303 Chapter 303 - The Dauntless Guards (1/2)

The NPC guards were currently using a never-before-seen party-wide skill. Hearing their captain's command, these NPC guards instantly positioned themselves to charge forward.

The Traversing Four Seas' members were truly rather pitiful. On top of not knowing why these unidentified NPCs were moving to attack them, just as they were asking one another questions, such as ”What burglars?” and ”Who are they calling burglars?”, the NPCs proceeded to charge right at them, overwhelming them all.

”F*CK!” the players cried out in dismay. They were truly at a loss on how to deal with this bunch of emotionless AIs that was currently charging at them.

The NPC guards enveloped in white light charged toward the players in a wedge (人) formation at first before changing into a horizontal formation next. These city guards effectively disrupted the Traversing Four Seas' ranks as they rampaged about with impunity, leaving the players rather helpless. Plenty of players were even sent flying upward upon contact, creating an exaggeratedly chaotic scene.

”He he he!” Young Master's Elite was overwhelmed with mirth at this point.

Brother Assist recorded everything as quickly as possible on his little booklet while muttering incessantly, ”This is truly vicious… absolutely malicious….”

”Oh, the humanity!” Royal God Call feigned horror at the scene unfolding before him by shutting his two eyes jokingly.

”Did we perhaps go a bit overboard?” Sword Demon could not really stand the slaughter happening before him.

”Our hands are tied. How can we even stop this now?” Young Master Han actually sighed when he said this.

”Nothing we can do now,” Gu Fei chipped in. Even he felt utterly useless in the face of these indomitable NPC guards. Be it their charging formation or attacking style, all the moves were executed seamlessly and in perfect sync. This was one area where no person could compete against the AI. Who knew how long and arduous would humans have to train to achieve such level of prowess as this bunch of AIs?

There was a phrase kung fu practitioners would often use to describe such opponent: an enemy with no weak point.

While there were ways to forcefully create an opening in an opponent, a certain level of strength and skill would still be required to accomplish this. Who knew how high these guards' level was? It was entirely probable for each of them to possess the strength of a Boss. Since they were currently moving as a team, not even the level 40 Gu Fei would stand a chance against them. He might be a formidable fighter in real life, but he was currently in a MMORPG. Ultimately, everything in it was dictated by the level and type of equipment one had, and skills alone could not make up for those.

The Traversing Four Seas' players would of course not just allow themselves to be ripped apart by these NPC guards without putting up a fight. They did their best to evade the guards assaulting them and backed themselves into formation in accordance to the order of Youthful Reflection, their de facto leader at times like this. Youthful Reflection was currently shouting himself hoarse as he flooded the guild channel with messages: ”Archer formation! Archer formation!” This particular formation was something that he had researched and drilled into the guild members himself, so it was something that he was very proud of.

”That's Traversing Four Seas for you; they've always got a few tricks up their sleeves,” the six men commended.

With the Warriors and similar job classes' tanking the NPC guards' attacks, the Traversing Four Seas' archer formation was completely set up. Following this, the Mages prepared to begin their spell bombardment.

”Fire away!” Youthful Reflection could no longer afford to wait for a perfect opportunity. Seeing that they had enough Archers in place, he immediately commanded them to attack.

The sky was blotted with arrows as they flew toward the NPCs. The first wave of arrows momentarily halted the NPCs' frontal assault. As the Traversing Four Seas' players were finally seeing a sliver of hope with their first assault, they heard the captain of the opposing side yell out, ”Protect our Charge!”

The NPCs each pulled out a shield when they heard this command and firmly placed them in front. Following this, the Traversing Four Seas' second wave of arrows sailed through the air.

”Charge!”

The guards hid behind their shields and placed their swords beside the shields as they surged toward the players.

”Shameless!” The Traversing Four Seas' members were in tears as the formation that they had painstakingly set up was easily demolished by the NPCs.

Based on the character designs for the various job classes in Parallel World, only the Guardians – the job class known for its high HP and low offense – were capable of using shields to defend themselves. And yet, these NPC guards were able to demonstrate nigh indomitable offense with their swords alone; since they could also use shields to defend themselves, what else could the system be but shameless for allowing these NPCs to possess high offense and defense? This was technically no different from combining magic and martial arts together.

Even Young Master's Elite felt shocked at this kind of development. As Brother Assist continued to record everything down, he could not help but wonder, ”What exactly is the job class of these NPC guards? Are they Warriors or Knights?” As the others shook their heads in confusion, he said, ”I'm going to head over and use my Appraisal skill to find out.”

”There's no need for that,” Royal God Call stopped him, saying, ”The guild channel is in an uproar right now; plenty of players have tried appraising them, yet all they got is a bunch of question marks.”

”They must be pretty high level, then!” Brother Assist exclaimed.

The six men returned their focus on the fighting field. The battered members of Traversing Four Seas were beginning to understand the situation, and many of them cried out in shock, ”They are Yueye City's guards!”

Seals, emblems, and such were used in Parallel World to categorize or separate the various organizations from one another. Naturally, each in-game city had its respective seal, which was displayed all over the streets and hung on various government structures. The image that was emblazoned across the NPC guards' shields was the very same seal of Yueye City.

However, although these players had finally managed to identify their opponents, they were still clueless as to why these NPCs were attacking them. Everyone could simply not fathom how they had offended Yueye City's NPC guards, which resulted into their current disastrous predicament.

With the collapse of the Traversing Four Seas' archer formation, any other forms of resistance that they tried to employ were easily suppressed by the NPC guards.

Whether they used their Mages to bombard the ground, sent their Thieves in Stealth mode to sneak attack, or made their Warriors clash head on with the NPC guards, there was only one outcome whenever they made contact: every player was sent flying outward.

Player after player of Traversing Four Seas was sent flying outward; in the end, all of them no longer bothered to follow their bosses' orders and instead strove to escape the place using any possible routes. Oathless Sword and the other two men lost their will to resist as well, and each of them took the remaining players with them to flee.

The NPC guards did not give chase to the fleeing Traversing Four Seas' players and just stayed where they were. In a short while, the only remaining players in the area were the heavily injured.

”Did you guys realize something?!” Brother Assist asked in wonder, ”Not one player died even after taking their devastating frontal assault.”