Chapter 480: Declaring War over Emerald City
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Right after the Server Announcement, every single player in the China region was feverish with excitement!
A war between two Kingdoms! The first war between two Kingdoms!
Many players traveled back to their main cities to take a look at what the Special Merchant had to offer, to see how much Merit Points would require for each of the equipment and items available. After taking a good look at the list, everyone was shocked to find that among the list, there were a few pieces of Level 100 Violet-Platinum equipment!
At the current stage of the game, players would already be respected and cheered on for having a full set of Yellow-Gold equipment. After all, the number of Violet-Platinum bosses appearing across the open world map was just too small. So Violet-Platinum equipment can only belong to those players at the top. Even rich players needed luck to get a Violet-Platinum equipment!
Now that they had a chance of obtaining Violet-Platinum equipment without the need to defeat a boss, of course everyone would be happy! They only needed to kill NPCs and players to stand a chance at obtaining Violet-Platinum equipment!
Although this war was limited only between White Jade Kingdom and Emerald Kingdom, the announcement did not state that players from other cities would not be able to join the war! Players from the other 6 cities could join the war tomorrow and choose their sides. However, they had to make their decision before the war begins, or they would lose the opportunity of joining the war. They would not be able to switch sides after that, until the end of the war.
Of course, the players from White Jade Castle and Emerald City could not pick sides. They would have to fight for their own main cities.
"Noob tank, the NPC here does have some good stuff for sale!" Wei Yan Er suddenly screamed in joy and posted a link to one of the items on sale.
[Dual Bladed Axe of the Grand Marshal] (Violet-Platinum, Two-handed Axe)
Attack: 4,242 - 5,242
Attack Interval: 3.8 seconds
DpS: 1,248
{Level 3 Socket 1}
{Level 3 Socket 2}
Equip: Increases 10% damage.
Equip: When you hit a target, there is a rate of 1% at inflicting 300% damage.
Equip: Increases 2% Critical Rate.
Required Level: 100
The DPS, the attacks and the additional effects of this two-handed axe was the pinnacle of the Violet-Platinum Tier! It could only be surpassed by a Mythical Tier or Ethereal Tier!
Zhang Yang could not help but to laugh, then he said, "So, how much Merit Points does this axe cost?"
"40,000 points!"
Zhang Yang gave it some thought and said, "Then, I suppose that it’s not going to be easy to earn Merit Points, or else the axe would have cost more than that!"
Fatty Han, Endless Starlight and the other gang members joined in on the discussion. At the same time, Zhang Yang had also started sharing some information on the Chaos Realm. When Zhang Yang mentioned Messick the whiner, Fatty Han and Endless Starlight seemed to show a lot of interest in him. They both made up their minds that the first thing they would do in the Chaos Realm would be to meet up with this Messick. They believed that they would be able to bring Messick down to his knees by intimidating him! Or, they could use their hardcore attitudes on Messick, and the man would surely raise his ass up for them!
Naturally, the vulgar words from the mouths of these two wretched men had provoked the ladies, and they were scolded by the ladies like hell.
As the war was just upon them, all players from all eight main cities were preparing themselves. Equipment, check! Weapon, check! Potions, check! They were checking to see that everything was in place to make sure that they could perform at their best in the coming war. As the official notes had stated very clearly, players killed during the war would not be given any form of penalties, nor will they lose Experience Points upon deaths of their avatar in the game. Players will not even drop equipment upon death as well! The only penalty they would get is the reduction of their equipment’s durability, by 10%.
That did not matter to them at all. Who would still keep count on the repair costs when they could just earn Merit Points for better equipment without the need of spending a dime at all, and now that they were basically ‘immune’ to all penalties of dying, who would not push themselves to their full potential, in order to earn some fine equipment for themselves?
However, Zhang Yang could only shake his head again and again as he could see through the real ‘agenda’ behind this big event. The game developer would never devalue the high Tier equipment, so it will surely be extremely difficult for players to earn the Merit Points! So, it would seem that a lot of players would have to pay the system to repair their equipment when the war begins, and the developers are only going to earn another round of fortune! Most players would only earn enough Merit Points to exchange some fine quality [Potions].
After reaching Level 100, players would no longer get benefits from the merchants! For instants, the Level 4 [Gemstones] were not available for sale. Players would be required to battle monsters and bosses in order to obtain them. The Level 4 [Mana Potion] and Level 4 [Healing Potion] were also unavailable in Potion Shops, players could only obtain them via Alchemy.
However, the Recipes for the [Level 4 Mana Potion] and [Level 4 Healing Potion] were extremely rare to come by, and even Zhang Yang had spent a lot of effort on getting his hands on these two Recipes. Currently, most players with the Alchemy Profession could only make Level 3 [Mana Potions] and [Healing Potions], at best. So, the market had increased the prices for the [Level 4 Mana Potion] and [Level 4 Healing Potion] by up to 100 gold coins for a bottle! Even though they definitely overpriced, the demand simply overshadowed all other concerns!
For that, players started going crazy when they discovered that the ‘Merit Point Dealer’ for the upcoming war event had these Potions on ‘sale’. The Merit Points required in order to exchange potions were not high. Each [Level 4 Gemstone] only cost 2,000 Merit Points, while [Level 4 Mana Potion] and [Level 4 Healing Potion] only cost 200 Merit Points.
Unfortunately, all the items and equipment that players earn from this event would be bound to the players. The developers have made it so to prevent players from selling their spoils for money.
24 hours had passed in just a few blinks of an eye, and a Temporary Teleportation Door appeared in the middle of the central square of White Jade Castle. Players would be transported to the outer skirts of Emerald City’s Tama Fortress. This Tama Fortress was basically the counterpart of White Jade’s own Tukula, which was the fortress that was once conquered by the demons. It was then released from the grasp of the demons after the Level 50 Expedition.
When the time was up, the Temporary Teleportation Door was activated. Players were teleported over to a location, about 1,000 meters away from Tama Fortress, one after another.
Right behind the players was the massive army of White Jade Kingdom. The troops were lined up in neat formations, complete with military columns and square formations. Each formation consisted of tens of thousands of soldiers. There were a total of 500 square formations! The scene was spectacular!
At the other end of the battlefield, the players of the Emerald City were also on standby, stationed atop the walls of their fort. The players from the opposing sides met each others’ gazes in a tense silence. As this event presented great opportunities to the players, almost all players from all 8 main cities had joined the war. The battlefield had been occupied by players from all 8 main cities!
The number of ‘supporters’ for both the White Jade Kingdom and the Emerald Kingdom remained unknown for the moment, as the system did not state the numerical statistics of it for players to refer to.
As they stood in silence, Queen Serena finally arrived through the Temporary Teleportation Door on a white battle horse. Right behind her were a platoon of elite guards, with nothing to indicate their Levels. Right above her was a platoon of Dragon Knights! Her honor guards simply looked intimidating! Meanwhile, other than the players who were standing atop Tama Fortress, mere 1,000 NPC soldiers stood with them. It was obvious that the defenses of Tama Fortress were greatly outnumbered by the assault force of White Jade Kingdom!
The new Queen then raised her [Meteor Sword] and let out a battle cry, "Warriors of White Jade Kingdom, the time to write your legacy is now, or never!"
‘Ding! The war between ‘White Jade Kingdom’ and ‘Emerald Kingdom’ has begun! You will earn 1 ‘Merit Point’ for each enemy player you kill. You will earn 1 ‘Merit Point’ for each normal Tiered NPC soldier you kill. You will earn more ‘Merit Points’ by killing a general! The war will end when the Monarch of either side dies!’
‘Ding! If you die in the battle, you must wait for 30 minutes before you can revive (Excluding the effects of special skills). Each player can only resurrect 3 times at most. Players will be spawned at their corresponding main cities if they die for the fourth time.’
‘Ding! After the war is over, the player with the most Merit Points will be awarded the title of ‘Imperial Aggrandizer’ (Correspondent to White Jade Kingdom) or ‘Imperial Aegis’ (Correspondent to Emerald Kingdom).’
All players from both sides received the notification from the system.
After a brief moment of silence, the players on the side of the White Jade Kingdom let out a heaven-shaking, thunderous roar as they began to charge towards the direction of Tama Fortress!
At the same instant, Zhang Yang suddenly received another notification from the system.
‘Ding! You have been appointed by Queen Serena as the War General of this expedition. You will earn 1% worth of Merit Points from all kills on opposition players and NPCs who are killed by the NPCs of White Jade Kingdom.’
Zhang Yang was pleasantly surprised at the sudden ‘gift’ from the system!
Although 1% was a small number, there were about 5 million of NPCs in this war! If each of the NPCs managed to kill one player or one NPC of the opposition, then Zhang Yang would earn 50,000 Merit Points by simply standing at one corner!
Zhang Yang felt like crying tears of gratitude, there and then, as he had finally experienced the advantage of the ‘affection’ that Queen Serena had for him, for the first time!
Meanwhile, the NPC army of White Jade Kingdom marched towards the wall of Tama Fortress. The massive army still maintained their formation as they marched forward. Looking at the crowd of people, Zhang Yang felt tempted to take the [Forbidden Scroll] out from his inventory and use it on the enemy.
The scene was really spectacular and breathtaking!
"Zhan Yu ---" One Sword Stroke approached Zhang Yang atop his mount, he did not intend to join into the battle so soon. He went up to Zhang Yang and smiled, "Well, it’s really rare to see you, without having the need to battle!"
Right beside One Sword Stroke was a young beautiful lady on a black panther, having an ID name that matched quite well with the ID name of One Sword Stroke. Her name was ‘One Sword Smile’, and she was only Level 56 at the moment.
Zhang Yang tensed up the moment after he recognized the lady, she looked just like someone he knew --- Luo Xin Yan! It was so obvious, and it made sense as well! However, Zhang Yang only looked at Luo Xin Yan for a brief moment, before he turned his eyes back at One Sword Stroke saying, "Looks like we can’t afford to battle each other today!"
Imperial Sky and Lone Desert Smoke have been competing against each other in every battle and every event. Meanwhile, the Silky Soft Battle Team and the Sky and Ocean Electronics Battle Team were and forever would be a nemesis for the S-rank Professional League Championship! So Zhang Yang and One Sword Stroke have always been enemies. But now that Imperial Sky have chosen to support White Jade Kingdom, they could not afford to battle each other at a crucial event like this.
One Sword Stroke smiled and pointed at Luo Xin Yan, "Allow me to introduce to you, my girlfriend!"
"Don’t you dare say that you know me!" right before Zhang Yang could even react and talk, he had already received a private message from Luo Xin Yan. He was a little shocked, but after putting some thoughts in it, he understood. Luo Xin Yan had not yet revealed it all to One Sword Stroke. After all, knowing that she had been a corporate spy would really make people uncomfortable. If One Sword Stroke ever finds out that she had once been a spy, and was possibly ‘spy’ing on him, even now, then everything that Luo Xin Yan has done would be reduced to ‘dust’.
Zhang Yang smiled vaguely without a word.
Although the relationship between Lone Desert Smoke and the Imperial Sky had improved a little after the event of Liu Wei betraying and leaving Imperial Sky, they could not be called allies just yet. Zhang Yang did not particularly like One Sword Stroke either, so professional courtesy would only bring him to acknowledge the other man this much.
Snow Seeker, Greensleeves Prince and the other guildmasters of larger guilds walked up to Zhang Yang right after that. After they greeted each other with some small talks, suddenly, One Sword Stroke came up with an idea, "Why don’t we compete and see who gets the title of the ‘Imperial Aggrandizer’!"
With him voicing that out, Greensleeves Prince, Sword of Light and the others agreed to compete against each other to see who would be the winner. Well, everyone should have a little competition for being the best, at least!
Zhang Yang shook his head and said, "I will not be joining this time!" He had an additional method of earning Merit Points, so it was extremely easy for him to ‘win’. If he joined in this little competition, it would be as good as cheating.
However, as Luo Xin Yan was still eager to take revenge on Zhang Yang for humiliating her back in the day, she spoke in a cold tone, "So, even the mighty and powerful Zhan Yu would get cold feet sometimes, I assume?"
One Sword Stroke laughed out loud and said, "Brother Zhan Yu is definitely not afraid of us at all, he is probably too powerful to compete with us, the ‘insignificant’ ones! He probably doesn’t want this to be one-sided!"
With those words, One Sword Stroke had turned Snow Seeker and the other guildmasters against him. Well, words are the most powerful weapon in the world, sometimes.
Zhang Yang could not help but sigh. He had not planned to join in, as it was already one-sided, and it would not be due to his individual prowess. Since One Sword Stroke had already placed his face so near for Zhang Yang to bash, why not just cooperate and bash it more than just once then? Zhang Yang could not let him down, as Zhang Yang was moved by his passion and sincerity!
"Alright. Since that everyone is in the mood, then I will not take the fun out of you guys! Let’s compete, then!"