“It’s simply inhumane, infuriating, and insane!” After they met, What Pen Carries Fragrance expressed himself became even more vivid and expressive, “It started early this morning. Players from our guild have been hunted down by the Crusaders in the wild one after another. You know, our guild only accepts casual players who just play for fun. They are either newbies or various kinds of small accounts, or like you guys who just came back, how could they withstand such a beating? So far, more than a dozen people have quit the guild due to the pressure. There are also a few who are feeling indignant and want to fight back, but then…”
“And then, you’ve had another wave of casualties?” Jiang Shi added the second half of What Pen Carries Fragrance’s sentence, finally unable to contain his laughter. “It sounds quite miserable.”
“You can still laugh?” What Pen Carries Fragrance looked at him in disbelief.
“What else can I do, cry?” Jiang Shi retorted.
“It’s not what I meant… I came to you hoping to get some help and ideas, at least a more serious attitude!” What Pen Carries Fragrance despaired, rubbing his head. “Actually, the guild leader should handle this, but as you know, apart from her business, she’s not really concerned with anything else, so it fell into my hands. But what can I do? The Crusaders are our opponents. Tell me, what can I do!?”
Jiang Shi had always found this vice guild leader quite amusing, but now he realized that he had quite a theatrical personality. However, he didn’t let his continue to play the solo act and offered some advice sincerely, “Actually, it’s quite simple. It depends on what kind of outcome you want. The easiest way is to make concessions. After all, the Crusaders are clearly targeting our guild for their own gain. You’re the vice guild leader; you can kick some members directly to show submission.”
“That won’t work,” What Pen Carries Fragrance vetoed immediately. “The tree keeps its bark, and people keep their dignity. Should we kneel and submit after enduring this kind of pressure for so long? Our guild may be small, but we shouldn’t let just anyone walk all over us!”
Jiang Shi was surprised by the vice guild leader’s resolute stance and began to look at him with a newfound respect. But then What Pen Carries Fragrance hesitated and added, “In any case, we have to save face… We should at least endure for another ten days or so.”
Coughing awkwardly, Jiang Shi said, “Actually, there’s another option.”
What Pen Carries Fragrance asked, “What option?”
Jiang Shi smiled and winked, “Have you heard of ‘mutual defense‘?”
What Pen Carries Fragrance said, “Huh?”
Jiang Shi explained, “In simpler terms, it means fighting back.”
What Pen Carries Fragrance wondered, “Can that really work?”
Jiang Shi maintained his usual laid-back tone and said, “Well, let’s give it a try.”
A few minutes later, a message appeared in the Seven Silver Coins guild channel.
[Material Main Account: Need someone to clear the area on the map. Looking for a healer.]
What Pen Carries Fragrance glanced at the guild channel’s content and then at the party invite he had just been rejected from, looking somewhat resentful. “Why does it feel like I’m never included in your games?”
“Next time, I promise,” Jiang Shi said. “Today’s the first battle, and it has to be fast, precise, and ruthless. I’m afraid you might not keep up.”
What Pen Carries Fragrance asked, “So, you’ll be fine as long as you find a healer?”
“He doesn’t have to keep up,” Jiang Shi replied. “And I just called out randomly. I doubt our guild has a healer as battle-hungry as us…”
With the sudden party invite popping up, his words abruptly stopped.
Jiang Shi opened the applicant’s profile and checked it.
Game ID: Serious Young Man
Faction: Light Elves.
Main Class: Priest.
Looking at the equipment, it seemed decent.
“We have enough people; I’ll head out first. Get ready for my good news,” Jiang Shi said, approving the request and leaving behind those words before turning and walking away.
In the party, Deep Well Ice Player and Gentleman Fan Behavior, the two individuals who seemed to relish chaos, had long been waiting for this moment.
In the blink of an eye, only What Pen Carries Fragrance was left swaying in the wind at the original spot.
Despite coming to find someone to confide in, he felt even more frustrated after the conversation.
Sigh, it seemed like these people thought he was not good enough to play with them!
Jiang Shi immediately found the nearest teleportation point.
While all the maps in the Genesis Continent were interconnected, forming one large world, the vastness of it often led to significant time wastage during travel. Opening up teleportation points in various maps made the journey much more convenient.
However, this time, the destination was the eighth district that Jiang Shi had not visited before, and since the teleportation point hadn’t been unlocked yet, he had to choose a nearby map and then make his way there.
During the journey, he also switched to the team voice channel: “Is everyone ready? Meet me in the Daheira Desolation City in the eighth district.”
Deep Well Ice Player and Gentleman Fan both responded with a “1” in the team channel.
Clearly, the two of them, after advancing to the third level, had been busy running maps to level up in the past few days.
The newly joined priest player also spoke up, his voice crisp and youthful, “Are we going to deal with the Cleansing Crusaders?”
“Yes, that’s right,” when Jiang Shi had asked in the guild channel earlier, he didn’t specify which faction they were cleansing, and hearing this now piqued his curiosity, “Are you coming after the Crusaders? Do you have a grudge with them?”
Serious Young Man replied, “No grudge, just a guess, came over out of boredom.”
Jiang Shi had just mentioned to What Pen Carries Fragrance that most guild members probably didn’t like trouble, but he didn’t expect to immediately team up with someone who said they were just “bored,” and he couldn’t help but laugh.
Moreover, it was clear that this healer was quite enthusiastic. After being the first to arrive, he asked, “I’m here, where are you guys?”
Jiang Shi said, “Hold on, I’m running a map.”
Serious Young Man asked, “What map are you running?”
Jiang Shi said, “Just returned, and the teleportation point isn’t open.”
Serious Young Man said, “Oh…”
Jiang Shi had expected his unreliable attitude to discourage the new member, but after a simple “Oh,” this Light Elf priest fell silent.
It seemed like he was patiently waiting there.
Finally, after Jiang Shi’s mad dash, he successfully met up with the others.
He picked up a twig and drew a simple strategy map on the ground, saying, “Later, we’ll do this… then this… and finally this…”
After explaining, he turned to Serious Young Man and said, “There might be a melee later, so you should find a safe place to hide. I’ll give you coordinates when needed.”
Serious Young Man raised an eyebrow, “You don’t want me to join you?”
Jiang Shi said, “It’s not that we don’t want you, but staying out of the combat zone would be safer for you.”
Serious young man stared at him intently, “If I don’t enter the combat zone, you guys can just use health potions directly, and you won’t need me as a healer, right?”
“That’s still necessary,” Gentleman Fan also spoke up in the voice channel, “Health potions have weak healing effects. Today, we’re here to clear all the wild maps as quickly as possible. If someone can heal us, it’ll save us a lot of recovery time.”
Serious Young Man contemplated for a moment, seemingly accepting the role of a mobile health pack, and nodded, “If there are KPIs, it seems pretty interesting. But you don’t need to find a place for me to hide. Just stick with you guys the whole time. If a melee breaks out, you don’t have to worry about me; I can take care of myself.”
Just by listening to the conversation, Jiang Shi found this healer quite interesting. Since he had agreed and hadn’t refused, Jiang Shi finalized the decision, “Let’s all move together. Let’s go.”
Deep Well Ice Player had not said a word the whole time but now sent Jiang Shi a friend message: “Have you noticed that this Light Elf’s style of dressing is quite similar to yours?”
At Jiang Shi’s words, he turned around for a quick look.
He hadn’t paid much attention earlier, but now that it was mentioned, it did seem so—
Jiang Shi had chosen to make the Daheira Desolation City in the eighth district the first stop for a reason.
The last time the Cleansing Crusaders had cleared the guild members of the Seven Silver Coins was in this map, and if things went as expected, they shouldn’t have gone too far.
Although Daheira was called a desolation city, after the opening of the new level, you can always meet a lot of players who come to grind monsters every step of the way.
Not only did they not feel the desolation in the air, but the place looked lively and resembled a tourist destination.
As the group continued their journey, they encountered several places where people were engaged in combat over monster spawns. Under normal circumstances, they might have stopped to watch the excitement, but now was clearly not the time to get involved.
It wasn’t until they reached the far northeast corner of the desolation city that Jiang Shi finally stopped. He found an area with sparse distribution of skeletal creatures and started grinding slowly.
As for the other team members, they stealthily crouched nearby.
The wild monsters in the Daheira Desolation City were level 85 skeletal creatures, including warriors, knights, archers, and various other types. These creatures would occasionally emerge from the sand, sometimes reaching out to grab your ankle, which could be quite eerie, especially at night.
The location Jiang Shi had chosen was clearly not favored by the skeletal creatures. In this situation, they could only engage two creatures at a slow pace at most, which was in line with the support role of a Light Elf.
Combined with the fact that the Seven Silver Coins had been cleared the whole day, it seemed like they had intentionally chosen this secluded spot for a quiet level-up session.
Jiang Shi knew that there were still Crusaders lurking in the map, but searching such a large area was too bothersome, so he decided to bait them into coming to them.
And indeed, the Crusaders took the bait rather quickly.
Today, the Crusaders had their own Key Performance Indicators for setting up a vast network to clear the Seven Silver Coins members from various wild maps. The team responsible for the Daheira Desolation City was the 8th team in charge of player elimination. They had just swept through and were planning to switch maps when they unexpectedly found a lone support character. They were as delighted as a pack of wolves spotting a defenseless rabbit.
Jiang Shi had noticed the shadowy figures getting closer, but he didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He continued toying with the skeletal creatures, as if he wasn’t concerned at all. It wasn’t until the Crusaders were almost right in front of him that he revealed a surprised expression, “Oh, I’ve hidden so discreetly, how did you manage to find me?”
When the leader of the 8th team saw the model of this Light Elf, he couldn’t help but exclaim, “D*mn,” rubbing his hands with ill intentions. “Sorry about this, but our guild’s orders are to eliminate anyone from the Seven Silver Coins on sight. If you get hurt, don’t blame us. Blame your guild leader for recruiting people they shouldn’t have.”
“Is that so?” Jiang Shi smiled at them. “In that case, I hope you understand that we have the same policy. If you get hurt, don’t blame me.”
The leader of the 8th team paused before realizing the meaning behind Jiang Shi’s words. He exchanged glances with his teammates, as if they had heard a joke, and laughed, “You’re pretty confident. Well, we won’t be polite then.”
Jiang Shi replied, “Good, we won’t be either.”
What does he mean, “we“?
Realizing the implication behind Jiang Shi’s choice of words, the Crusaders finally realized they should find a place to hide nearby. However, when they turned around, they were met with a series of attacks, and a short-lived battle erupted in the corner of the Daheira Desolation City.
It was at this moment that another intention of Jiang Shi’s decision to wait at this location became clear. Almost right at the respawn point area, after the first wave of one-sided slaughter had ended, the 8th team was subsequently wiped out in three more waves, lying on the ground with no hope left.
Jiang Shi, leaning against a half-collapsed wall with a giant cross, said, “You know, I can understand your feelings. After all, we’ve just vividly demonstrated what it’s like to steal a chicken and lose a handful of rice. This doorstep delivery might seem quite foolish and frustrating. But, considering we haven’t shown our faces for a while, not recognizing us is understandable.”
“Seriously, why target the Seven Silver Coins specifically? Isn’t this just to have fun at our expense? Honestly, what’s the point?”
“If I were you, I’d quickly call for reinforcements in the guild right now. Sincere advice – if we decide to guard you all day… Oh, it might also be a good idea to go offline for safety. Friendship is fate; isn’t this suggestion excellent?”
The members of the 8th team, who had been full of arrogance before, had no traces of their earlier demeanor while lying on the ground. Listening to Gentleman Fan’s drawn-out and condescending tone, they held back the urge to vomit blood.
This endless monologue, comparable to Tang Seng’s scriptures, felt like a haunting nightmare in their ears. The members of the 8th team were dazed, and even Deep Well Ice Player was gradually on the verge of collapse – this guy was chatting with corpses, and he even had the team voice chat on!
In the end, it was Jiang Shi who came out at the right time to mediate, saying, “Alright, Gentleman Fan, that’s enough.”
The members of the 8th team, upon hearing these words of righteousness, were moved, and Jiang Shi continued, “After all, we are acting in self-defense. If they think we’re bullying them, it wouldn’t look good.”
The 8th team: “…?”
How many times have they chased us down? Is this your idea of self-defense?
Feeling the pain in their hearts, the leader of the 8th team finally put aside his pride and sent a distress call in the guild channel: “@PojunBaba, President SOS! We’re being camped by the Seven Silver Coins, are there any other brothers around? I’ll send coordinates, please send reinforcements!”
Hello! I think this chapter somehow got mixed into the ‘Top Stream Business’ chapter list (am now on the hunt for Ch 30, part 1 of TSB though) 🤭