Chapter 334 – Hero City
“Hero City!”
Many players exclaimed, their faces aglow with greed.
“Guild Master Bai, what should be done to seize Hero City? Clear out the monsters inside?” a guild master asked, itching to get on with it.
“That’s only the first step. After the city is taken over, there will be a monster siege. As long as we protect the city for 10 hours straight, it’s captured,” Bai Xiaosheng replied straightforwardly without hiding anymore.
“What are we waiting for? Brothers, follow me and be the first to enter Hero City. It shall be ours!” These players no longer bother to keep up a friendly front. They couldn’t care less about how Bai Xiaosheng felt and led their people to race towards the city.
Some guild masters glanced at Bai Xiaosheng with a smile that wasn’t a smile. Catching the ‘helpless and resentful’ look on his face, they patted his shoulder comfortingly before… also das.h.i.+ng off with their subordinates. In a blink, only a meager tens of players were left around Bai Xiaosheng.
“Heh, go ahead, fight hard, fight ferociously. Wait until you find out that you’re not eligible to be city lord without the Tower of Heroes, I’ll see if you can still laugh then,” Bai Xiaosheng mercilessly spat.
“Uncle, in any case, I think it’s better to be the first to enter the city. If the system goes nuts and crowns the first guy as the city lord, it’d be a tragedy,” Fatty said.
“I agree.” HeadofG.o.d, Fierce Dragon TheTalent and the rest also nodded.
“No need to hurry. Just let them fight for a while first and enter when the time is right. Here, this is the structure of Hero City. When the gate is opened, we must rush in and be the first one to seize the City Lord Manor. The Tower of Heroes must be set there to play its role. Our All-Knowing Sect brothers went through a great deal of trouble to get these.” Bai Xiaosheng took out a pile of maps from his inventory and handed everyone a copy.
Recalling how Bai Xiaosheng had been completely inactive earlier, and then suddenly pulled out the maps now that the others were out of sight, everyone understood that he was fully prepared and no longer worried for him.
While Hero City used to be a main city, it wasn’t large compared to the current four main cities and Sky City, with only one-fifth of their area. Outside the city walls, the ground was filled with bones and the air had a gloomy, lifeless feel to it. A pillar of black smoke rose up from the middle of the city and spread into a black curtain that shrouded it, revealing only a vague outline of the city.
“d.a.m.n it, undead magic Canopy of Darkness. Hero City is indeed occupied by the Demon race. With this thing here, we can’t see the situation inside. Luckily we have so many free cannon fodders to open the way, otherwise, our losses would be big. While I, Bai Xiaosheng, am a rich man, it’s not like I want to suffer losses for no reason, right?” Bai Xiaosheng muttered to himself.
In the beginning, Bai Xiaosheng had gathered over two hundred players. Aside from the guildless ones like Fatty as well as experts who weren’t guild masters, the rest were nearly two hundred guild masters, which also meant nearly two hundred guilds. Each of them had summoned several hundred members, which amounted to an army of tens of thousands.
Right now, this army was stationed along one side of the city wall. After some discussion, the nearly two hundred guild masters came to see Bai Xiaosheng.
“Guild Master Bai, since you’ve studied this mission for such a long time, I’m sure you have some way to break through the city gate. Please don’t keep it to yourself and tell everyone,” said a small fellow with triangular eyes and thick drooped brows that spread at the end like a broom. From just a glance, Fatty concluded that this fellow was nothing good.
“I only know some details about Hero City. As for how to attack it, how would I know when I’ve never tried?” Bai Xiaosheng nonchalantly shrugged, indicating he had no way either.
“Guild Master Bai, we were all invited by you to help. If you back out now, it’ll look ugly for all of us. In the future, everyone will feel uncomfortable about cooperating again too,” another guild master threatened.
“Humph! Your father is already feeling uncomfortable, so there’ll be no ‘future.’” Bai Xiaosheng suddenly made a stern face and ignored them.
“You still have the face to say such a thing? Guild Master Bai invited you to help with his mission, but the mission hasn’t even begun yet you’re already planning to rob his stuff. I’m amazed by your shamelessness,” Fierce Dragon TheTalent reprimanded.
“Don’t put it like that,” a guild master unhurriedly spoke. “Aren’t we helping out by attacking the city? As for who will be the city lord in the end, this isn’t within the scope of our help, is it?”
“Good, very good!” Bai Xiaosheng looked ghastly pale at the peak of his fury. “If so, let it all come down to our abilities. I won’t see you out!”
Bai Xiaosheng flung his sleeves and turned around in style. The guild masters exchanged glances before they shook their heads and went back to prepare for the siege.
“Those fools are so impatient. And I thought they’d wait until opening up the city first before revealing their true intention to rob the city lord position,” Bai Xiaosheng mocked after the guild masters were out of sight.
With a booming chorus of “Kill!” the players started attacking the city. Since they hadn’t prepared any siege equipment, they naturally prepared to fill the shortage with bodies.
The guilds seemed to have little intention of cooperating. All at once, they rushed towards the wall as fast as possible for fear of being outdone by others. This also provided an advantage. When everyone attacked at full power in every place, when the damage reached a certain degree, they’d create openings everywhere. The Demon army in the city would have to attend to one place after another until they were overloaded, giving the players a chance to barge in somewhere.
More than five hours later during which at least ten thousand players died at the wall, the guild masters looked at the white bones buried outside the city with livid faces, trying to hold back stamping their feet and cussing out.
“Guild Master, this won’t do…” Some players started to back out.
“This won’t do then what will?! You tell me a good way!” The faces of the guild masters were so dark they looked like they’d rain at any moment. Glancing at Bai Xiaosheng who was watching in relish, they gritted their teeth.
Due to the Death Altar, the dead players didn’t go back to the city but resp.a.w.ned at the altar. While they were changed to dark-attribute, they weren’t limited by the altar and could still come over to attack the city. The number of guild members therefore hadn’t decreased, but it didn’t mean they were pleased to see their hard-earned levels keep dropping like this.
Moreover, the dark attribute thing would be another problem in the future until they figured how to solve it.
“Hero City is too difficult. And we don’t even know how many monsters are there in the city. We can’t keep going like this. Anyone can think of a solution?” Coming to a temporary halt, the guild masters gathered to discuss.
“Go find Bai Xiaosheng. He must have a solution.” After an unfruitful discussion, they naturally thought of Bai Xiaosheng.
“Guild Master Bai, we’ll just get to the point. If we take down the city, you might have a chance to complete your mission. If we don’t, everyone will have made this trip in vain. You need to think clearly about this.”
“We can’t let so many of our brothers die for nothing. If we have no other choice, we might just push you out to be the first sacrifice.”
Each threat was more obvious than the last. Bai Xiaosheng was so angry that his hands were trembling.
“Y-you lot. Good, very good. If that’s the case, everyone can die together!”
Bai Xiaosheng resolutely replied with malice. He’d rather die than to show them a solution.
There was nothing the guild masters could do when Bai Xiaosheng was like this. What could you do to a man who wasn’t afraid of dying?
Watching as the guild masters went back to their guilds, Bai Xiaosheng snorted and said, “It seems we still need to lend a hand. Or else if they all die outside, there will be no one to help us clear out the monsters inside.”
It was still a little too soon to use the Tower of Heroes and summon the human soldiers in the vicinity. Pondering for a bit, Bai Xiaosheng decided to transfer over some siege equipment.
With the tower in hand, Bai Xiaosheng took a walk around and returned with a team of human soldiers who had no siege equipment but were all military mages.
In addition to the mages who he summoned, some idle human soldiers also popped out of nowhere and joined the group despite him not having called for them at all. Bai Xiaosheng was upset for a while at this uninvited addition.
“Look, someone’s coming to help.”
“They’re all earth mages. That will make this a lot easier.”
The players at the wall were greatly encouraged by the aid, while their guild masters wondered why these human soldiers suddenly came. However, any help was welcome right now. They ordered their guild members to stand down and make room for the earth mages to unleash their magic.
The team of nearly a hundred high-ranked earth mages stood a little ways from the wall in a magical formation. Alongside their incantation, a huge earth-yellow magic circle appeared above their heads.
“That’s something familiar,” Fatty remarked.
“It’s the Lesser Forbidden Spell – Sky Falls and Earth Rends, the one that Rainrevelers used in their base defense battle.” HeadofG.o.d instantly recognized the magic.
“Lesser Forbidden Spell – Sky Falls and Earth Rends!” the earth mages cried aloud in unison. Suddenly, the sky darkened and the earth rumbled. Meteors started falling, their impact area shrouding half of the city wall. At the same time, bottomless cracks ruptured from the ground and expanded towards the wall.
Crack crack… The wall swayed left and right while cracks also emerged on its surface. Some parts directly crumbled when the meteors. .h.i.t them. The entire wall seemed just one step away from collapse.
Whoos.h.!.+ A black light rose from the city and protected the wall from falling. It came from the Demonic mages inside the city. However, these mages apparently weren’t powerful enough. In just a few moments, the black light thinned and flickered feebly.
Boom! Finally, Sky Falls and Earth Rends tore out a ten-meter-wide opening in the wall where the black light had worn off.
“This is our chance, go!”
Each guild had singled out their most brave and fearless players, promising them great compensation so that these players agreed to risk their lives blending in with the human soldiers to rush through the opening.
“Attention everyone, we’ll go in now. We must be the first to reach the City Lord Manor.” Bai Xiaosheng also spirited up.
“I think you guys should just stay here and rest.” Not giving them time to move, a group of 500 players surrounded Bai Xiaosheng’s team.