“Dark Gold Rose has betrayed the Alliance!”
This information exploded in people's minds like a bolt from the blue.
On the battlefield, those fighting desperately against monsters looked up, and the heads of guilds, large and small, exchanged looks, seeing confusion reflected in each other's eyes.
Inside the tower occupied by the Golden Navigator, a member who had rushed in recklessly hadn't even had a chance to speak before a sharp blade came to a halt at his neck. Three inches of cold light gleamed above the blade, and a chill instantly swept through his entire body.
“It's me, Vice Chairman,” the man said, gulping.
The darkness receded, and the scene inside the room gradually became clear. Dozens of grim priests were staring at him in unison, not saying a word.
Nan Jiamu snorted coldly and lowered his guard.
“I gave orders, didn't I? No one is allowed to step foot in this tower without my permission. You almost lost your head just now.”
“Chairman, are you all going to...?” the man stammered, looking at the priests. Good lord, there wasn't a single face he wasn't familiar with; they were all the top combat forces of the guild.
He didn't understand. While the brothers on the front lines were still fighting to the death, why were these top combatants hiding in this small tower instead of attacking?
The person beside him saw the man's confusion, glanced at Nan Jiamu, but remained silent.
“Speak. What happened outside!”
“Chairman, Dark Gold Rose... she's gone mad. She betrayed the Alliance!”
“Betrayed the Alliance?” Nan Jiamu's brow furrowed slightly.
“She suddenly attacked a short while ago, taking the initiative against Alliance members. Smiling Jazz just notified everyone in the Alliance and put a bounty on everyone from Light-Chaser Garden.”
Nan Jiamu immediately sensed something fishy and raised a fundamental question.
“Did Lady Dark Gold Rose betray the Alliance, or did she ‘betray’ Silent Sequence?”
As soon as these words were spoken, the man was stunned, and a look of realization flashed through the eyes of the people around him.
Although Nan Jiamu usually seemed unreliable, he never dropped the ball at critical moments. This was why everyone in the Golden Navigator trusted him and why the chairman had entrusted him with full leadership responsibility.
He saw the problem at a glance.
“Heh. This is a plan to use the wolf to swallow the tiger. That sinister Smiling Jazz can't pull himself away, so he wants to use our hands to get rid of Dark Gold Rose and force more people to stand on the opposite side. Once some idiot actually believes it, they’ll make an enemy of Lady Dark Gold Rose.”
“Don't you mean ‘drive the tiger to eat the wolf’?” someone whispered a correction.
“Are you stupid?” Nan Jiamu said, speechless. “Dark Gold Rose has much more power than you imagine.”
“If I’m not mistaken, Dark Gold Rose's forces are currently hunting down members of Silent Sequence on the periphery, and some fools have already taken people to obstruct them.”
“Then Chairman, what should we do? Whose side should we take?”
“Take a side?” Nan Jiamu sneered and drew his sword. “We're going to snatch the kill on the Incurable Crown!”
The man's body trembled with shock.
He looked around again and only then realized that five minutes ago, these priests had already empowered themselves with buffs like ‘Glory Anthem’, ‘Holy Light Protection’, and ‘Hero’s Triumph’—buffs strong enough to last until the end of the battle. Furthermore, every single one of them was equipped with a ‘Phoenix Shield Badge’.
This item was a drop from the boss of the grade 4 dungeon ‘Flame Sparrow Cave’, and the drop rate was extremely low. The Flame Sparrow that dropped it was a nightmare-level lord. Because its attacks dealt a fixed amount of burn damage, almost no one could farm it through a standard process except for guilds like the Golden Navigator, where most members were priests.
The effect was that if the holder died, the item would automatically shatter and reset the holder's status to one second before death. It was a bug-level farmable item that, if triggered at the right time, was enough to instantly turn the tide of battle!
The man realized that it wasn't just their Golden Navigator; probably every guild had similar thoughts. Once the health of the Incurable Crown dropped below the danger line, the curtain on a bloody storm would immediately rise.
What a joke. Oaths, image, credit? The Alliance and such were worth less than a fried dodo chicken. Once this world event was over, it would be a Visiting Battle by Overstepping Authority, and the champion would gain control over the entire Oasis.
After entering the gates, there would naturally be scholars to justify their actions. Once they truly held the Sovereign Key, who in the world would dare to disobey?
Nan Jiamu threw a Phoenix Shield Badge over and had the surrounding members cast buffs on the man.
“Too bad Old Hang won't be able to get a bite of the meat on this big club,” the youth said with a smile.
The battle inside the royal city fell into a stalemate.
...................
A short while ago, in the Venomous Sewer.
Lu Shuhang led the people of Assassin's Creed as they cautiously stepped over the warning tentacles underground, moving beneath webs formed by clusters of mucus.
Murky green toxic water flowed along the sewer pipes, and corrosive bubbles burst from time to time, rising above several skeletal remains. Sarcomas writhed in the corners; they were incubators formed of thick phlegm, plague bacteria, toxic water, and mucus. When they sensed someone approaching, they would explode, corroding the person into white bone.
Suddenly, Xiao Xinzhu, who was walking in front, noticed something and stopped, turning back to make a silencing gesture.
A sickening chewing sound came from the darkness. Looking closely, it was a hairless monster crouching before a corpse, leaning down to tear at its flesh.
Before they could step forward, the monster seemed to sense movement, but it didn't turn to look in their direction. Instead, it looked up.
In the next instant, sharp tentacles suddenly stabbed out, piercing downward and skewering the monster's body. They then slowly lifted it, bits of meat falling off, and retracted into the darkness in the blink of an eye.
Everyone's expressions changed. Lu Shuhang stopped and looked up. The ceiling was deep and nearly black, with thick thorny vines piled up like a cluster of vipers, densely occupying the upper space, writhing as if alive, with fluorescence flowing through their vein-like patterns.
These thorny vines extended into the distance, where a giant flower bud was exposed on the wall. Its face-sized petals were tightly closed, but the sharp teeth inside were visible as corrosive venom dripped out.
“It's a Plague Catcher. It's dormant. Everyone, enter stealth,” Lu Shuhang ordered.
Beneath the kingdom, these mutated plants were everywhere. The plants that had first begun to mutate in the Royal Botanical Garden had followed the cellars to this place, their roots and stems interlacing in the sewers. These plants were extremely bloodthirsty and manic; if one wasn't careful, they would be hunted. They had suffered too many losses because of these plague plants in recent days.
Similarly, they had figured out a pattern: only after six in the evening would these plants wake up on a large scale. Moving before then allowed them to avoid casualties as much as possible.
After safely passing through a stretch of road filled with biological traps, they finally arrived before a room. This was the sewer's outlet, where toxic water thundered down every second, carrying the mangled limbs of people.
A giant creature was suspended in the air. It looked like a monster made of countless swollen eyeballs squeezed and piled together. Four or five massive eyeballs were always open, rolling around to guard the surroundings, while the upper eyeballs pulled out long, white, thick mucus to maintain its suspended posture.
This monster was covered in scars, with pus rolling out from time to time. From the giant mouthparts below, a blood-red, fat tongue full of sharp teeth slid out, curling up the mangled limbs in the toxic water and eating with gusto.
It was the ‘Gnawing Gospel’. Lu Shuhang's gaze darkened. These past few days, Assassin's Creed had been working together to hunt this world boss, but the sewer was the opponent's home turf. That seemingly clumsy body was extremely agile, and the creature had managed to escape with its heavily injured body several times.
Furthermore, because the sewer terrain was complex and dangerous, every attempt to find the opponent's location required them to pay a price. This was why they had requested aid from Light-Chaser Garden.
Suosuo's face was pale as she nodded to everyone and turned off her ‘Sensory Enhancement’. She then leaned against a wall and vomited. For certain reasons, all of her senses were much sharper than those of an ordinary hunter. The stench of the sewer was about to make her head spin.
The figure of the ‘Red Queen’ couldn't help but surface in the girl's mind. Her shoulders trembled uncontrollably due to instinctive fear. She had once had indelible painful memories within the ‘Red Killer’ guild.
Many people who couldn't log out for real-life reasons were caught by them and forced to become members of the Red Killers; she was no exception.
That madwoman treated these people as her slaves, forcing them to turn their pain perception up to 120%. In the virtual world, since there was no need to worry about these slaves being broken, the Red Queen used every method she could think of on them.
And she was the Red Queen's favorite ‘toy’. At least, that was what the woman had told her when she held her in her arms and gently kissed away her tears...
Suosuo looked at her hands, which had been smashed countless times before, and recalled that night. In front of the blonde girl, the Red Queen's posture had been so wretched, her face broken and twisted like a demon's. She suddenly felt as if a lifetime had passed.
Had she really escaped that hell?
Lu Shuhang was in front organizing everyone, preparing to kill the ‘Gnawing Gospel’ in one go this time.
Several members of Assassin's Creed knew that the feeling of sensory enhancement was unpleasant, especially down in the Venomous Sewer, and they came over intending to comfort the girl with the strained face.
At that moment, Suosuo suddenly noticed the information on the world channel about ‘Dark Gold Rose Betraying the Alliance’, and her gaze trembled violently.
“Are you okay?” a member stepped forward to ask. Before he could react, the grim-faced girl suddenly lunged, violently stabbing a small knife into his abdomen.
The man groaned in pain. Lu Shuhang, who was laying out tactics, was startled by the commotion behind him. He turned to find Suosuo pushing aside the people around her and, for some reason, suddenly running toward the ‘Gnawing Gospel’ as if she had gone mad.
“Stop her,” Lu Shuhang barked, sensing something was wrong.
Xiao Xinzhu reacted the fastest. With a leap, she turned into a blur of shadow, quickly lunging forward. She intercepted Suosuo halfway, tackling her to the ground and pinning the girl's throat with her forearm.
“Hey, what do you think you're doing!”
Suosuo said nothing, grabbing a short blade nearby and trying to slash at the girl's neck. The battle-hardened Xiao Xinzhu easily knocked the weapon from her hand.
“Was she just trying to lure the ‘Gnawing Gospel’?”
“Are you crazy? It's not time to act yet. You almost made all our efforts go to waste!”
“Good thing Sister Xiao reacted in time, or the ‘Gnawing Gospel’ would have run away.”
“Wait, everyone, look at the world channel,” someone whispered.
The people present all opened the world channel, and the words describing Dark Gold Rose's betrayal of the Alliance stung their eyes.
The members of Assassin's Creed acted rationally. Soon, someone came to Lu Shuhang's side and suggested, “It seems she just received an order from Dark Gold Rose. Chairman, should we kill her?”
Suosuo bit her lip hard, pinned to the ground and unable to move.
Lu Shuhang thought calmly for a moment and reached the same conclusion as Nan Jiamu.
“I think this is at least not a premeditated move by Dark Gold Rose. If it were premeditated, she wouldn't have sent so many people to assist us.”
As he said this, his gaze shifted to the several members of Light-Chaser Garden in the back who were at a loss. Upon seeing Suosuo suddenly attack someone, they felt as if ten thousand alpacas were galloping through their hearts; they were already prepared to be torn apart by the crowd from Assassin's Creed.
“It's Smiling Jazz who is forcing the people in the Alliance to take a side. I don't think the other chairmen will fail to understand this.”
Hearing this, Suosuo, who had been struggling violently, also realized something, and her movements gradually slowed down.
“Chairman, then what should we do?”
“She almost killed one of our own.”
Lu Shuhang shook his head. “Perhaps she just mistakenly thought this was Dark Gold Rose's order.”
“Is that so?” Xiao Xinzhu's dagger pressed into Suosuo's neck, drawing a small line of blood.
Suosuo responded distractedly.
She was only worried about being unable to contribute to Light-Chaser Garden and returning to her former hellish life.
“It seems they didn't know that Dark Gold Rose would suddenly move against the people from Silent Sequence either.”
The members of Light-Chaser Garden looked ashen. Xu Xiaoyou must have expected this outcome before launching the surprise attack, yet she hadn't told them in advance. Had she treated them as pawns to be discarded after use?
Just as everyone was thinking this, Lu Shuhang simultaneously received a communication request from Xu Xiaoyou. The first words the blonde girl said on the virtual screen were, “I and my people apologize to you.”
“Because I cannot rule out whether there are still moles inside the guild, most orders cannot be issued uniformly to all members.”
“But your person still injured one of mine,” Lu Shuhang said calmly.
Xu Xiaoyou seemed to have expected his reaction. Across the screen, the two of them tacitly exchanged looks.
“Therefore, I have brought a collaboration.”
“What collaboration?” Lu Shuhang asked.
“I can give the occupation rights for the ‘King's Castle’ outpost to your Assassin's Creed.”
The people from Assassin's Creed were all stunned.
The hunt for the ‘Incurable Crown’ wasn't even over yet, and this person was already discussing the division of outpost rights?
Wait, someone noticed the contradiction in her words.
“The dungeon will end after the ‘Incurable Crown’ is killed. But I remember the condition for occupying an outpost is to clear out all creatures above the lord level and have the total number of monsters be less than one-third.”
Xu Xiaoyou's tone was calm. “There is no need to worry about that. Contradictory rules do not exist in the Oasis. Since the rules explicitly state that the King's Castle is an occupiable outpost, it means this outpost can be occupied without killing the ‘Incurable Crown’.”
“I will transfer the ‘King's Castle’ and all the outposts occupied by Silent Sequence to your Assassin's Creed before the dungeon ends, ensuring you can jump to the second place in points in an instant.”
“Are you saying you will personally see Silent Sequence out of the game?” Lu Shuhang asked.
Xu Xiaoyou chuckled. “In my eyes, Silent Sequence was never at the gambling table from the beginning. The boss kill will only be mine. Everything I am doing is to maximize the losses of my enemies.”
Despite such arrogant words, Lu Shuhang didn't think the girl was bluffing. He only asked, “What are the conditions?”
The corners of Xu Xiaoyou's lips curled up as she laid out her entire plan.
After listening to the girl's words, Lu Shuhang remained solemn for a long time. After weighing the options in his heart, he nodded and told his subordinates to release Suosuo.
“Then, happy collaborating?”
Suddenly, Lu Shuhang thought of something and asked, “Oh, right. Lady Dark Gold Rose, do your imaginary enemies include the Golden Navigator?”
Xu Xiaoyou: “They can be.”
Lu Shuhang's expression turned serious. “Please be sure to add them.”
Rate on N.U.
