I proofread myself, I hope you don't mind. Do tell me if you find some mistakes. Thank you for reading.

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Chapter 51 : Disturbing Information

Half a mile away, and the caravan could reached the city. To get there, they needed to pass a sea of chaotic users waiting to chew them alives.

The troops lowering their weapons, loosened up their bodies and they didn’t care anymore to pose their fighting stance.

The merchants faces looking down to the ground as if there was anything there. Half of them trying to hold themselves from crying.

No one took a single step further. The merchants stop pushing their pets to move. The troops stopped trying any formations. The whole caravan just stop, as if they were throwing the towel already.

Gathering his thoughts, Gilbert looked up again, looking straight to his enemies in front of him. It was his third time challenging for the class upgrade quest.

Deep in his heart he knew it was his last chance. He bet all of his wealth on that one last trip. If he failed again, all of his five years playing Emperor Saga would come to naught and he needed to start again.If that happened, he may aswell gave up.

He was tired of failing, it hurts his pride, his self esteemed. ‘Is this the end?’ , he asked himself.

“(No, I don’t want it to end. At Least, not like this !)”

The cold sweats heating up, his heart was racing. His pale face turned lively again. He slit his eyes, he gritted his teeth. Instead of upset, he looked his enemies with resentment.

“(This is all because of you lot !)”

As he had his resolved, Gilbert cried to the caravan’s members.

“LISTEN!”

The caravan’s members looking up again as they heard Gilbert cried. The chaotics losing their smiles as they felt things wouldn’t went on their way. Not that easy.

“ Those guys may think the money and the goods in our wagons were things that they can spend and used. But to us, it’s more than that. It’s our blood and sweat, it’s our dream, it’s our very soul!”

As he cried out loud, Gilbert made a fist with his right hand and slammed it to the left side of his chest. Before he continued his speeches.

“Do I look like a pushover? Do WE look like pushover? We are not ! Just because we are merchants doesn’t mean we are cowards. We do have our own prides and we can fight!”

The merchants, the troops and the guards started to get lively again as they heard GiIbert’s speeches.

“The game doesn’t allowed us, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. This is not the time to be stingy, draw out your guns. AND FIGHT OUR WAY OUT!”

As if they were resurrected from death, the merchants took out their guns. The troops took their fighting stance. It was their last struggled and they don’t want to go down without a fight.

“HuAaArgGHhH!!

The whole caravan cried as if it was the start of the great war of Asgard. Their morale went up through the roof. The morale and the cried overwhelming the chaotics, shaken up their resolves.

“Here goes nothing!”

As the members of the troops charged in, the other followed. The guards that supposed to defend the merchants joined the troops, enforcing their forces.

Bang!

Bang!

Unmounted from their pets, the merchants line up at the troops back, releasing bullets . It wasn’t on rapid fire but one bullet could killed a user, enough to scare their enemies.

As the guns were on the pinnacle of the most damaging weapons, the cheapest bullet could actually killed the chaotic users.

Merchants usually used the guns for their final defense, when they were about to be killed. Using the guns in a skirmishes was unheard of as it took a hefty amount of money.

Not many actually saw the true might of the gun as they were rarely used.As for the chaotics, they usually slayed the merchants before the merchants could pulled the trigger. Because of this, the guns usually get underestimated by Emperor Saga’s community.

The overwhelming numbers of the chaotics and the fact that most of the chaotic forces were an expert pvp player. Made it seems easy for the chaotics to annihilated the caravan.

But unexpectedly, the caravan stood their ground. And even by a little, the chaotic side was pushed back a bit. The merchants joining the battle with their guns greatly help the caravan side.

The dawn came, and the battle seems endless. Neither side showed any signs of giving up. The chaotic side starting to lose their focus while the caravan getting more determined.

One after another fallen from both sides. Fortunately no merchants dies as they were positioned at the back of the troops while the troops acting as vanguards.

click!

click!

As the battle went on and the sun about to rise, the tide of the battle starting went on the chaotics way. One by one troops fallen on their knees as they were losing their stamina. It was the result of fighting non-stop from yesterday night, it exhausted their stamina greatly.

The merchants running out of bullets worsen the situation.Usually a single merchant only kept five bullets for themselves. Pulling the trigger from behind did kills a good amount of chaotics. Unfortunately it only scared the chaotics for awhile as they only had limited amount of bullets.

As the sunrise, the amount of troops was halved. The chaotics starting to smile. They didn’t expected that they needed to work that hard, regardless, they were winning.

“Kukuku….FInal struggle? What a waste of time.”

“You guys should just give up earlier.”

“Annoying piece of shit!”

“How did you feel, getting cornered like this after working so hard.Hahaha!”

The chaotics did taken aback by the caravan final struggled. As if they were celebrating already, they start to diss the caravan’s effort. But a voice came from their back, a voice that was so upright and majestic that was hard to believe it was one of them.

“Cornered? Says who?”

When they heard the voices, for some reason cold sweats running through their bodies. As they turned their head looking at the direction where the voices came from, their eyes widened, as if their were struck by lightning their bodies felt numbed, unmoved.

A slender looking orc was smiling at the chaotics back. And behind him, was hoarded of army. As the chaotics looking at their left and right side, they saw the army with the same banner lined up.

And finally, when they look past the caravan in front of them, they saw the army with the same Egil City’s banner lined up. Without realizing anything, they were surrounded. The chaotic users were surrounded.

Rektar’s arrival marked the end of the failed raid. They were many casualties but it could be worse for the caravan.As the sunrise past and the morning came, the merchants could finally loosen up as they were out of danger, the caravan was finally saved.

The caravan’s troops finally lay down while looking up the sky. They were satisfied as they accomplished their goal. Their fallen brethren wouldn’t mind went down a few level if they knew about their success.

Points from the mercenary guild was enough to satisfy the troops as it gave more fame and better track record. Those were something to be brag about and may attracted better salaries.

As for Jason and James that were on Bounty Hunter guild. They gained a lot from the raids as every medals they gained from killing the chaotic users would earned them money bounty and points from the guilds.

Like the mercenary guild, points from bounty hunter guild would gave them fame and better track records. In this case, they might be able to get out from the rank F in the guild.

While apprehending the chaotic users, Rektar dismissed some web reporters trying to interview everyone. As for the chaotic users, they would be put in prison until their red eyes subsided.

Like the real world, the prison was hell. The player putted in would spawned at the said prison every time they login. The prison was only a small box room with an ironed bar.

The prisoner could only moved in that limited spaces while they were on prison. To make it worse, the user equipments and items were confiscated while they were in prison. It was no better than an official ban, practices by the older generations.

After Egil’s soldiers finished apprehending the chaotic users and retrieving the wagon lost in actioned, the caravan and the army heading back to Egil City.

*******

“Huaaargh!”

After leisurely watching sunrise while leaning on the city’s walls. Chrono twisted his body as he yawning, trying to fight his sleepiness.

It was only a few minutes after Egil’s troops departure. But the briefed moment he had to rest, made his entire body tired. He believed it wasn’t just his virtual body that was tired. He vowed that he would took a good sleep after everything was over.

“(How much time do I have left? Around ten minutes in real life time? That would be forty minutes in this world)”

Unfortunately Chrono needed to do one last thing. He took out his ‘One Ring’ , dressed in all white, putted on his ‘Skull Mask and finally took out his ‘Winchester’ rifle.

It was about one last piece of information Somnia’s gave. It was quite a disturbing one. As Chrono walked on the city’s east side, he picked a spot.

It was at the highest hill on the east side of Egil city, covered with rocks, a lot of rocks. Chrono could saw ten meters away on the hill, it was the best spot for his last tasked.

Chrono crouched while holding the ‘Winchester’ in a sniping positioned. While in that position, he waited. Waiting for hoarded of armies marching towards Egil City.

*******

East of Egil five kilometers away from the city, ‘Forest of Wailing Dragon’. It was a huge forest with large trees. Because of the many giant monsters reside here, the forest floors filled with small grasses. A forest without small bushes, swamp and tall grasses.

As the rose-pink light of dawn blocked by the forest trees, it was still quite dark in there. In the darkness, ten humanoid creature hopping between the large trees heading towards the same direction.

Swoosh!

The ten humanoid creature were wood elf. All of them wore the same pattern of cloth. A black leather cloth with short sword hanging on the left side of their waisted. And a binocular hanging on their neck, a standard equipment for scouts.

On the final trees, they took a dive before landing on their destination. They line up properly before knelt in front of their superior, the duke of Glanburg. Before they gave their scouting reports.

“Sire, we saw at least five thousand army marching away from Egil City.”

The duke smirked as he heard the news. With grotesque looking tusked and pig nose, his smirked was quite a villainous one.

For someone from orc races, he was quite short, about 158 centimeters high. His height doesn't fitted his big mounted pet and villainous faced at all.

The duke raised his right hand to signal the ten thousand soldiers behind him to get ready. Before he spoke with a loud voices.

“Hmm… faster than expected. It’s our chance, let’s go!”

The most disturbing information Somnia gave. The rumor about the neighboring city trying to attack Egil City wasn’t a rumor. It was the truth, at least, it became the truth after the rumor was spreading.

Glanburg city, a city directly north from Egil City. The Duke of Glanburg thought it was a great opportunity to use the rumor against Egil.

If everyone in Egil was on the edge in the night of the said rumor, they would mentally exhausted as they were waiting for an attack.

By the time they realized no one attacked them, they would started to loosen up and blaming each other on believing such rumor.

The first part of the plan was leaking the information about Glanburg planned to attack Egil. Oliver, the Duke of Egil wasn’t a fool who belief in a baseless rumor.

But if the information about Glanburg gathering its forces leaked, it became an entirely different story.

Then, Glanburg stationed its soldiers on its city’s gate at the said date that they would attacked. Glanburg that placed directly north from Egil would gave an impression that they would attacked from the north side.

But it only acted as a diversion, the real forces took a detour and planned on attacking Egil from the east side instead of north side.

The moment mercenaries leaders took away their forces, Egil city’s defenses would be on all time low. From the scouts reports, it doesn’t seems like the mercenaries leaders took away their forces.

Regardless, the fact that five thousands soldiers went away from the city was too tempting for the duke to take his chance and begun his attack.

Led by the duke, the army marched away from the ‘Forest of Wailing Dragon’ and headed to Egil City.

Out of the blue a hoarded of twenty thousands army suddenly appeared from the ‘Forest of Wailing Dragon’. No one noticed it as people from Egil city had just loosen up as they started to believe the rumor was false.

******

“(They are here!)”

As he saw the army, Chrono could only smile wryly. The information Somnia gave was accurate, so accurate it was scary.

From the information the duke was a level three hundred user. If that was the case it would be overkill if he used the highest grade bullet that were used to fight super boss.

Medium grade one was enough to one hit kill the duke. It was still quite an expensive kill, but he had no choice as one billion gold was at staked. If by any chance that army reached Egil, he would lose one billion gold from the contract.

He patiently waited for the army to come closer. Or rather he patiently waited for the Duke of Glanburg to come closer. While he waited, Chrono open up his users interface and open up the clan’s chat.

Chrono : “Guys how things going over there?”

Jurek : “Great! Like you said, Glanburg’s defense is extremely weak at the west side.”

Grandine : “We just turn this place upside down mwahaha!”

Grodel : “ It’s a carnage, a carnage!”

Grail : “We just kill everyone on sight, I hope you don’t mind that.”

Chrono : “Nah, doesn’t matter, just withdraw if things get too messy. We just need to distract them

a bit.”

Aramis : “Yeah, yeah whatever. Just finish your job over there and don’t butt here unnecessarily.”

Chrono : “...............”

Sitka : “Honestly, I don’t think we will withdraw shortly.”

Chrono quickly closed his clan’s chat as he saw the Duke and his army were getting closer. Closer enough in his proximity to take a clean shot.

As he aimed at the duke’s head. As he felt the wind on the hill. As the sun rise from the armies direction. He closed his eyes. Then, he open his eyes again. Like the waters in a windless lake, he was calmed.

He don’t want to mess up this shot. Not because he afraid to kill. It was because the price he needed to pay if he missed.

“(A medium grade bullet could buy five shops and three wagon!)”

He pulled himself together. He pulled his resolved.

“(Here we go!)”

And he pulled the trigger.

Bang!

As the bullet fly through the sky, it pierced the duke’s head in a single shot. In front of the army, they just saw a brutal scene of the Duke’s murdered.

“Sire!”

The Duke assistance rushed on him. It was too late as the Duke’s body started to disappear. The assistance scanned the area to look for the culprit.

And he saw a man holding a rifle, wore an all white robe while hiding his face with a ‘Skull Mask’ walking away from the hill one kilometers from there.

It was too far away for them to catch him. He could only wonder why the infamous ‘Skull Mask’ involved. Beside, the next abrupt news he heard from his clan members made his heart want to jump out from his chest.

“Ordil, we had a bad news.”

“What?! What is worse than this?”

“O-Our, our city, Glanburg has fallen.”

“WHAT?!”

********

As Chrono smoothly completed his task , he open up the clan’s chat again. He was curious what happened at the other side.

Chrono : “So, what…..”

Jurek : “Woohooo…..We just conquered the city!”

Chrono : “What?!”

Grodel : “ I’m surprised myself, Grandin playfully sat on the throne to imitate you.”

Grandin : “I reeaallly don’t know that I can’t get up once the game started counting to conquer the

city.”

Jurek : “ Because this guy stuck on throne we need to defend him or he will be dead. Thanks to

my great fighting skill everything going great!”

Grail : “ I thought it was Sitka that massacred all these people.”

Sitka : “So, what did you think? Shall we burn this city like last time?”

Chrono : “.....This was unexpected. I think it should be fine to put it in the auction house for the

time being.”

As he closed the clan’s chat, he noticed that the Glanburg army was disbanded. The NPC soldiers went back to Glanburg as they had no obligation to follow the Ex Duke ordered.

The mercenaries also went away as the official quest to join the Glanburg army was nulled soon after the Duke was overthrown.

And the Duke’s clansmen were sitting still as they were bewildered by the situation. They logout in silences shortly after.

Chrono putted his ‘One Ring’ back. He put away his ‘Skull Mask’. No one was around, only the wind and the blue sky.

He looked up to the sky as he was satisfied with the resulted. In fact, it was a bonus that the ‘Blood Brothers’ could conquered the city.

Trrtting!

Insufficient fund! One minute until logout.

As he was looking up to the sky, his body start disappearing. He knew it, he just let it happen. As his body disappearing and he was about to log out , he just smiled.

“(Ah...I need to scrape some money in real life…)”

When he opened his eyes and went out from the cube. Daniel back to reality. The reality where he was dead poor.

*******

Game Mechanic note :

Conquering

1) Sitting on the enemy throne would led to conquering the city (After a designated time)

2) If it was the headquarters the clan who owned it would be forcefully disbanded. Everything owned by that clan would be transfered to the new owner.

3) The owner would be the one who sat on the throne.

Prison

1) Only authorities could put a user in prison

2) The prisoner could only brought their pant( and some other for other gender lol) in the prison

3) The prisoner could only spawn in the prison while they were a prisoner.

4) Prisoner was treated like an online ban, it's better to login after the prison time expired ( usually1-3 days, a month in extreme cases).

5) People that have blood red eyes like Chrono could be in prison for three month.

Thank you for reading ^_^