Chapter 481 - Chapter 482 The Siege
Zhang Yang summoned the flying serpent, much to the delight of Wei Yan Er and Han Ying Xue. Both of them insisted to ride along, something which he did not mind. The serpent had reached a point where it was strong enough to lift 3 to 5 players. However, in this mode of transportation, players who are riding along would not be able to participate in fights.
The flying serpent shot into the sky, taking Zhang Yang, Han Ying Xue, and Wei Yan Er to the front lines. The moment they reached, the little brat and Han Ying Xue summoned their own mounts and headed straight into enemy lines. With Han Ying Xue taking care of Wei Yan Er, Zhang Yang was left at ease. Together with Felice, they went back up to the skies. Why not make use of the First Flying Mount in the game? It would be a shame not to!
The battle was completely one-sided. White Jade Kingdom’s army had almost 5,000,000 soldiers. including the almighty killing machine, Prince Serena. Escorting her was a group of elite dragon riders. The Kingdom’s army was large, but the group of elite dragon riders were the most outstanding units. The Level-hidden elite tiers had the power that was equivalent to Mythical or an Ethereal tier monsters!
As for Prince Serena herself, when she was merely a Holy tier NPC she could already massacre a field full of players with her Sword of Life and Death. Now that she had already procured the Meteor Sword and gained the status of Ascended, how powerful could be she? Emerald Kingdom was no match to this level of power!
White Jade Kingdom’s army pushed on hard, and had soon crossed the border’s river. A single fortress stood to defend it, but it was nothing, compared to the devastating power of 5 million soldiers.
From the player’s perspective, the war meant nothing but the opportunity to gather a few Merit Points. The outcome of the war would not cause much effect to their lifestyles. No changes would be made to the losing city, no permanent loss of power, much rather, they would all be under the same united banner. This was not even a civil war, where one side would be sure to suffer a penalty. Hence, players had no care about winning or losing. They only wanted to farm more Merit Points. Thus, the war was fought with no morale nor raging vigor. No vengeance, no greed, just a bunch of players participating in a huge event.
The enemy players were now fighting on the frontlines, halting the NPC soldiers. Against these tougher enemies, they were having trouble killing enemies and gaining more merit points. As a result, Zhang Yang’s ‘passive’ income of merit points was also dropping. In this situation, Felice had rushed out, and blasted the earth with her {Pulverizing Flame}, sending a sea of flames across the ground.
Unlike NPC, players would never stand to fight till they fall, giving free kills and points to the enemy. They would withdraw from the front lines and recuperate in safety. It was these very players, who were on their way to the rear, critically low on HP, who were Felice’s targets. Her attacks were precise. With {Pulverizing Flame} blasting down, dealing 3000 Fire damage a second to an area of 10 x 10 meters, many of those players were quickly finished off.
Many of them had 5,000 to 6,000 HP and the risky daredevils had even lesser, at 2,000 to 3,000 HP. One single blast of {Pulverizing Flame} was enough to wipe them all clean, earning him a large amount of Merit Points. Whenever Felice was done with her attack, Zhang Yang would immediately call her back and unsummoned her from the world. It was to hide her away from the other players who had taken notice the situation and were about to launch their attacks on Felice. Since her attack took 30 seconds to cool down, it was best to hide her away, even for a brief moment.
Princess Serena led her company of dragon riders and moved on towards the fortress. An ambitious guild, hoping for fame and glory, had ambushed Princess Serena in a pincer attack. However, Princess Serena did not even need to raise a finger. The 12 dragon riders had zoomed down to ground level and unleashed their dragon breath fire on all the players in the area. In less than half a minute, more than 10,000 players were dead.
It was a shame that the kills of the dragon knights did not garner him Merit points. If Princess Serena were to lift her finger, the earth would split in two; her Meteor Sword would obliterate all that is living in sight.
Just like that, the entire White Jade Kingdom’s army marched on forward. The Emerald Kingdom’s forces were forced to rapidly withdraw. With haste, the fortress was taken over easily. The invading forces marched on and took over the Level 40 maps, Level 30, Level 20, and eventually, the Castle of Emerald itself!
The NPC army had been left behind, marching in their fixed, rigid formation. The battle was now between the players of the two kingdoms, since the army’s movement speed was slow. Players themselves had obtained a large number of Merit points. Zhang Yang naturally had obtained far more than anyone else, for his points had already surpassed 8,000! 2/3 of the points came from Felice alone. Her carpet bombing, and Zhang Yang’s aerial capabilities gave them a solid edge over everyone else. They had constantly been targeting the retreating, weakened players.
Just as the raging players was about to invade the castle gates, a few spots on the castle wall glowed brightly. A beam of light flashed by and landed down like a heavy, particle beam cannon. When the blast subsided, the area was vaporized. Nothing in ground zero survived.
Without a doubt, it was a Magic Cannon! The strongest defense mechanism! Without a siege catapult, it would almost be impossible to directly deal with the super-powered cannons. Right now, there was no other way, but to rush in with sheer numbers.
Hundreds of blasts later, the players of White Jade Kingdom finally saw reason, returned to lick their wounds at the back of the marching army. If they are killed for more than three times, the fourth death would result in expulsion from the war.
"Argh crap! I died! Bloody cannons! Was I too outstanding? Too good looking for you!?" said Wei Yan Er, having been among those who were vaporized.
"I told you so. Don’t always rush into things! You’ve gone from putting a load on me, to actually dragging me down with you!" Han Ying Xue sighed.
Zhang Yang chuckled to himself. With Han Ying Xue’s healing capability, the only items that would really overwhelm her healing would be the instant-kill magic cannons.
"How many points has the little brat earned so far?’
"Nyehehe. I got more than 1,400 points!" said the little girl like a big smile on her tiny little face. "Oh crap! I’ll need to wait for 30 minutes before I can revive! How much have you guys collected?"
"Woah. The little girl got 1,400?! I only have 800!" said Lost Dream.
"Hm. I have around 1,200." Said Hundred Shots.
Everyone reported their collected Merit points. Some were happy with their "scores" while some were lamenting over it. Technically, ranged attackers should be earning more than melee attackers. Ranged attackers could snipe at a fleeing target, afterall, or pick off a nearby enemy who is one hit from dying to the blows of another.
Ranged attackers also had many AoE skills at their disposal. The points system does not count the amount of damage that you deal, but the number of players who have died by your hands. For the valiant but inefficient, even if they deal a total of 10 million damage, that might not have even earned them 10,000 points! As the saying goes, the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
By the end of it, only Zhang Yang and Endless Starlight had still remained silent. Fatty Han called out, "Hey! Starlight! How many points did you get?"
"…74…" said Endless Starlight sadly.
Everyone laughed, after Endless Starlight awkwardly revealed his score.
It was understandable, still. A tank would have trouble dealing damage in the first place, and if their opponents decided to run away, a tank could not do anything about it, besides waving them goodbye. Truthfully speaking, Endless Starlight had done a good job snagging 70 points.
"How about Zhang Yang?" Hundred Shots added.
Zhang Yang smirked. He did not want to reveal his total points, since it might actually cause them to feel despair. Vaguely, Zhang Yang said, "Only a few thousand points. More than you guys anyway."
"How many exactly?" said Han Ying Xue as she emphasized on the last word.
"…8,275!"
"What the—That’s a lot!"
"You cheating noob tank! How did you manage to kill so many people? This young lady here has been running around like a mad dog! I even rushed into their ranks to swing about, and only managed to accumulated 1,400 points! Cheater!"
"Hm.., 8,000 points is indeed hard to believe. If the system had calculated by damage dealt, it would make sense for Zhang Yang to get 8,000 points. But by the number of players killed, 8,000 points is just too much to be true!" said Daffodil Daydream.
Zhang Yang laughed. None of them had Flying Mounts yet, so they would have no idea on how flying would make a whole difference in warfare. He could easily fly behind enemy lines and kill players before escaping. Since players can only attack targets within 30 meters, Zhang Yang would only need to fly 31 meters above them to stay safe!
As they were happily chatting, more hot-headed players had rushed to the castle. However, despite their reckless bravery, the magic cannon had blasted them off into oblivion.
The magic cannon power was just too strong. It was firing continuously, without any signs of overheating or running out of ammo.
Many players from the White Jade side were starting to worry. None of them had any idea on how to get past the massive firing range. Not even numbers can solve this problem! You can send in 5 million players, and all of them would be blasted to smithereens.
Just then, Princess Serena opened her mouth, but Zhang Yang was too far to hear anything. When she stopped talking, the 12 dragon riders behind her sortied. Like F22 fighter jets, the 12 dragons shot past the field. Even though there was only 12 of them, each dragon was at least a few hundred meters wide! When all 12 of them formed a V-shaped formation, they could easily eclipse the sun and cover the entire earth in darkness.
The dragons reached the castle within 4 flaps of their gigantic wings. 12 dragons spew raging hot fire on the castle walls, which immediately caved in. The flames had obliterated the cannons, along with their operators.
Boom! Boom!
The remaining cannons immediately retaliated. The magic cannons turned upwards to the dragons. Despite being huge, the dragons were as agile as tiny raccoons. Even before the cannons fired, the riders would already take evasive action, by simply anticipating the unmistakable glow of the barrels!
The dragons flew back to the castle top and blasted the castle walls again. More and more magic cannons were destroyed!
Having taken so many fireballs directly, the walls were beginning to cave in. Crack lines started forming on their surfaces. The cracks appeared like thunder during a storm, spreading quickly from the top to the bottom of the castle. More and more cracks branched out, as if the wall was aging at a rapid speed. No sooner later, a large part of the castle crumbled like the hollowed-out, rotten trunk of a tree.
Vrouum! Rawgh!
Just when almost all of the magic cannon of Emerald Castle had fallen, 12 dragons burst out of the crumbling castle walls, and charged towards the White Jade Kingdom’s dragon riders. Dragons from both sides of the war started launching fireballs at each other.
Now that is what you call toe-to-toe, wing-to-wing.
"Charge!"
"Hurrah!!"
Even though there were still numerous magic cannons that were still functioning in other parts of the castle, players had gained enough morale to charge up the front. Players of White Jade burned with intense morale and swarmed the castle like a tsunami.
Similarly, when the dragons from Emerald Castle had burst out heroically, their players had also rushed out of the castle to fight the incoming players.
The result of the war did not matter to either side, since their main objective was to earn as many Merit Points as they could. Hence, neither side would want to have their fight in the castle, even though it would easier to engage in a defensive fight. On a flat, empty terrain, players could blatantly engage with each other, be it kill or be killed, and the war would be over quickly that way. Time is of the essence since the war would end, once either leader of the warring kingdoms is killed.
Pew! Pew!
The magic cannons on the castle wall constantly blasted the players. However, since they had been vastly reduced, the light beams blasting into the sea of players would be like bowling balls hurled into the Pacific Ocean. They would hardly make any difference, in the grand scale of things.
The war zone was starting to turn ugly. Every second of every minute, players would be dying. The cycle continued on and on. Screams filled the sky as the sun started to set, slowly relieving the last rays of light from the blood-soaked shade of a once grassy plain. The battle was only between players. The NPC army in Emerald Kingdom was not moving, and the NPC army of White Jade Castle had yet to arrive. Apparently, the system had made it so to provide time for players to fight each other. If both NPC armies were to fight, the war would end in a heartbeat.
10 minutes…20 minutes…30 minutes…3 hours…5 hours…10 hours…
Even though players who fall in the war could revive after 30 minutes, the number of players in the battlefield had decreased dramatically, as their Merit points rose exponentially.
After dying for the fourth time, players would be revived back at their main city, unable to participate in the war any further. As for players who originated from Emerald City, they would be revived at White Jade Kingdom, instead of their own original "birthplace".
When the war was still at its premature stage, it was a chaotic crossfire of players swinging wildly at anything that moved, and even if Zhang Yang used {Shield Wall,} he would be instantly killed. Even professional players will face a great deal of trouble trying to survive in the chaotic war. However, when the number of players started to drop, the weapon tiers, skills, players co-op, and party formation would start to shine.
Right then, the players who were still alive on the field were the strongest in both skills and equipment. Players who had died 30 minutes before had come back to revive, only to be killed swiftly again by the much stronger survivors. The numbers had decreased from 200 million to only 500,000 players. These 500,000 players on the field were the elite among the elites. Hence, players from both sides of the war had a silent agreement to not engage in an all-out slugfest. Instead, they went around to search for newly revived players. There was no reason to go for an all-out kill. They were fighting for Merit points, not for the glory of mankind itself.