Chapter 36 - GND

In a deep mountainside, many large groups of players are currently in a stand off. Neither of them are moving from their positions but all of them are readying to cast their skills and swing their weapons at any moment.

Among this large crowd, players from the GND guild are at the very center who had formed a defensive circle formation Completely surrounded by the mob.

"Field captain, what do we do?" One of their members asked nervously as he gulped his dry saliva.

However, in contrast to him, the muscular field captain he's talking to doesn't have a hint of nervousness.

"No worries, newbie. We won't lose. Besides, even if we die in PvP, we won't lose any revival anyway. But we can't let these guys get a hold of this large eternium deposit if we want to remain as the strongest guild in the game."

"But… how are we gonna win? There's at least eight other guilds here, and they'll surely going to be targeting us first."

"Come on, kiddo, don't be so negative, the Guild Master's gonna save us." Even when completely surrounded, every single one of them are still very confident as if the insurmountable wall in front of them can be easily crumbled.

"Hey! You GND bastards! Just leave the Eternium deposit to us! You won't get it anyway! There's way too many of us here! No matter how skilled you are, you can't fight a large crowd!"

Even though none of these current guilds present here are in any way in good terms with each other. Temporarily, they are ganging up to annihilate the current strongest guild around. If they can annihilate a squad from GND they all will surely have bragging rights, even if it means they won with an underhanded way.

As of the moment. Unlike other games made for the full-dive VR technology, [Tower of Eternity] do not have any in-game communication functions, which [Eternal World] finally added after a year of development. But, the solutions they had in [Eternal World] was to use 3rd party communication apps, which somehow works and are pretty much allowed.

But for the sequel, they never had these features in the name of "Realism" as the devs had said a few months prior to the release of the game. And using 3rd party apps actually bans players with varying degrees: 1 day ban for first-time offenders, a week for second time, and finally, a permaban for 3rd. This is a note that the devs themselves had put out for the players to see.

This can be circumvented by logging out and messaging them through other ways, as how the players currently do in the game. Although people the message they sent cannot be received by those still logged in, and they can't receive any notification at all as the game blocks almost every other apps that doesn't have anything to do with the game. This requires dedicated members of guilds to log in and out to send, receive, and relay info to others. Another restriction is that you cannot logout for two minutes after entering combat (taking damage). So those playing the role of messengers will have to be away from battle at all times and most of the time remain hidden.

But the other and more used way for communication as of the moment, is to have the dexterity-based players act as messengers themselves, especially for a guild as large as GND which have more than five hundred members for [Tower of Eternity] alone, which also includes players for their E-sports team from [Eternal World], with two players from said team belonging in the Top 20 Rankings. The former method works for very long distance communication that cannot be travelled quickly while the latter method is for locations that are somewhat nearer. But players use them together to form strong communication among their groups.

Despite the overwhelming odds of being surrounded. The dynamic between the present guilds are vastly different. On one hand, despite collectively outnumbering the present group from GND in a 20:1 ratio, the other guilds are much more nervous about what will transpire next.

The Captain of the GND group then spoke back. "Hey, you guys, we're never gonna give this up, got it? Even if it means massive guild wars were to happen so early on in the game, we don't give a shit! We'll happily crush you guys."

As he finished, their previous member who's nervous to his core whispered to him. "Captain…! Stop provoking them! We're gonna get killed first before the reinforcements come if you do this! Please stop…!"

"I told you kid, all you need to have, is trust."

After the Field Captain said that, the crowd had finally became more rowdy.

"Let's just kill them now!"

"Yeah! Before their reinforcements come! They're just stalling for time!"

"That's right! Kill them!"

"Shit...! The nervous member exclaimed as the crowd charged at them. Skills were cast left and right with the scenery being filled with all kinds of colors. Now, they do not have any choice but to fight.

"Dammit, Captain! Why'd you have to provoke them!"

"Stop whining and fight!"

They too engaged in the battle, with such overwhelming difference in numbers, it's truly impressive that they weren't crushed in an instant. This just shows just how much skill they possess. Even the average member of GND is an extremely good player and all of the members of GND are high-tier or above players.

"Kill them!!!" The deafening uproar continued as the members of GND defended against the relentless onslaught. They gave their best to block or dodge the attacks but there's just too many of them, their HPs are slowly dwindling away, they are slowly dying, running out of stamina and mana as the retain their formation.

"Just hold still! They'll be here at anytime!"

"Yessir!" Despite this nigh-impossible scenario, the members of GND never once lost hope. They know that their saviors will be here at any moment. And as if on queue, it finally arrived. Their saviors.

Whoosh—!

"Good work holding out, everyone. Leave the rest to us."

A player leaped into action! His whole body is covered in bluish white, almost ethereal flames. As he crashed down to the battlefield, his landing released a wall of flame that instantly incinerated tens of enemies as it traveled outward around him. Weakening them severely and taking away more than half of their full HP.

"F-fuck! It's F0rsaken! Get away from him!"

"Kill him first!"

"Shit! Focus on that fucker!" As most enemy players switched their target to F0rsaken, a barrage of cannon balls bombarded the battlefield in quick succession. Killing a lot of the previously damaged players in an instant and severely damaging the unharmed ones.

"I told you, newbie. We'll be saved. Just trust your seniors, hahahaha!"

"I'm sorry for doubting you, Captain…!"

"Just do your part and fight! That's more than enough for me to forgive you!"

"Yes!"

In a much farther area away from the battlefield, MasterAhn stood in an open area that's slightly elevated with a line of cannons in front of him that he had just finished using for the previous bombardment. After his battle with Yun in the trial, he was supposed to wait for 7 in-game days to retake it, (3 days in real time) but the Moderator at the time was satisfied with his performance that she let him go up simply for inflicting so much damage to Yun. Now here in floor 2, him and his entire guild are now working together to secure a valuable resource.

"Did it hit?" A boy with a sheathed Dao sword standing behind him had asked.

"Of course. What do you take me for, huh? Little brother? I still got it, don't I?" MasterAhn laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

MasterAhn then looked around and said with a serious tone. "Anyway, aren't you supposed to protect your brother? There's quite a few who want to take my head, aren't you gonna do something about that?"

"I'm aware of that, but why should I when you're already strong?"

"Well… I'm a long-ranged player, aren't I?"

"Tsk, reasons…" as soon as Sword drew his weapon, more than a dozen of players jumped out of their hiding spots and lunged at the two of them.

"I'll leave them to you." MasterAhn said nonchalantly as he reloaded his cannons with ammunition from his Inventory without a care in the world.

The would-be assassins were quickly dispatched before they even managed to get ten meters from MasterAhn as Sword's blinding speed killed all of them rather easily, despite all of those players being high-tier players, Sword is just another kind of beast, capable of trashing them as if they were ants.