(AN : This chapter is susceptible to change.)

“So it’s pretty much a war we are going to eh?”

At a clearing close to the West gate, a unit of NPC soldiers stood by in formation awaiting orders. The unit numbered at least 200 NPCs and most of them had the class [Town Guard] [1]. They were garbed with a mixture of leather and iron armour with the bulky men in front, who looked to be MTs, fully clad in stylish black and blue iron armour.

“War might be outstretching it. I’d say a battle or a simple clash.” Sato said as he walked over to a spot in the clearing and waited.

Sato and Fudo weren’t the only players who decided to arrive early. A few others had gathered close by. They were mostly solo players and independent parties but there were a few guilds that were also present. Most of those guilds were the weaker ones, consisting of a couple of unassigned guilds, 4th tier and 3rd tier guilds. Most of them weren’t so high levelled, averaging around level 3 with some of them even being level 4.

“We really need to go level up otherwise we end up becoming irrelevant.” Fudo sighed at the sight of the level 4 players.

“This mission can also count as levelling so it’s best you take it seriously.” A black haired guy walked over to the duo. Extending his right hand he said “Hello. My name is Matrix. You are?”

“Sky-Blade.” Sato warily shook hands with him.

“Emperor Wolf.”

“Seeing as we are black hairs, why don’t we form a team together? I got some of my guys to join with me but we still need a few more. So what do you say?” Matrix smiled. “And before you disagree, you should know that it would be hard to make any noticeable achievement in this event. Since the mission was disseminated round the whole town, most guilds have placed their main focus on it and we can’t be sure that the neighbouring players and guilds don’t plan to do the same. After all, who said that we are the only ones that know of it?”

Upon hearing that, Fudo frowned slightly. Even though he had thought of the same thing hearing it from someone made him consider that possibility once more.

Sato on the other hand, nonchalantly replied “Thank you for your explanations and thoughts but we don’t plan on achieving a noticeable deed today.”

“…ok. No problem.” Matrix, who was slightly stunned at the lack of enthusiasm from Sato looked at Fudo and asked “What about you?”

Fudo beamed and said “You should have heard him clearly didn’t you? He said ‘We’ not ‘I’.”

“Alright but don’t regret your choice later.” Matrix scowled and left while muttering “Idiots.”

After he was gone quite a distance away, Fudo looked at Sato.

“Do you really don’t want to aim for the leaderboards in this event?”

“I told you, it’s too soon to struggle for any reward. There’s just the 2 of us against multiple guilds. This isn’t some freaking webnovel where you illogically surpass them all.”

“You’re right. You said it’s too soon to aim for a reward in scenarios like this plus you also emphasized that there’s just the 2 of us. Does that mean you plan on starting a guild?” Fudo asked with glints in his eyes.

“Not a guild. But starting a party or a club isn’t so bad.”

Normally, guilds are the most popular organizations in the gaming world. However, there exist other groups who tend to have a more lax set of rules and regulations to abide by. This includes associations, unofficial clubs and parties. A simple party can consist of about 4 to, at most, 7 players. Any more and it will be classified as a club.

An association, or adventurers guild, is a larger club that has a set of rules guiding them, however, their rules are more free and lax when compared to guilds.

Guilds, just like associations, are a large-sized clubs. However, they are guided by a very strict set of rules. On the good side though, most guilds are sponsored by a corporation and are usually fair in their control since their rules are strict. Due to these reasons, guilds tend to develop faster, smoother and better compared to the other groups.[2]

While Sato and Fudo talked about their future plans, more players and guilds hurried over to the clearing, steadily increasing the player population present. Apart from the players, NPC mercenaries and adventurer groups had gathered. Even some NPC guilds had gathered, of which the strongest was a small squad of adventurers. The Adjudicators of the Holy Light guild, who numbered around 20, were also worth noticing. Even with their small numbers, everyone of them were quite strong and well equipped. Their captain was even a Level 30 Knight of Light, which was a special class only accessible to those under the Church of Light. In the end, the NPC forces, including the Town Guards, numbered around 475 or so.

“Such a force should be capable of seizing a tertiary town. If the formations aren’t counted, seizing a secondary town wouldn’t be bad.”

Towns are classified into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary towns. Each of them are guarded by arrays and formations that serve as a shield for the towns however the difference in strength increases with an increase in rank. For this force to be capable of capturing a town, even if it is just a tertiary one, is quite impressive already.

It didn’t take that long for the 30 minutes countdown to be up. As soon as that happened, not just the players but also the NPCs noticed a small group of people walking over from the gate. The leader was clad in a black armour lined with scarlet patterns. Though he wasn’t so muscly, he exhibited an over-bearing aura with each step he took. The guards beside him were all clad in full body black coloured armour.

As he walked towards them, some of the players tried to use [Inspect] on him but they realised it didn’t work. Rather, they received a System notification.

[[ System notification :

[Inspect] isn’t currently available due to a recent update patch. To use this skill, certain conditions need to be applied.

Please address the System Interface’s Help centre for more info. ]]

“So this is one of the update ‘improvements’? What a joke. They are pretty much removing one of our advantages.” A player cursed out.

Usually the [Inspect] skill helps players scan a boss/monster and identify their skills and stats. With these information, they are able to plan and arrange a proper tactic to apply on the boss/monster. With the ability now gone, most players would be unable to easily adapt to battles as they have now lost a very useful ability that had previously granted them an upper hand in battles.

“Pursuing reality eh? Looks like they meant it.” Fudo giggled. (AN : It feels weird using that verb…)

“Listen up!” At some point in time, the man in black and scarlet armour had arrived at the center of the crowd, on a platform that previously wasn’t there.

“Today, we battle a bunch of misfits who think we are easily bullied. Today we face a race that has no respect for mankind, the strongest of all. Today, we protect our mothers who gave birth to us, our wives who cared for us and our children, who look up to us. Today we battle, not just for our lives, but for our people and our race. Today, we remind these disgusting creatures who the real boss is. NOW. ARE YOU WITH ME? OR ARE YOU AGAINST US?!!!”

“WITH!!!” The crowd responded with a dose of adrenaline.

“Now, let us remind all those races out there who the boss is!!!”

[[ System notification :

The Goblin’s Invasive Retribution : Mission Package

A player has just discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka.

You have been ordered by Town general, Lord Midel, to wage war against the invaders.

Rewards : Based on performance.

Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

Loss of 2 levels with reduction of experience gained by 30% for 2 weeks

Relationship level with human forces at [Dislike]

System description : Show them who’s boss.

System : Accept/Decline

NB: Declining is the same as failure. ]]

“So once we reach this place, there’s no going back? Fine. I accept.”

AN :

[1] [Town Guard] : a subclass that grants the user better memory of their jurisdiction together with its surroundings. When they are battling in their posts(assigned towns), they receive a boost. The farther they are from the town, the weaker the boost till a radius of 500m away from the town. At this point, the boost is unavailable.

[2] An association or a simple club can also be sponsored by a corporation but normally, they end up turning into a guild since they have to have a strict control over their fund usage or increase their numbers or this might just be a suggestion from their sponsors.