My heart skipped a beat in that moment. Did I hear right? Did a subguild of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls really say that? Motherfucker, since when were we a tyrannical entity that kills players who refuse to leave a leveling ground? For the longest time, He Yi and I believed that a person’s in-game behavior was reflective of their real life. Even inside a VR game, it was one thing to let yourself loose, and another to release the monster in your heart. That was why Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had always aimed to co-exist with other guilds in peace, and grind mobs without negatively impacting other people or ourselves. A member of our guild doing something like this was unheard of… until now.

Beside me, Lin Yixin frowned a little and said, "Who the hell are these people? They think they can hoard this leveling map all to themselves? Hmph, let them try…"

I sucked in a deep breath and focused on killing the thinning mobs in front of me as fast as possible. I would never allow someone to tarnish the reputation of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls right before my eyes. Life is short, but infamy could last forever...

……

At the distance, Cute Little Naughty was pointing a finger at the guild leader of Waste and Burn, Freezing Point, and scolding him, "Hey beardy, why should we give up this place and leave? Is your name carved into the map or something? How about you go somewhere else instead? Do you think you can bully anyone you run into just because Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is a big guild?"

Freezing Point replied, "Can you please speak reason, little girl? I already told you that you may leave whenever you want to, and I promise we won’t do anything to stop you. But if you insist on staying, then the three thousand brothers behind my back won’t accept it."

Cute Little Naughty stomped her foot angrily, "Are you a dictator or what!? It took us a long while to find a leveling map like this, not to mention that we’re nowhere strong enough to kill many mobs at all. How are we disturbing you?"

Beside Freezing Point, a thin assassin stared lustfully at Cute Little Naughty’s smooth legs, licked his lips and chuckled. "But you are. Who could stand a beautiful girl like you moving left and right before our eyes while we’re grinding? What if we get killed because we’re distracted? You know what, you should just join us, little girl. We promise we’ll take good care of you!"

Even the stupidest girl would know what the asshole was saying. Cute Little Naughty raised her dagger menacingly and declared, "Come and kill me if you dare! I’ll never accept bastards like you even if I die!"

Angered, the assassin said, "Boss, can I deal with her? Hehe, cute, innocent, and fresh girls like her are exactly my type!"

Freezing Point replied, "Take a few people with you and finish this quickly. Tsk tsk, the mobs here are so high-level that I can’t even read their levels. Anyway, get ready, everyone! Waste and Burn is five thousand strong, and three thousand of our elites are here. Let’s sweep through this leveling map in one go!"

A bunch of players raised their weapons and cheered excitedly, but most of them were original members of Waste and Burn. There were far more people who kept their silence because they disagreed with Freezing Point’s actions, but also didn’t want to act against a higher authority.

……

"Motherfucker! There’s no need to waste your breath on them, Naughty! These people want a fight? We’ll give them a fight!" The elf warrior raised his sword angrily and shouted, "Naughty, enter stealth and cover us from behind. If you find a chance to leave, don’t hesitate! We’ll deal with them!"

Instead of answering, Cute Little Naughty slowly vanished into thin air. She was clearly in stealth already.

Angered by their resistance, Freezing Point personally unsheathed his weapon and pointed toward the party. "Men, give me some Volleys and Arctic Rains and force that assassin girl out of stealth! Quickly, we don’t have all day!"

The Volleys hit the ground, but not Cute Little Naughty. Clearly, she was no longer where the players thought she might be. It looked like she had surprisingly high movement speed!

Naughty’s party leader charged and swept his blade in front of him, knocking back several Waste and Burn fighters. Wisdom aside, he definitely wasn’t lacking in courage. The mage in his party also chanted up a Galaxy Storm and killed some of the players in front of his party leader. Their numbers were few, but their fighting methods were sound for sure.

Furious, Freezing Point ran toward the elf warrior and thrust his sword forward. Judging from the fiery red cone surrounding his weapon, it was clearly Barrier Break!

Pu!

11810!

The elf warrior instantly lost 60% of his HP. The sorry-looking man tried to withdraw to safety, but a couple Spiraling Arrow Blades killed him first. He dropped a sparkling sword, and the assassin from earlier picked up the weapon and commented with a chuckle, "Hehe, a 2-star Outstanding Purple Gold–grade sword? Not bad, who would’ve thought that a shitty party like this would have something this good? Kill them quickly, he can’t be the only player who has good equipment. Now that I think about it, that girl’s dagger also has this purple gold sheen to it. Kill her already, people!"

"Fuck you!" A barbarian warrior swung his battle axe and hit Freezing Point squarely on the shoulder with Blaze. Unfortunately, Freezing Point’s equipment was surprisingly good, and the skill only dealt around 3000 damage to him. It wasn’t even close to being enough at all.

"Are you trying to tickle me, you idiot? Hahaha!"

Freezing Point laughed loudly before closing the distance between himself and the barbarian warrior without warning. After knocking his opponent off-balance with a shoulder charge, he stabbed him with Barrier Break, and the archers killed him with Devil Piercing Arrows. The barbarian warrior also dropped metal armor legguards which Freezing Point took as his prize.

"Kill! Kill them all! Don’t leave a single one of them alive!" Freezing Point’s eyes burned with fury.

Thud! Suddenly, a bloody mark appeared in between Freezing Point’s neck. It was Cute Little Naughty’s skill! Sliding behind Freezing Point, the beautiful girl swung her two daggers repeatedly and removed a huge chunk of HP from his health bar. Her burst damage was surprisingly high.

"You are courting death, bitch!"

After Freezing Point recovered from the stun, he shouted angrily, "Brothers, surround her with Spiraling Arrow Blades and Galaxy Storms! If I don’t kill her today, Waste and Burn won’t have the face to stand on Sky City anymore!"

His people cheered and started bombing Cute Little Naughty with spells and arrows.

Clang!

Cute Little Naughty just barely parried an attack from Freezing Point and used the force to push herself far, far away from the man. As she flew backward, the remaining people in her party shouted, "Why are you still here, Naughty? Run!"

Cute Little Naughty bit her lips. "No way! If we die, we die together! I’m angry, and I’m not going to let these terrible bastards bully us!"

While this was going on, Freezing Point had killed the bard, the tactician, and an archer in Cute Little Naughty’s party. Then, he chased after the assassin with a ferocious look in his eyes and laughed, "Where do you think you’re going, naughty little girl? There’s no one in this world who can save you, so die!"

Swhoosh!

He used Barrier Break again, and this time his attack angle was perfect enough that Cute Little Naughty couldn’t parry, guard or dodge away from the attack. It was the end for her.

"Uuuuuu…"

Cute Little Naughty closed her eyes and waited for death to claim her!

……

Clang!

Sparks flew everywhere, and Freezing Point’s sword hit solidly against a craggy battle armor and a swirl of ghastly spirits. A damage number rose above the target’s head—7904!

"What?"

Freezing Point was stunned. "How… how did I deal so little damage?"

He looked up and saw me staring at him coldly. I had arrived in the nick of time and eaten the fatal blow to Cute Little Naughty. Of course, the attack was only fatal to her. With over 50k HP, 8000 damage was practically nothing to me.

"Ah?"

Surprised that she was still alive, Cute Little Naughty opened her eyes and saw me blocking in front of her, and my cloak flapping behind my back. Gripping her daggers, she cautiously circled around me to take a look at my face. She saw an Asura King staring at Freezing Point expressionlessly.

I abruptly revealed my user ID, and the line of text "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand LV-142" appeared above my head. Exclamations of surprise immediately broke out all around—

"Heavens, that’s… that’s Lu Chen! It’s the vice leader! Why is he here?"

"Oh shit, Freezing Point fucked up this time…"

"Why did Lu Chen save that little girl?"

"Hmph, I knew Lu Chen wouldn’t stand by and watch something like this happen right before his eyes. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had always been an upright guild, and we had never done something so heinous until this Waste and Burn showed up! Freezing Point truly is the black sheep of our guild!"

"Grab your popcorn, everyone. This is going to be good, hahaha…"

……

"Guild… guild leader?"

Freezing Point stared at me in surprise. "What are you doing?"

I judged him emotionlessly as I pushed away his sword. "Freezing Point, do you still remember what you promised me when your guild became our eighth subguild? You have sworn to defend our pride to your death. So why are you bullying the weak? What difference is there between you and the likes of Mad Dragon right now? Let it go, brother. Ancient Sword do not, and will not, kill other players to claim a leveling ground, not to mention that this place is more than big enough to fit everyone."

Freezing Point deflated like a balloon. "But… but this is unacceptable for a guild our caliber, isn’t it?"

I smiled. "There is no such thing, Freezing Point."

After saying that, I turned around and faced Cute Little Naughty, "I apologize for our eighth subguild’s actions, friend. Please accept this as compensation for your friends’ losses. I hope you can forgive my allies’ transgressions, and I promise you that this will not happen again."

I produced seven high-grade items from my bag ranging between Dark Gold–grade to Outstanding Purple Gold–grade. Some of them were even super equipment with +20 Tactics or more. This should be enough to make up for their losses.

Cute Little Naughty stared at me in astonishment. Then, she abruptly turned her back on me and walked away without looking back. "It’s fine. I’m sure they won’t blame Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls anymore!"

……

Cute Little Naughty walked up to her female companion, a low-health priest who was shot to low health by the archers, and lent her a shoulder. Then, they slowly stumbled out of sight.

"Sigh…"

Freezing Point frowned a little. "Guild leader, this party doesn’t even have a guild of their own. Don’t you think you’re acting overly humble in front of them?"

I smiled and shook my head. "Humble? For me this is just the basic respect between people!"