Twin Towers Kingdom, Shadow Forest:
A six-man scouting party led by a Level 154, Tier 4 Assassin slowly traversed the rainforest.
Dark clouds hovered over the Shadow Forest all year round, shrouding the forest in gloom even during hot summer days when the sun shone bright. The mist enveloping the forest also hindered players’ perception, and even Tier 3 experts familiar with the terrain would lose their way if they weren’t careful.
“Commander, we’ve been investigating this place for half a day now, yet we haven’t found any traces of the Outerworld’s player army. Should we take a look at the other maps?” a blue-clad Level 142, Tier 3 Assassin suggested as he looked at a tree-lined gorge.
With the War of Worlds imminent, many of the Twin Towers Kingdom’s player forces had dispatched scouting parties to seize the initiative. Among the scouting parties’ duties, the top priority was investigating the exact state of the Outerworld’s player army.
Many of the Twin Towers Kingdom’s forces were offering astronomical prices for the information. If one managed to get detailed information on the Outerworld’s player army, one could receive not only a Level 150 Epic Weapon for the information but also 200,000 Credits.
Hence, although many independent experts in the kingdom had fled to the Black Dragon Empire and the Dark Night Empire, adventurer teams from the neighboring kingdoms and empires still dispatched expert players to investigate.
The Sand Fox adventurer team was one of them.
The Sand Fox adventurer team was well-known in the Dark Night Empire. Although Sand Fox’s overall combat power was nothing noteworthy in the Dark Night Empire, its scouting ability ranked among the top ten of the empire’s adventurer teams.
After the blue-clad Assassin finished speaking, a Level 136 Assassin youth in the party suddenly jumped off the tree branch he stood on, and stopped moving. He then quietly observed the empty woodland in the distance.
The Assassin youth’s actions alerted the rest of the party, and they promptly halted their advance, not daring to move even a muscle.
“Blade, is something wrong with that place?”. the Tier 4 Assassin Sky Fox asked quietly as he looked at the Assassin youth.
The other players in the party also looked at the Assassin youth curiously.
The Assassin youth, Blade Heart, had started playing God’s Domain only recently, and his level was the lowest in the party. However, he possessed incredible technique and intuition. Often, he would notice things that even their commander, Sky Fox, had failed to notice.
This was why they had brought Blade Heart along on this scouting mission.
After studying the empty woodland ahead for a while, Blade Heart said hesitantly, “I can’t say for certain, but my gut tells me something is there.” “What thing?” Sky Fox scrutinized the empty woodland.
However, no matter how Sky Fox looked at the area, he failed to see anything out of the ordinary. Even his high-ranking Identification Skill didn’t come up with anything. That empty woodland was nothing but an ordinary forested region. Let alone players, he couldn’t even detect any signs of other creatures.
However, several minutes after Sky Fox and the others continued their observation of the empty woodland, they spotted a 20-man team approaching the woodland. This team was incredibly strong. All 20 members were Tier 4 players—and also above Level 155. The most inferior piece of equipment they wore was Level 150 Dark-Gold Equipment, and the team leader even had five pieces of Epic Equipment.
“These people should be one of the Outerworld army’s scouting teams. Why are they here instead of investigating the Twin Towers Kingdom?” Blade Heart was confused when he saw this 20-man team.
The Outerworld’s player army had dispatched a lot of experts to harass and investigate the Twin Towers Kingdom. Many of the expert teams sent were led by Tier 4 experts.
The 20-man team they were seeing now was definitely one of the Outerworld army’s elite forces.
The other players in the party also grew confused and curious about this situation.
Logically, a team of such caliber should’ve been dispatched to investigate the Twin Towers Kingdom’s inner regions and even cause a huge commotion in the kingdom. After all, the average player force couldn’t contend against such combat power. Only first-rate Guilds could possibly take on such a team.
While Sky Fox and the others were wondering why this team was in this deserted location, the 20-man team suddenly stopped in the empty woodland. However, none of them got off their Mounts. Instead, they simply stood there as if waiting for something. Roughly ten seconds later, the space of the empty woodland became blurry, and a tear in the space opened up.
“A magic barrier?”
Almost all players in God’s Domain knew of magic barriers. However, the scene that just took place still stunned Sky Fox and his team. None of them had known that magic barriers could be used in such a manner.
Through the gap in the barrier, Sand Fox’s members saw an ocean of players. From a rough glance, they could estimate that the barrier hid at least several hundred thousand players. Moreover, they spotted many Tier 4 experts among those players.
“Why are there so many Tier 4 players?!” “It’s over! Twin Towers is finished! We won’t have enough to defend against so many Tier 4 experts, even if we gather the players from the Black Dragon Empire and Dark Night Empire!”
“The information those superpowers obtained are completely wrong! The eastern continent is going to lose at this rate!”
Blade Heart and the others paled and despaired when they saw the player army in the barrier. Although God’s Domain had given birth to many Tier 4 players already, they were still incredibly rare. At this stage of the game, a kingdom was considered top-tier if it had at least three hundred Tier 4 players operating within its borders. Even the strongest empire didn’t have more than 1,500 Tier 4 players operating within it.
While these numbers might seem large, the player populations of kingdoms and empires were calculated in the hundreds of millions. There wasn’t even one Tier 4 expert for every 100,000 players.
Yet, from what they could see, the Outerworld’s player army before them had over 5,000 Tier 4 players. It was capable of destroying even the Black Dragon Empire and Dark Night Empire, let alone the Twin Towers Kingdom.
“Commander, what should we do now?” Blade Heart asked nervously. “With so many Tier 4 experts on the Outerworld’s side, the Black Dragon Empire and Dark Night Empire will definitely fall.”
Revealing a bitter smile, Sky Fox said, “What can we do? Our only option now is to notify the Black Dragon Empire’s and Dark Night Empire’s superpowers and have them gather the neighboring kingdoms’ and empires’ Tier 4 experts. Otherwise, all of us will have to leave the eastern continent.”
“But will those superpowers listen to us?” Blade Heart asked worriedly. “Those superpowers are all focused on dealing with Zero Wing now, and they’re hoping to see Twin Towers and Star-Moon fall. Would they be willing to gather their forces to help defend the Twin Towers Kingdom?”
“That’s none of our concern.” Helplessly, Sky Fox said, “Our job now is to spread this information and hope for the best.”
Truthfully, Sky Fox had already lost hope for the Twin Towers Kingdom. Nevertheless, he still felt that they needed to try defending against the Outerworld’s player army for as long as possible. That way, the eastern continent’s native Tier 3 players would have more time to get promoted to Tier 4.
However, when Sky Fox and his team were about to leave, a loud hum came from the distant sky.
When the party sought the noise’s origin, what entered their eyes was a crimson behemoth heading in their direction.
“Zero Wing?” “Why are they here? Could they have discovered the Outerworld’s player army already?”
Sky Fox and the others grew confused as they watched the Crimson Dragon Flying Ship approach.
Nowadays, the Crimson Dragon Flying Ships were synonymous with Zero Wing. Almost no player in God’s Domain was ignorant of their existence. Now that one of these Flying Ships had appeared in this deserted location, the only explanation for it was that Zero Wing had discovered the Outerworld’s player army. In no time at all, the Crimson Dragon Flying Ship arrived and stopped above the empty woodland. Obviously, Zero Wing already knew about the hidden magic barrier.
“Is Zero Wing planning to attack the Outerworld players?” Blade Heart wondered as he looked at the Flying Ship.
“That’s most likely the case, but Zero Wing probably doesn’t know how many Tier 4 experts are hidden inside the barrier. It’ll definitely suffer a loss afterward,” Sky Fox said worriedly when he saw Shi Feng walking to the Flying Ship’s bow.
The battle at Ancient Rock City had boosted Black Flame’s fame. He was publicly recognized as God’s Domain’s strongest player.
However, even a Tier 5 Sword Saint stood no chance against a force of more than 5,000 Tier 4 players. After all, a Tier 5 player would still lose a lot of HP if they got hit by a Tier 4 player’s attack. Not to mention, these Tier 4 players came to wage war. They most definitely had Combination Skills and battle arrays prepared. As soon as Sky Fox finished speaking, the magic barrier enveloping the empty woodland suddenly revealed itself. At this time, the Tier 4 magical-class players inside the barrier had split into groups of 100 and were casting all sorts of large-scale Spells, including Tier 4 Defensive Spells and Offensive Spells. These large-scale Spells-numbering more than a dozen-were not the slightest bit weaker than the average Tier 5 Defensive Spell and Offensive Spell.
A Summoning Array maintained by 600 players could also be seen in the center of the magic barrier. The Summoning Array was incredibly complex, making it impossible for outsiders to tell its rank.
After these 600 players finished their incantation, the phantom of a nine-headed snake emerged from the ground.
“Tier 5! That’s definitely a Tier 5 Legendary monster!”
Although Sky Fox and his team didn’t know what kind of monster the Outerworld players had summoned, they could tell that it wasn’t just a Tier 4 monster based on its aura. Aside from the rumored Tier 5 Legendary monsters, they couldn’t think of any other possibility.
Facing such a monster, let alone one Tier 5 Sword Saint, even two or three Tier 5 players working together would fall.
Upon seeing this monster, Sky Fox and the others couldn’t help revealing looks of bitterness and despair.
A force of 5,000-plus Tier 4 experts was already plenty shocking, and it allowed them to realize just how wide the gap between the players of God’s Domain and of the Outerworld was.
Yet, reality now told them that the gap was far wider than they thought. The force of 5,000-plus Tier 4 experts was only the tip of the iceberg.
However, unlike Sky Fox and his team, Shi Feng, aboard the Crimson Dragon Flying Ship, remained unfazed by this situation. He simply took to the air and arrived above the magic barrier. He then unsheathed the newly upgraded Light of Two Worlds. “Disappear!”
Shi Feng brandished the Light of Two Worlds against the barrier.
Holy Annihilation!
