Xu Xiaoyou's mind raced as she quickly made a judgment.
The Order Court's presence here, going to such great lengths, could not possibly be just to capture her; if that were the case, they should have acted long ago. There was only one possibility.
The Order Court did not want any guild to obtain the kill credit for this boss!
Under the guise of law enforcement, they intended to internalize this boss themselves, thereby weakening the other guilds in the league.
Just as she had previously judged, the Order Court was not the absolute controller within Oasis; its power model was a system of checks and balances with EVA.
Even granting the 'harmonizer' authority required using the pretense of capturing a criminal to bypass EVA's will.
Thinking of this, Xu Xiaoyou quickly calmed down. Facing Bai Youyou, who was closing in on her, she no longer scrambled to flee like last time. Instead, she straightened her back, adopting an air of having nothing to fear.
"Realized you can't escape, so you've stopped running?" Bai Youyou asked.
"If Investigator Bai arrests me so easily, your temporary enforcement rights will be revoked, won't they?" Xu Xiaoyou said, raising an eyebrow.
Seeing the blonde girl proactively hold out both hands toward her, the expression on Bai Youyou's face froze, and the veins on her wrists became visible.
"You think I wouldn't dare?" she lowered her voice.
"Then go ahead and lock me up," Xu Xiaoyou spread her hands. "In front of everyone!"
A look of grim seriousness flashed through Bai Youyou's eyes. She silently observed the surroundings and found that the eyes of the vast majority of people present were focused on her, including EVA and the members of the Order Court who had come with her.
Talise, the lead law enforcer, had a calm face and gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head, signaling her not to be impulsive.
"As a law-abiding citizen of Oasis, if the investigator lady wants to arrest me, I can only cooperate obediently," Xu Xiaoyou taunted in Bai Youyou's ear.
"After you take me back, remember to be gentle with me."
Suddenly, the sound of metal clicking shut rang out, and Xu Xiaoyou's expression stiffened slightly.
Bai Youyou had handcuffed her own hand to the blonde girl's and raised them high for everyone to see. "Next, I need to safely escort the criminal back to Oasis City. Until then, I still maintain the right to remain in the 'harmonizer' state."
These words were naturally not meant for the bystanders, but for EVA. Seeing the latter slightly close her eyes in silent permission, Xu Xiaoyou's brow twitched. Why wasn't EVA standing on her side this time?
"Chairman!"
"What are you doing? Let our chairman go!"
"Miss Bai, our chairman has always been law-abiding, honest, and friendly. Is there some kind of mistake?"
The people from Light-Chaser Garden grew anxious upon seeing Xu Xiaoyou handcuffed. They immediately surrounded the Order Court members, looking ready to start a fight if the talk went south.
Bai Youyou's gaze fell on Xu Xiaoyou beside her, her cold eyes conveying a dangerous intent.
Xu Xiaoyou reached out helplessly. "Everyone, I've been caught. Investigator Bai's arrest is fair and legal. Do not make things difficult for her. I have deeply realized my mistakes and will reform myself well in the consciousness prison. In a few hundred years, I will still be the flower-bearer of Light-Chaser Garden."
The corners of the mouths of those familiar with the blonde girl twitched. Given this girl's personality, the idea of her realizing her mistakes and surrendering obediently was laughable, yet for a moment, they couldn't figure out what she was up to.
This girl's mind worked too fast; no one dared to claim they could guess her thoughts.
The surrounding members of Light-Chaser Garden retreated unwillingly. Bai Youyou let out a cold snort and turned her attention to the Incurable Crown, her steam power hammer manifesting in her palm.
With the added status of a harmonizer, she was the only player in Pangard whose rank had broken through to grade 4. She could unleash her divine endowment—the 'Judgment Holy Raiment.' Although she didn't possess the absolute dominance she had within Oasis City, killing dozens of Light-Chaser Garden members in a short time would be more than easy.
As golden rose patterns emerged on her pure white military uniform, the Judgment Holy Raiment was instantly unleashed. A powerful pressure erupted from Bai Youyou's body, sweeping across the entire field. Hundreds of people felt as if they were under a heavy weight, their breathing becoming unstable and their feet feeling as if they were shackled.
Xu Xiaoyou whistled, taking advantage of Bai Youyou's intimidating presence to continue firing her rose rifle at the members of Silent Sequence, ordering the Light-Chaser Garden members to continue harassing and surrounding the isolated enemies scattered by the monsters.
No matter how dissatisfied the people of Silent Sequence were, they could only suppress their rage at this moment while clearing the Gnawer-type monsters swarming nearby. They were waiting for an opportunity, waiting for Smiling Jazz's state to recover...
"What? People from the Order Court have entered the fray?" Inside the gatehouse, Nanjiamu, who was still arranging tactics, was stunned, hardly able to believe his ears.
"Yes, it's absolutely true. I saw with my own eyes that investigator lady handcuffing Her Excellency Dark Gold Rose. Those people have already taken control of the entire royal palace!" the scout reported.
Nanjiamu massaged his forehead in a headache. Earlier, he had been surprised enough that Dark Gold Rose had led people into the royal palace to confront Silent Sequence head-on, even gaining an advantage and suppressing them.
Now the Order Court had intervened in the battlefield as well. What was wrong with this world? Had they all gone mad?
"Pass down my orders. The plan has changed; there's no more time to delay. Everyone from Golden Navigator, full army assault! Advance to the royal palace!" Nanjiamu immediately issued the command.
"Understood!"
But just as the Golden Navigator army took a single step out of the gatehouse, they were ambushed. Countless hidden weapons and traps were triggered in succession, followed by over twenty stalkers emerging from the shadows to launch an attack on them.
"What's happening?" Nanjiamu looked out. In the chaos, blood occasionally splattered as priests let out screams and collapsed every second. Before his army could even push into the royal palace, they had suffered grievous losses.
Many priests were caught off guard, and before they could react, over a dozen of them had their health bars emptied.
The people attacking them seemed to know their situation like the back of their hands, specifically camping the corpses to immediately finish them off again the moment their Phoenix Shield Badge triggered a resurrection.
Suddenly, he saw the Light-Chaser Garden insignia on the clothes of those stalkers, and his mind buzzed as if struck by lightning.
These people were members of Light-Chaser Garden's Heifeng squad!
They had no grievances with Light-Chaser Garden; why were these guys attacking them?
With so many traps set outside and so many people lying in ambush, why hadn't the scouts he sent out earlier reported anything unusual to him?
The Heifeng captain, Shadow Weaver Poem, slit one throat and stabbed another person's lower back with her other blade. After being knocked back by a Golden Navigator squad leader's heavy shield, she did not attack again but quickly faded back into the shadows.
"Everyone, a successful strike. Do not linger, retreat!"
"Yes!"
With the ambush completed, the Heifeng members did not stay to fight at all, turning around to retreat. Conversely, on the Golden Navigator side, many priests had just activated their grade 3 ultimate skills, intending to fight to the death.
How could these hulking priests catch up to the agility-specialized stalkers? They could only watch helplessly as the Heifeng people departed.
Noticing that the few scouts who had previously reported to him were also retreating with the main Heifeng force, Nanjiamu realized their intelligence had been leaked by these people.
Nanjiamu cursed these white-eyed wolves in a rage. The elite scouts he had poured the entire guild's resources into training had been turned by just a few words from Dark Gold Rose?
He deeply experienced the horror of being dominated by a charm-specialized player.
At that moment, Nanjiamu's sharp eyes spotted a familiar figure among the receding Heifeng members, dressed in black hooded robes with an insignia of crossed daggers on the shoulder. That was clearly someone from Assassin's Creed!
He suddenly understood; only then did he realize why the people from Light-Chaser Garden would ambush them.
"Lu! Shu! Hang!" Nanjiamu's roar echoed over the royal city.
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