Chapter 407 – Beginning of War
After several s.p.a.ce jumps, a huge shadow appeared above Iron Chain Town. Under Sky City, the town’s pet.i.te body was like a strand of gra.s.s at the foot of a big tree, buried in the shadow of it.
From Sky City, Fatty found that the entire town was packed with players and NPC troops that extended thousands of meters outside. Oval military camps could be seen everywhere, the soldiers coming to and fro wore solemn expressions and walked with hurried steps.
Several hundred meters away from Iron Chain Town already stood someone to welcome Fatty. This person was Marshal Ferotiger. The marshal, who had once mightily driven the five Demon Kings back to the Demon Realm with a million troops, now looked gaunt and exhausted.
“You’ve come,” Marshal Ferotiger greeted while hovering in the air.
Fatty bowed slightly. “Lord of Sky City, Money Grubber, greets Marshal.”
Marshal Ferotiger nodded, then sighed. “Let’s talk in your city.”
Fatty was briefly stunned but quickly led the way in. Also coming up with Marshal Ferotiger were hundreds of officers of all ranks and mages who had come in an urgent dispatch from the Imperial Capital to provide support.
Seeing the tattered Sky City, Marshal Ferotiger’s brows twitched. “What happened?”
With a sheepish smile, Fatty shyly replied, “Some friends came to visit me bearing a big gift. We were a little too excited, and the celebration went a bit overboard.”
Reck and Lucas turned their heads at the same time. Both angry and humored, Liu Lan had several players come over to clear out some s.p.a.ce for these senior officers to squat down.
Sitting down on a random piece of rubble that fell from Holy Spirit Island, Marshal Ferotiger quickly said, “I think you’ve already been notified of the situation. Heavens Scar was lost. The Demon race has mobilized tens of millions of troops into Heavens Scar to stream into the Human world. At the moment when all areas of the country are in critical situations, His Majesty is unable to give me any more a.s.sistance, so we must ask for help from Sky City to station this place.”
“No problem,” Fatty immediately agreed. “Give me sufficient supplies and energy, and I’ll do whatever you want.”
“He’s actually asking for benefits? Shameless!”
“For such a person to become the lord of Sky City, the G.o.ds are blind!”
“As far as I’m concerned, we should just take over Sky City!”
The officers following Ferotiger all stared at Fatty wide-eyed as they broke out into a commotion. They could not understand how such a… thing could become the lord of Sky City. When their country was in danger of a war that could even involve the entire human race, this person actually opened his mouth to demand resources and energy. This was practically profiting from a national disaster. Some hurled abuse, some even suggested capturing Sky City.
Fatty smiled at Marshal Ferotiger, completely ignoring the words of the officers around him. Marshal Ferotiger smiled a little and said, “Resources and energy are both ready, as long as you can hold for three months and keep the Demon race from entering the Human world from Heavens Scar.”
“Very straightforward! Deal!” Fatty clapped his hands.
After the deal was reached, Marshal Ferotiger left with his people in a hurry for the Imperial Capital through the Teleportation Portal in Iron Chain Town. It was unknown what their purpose of returning was, but they threw the defense mission in this area entirely to Fatty. Only now did Fatty know that Marshal Ferotiger’s troops of millions were almost all killed in action, leaving only a few hundreds of thousands.
To comply with Marshal Ferotiger’s orders before he left, a large amount of materials stored in Iron Chain Town were delivered to Sky City in super-huge spatial tools. The amount of resources was enough to build the entire Sky City. At the same time, chests of magic stones were also sent to all parts of Sky City, especially the magic towers.
Being called over from Black Tortoise City again, Grandmaster Architect Lin howled and every cell in his body screamed in excitement upon seeing the materials. This fellow, who had previously ranked up to Grandmaster Architect for rebuilding Sky City, immediately urged his workers to speed up the reconstruction.
“Fatty, we have enough resources but not enough personnel. Which guilds do you think we need to camp in here?” Liu Lan brought up the most important matter with Fatty.
Before Fatty could answer, he heard a voice calling, “Fatty, come out here! Uncle has come to rely on you!”
Bai Xiaosheng was covered in smoke and dust, looking tired with his leather armor badly tattered. He looked like a newbie instead of a big guild’s guild master.
Fatty rushed to welcome him and asked, “Why did you say that, Uncle? Could it be that Hero City…”
Bai Xiaosheng painfully smiled. “Yes, Hero City is gone. Uncle is back to level zero and can only come to you now.”
“What?!” Fatty and Liu Lan were shocked. They could guess that Hero City was taken down by the Demon race – even Marshal Ferotiger had been driven out and Tiger City had been breached, not to mention Hero City.
But, Bai Xiaosheng was killed to level zero? Just what on earth?!
Fatty sprang up on the spot, his face full of murderous intent. “Uncle, who did it? I’ll avenge you. I won’t be the lord of this city if I don’t kill him until he deletes his character!”
Bai Xiaosheng patted Fatty on the shoulder with a happy smile. “I’m very glad that you have this heart, but there’s no ‘him.’ I just took things too hard for a moment and let myself be slain to level zero.”
Fatty turned his gaze to the players behind Bai Xiaosheng. One of them said in a low voice, “The Demon race attacked Hero City. Our guild master tried his best to defend and died many times. Every time, he’d go back to fight until he returned to Beginner’s Village.”
Fatty was stunned. He could imagine Bai Xiaosheng’s situation at that time. Seeing the Hero City that he had painstakingly built attacked by the Demon race to the verge of destruction and his people being wiped out, this man couldn’t help but rush out, die, then rush out, again and again until he finally couldn’t anymore.
Bai Xiaosheng waved his hands. “Don’t mention those things anymore. I’ve come to join Sky City with the All-Knowing Sect. Isn’t Sky City short of people? You can throw the ch.o.r.es to us.”
There were no so-called ch.o.r.es in Sky City. The only job was to control the war equipment when the enemy invaded. They had just discussed the shortage of manpower when Bai Xiaosheng brought people over, which really solved their most pressing problem. With Bai Xiaosheng’s character, Fatty believed him unconditionally.
“Oh, by the way, Uncle, what happened to Heavens Scar? Why was everyone suddenly driven out?” Fatty had always been curious about this, but Marshal Ferotiger had left too fast and never given him the time to ask.
Bai Xiaosheng sighed. “Originally, they were only in a deadlock at the entrance to the Demon realm. Although there were victories and defeats for both sides every day, the Demon race had been unable to enter Heavens Scar. But somehow, one day, two cracks broke in Heavens Scar and the Demon army gushed in through them. There were tens of millions of them, they simply flooded the Human army defending there. Moreover, they came with experts. In addition to the five Demon Kings we know, there were several extremely powerful members of the Demon Royal Family. Just like that, we were driven out of Heavens Scar.”
Fatty patted Bai Xiaosheng on the shoulder and comforted him with a few words. Liu Lan then a.s.signed the All-Knowing Sect players to be stationed in various places.
Only then did Bai Xiaosheng have time to check out Sky City. Pointing to Holy Spirit Island that didn’t look much better than a garbage dump, he asked in shock, “This is…”
Fatty smiled and shyly explained, “We were overexcited and got too rough.”
Since Marshal Ferotiger had handed over the mission of defending this place to Fatty, he naturally wouldn’t wash his hands off it. Sometime later, several expert officers, who were easy to tell from their steady steps and serious faces, landed on Sky City.
“We are vice marshals of the Tiger Army, coming here on orders of Marshal Ferotiger. If you come across experts you can’t handle in the future, just call us,” the lead officer said.
Fatty was overjoyed. Sky City had basically everything but personnel. The shortage of players to control battle equipment had temporarily been filled by the All-Knowing Sect, while there was still a lack of powerful people who could resist Divine experts. Now with these officers, Sky City’s defense of Heavens Scar could be said to be foolproof, unless the other side decided to deploy even more experts.
Sweeping a look over Sky City, the vice marshals were startled. Marshal Ferotiger had been in a hurry to have a thorough look, but they could see it very clearly right now. 3,000 magic crystal cannons with ferocious muzzles aimed at the surroundings emitted bone-chilling metallic light. 3,000 magic towers stood towering in Sky City, each flas.h.i.+ng from time to time with the most beautiful magic runes on their surfaces. Tens of thousands of ballistae, turrets, archer towers, catapults, and various defense equipment had turned Sky City into a hedgehog.
“It is indeed worthy to be the head of the seven neutral main cities, the aerial fortress,” one of the vice marshals praised.
“Although I won’t say we can drive back those demon b.a.s.t.a.r.ds with this, it’s more than enough to defend this place for three months.”
After having arranged these big shots well, Fatty started to have ideas again. He wasn’t necessarily needed in this kind of defense task, it worked as long as Sky City was present. His top priority now was to upgrade the Elemental Skill Book and Sword Diagram to Legendary. Only then would he have some confidence when facing Divine experts.
Fatty might have looked mighty when he had slain Prince Bader, but it had been only possible with Karl who had helped to hold the G.o.d Destroyer Crossbow for half an hour to activate at the cost of one thousand magic stones, then dealt a fatal blow to Bader so that Fatty could seize the opportunity to finish him. Also, the Divine earth mage hadn’t really been all that. Only those who had created their own nations could be considered true Divine experts.
Even when Sky City hovered over the entrance to Heavens Scar and paid close attention to all kinds of movements on the other side, players in other places still farmed and leveled as usual. For them, the war with the Demon race was still too far away, because their strength still wasn’t qualified to partake.
In a remote mountain, a player killed a python, wiped his sweat, and threw out several Harvests to get the mission items like snakeskin and gallbladder. As this player about to leave after he was done, he noticed a slight movement in the distance. It seemed that there was something there, so the player walked over curiously.
Kah kah… A sound of gla.s.s breaking could be heard. The player was horrified to see the s.p.a.ce in front slowly expand. Soldiers in black armor riding black Demonic beasts soundlessly stepped out, easily trampling the player as they ran past.