Chapter 1 The Tables Turn

The siege camp was destroyed, and in one fell swoop. The players responsible for monitoring hadn't expected the water flow, seemingly lacking its initial explosive force, to slowly permeate the camp's foundations in secret. The camp, which hadn't experienced any issues for a long time, suddenly began to sink. The sinking wasn't very deep, but the camp's location instantly became a low-lying area. Water flowing downhill occurred, and the camp was instantly washed away and lost.

The news came from the system, so its authenticity was beyond doubt. The notification sounds rang in a series, indicating that more than one camp had been lost. Everyone read the messages with trepidation, almost afraid to count.

However, the reality wouldn't change just because two hundred thousand players were afraid to count. Five. There were five messages, one for each camp, none missing.

The system message continued to play coldly, announcing that Cloudrise City's defenders had won the city war, ending the Cloudrise City siege. In fifteen minutes, players in the Cloudrise City area would be disconnected by the system for a fifteen-minute mini-regional maintenance. This was mainly to revert the special game rules from the city war back to normal and to tally the guild points and rewards earned during the city war.

This system message played on repeat. Even players who hadn't participated in the city war had to pay attention. For the past two days, everyone had adapted to the game rules where death didn't matter. Now that the rules were reverting to normal, everyone had to cautiously adopt their old playstyle.

Of course, the players who participated in the city war felt the change most profoundly. The two hundred thousand siege players collectively turned ashen-faced. One second they were bustling and rushing desperately into the Mage Academy, and the next, they had all stopped.

Silence. Extreme silence. Gu Fei had just killed a row of people when he received the message. Afterward, the siege players completely stopped their actions. Gu Fei also saw the message and then witnessed the deathly pale expressions on every player's face, filled with disappointment, resentment, depression, and frustration.

Gu Fei scratched his head. What should he say at this moment? He looked left and right, and Sword Demon and the other experts were all present, their expressions also complex.

*We won? Did we really win?* This was what they were thinking.

*We lost? Did we really lose?* This was what the siege players were thinking.

Thousand Miles Drunk was a big problem, and Sword Demon was also difficult to deal with. Plus, they had formed a guild and recruited people. Although these people had been causing trouble for the siege side, no one really believed that they had a decisive impact on the city war. They just thought of them as a nuisance.

As for the defending side... Gu Fei, Sword Demon, and Drifting formed a trio. These five were forced by the system to join the defending side; as aligned players, they couldn't choose to siege even if they wanted to. The people recruited after forming the guild were all neutral players who hadn't originally planned to participate in the city war. They hadn't expected anything from the city war's outcome and didn't care. They had mostly joined for other reasons. Then there were the girls from Rebirth Amethyst, a group with no great ambitions. They participated in mining and sieging just for fun. Their strength was among the lowest, and they also had no expectations for the city war.

Yet, this group of people actually won in the end. The surprise was truly unexpected.

"A miracle, truly a miracle!" Drifting muttered.

"We actually won..." Sword Demon looked at Gu Fei.

"A single quest took care of all the siege players? That quest was too powerful!" Yutian Shenming said.

"I think this quest..."

"Now isn't the time to analyze this, cheer up, Brother You!"

Brother You was frowning, preparing to delve into the details of the quest, but Jiannan You interrupted him as soon as he started. Winning the city war meant many benefits, and Jiannan You, who valued benefits above all else, was extremely excited, as if he had won the lottery.

"We won? We actually won?" At this moment, an unknown player, after confirming the system message a dozen times and realizing that it wasn't a dream, finally burst out with this shout. Others quickly came to their senses, were infected by the excitement, and started cheering and laughing. Inside and outside the Mage Academy, it was like two different worlds, heaven and hell.

Gu Fei stood at the border between heaven and hell, his emotions relatively stable. The siege players, watching the excited expressions of these guys, were enraged. But there was nothing they could do. These were the game rules, and although the outcome was unbelievable, it was the truth.

"Congratulations." At this moment, Gu Fei and Sword Demon received congratulatory messages from guild leaders like Unsworn Sword and Upstream, who at least put on a show of grace, though their true feelings about Gu Fei and Sword Demon were unknown.

"Thank you, a fluke, truly a fluke," Gu Fei replied, not being humble, but stating the truth.

"Alas, a fluke, why wasn't I struck by a fluke?" The guild leaders sighed. However, not all two hundred thousand players accepted defeat and preserved face like them. Some left in anger, some cursed in their hearts, but some suddenly charged into the Mage Academy.

Without a word, those who rushed in had red eyes, their expressions conveying one word: Kill.

Some of the defending players were shocked, while others were calm. Veterans like Sword Demon were in the latter group, having anticipated this situation.

There was no reasoning to be had, nor could there be any. All they could do was one word: Kill.

Although the victory was a miracle, a fluke, it was still a legitimate victory. Sword Demon and the others could understand, even sympathize with the siege players' disappointment, but that didn't mean they would be punching bags for them to vent their anger. However, not everyone felt the same way. Some defending players decisively logged off before the attackers could reach them, while others grinned and didn't fight back, letting the siege players kill them to vent their anger. Still others, more despicable, used words to provoke the attackers' wounds.

Sword Demon wouldn't do that, nor would Gu Fei. If Han Family's Young Master were here, he would likely be the ringleader of that group.

Gu Fei and Sword Demon simply fought, continuing to fight mechanically.

The Mage Academy became even more chaotic, with skills and spells flying everywhere. Since the rules hadn't been reset, the system guards continued to attack the siege players as before. Some even had the wild idea of trying to kill the guards, still hoping to salvage their defeat.

Sword Demon and the others weren't such delusional fools. The constantly repeating system message made it clear: the city war was over.

These battles probably wouldn't earn any more points. And those delusional guys, after taking down the guards, received no system prompts and finally gave up. Discouraged, they didn't even want to fight anymore.

But some were still attacking the defending players to vent their anger.

Some players died for the 25th time and were sent to the fifteenth district as before.

Both sides were engaged in a chaotic battle, with no organization or tactics, just fighting.

The fifteen minutes passed in such chaos. Most of the two hundred thousand siege players had scattered, but a significant number remained, determined to continue the fight with the defending players. In this chaotic, unfocused battle, a considerable number of defending players were sent to the fifteenth district.

Then, with a system prompt, all Cloudrise City players were disconnected from the game.

The active Brother You immediately rushed to the forums, but faster players had already posted threads about the results of the Cloudrise City siege. In just fifteen minutes, the thread had garnered over a thousand replies, mostly "No way" and "Impossible."

Now that all the Cloudrise City players were offline, the forums became even more lively, with dozens of related threads appearing simultaneously with each refresh.

No lengthy technical posts had emerged yet, mostly sighs or curses. Brother You had already been brainstorming, preparing his technical analysis. Although he had never followed Gu Fei's quest, gossiping was in his nature. He had asked around and learned the whole process.

After a few minutes, some technical analyses of the city war finally appeared, but Brother You scoffed at them. Those siege players had no idea about the twists and turns that Gu Fei and the others on the defending side had experienced. The whole thing had to be explained starting from the fact that Thousand Miles Drunk was an aligned player. Brother You gossiped animatedly, then hurriedly returned to the game after fifteen minutes. Actually, Brother You didn't want to abandon his post, but he realized that he needed to ask Gu Fei and the others about some details, so he reluctantly returned to the game.

Many people had calmed down after fifteen minutes. Although everyone was still looking at each other in the Mage Academy after logging back in, the fighting had mostly stopped. Besides, they couldn't fight anymore, as the respawn area had reverted to being a safe zone.

The defending side's first concern was the rewards. But they hadn't received any system messages.

"What's going on?" They were a little uneasy. Frankly, they felt their victory was too miraculous, and maybe the system wouldn't recognize it?

"Maybe they'll start distributing everything after all the main city sieges are over? That's it, that's got to be it," Brother You said, thinking positively.

"Uh, probably!" The others nodded.

Then everyone started looking at each other. What should they do now? Leave the Mage Academy? But there were still many siege players around, and the plaza outside wasn't completely clear. Would they still attack? If they fought now, they would lose levels if they died.

Sword Demon looked around. The siege players were also acting randomly, charging into the Mage Academy without any organization or leadership. For a moment, he didn't know who to talk to. Some seemed to have already left, but who knew if they had really calmed down.

After a short discussion, they decided to stay in the Mage Academy for a while. Brother You was happy with this decision and cheerfully ran to interview Gu Fei.

At this moment, Sword Demon saw that the guild leaders of Unsworn Sword were walking towards them from outside the Mage Academy's entrance. As they stepped into the Mage Academy, a weary expression appeared on their faces. This place they had tried so hard to enter before, but failed, they finally entered with ease, but what was the point?

The guild leaders entered the academy and saw Thousand Miles Drunk and Brother You chatting in a corner, not noticing them. Sword Demon had been watching them and walked over.

"Congratulations," the group repeated the message they had sent earlier, their expressions twisted. They didn't bother to hide their feelings, as everyone knew that their congratulations must be painful and unwilling.

"Just lucky," Sword Demon said.

"Luck is luck, but you still had some strength," the guild leaders said with a bitter smile. Given what Thousand Miles Drunk had done to them, they wouldn't believe any other player could have done it, even if they had better equipment.

Having interacted for so long, they all knew that Thousand Miles Drunk's strength was mainly his skill, with equipment being secondary. Without equipment, his strength would be greatly limited, but without his skill, he wouldn't be Thousand Miles Drunk at all, just a nobody.

"Sword Demon, your guild name is quite impressive! Very Against the Heavens!" Unsworn Sword tried to make a joke, but he couldn't laugh and just dryly said.

"My friends came up with it," Sword Demon said, scratching his head, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Cough, I wonder what Brother Sword Demon plans to do in the future?" Unsworn Sword asked.

"Uh, haven't thought about it," Sword Demon honestly replied.

"If you need any help, just ask. We're old friends," Unsworn Sword finally smiled.

Sword Demon smiled but didn't commit. Upstream, Cloud Herder, and Black Finger also expressed their goodwill, generally saying, "Let us know if you need anything." Sword Demon just smiled and nodded, not stating any position. He knew that these guild leaders were trying to build relationships, and they all valued the potential of Very Against the Heavens. Whether they would continue to be friendly or suppress them remained to be seen. Sword Demon had been through this before and understood the situation, so he just gave a vague response.

The four guild leaders hesitated, wondering if they should go to the corner and talk to Gu Fei, but then they saw Gu Fei look up and wave.

They were pleasantly surprised and were about to approach him, but they saw Gu Fei wave again.

Why two waves? They paused, realizing that one wasn't for them. They turned around and saw Han Family's Young Master had also arrived at the Mage Academy, along with Gu Xiaoshang and some smaller guilds. Although they weren't as high-end as the top guilds, they all had the same intention of building connections and came to establish relations with Sword Demon.

Sword Demon couldn't help but smile wryly. Gu Fei contributed the most to the defending side's victory. He obtained the quest, and his contribution score must be very high. But the fact was that Gu Fei was a member of Rebirth Amethyst. Although the two guilds were familiar, the system wouldn't treat them as one. So the lion's share of the defending side's victory belonged to Rebirth Amethyst. The guild leaders probably didn't know this and didn't take Rebirth Amethyst seriously.

While Sword Demon was socializing, many guild leaders invited him for drinks and meat, but he politely declined, saying, "Another time." Most were just expressing their enthusiasm and didn't expect to immediately eat together, so they didn't push it.

This went on for a long time. The guild leaders' attitudes represented their guilds' attitudes. The guild members were restrained and wouldn't show overt hostility to Sword Demon and the others, no matter how much they hated them. As for the other players, seeing all the top guilds in Cloudrise City trying to build relationships with these defenders, they didn't dare to cause any trouble, even if they were unhappy.

Then, another loud voice rang out. War Without Wounds rushed into the Mage Academy, saw his brothers, and cursed, "Damn you bastards, you actually managed to win! This is outrageous!"

"Haha, regret it now!" Yutian Shenming mocked.

"Tch, I'm a mature man who sees things through, unlike some kids," War Without Wounds said, looking down on Yutian Shenming. Then he ran to Gu Fei and said, "Thousand Miles, add me to your guild."

"Uh?" Gu Fei was puzzled.

"Don't pretend, aren't you the guild leader of Rebirth Amethyst now?" War Without Wounds said.

"Oh? What about your guild?" Gu Fei asked.

"Left it, of course. I told my guild leader when you guys formed the guild that my best bros had formed a guild and I had to help them after the city war," War Without Wounds said.

"There's such a thing!" Gu Fei said.

"Of course, do you doubt my character?" War Without Wounds said.

"I don't doubt it, but the problem is, your best bros' guild seems to be Sword Demon's," Gu Fei said.

"Cough, you're also my best bro! How could I neglect you? You must be lonely being alone in Rebirth Amethyst, right? Don't worry, your bro is here to support you," War Without Wounds said.

"Too shameless!!!" Gu Fei couldn't stand it.

"Come on, add me!" War Without Wounds said, acting like he was making a sacrifice. Then Gu Fei looked elsewhere and asked, "Need something?"

The person who came was July. Honestly, she and Gu Fei barely knew each other, so she must have something to say.

July nodded and said, "We're thinking about merging Rebirth Amethyst and Very Against the Heavens."

"Merge?" Gu Fei was surprised.

"We girls didn't contribute much to this city war, but now we might get all the rewards. If the two guilds merge now, wouldn't the rewards be calculated together?" July said.

Gu Fei understood. Although many people had joined Rebirth Amethyst, in July's heart, their guild was still that small team. Even if some of the girls had been transferred to Very Against the Heavens.

"But merging guilds, it's not clear if the quest rewards will be shared!" Brother You said.

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Been getting a lot of monthly votes these past few days, is it because the city war ended?