336 Chapter 336 - Different Goals (1/2)

Silence. Dead silence.

Focus. Everyone's gaze was focused.

The person who had said this was just a nobody from one of the mercenary groups. Oathless Sword had been doing a headcount of his remaining men when he turned his head back to regard the man. He then calmly smiled. ”Get your mercenary leader to come and speak to me!”

The man nodded his head. ”My mercenary leader sent me to speak on his behalf. Our entire mercenary group agreed to withdraw from this mission.”

Only then did Oathless Sword give this matter his attention. Slowly turning to properly face the man, his face oozed with anger. Backing out from the mission at this point in time was akin to adding fuel to the fire. Oathless Sword was almost done counting his guild members, and based on the number he had arrived at thus far, only about four hundred members were alive. This meant that he had lost nearly half of his men throughout this expedition. The losses on the mercenary groups' side were a lot worse, as the originally five hundred mercenaries that had accepted the mission were now down to just about two hundred.

The problem here was that the Traversing Four Seas' members that had lost their lives automatically 'failed' the guild quest when they respawned in Yunduan City. In contrast, the mercenaries' mission would not be marked as 'failed' as long as the Prisoner Todd remained alive. Furthermore, since they could respawn in Baishi City, it would only take them three hours or so to get back to Linyin City. Traversing Four Seas had hired many mercenary groups precisely in preparation for this sort of heavy losses that they might incur during the expedition, yet, at this very moment, these mercenaries actually wished to withdraw from their mission. Oathless Sword thought that he was not the one being unreasonable here.

However, before he could even speak, three more leaders or representatives from different mercenary groups came forward. ”We wish to withdraw from this mission as well.”

”You guys!” Oathless Sword was angered to the point of speechlessness. The tone of these men sounded resolute, as though they were merely informing him of their decision and were not looking to negotiate.

”Isn't it a little too much to back out at this moment?” Quite a lot of Traversing Four Seas' players felt dissatisfied with this, and one of them actually stepped out to say this.

In the end, someone from the four mercenaries stepped forward. ”You're right. It's a little too much. That is why our group has decided to refund the deposit in full.” With that, they saw the man return to his mercenary group and talk with his comrades for a moment. Everybody watched as they dug into their pockets to gather the appropriate amount into a money pouch. Following this, the man came back to Oathless Sword once more and handed over the money pouch to the latter.

When it came down to the deposit, different mercenary groups had different rules for it. Employers who were in a rush to hire mercenaries would often make use of this to lure people into aiding them. Take Traversing Four Seas as an example; almost all the mercenary groups were paid half of their total fees as a deposit upfront and were promised to be given the other half once the mission they had set was accomplished. No conditions were set about recovering the deposit if the mission ended in failure.

Right now, these mercenary groups were actually withdrawing from the mission that they had yet to fail of their volition – something which had never happened before. Oathless Sword felt pissed that he did not set a condition for annulling the contract like this; he did not reach out to accept the deposit that was being returned by the man. Behind him, Gale Force stepped forward and angrily said, ”This is not a matter of coins; aren't you guys showing a sheer lack of integrity right now?”

The man obviously knew that he was doing something out of the norm, so his head hung low. He looked between Gale Force and Oathless Sword before eventually admitting, ”Sorry, but we don't think we are the right people for this mission.”

”Just admit you got cold feet and decided to back out,” Gale Force taunted. Actually, anyone would assume that fear was the reason anyone would withdraw from this mission after reaching this point.

”Cold feet?” The man revealed his suppressed anger when he heard Gale Force's ridicule, yet he continued to talk to them in a moderate tone. ”We are well aware of where we stand in this mission and know that we're just going to be used as cannon fodders before we even accepted this mission, so do you really think we would decide to back out due to getting cold feet?”

Gale Force was stunned.

”Guild Leader Oathless, I'm sure you remember what you said to entice us into accepting this mission. Did you honestly think we accepted this mission for the mercenary fee? He he… I'm afraid most of the mercenaries here don't really have the heart to say this, but this entire expedition will have us travel to five cities. So far, we've already been to Yueye, Baishi, and now Linyin – that's three cities out of the five needed for your guild quest. And by the looks of things, it seems that we are mistaken. There simply aren't any additional earnings as we have been led to believe. Now that we are even exposing ourselves to something as risky as a competitive quest, our returns are essentially zero. After discussing it among ourselves, we really can't find any justifiable reason to continue our participation in this mission. Thus, we have decided to withdraw from this. That's all we've got to say for this matter; we'll leave it to you to think of it however you want!”

After ending his speech and upon seeing that Oathless Sword still did not move to accept the money pouch, the man bent over, placed the money pouch on the ground, and walked off. ”We're taking our leave now.”

Many players left the crowd with him and returned into the jungle without glancing back even once.

The other three mercenaries, who also wanted to leave, felt that that man had already said everything needed to be said, so they quietly took out their money pouches and placed them on the ground before leading their men away as well.

Oathless Sword was about to say something when, unexpectedly, the men's move spread like the plague through the crowd. In a matter of seconds, five more mercenary groups came forward to leave their money pouches and silently took their leave.

”Hey! All of you—” Gale Force wanted to chase after them in a fit of rage, yet Oathless Sword held him back with a shake of his head. ”Forget it; let them go!”

Looking around the crowd, Oathless Sword gravely asked, ”Is there anyone else who wishes to leave?”

The other remaining mercenary groups exchanged glances; this included The Black Hand, the largest mercenary group in Yunduan City. Although their mercenary leader, Black Index Finger, died, The Black Hand did not see it fit to withdraw from this mission. As such, Drifting, who was acting as the temporary leader of The Black Hand, humbly stood among the crowd.

The Amethyst ladies did not withdraw, either. Besides Young Master's Elite, they were probably the only ones who did not suffer any casualties. It was quite the miracle considering how weak their mercenary group was.

There were the skeevy men of The Great Hunting, as well. They did not lose anyone during the confrontation in the jungle, and most of their losses were from that time they had been in Yueye City.