He Yi and I exchanged glances with each other. Forget the enemies, even we were astonished by October Rain’s unexpected decision. What was she planning? Why had she chosen to withdraw without fighting? This didn’t fit the behavior of a CGL Hall of Famer at all. After all, everyone who got selected to join that prestigious ranking was a commander-level veteran who was tempered by the Nation Wars. There had to be a reason October Rain had chosen to retreat like this!

……

"What should we do?" He Yi asked as the enemy slowly withdrew.

Murong Mingyue shook her head. "I don’t know."

I said, "Let’s wait just a bit longer. Don’t turn around."

"Mn."

It wasn’t long before October Rain and her men stopped about 300 yards away from us. Then, they simply stared at us from that distance.

"Hmph!"

I smiled. I finally figured out October Rain’s intention.

"What is it?" Murong Mingyue asked.

I replied, "Had October Rain tried to attack us just now, she would’ve suffered huge losses. In fact, she knew full well that it would take at least 200 players to beat us. After all, I alone could kill 30 of them with one Charge and Thousand Ice Slash, and if I used my Purple Dragon Howl here they might even be party-wiped where they stand. That’s why she chose to pull away. I guarantee that if we turn around now, October Rain would scream ‘Lu Chen is running away, attack him now!’ and charge us. This way, her troops’ morale would rise, and her chances of winning would be a lot higher!"

"I see…"

Beiming Xue said, "OMG, this October Rain is so cunning. I’ve misjudged her…"

I smiled a bit. "If you read back on the history of Spirit of Grief, you would know that October Rain had once founded a guild called ‘Colorful October’. After Shusheng, Ling Xue, Ling Yue, Qin Yun, and Xu Bing retired, Candle Dragon was at Cool Breeze City, and Warsky Alliance was at India’s Fierce Tiger City at the time. When the number one expert of India at the time, Barbarous Throne, launched a fearsome attack on Fierce Tiger City, October Rain fought him at Jadeite Forest ten times, withdrew ten times and lost twenty thousand troops in total. If I stopped my story here it might sound like a horrible defeat, but in reality she killed over ten times the amount of people she lost and delayed the enemy’s siege for an entire day. Not only was it an absurd victory, the strategy was planned and carried out by October Rain alone. With that in mind, how could someone like her be anything but ordinary?"

Beiming Xue’s mouth fell open. "Wah, she’s amazing…"

I smiled. "Of course she is. When have you heard of a CGL Hall of Famer with no remarkable legend attached to their name? This prestigious ranking is prestigious for a reason, you know?"

He Yi nodded. "Mn, I’ve investigated Warsky Alliance’s history myself. During the latter stage of Spirit of Grief, Warsky Alliance—or more specifically, the Warsky Alliance under Warsky’s leadership—outperformed even the Soul Battle Robes led by Seven-Star Lamp. At the time, the military commander and commander-in-chief of Warsky Alliance was none other than October Rain herself. She is definitely an extraordinary player for sure!"

Beiming Xue stuck out her tongue before laughing. "Big bro, how are we going to fight someone like that?"

I smiled but didn’t answer. It was Murong Mingyue who spoke up for me, "There’s nothing to worry about, Lil Beiming. October Rain is strong, but your big bro is even stronger. Did you forget that his CGL ranking is way higher than October Rain’s?"

"Oh, you’re right!"

I immediately felt immense pressure on my shoulders and cold sweat breaking out of my skin. Despite my ranking being higher than October Rain’s, I knew that I was most likely a lousier strategist compared to her. That being said, all these speculations could only be confirmed during the Nation Wars. Every game made by the Eternal Moon Corporation was set in a world embroiled in chaos. It was up to us heroes to turn our strength and courage into legends.

……

It wasn’t long before another group of players joined October Rain. It was Warsky Alliance’s main force, and together they numbered almost 800 in total. The massive army quickly aligned themselves orderly across the vast desert.

Keeping a hand on his sword and looking all formidable in front of his troops, Warsky stared at me from the distance and smiled. "Heh, Lu Chen is here! Why haven’t you attacked him yet, Little Rain? You have a hundred players, don’t you?"

October Rain smiled. "Hmph hmph, I just don’t want to fight an uncertain battle, that’s all. Didn’t you see? Lu Chen is now a fourth-promotion player, and his sword is different from before. If I’m not mistaken, it’s probably the number one weapon on the Weapon Ranking, the Heaven-stealing Sword. Moreover, he has Thousand Mirage Slash, War Crush, and Purple Dragon Howl. How am I supposed to deal with these three AoE skills? In my estimate, it’ll take at least 300 experts to guarantee a victory. Finally, you know I dislike fighting handsome guys, so I’ll leave this to you…"

Warsky smiled. "Hahaha, okay. Should we begin now that we’re all here?"

October Rain nodded. "The time is now. Prepare for battle!"

……

Warsky raised his sword and pointed at me, shouting, "Warsky Alliance does not bow to anyone! Warsky Alliance will fight against mankind, heavens, life, and even fate itself to take control over our own destiny! To battle!"

The fighters of Warsky Alliance immediately charged toward us! They were incredibly quick!

I was stewing on the inside, to be honest. How on earth were we going to stop nearly a thousand players on our own? And that was not counting the thousands of reinforcements coming to their aid from the rear! I could literally see the forming sand clouds at the horizon. This was really bad!

It was at this moment Legendary Brave sent me a message: "Don’t worry, vice leader. We are directly behind you, about 500 yards away. Just stall them for a minute, and we will be there to join you! Xu Yang, Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, and me are all here in the first vanguard. There are around 200 of us!"

A glad smile broke across my lips. Very well, it looked like I had underestimated the efficiency of my own guild, and this time we had the dragon warrior on our side. I could feel my worry being chased away by the second!

……

Clang!

I pulled out the Heaven-stealing Sword and pointed it directly at my enemies, smiling. "Come at us if you dare. I promise y’all I won’t even bother to bury your corpses. Speaking of which, do you want to be steamed or fried? I’m a kind man, so I’ll even let you choose the way you die!"

I wasn’t joking entirely. My Thousand Ice Slash could freeze my enemies, and He Yi’s pet could unleash a fiery rain, so we could actually burn or freeze our enemies to their deaths.

He Yi smiled slightly. "Get up this hill and we’ll shoot the survivors!"

Me: "But why? Bullets are so expensive these days. Just cut off their heads!"

He Yi: "But cutting off their heads will dirty the ground. I think it’s better if we just bury them!"

Me: "We need to dig holes to bury them though. It’s laborious work, isn’t it?"

He Yi: "Just make them dig their own graves, duh!"

Murong Mingyue: "..."

Beiming Xue: "..."

Warsky: "..."

October Rain: "..."

Farewell Song: "..."

……

As expected, one player fell for our provocation and broke out of the enemy’s formation. It was none other than the CGL Hall of Famer Laughing At The Heavens, a super high-level magic knight clad in what seemed to be high-level Dark Gold–grade armor and even Purple Gold–grade shield. His Defense and HP must be off the charts right now!

I ordered, "Focus him down and kill him as soon as possible, everyone! Let’s see if these idiots can keep up their boast after one of their generals is dead!"

"Okay!"

The rest of the fighters weren’t sitting idly by while their general was leading the way, of course. All the ones activated Charge in an attempt to stun us, prompting He Yi to launch two well-timed seas of flame with her Firelight Mouse at them. Any Warsky Alliance player who wanted to reach us would have to go through the skill first, and as you could imagine, the power of a high-level magical pet was nothing to scoff at. The Firelight Mouse’s Sea of Flames especially was absolutely deadlier than similar skills of 99% of the mages!

When Laughing At The Heavens was less than 25 yards away, he charged before me and zipped in a straight line toward Beiming Xue. His intent was as clear as my eyes were cold. Planning to kill my younger sis, huh!?

I locked onto a blind spot and activated my own Charge!

Whoosh!

My calculation was accurate, and I ran perfectly right into Laughing At The Heavens! It was Thunderous Charge versus Charge!

Bang!

It was clear who had emerged the victor. I had the absolute advantage in terms of Strength, so Laughing At The Heavens was sent stumbling while I stood as solid as a rock. His face turned red with exertion!

Die!

I pressed my sword against his chest armor and flicked my wrist three times in quick succession—Pardon, Desperate Gambit, basic attack!

MISS!

6034!

2498!

……

Fuck, he’s tankier than I thought! Laughing At The Heavens still had over 25% HP even after taking a full combo from me, and from the looks of it his total HP was around 11200. He really was the number one tank of Warsky Alliance!

Laughing At The Heavens didn’t freeze despite losing a huge chunk of HP. He displayed incredible skill as he spun on his heels, retreated and thrust his sword toward me from an indefensible angle!

"Ice Ray! Icicle Thrust!"

Not only was it impossible for me to block the two icicles, two enemy warriors had reached me and were using Crushing Blow! Guarding here would be suicide, so I had no chance but to endure the full power of their attacks!

Bang bang!

The icicles exploded before my chest and inflicted a bit of pain.

1904!

1782!

That was quite a bit of damage. As I thought, his attack power was pretty good!

But my surprise was nothing compared to the Warsky Alliance players’. A Level 92 warrior was whispering to his companion, "Fuck, brother Heavens has over 1600 Defense, and I couldn’t even hit him for 100 damage. Just how high is Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand’s Attack to delete three-fourths of his HP in two hits…"

I swung my blades against and drew showers of blood across the neck of all the warriors standing at my left and right side!

5098!

5793!

It was a one-shot everywhere. Martial God’s 75% attack boost really was insane!

Beiming Xue’s attacks finally arrived as well. Her Evil Spirit Volley took chunks of flesh out of Laughing At The Heavens’ chest and dealt a ridiculous 1800 damage per hit. Not only that, she managed to land 9 consecutive attacks in a row. Her bow-flicking skills had really grown by a lot!

But Laughing At The Heavens was still alive. He gulped down a health potion at the same time his priests reached him and threw their healing spells on him!

At the rear, Warsky was commanding his stoops. "Let’s take down Lu Chen and From Water in one go! They are just humans, not monsters! Kill them all!"

Speaking of the enemy players who were charging toward us, I waited until the time was right and hit them with a Thousand Ice Slash!

Boom!

More than half of the players at the front were one-shot as they screamed. Plenty more were frozen in ice and left immobile for five seconds. The powerful skill stunned all the players next to the carnage to speechlessness.

Dozens of arrows hit my chest armor at the same time, but most of them only did a laughable amount of damage, between 10 to 50. Of course, there was that one 2100 damage that belonged to none other than October Rain. She was darting erratically like a ghost and nearly impossible to lock down the way things were!

Since Laughing At The Heavens was knocked back by the first exchange, he didn’t dare to come close to us anymore. It was because he knew that Beiming Xue and I had made up our minds to kill him the second he got close. He got lucky last time because I didn’t trigger a critical hit, or he would’ve been dead already.

"Charge, charge!"

Warsky Alliance continued to order his troops to launch a suicidal charge against us. At the same time, countless Ice Dragon Howls and Fireballs landed on me and He Yi. The unfortunate fact was that we were vastly outnumbered, and we were the only ones who could still hold the line. Even Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue had been forced to retreat at least dozens of yards away from us to avoid being annihilated by the focused bombardment.

……

It was at this moment Legendary Brave and his cyan broadsword reached us and became the first man to reach the top. Shouting "Who dares to wound my brother!?" he summoned draconic scales around his body and launched a devastating AoE skill into an enemy crowd!

Reverse Scale Slash!

The Warsky Alliance players caught in it screamed in pain. At the distance, Warsky’s expression changed drastically. "Shit, that dragon warrior is… Legendary Brave is here…"