Chapter 354 The Army (1/2)
At the City of Sea King.
”What's happening today? Why are so many people gathered here?”
”All these people seemed to be players from the City of Light. Last time when I participated in the Central Auction House's auctions, I saw quite a few of them. Many of them are famous characters.”
”Seems like the City of Sea King will see some hustle and bustle today. Aish, come to think of it, our City of Sea King is also an auspicious place, and its combined stats are ranked within one of the top three cities in The New Age. It's such a pity that…”
Many natives of the City of Sea King started talking about the big group of people gathering in the city. This whole group of players was about 1,000+ in size, and they were queued up in an orderly manner according to their jobs. The first was the cavalry, the infantry, followed by the Mages, the Hunters, and the Priests… All looked extremely mighty. One thing in common—they were all supporters of the Sky Provisions Shop! Other than that, a lot of casual adventurers were also trailing behind them.
All these players were being sent to assist Lin Jie by Seven Ears. After all, four hands were better than two—much as though Lin Jie might be strong, one could not expect him to win in a fight against thousands.
Other than a minority of them, who were skilled players that had accepted the extremely advanced and highly-rewarding 'Advanced Recruitment Mission' by Brotherhood, the rest were mainly subordinates from the Sky Provisions Shop.
This was only part of the resources which Seven Ears had gathered for his boss.
Originally, Lin Jie's mission was supposed to be a gigantic war mission. The Holy Church would announce the mission and recruit other players and Lin Jie to fight for them in the Mesosaprobic Shrine. However, due to Lin Jie's personal intents, he had sent the majority of Brotherhood's members to pursue the NPC Space Mage, who was in charge of announcing the mission, and hence it was not made known to the players' community. According to plan, Lin Jie and Savage Blade should have found the Dark Holy Water's Source, and hence cause the sub-shrines to be at war with each other already.
However, Lin Jie did not expect that Eighteen Massacres and Demon Robe would intervene in this situation. After all, no matter how well-versed Lin Jie was of the game's developments or how clever he was, he could never guess another person's thoughts accurately. How would he have known that Eighteen Massacres had actually decided to give it his all and made all his underlings join the Dark Shrine, after his defeat to Lin Jie at the Ancient Wilderness Temple?
According to the information he had on hand, Eighteen Massacres had already made all the Kingdom of Glory members join the Dark Shrine, and most of them were in the Mesosaprobic Shrine. He had it all calculated out: if his underlings managed to steal the Dark Holy Water Source successfully, he would offer it to the Blood Tyrant, earning back the Favorability points he had lost due to the loss of the King of Blood. If his members failed to do so, he would make them continue staying at the Mesosaprobic Shrine. Some of them were bound to make some extraordinary contributions for the Mesosaprobic Shrine eventually, and they could then recommend him over. In either scenario, Eighteen Massacres would enjoy the best of life no matter where he was.
These two calculative people had both ignored the other's presence when they had been making their plans. As such, both caused the situation, by coincidence or by a peculiar twist of fate, which they were facing now.
Eighteen Massacres was coveting after the Dark Holy Water Source, and so was Lin Jie! However, Lin Jie had better stakes than him. With the King of Blood's corpse in his hands, Lin Jie had successfully earned the trust of the Three-Headed Serpent. In fact, he had even activated the Fire Serpent's mission, and as long as he could complete the [Soul Transfer Ritual] mission, he would be able to provoke an internal fight within the Mesosaprobic Shrine.
Meanwhile, Lin Jie would then be able to get the Dark Holy Water Source, and after that, he would reveal the fact that the Mesosaprobic Shrine had taken control of the King of Blood to the Blood Sub-Shrine, and hence make them fight among themselves. The Holy Church could then take the chance to reap the benefits.
Yet this marvelous plan was now all ruined!
At the teleportation circle, Bu Yi, Qiu Yuan, and Baili Changcheng rushed out. All of their health bars were reduced to the lowest. Bu Yi immediately started healing them, while asking, ”Where's he?”
Qiu Yuan gritted her teeth and spoke agitatedly. ”He said he would stop the enemies from following us and decided to remain behind!”
Baili Changcheng's pupils constricted. ”What, he stayed behind? We will suffer a great loss if any of the equipment, materials, and skills Fu Sheng owns is spawned! No, I need to go back and save him!”
At this moment, he raised his head abruptly, and saw about thousands of players gathered neatly in front of them, looking as mighty as ever! Other than that, there were also many solo players present, including Dragon Slayer Knight, Sardine, and others. All these people were equally shocked when they saw Baili Changcheng, as they had no idea what was happening.
Baili Changcheng finally got over the shock and shouted, ”Lone Wolf's trapped inside there!”
”What, Lone Wolf?”
”Leader Lone Wolf?! I f*ck the… You mean he's actually trapped inside? Let's go, we need to rescue him!”
”Save him, are you crazy?! Just think of all the excellent equipment Codename Lone Wolf has. Getting a single piece of them will be enough for me to spend my days frolicking about in the game! I should go in and pick something for myself, hehe!”
There was plenty of discussion going around. However, a group of players like the Dragon Slayer Knight and his friends gripped tightly onto their weapons. They were all ready to rush to the Teleportation circle to save Lone Wolf.
Swoosh—
At that moment, a dark glow was emitted from the teleportation circle. Lin Jie's figure emerged from it gradually, and there were marks of missed arrows and fire on his Kiara Beast King Armor.
If not for the fact that he was situated safely within the Dark Chaotic Hole's effective area, and the rate of Critical Strike chance on him was decreased by 100%, he would have been reduced to crumbs already.
”Fu… Lone Wolf, you're alright?”
”You really scared us!”
Seeing that Lin Jie remained unscathed, the trio finally managed to heave a sigh of relief. Lin Jie shook his hand, indicating for them to not worry.
Thinking back to the dangerous situation he was in just now, Lin Jie couldn't help but feel shivers running down his back. The moment when the Dark Chaotic Hole was activated, he saw a few hundreds damage figures being blocked off. Should he be any slower, all those attacks would have definitely put him in peril!
”All of them are…” Looking up, Lin Jie was surprised to find all the players gathered in front of him.
”Leader Lone Wolf, nice to meet you,” A burly man with a stubby mustache and big, bright eyes held out his hands. There was admiration written all over his eyes as he smiled humbly. ”We were sent by Seven Ears to help you out! I shall make an introduction for you. This is the Enlightened Team, this is the Forget Me Not Team…”
Lin Jie interrupted him and asked, ”Seven Ears sent you here?”
”Yes. But there's a lot of rivaling players of the Sky Provisions Shop here too, those people came here to take enjoyment in your demise. Oh yeah, do you recognize me? My name's Torre. Back then, when you were attacked by those bastards at the Muddy Swamp, I had helped to defend you.” The burly fellow broke into a big smile and revealed two yellowish front teeth.
Lin Jie slapped the back of his head—he finally recalled! Back when Eighteen Massacres had made use of the chance when some of the members in Netherblue's team had betrayed them, Seven Ears had sent a large group of players, who had been indebted to the Sky Provisions Shop, to help them. Lin Jie had been saved by them. This Torre was one of those players, and he had dropped from Level 7 to Level 1 in that fight.
At that time, Torre's skills had been less than mediocre. Yet who would have expected that fellow to be the same person standing in front of Lin Jie now—he donned a half set of Gold equipment and wielded a pair of glimmering double axes, which looked like part of a Gold Armor Set.
As the saying went, ”A scholar who constantly makes improvement deserves a new appraisal of his achievements every now and then.”
”Leader, just tell us what you plan to do! All of us here could only be your cannon fodder in the past—but we can now fight alongside you! We have all benefited from the Sky Provisions Shop, and all of us are not to be trifled with.” Torre started shouting at the top of his voice, ”Brothers, what shall we do when someone shits on top of our Sky Provisions Shop?”