The Great Thief

A declaration of war was easy to make, but it had a very significant impact.

In the Hillsbrad Hills, there were many players slaughtering wild horses. These horses had a high refresh rate and also gave high EXP. If they farmed those monsters for a day, it was possible to get half-a-level’s worth of EXP

Because of that, the competition for these wild horses was very fierce. It was basically impossible for small groups of players to train on them.

The players who were currently occupying the best spot were from the Gangnam Royals. They had taken over three or four groups of wild horse spawns and other than stopping to have some food, they hadn’t taken any breaks.

A few scattered players approached in the hopes of finding a spot, but as soon as they saw the Gangnam Royals guild badge, they immediately left the area.

Of course, there was no way to reason with the major guilds, especially the Gangnam Royals.

”What are you looking at? Leave,” said a Mage who was sitting on the floor and eating some bread to restore his HP. He had seen someone come over and rolled his eyes.

”I’m looking at you,” the player shot back as he puffed out his chest and kept coming.

”Damn it. I can’t believe we would run into trouble today. There are some people coming towards us; let’s get rid of them and find out where they came from. We’ll show them not to mess with us. How dare they offend the Gangnam Royals? Honestly…” The Mage hadn’t finished speaking before he realized that he was already under attack.

If it was just those 7-8 players, he wouldn’t have been worried because he had a team of 12 Gangnam Royal Elites with him. The thing that made him panic was the movement that he could sense in his peripheral vision. His own party also had two to three Thieves lurking in the area and protecting them, but suddenly, he was attacked and took significant damage. There were on average two Thieves for each member of the Gangnam Royals.

In a few seconds, a dozen players who were alive a moment ago were now dead.

”Hoho, that’s it for this place. Leave two players here to farm and we’ll move on to the next location,” the leader said with a smirk. He didn’t want to miss out on the fresh wild horse spawns, but there was also no rush to farm for levels.

In a scenic lakeside town, a large group of players were completing party quests.

Although the party quests weren’t difficult, they gave handsome rewards, most-notably, a high amount of EXP. A lot of players came here to party up and complete these quests, of which the escort variety were the most popular.

There was a party escorting Stampy and fighting a group of Gnolls.

Stampy was a merchant whose goods had been taken away by the Gnolls. As long as the players escorted him safely to retrieve his goods and returned to the lakeside town, they would receive a bountiful EXP reward. If they were lucky, they could also receive a rare potion.

”Don’t run too far; remember to protect Stampy!” the Party leader shouted.

Numerous Gnolls rushed from all directions, but they were all ordinary monsters and didn’t stand a chance against such a powerful group of elite guild members.

”You see, Mr Stampy, our soldiers are very brave and competent. We will be able to escort you back to the lakeside town unscathed and your goods will be safe,” the young party leader confidently said to the NPC.

It was said that if the NPC and his goods were undamaged, there was a greater chance of acquiring a rare potion.

However, he didn’t see the contempt in the NPC’s eyes. This merchant relied on mercenaries, but hated those who were manipulative. Stampy generally wouldn’t give a potion to those who didn’t have enough charisma either.

”The flame of my anger – burn it all! Ahahahah…”

Accompanied with that cry was an overwhelming Rain of Fire, followed by various other skills which instantly killed dozens of players. Dawn had always insisted that numbers were more important than the individual strength of players, and this was proof.

This was the result of a 100-man team against a 20-30 player group. The victims didn’t have the opportunity to react because they had been fighting for so long and had been attacked so unexpectedly.

There was a look of arrogance on Stampy’s face as he saw the gang of robbers. Was there any better way to describe those players other than a gang of robbers?

”Oh man, my fire crowd-control is pretty good, haha,” the Fire Mage laughed with a look on his face that made the old NPC wish he was young again.

”Big bro, step aside and let me,” a little girl Druid said as she squeezed out of the crowd.

”Alright, be careful Hachi Chan. I will stand next to you and protect you.”

Fat Monkey knew that the NPC wouldn’t just jump out at them, so they went to face him together.

He looked quite angry; it seemed like it was going to be difficult to gain the NPC’s favor.

”Hello Uncle, we’re the good guys,” Hachi Chan said seriously as she leaned her head back.

”Oh, you guys scared me. I thought I had lost my life today. Little girl, how could you be part of these dreary mercenaries…?”

The quest that had been original; triggered by the Gangnam Royals was easily converted into Hachi Chan’s. The EXP reward was obviously given, but Stampy also offered Hachi Chan a bunch of rare potions.

This kind of thing was happening everywhere. When Lu Li announced the declaration of war, all of the professional players began to gather together.

There were many intelligence organizations who were happy to share information about Gangnam Royals with Ruling Sword. Most of them had some background with the major guilds and were happy to see Ruling Sword and the Gangnam Royals fight to the death.

In fact, most wars were between old and new guilds.

The new guild was inadequate in almost every way, but the thing that could help them turn that around was the help they would receive. Everyone was happy to help destroy the number two guild.

Previously, Peerless City had defeated the Brotherhood and eliminated them from the top 10. They were unable to regain their position after that for 2-3 years. Before that, Drizzle Court had completely destroyed Gods of Dusk, and if it weren’t for Wood Fearing, they wouldn’t be in 30th right now. They probably wouldn’t even make the top 100.

Right now, the Gangnam Royals were up against Ruling Sword.

Ruling Sword’s progress has been unrelenting so far, and allowing them to fight the Gangnam Royals was a good way to slow them down. However, it could also be a way for them to catapult even further than before.

Even Blood Red War Flag, which had always been a fair and strict guild, couldn’t resist sending a group of players posing as Ruling Sword.