dragon” was not brewed from a dragon’s tears, but rather… its saliva.
The Heavenly Shield and his four sworn brothers—The Demon-Resisting Shield, The God-Slaying Shield, The Earthly Shield, and The Sea-Conquering Shield—sat opposite him, waiting for him to speak.
Lin Jie sipped on his wine and said calmly, “The Kingdom of Glory has bribed a lot of players in your guild. I daresay almost 50% or more of the players from your guild have been bought over by them.”
Normally, the arrogant Heavenly Shield would have snorted and cursed loudly at that comment, dismissing whoever made that comment. However, this time he just drank his ale quietly and asked. “How do you know?”
“Very simple, I can even prove it to you now,” Lin Jie looked at The Sea-Conquering Shield and laughed, “Bro, will you rather admit it now, or should I tell them what I saw yesterday?”
Lin Jie was still trapped in the Soul of the Giant Demon map the day before, and of course, he couldn’t have witnessed anything. That comment was merely a scheme to set up The Sea-Conquering Shield.
In his previous life, The Sea-Conquering Shield had been infamous for being a wimp. His girlfriend had been raped by his true guild leader, and he hadn’t dared to make any noise. In fact, he had even offered compensation to the leader, as if his girlfriend had done a disservice to the leader! He was just a scumbag through and through.
This type of person was most cowardly, and hence definitely most easy to be bought over!
The Heavenly Shield was stunned for a moment, startled by this piece of news. He turned to look at The Sea-Conquering Shield. “Little Sea, you didn’t join us at the dungeon yesterday, where were you then?”
“Big Brother, don’t listen to him! I have been following you for so long, how could I be bribed? I don’t even know who Eighteen Massacres is!” The Sea-Conquering Shield hastily explained.
“Who is Eighteen Massacres?” Lin Jie blinked his eyes, pretending to be surprised.
“He’s the…” The Sea-Conquering Shield gaped, ‘Oh dear!’ No one had mentioned anything about Eighteen Massacres till this moment!
“Little Sea, I think you can change to other guilds.” The Heavenly Shield sighed deeply in disappointment.
Lin Jie was rather surprised by his reaction. ‘He actually could contain his anger after learning that he has been betrayed.’
The arrogant Heavenly Shield raised his head after a while and stared into Lin Jie’s eyes. “Why did you help me?”
Lin Jie’s eyes turned cold. “Simple, my family was ruined by the Kingdom of Glory once. You would have ended up like me if you hadn’t run into me!”
The Heavenly Shield, “…”
Lin Jie took out the Guild Base Token, pushed it towards The Heavenly Shield and rapped on the table. “If you don’t want your guild to be ruined, then listen to me. I suggest you should clean up your guild.”
The Heavenly Shield, “…”
He looked at the Guild Base Token and nodded his head heavily.
In the following days, two things happened in The New Age. Firstly, the presumptuous Ironwall Empire restrained itself and announced they were going through a massive re-grouping. As a result, many of the members who were originally stationed at the Sammer City, the Sunshine City, and the Smiling Rain City were dismissed in batches. The Ironwall Empire claimed that they were only going to employ experts from now on, but many of the players who remained as members of the guild, in fact, just possessed novice or mediocre skills.
To this, The Heavenly Shield announced solemnly, “Those who remained are the real experts in the future.”
As the guild got downsized, salaries were naturally dispersed to them on time. These players were almost never regarded seriously before, but now they managed to reach the sky in a single bound and gained their long-awaited recognition. It was definitely a great reward for them, and they swore their loyalties to the Ironwall Empire, resulting in the guild’s morale reaching the highest peak since its beginning.
The result was that the Ironwall Empire only spent one day to successfully apply for a guild base. The whole guild concentrated on completing boring Construction Missions, and hence the guild’s residence requirements were reached in just one day when it would normally take three to five days.
Now they just lacked a location for their residence. As long as the locations were refreshed, the Ironwall Empire could fight for them immediately.
The players that were dismissed from the Ironwall Empire were re-employed by another guild, growing in numbers instantly. That guild was comparable to the Triumphant Midnight and the Hunter’s Guild. That was the Kingdom of Glory!
Lin Jie took a look at the game’s timeline and creased his forehead slightly. ‘The Castle Wood dungeon is still not opened up for exploration?’
That seemed to be slower compared to his previous life. He only managed to feel relieved until he saw Triumphant Midnight’s members start building camps within the ruins of Castle Wood.
Looking at the Shield of Courage in his hands, Lin Jie took out a map and marked down a spot on it.
