A pervasive chill seeped in, and the basement was pitch black. Water flowed through the pipes in the upper left corner of the room, and droplets leaked from the metal walls, falling with a rhythmic drip-drip-drip.
Faint light slanted through scattered windows not far away, illuminating the curved silhouette of a creature.
In the darkness, a sharp, metallic scent of rust spread, like wet rust mixed with a strong stench of decay.
Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack.
The sound of footsteps echoed as the creature moved. Sensing something, it wandered back and forth in the room. The silhouette was nearly two meters tall, with skin stretched over bone and scales, its spine protruding high. From time to time, it stopped and hunched its back, its nostrils twitching slightly. Long whiskers swayed in the gray light, and its red eyes were like a pair of eerie lanterns, flickering as they quickly approached Xu Xiaoyou's direction.
Xu Xiaoyou remained silent—or rather, remarkably calm. Her current position seemed to be inside an underground clinic, which she could tell from the surrounding medical equipment. Scalpels, saws, and forceps leaned against the walls without any regard for sterilization.
Nearby barrels were filled with mint, citrus, garlic, and pungent pepper.
The thick smell of rust did not come from its fur, but wafted out from the clay jars piled in the corner, which were likely filled with thick, stinking blood.
The tall creature nearby was the "doctor" of this underground clinic. The slanting light cast long shadows of the jars, and Xu Xiaoyou saw that the creature had a pair of long, sharp claws and forearms as thin as bamboo poles. It hunched over, its eyeballs bulging out.
It looked like... an oversized rat?
The small basement was quiet, save for the click-clack of the creature's wandering and Xu Xiaoyou's light breathing.
Xu Xiaoyou was in no hurry to get up and break the silence. She was currently lying under a hospital bed, with a dirty yellow sheet draped down to cover the gap between the bed and the floor. The monster didn't seem to have noticed her yet, as it was still sniffing the air for her scent.
She opened the world chat channel. The world channel was buzzing with activity. Filtering out the recruitment ads from the large guilds, Xu Xiaoyou scanned the messages, quickly retrieving useful information.
"Little Red: Come to Death Avenue! Any guild will do. There are too many monsters. The base we just captured is about to fall!"
"A-Ning: Don't go to the botanical garden! There's a... there's a huge louse there!"
The voice message cut off abruptly, suggesting the sender had likely met a grim end.
"President of Love and Peace: Our Love and Peace guild has captured the brewery base. Guild leaders interested in sending people to help defend and sharing the base rewards through a win-win cooperation, add me as a friend."
"Nanjiamu: Lu Shuhang, have you no shame? We, the Golden Navigator, were clearing monsters on Death Avenue just fine. What's the meaning of Assassin's Creed sending people to ambush us?"
"Nanjiamu: ? You're still killing us! Do you think we in the Golden Navigator have no temper?"
"Passerby A: Haha, President Lu says nothing, he just keeps picking on the weak."
"Lu Shuhang: You blocked our people in the wild last time. I just wanted an explanation. Your people moved first. Since you don't want to be decent, I'll help you be decent."
"Passerby B: Hahaha, these two are like a bickering couple. When will their cycle of revenge ever end?"
At that moment, a global broadcast with a "Golden Horn" caught everyone's attention.
"Smiling Jazz: Silent Sequence plans to form a guild alliance to clear out a sizable safe zone first to ensure logistical transport for the front lines. What do you all think?"
Soon, small guilds scrambled to respond to the call.
"Love and Peace: The Love and Peace guild is in!"
"A Better Tomorrow: No problem from the A Better Tomorrow guild."
"Iron Hand: Jazz, count our Steel Will in."
...
Xu Xiaoyou waited for a while and found that most of those responding to the call were just small guilds. The top guilds on the leaderboard were all silent, as if their fires had been extinguished. None of them stepped forward to state their position.
It made sense; people were driven by profit. The large guilds were likely organizing their members to seize their own bases, busy carving up this big cake. Who would have the leisure to help clear a joint safe zone?
Looking at the guild leaderboard where point rankings were constantly shifting, Xu Xiaoyou thoughtfully opened the guild channel for Light-Chaser Garden. A few guild members were chatting idly.
"Black Crow: @Silver Light, come to the brewery. Clear out the people from Love and Peace."
"Silver Light: Who do you think will take the number one spot on the point leaderboard after this world instance ends?"
"Silver Light: Probably Silent Sequence. They have a massive foundation and professional logistical analysis teams. Other guilds can't compare."
"Black Crow: King's Clan is also a possibility. They almost took first place during the last advent event. If they hadn't been backstabbed by the Heterogeneous Front at the end..."
"Silver Light: In any case, it won't be the Golden Navigator."
"Black Crow: Strange, Queen's Arms clearly announced their comeback this season. Why haven't they participated in this world instance?"
"Natsume Yuzuri: Light-Chaser Garden."
"Silver Light: Huh?"
"Black Crow: It's the guild leader!"
"Natsume Yuzuri: Light-Chaser Garden will take the number one spot on the point leaderboard."
"Silver Light: Sigh, Guild Leader, I know you have great ambitions, but I think we should plan carefully and prioritize securing a decent rank first."
"Silver Light: Yeah, yeah. Big Sister Dark Gold Rose, we only have about thirty members in total, while Silent Sequence has nearly four hundred. It's hard to compete."
"Black Crow: Big Sister Dark Gold Rose is joking with us. Can't you tell?"
"Natsume Yuzuri: I said we're going to win this battle beautifully. I am your guild leader after all. Can't you have a little faith?"
"Mori no Natsu Kuri: Exactly! Can't you have a little faith in Yuzu?"
Looking at the half-joking banter of her guild members, Xu Xiaoyou sighed helplessly.
She really did intend to compete for the top ranking. Why did no one believe her?
If word got out, everyone in Oasis would probably think she was crazy. No matter how big the name Dark Gold Rose was, Light-Chaser Garden was at most a fledgling guild. Its scale couldn't even compare to the Age of the Dead at the bottom of the leaderboard.
In this kind of base competition, the number of members was a key measure of a guild's strength. No matter how capable she, Dark Gold Rose, was, at best she could only capture one base. She'd be lucky if her guild members could take one or two bases.
While quality was better than quantity—like how two hundred well-trained elite heavy cavalry could charge through a formation of thirty thousand infantry—that only applied if they were heavy cavalry and well-trained.
Among the members she had recruited so far, aside from grade 3 combatants like Black Crow and Silver Light, describing the rest as a motley crew would not be an exaggeration.
It wasn't surprising that her own members had no confidence. The disparity in strength was simply too large. Forget about the cake; they would be lucky just to get a share in this chaotic world.
But Xu Xiaoyou wasn't worried about that.
She stood up from under the bed. The wandering monster instantly sensed her presence and lunged toward her with a screech. Xu Xiaoyou's skirt merged into the shadows on the ground, and a pair of massive pitch-black hands suddenly lunged out, snapping the monster in half in mid-air.
"HP -300! You have dealt a piercing wound to the Gnawer."
A chilling crunching sound echoed in the darkness as her brilliant amber eyes opened like spectral candle flames.
She, Xu Xiaoyou, naturally had her own methods to achieve her goals.
Rate on N.U.
