The King's Avatar

They might not have suffered any losses, but they had been in a high-pressure situation.

Each of the top guilds held a meeting with their tenth server elites, telling them not to be afraid of the dangers. They were to “level stubbornly”, bearing the heavy pressure, and resist Lord Grim’s terrorist attacks. They were to struggle until the very end.

The reaction from the meeting was average. These guild leaders ignored exhaustion and nervousness from this type of pressure. They were more focused on the results. They could only say “persist, persist and persist” towards the difficulties met during the process.

If this wasn’t a guild backed by a Club, no one would be listening. Gaming was for relaxing and having fun. Who would struggle so hard for a game? But once it involved the Clubs, the game was no longer just a game. It was a job and a reason to struggle for. Even though the encouragement from the guild leaders didn’t do much, it made clear their attitude towards this. The elites could only follow the orders and brace themselves.

At Cafe Happy, Ye Xiu switched with Chen Guo after getting up. That morning, Chen Guo hadn’t killed anyone, but she had gained quite a bit of experience for him. As soon as Ye Xiu switched places with her, he immediately began his operation. He killed monsters while looking around, and then quickly found a Guild 301 player, who was naturally eliminated.

Tang Rou had also gotten up around the same time as Ye Xiu. She didn’t go directly to the game though. Instead, she went to change shifts at the front desk. Ye Xiu saw this and was startled. These past few days, he had been too invested in the development of the guild. He kept on feeling that something wasn’t right. When he saw Tang Rou take a shift, he suddenly remembered: he hadn’t taken up a shift ever since the All-Star Weekend!

Ye Xiu began to sweat madly. He glanced at Chen Guo. There was no way that Chen Guo didn’t know that he hadn’t worked these past few days, yet she hadn’t said anything about it.

“I say……” Ye Xiu opened his mouth to speak.

“Hm?” Chen Guo turned her head.

“Who took up the night shift these past few days?” Ye Xiu tried to speak vaguely about the topic, without getting to the point.

“You don’t need to worry.” Chen Guo was much more direct.

“Then I……. this……”

“Developing the guild and creating the team is your work!” Chen Guo made a fist.

“……”

“What? How come you don’t seem happy about it?” Chen Guo narrowed her eyes at Ye Xiu, who looked like he wanted to say something.

“Nothing. I just thought that you’ve made quite the profit.” Ye Xiu said.

“Me? What profit?” Chen Guo was puzzled.

“The pay for being a cafe manager during the night shift is very reasonable. But now you want me to do this for that pay. That’s not how much I’m worth!” Ye Xiu said.

“Bullsh*t. You’re taking advantage of me!!!” After knowing Ye Xiu’s identity, Chen Guo’s tolerance for Ye Xiu had clearly gone up. A lot of things had become nicer to look at. She hadn’t gotten angry for quite a while.

“I couldn’t help but mention it.” Ye Xiu said.

Chen Guo stared blankly for a bit. Her mind churned and she realized that Ye Xiu wasn’t wrong. He was an expert at his speciality. As a top-tier God in Glory, he only had a normal status as a cafe manager. But if you wanted him to play Glory, he was much more valuable and his worth would naturally be very different.

“Then what do you want?” Chen Guo was a bit uneasy. If she had to pay Ye Xiu according to his pro status, then she would have some trouble taking the loss.

“Nothing. I was just saying.” Ye Xiu said.

“Do you want a pay raise?” Chen Guo asked unconfidently. Ye Xiu currently had the pay for a cafe manager. Even if his pay was ten times that amount, it wouldn’t be enough for his status as a pro God!

“No need, no need. Just food and shelter is enough.” Ye Xiu nodded his head.

Chen Guo saw Ye Xiu go back to his game. She didn’t know what to say. She turned her head and played the game for a bit, when she suddenly realized something. He had been the one to start the conversation. From his tone of voice, it seemed like he had felt bad about not working these past few days. Why did she feel like she had been in the wrong and that she was taking advantage of him?

“Ah, another one!”

Just when Chen Guo was about to say something, Ye Xiu interrupted her. She hastily went up to look at Ye Xiu’s screen. Lord Grim was bravely charging towards a figure out in the distance. But as the distance shrunk and he saw the tag on top of the character’s head, Ye Xiu was disappointed: “He’s not one…..”

There were 12 guilds in Thousand Waves Lake. Apart from Thousand Creations and Horse Shooter, there were 94 others. Not all of these were Ye Xiu’s targets, because some of them hadn’t participated in the conflict. There was also Blue Brook Guild and Tyrannical Ambition, who had paid for protection, so Ye Xiu wouldn’t touch them. The player in front of him wasn’t a target.

“You won’t find many if you search like this!” Chen Guo said.

“That’s just the way it is.” Ye Xiu said as he clicked on Blue River’s name on his friends list: “What’s the situation!!”

“What situation!!!” Blue River added three exclamation marks to express his emotions.

“Did you find the whereabouts of any targets?” Ye Xiu said.

“What targets!!!”

‘You know.”

“……”

“This is to your benefit, too. What are you hesitating for?” Ye Xiu messaged.

Blue River was gloomy. He was right! Telling him their whereabouts would definitely benefit their guild. But why did he always have the feeling that he had to resist?

“Just look at Tyrannical Ambition! They’re so communicative!”

Ye Xiu said, while controlling Lord Grim.

He hadn’t asked just Blue River. He had also asked Tyrannical Ambition’s Cold Night. Cold Night was much more cooperative than Blue River and called out to all of the elites in Thousand Waves Lake. When he received Ye Xiu’s message, he first asked something that he was curious about: “God, were you not on in the morning? We had at least three reports in the morning! What a pity.”

“Oh, then what about now?” Ye Xiu asked.

“Only one.”

“Tell me. I’ll go.” Ye Xiu replied.

Cold Night happily sent Ye Xiu a name and his coordinates. Ye Xiu headed towards there, while encouraging Blue River. Apart from these two guilds, there were three other guilds. However, these three guilds were in a neutral position. They couldn’t gain anything from this sort of conflict, so they didn’t join in. Just like how they wouldn’t help the guilds pressure Lord Grim, they wouldn’t help Lord Grim mess with the other guilds, so Ye Xiu didn’t look for them.

Taking Cold Night’s report, he quickly found and eliminated the target. Ye Xiu took out a notepad and wrote something down. Chen Guo looked and saw a list of characters from seven guilds. Every time a character was killed, Ye Xiu would add an “X” symbol to it. How tragic for Misty Castle! Their characters had a bunch of marks next to them.

“Are Misty Castle’s player still here?” Chen Guo couldn’t help but ask. They had been killed to such an extent.

“I haven’t encountered any.” Ye Xiu said and opened up his friends list again: “Let me ask around.”

“Are you still leveling at Thousand Waves Lake?” Ye Xiu messaged Hazy Mist.

Hazy Mist’s cheeks were streaked with tears. That had to be a type of arrogance! He implied that they were helpless and that they could only hide.

“What do you plan on doing!” Hazy Mist’s heart was weeping, but his reply sounded tough.

“Nothing, really. My friend just wants to know.” Ye Xiu said and turned to look at Chen Guo. Chen Guo was already completely speechless, looking at this exchange.

“We won’t agree to your terms.” Hazy Mist carried out his overall guild leader’s wishes.

“What a coincidence. I won’t either.” Ye Xiu replied.

Hazy Mist wept even harder. What do you mean, ‘you won’t either’! Our players are suffering and you’re probably just thinking how fun it is!

“Be careful; don’t let me bump into you!” Ye Xiu sent another message to threaten Hazy Mist. Hazy Mist jumped up in fright and closed his messages to check his surroundings. He spun in a circle three times before confirming that he wasn’t nearby.

“When will this end…….” Hazy Mist looked at his experience and continued to kill monsters. Even in normal circumstances, where there was no one terrorizing them while they were leveling, it would still be a few more days before they would leave Thousand Waves Lake!

On Tyrannical Ambition’s side, even though they were very enthusiastic in giving reports to Ye Xiu, they didn’t consider Ye Xiu as an ally. Ignoring everything else, their identity as a branch of Tyranny made them eternal enemies.

“Has there been any reaction from Excellent Dynasty?” Jiang You hadn’t forgotten his original thoughts.

“It doesn’t seem like it.” Cold Night said.

“Could those idiots not have understood that no one can deal with Ye Qiu?” Jiang You mumbled.

In the blink of an eye, the daytime went by and day gradually turned into night. More and more players began coming online, but Thousand Waves Lake was the same. The scenic lake was as beautiful as before. But to the majority of the players there, the lake was full of danger.

That afternoon, the players leveling at Thousand Waves Lake had died eleven times. The seven guilds repeatedly confirmed the reports in order to understand the situation.

If this record had been done entirely by chance, then either their opponent’s luck was too amazing or there was something else going on.

“Could there be someone selling us out?” They weren’t idiots. The guilds were only working for their mutual interest, so it was easy for them to think of something like this. This was why, even though they were opponents, they still made an alliance. Making an alliance at least guaranteed that no one would make things worse.

But some of the guilds were outside of their Alliance and those guilds were the first ones to be suspicious about. They could suspect them, but they had no proof. And even if they had proof, so what? They couldn’t start a guild war because of this, could they? There hadn’t been any large guild wars between the top guilds for a long time. This was because of the other guilds. When two guilds fought, the ones to benefit from the war wouldn’t be them. This reasoning was something every guild leader understood after so many years of competing with each other.

“We can bear such a loss. But those conniving guilds are too terrible.” Herb Garden’s Arisaema said hatefully.