Chapter 2032 – Proof of Ability

When they heard the Guild system notification, the meeting room fell silent as if time had frozen. The Hundred Flowers Palace’s upper echelons only recovered from their daze after three seconds had passed.

“East Valley Town has been captured? How is that possible?!”

“What did Starlink do?!”

“Quick! Send someone to contact our people in East Valley Town! I want to know what’s happening! Find out how Starlink captured it!”

The upper echelons barked out orders to their subordinates, demanding a full investigation into this matter. They were all visibly anxious, having abandoned their prior calm. Even Cleansed Rue, one of the Guild’s Vice Guild Leaders, was clearly flustered.

East Valley Town was one of the Hundred Flowers Palace’s three most important towns due to its proximity to the Thorny Ridge, a Level 60 to 80 neutral map. The Thorny Ridge was the most suitable map for players to grind and level up. Not only could players level up quickly there, but they could also secure excellent resources from the map. Furthermore, East Valley Town had almost been large enough to promote to Intermediate rank.

Due to East Valley Town’s importance, the Hundred Flowers Palace had station between 30,000 and 40,000 players in the town. Although only 1,000 of them were expert players, the rest being elites, East Valley Town shouldn’t be easy to capture. To prevent other powers from taking the town from them, the Guild had also constructed eight Defense Turrets and ten Arrow Towers, in addition to hiring 1,000 NPC soldiers for the town’s protection. If worse came to worst, the Palace had a collection of war weapons, Tier 3 Summoning Scrolls, and Tier 3 large-scale destruction Magic Scrolls stored in the town.

Yet, despite having such defenses, East Valley Town had fallen without any of them receiving word of an attack...

Why wouldn’t they worry when such a heavily fortified town had been captured so easily?

After waiting for a short while, the Hundred Flowers Palace’s upper echelons received reports from their subordinates. However, their expressions became even gloomier after reading the reports.

“Vice Guild Leader Rue, what happened in East Valley Town?” Shi Feng could not help but ask.

“We have received a report from the members stationed in the town. Starlink sealed off communication in the town before several thousand Tier 2 experts appeared in our Residence. Because of how sudden the attack was, our members were caught completely off guard. Using the confusion to their advantage, Starlink’s members claimed the Town Order,” Cleansed Rue said, turning to Shi Feng with a complex expression.

Starlink had used the same tactical assault that Zero Wing had employed against the Starlight Alliance.

It was highly likely that Starlink had only decided to use the tactic after witnessing Zero Wing’s success. If Zero Wing had not used it, Starlink would likely have failed to capture such a fortified town as East Valley Town.

Although this situation impressed upon the Palace’s upper echelons how truly impressive Zero Wing was, it was also a fact that Zero Wing had indirectly helped Starlink capture one of the Palace’s fortified towns. This would likely encourage these upper echelons’ resentment against Zero Wing.

“They used our Guild’s assault tactic?”

Remnant Cloud and the others, who sat around Shi Feng, were stunned.

Although they felt as if the Hundred Flowers Palace deserved their apology, they were also a little delighted.

The Hundred Flowers Palace’s upper echelons had already stated that they were capable offending off a superpower in the same way Zero Wing had, however, due to Zero Wing’s tactic, the Palace had lost one of its most important towns.

However, the situation didn’t particularly surprise Shi Feng. After an adventurer team had used the tactic to destroy a Guild Town in the past, similar situations had occurred across God’s Domain. No one could resist the temptation of obtaining a Guild Town so easily.

But using this tactic required one to fulfill certain conditions.

The first condition required one to possess sufficiently strong combatants.

The second condition involved the ability to transfer a large number of players across long distances.

Naturally, the second condition was more difficult to fulfill since the majority of teleportation tools in the game only allowed individual travel. Group teleportation tools, even those that allowed short-distance travel, were extremely rare and valuable, not to mention long-distance, group teleportation tools. Normally, one would require tools like Tier 3 Group Teleportation Scrolls to achieve the feat, but such Scrolls were insanely rare, rivaling Tier 4 Magic Scrolls. They were not easy to come by.

This was also why Shi Feng treated his Seven Luminaries Ring as a divine tool. Its ability to teleport a group of players was already immensely precious, not to mention its other abilities.

“However, that isn’t the most important news right now. Based on the information we gathered during our people’s investigations, Starlink simultaneous dispatched an army to Moon Creek Town, one of our other important bases,” Cleansed Rue said. “We estimate that the Guild has mobilized over 300,000 players for the assault, and it has sealed off communication and all paths to the town. We were only able to learn of its movements through offline means.”

It was obvious that Starlink was serious about taking Moon Creek Town from the Hundred Flowers Palace.

An army of 300,000 elite players was the equivalent of three-quarters of the Palace’s elite members. With all paths to and from Moon Creek Town blocked, teleportation to the town was impossible, as well. It would take a very long time for the Palace to mobilize a force large enough to match Starlink’s army. Meanwhile, only around 30,000 players defended the town. By the time the Palace’s main army arrived, the Guild would have likely lost Moon Creek Town.

If the Hundred Flowers Palace lost Moon Creek Town as well, the Guild would lose all hope of developing in the Dark Night Empire. The various large Guilds relied on their Guild Towns, which were usually constructed in high-resource maps, to obtain leveling resources and funds. Without any Guild Towns, a Guild would stagnate.

“Guild Leader, what should we do? It’ll likely take an hour or two to gather 100,000 elite members right now, and we’ll need another four or five hours to reach Moon Creek Town. With Moon Creek Town’s defenses, I’m afraid it won’t last that long.”

“Don’t forget; Starlink has set up blockades on the paths to Moon Creek Town. Getting through those blockades will likely take as much time as actually traveling to the town...”

“How are we supposed to send reinforcements, in that case? We’ve already lost East Valley Town; if we lose Moon Creek Town as well, we’ll have no choice but to leave the empire.”

All of the Palace’s upper echelons anxiously voiced their opinions, one after another. They had never expected Starlink to launch such a fierce offensive. Rather than facing their Guild in the field, Starlink had directly assaulted their Guild’s vital points.

“All we can do is organize a small force of experts to break through Starlink’s blockades. I have Blood Source Potions with me. If we can get these potions to Moon Creek Town, we can fortify the town’s defenses. We should be able to buy enough time for the main army to arrive,” Crimson Heart declared. “Currently, there are two paths that will allow us to reach the town quickly, but trying to break through a single front will be quite dangerous since both paths are relatively close to each other. The Starlink members stationed at the blockades will easily be able to provide each other reinforcements. Hence, I suggest that we try both paths. We’ll use one force as bait while the other tries to deliver the Blood Source Potions to Moon Creek Town.

“Rue, you insisted that we ally with Zero Wing, correct? Then, let’s see Zero Wing’s strength. If Zero Wing can’t even help us with this operation, then the Guild isn’t strong enough to stop Starlink!”

“This....” Cleansed Rue couldn’t help but turn to Shi Feng with an awkward expression.

She had merely invited Zero Wing’s experts to this meeting to show off its strength to her Guild’s upper echelons. With that understanding, Zero Wing had only sent fourteen experts with her. How could such a small force fight a large-scale battle?

“That won’t be a problem. We can use this opportunity to prove to you that Zero Wing is powerful enough to repel Starlink,” Shi Feng volunteered, nodding calmly.

Cleansed Rue had no choice but to agree with Crimson Heart’s plan after Shi Feng’s approval. However, she intended to gather the experts under her command, as well. She had suggested this alliance; she couldn’t afford to watch from the sidelines.

“Since we’re all in agreement, let’s begin the operation. Moon Creek Town can’t last long without our help,” Crimson Heart said, flashing Shi Feng a grin.

In truth, she didn’t have much hope of Zero Wing’s success in this operation. She had only suggested the plan to prove to Zero Wing that she and her subordinates could smash through Starlink’s blockade and reach Moon Creek Town in time to help its survival.

Following which, the two Vice Guild Leaders left to prepare, with Crimson Heart organizing the experts that had accompanied her from the Holy Hill Kingdom and Cleansed Rue leading her own subordinates and Zero Wing’s group to the appointed location.