After a minute, inside a temporary meeting room located in a place inside the fourth research base.
“That is the situation, we have to discard our previous plan… Now, we need to reconsider our tactical plan. Moreover, we need to take into account the Rebel Army’s influence in battle.” Frontline Command, Jing Kong, the Heavy Armor Warrior called “Uncle Lin,” as well as a few other Nine Star Guild members, were listening to Zi Wei finish talking with deep and serious frowns.
An upper management player of the Nine Star Guild spoke with an anguished expression, “The Rebel Army… For there to be a third faction taking part in this mission, and with no sign of this before… We don’t even know their numbers and their team’s make up. Without enough intel, how are we supposed to create a tactical plan?”
Zi Wei looked at Feng Luo beside her, nodded and said, “You don’t have to worry about this. Mr. Feng, I’ll hand over to you.”
“The Rebel Army’s team only has around a hundred players. In terms of their battle strength, they are quite good. However, compared to us, there is still a gap there. However, they have around 400 NPCs. Their normal soldiers are around as strong as the players. Among them, there are a few who look like leaders, and I estimate their strength to be at least equal to ours. However, the most important thing is that after they cleared out the fifth research base, they succeeded in controlling groups of the monsters there. Now, they are advancing towards the sixth base. If they continue developing and growing like this, we may have to face a large monster army soon.” Feng Luo was the only “outsider” seated inside the room. After Zi Wei passed the baton to him, he spoke without any focus in his eyes.
“Hmm?” However, after he finished speaking, Feng Luo suddenly made a slight sound.
The people from Nine Star Guild’s face stiffened. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing…” Feng Luo shook his head and his eyes had regained its focus. Then, he spoke in a whisper, “Are they ninjas? Looks like it’s getting interesting.”
When Feng Luo spoke these words, he whispered so gently that no one should have been able to hear him. Moreover, even if he spoke louder, the players present probably wouldn’t even react.
However, Feng Luo did not notice that when he whispered those words, the eyes under the black heavy armor of the player called Uncle Lin had also twitched slightly.
No one else had noticed Uncle Lin’s gaze either. Zi Wei paused for a brief moment before asking Feng Luo, “Mr. Feng, did you find traces of the people from North City near the fifth or sixth base?”
“Negative.” Feng Luo shook his head.
“From the data transmitted by the fourth probe, it seems like the people from North City are just arriving outside of their fourth base.” The Nine Star Guild player wearing the technology spectacles said. “However, due to the disturbances, the probe’s signal has already reached its limit. I can’t be 100% certain.”
“Mr. Feng, can you…?” Zi Wei looked at Feng Luo.
“Please wait a moment.” Feng Luo said and then, his vision flipped again.
After discovering the oddity at the fifth base, he no longer cared about preserving his psionic energy. He immediately dispatched two Scout Beetles after that. At that moment, one of the Scout Beetles had flown and reached the sky above the fourth base on the other side.
Before long, amid various expressions of anticipation of those in the room, Feng Luo spoke again. “The fourth base definitely has people.”
Feng Luo’s words made the commander team of the Nine Star Guild relax a little.
“There are only around tens of them. Also, these people are not going into the base, and are not putting a lot of effort into their fights. They are only creating a bunch of battle effects on the outside.” However, after hearing the second half of Feng Luo’s sentence, their frowns had returned.
“What is the intention of the people from North City?” Some of the players from Nine Star Guild asked, puzzled.
“It is a diversion that they are intentionally creating. The main squad did not even head towards the fourth base. These people are only interfering with our monitoring.”
Zi Wei had an expression on her face as if she expected that to happen. “I suspect they did not attack any of the bases. Instead, their tactical plan was always to have a battle with us. They planned to fight us before they began the abandoned ruin exploration mission.”
“They planned this from the start? That’s just detrimental to both sides. Aren’t they afraid of failing the mission?” After hearing Zi Wei’s words, apart from Uncle Lin whose face was completely covered, the rest of the people there had a surprised look on their faces.
“Mr. Feng, you may have doubts in your mind and think that North City’s decision to first defeat us in battle before starting the exploration is the correct one.” At that time, Zi Wei explained to Feng Luo. “However, since both sides’ true objective is the pet biochip equipment in the main base as well as the clean-up mission, the success of the exploration should always be the number one priority. If we were to first fight before clearing the ruins, even if we achieved victory, it would be a very bad victory. The remaining side might not have enough strength to clear the other branch facilities. There is not a need to talk about the more difficult main base.”
Feng Luo nodded, indicating that he understood.
The players who took part in this mission were comparable in terms of their overall strength, even if one side consisted of players selected from Storm City while the other side was a congregation of all the large guilds of North City.
In terms of the result of an all-out battle, no matter which side won, it was probably quite difficult for there to be more than a hundred survivors.
This number was not enough to continue with the exploration.
Using the fourth base as an example, even with all of them taking part in the battle, they lost around 60 to 70 players. If they only had around 100 players with them, there was no way they would have been able to succeed in clearing the base.
“Concerning this, we have talked about this with the SK guild before. We even had a verbal agreement. It is because this abandoned ruin mission has a time and mission limit. Once both our guilds fail the mission, the large guilds from other cities would easily profit from that. That is why we initially thought that they would also consider the overall situation and focus on clearing the branch bases before engaging us in the final battle. That way, we’ll at least make sure one side will complete the mission,” said Jing Kong with a cold laugh.
Then, another Nine Star Guild’s upper management member continued to say, “Since the branch bases contain items that could significantly reduce the difficulty of the main base, such as the antidote in the first base, the potion to resist the vines in the second base, as well as the potion that can inhibit the Rock Balls’ self-destruct in the recently cleared fourth base. By then, even if we have fewer players remaining, we’ll still be able to enter the main base and complete the mission.”
Feng Luo did not speak.
The action of those from North City was most certainly quite bad as it not only harmed their opponents but themselves as well. Besides, they also went back on their words.
However, the people from Nine Star Guild should have at least considered the possibility of this happening before, right? After all, both sides only reached a verbal agreement, it wasn’t a tangible binding agreement.
“Concerning this situation, we do have our backup plans. However, we did not expect that we would encounter two Quasi-Bosses on the sea first, which caused us to lose so many members, and then to lose even more members at the fourth base,” said Zi Wei in resignation as if she had read Feng Luo’s mind.
After pausing and deliberating for a brief moment, Zi Wei asked again, “Mr. Feng, can you find the current position of main forces of North City?”
“I’ll try,” said Feng Luo. Then, his eyes lost focus and turned into voids again.