Chapter 233 – Snatching Food from the Tiger’s Den (1/2)

Chapter 233 – Snatching Food from the Tiger’s Den

“Now, having finally seen what Asskickers United is capable of,” Sleepy Fox admitted, “I really did underestimate your guild. I’m sure that Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame have realized that too, but it’s too late for anything now.”

Videos of today’s battle would spread far and wide, marking the start of Asskickers United’s path to the top. The rankings of the major guilds would begin to reorder itself as this battle brought Asskickers United to new heights.

Contrary to expectations, however, Nie Yan didn’t appear to be quite that excited. He replied simply, “Asskickers United merely took a tiny step forward. For entities the size of Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame, they can just dismiss these losses with a shrug.” Asskickers United’s victory in this battle would also greatly influence Azure Falling Sky to ally with those two massive guilds, adding one more sizable opponent to his list of enemies. Due to that, there was a certain downside to this victory as well.

“From this day onwards, we’ll be in the same boat. I hope the best for our future,” said Sleepy Fox, his arm extended. The fates of Holy Empire and Asskickers United were now intertwined—any glory would be shared, and similarly, any adversities would be weathered through together.

“Likewise.” Nie Yan reached for Sleepy Fox’s hand and shook on it. Holy Empire had expressed their sincere wish for cooperation by genuinely following through with the mutual defense pact. They alone had held off Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame long enough for Asskickers United to demolish Azure Falling Sky. It now went without saying that Nie Yan had to return the favour—he would help Holy Empire in taking down the stronghold, and by then, both guilds would have truly shared both adversities, and glory.

“Well, I’ve gotta go and take care of some guild matters. Unlike you, I can’t just sit back and relax as guild leader,” said Sleepy Fox, his eyes narrowed slightly.

“Take care.” Nie Yan smiled.

Sleepy Fox finished up with Nie Yan and left to arrange plans to deal with the remnants of the guild battle. The aftermath left him with many red-named guild members, so the first order of business was to clear those. As for the players that had died, they, too, would require some sort of reimbursement. The crowd could only be appeased with absolute fairness in treatment.

「First, let’s get our red-named brothers cleaned up, then we’ll head back and discuss contributions,」 Nie Yan said in the voice chat. There was certainly no shortage of rewards after this battle.

The chat exploded in cheers; they had undoubtedly long awaited that announcement and now, they were calculating how many merit points they would each receive. By the guild’s set of agreements, each kill in a guild battle would net the player 30 to 300 merit points, determined by their class. For instance, Priests received 200 merit points on the spot, and more depending on the part they played in the battle. There was also compensation for those who had died in battle, as it would have resulted in a loss in level and gear. The ones in the top earnings bracket could even receive several thousand merit points!

Nie Yan formed a few groups of guild members without red names, and had them escort their red-named brethren over to hunting zones suitable for clearing red names. The rest returned to the city.

Nie Yan threw all the equipment taken from the players of Azure Falling Sky, Victorious Return, and Radiant Sacred Flame into the guild treasury, then had Guo Huai distribute merit points. Several million points were soon appropriately allocated to the players, who began divvying up the equipment in the treasury based on what they needed. Before long, over 15,000 pieces of equipment were swept clean from the treasury and equipped by the players, significantly boosting the quality of their gear.

Not only had Asskickers United avoided enormous damage in this battle, it had even brought tremendous growth for itself. The practice of increasing battle strength by undergoing battle had been extremely effective this time around.

“Profit!” Tang Yao exclaimed. This time, all members of Asskickers United experienced the sweet taste of victory. Although the battle was long over, the entire guild was still in a state of ecstasy.

“Have them quiet down a bit and stay alert,” Nie Yan said to Guo Huai, knitting his brows. It was very dangerous if the entire guild submerged itself in an overly conceited atmosphere; after all, the battle was far from over.

There were many guild matters that had to be taken care of. Nie Yan handed off as much work as he could to others to deal with, but even if internal guild affairs were completely dealt with, he still had plenty of matters to attend to: bringing some guild members to level in Everlasting City, searching for the Chapter of Virtue, and completing the quest that required the Steal skill.

“Nie Yan, I’ve heard that the bidding for a bunch of places like NPC potion shops and auction houses has already started online. Here, take a look,” Guo Huai said. Unfortunately, he was just a bit over Level 10, so he wasn’t able to help much during the battle and could only worry on the sidelines. When Nie Yan and his army behind returned in full victory, he breathed a huge sigh of relief and went straight to work. The spoils of this battle also resolved the guild treasury’s desperate empty state: save for a few pieces of Level 30 equipment held for raising funds, the treasury was bare of any low-level equipment.

“The auction started a few days earlier than I expected. How much gold do we have?” Nie Yan asked. He hadn’t been paying too much attention to the guild’s treasury, and it did seem to be about that time when the auction began to put up virtual assets for sale. He needed enough gold to have a chance of purchasing the auction house in the heart of Calore!

“We’ve accumulated over 3,000 gold.”