I sat at the edge of Thunder Mountain Range and gazed into the distance. Below me was an army of Elephant City players galloping around the valley almost as if they were trying to intimidate me. Of course, it was just God of War and the other Indian experts’ way of showing off my new, 50k-strong guild’s prowess to me, even though their loyalty was obviously questionable.

"Guild leader!"

It was at this moment a Level 194 spear-wielding magic knight walked up to me and said with a smile, "We’ve heard about your situation in China, guild leader. There’s no need to compromise with someone like Tang Long. Once we’ve gathered our strength, we shall sweep Sky City and take revenge for you, guild leader! I’m sure we’re strong enough to do it!"

My eyes turned steely. "What did you say?"

Flowing Cloud immediately coughed once for the vice leader to shut up before saying, "Lu Chen may have made the decision to join us, but he is a Chinese in his heart. I’ve promised him that War Temple will not be attacking China without his express permission, so we shall not talk about this again, understand?"

I smiled. Flowing Cloud had incredible PvP skills, but another reason she was able to rise above many others was because she possessed keen eyes and good judgment. Without these qualities, she could be a great commander, but never a true ruler.

It was at this moment I heard a knocking sound. Flowing Cloud noticed my weird expression and asked me, "What’s wrong?"

I hesitated for a moment before replying, "Someone’s knocking on my helmet…"

"Heehee. Is it your lover?"

"No, I don’t think so…"

"Well, go do your thing. We’ll meet up tomorrow at this spot, okay?"

"Yeah!"

……

I took out my tent, went inside, and logged out of the game.

After I took off my helmet, I was greeted by Chaos Moon’s angry glare. The red-faced girl questioned angrily, "What the hell is going on, Lu Chen? Everyone in the forums is saying that you’ve turned traitor and joined Elephant City! Is this true?"

I nodded. "Yep, it is."

"But why?" Chaos Moon clenched her fists tightly. "Are you really going to change your beliefs just because of one Tang Long? You’re Chinese! How can you allow yourself to be lumped up in the same category as that disgusting Now and Forever?"

I grabbed her shaking shoulders and asked her, "Do you trust me, Chaos Moon?"

"Ah?"

Her mouth remained agape for a while before she nodded. "Of course. I wouldn’t have come with you alone to an unfamiliar place otherwise."

"In that case, I ask that you continue to trust in me. Don’t ask me why no matter what I do during this time. In time, the truth will reveal itself. Okay?"

"Fine. But you’d better avoid the forums for now. Trust me, it’s really bad…"

"Oh? Is that so?"

I made a grab for my notebook anyway, causing Chaos Moon to grit her teeth in frustration. "Are you a masochist? Do you enjoy punishment that much? Hmph!"

……

I brought up the China server forums, and as expected the big red title hanging at the home page stated: "Little Heavenly King Falling Dust joins the India server? Is it a conscious choice, or a lack thereof?"

The post below the title wrote: "A few hours ago, trusted sources reported that Lu Chen had come to an agreement with the senior executives of the India server, and that he’ll be joining Elephant City as the leader of a new guild called ‘War Temple’. Moreover, Lu Chen was given the nickname ‘King of War’ even before he joined Elephant City. Why did the Little Heavenly King join Elephant City? Was it because the VR department pushed him too far, or was it because his loneliness and despair finally grew too much to bear?”

……

Below the post was a lot of replies—

1st comment: This can’t be fake. Even India’s official forums are reporting about Lu Chen’s joining. Pooh! Little Heavenly King my ass, in the end he’s just an honorless bastard!

2nd comment: Tang Long literally stripped Lu Chen of his in-game nationality, man. I would’ve turned traitor in his place. Wanna guess who has the last laugh when Lu Chen conquers Sky City with Elephant City and reigns as the emperor?

3rd comment: Are you serious, 2nd poster? Even if Sky City falls to Elephant City, what makes you think that Lu Chen will get to be emperor before all the other Indian experts? Do you seriously think that Lu Chen is as dumb as you?

4th comment: I understand Lu Chen’s pain and despair, but… that still isn’t a good enough reason to join another country’s server dammit! It never is! How could you do this?! You’re Chinese!

5th comment: No comment. But I have some popcorn for what happens next.

……

There were practically no positive comments from the beginning until the end. It wasn’t long before my hands and feet turned as cold as ice, and my body twitched all over. I knew that this decision would earn me these accusations, but forewarned wasn’t fore-armed in this case.

Du du…"

Suddenly, I received a phone call. It was Warsky.

"Lu Chen!" Warsky yelled the second I accepted the call.

I curled my lips as I replied, "Yeah, Warsky?"

"Yeah!? Where the fuck have your morals fled to, huh!? You were the Little Heavenly King of China, and now you’re joining the India server!? Do you even deserve your title anymore? I… I will never accept this, Lu Chen! I cannot believe that a man who’d destroy Purple Grape City for his brothers and sisters would do such an amoral thing!"

"Calm down, Warsky!"

"You owe me an explanation, bastard!" He raged.

I raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? Who the hell do you think you are? I owe you nothing."

"Don’t forget this, Lu Chen!" Warsky’s voice almost reached a shouting point. "You’re joining the India server, is that it? Fine! But don’t forget, for as long as I, Warsky, am alive, I will invade Elephant City one day and destroy you! I swear I won’t stop until you’re Level 0!"

I chuckled. "Sure, whatever you say…"

I hung up, sucked in a deep breath, and sank back into my chair. It felt like my willpower and strength were drained away in one go.

……

"What on earth are you doing that you need to keep a secret even from me?" Chaos Moon asked while staring at me.

"You’ll know by tomorrow…"

"Fine!"

I shot her a smile before explaining, "It’s safer if it remains a secret. Also, Warsky called and yelled at me, but not Eve, Yiyi, Little Gui or Chengfeng. Why? It’s because they all trust me. They know I wouldn’t have sold out my own country."

"Fine, fine, I get it already. Come on, we can get back to the grind after we eat something nice…"

"Mn."

……

Bagua City was a tourist city, so it had quite the number of restaurants. After roaming the streets with Chaos Moon for a bit, we enjoyed a great meal at a Hunan restaurant before returning to the hotel. Chaos Moon went to grind with Li Chengfeng and Beiming Xue. I hung out a bit at Elephant Canyon before flying the Ancient Divine Dragon to Final Duel Valley again. Speaking of which, the number of players in Final Duel Valley was steadily decreasing. On the occasion a party did show up, it would be a huge blob of 1000 arches or mages. They all knew that it was impossible to beat me on my mount without a sufficient amount of ranged players.

"Roar roar…"

My little dragon waved its limbs as it rode above its colorful cloud and soared across the forest. Some time later, it looked back at me with its large, round eyes as if requesting my praise: Am I fast, master?

"Over there, little dragon! Descend over there!"

I unsheathed my sword as I led the Ancient Divine Dragon toward the ground. Then, I swung the Purple Ying Sword and unleashed Burning Blade Slash into a group of Fiery Scale Cavalrymen. It was a 3000-man party and the ace cavalry of Era of Strife. It was also supported by several hundred archers and mages or so. They were very, very careless though. Their mage and archer parties were at least three hundred meters away from their cavalry party. It gave me the chance to hit them without fear of retaliation.

My new Ancient Divine Armament did an insane amount of damage as a matter of course. The Thousand Ice Slash I unleashed even triggered the septuple damage effect many times and dealt a ton of damage—

153273!

904714!

172330!

1299417!

……

Was that a million damage number I spotted? It was! God damn, it was fun slaughtering enemies like this. Moreover, the Fiery Scale Cavalrymen had such high levels that it made killing them extremely worth it. In a sense, Final Duel Valley’s special setting was tailor-made for someone like me. In just a couple of seconds, my experience had jumped to Level 207, 19%!

"Faster, archers! Stop him now! We must kill Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand and stop him from fucking with us any longer!" a magic knight shouted.

Another warrior uttered through gritted teeth, "Didn’t Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand join India’s Elephant City? So why is he still fighting against us?"

The magic knight replied angrily, "Who the fuck knows? Maybe Elephant City wants this? Pooh! An alliance is just a paper contract. It can be shredded anytime you feel like it!"

Meanwhile, the archers and mages finally caught up with their front party. They were the ones who could truly threaten me!

……

I quickly turned the Ancient Divine Dragon around and took control of its targeting. A gigantic target surrounded a group of archers as I activated its signature skill, "Summon the Storm!"

The dragon roared and worked its divine powers to my command. Very soon, the darkened sky began raining lightning, wind blades, icicles and more against the enemy. The archers and mages looked completely stunned. Everyone and everything within 100 yards [1] dropped to their knees and died. They just couldn’t withstand its attack at all.

I turned my mount around again and went back to slaughtering the Fiery Scale Cavalry. Their retaliation was to hit me with Trapping Nets.

Most of the Trapping Nets did nothing to me, but a 0.5% chance to take effect was still a chance. Suddenly, both I and the Ancient Divine Dragon dropped to the ground!

"Get him now! Kill him with Barrier Break!" the magic knight roared immediately.

Countless Fiery Scale Cavalrymen rushed forward and pierced the Ancient Divine Dragon’s scales with Barrier Breaks. I felt a bit of pain, but the actual damage numbers didn’t satisfy my opponents at all—

1928!

3298!

3223!

……

They were all stunned. "What… what is this Defense?"

1. Nabuch’s Note: Unfortunately, it seems like the author uses “within 100 yards” and “in a 100x100 yard square” interchangeably. These are obviously much different. Area of a circle is approximately 3.1415926535897932384626433 times bigger. Yes. And no, I don’t remember any more