Chapter 3: Everyone has Assembled – translated by Eilinel (1/2)

“Sheesh, Prince hasn’t been replying to my PMs for a few days now,” Lolidragon complained.

“Well, you know that he’s a really careless person. He probably just didn’t notice the messages,” Ugly Wolf replied absently. “How’s the trap-setting coming along?”

“We’ve only covered one-quarter of the perimeter. Honestly, this city is too large,” Lolidragon answered, her brow furrowing.

Ugly Wolf turned toward his wife. “Yu Lian, do we still have sufficient funds?”

Yu Lian’s brow was also deeply furrowed. She replied, “If we build according to Gui’s blueprint, we won’t be able to complete the construction of the city just by depending on the tournament’s prize money. I plan to build half the city first and open that part of the city to the public, and then continue to build the rest of the city with the tax income.”

“Can’t we just ask Gui to amend the blueprint?” Ugly Wolf asked with some anxiety.

“We can do that, but in my opinion, if we want to operate this city for a long period of time, or even make this city the largest city on the Central Continent, then Gui’s blueprint is perfect.” Yu Lian eyes shone as she spoke. She added, “I’m certain that we will not regret it in the future, even if we have to work harder now.”

“You’re probably right. As expected, you are more farsighted than I am,” Ugly Wolf said with an affectionate look at his beloved wife.

“Wolf…” said Yu Lian bashfully, and the two of them gazed at each other with eyes full of love…

“I’ll go and check up on Doll and Gui!” Lolidragon said quickly and walked away, looking rather embarrassed.

Lolidragon left the building, which was still under construction, and strode towards Doll, who was working hard to direct her skeletal minions to build a wall, and Gui, who was supervising the remaining NPCs and player workers.

“How’s the situation? Is everything coming along alright?” Lolidragon asked.

“We’re slightly behind schedule,” Gui replied, not looking altogether pleased. “Sigh… It can’t be helped since we simply don’t have enough funds, so we can’t hire more workers. If not for Doll’s skeletons, the construction would probably go on for months.”

“Sigh… It would be nice if Prince could quickly find us some recruits and hurry back. Every little bit of help counts,” Lolidragon said as she sat down, propping her chin on her hands in worry.

Doll suddenly came dashing over with a delighted expression on her face. “Wicked-gēge is here and all the big brothers and sisters from Dark Emperor have arrived as well.”

As usual, Wicked was at the fore of his team. They walked up to Gui and Lolidragon and stopped.

“You’re finally here,” Gui said, raising his eyebrows and looking as though he wasn’t in the least bit surprised to see Wicked.

“Where’s Prince?” Wicked asked, frowning.

“Not back yet…” Gui replied, troubled.

“He’s still at Nan Gong Zui’s?” Wicked demanded as a vein popped on his temple. “And you didn’t do anything to stop him?”

“Prince isn’t my prisoner; on what grounds am I supposed to stop him?” Gui retorted acidly, and then added, “Besides, we really do need Nan Gong Zui’s help.” Although what Gui had said was the truth, Wicked still continued to glare fiercely at Gui.

As for Doll, she was happily holding both Ming Huang’s – whose face was black as a thundercloud – and Wu Qing’s hands. “Yay! Doll missed all of you big brothers and sisters very much! Did Ming Huang-gēge and Wu Qing-gēge miss me too?”

Feng Wu Qing’s face softened, his disgruntled expression slowly replaced by a smile as he patted Doll’s head and said, “Yes, I missed you very much! It’s just that there was a certain someone whom I really didn’t want to see.” When he mentioned “a certain someone”, Wu Qing fixed a glare at the female thief who was busy feigning innocence.

Ming Huang’s expression of annoyance had started to slip as well, and when Doll turned to peer at him with her large, guileless eyes, he instantly surrendered. “Yes, yes, I did miss you,” he said reluctantly.

“Playboy-gēge, Black Lily-jiějie,” Doll greeted the two smiling individuals and gave them each a peck on the cheek.

Just then, Ugly Wolf and Yu Lian emerged from the temporary headquarters and approached Dark Emperor with evident delight. “You guys are here, that’s great! I was really worried at first that Dark Emperor might not be willing to help us.” Ugly Wolf shook hands with Wicked.

“We would not be so churlish. So long as we lost the showdown in a fair and square way, why should there be any resentment from us?” Feng Wu Qing said as he gently fanned himself, sounding for all the world like a perfect gentleman… Then who was that person who got drunk and said that he wanted to kill everyone from Odd Squad, especially Lolidragon? The remaining members of Dark Emperor looked at Feng Wu Qing helplessly.

“Nevertheless, thank you all very much for your willingness to come and help out. It’ll really help to lighten our workload,” Ugly Wolf said with a broad smile.

Yu Lian mumbled to herself, frowning, “It’s still not enough people. I wonder if Prince will be able to convince Rose Team and Nan Gong Zui to help out.”

“Of course he can!” A voice roared from the city gate, which was still under construction, causing the members of Odd Squad and Dark Emperor to look sharply in that direction. A cloud of dust, accompanied by hoof beats, approached them swiftly and the person in the lead was none other than Nan Gong Zui himself. He rode up to Odd Squad, then abruptly stopped and dismounted. The one hundred and fifty riders at his back dismounted as well. “Prince isn’t back yet?”

“Not yet…” The two teams answered in unison and stared dazedly at the ranks of a hundred and fifty riders and a hundred and fifty horses.

“I see. Then I’ll have to wait until he returns to introduce our liege lord to my fellows. Here, let me introduce you all. This is my adventurers’ group – The Righteous Blades. It consists almost entirely of warriors, plus a handful of priests and mages. As you can see, it’s an adventurers’ group with very high offensive power.” Nan Gong Zui could not conceal a look of pride as he regarded the group which he had founded.

“An adventurers’ group!” Lolidragon exclaimed, moved by the impressive sight of The Righteous Blades. She added, “I knew that the strength of Prince’s dumb luck and popularity is nothing common. To think that he even managed to recruit an entire adventurers’ group!”

The members of Odd Squad and Dark Emperor nodded in agreement unconsciously… Prince is definitely unusually popular.

Nan Gong Zui only gave a small smile when he heard what Lolidragon said. He said, “The sole reason that I came here is because Prince is truly a person worthy of respect. My adventurers’ group and I deeply admire the way he treats his friends and his martial prowess. All of us are very pleased to become a part of Infinite City.”

“‘Infinite City’?” Ugly Wolf asked, feeling slightly bewildered.

“Huh? Hasn’t Prince told you guys yet? I helped him to decide on ‘Infinite City’ as the name for the city. We’ve already registered it,” Nan Gong Zui asked, puzzled.

“Infinite City! I can’t believe that the last people to know the name of the city are us, the ones who own it! Where on earth did Prince run off to?” Lolidragon exclaimed totally losing her cool.

Yu Lian rubbed her temple and said, “Could it be that he didn’t dare to look for Rose Team and was afraid of getting scolded by us, and so he decided to simply go missing instead?”

“I don’t think he would go that far; shouldn’t he already be accustomed to getting scolded by us?” Ugly Wolf said, sounding a tad worried. “Maybe he was rejected by Rose Team and felt so hurt that he decided to hide somewhere?”

“Don’t tell me he lost his way and fell from some cliff again!” Gui said, his face white as a sheet, and even Wicked looked worried upon hearing that.

“What? Did he really fall from a cliff?” Ice Phoenix – who was standing next to Nan Gong Zui – demanded anxiously upon hearing Gui’s words.

“Who are you?” Gui and Wicked turned their heads in unison to look at Phoenix, their eyes narrowing dangerously.

Before Phoenix could answer, a person who looked like a thief suddenly interjected, “It’s not possible for Prince to do something as silly as falling off a cliff.”

“And who might you be?” Gui and Wicked once again turned to shoot a glare each at the speaker.