The spring wind blew. The tree leaves on either side of Floating Ice City swayed. It was rush hour and the streets were filled with players. This city was the most prosperous city among the nine tier 2 cities of the China region. It was also fated to be the city with the fiercest competition. We had to create our guild as soon as possible, recruit many people, and gain enough strength to compete with other guilds!

Therefore, this Hero's Token from the Who Will Fight Me tournament was priceless!

We sprinted into the palace. When we entered the hall, two high-level NPC guards holding spears glared at us. I appeared calm and led the four behind me in front of the king. The man was large and looked strong. His metal armor was imposing and he wielded a giant broadsword. He was clearly the type of king who ruled his city with his martial prowess.

"Great King...” I called out.

Beiming Xue pulled my cloak. "Boss, the wording is not good. It sounds like how the little demons in the Journey to the West talk to the demon kings...”

I nodded and changed my speech. "My king!"

Beiming Xue said, "This sounds like the stupidly loyal subjects in medieval times...”

I was furious and pointed at the king NPC. "Fuck, I want to create a guild!"

The king retained his composure and ignored the first word. He nodded and said, "Give me a Hero’s Token and expend 1000 Reputation, and your guild shall be created!"

I took out the Hero's Token and used up 1000 points of Reputation. My guild was about to be created. I entered the words "Bloody Mercenaries" into the screen!

Ding~!

System Announcement: Congratulations to player “Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand” on creating the guild “Bloody Mercenaries”!

……

And… nothing else. No rewards at all!

Fuck, only the first three people to create their guilds received rewards. I was too late!

Forget it. I, Dominating Heaven Blade and Lin Yixin were all in the Top 3 of Floating Ice City’s Heavenly Ranking. There was no need for me to fight over the top spot. The highest-flying bird is shot first. Claiming 1st place would only put a big target on my back. It would be very annoying.

"Boss, quick, let me join the guild~~"

Beiming Xue walked over, requesting to join the guild. I pressed confirm and Beiming Xue became one of the members. A golden empty placeholder appeared on her shoulder. Yes, we had not confirmed the emblem for the Bloody Mercenaries.

I then added Gui Guzi, Mamate, and Du Thirteen into the guild. I set all four of them as the commanders of the four corps. I myself became the leader. Then we started to discuss what kind of emblem we should use.

"A portrait of a beauty? This will be more attractive...” Du Thirteen suggested.

Gui Guzi was slightly scornful. "Not enough. We are the Bloody Mercenaries, we have no connection to a beauty. We cannot be like Lost Leaf, all of his books with beauties on them. There is no future in it!"

Beiming Xue nodded. "Right, let's get a better one! I feel that the emblem of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is pretty good. A bloody, mighty sword. How about we use that emblem?"

"Ok!"

I decisively accepted Beiming Xue's suggestion. I downloaded Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ emblem from the Guild Ranking and used a built-in tool to paint the background behind the ancient sword completely blood-red. This way, the emblem would look more murderous and fit our Bloody Mercenaries more!

Bloody Mercenaries were Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls' guardians after all, shedding blood to protect our dreams and warrior souls!

Soon, the new emblem was set up. A long bloody sword appeared on our shoulders. Now, we all looked like veterans of countless bloody battles!

Gui Guzi laughed. "Ha, our guild emblem is so stylish! Right, boss, Rank 1 guilds can accept 200 people. When will we start accepting?"

I thought for a moment and said, "If we recruit in the city square, it will be chaotic and hard to find strong experts. I’ll go to the forums later. Most experts browse the forums looking for info. Yeah, we’ll do that. You go offline guys, I’ll join you soon...”

"Alright!"

They went to the inn and prepared to go offline.

Before I went offline, I logged onto the forums and used the ID Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand to make a post—[Recruiting] Bloody Mercenaries has been established!

The contents of the post were as follows: After nearly a month of battle, the Bloody Mercenaries guild has finally been established. We do not fear any other guild in Floating Ice City. We only pursue our own gaming dreams. No matter if it is Snowy Cathaya, Gods of Destruction, or Mad Dragon, we will kill anyone who challenges us! If you have a dream of conquering the world, then join Bloody Mercenaries! Requirements: Third-promotion, good equipment, at least one Silver-grade item. Melee, archers and mages preferred! If you want to join and fit the requirements, please send me a personal message. We will hold a meeting at nine o’clock at the plaza by the city’s eastern gates.

After I sent the post, I looked it over. This post was relatively ordinary but in order to accentuate our domineering presence I used the three strongest guilds of Floating Ice City as imaginary enemies. Gods of Destruction and Mad Dragon were already enemies, and so it was fine. But I also added Snowy Cathaya. At least it showed we didn’t fear them either. As for the future beating I would get from Lin Yixin, I was fine with it, as long as she spared my face...

I went offline to nourish my body. I’ve been fighting the whole day in Who Will Fight Me, constantly at high intensity. I was almost completely spent!

When I went offline, my phone rang. It was Murong Mingyue's number!

"Sister Mingyue!"

"Lu Chen, you became the champion!" Murong Mingyue's tone contained undisguised happiness and pride. In reality, Bloody Mercenaries becoming the victors were the same as Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls winning, just that no one knew about it.

"Haha, of course. We have the strongest long-range attacker and the strongest meatshield. It would be strange if we didn’t win," I said proudly.

Murong Mingyue laughed and suddenly said, "In reality, you’d be enough.”

"Ugh...” After a moment of silence I added, “You’re overpraising me, Sister Mingyue...”

Murong Mingyue giggled. "You little brat, you dare speak such nonsense. Right, Eve told me to apologize to you. That... Spring Mud, Moon Shadow, and Night Sorrow had gone overboard...”

"Is boss alright?"

"Yes, she should have gone to Mumbai Airport now and will return tomorrow.”

"Oh! Right, the Bloody Mercenaries guild has been created. I’ll do my best to recruit a group of strong experts to bolster my strength. This way, Bloody Mercenaries and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls can help each other. Sister Mingyue, what do you think?"

"It's good,” Murong Mingyue said with a smile, "but I don’t care about all that. I only care about one thing: when are you coming to see me and Eve?"

I thought for a moment. "Let's wait. I don’t think it’s appropriate now. The three heads of the Ego workshop, Spring Mud, Night Sorrow, and Moon Shadow bear too much hostility toward me. I’m afraid that we’ll cause internal conflict in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls if the Bloody Mercenaries return.”

"Yes, I thought of this as well...” Murong Mingyue was slightly apologetic and said with a smile. "Eve went in person to recruit these three. It appears that she has to be the one to resolve this. In reality, these three are extremely proud, and may not even listen to me. Everything depends on Eve!"

"Alright, when we resolve this problem, I will return with Beiming Xue, Gui Guzi and the others!"

"Yes, it's a deal!"

I hung up and took a deep breath. This was really a problem!

I had recovered from my illness, and my face in the game had become handsome. I could go see He Yi. But then people like Spring Mud and Moon Shadow appeared. If the discord was not managed, some unpleasant things would occur if I rashly went there. It was not the result I wanted if He Yi would be embarrassed.

Never mind. I was going to eat. Being a rice weevil with a dream was life!

……

There were no good places so we went to eat a dry pot. When we returned, it was 9 pm sharp. We went online to recruit people!

Whoosh!

I appeared in Floating Ice City's inn. I looked at my personal messages and found more than 400. They were all player requests!

These were searchable. When I selected a name, I could see the other's stats and equipment!

Floating Ice City was a prosperous city so the players were all high in level. On the rankings, almost all the Top 1000 players had undergone the third promotion. In Floating Ice City alone, there were 467 Level 60 players. The difference was really tight!

I came to the plaza by the eastern gate. Today, the plaza was very busy. There were many high-level players with formidable equipment waiting and chattering. They had all come due to my and Bloody Mercenaries’ reputation!

On the forums, I got another moniker—Unkillable War God. The despicable forum moderators even made it into a badge and added it next to my name. So shameless...

Beiming Xue and Gui Guzi were already at the center of the plaza. Several high-level players were surrounding them, asking, "Handsome Gui, Beauty Xue, what conditions do we have to satisfy to join Bloody Mercenaries? Please accept us. We’ve all offended people from Gods of Destruction and Mad Dragon. If the Bloody Mercenaries don't accept us, we’ll have to kill ourselves...”

I was speechless. Damn, what kind of people were so eager to join Bloody Mercenaries? Was our guild a refugee alley for people to hide from Gods of Destruction and Mad Dragon?

But after giving it some thought, it no longer felt that bad. People who dared to offend Gods of Destruction and Mad Dragon would not be ordinary. Which of these players wasn’t elite among the players? Even if they were not elite, they had dignity and pride. These were the people that Bloody Mercenaries needed!

The position of players was very important. If we accepted a group of people who followed whoever was strong, then the name of the "Bloody Mercenaries" would have to be changed to "Easily Swayed”.