VRMMO: The Unrivaled

I nearly spat out some imaginary water when I saw Lin Yixin’s message. I replied hurriedly, "We’ll be your scapegoats, so don’t worry about anything and march forth to your deaths, cannon fodders!"

Lin Yixin: "..."

A few seconds later, she sent another message: "The guild territory just spawned so we still have some time. Anyway, what I wanted to ask was, did you help your fighters learn Barrier Break already?"

"Yeah."

"How many?"

"Me, Eve, Gui Guzi, Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds, Chaos Moon, and Xu Yang. Eight total. Oh right, my skill is a bit special. It’s called Universe Break, and it’s a bit stronger."

Lin Yixin didn’t say anything for a time. Then, she turned on the communicator and talked to me directly, "There are 8 players in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls who learned Barrier Break already? This is so unfair. Purple Marquis and I are the only ones in the entire Snowy Cathaya who could learn it. The rest didn’t have the Strength to learn the skill even with my equipment because almost none of them put 5 points into their Strength stat. Dammit…"

I gave her a reassuring smile and said, "Relax, they’ll be able to learn the skill when they’re Level 140 or so… but yes, right now is the time you need Barrier Break the most."

"I know right…" Lin Yixin sighed.

We both knew that Barrier Break was a skill that added attack power and shredded both defenses and spell shields. It was the trump card to use when you were planning to one-shot a target, especially when you were facing a mage. Barrier Break ignored Magic Shields and the like, meaning that it could hit a mage or priest regardless. Therefore, one might say that this skill existed to terrorize all magic players. Also, if a player met the Strength requirement to learn Barrier Break, then they almost certainly had the power to one-shot a mage of the same level with this skill alone. The era of barbaric violence had officially dawned upon Heavenblessed!

Moreover, the skill was equally effective against metal armor classes such as magic knights because it ignored a large percentage of Defense and increased the user’s attack power. No magic knight, no matter how tanky, could take a blow and claim that it was just a flesh wound. This was especially true during positional warfare where the magic knights couldn’t break away from the defense line. If a frontliner ate a Barrier Break that also turned out to be a critical hit, they could very well die on the spot and cause a hole to appear in the defense line. If the defense line was broken, then the battle could be lost as well.

That was why having 8 players who knew Barrier Break was so broken. Any guild who engaged us in positional warfare would quickly find their frontliners slaughtered with precision and speed of a hot knife melting through a brick of butter. Barrier Break increased the user’s attack power by 80%, ignored 70% of the enemy’s Defense, and 60% of the damage ignored Magic Shields and the like. I could already envision how amazing it would be in the upcoming territory war!

……

Lin Yixin and I entered a short discussion before we rallied our respective players. Inside the guild channel, the chat was bustling with activity—

Beiming Xue: "A new guild territory just spawned~~"

I replied: "Yes, and Wind Fantasy is the one who killed a boss and made it spawn. Snowy Cathaya fought to the death to give us our first guild territory, so now is the time to repay that favor. Brothers and sisters, get ready to head to the meeting spots. We’re going to activate the guild contribution point system for this territory war, so every PvP kill will grant you contribution points. Long story short, work hard and you’ll be able to exchange them for high-grade equipment once you’ve accumulated enough!"

Li Chengfeng chuckled: "Hehe, this is the perfect opportunity to test out Barrier Break on some unfortunate mages and magic knights…"

He Yi echoed in agreement: "I learned it too!"

Xu Yang: "Same…"

I continued talking in the guild channel: "Guild leader, can you decide where we should meet up later? Also, we should take a short time off to repair and resupply ourselves since this territory war might last a long time. Warsky Alliance, Hegemon Palace, Gods of Destruction, and the like are sure to show up, so everyone should be ready for a long and hard battle. By the way, I’ve set it so that every player kill gives 100 contribution points. If you want them Outstanding Purple Gold–grade equipment and Spirit-grade equipment, then do your best to kill the enemies. Let the points stack up!"

My encouragement was successful, and the morale of the guild became even higher than before.

He Yi declared: "The new territory is less than an hour away from Dark Moon City, so let’s head to Dark Moon City right away and meet up at the plains outside the southern gate. Everyone in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Bloody Mercenaries is required to participate. We’re going to give it our all, okay?"

We all answered her in unison: "Got it. We’ll be there immediately!"

……

Swhoosh!

The moment I returned to the territory, I immediately saw Dark Knight Hero Udal moving toward me from a distance. After he got off his horse and dropped to his knees, he declared solemnly, "My lord, an unclaimed territory just appeared not far away from our location. Is there any order you would like to give us? Your 31 Skeletal Spearmen, 50 Zombies, 150 Dark Knights and 100 Umbra Sharpshooters will follow you to the ends of the world and conquer any territory for you!"

I was surprised by this, but I quickly came to terms with it. It made sense that the territory’s NPC army could be used for both defense and offense. They couldn’t attack players outside the territory, but they definitely could be used to attack an unclaimed territory such as the one that just appeared a moment ago. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of the era of warlords, and this one territory was literally the only territory Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls possessed right now. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call the troops of Dark Moon City my babies, so I couldn’t possibly throw them to the wolves that were sure to swarm the new territory. Yeah, Xu Yang, Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits, and the rest of the idiots could die for the cause instead. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings one bit...

Swhoosh!

A beautiful and familiar figure suddenly appeared from the teleportation formation. It was none other than Lin Yixin on her Frostscythe Warhorse. The Frozen Sword in one hand, she jumped off the horse and ran out of the gate in a hurry. Clearly, Snowy Cathaya had set our territory as their meeting spot as well.

Dark Moon City was less than an hour away from the new territory, while Sky City was not. More importantly, anyone who tried to make the journey from Sky City would have to pass through many danger zones like the Dragonbone Mountain Range itself and travel for at least an hour. As a result, it was only logical that the guilds who wanted to tournament for the guild territory would take off from Dark Moon City.

When I thought up to this point, I immediately blocked Warsky Alliance, Gods of Destruction, Hegemon Palace, and all other guilds who were enemies of Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls from being able to use Dark Moon City’s teleportation formation. You want to grab the new guild territory? Then you are more than welcome to make the journey on foot, thank you!

This guild territory was spawned through Lin Yixin’s blood, sweat, and tears. There was no way I was going to surrender it to them.

……

I also sent a message to Ling Xueshang and got a response in no time. The Monarch Descends was one of our allies, so they gladly agreed to help out Snowy Cathaya. In return, we would repay the favor by securing the third guild territory for The Monarch Descends when it spawned in Sky City!

Outside the city, Gui Guzi, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, He Yi, and the other riders were already waiting at the plains. The rest of us—me, Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue, Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits, and so on—slowly made our way to the meeting spot. We were in no hurry because the territory was fresh and full of NPC mobs. Why waste the time and effort to clear out the mobs ourselves when the enemy guilds would do the dirty work themselves?

Our players quickly filled up the edges of the forest, and it wasn’t long before almost ten thousand Ancient Sword Dreaming Soul players were ready to set out. Directly south of us, Snowy Cathaya and The Monarch Descends were gathering as well.

That wasn’t all. A group of players emerged from the eastern forest, and they belonged to none other than Warsky Alliance. It would seem that they were grinding close to Dark Moon City all this time, or there was no way to explain how they showed up at Dark Moon City this quickly. Warsky was standing at the vanguard, and he was accompanied by October Rain, Laughing At The Heavens, and Farewell Song. No one could say that Warsky Alliance was a weak guild.

……

Warsky ran toward me before pointing his sword at me. "I’m disappointed in you, Lu Chen. You shouldn’t have blocked off our teleportation access to Dark Moon City. Am I right in assuming that you have no intentions of changing your mind?"

I took a few steps toward him myself before smiling. "Why would I? That was then, this is now. Warsky Alliance wasn’t going to give up this guild territory, so why would I let you teleport your players in and make things harder for ourselves? By the way, I have a question for you. You don’t really think you can beat Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, do you?"

Warsky grinned. "We haven’t even unveiled our trump card yet, and you’re already calling yourselves the victor? Isn’t it far too early to make declarations like that?"

"Trump card?"

"Hmph!"

Warsky let out a cold snort before turning his back toward me and yelling to his players. There were almost a thousand of them. "Come on! Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls won’t let us use their territory, so we’ll have to fetch our brothers and sisters at Cool Wind Forest! We can duke it out with Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls at the new guild territory later!"

Warsky Alliance’s players shot us unfriendly looks. Clearly, their dislike for us was growing by the second.

It was at this moment He Yi suddenly pointed toward the distance. "Lu Chen, look! That’s…"

"Fuck!" I cursed beneath my breath,

A high-level fighter was walking not far behind Warsky, and he was clad in excellent black metal armor and wielded a burning long sword. He carried the emblem of Warsky Alliance on his shoulder, and the lines of text floating above his head were—

Lin Bing Dou Zhe LV-122 Platinum Warrior

Guild: Warsky Alliance

Guild Position: Vice Leader

Famous General Skill: Renown

……

"Vice leader, Lin Bing Dou Zhe…" Li Chengfeng muttered out loud. "I was thinking who had the power to steal Lin Bing Dou Zhe from under our noses, and it was Warsky? Hmph! It could be a ploy of October Rain too. At any rate, we gotta watch out for that Renown. It is as formidable as it sounds…"

He Yi was also staring at Warsky Alliance with hostility. "Warsky gave Farewell Song’s vice leader position to Lin Bing Dou Zhe immediately after he joined. That man sure knows how to win a person’s loyalty. I doubt there’s anyone who can persuade Lin Bing Dou Zhe to leave Warsky right now."

Xu Yang nodded. "People who are swayed by money aren't really a big threat. That is why Little Piglet isn’t our biggest enemy. But if Lin Bing Dou Zhe joins Warsky because he owes a debt to the latter or something, then we absolutely must keep an eye on him. He will fight us to the bitter end if that is the will of Warsky!"

Li Chengfeng and Xu Yang looked at me in unison. "What do you think, Lu Chen?"

My sword pointed at the ground and the Soul Suppressing Cloak flapping lightly behind my back, I chuckled. "If he wants a fight, then a fight is what he’ll get. Did you all forget already? We started from the bottom, now we’re here!"