Chapter 281 Final Outcome (Part 1)
The bizarre phenomenon was spotted by Sangharama Shrine and Heavenly Body as well.
A grave expression appeared on the face of Sangharama’s Grace, “What is that?”
Thousand Mile Dream was dumbfounded by the sight as well, along with the players on the plains.
Not a single one of them could describe what they saw with words.
A huge wave of whiteness was surging towards the Mor Jiami Plains, as if a living beast seeking to consume all live in its path. It was perhaps not an uncommon sight out at sea, but such an event was happening in the Mor Jiami Plains.
The sky was blue, the plains green, but the gigantic wave that came crashing down was nothing but white. Each of these colors were elegant but pleasing to the eyes, but at that very moment, they were forming a scene that induced terror in the hearts of those who laid their eyes upon them.
Lethal Poison bit down hard on his lips as he stared at the large “wave”. He was gripping onto his staff so hard that his knuckles had turned white. “Move all our siege engines to a safe place. And be quick about it!”
“Oh?” Nangong Yunfei immediately relayed the orders, “You know what that is?”
“I don’t.” Lethal Poison shook his head, “but I can tell that if we don’t pull back some of our assets now, we will be in big trouble.”
“What about our men?” Nangong Yunfei scanned the formation of players from his guild. They saw what was coming, but they were able to remain calm.
Lethal Poison took in a deep breath, “They won’t be able to make it. Let’s just pull them back and hope for the best.”
The order was immediately relayed by Nangong Yunfei, and the entire Heavenly Body guild was able to retreat from their attacking positions into the forest beside the abandoned fort. Their actions were mirrored by the members of Sangharama Shrine and Rain of Blood.
The discipline of the guild members of large guilds enabled them to complete their evacuation within 30 seconds, but it was still not enough.
“They’ve begun to retreat.” observed Spotless Autumn who was following behind Ye Ci. Despite the large expenditure of his Haste Potion, he was still not able to catch up with the speed of a Huntress.
He was simply too slow.
“Of course they will. They don’t want to die.” replied Ye Ci.
“I mean, isn’t it a little too late for them? Besides…” Spotless Autumn narrowed his eyes, a smile forming on his face, “The fort is filled with monsters. They are placing themselves into more trouble.”
He’s right. Thought Ye Ci. Time is not their only problem. If they pull back just like that, the monsters surging out from the fort will be a thorn in their sides. A sudden thought flashed across her mind, “Hey, how many Honor Points do you have?”
“You’re thinking of grinding some Honor Points?” Spotless Autumn’s eyes were shining like the stars in a dark night.
“Should I compliment you for your intelligence, or should I look down on you because you’re a rascal?” Ye Ci smiled at the man.
“Doesn’t matter to me. You’re thinking about the same thing, and it is speaking volumes about your character,” Spotless Autumn chuckled, “We did not cause the avalanche. We will never gain the honor points if they die.”
The avalanche was a result of the relentless bombardment by the three major guilds, while the duo were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ye Ci was silent. They were players, and players were forced to follow the rules of the game. Noone was above the game’s system, and it was a fact that she could not change.
But while players were governed by the rules of the game, it did not mean that they could not use the rules to their advantage.
And one of them was fully prepared to do just that.
Spotless Autumn pulled out two bottles from his inventory and tossed one to Ye Ci, “I have an idea, if you’re willing to follow it through.”
The black liquid in the tiny bottle emitted a faint glow.
Nameless Potion: Attracts all the aggro on the map 1 second after consumption while granting Invulnerability for 60 seconds. Penalty: Reduces user level by 1, reduces user’s gold by 10%, randomly drops 1 item (Item dropped will not be able to be picked up by its owner)
“You made this?”
“Do you seriously think that I am capable of making something like this? No. It was dropped by a Hidden BOSS some time ago and I’ve never found the chance to use it.”
Ye Ci stared silently at the potion.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to do it. Just help me pick up the item that I drop.” Spotless Autumn offered a smile.
Ye Ci responded with a smile of her own as she produced two bottles of Large Invisibility Potion from her backpack and tossed one of them to Spotless Autumn, “Remember to stay close. Make sure that you’re near me when we have our level dropped. We can help each other out with the equipment drop.”
Spotless Autumn snatched the bottle out of the air with a well-practiced grace, “Where did you find the formula for this?”
Ye Ci cast a sideway glance at Spotless Autumn, and saw the envy written all over his face. She could tell that he was a potion maker himself. Even if he was a top-tier player, a solo player like him would find it hard to survive if he was not equipped with a useful second skill. Spotless Autumn, who was already in poverty, would be in deeper trouble if he did not have a potion brewing skill.
“Do you think I have the time for that?” she smiled, “It was found by one of our guild’s team that specialises in looking for potion.” Of course, it was I who told them where to find it.
Spotless Autumn’s eyes lit up like two tiny light bulbs. Despite his best efforts to suppress his emotions, his true feelings were betrayed by the hint of excitement in his voice, “You even have a specialised squad like that in your guild?”
It was only natural for a guild to have Life Players in their employment, but high leveled Life Players were very rare in the game. And despite the importance of Life Players, the combat players that were tasked with pioneering the new contents of the game, and setting records for the guild would receive more priority. This meant that most of the guild funds would be poured into arming these players, while Life Players would only receive significantly less resources. A team specialising in searching for recipes and blueprints was an even rarer existence.
The growth of a Life Player is a money consuming ordeal. They had to rely on large amounts of money to level up, and if they do not have the money to do so...
This was a topic that had been discussed time and time again by Bai Mo and Timely Rain, who held differing stances regarding the treatment of their players. But with the increasing number of Life Players brought into the guild by Ye Ci, Timely Rain’s opinion of giving priority to the combat players were swayed. This was why Upwards Ho! remained a relatively small guild.
The rewards they received from dungeon clearing was enough to expand the guild by at least 6 times its current size, but because of the decision of the higher ups to funnel large amounts of resources to the Life Players instead, Upwards Ho! remained a small guild.
Spotless Autumn was enticed by Ye Ci’s words. He knew that he was just one person despite his skills. His strength was limited, and was no match for a squad specialised in hunting down recipes. He was deeply envious of the Life Players of Upwards Ho!. Luck bastards! They can stay in their guild encampment all day long and not have to worry about anything else. Even the recipes that they need are taken care of by a specialised squad.
Ye Ci pretended to not notice the envious stares from Spotless Autumn. She glanced at the man, but remained silent. The intention to recruit Spotless Autumn was there, but she knew that the time was not right. They were still fleeing from an impending doom,and they were still not very close friends. Besides, she was certain that her grasp on Spotless Autumn was firm especially with their contract in place.
The duo was getting closer to the mass of players before them.
Despite their swift actions, it was impossible for the guilds to fully retreat to safety. What awaited them was the full destructive power of the avalanche.
“Who are the two red players over there?” Lethal Poison spotted the two glows of red running ahead of the white wave. It was as if they were leading the raging force of nature right into the formation of players.
“If I’m not mistaken...” Nangong Yunfei pursed his lips.
Lethal Poison silenced Nangong Yunfei with a wave of his hand, “The Lord sure works in mysterious ways. I was just thinking about the missed opportunity to fight those two, and here they are.”
“Guild leader...” Nangong Yunfei was at a loss of words when he noticed the expression on the face of his guild leader.
Lethal Poison was cursing the two red players in his heart, but he knew that cursing at them would not solve the problem at hand. The only thing he could do was to attempt to reduce the losses suffered by his guild, “Have our Warriors form up and lock shields. We’re on the east side, we should be able to avoid the full force of that avalanche.”
The leaders of the two other guilds gave out the same order as well, and the Warriors of the three guilds formed up into four layers of shield walls that were glinting under the sun.
“Wow, they are fast.'' Despite the slight disdain in her voice, Ye Ci was impressed by the guilds’s reaction speed. As expected of the top guilds of the Northern Continent. They’re on a level that Upwards Ho! in its current state can never hope to match.
Unlike Ye Ci, Spotless Autumn’s concern lay somewhere else, “Say, do you think the guilds over there can recognise us?”
“Of course they will.” Ye Ci nodded. The leaders of these top guilds are not idiots. Of course they will figure it out.
“Then.. Do you think that they will hate us for it?”
“Well, I will definitely hate us for it if I’m one of them. In fact, I will even hunt us down no matter
the cost.” Ye Ci knew the meaning behind the question.
“So… Where should we retreat to?” Spotless Autumn shrugged. He was calm. It was as if he did not mind even if there was a bounty on him in the Northern Continent.
“Are the Guardians dead?” asked Ye Ci after a brief moment of thought.
Spotless Autumn immediately became silent. Fine! He completely forgot about that.
As a mage with low mobility, Spotless Autumn was able to increase his movement speed and jump height with his consumption of a large number of Haste Potion. With Ye Ci’s coaching prior to their attempt, he was able to leapt cleanly across the walls of shields and keep up with Ye Ci.
Wading into a sea of enemies would usually be an act of suicide for two lone players, but the circumstances were different on this day. With the avalanche fast approaching, the duo was able to make it past the large group of players unopposed and disappeared out of sight.
And the duo immediately gulped down their Nameless Potion after they were past the shield walls.