Game’s Dogma

Everyone was startled by the announcement, especially players who were participating in the event in other cities because they were still in the midst of battle. Empyreon alone had to withstand 12 waves; it was only natural that they would think Yoda had it easy with only five waves. However, Empyreon’s players numbered over 100,000 while Yoda had a laughable force of less than 10,000.

Discontent rose among players, and they immediately spammed the official forums and emails with complaints. Players who had ditched Yoda for Empyreon and Terrafirm were the ones who grumbled the most. Still, the game did not make any official statement nor responses, simply allowing players to constantly bombard the global channel. Some players even made insulting remarks that said the hicks at Yoda must have cheated.

Players of Yoda found it unbearable and started rebutting. When they typed into the global chat, they all had the golden title of ‘City Defender’ before their names. For others who saw their title, it was a severe mental blow.

‘The Siege’ finally came to a close after half a day in real life, which equated to a day and night in the game.

Evergrand fell to the monsters without much resistance. A handful of die-hard loyalists stayed in the city, yet they were but a drop in the ocean when up against an entire army. Once they saw that players in Yoda had the glittering title of ‘City Defender’, they could only regret their own decision.

Surprisingly, the second city to fall was Terrafirm. Similarly having to defend 12 waves with over 100,000 players, they were overwhelmed by the tsunami of monsters and unfortunately fell on the 10th wave.

Game officials later uploaded scenes of Terrafirm’s fall. A hundred thousand players were simultaneously teleported out of the city while their names now had a grey hue. They also had an additional title before their names—‘Homeless’.

It was quite a shocking sight to say the least. An entire city’s worth of players who had the ‘Homeless’ title all stared at the place which once had been Terrafirm with unbelievable looks. The walls turned pitch-black and purplish demonic mist seeped out of the city. Dense grey clouds shrouded the skies, while roars of thunder and flashes of lightning filled the region, turning it into a terrifying ghost city.

Empyreon also held out against all the waves. Players received the same buffs and benefits, but the number marked on the city walls was ‘2’ instead. It stirred up discontent among those who always thought of Empyreon as the top city in the game, but that was a story for a later time.

‘The Siege has ended. Class progression is now available.’

‘A new dungeon “Demon City” is now available. There is a certain chance to encounter the Demon Castellan when challenging Hell difficulty. The city can be liberated by defeating the Demon Castellan, but only one of the two demon cities can be liberated. Once a city has been liberated, the other city will become a demon city permanently and can no longer be liberated.’

Drako Yau finally let out a long sigh. While the event was a short one, there had been quite a handful of hair-rising moments. In particular, the strange purple man and the palm aura strike which made him feel true despair… He still had goosebumps whenever he thought about the purple man.

Drako Yau had no idea how strong the old geezer was. All he knew was that the old geezer’s strength was beyond his comprehension, and he had never felt even the slightest tint of hostility from his teacher. But the purple man was different—his strength was unimaginable, and he could kill Drako Yau with just a flick of his palm.

Tightening his fist, Drako Yau thought that it was necessary for him to grow stronger in order to survive in this world. It was not the same as being forced to learn martial arts from the old geezer. For the first time, he had an insatiable thirst for strength for the sake of survival.

Speaking of survival, if it had not been the mysterious person’s stroke of genius, he would have died already. He had taken note of the person’s ID anyways, so he could always repay him someday when the opportunity arose…

Currently, players were gathering near the resurrection altar. They surrounded the eight imposing class progression masters who had been slaughtering enemies on the battlefield not long ago. However, none dared to make a move. An idiot tried to touch the elementalist master just now and was immediately sent to the resurrection altar by a powerful spell.

Apart from the masters, a good amount of players were also gathering in front of an NPC who wore a military uniform and had a shrewd look. His NPC name tag spelt ‘Quartermaster’. It caught Drako Yau’s interest as he walked over to the NPC.

Seeing the fiery red mask on Drako Yau’s face, every player gave way out of respect. It was this masked man who had saved the front lines many, many times, but he still had a long way to go to reach Hades or Zephyrwolf’s level.

After getting closer to the Quartermaster, Drako Yau was surprised to see Hades, Sasaki, and Zephyrwolf. Even Soulsmith, Everlastor, Bloodless Bladester, and Dogsnout were there. Once Zephyrwolf saw Drako Yau, he immediately wanted to say something, but was forced to a stop by a glare.

Realising Drako Yau’s intention, Zephyrwolf started talking on their private channel, ‘Damn, I’ve got so much Merit! There’s so much stuff to exchange!’

Hades was still annoyed that the man simply wouldn’t change his ways. ‘So what, the items are all useless.’

Zephyrwolf replied with a snicker, apparently getting used to Hades constantly mocking him. ‘What’s useless, have a good look’, he said and posted the item details on their channel.

‘Holy Wolfrider Saddle: Can be equipped on a wolf mount to hold the wolfrider in place, but it is more of a symbol than anything. A holy item of ancient wolfriders, it symbolises the king of all wolfriders.’

The three clicked the item to find out that it looked similar to other saddles, but it was forged with an unknown metal which gave it a darkish golden tone. Lined by silver ornaments, it was a truly spectacular piece of equipment.

Realising he had rendered the three speechless, Zephyrwolf was over the moon. ‘Ahahaha! It’s cool, isn’t it? It took me a whopping 10,000 Merit! There’s not much I can exchange with the remaining Merit though.’

Sasaki said in envy, ‘So you received 10,000 Merit. I only have 5,000… Got this for myself…’

‘Demon Sealing Sheath: A sheath said to be forged by a legendary master of the east to seal a demonic sword. Swords sheathed by the Demon Sealing Sheath will be tamed, and it can block all detection skills and items to hide the stats of the sheathed weapon.’

The black sheath was slim and long. Crimson runes which looked like writings on a Taoist charm glowed on its surface from time to time, giving it a mysterious feeling.