......
*Ding*
Exactly two hours after Shin left the Holy City, all the members of the Supreme Temple and Martial Alliance that were chasing after him got a notification from the system, informing them of his exact location.
They halted their tracks momentarily, looking at the notification, before quickly heading toward the said coordinate. They all went straight to the location indicated on their virtual maps.
The members of the Demonic Churches and Corrupted Cult, who were dispatched for this mission, also received the same notification from the system. They had been waiting for it for quite a while already, so they were able to respond almost instantly right after receiving the notification.
They went straight to the Shunkai Forest, not bothering to hide their movements. The other two factions were already on their move, so the other organizations residing within the kingdom would not have the time to deal with them.
They became bolder in their actions and did not bother to hide their intentions.
At the same time, the powerful guilds and other organizations that were based on the Saint Heaven Kingdom quickly responded to the movements of the four factions. They followed the movements of those people while deducing their destination.
When they learned that their target was the Shunkai Forest, these superpowers of the kingdom, immediately made their arrangements while moving their forces toward the said location.
As the members of the four factions swarmed toward the Shunkai Forest, the powerful guilds and other organizations of the Saint Heaven Kingdom decided to surround the map, sealing off every entrance or exit that could be used as an escape route later.
They wanted to be the biggest fishermen in this battle. They wanted to be the ones who would be harvesting all the grains after the others struggled to fight against each other.
...
Right after these groups made their respective preparations, Shiella, who was busy with the relocation of Calderock Town before transforming it into a port city, suddenly received a report from her people.
*Ding*
Jhin: Club President! The Martial Alliance seems to be actively urging its members to participate in the faction mission. It seems like the young master has gotten his hands on an important item.
Jhin: As for the members that you tell me to keep my eyes on. Most of them are offline, aside from Martial God Ashura, who we can't find.
Jhin: But they are still in the middle of an Empire Quest, so I don't think that they will get involved in this event until the final hours of the said mission.
Shiella skimmed through the report before simply sending it.
Snow White: Continue monitoring everything. Report directly to me once an important development happens.
She then closed the virtual screen before looking around the office. After that, she glanced at the time and sighed. It was still quite early, but she felt quite tired mentality. She wanted to rest a little before continuing with her work.
The reconstruction of Calderock Town was already underway, and Ribbit was already overlooking everything while Delusive Smile, her executive assistant within the game, was dealing with everything concerning the Golden City and Golden Mountain.
Looking at the timer of the melting ice wall between the Sky Deceiving Valley and Frozen Kingdom, she felt that she still had enough time to rest.
But instead of logging out, she went on the sofa and lay there for a nap. "Things will get busier when we open the borders. Let's try recharging my energy before it happens."
...
Shunkai Forest.
Shin was sitting on a boulder in a cross-legged fashion, seemingly in the middle of meditation. He was on top of a mountain where he could see every corner of the entire forest.
He could see different parts of this region from this particular mountain and all he needed was to spin around and look at the horizon.
He was in meditation as he wanted to conserve as much energy as possible during this battle. The first wave of enemies would be the most impatient ones. Some of them might be strong, but he knew that they were nothing but a bunch of cannon fodders used by the crafty and sly ones to test the waters.
With this thought, Shin knew that this was a good opportunity to let his Elemental Spirit Companions on the loose.
Everyone would be his enemies anyway, so there was no need to restrain these Reapers of his. They could do whatever they wanted when dealing with these waves of players.
It was the same familiar scent that they always encountered whenever they bumped into something unexpected or when their lives were at risk.
The scent of death.
This scent overwhelmed the whole place, paralyzing all of them.
When they raised their heads and looked ahead of them, they saw a humanoid figure standing silently in the distance.
It was someone wearing a set of butler's clothes in a dark green color. This person had a magician's hat with a color that complements the clothes that he was wearing.
This person walked slowly toward the group while fixing his white gloves. At the same time, he was also laughing manically, making the group feel a shiver run down their spine.
Then the group saw that the shadow in the surroundings started to move. They slowly crawled on the ground before converging on the shadow of that mysterious person.
Moments later, the group witnessed something that they would not forget for the rest of their lives. It might even hunt them in their sleep.
"Ah!"
"Wah!"
Cries full of terror shook the forest in the very next moment. It lasted for quite a while before the forest returned to its previous silence.
Grimrace, who was standing in the middle of corpses dissipating into specks of lights, frowned deeply. There was a clear sign of disappointment and disassociation on his face as he tapped his clothes.
"These guys are too weak. Their minds are too fragile. They are not worthy of my experiments. I hope the next batch will be worth my time."
Similar events were occurring in different parts of the Shunkai Forest.
There was a place where huge fireballs suddenly fell from the sky and started bombarding the people, who were passing through that place. These fireballs were like meteors that caused devastation in the forest.
The explosion burned everything and did not leave any survivors alive. Not even a drop item or equipment was left behind as they were either scorched beyond repair or melted by the immense heat.
On another part of the map, players died without them knowing. They did not realize that they were dead until their vision turned completely dark, signifying their death.
People, who managed to see what happened to the others before a similar thing happened to them, could not believe what they just witnessed. They saw flashes of light that passed through everyone before their bodies got sliced into multiple pieces.
The last thing that they saw was a world shrouded with a purple light before they died.
On the other hand, some players decided to climb the mountains in front of them, trying to get a clearer look at what was happening. They wanted to get a vantage point where they could see the entire forest before making their next moves.
But they did not expect that these two mountains were a place that they shouldn't visit. There was a pair of tigers lying in wait in those mountains, planning to slaughter them.
It did not that long for these players to realize this mistake, but it was already too late as they got hunted down by those tigers without fighting back. They got eliminated one after another before silence enveloped the mountains once again.
Meanwhile, on the final place that Shin had instructed to be covered, the players, who stumbled upon this place were forced to band together and fight as a group.
It was because there was a group of Earth Golems blocking their path with a strength that far surpassed their current levels. They could not help but become confused at what was happening since this place was supposed to be a low-level map based on the information that they had.
They could not believe that there were groups of elemental beings such as Earth Golems residing on this map, making them unable to proceed toward their destination.
What was even more troubling about this was the fact that these golems were so powerful that they should be residing in a neutral region.
It did not take long for these golems to slaughter the first batch of 'visitors' before they turned into huge boulders once again.
The top guilds and organizations residing in the Saint Heaven Kingdom immediately received the reports and they could not believe it when they first got it. But after confirming that they were true, they could not help but accept that it was the reality.
The leaders of the guilds scratched their heads in confusion, not understanding what was happening. – "What the heck is going on?" –
......