Chapter 1 The End of Recruitment

The recruitment of mercenaries by Zongheng Sihai had come to an end. In Cloud City, apart from the mercenaries under the same large guilds who had no intention of helping Zongheng Sihai grow stronger, the other invitees ultimately agreed to help. Of course, there were many who took the opportunity to profiteer, but ordinary mercenary groups knew their limits and didn't dare to overdo it, unlike the Black Hand Mercenary Group and the Young Master Elite Group, who were so magnificent in their fleecing.

The few who shared the loot after the extortion were very emotional. "Zongheng Sihai is really rich!"

"It's everyone's task, everyone contributes! Seven hundred and fifty people! If each person takes out 100 gold coins, that's 75,000 gold coins!!!" Brother You exclaimed. This was undoubtedly a huge astronomical figure, and with the quality of Zongheng Sihai's players, taking out 100 gold coins each wouldn't be too difficult.

The subsequent agreement was as Brother You expected. The task couldn't be completed in dozens of hours at once. Zongheng Sihai arranged for all the mercenary groups to meet outside the east gate of the city the next day. The goal for that day was to cross the Wulong Mountains to Moonlit Night City, and then go offline in Moonlit Night City, continuing the next day.

At this rate, if they traveled through one main city per day, the task could be completed in five days. That was the general plan.

After logging in that day, Gu Fei went to the east gate as agreed. It was already past seven o'clock, and the east gate was crowded with people. The Zongheng Sihai guild and the mercenary groups were counting to see if all their members had arrived. Because of the city-wide recruitment of mercenaries, Zongheng Sihai's mission had caused a stir in the city, and many players came to watch the excitement.

The onlookers' eyes were filled with envy and jealousy, and they pointed at some famous people in the crowd and talked about them.

"Look at that one, that's Sword Demon! You know? What? You haven't heard of Sword Demon? Have you ever played online games?"

"Look, look, that's Yutian Shenming, that archer!"

"Liar, isn't Yutian Shenming a mage?"

"He changed jobs!"

"Look at that one, that's Xiyao Wu, the number one RMB warrior, currently ranked first in the game." (RMB warrior: A player who spends real money to gain an advantage in the game.)

"Wow, a beauty!!!"

"Ah, ah! That, that's Video Mage! Look!" After 27149, Melee Mage, and Wanted Task Maniac, Gu Fei now had a new title – Video Mage.

"Which one? Which one?"

"The one with an apple in his mouth."

"Ah, so handsome and unique!" Overnight, having an apple in one's mouth became the new fashion in Cloud City.

Although the agreed time was seven o'clock, it was already 7:17 when everyone arrived and was accounted for. Wushi Zhi Jian looked at the dark crowd and was very pleased. Daoying Nianhua didn't know where he got a large wooden barrel, and shouted at the crowd, "Everyone, be quiet, be quiet."

"Buzz buzz buzz..." Daoying Nianhua's shouts were like small stones thrown into the sea amidst the noise of the crowd. Some people wanted to listen to him, but they could only see his mouth moving, but couldn't hear the sound coming from it.

"Quiet, quiet!!" Daoying Nianhua shouted in the guild channel, and at least 750 people listened to him and quieted down. But the voices of the remaining mercenary groups and onlookers were still enough to overwhelm him.

Daoying Nianhua waved his hands and gestured, and the members of Zongheng Sihai also worked together to maintain order, and the scene finally quieted down. Someone even came to Daoying Nianhua and handed him something, a trumpet made of a large rolled-up piece of paper.

Daoying Nianhua glanced at the person gratefully and put the roughly made trumpet to his mouth. "Hello, hello!" He tested the sound, and then began to speak, "Everyone, this mission is very large in scale, so I hope you can listen to my unified arrangements..."

"Boo..." Daoying Nianhua was booed before he could finish speaking.

The ones who booed were the guys from the mercenary groups. Frankly speaking, although they were hired hands when the mercenary groups went on missions, and the employers were the bosses, in most cases, the bosses listened to them. It was rare to find a boss who was very powerful but lacked manpower, so they hired a few mercenaries to command them around.

Daoying Nianhua was obviously planning to do this, and although the guys from the mercenary groups knew that such cooperation required a unified command, they had to vent their dissatisfaction!

Daoying Nianhua waited for everyone to finish "booing" before continuing, "Everyone, everyone, I'm not going to micromanage everything, I'm just going to provide a general outline of my plan, and then the heads of the mercenary groups can command their own members. Let's cooperate!"

Someone shouted loudly, "How are we going to command? We're not all from the same guild or group. Are we going to form teams? Who has such high leadership?"

It was obviously impossible to command such a large-scale activity by word of mouth; it was necessary to use the in-game chat channels. But now it was a multi-group collaboration, and everyone wasn't from the same guild or mercenary group, so these two channels obviously couldn't bear the responsibility of command. The team channel after forming a team was possible, but the problem was that all the mercenary groups added up to more than 500 people. Forming a team would require the captain to have more than 50 leadership points, which was obviously impossible.

In Parallel World, 1 leadership point could form a team of 10 people, but when it reached 9 leadership points, which was just one step away from leading a hundred-man army, the leadership experience stopped increasing. According to official sources, the increase in leadership points would be linked to reputation in the future. But reputation... the attribute panels of all players still showed question marks, so it obviously hadn't been opened yet. In this case, the system didn't even support getting 10 leadership points, let alone 50?

To this, Daoying Nianhua just smiled faintly. "There's no need for everyone to form a team. It's enough for the leaders of each mercenary group to form a team with me."

Everyone immediately understood that this kid had already planned everything. He was the supreme commander of the three armies, issuing orders to the leaders of each group, and then the leaders would lead their own members to complete the orders. Damn, how arrogant!

Although everyone thought so, they had to admit that this was a good idea. So the leaders of each mercenary group came out one after another to form a team with Daoying Nianhua. Daoying Nianhua was still standing on the big wooden barrel, constantly shouting, "The leader of the xx group, the leader of the xx group, are you here?"

The Young Master Elite Group was still thinking that Han Jia Gongzi might explode with emotion, but who knew that this guy didn't have any excessive actions at all. He silently came out, formed a team with Daoying Nianhua, and silently returned, but the wine bottle he was carrying in his hand was unique among the group leaders... He had already brought his weapon at this time.

After all this was done, it was almost eight o'clock, and the large team of over a thousand people set off majestically under the gaze of the onlookers.

Most of these players had never left Cloud City, including the three core leaders of Zongheng Sihai. However, because the task description included a route map, the three led the way with an air of arrogance.

The team moved forward silently, the players each with their own thoughts, some excited, some expectant, and some uneasy. Everyone guessed that since this task was an escort, the road would definitely not be peaceful. No one knew what kind of difficulties they would encounter, and everyone was nervous.

The masters of the Young Master Elite Group were mixed in the crowd, inconspicuous, but the girls of Rebirth Amethyst had a good relationship with Gu Fei, and were also familiar with Yutian Shenming and Zhan Wu Shang in this group, so they walked together. As a result, the girls were even more attractive than the Young Master Elite Group. At this time, not only the wretched guys from Fireball, but most men hoped to find a girl to chat with and pass the time on the journey, so they gathered around to greet them. At first glance, this team was centered on Rebirth Amethyst.

They went all the way up the Wulong Mountains. Crossing through here was the territory of Moonlit Night City. Those who had been there, like Gu Fei and others, didn't find it unfamiliar.

Just as they saw a mountain slope ahead, Yutian Shenming and Zhan Wu Shang suddenly became excited.

There was something to talk about here!

The first shot of the Young Master Elite Group, destroying the great bandit Suo Tu, was in the Wulong Mountain cave after turning onto this mountain slope.

In addition, Gu Fei was also doing articles here when he became 27149 and was hunted down. In the mouths of Zhan Wu Shang and Yutian Shenming, Gu Fei was like a stray dog hiding in the mountain cave. And Yutian Shenming emphasized his vivid acting skills at that time, which made the pursuers of Zongheng Sihai turn around, while Zhan Wu Shang shamelessly said that he had planned the plan at that time.

"Wow, you two really dare to say that!" Even Brother You, who was usually a nice guy, couldn't listen anymore.

"Brother You, you weren't there at the time, right?"

"Yeah, I wasn't." The two guys sang together, disqualifying Brother You as a witness.

The girls just listened and smiled, but didn't pay attention, obviously familiar with Yutian Shenming and Zhan Wu Shang's style of exaggerating and boasting about themselves. Only Xiyao Wu, who came later, didn't know much about these two and expressed her deepest contempt for Gu Fei's seemingly embarrassing years.

"You two want to die!" These two guys, bragging and raising themselves was one thing, but they always took the opportunity to suppress others, especially Gu Fei, who was inserted into the Rebirth Amethyst, was a thorn in the side of these two. Now that they described Gu Fei like this in person, who knows what they usually said behind his back.

"Everyone be careful, there may be an attack here." Han Jia Gongzi suddenly spoke.

"Who is it, could it be Suo Tu?" Yutian Shenming smiled.

As soon as he finished speaking, the mountain slope leading to the Wulong Mountain cave suddenly burst into earth-shattering shouts. A large pile of mountain bandits rushed down from the mountain slope like a tide...

"Wow, could it really be Big Brother Suo Tu!" Yutian Shenming and Zhan Wu Shang shouted in unison.

==================================================

These three days of Qingming Festival have been a bit恍惚... This is not a festival suitable for butterflies to play.