728 Chapter 728 - Discerning between Friend or Foe (1/2)
”You're thinking far too one-dimensionally,” Young Master Han said as he lifted an open bottle of liquor which he had just purchased to give to Moonless Water. Moonless Water originally wanted to reject the offer, but he saw with a quick glance that the bottle Young Master Han was offering him was the legendary Two Hundred. Even though the prices for liquor had dropped significantly after the economic readjustment not too long ago, and the legendary Two Hundred was now worth 20 gold coins, even fewer players would be compelled to spend money on something like this. Thus, Moonless Water decided to cherish this opportunity and accept the liquor that Young Master Han was offering, before seeing Young Master Han opening another bottle for himself.
Several comrades from Colored Clouds were standing around them, and each of them was looking on with greed in their eyes. Young Master Han glanced at everyone around them, ”Do you guys want a drink as well?”
Everyone nodded their heads vigorously.
Young Master Han took a step to the side and stood there, showing the door of the bar to everyone, ”Go in and buy it yourself.”
Suddenly, no one wanted to drink any longer as they silently stood to the side.
Moonless Water felt a little awkward when saw that he had liquor to drink and his comrades did not have any. However, he only had the one bottle in hand; there was no way he would be able to split it among several hundred others, and it was impossible for him to treat the others to their own bottles either. With neither options working out, Moonless Water did not continue to vacillate over this any longer, drinking from the bottle he was given by himself even as he asked, ”What do you mean I'm thinking too one-dimensionally?”
”Didn't we test it out when we entered the city just now? The city guards would not take the initiative to attack us, the neutral third party players, but they would not hesitate to kill us the moment we generated any Threat. Even though we're all inside the city at the moment, despite our numbers, the fact remains that we're still on their turf. Do you see the guards there?” Young Master Han casually pointed to the city guards walking past the streets ahead, before continuing, ”They belong to the city defender's forces at the moment, and if we were to attack Gu Fei and the rest, the system would most definitely deem us to be generating Threat and would attack us as well. That is why you should not think that we've got them dead to rights just because we outnumber them.”
”So what you mean to say is that we need to find a location where the city guards would not be around to make a move on us? That would be rather difficult!” Moonless Water furrowed his brows. During this City Wars event, the city was being patrolled far stricter than usual. During the entire time they had stayed outside Ray's Bar, they had already spotted four units of city guards patrol by. One of them had even walked right past them, causing many of their men to inadvertently tense up, though it was fortunate that the city guards were not intelligent enough to determine this sort of anxiety as a form of aggro.
”That is why we've got to come up with a solution,” Young Master Han said.
”What solution?” Moonless Water asked.
”Have you heard of the player who opened this bar right here?” Young Master Han asked.
”Ray? Of course we have,” Moonless Water said.
”It's very clear that he must belong to a Faction. Furthermore, I'm certain he has not joined up with Thousand Miles Drunk and the others,” Young Master Han said.
”Oh, so what about that?” Moonless Water continued to ask.
”What about that? Well, if he establishes a guild, and if we were to join him, wouldn't our new guild belong to the city defender's force as well, and from there, won't we be able to greet those people no matter where we are here in this city?” Young Master Han answered him with another question of his own.
”Ah… This…” Moonless Water had not expected there to be such a method.
”Has he already agreed?” Moonless Water asked Young Master Han.
”Not yet, but I don't think it's too big an issue. I came out to let you guys know about the plan, so you can use this time to choose the people necessary,” Young Master Han said.
”Choose the people?”
”Genius, you can only have a maximum of 50 players in a newly established guild. Do you really think we can get all of these men in?” Young Master Han said.
”Oh!” Moonless Water hurriedly nodded his head.
”And forget about Knights and Priests,” Young Master Han suddenly recalled this matter before he entered the bar once more, so he stopped and abruptly informed him about it.
”Why is that?” Moonless Water was surprised.
”If both sides will be city defenders, there's definitely no way for the city guards to be aggro-ed when we end up PK-ing against each other. If Priests and Knights were to provide support to the players, they would still be helping players that were part of the city defender's forces, so I believe that the system would not deem that to generate Threat. As a result, there's no need to waste our guild member limit on either of these job classes,” Young Master Han nodded very approvingly at his own deduction as he said this before he proceeded to enter Ray's Bar.
Ray was hunched over the liquor cabinet continuing to tweak his brew when he suddenly heard the sound of the door opening. Lifting his head, he saw that it was Young Master Han returning after leaving the premises not too long ago, he was momentarily uncertain how to react as he stood there staring at the man, stunned.
Young Master Han was already certain of his deduction regarding Ray being a player affiliated with a Faction, and that was all thanks to the advantage that he got from the spyglass he had repeated borrowed off Vast Lushness' hands yet again. While nobody had any idea that it was Ray making those trips to pick up the rocks and debris out on the battlefield whenever the fighting came to a halt, Young Master Han had immediately identified him the moment he caught sight of him.
Nobody would make their way out to pick up the rocks and stones from under the city walls for no rhyme or reason, so Young Master Han had no doubt that Ray must have been on a quest or mission. If he was only a neutral third party player that had managed to get himself into the city, there was no way that he would have gotten himself a quest. Thus, it was very evident that Ray was affiliated with a Faction as well, someone who had started out as part of the city defender's forces just like Gu Fei and Sword Demon. Furthermore, Ray was already picking up rocks before Gu Fei and the others created their guild. The man was still picking up rocks after Gu Fei and the others created their guild. From this, Young Master Han could make a further inference that Ray was not a part of Gu Fei and the others.
Seeing how Ray stared at him blankly, Young Master Han decided to go straight to the point, ”Ray, what's your Faction?”
”The Mercantile Trade Association,” Ray said.
”I see that you're interested in getting some contribution score for yourself, so you can cut a slice of the proverbial pie when the event ends to distribute the area of influence and better benefit your business in the future, am I right?” Young Master Han asked.
”Yeah!” Ray was a little annoyed. He had originally planned to do this with a bunch of people who were of the same profession, and they were prepared to compete for points together. But now that he was split apart from them, he had been working very hard on his end, but he had no idea if there would be a unified conversion of contribution points for working both the city defender's side and the city assaulter's side.
”But you're not earning much contribution score every time you move your rocks time and time again, right?” Young Master Han chuckled.
”It can't be helped!” Ray sighed.
”Actually, I do have a solution for you!” Young Master Han said.
”What sort of solution?” Ray asked.
”Do what Miles and the others did; form your own guild,” Young Master Han revealed.
”Form a guild?” Ray was astonished.
”That's right. The contribution score for the City Wars event is given to the guild, so now that you're doing everything by yourself, no matter how hard you work, can your contributions alone compete against a small guild of 50 players?” Young Master Han asked.
”We've got some people as well,” Ray answered.
Young Master Han was stunned when he heard this, ”Who?”
”The people whom I've formed a guild with before the event, of course. Though in the end, I was tossed over to this side, and I can't contact any of them now,” Ray glumly answered.
Young Master Han sighed in relief, ”That's even more troublesome. They are the attackers, while you're with the defenders. You're both on opposite spectrums, so how would they end up calculating the contribution scores you guys earn? Would they add together… Or would they offset each other?”
It was evident that the possibility of it offsetting the contribution score was something that Ray had been very worried about, but the moment he heard what Young Master Han had said, he very quickly understood what he was insinuating, ”So what you mean to say is that our guild should be disbanded for now, and I can establish a new guild with me as the leader, so that at least our hard work would not offset each other?”
”Clever,” Young Master Han nodded.
”But I have no way of contacting them at all right now!” Ray was distressed.
”That is why I say you're not clever enough.” Young Master Han said this as he sent a message out. The doors of the bar were immediately pushed open, as a bunch of fully equipped players, none looking like they were people who dabbled in business, burst through and filled the room. Ray was dumbfounded as he stared, hearing Young Master Han speak, ”See, I've already helped you with all the preparations.”
Ray was no fool, so how could he not read the signs? He grimaced as he said, ”Did you prepare this for me, or am I the player with a Faction that is readily prepared for you?”