Breeze considered Death Blossoms ford for a long while before turning to Kitten, “What do you think, Kitten?”
Kitten was known for his ability to think in a rational and calm way in Golden Era, “If she’s a female, and is either a Rogue, Huntress or a Ranger, and has a pet… I think she might be Gongzi You.”
“Hey hey hey, are you sure about that?” Starry Sky shook his head, “Wasn’t Gongzi You arrested in Hero City for killing Fleeting Time? Even Fleeting Time himself was arrested as well. They were in the same cell, probably having a good time.”
Sweeping Reed pursed his lips, “You sure like gossipping. You’ve just started the game a few days ago but you already know something like this.”
“No! It’s not like I like to gossip, but it’s all over the forum! Isn’t it just a romance between two of the game’s top players? Why are people gossipping about it?” Starry Sky scratched his head, “I don’t get it.”
“That’s because you’re not here from the start. It’s been going on for some time.” Sweeping Reed sighed, “To be honest with you though, I don’t think it’s even worth the effort to gossip about it…”
“Stop…” Death Blossom could no longer stand their bickering, “Can you not talk about this whenever you’re free? This is not the time for that.”
The duo immediately went silent, and directed their attention to Kitten, who let out a laugh, “Of course I know that Gongzi You was sent to jail, but… If you look at the time, she should be out by now. If the same thing happens to me, I’ll definitely stay online for a full day straight until I get released. I might even get out of jail sooner than her.”
“But if she’s Gongzi You, why did she not summon that dinosaur of hers?” Breeze stared at the direction where Ye Ci had left.
Kitten gave the question a moment of thought before replying, “If she really is Gongzi You, and if she did not summon that dino, it means that she already has a pet summoned. Of course, she could be hiding her strength. That’s the point of staying hooded, isn’t it?”
“If she really is Gongzi You, do you think we can get her to join our side?” Death Blossom asked the most important question in her mind.
Breeze was silent for a long moment, “If she’s Gongzi You… I don’t think we’ll have a chance.” he shook his head.
Death Blossom nodded, “Then we’ll have to take her out.” she juggled her dagger in her hand and said with a wide grin on my face, “Leave her to me. I’ll teach her a lesson.”
But Breeze did not approve of Death Blossom’s confidence. There was a strange feeling of danger gnawing at his mind, “Don’t underestimate her.”
“Don’t you worry. Have you seen me lose to someone before?” Death Blossom was confident as ever. But the unease in Breeze’s heart grew as he stared at the confident smile on her face.
Bai Mo was curious when he saw Ye Ci leaving the Sea of Sand and arriving in Red Lake City. She has only been there for two hours. Is she done leveling up her pet? There’s no way… He sent a message to Ye Ci, “Why are you back? Are you done?”
“Forget about it.. I ran into Breeze.” Ye Ci sighed. It was apparent that she was not happy with her encounter with Breeze and his party.
“Breeze?” Bai Mo could not recognise the name. A sudden realisation flashed across his mind, “Golden Era?”
“Yup.”
“Did they attack you?”
“Nope. But they were trying to figure me out. I don’t know if they found out who I am.” Ye Ci would never underestimate her enemies. Despite her disguise, she would never dismiss the fact that her identity had been found out by Golden Era. Only a fool would make such an assumption.
“What happened?” Bai Mo asked for a quick rundown of the encounter, and Ye Ci immediately filled him in. “It seems that he’s trying to poach you over. But if they know that you’re Gongzi You, they’re very likely to give up.”
“Why is that?” Ye Ci wanted to hear Bai Mo’s opinion in this matter.
“From what information we’ve gathered, they’ve sent a large number of their players into Fate, but their numbers were not as large as they were when they invaded . I think Breeze knows that Fate was on an entirely different level from .” said Bai Mo, “He knew that having numbers alone will not be enough to destroy Fate. A large number of their vanguards have already entered the game, and many of them are high level players by now. Most of them are at lvl55 to lvl62. Their numbers are of course just a small percentage of the player base, but they are trying to poach players from major guilds…” and Bai Mo continue after a slight pause, “Even the members of our guild received invitations to join Golden Era. And these are just the ones who told us about it. What about those who have not?”
“And?” Ye Ci had never worried herself with the management of the guild. Bai Mo did not sound worried to her, which meant that he had the situation under control.
“I think they’re trying to put quality into their usual quantity.” Bai Mo concluded his opinion.
Ye Ci was slightly shocked. She could still remember how Golden Era almost ended Fate by controlling its economy. She did not know how it all started as she was a mere solo player. The intelligence gathered by the major guilds was not available to her.
“Little Ci…” Bai Mo called out to her when she remained silent for a long time.
“What?” and his words snapped Ye Ci back to reality.
“What do you think of this?”
“Let our enemies make their first move.” Ye Ci narrowed her eyes, “I’ll leave the management of the guild to you guys. What I’ll do is to look for more resources for our guild.”
“I know what you’re thinking. Leave it all to me. Be careful out there.” Bai Mo smiled at ye Ci, “From how they previously did things, they will try to destroy things or people that cannot be of use to them. They might end up going after you. So you must be careful. After all, there’s still a large bounty on your head.”
“Got it.” replied Ye Ci before ending the conversation.
Bai Mo was right. Breeze might still be weak, but Golden Era’s vanguards were hidden amongst the players. They might not be the best, but they were still a hidden threat. Ye Ci was the one at a disadvantage as she was in the open while her enemies were not, especially with the bounty on her head.
And she knew that Golden Era would never send lone players her way if they wanted her dead. They would send a group of players after her, and dealing with them would not be an easy task.
With that in mind, Ye Ci decided against leveling Ol’ Six in a low level area. The closer she was to danger, the farther away she was from harm. She was already at lvl66, which meant that she could afford to travel to a lvl70 map. It was not an easy task, but the rewards for slaying a higher level monster was simply too good to ignore. Traveling to such a place would also lead her away from highly populated areas.
She did not know what Golden Era was planning. But the poaching attempt by Golden Era had a very significant implication. The core members of her guild might remain loyal to the guild, but this was not a guarantee that the other members of the guild remained unaffected. This situation would be the same in many other major guilds.
And based on what Bai Mo had said, Golden Era would definitely attempt to gather a large number of high level players under their banner. These players were usually already recruited by the major guilds. And poaching was their only way to win over the loyalties of these players.
And Ye Ci had a feeling that she would never be left alone.
With that in mind, she decided to travel to a map far away from the concentration of players. She handed in her quest for Dauer’s arrow and Dauer’s map shard to Natasha. And she was then directed to an abandoned fortress in the Middle Continent populated by lvl80-lvl120 monsters. They were a threat even to Ye Ci.
She decided to set the two quests aside, and headed to the lvl75-lvl85 map of the Eastern Continent, Mist Forest, after replenishing her supplies. I have a feeling that I’ll be staying here for a long, long time. At least until Ol’ Six has grown into his adult form.
