It was all thanks to Beluga"s funding and Grea City"s technology that surpa.s.sed other cities. It took only three days for noticeable progress to be attained.

“Sila, come here!” Fargo"s voice could be heard from far away.

Sila turned his head to look at where the voice came from and found that the man was waving at him. Fargo was standing next to a big orange tent next to the construction.

Sebastian led the way and entered the tent, followed by Sila, Lookhin, and Mamon. Inside the tent, they found that the interior was more s.p.a.cious than it looked outside. There was an extremely long table in the middle of the room surrounded by chairs. Sila suspected that this place was a meeting room.

Cross was sitting on the largest chair in the middle as if he was sitting on a throne. Sitting next to him on his right was Shueria, who was sitting silently with his pet—a giant white tiger—laying on the floor.

On Cross" left were all seven members of Tiger Team.

Sebastian walked to the right side and slid the chair back for Sila to sit down on. As for the butler himself, he remained standing behind the chosen seat.

Mamon swept a glance over the room, inspecting every person within, then decided to sit on Sila"s right. As for Lookhin, she just nonchalantly sat down on Sila"s lap as usual.

Due to Cross showing a serious expression, the atmosphere in the room was gloomy. Even playful people like Aek and Tod didn"t dare to throw jokes or greet Sila.

It was Sila who noticed that everyone was too stressed, so he broke the silence.

“Long time no see, everyone. How are you all?”

“The h.e.l.l with your "long time"? It has only been three days.” Cross put an end to Sila"s nonsense.

Sila then recalled that the time in the Desert of Wishes flowed differently from the outside.

“Oh, right. I just felt three days were quite long. Shall we get to the point?” asked Sila.

“Not yet. Wait for everyone to gather first. I don"t want to repeat the same thing,” said Cross.

Sila nodded, before turning his head to Tiger. “That"s fine. By the way, Mister Tiger, why are you here?”

Cross didn"t forbid talking. It was just that the atmosphere around him was dark and he always showed a moody expression, so it was hard for everyone around him to act lively.

Tiger shot a glance at Cross once. Then, seeing that Cross didn"t show any reaction, he replied to Sila.

“The thing is, most of our team members are psychic type, so we have been with Mister Cross for quite a while. Mister Shueria helped us a lot in the past two days, and Pim got to train her qi with Mister Fargo"s help.”

Sila turned his head to Pim. “That"s great. Have you gotten the Qi of Little Divine Beings yet, Pim?”

Pim shook her head. “Not yet. I heard they were discussing the order. They wanted the skilled players to get them first.”

Sila nodded, while Mamon interrupted. “Furthermore, without you or the item girl, no one could grant people permission to enter the mansion.”

“Mn, I see. By the way, Mamon, I"ve thought of asking this many times before. Could you please stop addressing Julia as the item girl?”

“But that girl is really an item. What"s wrong with that?”

“It"s just impolite. Think of it as my request, okay?”

“I don"t see the point. Anyway, fine. I won"t call her that anymore.”

It was the first time everyone in the room got to see Mamon and Lookhin in a human form. However, Sila always acquainted himself with strange people like Lomyok(?), Bluebird, Burapha, or even monsters like Franz or Asura, so they didn"t find Mamon and Lookhin too weird.

Since Sila didn"t talk about it, they didn"t ask, afraid of inquiring about Sila"s personal secrets.

Though, in fact, Sila just simply forgot to introduce them. He had grown used to living in the desert where he didn"t have any friends to talk to for two months. If someone just asked, he would honestly answer.

Sila shifted his interest to Jundtrathep and Pond, who were magic types. “What about you, Jund and Pond?”

“...” Jundtrathep kept blankly staring at Sila until Alice poked her waist.

“Kya! What are you doing, Alice? ...Ah? Sorry, Big Brother Sila. What did you just ask?”

Sila didn"t mind. “I was just curious. Since you and Pond are magic types, what kind of training are you undertaking?”

“Oh... Both of us are training under Luna"s guidance. Well, our progress seems slow.”

Jundtrathep was a genuine spellcaster while Pond was a supporter, so they usually cast magic from the rear instead of engaging directly. Thus, they had a difficult time practicing magic power reinforcement.

“Mn. Since you have never used it before, you might find it difficult. However, once you get the hang of it, you will know that it"s very useful and convenient,” commented Sebastian.

“...Yes,” replied Juntrathep. Her eyes were still fixed on Sila"s face. She noticed that his usual messy hair had been cut and trimmed, showing his manly yet polite facial features. Although Sila was still far from being handsome like Lomyok or Shueria, those two should be considered pretty boys, having an attractive face and nice skin. For Sila, he was a manly type who had a clear jawline and a slightly tanned body. His brown eyes projected his sincerity and honesty.

Aek snapped his fingers in front of Jundtrathep"s face. Twitching, she regained focus and looked at Aek.

“Stop s.e.xually hara.s.sing Big Brother Sila with your eyes already~, Jund.”

Jundtrathep"s face was reddened. “That"s not it! Umm... It"s just... Big Brother Sila, you got a haircut?”

“Oho~ Look at you, changing the topic~” Tod teased his friend.

Sila couldn"t help but show his smile. It was refreshing to see that the Tiger Team"s members were still the same. “Yeah, I changed my hairstyle a bit.”

Fargo opened the tent and walked inside, followed by Varee, Sangdao, Julia, and Bluebird. Everyone exchanged short greetings before taking their seats.

“You look better with your new hairstyle, Sila. Dao always thought that you would look great if you just trimmed your hair,” Sangdao remarked while sitting two seats away from Sila"s left, leaving an empty chair between them.

Varee gave her a look once, to which Sangdao just smiled back. Then, Varee proceeded to sit next to Sila without saying anything.

Seeing Varee sitting just a seat away, Lookhin moved and sat on Varee"s lap.

Varee was surprised. “Who is this girl? She is cute.”

“Oh, that"s Lookhin. She can take a human form since she has reached Lord Rank,” replied Sila.

Varee touched Lookhin"s chubby cheeks. “You are so cute~ Lookhin, do you remember me?”

Lookhin nodded. “Mommy!”

Varee found Lookhin too daring to mind what the girl called her. However, her smile only lasted for a brief moment before Lookhin took a look at Sangdao. Lookhin furrowed her tiny brows, tilting her head as she was thinking hard, before calling Sangdao.

“Mommy!”

Sila"s heart sunk. He did his best to keep a serious look while thinking that maybe Lookhin called every woman "Mommy". Meanwhile, Bluebird bit his lip, trying to hold in his laughter.

Cross gave Sila a discontented look. Even though he wanted to curse him, he found the matter about Grea City more important than getting upset over this.

“Sila, you sent us a message saying that Grea City is in danger. What did you mean?”

Cross always cut to the chase. Ever since he got back from the desert, Sila had been more interested in getting to know Cross. If what Pumin said was true, he would have to depend on Cross a lot in the future.

Pumin forbade him from explicitly talking about the desert"s reward, so Sila organized the words in his head and stated the reason in his own way.

“I just have a hunch that Montra would surely target Grea City. Our union has just been established and Grea City is our weakest link. However, I don"t understand why he hasn"t made a move yet.”

Cross was aware that Grea City was the union"s greatest weakness at the moment, though he felt displeased to hear it from Sila"s mouth.

“We are well aware of that. In the past two or three days, there were many groups of unfamiliar players entering the city and they have yet to leave. We don"t know their objective yet, but these people aren"t the Heavenly Dragon Guild"s members.”

Sila gave it a thought. “I"m sure those people are Montra"s allies. Montra has a number of secret allied groups who haven"t directly joined his guild. I believe these people are some of them.”

“How can you know that?”

Sila couldn"t explain the matter about the Wulin Masters a.s.sociation, so he had to give a random yet plausible reason.

“Montra is influential in real life. These groups of people relate to Montra that way. Each of them is a martial artist or at least someone interested in martial arts. Their number should be around fifty thousand.”

“Um... If what you said is true, the good news is that we know about them now, and can expect an attack. However, the bad news is we don"t have a countermeasure.”

“I suggest we rebuild the Royal Armament Guild, recruiting members who are good at playing games. I have fought against some of Montra"s secret force before. Even though they are martial artists, they are inexperienced regarding games. If we rely on in-game skills or techniques that only exist in the game, we can stand a chance against them.”

Cross frowned. He unleashed Mental Oppression at Sila, though it also affected others. Everyone had to protect themselves with energy reinforcement to resist the pressure. The mood turned grim again.

“What kind of a joke you are going to pull this time, huh?! You are one of the main reasons why our guild collapsed. Now what? You"re telling us to rebuild it again? Do you take us for clowns?”

"Um. His psychic power"s characteristic is the power to control, I guess? He is emitting it gradually from his body. He must have good affinity with the wood element, then. In that case, his personality is contradicting his power. He will be more terrifying if he is calm like Kawin."

Sila silently circulated Five-Attributed Cloud Qi throughout his body. The element that was strong against the wood element was metal. Sila focused his qi around his lungs, increasing his metal attribute.

Once he did that, Cross" Mental Oppression had a negligible effect on him.

Sila took a deep breath and gave an honest reply.

“That"s my fault. I"m sorry. I only realized later that Montra was using me. If there is anything that I can do to help you rebuild the Royal Armament Guild, please let me know.”

His tone of voice was firm and sincere. Hearing that, Cross canceled his power.

Everyone in the room looked at Sila, feeling astonished. They all thought that Sila had changed from three days ago. However, they wondered how someone could change this much in just a matter of three days?

Sila said sorry without putting up a pretense or being indirect about it. Cross no longer had anything to say, so Fargo continued.

“Since you really meant it, we will gladly accept your help. We are building a guild from scratch, so I admit that we need support, no matter how small.”

“I am glad I can help. In addition, when I am away, traveling to Belacia City, I will let Sebastian and Julia stay here and help out.”

Sebastian had a mission to protect Grea City from being conquered by the enemy, so he was glad to take that duty with pleasure.

“What about the forces that may invade us? What will we do? Should we ask for reinforcements?” asked Bluebird.

“We shouldn"t. That will make other guilds in our union vulnerable to the attack instead. Although our numbers only amount to two hundred, every single one of them knows this city well and their ability is decent. If we avoid the direct clash, we can make it,” said Cross.

“Montra is perhaps planning something. That"s why he is late. We should use this time wisely by studying terrain and preparing traps.”

And so, the meeting continued...

***

Great City at midnight was disturbed by steam and engines.

On the rooftop of a certain building that could see most of Great City stood a man in full body armor with a white mask on his face. He had been patiently waiting for a signal since two days ago.

As the Crystals of Connecting in his pocket shone and broke, he knew that the wait had ended.

Six silhouettes emerged around the man. One of them was his leader who was hailed as the Magic Emperor. The one next to him was his leader"s partner, an angel name Ramiel. Lastly, the other four were the remaining Five Dragon Warlords excluding him.

The man kneeled down as soon as he noticed Montra. He didn"t know beforehand that his leader would come personally.

“No need for formality, Zazae. I will be in charge today.”

Zazae stood up. Not many people knew that he worshipped Montra, a man blessed with strength and intelligence. Hearing that Montra would personally be in charge, he didn"t doubt that today"s objective would end up successful.

Montra took a look at Grea City once, before commanding Zazae. “Tell our people to start immediately.”

Zazae nodded and opened his system window to input some commands. Soon, the sounds of battles and weapons clashing against each other resounded throughout the city, and fires ignited.

Trick Master couldn"t help but express his curiosity. “Mister Montra, you still didn"t tell us the plan. What are our duties?”

“In this phase, we will wait and see Cross" reaction first. Then, I will tell you what actions you will have to take.”

“Our guild is a righteous guild. Ordinary players will think badly of us if we raid the city without reason, no?” Cheris asked.

Montra didn"t even look back. “No need to worry. The Wicked Union used us to gain fame for themselves and devalued the reputation of the Five Dragon Warlords. Today, in addition to seizing the city from Cross, I will restore our reputation.”

“Anyway, we will look like a bad guy in ordinary players" opinions, no?”

Montra turned his body and looked at his teammates. “Don"t worry. Since they claimed to be virtuous and slandered us, we will claim that, instead, the Heavenly Dragon Guild are the virtuous ones with the responsibility to crush the Wicked Union.”

Everyone looked at each other, their faces clearly showed that they had no idea what would happen next. Only Zazae knew Montra"s plan beforehand.

“We don"t understand, Montra,” said Shuran.

Montra nodded and gave a meaningful look to Zazae. “Rather than me spelling it out, we better show them... Go, Cross.”

Zazae nodded. He emitted psychic power from his body, controlling five swords to hover around him, before soaring toward the center of the city using Psychic Impact. No matter how one looked at him, the current Zazae was just like Cross.

“War is about writing history, thrusting sins upon the opponent while bearing a sign of justice. There is no such thing as being completely right or being completely wrong in the war. History is written by the victors. By tomorrow morning, we will have written a new page of Monster Soul"s history.”

Both the smoke and steam from the battles below were blown up near Montra. However, his determination wasn"t wavering in the slightest.

He was confident that, come morning, his plan would have shifted to the next phase.