Chapter 205 – The Situation Inside and Outside
The goal of players for establishing guilds was mainly to dominate the land and their subjects, while the aim of players for creating mercenary groups was to obtain rewards by doing various types of quests and missions. Between these two types of organizations, one strove for dominance while another was just after the benefits. From this perspective, one could say that the jostling between guilds was similar to the struggle between two nations, while the competition between mercenary groups was just limited to two gaming workshops duking it out.
Whatever the case might be, talent would always be the ultimate source of strength for these organizations. But when it came down to it, guilds thirsted more for the existence of talented individuals. After all, their ultimate aim was similar to establishing a dynasty that could unify all of Jianghu.
As such, the attendees of the Insta-kill Mage’s meet and greet were mainly consisted of guild leaders.
Currently, this bunch of guild leaders was glaring with arched eyebrows at Young Master Han and Brother Assist, demanding for them to call Gu Fei back. Evidently, they were looking to draw him over to their own guilds. A guild poaching another guild’s member was a common occurrence in online games, but it was at the very least not done right in front of the other guild leader’s face, as that would just be too high-handed and disrespectful. And even if the poaching was successful and everything was revealed afterward, a guild leader must still maintain a certain level of tact and discretion regarding his or her poaching activity to show the appropriate respect over to a fellow guild leader.
At this time, all these guild leaders were openly expressing their intentions to poach Gu Fei, not knowing that he was already spoken for and that his guild leader was even sharing the very same space with them! Young Master Han had been quietly observing things all this while with a pair of emotionless eyes, simply waiting for the ladies to speak up.
Indeed, the ladies could no longer bear to watch these guild leaders openly poach their fellow guildmate. While July and Luo Luo calmly lowered their heads to discuss the best course of action, Lie Lie and Svelte Dancer impatiently leaped from their seats and said aloud, “You guys are too much! That Mage belongs to our guild. Are you ignoring our existence as you poach him?”
The entire bar abruptly descended into an uncomfortable silence.
These guild leaders were not Sakurazaka Moony, so they would not turn meek at the sight of a few ladies. Their sudden silence was due to the underlying meaning of the ladies’ words: they were poaching a member right before the guild leader. Poaching someone else’s member was considered as a taboo in any game, and all these guild leaders were clear of this unspoken rule for acquiring talent. Hearing that Gu Fei’s guild leader was actually in this conference, these guild leaders were momentarily at a loss on their next step. Besides that, a sudden thought flashed through their minds.
How did a small guild like Amethyst Rebirth manage to beat the large guilds of Carouse and Cloud Herder?
Furthermore, Carouse and Cloud Herder had conducted their city-wide advertisement in search of a particular Mage after their defeat at the hands of Amethyst Rebirth.
At this moment, these leaders finally knew the reason behind all those puzzling events. Amethyst Rebirth had a hidden expert in it, and Carouse and Cloud Herder became aware of his existence after clashing with the guild during the PvP tournament, so they conducted a city-wide search to find the Mage.
In short, the Insta-kill Mage was a member of Amethyst Rebirth.
All the leaders were speechless and no longer pressed Young Master Han and Brother Assist for information about the Mage. Brother Assist heaved a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off of his forehead, yet Young Master Han, who was beside him, actually kept his eyes trained on the two claws of Silver Moon; he would love to see if they had any moves left after this unexpected resolution of the situation.
At this same moment, the two men were relaying everything that they were witnessing at Ray’s Bar to Silver Moon who was currently walking down a street. When Silver Moon received this piece of news, he felt quite shocked. He knew that Gu Fei was a member of a mercenary group, but he had no idea at all that the latter was also a member of a guild. With the presence of the people from his guild, it would truly be difficult for the other leaders to pursue the matter further.
However, this also meant that the guild leaders would feel even more dissatisfied with how the matter had unfolded. There was even a possibility of them directly venting their gradually escalating frustration on to Young Master’s Elite. Would that not be amazing?!
Silver Moon was happily keying in his reply when he suddenly heard someone from behind him shout, “He’s over here!” He continued to compose a message even as he reflexively turned to look at the voice’s origin, just in time to see an arrow fly toward him and embed itself into his forehead.
Silver Moon staggered backward from the sheer force behind the arrow. His eyes darted to where the attack had come from and saw War Without Wounds marching toward him. Royal God Call who was pulling his bowstring with a nocked arrow on it was right behind War Without Wounds.
“Brat, you’re pretty ruthless!” War Without Wounds said to Royal God Call as he flourished the claymores in his hands.
Silver Moon knew that he was no match for him so he turned to flee, yet War Without Wounds was already prepared for this and activated his Charge to rush toward him.
Warriors had slow speed, but that would change whenever they were using the Charge skill. Having expected Silver Moon to turn tail and run, the veteran expert War Without Wounds had timely activated his Charge skill and flawlessly hit Silver Moon’s butt cheeks with his claymores.
That thrust from the claymore propelled Silver Moon straight towards a nearby wall.
“AH!” Royal God Call yelped for Silver Moon. His face was scrunched up, and he dared not to look, but his eyes showed more glee than sympathy. By the time he finished yelping, Silver Moon had already crashed into a nearby wall.
“You did that on purpose!” Royal God Call exclaimed as he approached War Without Wounds.
Silver Moon was crumpled up against the wall. He felt light-headed, and it was not due him being inflicted with the Dizzy effect of Charge but due to him bodily slamming into a wall. He shook his head to clear his thoughts when the ground before him darkened as the large frame of War Without Wounds blocked off the sun’s warm glow.
“What are you guys doing?!” Silver Moon asked.
“F*cker. You were messing things up in the background and you dared to ask what we are doing?!” War Without Wounds replied with a question.
“Rough him up!” Royal God Call merrily cried out.
“Yeah!” War Without Wounds agreed, as he stooped over and lifted Silver Moon up. With a slap of his arm, Silver Moon found himself slamming against the wall again. Although the damage dealt to him was insignificant, the damage the blow had inflicted on his soul could not be expressed by mere numbers.
The two were not done yet. Royal God Call took this chance to let loose an arrow, landing it right on to Silver Moon’s chest. Silver Moon did not die from that, though, and merely slid down the wall. Royal God Call regretfully commented, “What a pity; it would be great if I could pin you against the wall!”
“Ah! Should we tie him up and hang him up the clock tower?” War Without Wounds suggested.
“That’s a great idea!” Royal God Call was all for it.
“Shall we go, then?” War Without Wounds asked as he picked Silver Moon up.
“Yes, let’s go!” Royal God Call excitedly answered as he took his time to savor Silver Moon’s miserable expression.
Silver Moon gritted his teeth, not making a sound.
“Hey, you rascal. Are you looking for people to save you from the clock tower? Ha ha ha! Actually, we were lying about that!” War Without Wounds’ arm whirled when he said that, and Silver Moon slammed into the wall for the third time.
“That’s right! Why would we waste our time and effort on you?! Oi, are you already dead?” Seeing that Silver Moon was not moving, Royal God Call prodded him with an arrow.
Suddenly, the prone Silver Moon did a forward slash at him. But since he did not possess Gu Fei’s speed, his surprise attack was not particularly fast. Although Royal God Call was able to dodge his point-blank strike, the suddenness of the attack made him break out in cold sweat.
“How despicable! Let’s finish him off now,” Royal God Call took two steps backward and said this to War Without Wounds.
War Without Wounds nodded his head, “We really should rush things a little.” With that, he stepped forward and brought his two claymores down on Silver Moon. Silver Moon lifted his King’s Blade to block it, but War Without Wounds changed his downward cleave into a horizontal cut from both sides, “This is the beauty of dual-wielding.”
Silver Moon felt helpless regarding his situation. A wall was blocking his path of retreat, and with attacks coming from his left and right, he was only able to block one side and was forced to take the other slash of War Without Wounds.
“Man, this guy’s really tenacious! He’s still not dead even after all that!” Royal God Call exclaimed as he nocked an arrow to give War Without Wounds a helping hand.
Given his non-combat job class, Silver Moon was not able to respond properly to the two’s concerted attacks. Moreover, any form of resistance from him was easily stifled by the two experts. Silver Moon wanted to raise his stats using King’s Command, but Royal God Call and War Without Wounds’ overwhelming attacks prevented him from even granting any Knight’s blessing on himself. In the end, he unwillingly succumbed to death.
Royal God Call looked at the time and glanced over to War Without Wounds, “Do you think Sword Demon will feel impatient waiting over by his side?”
“Best to tell him,” War Without Wounds then sent Sword Demon a message.
“Think he can do it by himself?” Royal God Call asked.
“There shan’t be a problem with his Stealth. Not everyone is like Miles who can detect a Thief on Stealth, you know?” War Without Wounds replied.
“G*dd*mm*t, Miles has yet to remove his message restriction,” Royal God Call cursed.
“Silver Moon’s pretty lucky. If Miles knew about us hunting him, he would surely be dropped by Miles all the way down to level 30,” War Without Wounds sighed.
“Do you know how things are at Ray’s Bar?” Royal God Call asked.
“No idea. Young Master Han said he doesn’t need our help, so I guess everything is fine,” War Without Wounds replied.
“How wonderful would it be if those leaders killed off Young Master!” Royal God Call yearned.
War Without Wounds nodded his head, “I hope Brother Assist doesn’t die. He has all the coins, so he better not die and drop them!”
“Hmm, should we go take a look?” Royal God Call suggested.
“Let’s!” The big and small figures of the two headed back to Ray’s Bar, only leaving behind the signs of their pulverization of Silver Moon as well as the dumbfounded onlookers.
Over by Ray’s Bar, Silver Moon’s two companions had yet to receive a reply after sending out their reports, so they could only wrack their brains for any possible solutions. Since Silver Moon was the brain of their team, the two could not quickly come up with any ideas. While Silver Moon was aware that the presence of Gu Fei’s guildmates only made it easier for them to create conflict between the leaders and Young Master’s Elite, the two did not analyze this matter deeply enough and were unable to come to the same conclusion that he did. The two, for their part, thought that the presence of the Amethyst Rebirth ladies was preventing them from developing the situation to their desired result. Thinking that it would be best if they were not there, one of the two men cried out, “Since that’s the case, can you ladies just leave? Don’t hinder us in our business.” They did not say this without a basis. With the small size of Amethyst Rebirth, the two judged that the guild would be unable to do anything even if the many guild leaders tried to poach their member openly.
Hearing the man’s words, Young Master Han burst into a suppressed laughter and turned to Brother Assist, “These guys are f*ck*ng morons. Are they trying to court death?”
Following this, Svelte Dancer indignantly bellowed, “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!” Shen then activated Fleetfoot, darted toward the man who had spoken, extended her dagger in hand in one swift motion, and finished off the rascal.
