Chapter 127

Chapter 127 – Argardo Raid (2)

5 .

Through the sacrifice of an unknown magician, the Cursed castle had been sealed in its appalling state . The castle regained its light through the actions of four heroes . Afterwards, those equipped with fancy Items filled up the castle . A flower had bloomed, and it was named Havanz castle .

However, the elegant castle was now stained alongside the White-eyed Knight . The Havanz castle’s appearance turned more horrifying in appearance than the time it was called the Cursed Castle . A worse sense of despair filled the castle .

To fight against this despair, stars instead of fancy flowers started to gather .

Users that numbered easily over a thousand was positioned at a location where they could see the Havanz castle . This wasn’t a village . There was no barricades formed here . If one insisted on making a comparison, this was like a massive camping ground or something similar to one . In the normal logic of Warlord, this was a dangerous thing to be doing . They were basically defenseless against the attacks of monsters .

However, none of the Users here were worried . The monsters that appeared near Havanz castle was like pocket change or an ice cream dessert that cleansed their palate .

Currently, beings that would freak out even these Users had just appeared .

“It’s been awhile . ”

A star amongst stars had appeared . In fact, there was more than one . Two stars had appeared .

“I’m talking to you . Isn’t it normal for a person to at least nod their head? Why do you have to behave so coldly towards me?”

“What business do you have with me?”

It was Shir and Chev .

Users of great skill and renown had appeared in front of the Havanz castle for the Argardo Raid . However, they paled in comparison to these two . These Users were no longer qualified to play a leading role or a supporting role . They had been turned into spectators in front of these two .

The Users focused their attention on the meeting happening between these two .

These two were stars amongst stars . Shir and Chev wasn’t bother by all the gazes focused on them as they revealed their true colors . Shir was treating Chev in a very cold manner . There was no need to act as if they were on good terms . Moreover, there was a good reason why they weren’t on good terms .

“I’m not here for anything too important . I checked your number, and you guys are going after us . So I decided to greet you . ”

Shir’s expression crumpled at Chev’s words .

This was the reason why their already bad relationship had worsened .

“You are here to provoke me . ”

“No way . ”

Anyone could see that the Argardo Raid was like an exclamation point to the great battle . This was why everyone competed with each other to participate in the Argardo Raid . The order had been determined through lottery . The Stormhunters were going right after the Red Bulls .

Of course, it soured Shir’s mood .

‘If it was any other guild than the Red Bulls… . ’

The Stormhunters guild was pretty far down the queue . Including the Red Bulls, there were a total of four guilds from the 30 great guilds in front of her .

However, only the Red Bulls was a thorn in her eyes . If other guilds succeed in the Argardo Raid, it would be considered a miracle . However, this could be an easy win for the Red Bulls . This was how highly she thought of the Red Bulls .

On top of it all, Chev had come to check up on the situation himself even though their turn wasn’t up yet .

This wasn’t an attempt by the Red Bulls to use a hot topic to sell more live tickets . His actions was meant to say he was going to attempt this as if everything was on the line .

Shir was here for similar reasons as Chev .

Chev had come close to provoking Shir on purpose for similar reasons too .

They weren’t competitors that were fighting head to head against each other . The two of them had their arrows aimed at the same target . There was no way a cordial atmosphere could blossom in this situation . Instead, sparks were flying between them .

Everyone gossiped as they saw this sight .

“I guess one of those two guilds will succeed . ”

“Don’t you think Red Bulls have the higher probability to kill it?”

“It’s the opposite . If the Red Bulls reveal most of their strategy in the Raid, Storm Hunter’s success rate would rise significantly . ”

“It is a matter of if one will eat first or eat off the floor . ”

There was someone, who was viewing these two Users, with very sharp eyes .

‘In the end, the Hahoe Mask made it possible for those two to take flight . He did something very troublesome . ’

Sinclair was with the V&V guild . He was here as a the member of the Raid party . They were going to attempt the Argardo raid in several hours . He let out a bitter when he saw the Storm Queen and the Matador appear .

However, there was someone observing Sinclair with sharp eyes .

‘What is that bastard here?’

This User was wearing a blandly designed steel armor . His helmet covered his whole face, and he wore a cape . He looked like a typical Swordsman Class type User that one could see everywhere in Warlord .

When Hyrkan discovered Sinclair, his heart sank .

‘This is going sideways again . Why the hell is that bastard here with the V&V logo on his chest?’

Hyrkan wasn’t here to participate in the Argardo Raid by himself .

Argardo dropped incredible Items . The Argardo Armor set was a level 180 Chronicle Unique Rank Item . The Crying Sword was a level 180 Chronicle Epic Item . The two Items could be used until mid level 200s . The weapon was a very good one .

However, it would be difficult for Hyrkan to gain this weapon .

‘Shit . It won’t be easy to join as the third wheel . ’

The Argardo Raid couldn’t be soloed . If he only had to fight Argardo, Hyrkan would have attempted the Raid already . Of course, his chances wouldn’t be great .

The problem with the Argardo Raid was the fact that this wasn’t a simple Boss Raid . This was a Raid happening in the framework of the great battle .

First, one had to defeat the Corrupted army defending the Havanz castle . Then one had to climb the castle wall . One had to win the siege of the Havanz castle to be able to acquire a ticket to fight Argardo . However, this was impossible for Hyrkan to do by himself .

This was why Hyrkan had planned on making a deal . He had planned on joining a decent Underfoot guild that was an ace card short of winning this Raid . From their perspective, there was no reason why they would refuse the deal .

At the very least, it wouldn’t prevent others especially the 30 great guilds from killing Argardo . The deal would be much better than sucking their thumbs as others killed Argardo .

However, Sinclair had appeared as the member of V&V guild . Sinclair was a User that already tried to kill Hyrkan . There had been no discernable reason behind it . He thoughtlessly attempted a PK on Hyrkan .

‘If I talk about the Watchman style once again in front of him, I bet he’ll try to find my house and beat me up . ’

If Hyrkan was in Sinclair’s shoes, his eyes would roll back in anger once he spotted him .

‘Shit . It seems I’ll have to change my plan . ’

Hyrkan once again swallowed the bitter words . At that moment, Sinclair turned his head slightly to look at Hyrkan . Sinclair had felt Hyrkan looking at him . At that moment, Hyrkan was freaking out, but he didn’t show any outward signs . If he looked away or turned his gaze away, it would make Sinclair suspicious .

Sinclair tilted his head in confusion when he saw Hyrkan .

‘Who is that? Is he looking at me? Am I tripping?’

That was the extent of this thoughts .

“Ah . They are moving . ”

“What were they talking about?”

Shir and Chev had finished their conversation . They turned their backs, and they walked away from each other . The gazes that had been on the two split as they went in different directions . When they disappeared from the stage, the Users were filled with curiosity . They started talking to each other privately .

In such a restless atmosphere, Sinclair and Hyrkan was nowhere to be seen .

6 .

“Give up! Give up on it!”

When that shout was heard, the Argardo Raid’s message board became noisy .

– They admitted defeat! They couldn’t even get over the castle wall!

– Mediocre Users were gathered to increase the headcount . This was to be expected .

– I got a 1 . 05 times return . Thank you for the meal .

– ㄴ I flagged you for illegal betting before I leave .

The Users gathered to make the Kill the Knight Team to run the Argardo Raid . However, this team had just gave up on the Raid .

The Kill the Knight was a team created by 1,200 Users . This team couldn’t even climb the castle wall that had been crushed by the Raid Teams before them . Of course, the Cement Worms were working on repairing the fallen castle wall, so it was only somewhat patched up . The Kill the Knight team wanted to take advantage of this fact, yet their battle was conducted in a very sloppy manner .

The critical blow came when the castle wall fell . The Users rushed in to enter the castle when the entrance became congested . This congestion allowed the enemies to use AOE attacks to cause Game Over to a lot of Users .

This was why retaking the castles were scary . It was as it was revealed in the Hahoe Mask’s know-how video . The attack on the congestion assured a certain victory in the defense of the castles . However, the congestion was now morphed into an obstacle for the Users . This method of attack assured certain victory, and it wasn’t easy to come up with a method to counter it .

In truth, no one had expected the Kill the Knight team to succeed . One needed incredible amount of magical firepower to clear away the monsters like the Sweepers guild, or one needed a peerless heavyweight that could make split-second decisions within a battle . It was meaningless to have only a high number of Users .

– Too bad about the V&V guild . They were able to reach the battle with Argardo, but they had to retreat eventually .

– Since we are talking about the V&V guild, there was a User that was incredibly skilled User that was killing the monsters . Why didn’t that User step up to fight Argardo?

– ㄴ I’m also curious . He fought better than the Users that actually fought Argard . However, he was missing .

The Warlord fans were excited about the 3 teams that would be attempting the Raid after the Kill the Knight team .

– Anyways, this 3 consecutive battles will settle it .

– That’s true .

It was set up in such a way that three guilds in the 30 great guilds were attempting the Argardo Raid one after another .

– So the order is Big Smiles, Red Bulls and Stormhunter?

In terms of conducting Raids, these two guilds were opined to being the best in Warlord . This fact was why everyone had high expectations . They were overflowing with anticipation . It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that if these two guilds failed, no one could think of any other guilds that would be able to succeed in the Raid .

Of course, there was also the guild that became the butt of the joke .

– Even if Big Smiles will be the card that will be discarded, Red Bulls and the Stormhunter will end this .

– ㄴ Why is the Big Smiles the card that is being thrown away? They are the strongest guild in China . If we compare the Big Smiles to the other two guilds, there is no reason why Big Smiles should be put on a lower standing .

– ㄴ Strongest in China = Weakest in the world .

– ㄴ They only know how to move in big numbers . What else are they good at?

– ㄴ They move in swarms, and they get beat a lot . They are very good at that .

– ㄴ I’ll give you a 1 thumbs up .

The Big Smiles were put in the a conversation alongside the other two guilds, and they were being roasted mercilessly .

The result of these opinions appeared in the amount of live tickets that was sold . The Big Smile’s Argardo Raid only sold 290,000 live tickets . Even if one took into account of having only one day to sell the ticket, Big Smiles had the largest pool of fans from China . From Big Smiles’ perspective, this hurt their pride .

“Shit . They want me to stay as rear support doing the useless tasks . They are completely treating me like trash . How dare they!”

He didn’t really care about this Raid, but he was put in rear support even though he was an officer . If he wanted to describe the situation with a Korean expression, he had joined in this Raid as a side dish . It was a big hit to Apollo’s pride .

Chiroro was once again put next to Apollo to appease him . His pride was hurt in a big way too, and it was twisting everything he felt .

‘You are trash . ’

Apollo wasn’t qualified to participate in a Raid of this level . He wasn’t short on Items and levels, but his personal skills were very lacking . If this Raid had a cap on how many people could participate in it, Apollo’s name wouldn’t even have made it onto the reserve list . This was the opposite situation where there were no constraints on how many Users the guild could bring . This was the reason why Apollo was able to participate in the Argardo Raid .

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason .

‘If you hadn’t paid off Brooks, no one would choose a trash like you . ’

Brooks was an officer of the Big Smiles, and he had helped Apollo get in on the Raid . In simple terms, Brooks had been bribed .

‘I wonder how much he is getting?’

This was obvious, but everything Apollo did was possible, because he had given Brooks a lot of money .

From Chiroro’s perspective, he didn’t like the current situation at all . He didn’t like attending Apollo . On top of it all, he had no expectation regarding the Argardo Raid .

‘Our guild is hanging by a thread . Why are we doing this Raid? It isn’t as if we brought our main force . ’

The Big Smiles was attempting the Argardo Raid since it was a hot topic right now . It seemed they were just thinking about selling some live tickets . Of course, there was a reason behind this . Big Smiles guild had been one of the nine guilds that announced their nonparticipation . They probably wouldn’t have done this if they hadn’t announced their nonparticipation .

It was a fact . They had no chance of winning .

The details of the plan hasn’t come out yet, but Chiroro could tell what would happen . They’ll get past the castle wall, and they’ll get to see Argardo’s face . After tangling with Argardo, they’ll leave after the requisite time was filled . Since they’ve sold the live tickets, they would have to maintain the battle for an hour . That was how long a normal Raid took .

When his thoughts reached that point, Chiroro’s face unconsciously twisted to reveal his true feelings . He was about to lose control over his expression .

It happened at that moment…

“Aren’t you Chiroro-nim?”

Someone was calling out Chiroro’s name as he was approaching him . Chiroro’s expression immediately changed when he saw the him .

“Sinclair-nim?”

The identity of this Users was Sinclair, who had participated the Argardo raid as a member of the V&V guild . He had finished participating in the Argardo Raid, yet he was back once again after only a short amount of time had passed .

Of course, he wasn’t here to meet Chiroro . He wanted to check on the progress of the Stormhunters and Red Bulls . Still, it was a bit awkward for him to stand there by himself, since the V&V guild had already left . Sinclair decided to greet Chiroro, who was close to being an officer in the Big Smiles guild .

“What are you doing here?”

“I was about to pass by after I assess the situation, and I caught sight of Chiroro-nim . I came here to greet you . ”

“I’m not at a level where I should be greeted by you . I’m honored . ”

The two of them weren’t that close . Sinclair had helped out the Big Smiles guild several times, and Chiroro had been present during such an event .

On the other hand, Apollo didn’t have any connections to Sinclair . From Apollo’s perspective, he suddenly felt listless .

Apollo was impatient as he opened his mouth .

“Who is this?”

Chiroro’s expression crumpled slightly at the question . However, Apollo was an officer, so he couldn’t just brush him off . Chiroro introduced Sinclar to Apollo . After introductions, the two Users shook hands .

At that moment, two Users located not too far away were also shaking hand . They were standing in a very secluded location where no one could see them .

7 .

A Raid was like a game of Go .

An opponent always moved in a pattern . One had to analyze this pattern, and one had to come up with a way to deal with this pattern . One had to try to read the opponent’s move, and the opponent would react accordingly . Raid was only a several degree different from Go .

It wasn’t easy to come up with a plan for a Raid assault . With regards to coming up with a plan, there was a strategist that was known to be very good working for the Red Bulls, and he had come up with a plan for the Argardo raid .

However, the plan that was made by the strategist Nunum was scrapped .

“Are we really going to do this?”

It was an order from Chev .

He suddenly requested a sudden change in the plan .

“Is it possible?”

“I can do it, but do you really want to do this?”

The reason behind this move was too surprising . This was why Nunum was asking the question again . However, Chev answered the question with a smile . However, the smile didn’t explain anything, so he still had a silly expression on his face . Finally, Chev explained his decision .

“In any case, our chance for victory isn’t that high . If that is the case, I would rather make this more fun . We have to take our viewers into account . At the very least, our viewers won’t be disappointed if we use this method . ”

At those words, Nunum put on an awkward smile as he thought about it .

‘They won’t be a disappointed . It’ll be a jackpot no matter the result . ’