Chapter 294 – Faded (1/2)
Chapter 294 – Faded
Nie Yan installed about 10 Lookouts on top of the walls. When the Siege Machine Factory was up and running, the Lookouts could be mounted with Crossbow Turrets. A Tier 1 Lookout could be fitted with more than a dozen of them, and since they could be operated by anyone, it was ideal to man them with low-level players. They were a formidable line of defense.
As the primary stronghold of Asskickers United, United City’s strategic benefit far outweighed anything else. So long as it remained standing, Asskickers United would never fall.
Nie Yan estimated he had spent roughly 6,000 gold on remodeling United City. Luckily, he had just received another payment from the Dragonsoar Financial Group, which was enough to cover these costs.
“We’ll leave the handling of the business district to Yu Rui. I want to open up a Starry Night Potion Shop branch here as well. Also, start leasing out the empty shops,” Nie Yan instructed. For United City to grow, a thriving commerce was necessary. As a guild grew more powerful, so did investor confidence, making it easier to attract prospective businesses to set up shop in their strongholds. Considering Asskickers United’s prestige and rallying power in Calore, it would be a piece of cake to develop the stronghold.
With the real-world business district being handed over to them, the Dragonsoar Financial Group had received their first return on investment from Asskickers United.
“I’ll get right on to it. I’ve already appointed 15 supervisors to oversee the economy of this stronghold. Furthermore, I want you to go over our contingency plan. In case of emergency, who will arrive to defend the stronghold, how many will come, all of that needs to be decided beforehand. We only have 100 Tier 1 Barracks, so if war breaks out, we can only accommodate 5,000 players at most. I estimate with our construction of the walls, and the Lookouts on top of them, we’ll have roughly 30 minutes to get reinforcements into place,” Guo Huai said as he handed over some plans to Nie Yan.
Nie Yan skimmed through them, then asked, “How many of the Mages assigned to defending the stronghold can cast Advanced Magic?”
“We have five in total: Summer Bug, Undying Scoundrel, Sunny South, Beginner Student, and Nimbus,” Guo Huai replied. It was evident they sorely lacked Mages who could cast Advanced Magic.
Nie Yan wondered how Yao Yao was doing with the Karsi’s Blessing quest right now. If she could learn Templar Magic, Asskickers United would gain yet another Mage who could cast Advanced Magic. Summer Bug, Undying Scoundrel, Sunny South, Beginner Student, and Nimbus were the cream of the crop. In future guild wars, highly-skilled experts, especially Mages, would be crucial.
“We’ll need to up that number. I’ve installed some concealed defensive points on top of the walls. We must take advantage of every Advanced Magic at our disposal,” Nie Yan noted. Advanced Magic was highly effective at repelling invaders.
With the contingency plan set in place, Nie Yan chit-chatted some more with Smoke Stub and Bladelight, while Painted Muslin, Young Seven, Yi Yan, and the others walked over.
Tang Yao was hurrying over to the guild headquarters as well.
This was a gathering of the top-ranking members of Asskickers United.
While everyone chatted about the guild’s future, Nie Yan received a notification.
Faded has obtained the third chapter from Volume V of the Book of Order, Chapter of Compassion. You will be notified of the player’s location once every hour.
Coordinates: Glory City, 23535.23532.36582
Laidback has obtained the the sixth chapter from Volume V of the Book of Order, Chapter of Tolerance. You will be notified of the player’s location once every hour.
Coordinates: Glory City, 23535.2532.36582
On top of receiving updated coordinates hourly, as a Grand Scholar, Nie Yan also possessed the ability to predict an opponent’s position once every day.
Nie Yan was surprised by how quickly the chapters were being found. Over the last five days, they had changed hands multiple times, with Faded in possession of two and and Laidback in possession of one.
Most notably, two players were in the same location! Nie Yan’s imagination ran wild. Were they trying to snatch each other’s chapters? Were they working together?
Out of all the chapters of the Book of Order, the first six in the Glimpse of Darkness were the most important. The remaining chapters were slightly inferior, but they were still amazing nonetheless.
Nie Yan turned to Guo Huai and asked, “About that player I asked you to investigate the other day, Faded, what did you dig up on him?”
“He’s the best Fighter in Bloodlust Blades and part of their core elite. Their group of 10 regularly hunts Elites together. I’ve dispatched our Hundred Thieves to ambush them with the coordinates you’ve provided, but they’ve repelled all of our attacks so far, killing many of our members in the process. Not only is he incredibly strong, but he’s also on high alert. We’re being closely monitored, so our forces can’t make any large movements; otherwise, we might fall into a trap,” Guo Huai replied. After all, the Hundred Thieves were a core force of Asskickers United. It would be disastrous if they were wiped.
“Faded…” Nie Yan muttered to himself. He wasn’t too knowledgeable about players outside of Calore in his past life. Save for some extremely famous figures, the rest were completely unfamiliar to him, so the name Faded didn’t ring a bell. Back then, he would sell a large heap of gold and equipment every few days for cash. He was dirt poor. Teleporting to another city cost 1 gold at minimum. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he would never be willing to agree to such a lavish expense, so he rarely travelled to other cities.