740 Chapter 740 - Fresh Recruits Routed (1/2)
When faced with such an attack that barely made any difference, the first to die were always the low HP-ed job classes. When the Mages from Colored Clouds respawned, they were all randomly scattered all over the Mage Academy. Some of these Mages managed to successfully Kamikaze themselves, while others got blown up by Southern Lone Blade and his men before they did anything. However, all these Mages who died soon randomly respawned back in the Mage Academy, making it seem like none of them had actually died, but had instead been given Gu Fei's Blink skill.
Over 30 Mages were rampantly unleashing their spells in the white light. A good majority of the players hardly even noticed Southern Lone Blade's orders when they came through, with some running helter-skelter in a bid to evade the damage, while others even attempted to retaliate against the Mages. But these efforts were all useless; The ones who scattered and bolted were unable to escape the Mages' teleportation Kamikaze, while those who tried to attack the Mages essentially helped the Mages 'teleport' them.
The Mages from Colored Clouds acted as martyrs, sacrificing themselves so as to rapidly clear out the Mage Academy. The various job classes that were killed got sent to their respective spawn points, and that was fine for most people, but it was a tragedy for any of the Priests that were caught in the blasts of spells. Given that the men of Colored Clouds were all already in position by the Priest Academy, ready and waiting to grief the Priests, any Priest that turned up was expediently killed off repeatedly. Logging out was the only way any of these Priest could escape this predicament, yet they would constantly be interrupted again and again from all sides under the watchful besiegement from the enemy. Attempt a forceful log out? Unless their house was on fire, there was no way that any self-respecting player in Parallel World would even consider such an option.
”It seems like we've fallen into their trap,” Gu Fei and the others were still able to peek out from their cover from time to time, not to mention how the current situation was being noisily chattered over the respective guild channels of both Amethyst Rebirth and Colored Clouds.
”Could the concentration of the Mages here have been intentionally set up?” Drifting was showing a rather ghastly expression.
”It seems like our enemy this time had already noticed this was a very good spot for Mages to deploy a sneak attack on them, so they had specifically positioned their Mages there for us to attack. They had even anticipated that we would scheme to take out the respawned Mages, so he used this opportunity to try and at least wipe out our Priests…” Slyris said.
”Very possibly…” Gu Fei was crestfallen. ”Utilizing the terrain is that guy's strong suit.”
”Just look at their formation right now and you can tell,” Cirrus said after he poked his head out and sneaked a glance.
”What?”
”Not a single one of them is standing in the area where any of us could target them,” Cirrus explained.
”D*mm*t, we've truly been played into Young Master Han's hands,” Gu Fei punched the ground in frustration.
Drifting was all the more ashamed of this outcome, having been the one who came up with the plan in the first place. Meanwhile, the rumors that Drifting was an undercover spy was swiftly spreading in the guild.
”Royal God Call, let me severely warn you to keep your mouth shut,” Gu Fei said, and the rumors very quickly disappeared.
”That's enough messing around already,” Xi Xiaotian admonished Royal God Call, uncertain if she should be laughing or crying about it. Royal God Call had immediately filled the guild channel with rumors the moment he heard her analysis of the situation
”I believe there's just such a possibility!” Royal God Call insisted with much seriousness. ”Have you forgotten? Young Master had even tried snatching away Southern Lone Blade and his team when we previously tried to contact them, and he almost managed to pull one over them had we not managed to intervene. Perhaps he had already got in touch with Drifting before us, and had strategically placed such a chess piece on the board, clearly expecting you to call on Drifting to come help.”
Everyone was stunned. The possibility itself existed. Among the six Mages, four of them crooked their heads to look at Drifting quizzically. It was only Gu Fei who was still very calm, ”It's a personal grudge here, everyone should ignore all that.”
”That d*mn*d kid,” Drifting awkwardly said to the other four. ”Miles is still the one who's righteous.”
”What are we going to do now?” Cirrus asked. From the many sneaking glances he took, it was very heartbreaking to watch impotently as their Priests got massacred over by the Priest Academy, unable to do anything to assist them in any sense.
”Without our Priests, there's no way for us to engage them in a ground push either,” Drifting commented.
”They are only Priests!” Gu Fei was still very calm, however. Quickly messaging Brother Assist who was outside of the city, ”Calling for Brother Assist. We have an urgent lack of Priests; we required a lot of Priests.”
”I know that, but it's really hard to find Priests. Any guild that is newly established would lack Priests and other similar job classes. This is essentially an objective law of MMOs. If you don't believe me, just ask Sword Demon,” Brother Assist quickly explained, afraid that Gu Fei would wrongly accuse him of being inefficient.
”I understand. We don't need the Priests to join our guild, but only to lend us a hand in the capacity of their job class, so all they need is to have the neutral third party player status that would allow them to enter the city. Find some friends, or spend some money to employ them as mercenaries if you need, I'll leave it up to you,” Gu Fei said.
”Spend money to employ them as mercenaries?” Brother Assist repeated.
”Yes, you'll cover the cost for the mercenaries first,” Gu Fei said.
Brother Assist was somewhat horrified at this prospect. He was not suspicious of Gu Fei's character, but the issue was that he was worried he would feel embarrassed taking Gu Fei's money when Gu Fei asked to settle the bill afterward. The guild does not belong to just one person, so everyone would surely have to chip in if any coin was being used in this matter. Except, they were currently pressed for time. Perhaps they would collect the necessary funds at a later date and settle the bill with me in the future? Brother Assist had such thoughts floating about in his mind as he nodded and replied, ”Wait for my message.”
Money made everything easier; this was widely regarded to be a universal truism. Brother Assist and July, who had both been struggling with enticing Priests to join their cause, suddenly found the grind map that they were in to be just filled with Priests the moment they opened their purses.
During this period where the currency market was seeing a great change and upheaval, everyone was concerned with how they would be earning gold coins in the future. Brother Assist was a veteran gamer who was well versed in the psychology of the players. He had a firm grasp with how various things worked in the game, and so the price that he now offered reflected the background of the times they were all in; it was a sum that was enough to tempt any Priest out there to join either Extremely Heaven Defying or Amethyst Rebirth as a mercenary for this event.
Those who were grouped up with close friends discussed their wish to earn this gold coins with these people, asking for a temporary leave from the parties.
As for those who were grouped up with unaffiliated parties, the more responsible players sought their party leaders and asked for everyone's understanding for their choice of action; the players who were more middling in terms of their sense of responsibility simply gave a half-arsed excuse about being busy and left the party; those who were completely irresponsible simply just ghosted the party without even a word.
Brother Assist was currently very chipper. As the employer hiring the Priests as mercenaries, he would of course pick those who were of quality, and all the Priests were asked to divulge their total stats distribution as well as their spell power stat. To a Priest, their spell power directly affected just how much HP each of their Heals would confer.
As for the method of payment that everyone was very concerned with, Brother Assist had used the names of Thousand Miles Drunk, Sword Demon, Svelte Dancer, Drifting, Slyris, and other big names in Parallel World like they were vegetables on display. In Parallel World, level represented everything, and when it came to these known experts, players would naturally feel that their reputable renown would of course mean they would not be able to pull any tricks like swindling them of their fees here. As such, now that these players no longer had any issues regarding payment. Plenty of players, who had managed to pass Brother Assist's selection, were instructed on how to sneak their way into the city and they happily made their way toward Yunduan City.
”Over here!!!” Brother Assist's mercenary recruitment drive happened to be proceeding in full swing when a troop of reinforcements gatecrashed from out of nowhere, pointing at Brother Assist and July as they charged right for the pair.
”Oh dear!” Brother Assist was taken aback, quickly shouting for July to flee. All he could feel was his heart thumping rhythmically against his chest as he heard the players behind him yell endlessly, ”Kill them! Kill them both!”
In the end, all the Priests were enraged by this interruption. During this period of economic downturn, finding a job was not easy, and this abrupt appearance of players halfway out of nowhere ended up driving a wedge between them and an avenue of earning. All the Priests felt as if their interests were being assaulted in broad daylight, and they immediately called for their friends and comrades to their cause.
Most of the Priests had just left their own groups so as to earn this one-time side income, and some of their friends were basically nearby while others were even accompanying them outright. All the unaffiliated players very quickly came together and were all keen to get rid of these people who were denying their Priests from making some money.
”Screw this, mind your own business! What has this got to do with any one of you?” The players who were hunting down their quarry yelled angrily when the unaffiliated players attacked them, and they made a fundamental mistake. When they were most definitely at a disadvantage in terms of their numbers, they should not be in the least bit arrogant, because no one liked arrogance. Thus, several players who had been too lazy to act were all riled up by their reaction. All of them worked together and rapidly dealt with this bunch of pursuers.
”Thank you everyone, thank you all very much,” Brother Assist had immediately stopped running when he realized how the situation had escalated, and had been secretly watching the joke unfold by itself from the sidelines. These unaffiliated players were truly unbridled, not to mention that the reinforcement that these Priests ended up calling were the parties that they had been with the numerical superiority in this instance was huge; they barely wasted much strength when they cleared out the guild members, and they all felt what they had done was akin to stepping on an ant that tried to bite them. When they saw Brother Assist and July appear once more, all of them quickly rushed over to them to apply for the job, and Brother Assist continued to hire the Priests they needed.
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”That was a misstep… D*mm*t. All the players grinding there are on their side…” The players from Colored Clouds that had all been slain immediately reported to Gu Xiaoshang what happened the moment they respawned back in the encampment. The party of men that attempted to assault Brother Assist and July had of course been sent by Gu Xiaoshang. After knowing the enemy's battle plan from her other members in the city, she knew that she had to cut off the enemy's ability to replenish their manpower. Gu Xiaoshang had originally thought that the city assaulters ran the show beyond the city walls, but it seemed like the neutral third party players were forever a force that should not be discounted.
”In that case, reorganize everyone. We'll just rely on ambushing them.” After hearing the report, Gu Xiaoshang picked out several Thieves and Archers for this task and prepared to ambush them a second round.
Brother Assist was not good at PK, but he was no slouch when he applied his analytical ability to the situation. Having identified the enemy as men from Colored Clouds just now, he reckoned that the enemy would not give up just like that. While he had no clue as to how they would be attacking the next time, the pair worked a lot quicker than before, as neither was keen to find out. Brother Assist and July were naturally not about to continue their mercenary recruitment forever. Presently, the combatants inside the city were all the players that Brother Assist had sent over. He was very certain on the numbers, and he was convinced that they would make enough of an impact if they brought about 40 Priests back to the fight.
Thus, after they had rallied the 40 they needed, Brother Assist immediately halted their recruitment. While he sent the name list over to Gu Fei and the others, he told them about how Colored Clouds had begun to interfere with their mercenary recruitments out here.
”Loiter about a little; at the end of the day, the maps outside the city are much larger. Don't make it easy for them to locate you,” Gu Fei said.