741 Chapter 741 - An Uncertain Situation (2/2)
”A large workshop would surely have plenty of inventory in stock, so if we simply wish to send some Priests into the city, we won't need more than ten to twenty teleportation scrolls. They should not have any trouble selling that many at all,” Xi Xiaotian explained.
”You're right,” Drifting was the first to agree. ”Let's go search for a workshop to get in contact with. Does anyone know of one?”
”I'll ask Brother Assist,” Sword Demon said.
”Brother Assist? Can he still safely do such things at this time?” Xi Xiaotian asked.
Everyone was quiet. It was really hard to tell what was Brother Assist's current situation. The enemy began to use what their undercover Priests had learned and attempted to kill them. Even though the attempt was not completely successful, they should most likely have a grasp of Brother Assist's movements. Everyone had already heard about the previous failed attempt at Brother Assist's and July's lives, and that had only been because Colored Clouds had acted too flagrantly. The players from the grinding maps ended up saving them that time, but what would happen if the enemy adjusted their methods and work to secretly kill them instead? In such cases, even if other players wish to save them, there was no way they would be able to do so in time.
Just as they were thinking about this, they suddenly saw Brother Assist swear in the channel, ”F*CK!”
”What is it?”
”I got killed…”
Just as I thought… Everyone muttered this to themselves. The enemy had found a way to assassinate him in the end.
”I haven't even finished sending my message!” Brother Assist was depressed. He was now back in the city, so he had lost contact with the players outside of the city, unable to send his messages out.
”I'm going to quit the guild for a bit!” Brother Assist said this as the sound of a player leaving Extremely Heaven Defying was heard in the guild channel. Now that his status had returned back to being a neutral player, he quickly began talking to all the mercenary Priests that he was speaking to before.
”Can we even use those Priests anymore?” Gu Fei and the others privately discussed this matter. The movement of these Priests were all unified, so having a spy among them meant everything that they did had been exposed. It would still be quite troublesome even if we end up using teleportation scrolls to get them over.”
”Let's talk about this after we get a hold of these teleportation scrolls! If none of you have any problems with it, it just so happens that Brother Assist is now back to being a neutral player, so let's get him to make contact a bit,” Xi Xiaotian said.
Everybody thought about it and agreed that this was the only course of action to take. Thus, after Xi Xiaotian told Brother Assist what they had discussed regarding this matter, the others quickly collected all the players that were scattered throughout the city. The men of Colored Clouds were now all gathered together, while they were all scattered about. These players would simply die if they end up running into the enemy like this.
Despite the case, the players who had already arrived at the east gate and were now in a hurry to leave the rendezvous point had still managed to run into the enemy, and they were all swiftly massacred. Fortunately, there was no ambush in the spawn points now, so these players only died just once. However, after joining the two guilds on the city defender's side and realizing what they ended up doing was nothing as simple as what had been promoted to them when they were being recruited to the guild to begin with, a good number of players began to have their doubts, with some even openly expressing their resentment in the guild channel.
”Everyone, the current situation that we are in are variables we did not expect, so we would require even more cooperation and unity from everyone from here onward. At the moment, we have an urgent need for Priests, and we are coming up with solutions to this end. We are unable to meet the enemy in a direct confrontation for the moment, so we shall engage in guerilla warfare. Each of you, please listen to the arrangements made by your various team leaders,” Sword Demon had said in the guild channel. Even though Gu Fei's Amethyst Rebirth had even more players in it, he had a much easier time addressing everyone, since he merely listened to the speech that Sword Demon gave and repeated it for the players in his guild.
True experts would most likely find themselves being sought after by large guilds. People like Drifting and Slyris, who were top tier experts and were both strong and hidden amidst the unaffiliated crowd, was actually a rarity. The players that Extremely Heaven Defying and Amethyst Rebirth had found to form the bulk of their forces now were qualitatively weaker in comparison if anyone were to analyze them in detail. However, panicking upon meeting any unexpected changes was not an issue of strength, but an issue of their own character. The anxiety itself was understandable, but what made it intolerable was not that a portion of players who held this pessimistic verdict to their current predicament. It was instead that they were still propagating such thoughts loudly across the guild channel, which only contributed to the fatalistic atmosphere that permeated the guild.
Sword Demon was very calm and composed, clearly explaining their plan going forward in a very succinct manner, even expressing his absolute confidence that they would be able to defeat the enemy. In the end, there were still people who disagreed and continued to chatter in the guild channel. Sword Demon immediately showed his stern side and said ”Since you are still not convinced, then there's no need for you to stay on in this guild any longer” and swiftly began kicking the players from the guild accordingly.
Gu Fei had followed Sword Demon by example, and the words he spoke in Amethyst Rebirth's guild channel was just the same as Sword Demon's, and he ultimately began kicking players as well. With that sentence uttered, there was a portion of players who very automatically quit the guild, then there were those that quickly expressed that it was not a lack of confidence, but that they felt certain things should be done. However, the ideas they offered was truly too childish and ridiculous. It was evident that these people had no idea what they were talking about, yet they still wanted to pretend to play the part. These sort of players were completely unwelcomed, and before Sword Demon and Gu Fei could even say a word, the other players had all requested to kick these people, so the two guild leaders had very democratically sided with what the majority had suggested, immediately kicking these troublemakers and quelled the uprising.
All the guild members very quickly reorganized themselves. Sword Demon felt that they should temporarily avoid confrontations for the time being; at least until their Priest reinforcement arrived. Brother Assist continued to maintain contact with the mercenary Priests while he sought to get in touch with a workshop. Brother Assist had employed a total of 35 Priests, and by the time he had managed to contract them all, 14 of them had already been killed outside the city gates. The remaining Priests had already stepped into the battlefield as well, and after they received the message from Brother Assist, it was like they were caught in between a rock and a hard place, uncertain just what they should do. The situation was grave, and quite a number of Priests had already retreated. 9 of them successively told Brother Assist that they did not wish to go ahead with this job, turning their backs on him as they left to return back to their level grinding. Brother Assist was left disheveled and tormented by this, clueless as to where he would find a replacement for these men, though he did manage to successfully make contact with a workshop.
Men from the workshop would naturally not reject a friendship request. After adding one another, the other party took the initiative to ask ”How can I serve you?”, sounding exceptionally professional throughout the whole process. Brother Assist mentioned his request for teleportation scrolls, and the other party did not even bother to question what they would be used for, merely asking how many he required before quoting the price for this transaction.
Brother Assist had asked for 20, which would guarantee that they be able to send 80 people through. After teleporting the Priests, they could still have surplus spots, and there was no telling where they might come in handy. However, that was when the workshop demonstrated just how ravenous their appetite was, pricing each scroll at 1000 gold coins. Even after the recent changes and updates to how currency worked in the game, teleportation scrolls were no longer that expensive. Though the drop rate for teleportation scrolls that originate from grinding maps above level 40 was hardly very high, the monster itself was considered rather accessible for current players, which meant the production rate itself would increase a lot as compared to before, leading to a drop in price. This 1000 price tag was essentially the price for a teleportation scroll based on the old asking price of the teleportation scroll, back when the item was considered a rare commodity.
”That's too underhanded!” Brother Assist was shocked.
The other party representing the workshop unhurriedly responded, ”I'm sorry, there has been a hike to the price of items because of the recent currency update. Actually, going by the rules of our organization, we should temporarily cease all transactions during this time period, but because you wish to buy 20 scrolls in one go, this makes it a rare occasion that I believe must be for urgent use. As a result, we've specially requested for the chance to sell our goods, and this was a price that our organization had all agreed on currently, so my hands are tied on this as well.”
Brother Assist gritted his teeth. Sure enough, business would be difficult after the currency update that the game company had recently rolled out. However, Brother Assist refused to believe all the other nonsense that this workshop employee spouted about everything else. He felt the real meaning of his whole explanation essentially boiled down to ”It's rare to want 20 pieces of teleportation scrolls in one go, so it must be for some urgent use”. The other party had bitten down on this particular point and so the proverbial lion that they were widened their jaws and chomped down hard on this lucrative transaction. After all, anyone who worked for a workshop would hardly ever be someone of decent character.
”They are asking for 1000 gold coins per teleportations scroll,” This time, Brother Assist did not dare to make the decision by himself, so he decided to discuss the matter with the others first.
”What does that have to do with anything? Buy them quickly,” Gu Fei answered.
”But it's 1000 gold coins a scroll!” Brother Assist could feel his heart ache.
”Don't be so broken hearted over money; I still have 30,000 gold coins from Young Master Han, we can use it to buy 30 scrolls!” Xi Xiaotian spoke up.
Everyone instantly perked up. Spending Young Master Han's own gold coins to buy these teleportation scrolls? All of them felt great just thinking about it. A piece for 1000 gold coins hardly seemed expensive at all.
”Buy 30 pieces!” Gu Fei said to Brother Assist.
”Okay,” Brother Assist did not hesitate either, turning around to tell the man that he did not want 20 pieces, but 30. Brother Assist suddenly felt that he derived great pleasure doing this; despite the item having an exorbitant price tag, not only did he not want it, he had even wanted more of these scrolls. This must have truly been a shocking turn of events, right?
In the end, the other party did not express any particularly different expression, merely replying with a simple ”OK” before asking where they could make the trade.
”We've still gotta make a trip out of the city,” Brother Assist said to everyone. ”We currently have a shortage of Priests, and I've yet to replace the previous 9 Priest I mentioned before that backed out from the plan.”
”It won't be easy getting out of the city now,” Sword Demon warned.
”We'll get someone to dress up as a city guard and be extra careful,” July reminded.
”There's no need. I'll go!” Gu Fei said.
”Oh?”
”I'll just slay my way out,” When it came to combat, Gu Fei was nothing but calm.