Chapter 203
Chapter 203: Grea City Invasion
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The empty square undergoing construction was where the Royal Armament Guild’s headquarters used to be located . Sila walked around it, feeling amazed . The last time he had been there, it had been nothing but a pile of rubble . Nothing had indicated that this place used to be the main base for one of the three leading factions in Monster Soul .
It was all thanks to Beluga’s funding and Grea City’s technology that surpassed other cities . It took only three days for noticeable progress to be attained .
“Sila, come here!” Fargo’s voice could be heard from far away .
Sila turned his head to look at where the voice came from and found that the man was waving at him . Fargo was standing next to a big orange tent next to the construction .
Sebastian led the way and entered the tent, followed by Sila, Lookhin, and Mamon . Inside the tent, they found that the interior was more spacious than it looked outside . There was an extremely long table in the middle of the room surrounded by chairs . Sila suspected that this place was a meeting room .
Cross was sitting on the largest chair in the middle as if he was sitting on a throne . Sitting next to him on his right was Shueria, who was sitting silently with his pet—a giant white tiger—laying on the floor .
On Cross’ left were all seven members of Tiger Team .
Sebastian walked to the right side and slid the chair back for Sila to sit down on . As for the butler himself, he remained standing behind the chosen seat .
Mamon swept a glance over the room, inspecting every person within, then decided to sit on Sila’s right . As for Lookhin, she just nonchalantly sat down on Sila’s lap as usual .
Due to Cross showing a serious expression, the atmosphere in the room was gloomy . Even playful people like Aek and Tod didn’t dare to throw jokes or greet Sila .
It was Sila who noticed that everyone was too stressed, so he broke the silence .
“Long time no see, everyone . How are you all?”
“The hell with your ‘long time’? It has only been three days . ” Cross put an end to Sila’s nonsense .
Sila then recalled that the time in the Desert of Wishes flowed differently from the outside .
“Oh, right . I just felt three days were quite long . Shall we get to the point?” asked Sila .
“Not yet . Wait for everyone to gather first . I don’t want to repeat the same thing,” said Cross .
Sila nodded, before turning his head to Tiger . “That’s fine . By the way, Mister Tiger, why are you here?”
Cross didn’t forbid talking . It was just that the atmosphere around him was dark and he always showed a moody expression, so it was hard for everyone around him to act lively .
Tiger shot a glance at Cross once . Then, seeing that Cross didn’t show any reaction, he replied to Sila .
“The thing is, most of our team members are psychic type, so we have been with Mister Cross for quite a while . Mister Shueria helped us a lot in the past two days, and Pim got to train her qi with Mister Fargo’s help . ”
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Sila turned his head to Pim . “That’s great . Have you gotten the Qi of Little Divine Beings yet, Pim?”
Pim shook her head . “Not yet . I heard they were discussing the order . They wanted the skilled players to get them first . ”
Sila nodded, while Mamon interrupted . “Furthermore, without you or the item girl, no one could grant people permission to enter the mansion . ”
“Mn, I see . By the way, Mamon, I’ve thought of asking this many times before . Could you please stop addressing Julia as the item girl?”
“But that girl is really an item . What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s just impolite . Think of it as my request, okay?”
“I don’t see the point . Anyway, fine . I won’t call her that anymore . ”
It was the first time everyone in the room got to see Mamon and Lookhin in a human form . However, Sila always acquainted himself with strange people like Lomyok(?), Bluebird, Burapha, or even monsters like Franz or Asura, so they didn’t find Mamon and Lookhin too weird .
Since Sila didn’t talk about it, they didn’t ask, afraid of inquiring about Sila’s personal secrets .
Though, in fact, Sila just simply forgot to introduce them . He had grown used to living in the desert where he didn’t have any friends to talk to for two months . If someone just asked, he would honestly answer .
Sila shifted his interest to Jundtrathep and Pond, who were magic types . “What about you, Jund and Pond?”
“ . . . ” Jundtrathep kept blankly staring at Sila until Alice poked her waist .
“Kya! What are you doing, Alice? . . . Ah? Sorry, Big Brother Sila . What did you just ask?”
Sila didn’t mind . “I was just curious . Since you and Pond are magic types, what kind of training are you undertaking?”
“Oh . . . Both of us are training under Luna’s guidance . Well, our progress seems slow . ”
Jundtrathep was a genuine spellcaster while Pond was a supporter, so they usually cast magic from the rear instead of engaging directly . Thus, they had a difficult time practicing magic power reinforcement .
“Mn . Since you have never used it before, you might find it difficult . However, once you get the hang of it, you will know that it’s very useful and convenient,” commented Sebastian .
“ . . . Yes,” replied Juntrathep . Her eyes were still fixed on Sila’s face . She noticed that his usual messy hair had been cut and trimmed, showing his manly yet polite facial features . Although Sila was still far from being handsome like Lomyok or Shueria, those two should be considered pretty boys, having an attractive face and nice skin . For Sila, he was a manly type who had a clear jawline and a slightly tanned body . His brown eyes projected his sincerity and honesty .
Aek snapped his fingers in front of Jundtrathep’s face . Twitching, she regained focus and looked at Aek .
“Stop sexually harassing Big Brother Sila with your eyes already~, Jund . ”
Jundtrathep’s face was reddened . “That’s not it! Umm . . . It’s just . . . Big Brother Sila, you got a haircut?”
“Oho~ Look at you, changing the topic~” Tod teased his friend .
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Sila couldn’t help but show his smile . It was refreshing to see that the Tiger Team’s members were still the same . “Yeah, I changed my hairstyle a bit . ”
Fargo opened the tent and walked inside, followed by Varee, Sangdao, Julia, and Bluebird . Everyone exchanged short greetings before taking their seats .
“You look better with your new hairstyle, Sila . Dao always thought that you would look great if you just trimmed your hair,” Sangdao remarked while sitting two seats away from Sila’s left, leaving an empty chair between them .
Varee gave her a look once, to which Sangdao just smiled back . Then, Varee proceeded to sit next to Sila without saying anything .
Seeing Varee sitting just a seat away, Lookhin moved and sat on Varee’s lap .
Varee was surprised . “Who is this girl? She is cute . ”
“Oh, that’s Lookhin . She can take a human form since she has reached Lord Rank,” replied Sila .
Varee touched Lookhin’s chubby cheeks . “You are so cute~ Lookhin, do you remember me?”
Lookhin nodded . “Mommy!”
Varee found Lookhin too daring to mind what the girl called her . However, her smile only lasted for a brief moment before Lookhin took a look at Sangdao . Lookhin furrowed her tiny brows, tilting her head as she was thinking hard, before calling Sangdao .
“Mommy!”
Sila’s heart sunk . He did his best to keep a serious look while thinking that maybe Lookhin called every woman ‘Mommy’ . Meanwhile, Bluebird bit his lip, trying to hold in his laughter .
Cross gave Sila a discontented look . Even though he wanted to curse him, he found the matter about Grea City more important than getting upset over this .
“Sila, you sent us a message saying that Grea City is in danger . What did you mean?”
Cross always cut to the chase . Ever since he got back from the desert, Sila had been more interested in getting to know Cross . If what Pumin said was true, he would have to depend on Cross a lot in the future .
Pumin forbade him from explicitly talking about the desert’s reward, so Sila organized the words in his head and stated the reason in his own way .
“I just have a hunch that Montra would surely target Grea City . Our union has just been established and Grea City is our weakest link . However, I don’t understand why he hasn’t made a move yet . ”
Cross was aware that Grea City was the union’s greatest weakness at the moment, though he felt displeased to hear it from Sila’s mouth .
“We are well aware of that . In the past two or three days, there were many groups of unfamiliar players entering the city and they have yet to leave . We don’t know their objective yet, but these people aren’t the Heavenly Dragon Guild’s members . ”
Sila gave it a thought . “I’m sure those people are Montra’s allies . Montra has a number of secret allied groups who haven’t directly joined his guild . I believe these people are some of them . ”
“How can you know that?”
Sila couldn’t explain the matter about the Wulin Masters Association, so he had to give a random yet plausible reason .
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“Montra is influential in real life . These groups of people relate to Montra that way . Each of them is a martial artist or at least someone interested in martial arts . Their number should be around fifty thousand . ”
“Um . . . If what you said is true, the good news is that we know about them now, and can expect an attack . However, the bad news is we don’t have a countermeasure . ”
“I suggest we rebuild the Royal Armament Guild, recruiting members who are good at playing games . I have fought against some of Montra’s secret force before . Even though they are martial artists, they are inexperienced regarding games . If we rely on in-game skills or techniques that only exist in the game, we can stand a chance against them . ”
Cross frowned . He unleashed Mental Oppression at Sila, though it also affected others . Everyone had to protect themselves with energy reinforcement to resist the pressure . The mood turned grim again .
“What kind of a joke you are going to pull this time, huh?! You are one of the main reasons why our guild collapsed . Now what? You’re telling us to rebuild it again? Do you take us for clowns?”
‘Um . His psychic power’s characteristic is the power to control, I guess? He is emitting it gradually from his body . He must have good affinity with the wood element, then . In that case, his personality is contradicting his power . He will be more terrifying if he is calm like Kawin . ’
Sila silently circulated Five-Attributed Cloud Qi throughout his body . The element that was strong against the wood element was metal . Sila focused his qi around his lungs, increasing his metal attribute .
Once he did that, Cross’ Mental Oppression had a negligible effect on him .
Sila took a deep breath and gave an honest reply .
“That’s my fault . I’m sorry . I only realized later that Montra was using me . If there is anything that I can do to help you rebuild the Royal Armament Guild, please let me know . ”
His tone of voice was firm and sincere . Hearing that, Cross canceled his power .
Everyone in the room looked at Sila, feeling astonished . They all thought that Sila had changed from three days ago . However, they wondered how someone could change this much in just a matter of three days?
Sila said sorry without putting up a pretense or being indirect about it . Cross no longer had anything to say, so Fargo continued .
“Since you really meant it, we will gladly accept your help . We are building a guild from scratch, so I admit that we need support, no matter how small . ”
“I am glad I can help . In addition, when I am away, traveling to Belacia City, I will let Sebastian and Julia stay here and help out . ”
Sebastian had a mission to protect Grea City from being conquered by the enemy, so he was glad to take that duty with pleasure .
“What about the forces that may invade us? What will we do? Should we ask for reinforcements?” asked Bluebird .
“We shouldn’t . That will make other guilds in our union vulnerable to the attack instead . Although our numbers only amount to two hundred, every single one of them knows this city well and their ability is decent . If we avoid the direct clash, we can make it,” said Cross .
“Montra is perhaps planning something . That’s why he is late . We should use this time wisely by studying terrain and preparing traps . ”
And so, the meeting continued . . .
Great City at midnight was disturbed by steam and engines .
On the rooftop of a certain building that could see most of Great City stood a man in full body armor with a white mask on his face . He had been patiently waiting for a signal since two days ago .
As the Crystals of Connecting in his pocket shone and broke, he knew that the wait had ended .
Six silhouettes emerged around the man . One of them was his leader who was hailed as the Magic Emperor . The one next to him was his leader’s partner, an angel name Ramiel . Lastly, the other four were the remaining Five Dragon Warlords excluding him .
The man kneeled down as soon as he noticed Montra . He didn’t know beforehand that his leader would come personally .
“No need for formality, Zazae . I will be in charge today . ”
Zazae stood up . Not many people knew that he worshipped Montra, a man blessed with strength and intelligence . Hearing that Montra would personally be in charge, he didn’t doubt that today’s objective would end up successful .
Montra took a look at Grea City once, before commanding Zazae . “Tell our people to start immediately . ”
Zazae nodded and opened his system window to input some commands . Soon, the sounds of battles and weapons clashing against each other resounded throughout the city, and fires ignited .
Trick Master couldn’t help but express his curiosity . “Mister Montra, you still didn’t tell us the plan . What are our duties?”
“In this phase, we will wait and see Cross’ reaction first . Then, I will tell you what actions you will have to take . ”
“Our guild is a righteous guild . Ordinary players will think badly of us if we raid the city without reason, no?” Cheris asked .
Montra didn’t even look back . “No need to worry . The Wicked Union used us to gain fame for themselves and devalued the reputation of the Five Dragon Warlords . Today, in addition to seizing the city from Cross, I will restore our reputation . ”
“Anyway, we will look like a bad guy in ordinary players' opinions, no?”
Montra turned his body and looked at his teammates . “Don’t worry . Since they claimed to be virtuous and slandered us, we will claim that, instead, the Heavenly Dragon Guild are the virtuous ones with the responsibility to crush the Wicked Union . ”
Everyone looked at each other, their faces clearly showed that they had no idea what would happen next . Only Zazae knew Montra’s plan beforehand .
“We don’t understand, Montra,” said Shuran .
Montra nodded and gave a meaningful look to Zazae . “Rather than me spelling it out, we better show them . . . Go, Cross . ”
Zazae nodded . He emitted psychic power from his body, controlling five swords to hover around him, before soaring toward the center of the city using Psychic Impact . No matter how one looked at him, the current Zazae was just like Cross .
“War is about writing history, thrusting sins upon the opponent while bearing a sign of justice . There is no such thing as being completely right or being completely wrong in the war . History is written by the victors . By tomorrow morning, we will have written a new page of Monster Soul’s history . ”
Both the smoke and steam from the battles below were blown up near Montra . However, his determination wasn’t wavering in the slightest .
He was confident that, come morning, his plan would have shifted to the next phase .