784 Chapter 784 - Goal (2/2)

\”No matter how you put it, he did end up losing a whole level, so that's still quite a frightening experience,\” Young Master Han sighed as well.

\”Guess we gotta keep inquiring,\” Gu Fei said.

\”Yeah.\”

\”Then let's hurry up and be on our way!\”

\”Wait a moment, I want to buy a ring. How much does it cost?\” There was plenty of equipment suitable for Priests that were being sold from the stalls set up outside the Priest Academy. In the time Gu Fei took to slay that man, Young Master Han had spotted a ring that he was interested in obtaining and was in the midst of conducting the transaction.

Gu Fei had no choice but to wait for him to be done, just as July and Sakurazuka Moony sent a message to him respectively, \”Are you guys okay?\”

\”Perfectly fine,\” Gu Fei replied.

\”That's good to hear.\”

\”What happened to all of you? Just what exactly was the plan you've got?\” July and Sakurazuka Moony were two people from two different worlds, yet the questions that they posed were completely the same right now. That was because they had both received the same message from Gu Fei before, \”Lead your guild away. We've got a way to get out of this.\”

July and Sakurazuka Moony were both players who were capable of seeing the bigger picture during crucial moments, and the moment they got Gu Fei's message, it was about the same time the other party was shouting out about letting them off, so they had brought their guilds away without any problems.

\”They've all been sent to Jail through my Bounty MIssions. Right now, it's just me and the Priests who did not manage to earn any PK points out here,\” Gu Fei told the two.

\”So what are you planning to do next?\” The question that both of them asked was still the same.

\”There's no way I can let these people off, of course. Naturally, I'm afraid they would not dare to relax on me either, but it's just that I still have no idea who I am going up against. What I mean to say, is that I'm going to need your help to dig up this information!\” Gu Fei explained.

\”That shouldn't be too tough. With so many players involved, there must surely be rumors flying about,\” July nodded and immediately mobilized her ladies to probe about this matter, and all of them were of course more than willing to oblige. It was only Svelte Dancer who was rubbing her fists together, insisting on joining Gu Fei to kill them all with him.

\”There's no need for that. Wait till the ladies find out who the target is, you'll be free to hunt them down as you see fit,\” Gu Fei was also being ruthless in this instance.

\”This madam here will throw her money out to buy the information!\” Svelte Dancer was also infuriated as well.

Meanwhile, over by Forever In Flowers' end, it was the Vast Lushness and her colorful combat experience that gave Gu Fei advice, \”It's very apparent with how different the second encirclement was from the first; there was a clear formation and plan, and adding to the fact that there were even players camping out the various spawn points, it was totally a single, carefully thought out operation. This was definitely no plan cobbled up together at the last minute, and I doubt that they would have had enough time to pull everything off even if they immediately started to implement their scheme right after the City Wars event ended. The way I see it, this group might have come together during the City War, and furthermore, there needs to be someone who could convince and lead the masses in order to gather and organize players to such a degree. Given the situation here in Yunduan City, only the five large guilds would be able to rally such numbers, or perhaps just one or two among them.\”

\”That makes a lot of sense,\” Gu Fei agreed with her assessment, relaying what Vast Lushness had analyzed for Young Master Han to hear. However, Young Master Han was shaking his head repeatedly, \”I don't think this was an operation that could be organized just by relying on guilds alone.\”

\”Why not?\”

\”The conclusion that I came to before already highlighted the fact that the other party's goal here is to force our guild to disband, so what they are targeting might very well be the six city Precincts that were awarded to our guild. However, there are only six precincts, so there would at most be six guilds that could obtain a Precinct for themselves no matter how the system reassigns the places after we got annihilated. The first wave of players that attempted to surround us could be viewed as the faux cannon fodder, and without a doubt, adding the second wave and the players that were camping out the spawn points, I reckon that would be no less than 20,000 players in all. How many guilds would that be? Even if they were all level 6 guilds, that would require 20 guilds in total! But there are only six city Precincts for them to vie for; there's simply no way for so many guilds to distribute the resultant benefit to every guild that participated,\” Young Master Han said.

\”So if we were to follow your line of reasoning, would that not mean it was essentially impossible to rally such a group to such sizes?\” Gu Fei wondered.

\”Workshop. Only a workshop could achieve something like this. Furthermore, even if we were vanquished, is there a guarantee that our guild's city Precinct reward would be redistributed? The system had not announced such a stipulation yet. However, there must definitely be such a rule pertaining to this which isn't public knowledge yet. Nevertheless, these are workshops that we are talking about, so it is possible that they have their channels to obtain inside information about this, which is why they were so eager to strike on a weaker guild that also possessed plenty of Precincts like us.\” Young Master Han surmised.

\”Wait a minute. You're the one who had deduced their goal is our city Precincts all this while, right?\” Gu Fei said. \”What about the possibility that they simply just want to take us down as revenge for winning the City Wars event in Yunduan City?\”

Young Master Han nodded, \”Indeed, there are only three possible reasons they might want to take us down. The first would be for the city Precincts as I've mentioned. The second would be for the reason you said; that they are discontented with the outcome of the event, so they had decided to rally under one goal and use us to vent their frustrations. As for the third reason, they could have seen our guild's development potential and decided to strike while we are still in our infancy. The first is for their own benefit, the third would be due to the competition we represent within the game. As for the second reason… Even an idiot, or to be exact, only an idiot, would think of it.\”

\”Hey, it seems like killing you and losing a level just once isn't enough, huh?\” Gu Fei was seething.

\”Let me put it even more plainly for you. The first reason would be based entirely for the sake of profits, the third would be an attempt to fight for power and authority. As for the second, it would be purely for momentary satisfaction. Please don't you dare tell me that you firmly believe that the other party had planned this one assault to such a degree all as a result of their emotions, so as to feel satisfied. There couldn't possibly be so many immature players out there, right? Not to mention there should be even fewer guild leaders who would be that immature, Oathless Sword, Brave Surge, Foe-herder, Black Index Finger and Gu Xiaoshang! Just within these 5 guild leaders who are in charge of the 5 large guilds here in Yunduan City, which do you think would be the sort that would be so impulsive like that?\” Young Master Han asked.

\”Gu Xiaoshang,\” Gu Fei answered immediately.

\”Hmm…\” Young Master Han was actually speechless for a moment, before swiftly adding, \”Yes, she might do that, but if she was the one who did this, she would have led her men and clashed with us head-on. She would not resort to all this sneaking about and covering up her tracks.\”

\”You're right.\”

\”That's why I say the second proposition does not hold any water, since not a single guild out of the 5 large guilds active in Yunduan City would create such an emotional dispute like this. If it was none of them, then there is no other organization out there that could gather at such a large scale,\” Young Master Han concluded once more.

\”But you've previously said that workshops could do this.\”

\”That is why we're going back to that first reason I raised. Or perhaps you think that there might be a workshop out there that would be interested in having this sort of emotional clash with us?\” Young Master Han continued to maintain his stance, speaking to Gu Fei with contempt.

\”Fine, the second reason won't make any sense, so let's drop it. But with your first and third hypotheses, there's no need to consider them separately. Perhaps they each had their own plans and came together as a whole, drawing what they aimed to achieve by sharing a common goal in our guild's destruction,\” Gu Fei said.

\”Indeed, that is the most likely possibility. For a workshop to even consider planning something like this, they would ultimately have to borrow the strength of the five large guilds, unless one of the five large guilds was already directly under their control.\”

\”Then let us not waste any more time and quickly inquire after their identities! We've been followed this entire time, so there's no telling when we would find ourselves surrounded once more,\” Gu Fei said.

\”Just kill them all!\” Young Master Han's answer right now was easier said than done.

\”They've sent Archers who are currently dozens of meters away from us. How would I even cut them all down?\”? Gu Fei asked.

\”How did you discover them? Isn't that distance outside the range of that nonsense killing intent you keep harping on about?\”

\”Do you think I'm a blind man that can only rely on that one sense? I have eyes too. Have you not heard of the term 'panoptic vision'?\”

Young Master Han ignored the last comment as he suddenly waved his hand and called out to someone in front, \”Hello guild leader Gu.\”

Sure enough, at the street exit up ahead stood Gu Xiaoshang. She turned her head when she heard her name being called, smiling when she spotted the two men. She greeted them before asking, \”What are you looking for me for?\”

\”Looks like guild leader Gu isn't aware of what we've encountered tonight,\” Young Master Han said.

\”What have you guys encountered?\” Gu Xiaoshang really looked like she was clueless about what transpired.

\”We've been ambushed. The enemy this time was very insidious; they first sent a horde of noobs to surround us, so we had to break through their lines and end up with large amounts of PK points. But it was only then when their real plan was revealed: they wanted to use this scenario to threaten the players, and by doing so, cause our guild to disband. Adding the disorganized mob that first tried to entrap us in an encirclement, it was around 30,000 to 40,000 players that were involved in all this,\” Young Master Han gave a quick summary of the events.

\”What? Did such a thing really happen? I have not even heard a pip about this. But looking at the two of you now, everything is fine now?\”

\”Well, that's a long story, so I'll elaborate on it later. We are looking for you so as to trouble you to help us inquire after the identity of these people who made an attempt to attack our guild. They had kept their faces covered and removed their guild emblems during the entire affair, so we still have no idea where these people came from,\” Young Master Han explained.

\”Oh, something like an operation on such a scale with tens of thousands of players involved… I'm sure there are quite a few players who would have noticed them, right? I'll go help you guys ask around,\” Gu Xiaoshang promised.

\”Thanks a lot,\” Young Master Han said.

\”Okay, I'll contact you via messages. Actually, there's no need for you to meet with me face to face just to tell me this!\” Gu Xiaoshang mused.

\”Then let's keep it to our messages,\” Young Master Han waved his hand as he sent Gu Xiaoshang off.

\”We're gonna learn about the other party this way?\” Gu Fei was expressionless.

\”I'm utilizing every possible resource that we can tap,\” Young Master Han said.

\”Then why don't we meet up with the four other guys and do the same?\” Gu Fei said.

\”That's exactly my plan,\” Young Master Han nodded.

\”Who's the next person you've contacted?\”

\”Brave Surge,\” Young Master Han replied.

\”That guy is really crafty. I wouldn't be surprised if he is involved in this,\” Gu Fei commented.

\”You're wrong. It is precisely because of how crafty he is, which is why he would most definitely not be participating in this matter directly. However, he would most definitely be keen to jump in now that everything has progressed to such a stage, since he would then be in the prime position to fish in troubled waters. He most certainly did not participate in the operation tonight, but there's no way that he would not be aware of what had happened.\”

\”In that case, we should have looked for him first. Why did you bother contacting Gu Xiaoshang?\”

\”Because she's nearer.\”

\”What?\”

\”I checked all of their coordinates and Gu Xiaoshang was the nearest to us when we set off, which was why we met up with her first. Is there a problem?\”

Gu Fei had no words.