372 When the Tree Falls, the Monkeys Scatter (1/2)
However, the spies that the Star Alliance had planted in Thread were not happy for long.
Qing Sikou announced the news in the guild channel.
”Facing the current situation, I've decided to allow members to leave. You can either be solo players or join other guilds; I won’t interfere with any decision you make.”
The moment her words landed, the guild channel exploded.
The 110 thousand members were split into two groups.
One group chose to leave upon hearing her words. Since their leader had given up, what was the point of them staying?
Why not just leave on good terms?
As work occupation players, the members were not afraid of failing to find a new home.
Of course, some of them had gotten sick of the backstabbing that occured in guilds. Hence, they decided to become solo players. They would run a shop in the imperial city to earn money and raise their skills.
The other group were the loyal members who tried to stop Qing Sikou.
”Guild leader, don’t. We don’t want to leave Thread.”
”That's right. It's our home; we won’t leave!”
”Leader, we built this up with so much hard work, don’t disband!”
”Leader, say something!”
”If Thread disbands, what can we do?”
Some of the members were thrown into disarray; they seemed like baby wolves that lost their mother.
Qing Sikou was currently feeling very conflicted.
On one side, she could hear notifications of members leaving, while on the other, she could hear members begging.
The members that stayed let her know that there were still loyal people in the guild. They were connected and belonged to the guild.
Even so, she had to continue this cruel test.
Qing Sikou shouted out once again, ”Thread will not disband, but we won’t merge with any other guild. If despite that, you want to stay, I won’t say anything.”
Even some of the loyal members started to waver the moment she said that.
After these few occurrences, Thread had fallen down the guild rankings and had an unknown future.
As a result, the ambitious members chose to leave.
More and more members chose to leave.
At first, it was just the outer group members. Now, even the elite and core members chose to leave.
When Qing Sikou saw this scene, a tinge of sadness appeared in her eyes. Especially after she saw core members leave, it left a huge impact on her. These people were the ones that had fought by her side for so long over many games.
She did not expect them to choose to leave at this crucial moment.
The real life interests that Earth Online affected were simply too big. The motives of playing were not so pure anymore, and these interests greatly tested the loyalty of the players.
If the tree falls, the monkeys will leave.
Suddenly, she also felt a sense of relief. She hoped that after this, Thread would revive itself in Yazhou.
In an entire afternoon, a total of forty thousand members had left. Those who had not left yet were mainly still exchanging guild contribution points for items.
Before they left, the members would basically spend up all the contribution points they had accumulated.
All of a sudden, the resources in the storage of Thread that had piled up like mountains started to disappear at a fast rate.
As the guild leader, she could prevent them from exchanging, but she did not. After all, they had earned the points with their hard work, and they also had the right to leave.
This series of events had totally fallen outside of the expectations of the spies. Their excitement turned into shock. They could only laugh bitterly and report the new intel.
After they heard that a large amount of the Thread members had left, the guilds in Jingdu bustled with excitement.
When both Jianqi Zongheng and Star Alliance acted, the other guilds who knew that this would happen backed off.
Since Thread refused to merge with other guilds, the members that left would not belong to anywhere and could be recruited.
The various guilds started to recruit members who had left Thread on a large-scale.
At the start, they went to receive the new members one by one.
As things progressed, they decided they would rather just set up a recruitment station outside Thread, as there were just too many of them.
The Thread members that chose to leave packed their stuff. Then, the moment they left the base, various guild members pestered them.
This scene was highly explosive.
Some guilds even fought right on the streets to snatch members.
In the imperial city, fighting was prohibited. If not, the moment they were caught, they needed to go to jail. They were not Blood Blade, who could escape easily as a single person.
Hence, they could only quarrel or have some simple fist fights. Even if the constables rushed here, as long as it was not a riot, they could explain the situation.
Not only the Thread headquarters, the other ten branch guild bases also had similar scenes. Around the headquarters were the large-guilds, while around the branches were the middle-sized guilds.
As for the small-sized guilds, Thread members definitely would not consider going to them.
Jianqi Zongheng was present too.
Since Star Alliance could not take down Thread, naturally, Jianqi Zongheng would not care. They ordered their managers and recruiters to take in large amounts of Thread members.
Such a scene even alarmed other imperial cities.
Blood Evil Mercenary Group, Streamer, and Eighteen Horsemen of Yanyun even came over to poach people.
This scene was like a buffet.
And Thread was the only dish.