732 Chapter 732 - Two Men Eliminated (1/2)

”But there were city guards nearby when one of the ladies from my guild was assassinated. She claims that the city guards did not even react in the least, so that means the enemy is not neutral third party players,” July provided her deduction thus far.

”So they are people who are on the side of the City defenders, yet they still wish to clash with us?” The conditions to join the city defender's forces were evident for all to see, and Sword Demon had of course immediately understood that they must have been from Ray's side of things, thus he immediately sent a message out to him.

Ray was just strolling around in the city. He had originally wanted to continue his quest to clean up the battlefield, but after receiving a message from Young Master Han cautioning him not to so easily leave the city from here onwards, Ray asked him for the reason. Young Master Han merely answered him with the two words: ”Honor killing”.

This was a term that Gu Fei and the others were very familiar with, but they had not spoken anything about this to Ray before, and he only understood what everything was about after Young Master Han gave him a brief introduction to the matter. After Ray's Bar was established, he would immediately be listed on the leaderboard in the encampments outside the city walls. The city defender's guilds were nothing like the city assaulter's guilds, where only the top 100 guilds would be listed out of the over 800 guilds registered to Yunduan City. As there were currently just three guilds defending the city, they would find themselves listed no matter how the guilds were arranged. There were players who discovered Ray's name the very moment it appeared on the leaderboard, and that drew a sizeable amount of players to research everything about him. There were even guilds who had not picked up the mission for Gu Fei or Sword Demon that each came forward to take the mission to assassinate Ray.

Compared to Sword Demon and Thousand Miles Drunk, there was an incomparable disadvantage that Ray possessed, and that was that anyone from Yunduan City would recognize Ray because he was someone who had opened a bar and would often be active during a set period of time. Everyone knew about Ray's Bar, and even players from other cities had come to visit the bar specifically, much less the locals from Yunduan City. Ray was most definitely the most recognizable player in Yunduan City, and players who picked up the quest to assassinate him were very confident that they could at least identify Ray if they were to come across him.

Knowing all this, Ray of course no longer dared to leave the safety of the city. All he could do now was confine his search for other quests within the walls of the city. Fortunately, now that he had established a guild, there was a huge amount of quests that appeared given his new identity, so at least he was not bored. However, he was naturally aware that the situation that would likely culminate over time would be occurring soon, right inside the city. Ray happened to have run into a lady from Amethyst Rebirth, and the lady had very warmly greeted the legendary player in a very friendly manner. But when Ray turned his head around, he saw players from Colored Clouds pop out and assassinate the lady right in front of him. When they were done with the deed, they had also warmly extended a greeting to their so-called guild leader.

These days will not pass in peace… Colored Cloud's targeted killing spree had already begun, and Ray knew that Sword Demon and the others would most definitely come knocking on his front door. Just as he expected, when Sword Demon finally sent a message, it was to ask him about the third city defender's guild that he had established.

”Uhmm, it's already very obvious, isn't it?” Ray was really a little bit at a loss with regards to how he should deal with this situation. He had already pondered about how he should navigate this problem for a very long time, but he had clearly established his own guild and provided a cover for those people that essentially granted them a free pass, yet he still wanted to plead innocent over the whole matter. Ray felt that it would be a little far too naive of him to hold onto such hope, so after all that contemplation, he had not managed to come up with an answer.

”Okay, let me just ask you this one thing. Was it Young Master Han?” The considerate and forthright Sword Demon seemed to understand the position that Ray was straddling over.

”Yes, it's him,” This was Sword Demon's one question, so Ray did not wish to be evasive about it either.

”Got it. I understand.” Sword Demon answered.

”All the best to you guys,” Ray felt he was really a little annoying right now.

”You should take care as well,” Sword Demon said.

”Oh?” Ray was a little confused.

”We're enemies now,” Sword Demon explained.

”Oh…” Ray knew what the saying 'the tree yearned for peace, the wind might not relent' meant! With the identity that he now held, hoping to remain innocent and uninvolved in this matter was no more than a fool's pipe dream. Even if he was not actively participating in the ambushes and was only guild leader in name, if the enemy were to consider this issue from a confrontation angle, they would very soon be making a move on him, the guild leader…

After Sword Demon finished asking Ray his question, he quickly sought to discuss the matter with Gu Fei. Gu Fei was currently wrought with melancholy... extreme melancholy. He had already been transported back to Yunduan City's Mage's Academy. After succumbing to an Honor kill, it was the equivalent of him dying 15 times, and adding the two counts from before, he had a total of 17 deaths. Thus, the system had defined him as a heavily injured party, and he needed to spend 15 minutes 'recuperating' in the spawn point. What made it all the more infuriating was the fact that he was still holding onto that d*mn*d piece of paper in his hand. Gu Fei had just crumpled up the paper into a ball when he received the message from Sword Demon, which very quickly relayed the current situation inside the city.

”I've been tricked by him as well,” Gu Fei glumly replied.

”What?” Sword Demon and the others had not received word about this yet!

”I just got Honor killed,” Gu Fei explained.

”D*mn, then how many more times can you die?” Sword Demon hurriedly asked.

”Don't be so flustered! I've only got a death count of 17 so far, so I've still got 8 lives left!” Gu Fei said.

”How were you outwitted?” Sword Demon asked. Gu Fei gave a simple overview of what happened, which Sword Demon concluded with great confidence, ”That is his trademark alright. Especially the message on the paper.”

”Let's not talk about that. Did you just tell me that Young Master Han is also in the city right now?” Gu Fei said.

”Yup!”

”This is a heaven-sent opportunity for me to get my revenge! I'll go search for traces of him in the various taverns inside the city,” Gu Fei decided.

”The problem is that 8 of the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth has already been killed by their hands,” Sword Demon said.

”I'll go help avenge them in a while,” Gu Fei replied.

Sword Demon felt that he had made the mistake in thinking that he could discuss this matter that was far more concerning to the interest of the masses with Gu Fei. The man's line of thinking was a lot more straightforward and plain, and all he thought about was killing, looking to solve everything in one go if he killed them all. Sword Demon turned around and decided that it was better to discuss this with July, ”How are all your ladies now? I intend to get everyone to gather together, including those from our side. The enemy is a newly established guild, so they have 50 players at most. As long as we gather everyone together, there's absolutely no need for us to be afraid of them, and we can search for the enemy throughout the city as a group when we come together.” Sword Demon said.

”Okay,” July agreed with this decision.

”Let us hurry up and gather. Take extra care when you come across anyone unfamiliar,” Sword Demon warned.

”Understood,” July said.

The ladies were far weaker, which was why Sword Demon was more worried about their well-being. Conversely, the players from Extremely Heaven Defying were all at least a little capable, so if they were to come across two or three opponents, Sword Demon was confident they should at least be strong enough to deal with them. However, there was a very strong possibility that the two or three players were just a cover for their actual numbers, and the enemy might very well have a total of 50 players roaming about, or perhaps even more than that. Sword Demon could actually ask Ray about this, but he decided against it. Presently, he reminded everyone in Extremely Heaven Defying that there was such a band of ruffians hanging around the city, and made sure to tell everyone to rendezvous as soon as they can, taking note to be wary of any unfamiliar faces they might come across and stick toward the areas with city guards around as much as possible.

The enemy had 50 players at most, and even if there were more, they would most definitely just be neutral third party players, which means the city guards would be a powerful ally. That was what Sword Demon had determined.

The discussions got heated after everyone was informed by Sword Demon that their enemy would actually resort to such means. Southern Lone Blade and his gang were a squad that valued self-interest, and they expressed 10,000 reasons as to why they did not understand that sort of action. The two guilds were both on the city defender's side, killing each other in this fashion would essentially causing huge losses to each other, which meant that only the city assaulters would stand to gain. For a guild to do something akin to sewing a bridal dress for another, Southern Lone Blade and his gang would most definitely avoid it at all costs. Who would have thought there would be such a bunch of players from the city assaulting forces who simply did not care about their own gains or losses, and willingly sacrificed their own rewards just so all the other city assaulting players in Yunduan City would benefit from it?

”They are too noble. I cannot help but feel deep respect toward them,” Southern Lone Blade said in their guild channel, with no one having any idea if he truly meant it, or if he was saying it sarcastically.

”Respect? What for? To think they dare to make their move against pretty ladies! This bunch of scumbags, degenerates, ruffians, scoundrels. I must enact justice on behalf of the heavens, and wipe them clean off the planet!!” Royal God Call expressed his ferocious determination.

”Royal, you and your big mouth…” The Thief among Southern Lone Blade's gang, Blackwater, was beside himself with sorrow. While Royal God Call had been condemning the enemy for their relentless harassment of the ladies, Blackwater was the one who ended up running into said enemy in the next second. Blackwater was very experienced; when he saw that the two men posed as if they were about to take the fight, he took a few steps around and noticed how their surroundings was definitely an ideal position for an ambush set up! Those two men are most likely the bait, right?

As the one among the seven that would always err on the side of caution, Blackwater immediately gave up on the idea of fighting against the pair 2 vs. 1, opting to take the alley beside him and attempt to escape instead.

”We've discovered a target who isn't someone from Amethyst Rebirth,” The small hunting duo from Colored Clouds reported thusly.

”What's his job class!?” The overall commander of this operation was ultimately Young Master Han.

”Thief.”

”Oh, then carve him up! Limit where he's going.” Young Master Han gave the order to the two even as he quickly contacted another team to position them accordingly.