Volume 4 Chapter 9: Regretful Ending
Victory... The city cheered loudly, but I didn't have the energy to attend the celebrations held by the various gang alliances. After instructing the profiteer to represent the Thunder Alliance, I immediately logged off and fell asleep. In this battle, I didn't have many opportunities to personally fight, but in order to command the actions of hundreds of thousands of players in the city and integrate them into a whole, I put in much more effort than the previous guild battle. At this moment, I was really exhausted and didn't want to do anything except sleep. Only through personal experience can you know that those generals and marshals who command thousands of troops are not so easy to be!
At night, I woke up, ate something, and recovered to my full energy, so I logged online excitedly.
As soon as I came online, my expression changed!
My level dropped from 48 to 45!
There is no doubt that we won the monster siege in Pojun City, but this does not represent the victory of the entire continent! There are a total of ten large cities on the Eastern Continent, and our Pojun City only narrowly won. If the attack intensity of other cities is the same as that of Pojun City, then it is normal for a few cities to be captured, but...how come more than half of the cities fell?
Because Pojun City is located in a remote area in the northwest, the level of monsters nearby is relatively high for current players. Therefore, its popularity is not only lower than that of Shenghua City, but also in the middle among the other nine cities. Most cities have more permanent players than Pojun City, so the defense of those cities should be easier. How come...
I immediately convened a meeting of alliance cadres and asked Lemmings for details.
"Boss, during this monster attack, only three cities in our Eastern Continent, including Pojun City, managed to hold on."
"Central Shenghua City, relying on its large numbers, had easily repelled all the monster attacks in the beginning, but the final boss that appeared was an SS-level five-colored dragon, which the current players could not contend with. There was nothing much to say, the entire city was razed to the ground, and millions of players were lost. It was tragic!"
"Ziwei City, because of its location close to Shenghua, has many players, and there is a powerful gang hero association to preside over it, so it was able to successfully defend the city, but the casualties also exceeded one million. Tanlang City is similar to Pojun City. The number of players is not large, but with the presence of the Brotherhood of Myna, it was also able to hold on. But the other cities... Sigh, I don't know what to say. Many cities obviously have enough strength, but the players in them do not cooperate with each other, and the various gangs have not been able to organize effectively. There are endless incidents of internal PK due to competition for equipment, or when the situation is unfavorable, many players rush to log off to escape... In short, it is a mess, and the result... becomes like this!"
How abominable! I almost had the urge to howl to the heavens. All my efforts were in vain. We defended Pojun City, but what was the point?
What made me even more depressed was that although the Southern Continent and the Northern Continent were also lost, the Western Continent was successfully defended! That Phils jumped above me and became the first in the ranking list. This title that I had always held was taken away by someone for the first time!
If it was just a change in personal ranking, it would be fine. Firstly, the responsibility for this failure is not mine. Secondly, I am confident that I can regain the throne in less than a day or two. The problem is that after this battle, the average level gap between players in the Western Continent and the Eastern Continent has been basically narrowed. If someone really organizes a large Western army to attack the Eastern Continent in the future, it will be even more disadvantageous to us!
Moreover, this event also shows the gap in quality between Eastern and Western players!
In fact, the Western Continent is slightly inferior to the Eastern Continent in terms of both the number of players and the average level. However, from the articles on the forum about their city defense process, we can see that they are extremely united and cooperate closely. As for the Central Imperial City, they gave up on their own initiative when they were sure they were unable to defend it, and all personnel were evacuated to other cities to cooperate in defending the city. Moreover, when facing the powerful super Boss, no one retreated, and no one scrambled for equipment. They were all organized under the command of the major guilds in each city to carry out the siege. Compared with our battle in Pojun City, it was more orderly. In the end, except for the Imperial City, nothing fell!
After reading this information, I was deeply shocked. This means that basically every player in the Western Continent has the same qualities as the members of the Thunder Alliance. You know, the members of this alliance are all elites selected from hundreds of miles away!
Seeing that I was very depressed, the profiteer consoled me, "Although the result of defending the city this time was not satisfactory, it is still good for our Thunder Alliance."
I said lazily, "The so-called benefit is nothing more than that under the leadership of the Thunder Alliance, Pojun City was defended, and the reputation of our alliance became even greater. But in fact, there are not many players in Fantasy who don't know about the Thunder Alliance, so this benefit is really limited."
"The point is not fame!" the profiteer said anxiously, "It's a matter of image! Think about it, there are gangs in many other cities, but most of them failed to defend the city, which shows that the Thunder Alliance is stronger than them. This kind of powerful image is the most important!"
Lonely also said: "That's right, and internally, this image has the effect of enhancing cohesion. Our alliance usually spends a lot of energy on training, but in fact there are still some members who can't understand the significance of our approach. The success of defending the city this time fully proves the importance of command and coordination. I think no member will say that we are doing useless work."
The profiteer continued, "In fact, this image has already begun to work. Boss, you may not know this, but as soon as the defense of the city was over, three of the eleven gangs that participated in the Battle of Pojun City contacted us to form an alliance. Before, except for those gangs that already had a good relationship with us, no one was willing to form an alliance with us. But now? This shows that they recognize our strength!"
I said in distress, "Having more allies is a good thing, but if our alliance wants to grow and develop, we still have to strengthen our own strength. But through today's battle, I feel that with the expansion of the gang in the future and the increase in the number of alliance members, we lack a large number of middle-level managers. Whether it is you or me, it is impossible to directly command tens of thousands of alliance members to fight! However, it is difficult to find talents. Where can we find so many loyal and capable players to join us?"
Badly said, "Oh, I've watched the official video. When the situation was most critical, a group of people rushed out on their own initiative, risking their lives to protect the city hall. People with this kind of bravery and heroism are very suitable to lead the charge, and people with this kind of personality are generally more trustworthy. Once they join us, they will never betray us easily. Is there any way to recruit those people?"
After being reminded by Bad Bad, I suddenly remembered that those people, especially the ones who took the lead, were indeed heroes. Moreover, they were able to come up with such a plan and act decisively. They were indeed rare talents. However... I thought about it for a moment and slowly shook my head and said, "I'm afraid... those people will not join us. Hey... this game is getting more and more interesting. If I'm not mistaken, those people are probably soldiers!"
"Soldiers!" Everyone exclaimed in unison, and then looked at each other. Although there was no explicit rule that soldiers could not play games, if they were really soldiers, it would always give people a weird feeling!
"I'm just guessing, I don't have any real evidence. You can try to recruit them. If they refuse to join, don't force them. It's a matter of talent, so take your time. In fact, with the quality of our members, if you pull any one out, he can become a hall master or incense master in other gangs."
Having said that, I actually believe that my judgment is probably correct. If it was just one person, it would be hard to say, but the first group of hundreds of people, everyone was ready to die. You know, the people who came later could be said to be infected by the atmosphere, but the ones who took the lead were definitely acting on their own will. If it were an ordinary person, they would inevitably hesitate a little, right? And their movements of climbing the wall were all printed out in the same mold, fast and smooth. This is definitely not simple. I'm afraid it's the obstacle crossing subject in military training? The most important thing is the temperament they have... I have never been a soldier, but I can feel that they have the same temperament as the instructors in my military training in college!
Of course, it is also possible that they are retired soldiers, but how could so many retired soldiers appear at that time and place by coincidence? I doubt it. However, if they are all active soldiers, where do they have so much time to play games? And I see that the level of those people is not low, so the mystery behind this game is even more intriguing!
"Boss! Boss! What are you thinking about?" Seeing that I was in a daze, the profiteer shouted a few times, bringing my thoughts back to reality.
"Boss, in addition to fame, we also have practical gains!" The profiteer took out something proudly.
"This... huh?" I exclaimed, "Isn't this the same crystal column we got from the imperial mausoleum? But this one is red!"
"Haha, yes, it is indeed the same thing as that."
"Where did you get it?"
"Hehe, after the defense of the city was over today, someone brought this treasure to Bu Si for appraisal. Bu Si is now very famous, and many players who are not from our alliance often come to take care of his business. After all, it is much cheaper than the system charges. The man said that this was dropped by Bi'an, and it must be a good thing. He didn't know how much he would be blackmailed if he asked the system to appraise it, so he came to Bu Si. Bu Si saw that it was a good thing and notified me immediately. I went to bargain with the man and said that this thing was not equipment but a quest item. I bought it from him for 5,000 gold coins."
"Wow! Swindler, you are so cunning! You cheated people to death without paying for your life. You bought the artifact at such a low price. But then again, where did so many artifacts come from? Aren't artifacts said to be unique? These two crystal pillars look exactly the same, but the colors are different. Could it be a set of artifacts?"
"It's not a set, it's probably a component of the same artifact." Bu San spoke up. As a master forger, his opinion naturally made sense. "Boss, you see, besides the fact that you got the Tiger Soul by accident, and the Tiger Soul is not complete yet, it's not even on the equipment list, and it's not really an artifact. There's only one Cornucopia, but that's a prize from an official event. It's not that easy to get an artifact. These two crystal pillars came a little too easily. I estimate there should be many more, and it takes all of them to synthesize an artifact, which is about right."
That makes sense, but how many of these crystal pillars are there? I don't have any clues. Well, when I identified the first crystal pillar, the NPC told me to go to the wild land in the south to find the high priest. Later, I was busy with building a gang and never had time to go to the south. It seems that it's time to go there!
