That woke me up real quick. I jumped off my bed, opened the door in one swift motion and stared straight into Lian Xin’s eyes. "Really? Sophie’s attacking the Alliance’s cities?"

"Mn!"

Lian Xin explained, "The patch just launched an hour ago. It’s said that the Night Creature legions hiding all across the continent, have revealed themselves under Sophie’s orders and are getting ready to attack all the main cities of the Silver Moon Alliance. Countless bosses and even several Purgatory Sovereigns have shown their faces. It looks like they’re planning to annihilate us for real this time!"

"Fuck, seriously…" I put on my clothes while I expressed my dumbfoundedness at the series of events that had occurred while I was sleeping. "Did boss, sis and Beiming wake up already? We’re going to have to log in as soon as we finish breakfast. We can’t lose our main city no matter what!"

"Mn!"

I logged into the game immediately after I filled my belly. The first thing I saw was a promotional image of the new update, Fury of the Goddess of Death. Dressed in red armor and wielding a thin sword, the Purgatory Sovereign floated in midair with her hair flying outward like a banshee’s and her crimson eyes brimming with killing intent. She was, in all honesty, quite scary to look at.

……

I received a system notice the moment I logged into the game. It stated: "The patch ‘Fury of the Goddess of Death’ has officially launched. The storm of death will be arriving in 27 minutes and 12 seconds!’"

OMFG, I don’t even have half an hour to prepare!

I hurriedly checked the forums for the patch information. What the hell was that ‘storm of death’ exactly?

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it. The devs hadn’t given any in-depth information.

After that, I decided not to waste anymore time and created a party. I added He Yi, Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Gui Guzi, Li Chengfeng and more.

Li Chengfeng: "Is everyone here?"

Gui Guzi: "Mamate was drunk as hell, but I managed to wake him with some cold water and a slap to the face. He’ll be logging in in a moment. Everyone else should be up and present. So, does anyone know what the hell this ‘storm of death’ is?"

Chaos Moon: "I sure don’t. The devs didn’t mention that they’re dropping this patch today at all. How about you, Lu Chen?"

Me: "I don’t know shit myself. I just woke up, dammit. According to the miniscule info the devs had deigned to grave us with, Sophie—also known as the Goddess of Death—flew into a rage and decided to launch an all-out assault on all main cities after learning some sort of terrible truth. In short, monsters will be assaulting every main city in the world for an unknown period of time. The good news is that they’re targeting super-tier main cities only, and Dark Moon City is firmly out of this category. With that in mind, I want everyone to move to Sky City and defend it with everything they have!"

Li Chengfeng: "Yeah, Sky City literally just became the King of Cities yesterday. It’ll be a complete waste of Lu Chen’s efforts if it falls to a monster attack!"

Chaos Moon: "You know, seeing as Sky City is the ‘King of Cities’, does that mean Sophie will be attacking us herself? That will be terrible! Is there anyone among us who can stop her?"

Me: "Don’t look at me, I can’t beat her…"

Gui Guzi: "That’s fine. Chaos Moon can do it!"

Chaos Moon: "The fuck? How?!"

Gui Guzi: "With your 34C, duh!"

Chaos Moon raged. "Get lost! Now that I think about it, you were staring at my breasts during breakfast, weren’t you? Do you want to die!?"

I hurriedly interrupted them. "We don’t have time for this. I want everyone to enter Sky City and get into position in 10 minutes tops. We still don’t know what this storm of death is, so… buy your potions, repair your equipment, and be ready to defend Sky City unto your death!"

"Mn!"

……

It didn’t take long for most of our players—including the Dragonlight Cavalry and Dragonlight Archers—to enter Sky City. Unfortunately, since Sky City was a floating city with little space for maneuver, the Dragonlight Cavalry had no choice but to fight like your standard meatshields. On the other hand, the Dragonlight Archers were much more useful. Their mounts gave them a lot of Defense and Attack, so they should be able to play a pivotal role in this battle.

We all gathered on the eastern side of Sky City. The floating rocks were at least several kilometers wide, and yet they were filled to the brim with players. The arrival of a new patch both excited and terrified everyone.

Not far away from us, Roaming Dragon was riding in front of his players while shouting, "Mad Dragons, monsters will be attacking this city, but we’ll be fine because Sky City is famous for its impenetrable defense! Defend your homes with all your might and don’t allow even a fly to slip past your guard! As a top guild in Sky City, we cannot not contribute to our city, understand!?"

The Mad Dragon players unsheathed their weapons and cheered, "You go boss!"

Another group of players appeared after them. They were the Warsky Alliance led by Warsky, October Rain, Lin Bing Dou Zhe, Farewell Song and the rest of Warsky Alliance’s generals. Song of Cloud and Water had also shown up with Song of Ice and Fire, Ringwraith, God Bone and more. Finally, beneath the floating rocks was a beautiful girl wearing fiery battle armor and wielding a translucent sword. It was Lin Yixin of course.

All the powerful guilds of Sky City had arrived. We all gathered outside the eastern gate even though we hadn’t communicated beforehand.

"The monsters will be arriving in ten minutes…"

Warsky rode up to me and asked, "Will Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls be guarding the eastern gate, Lu Chen?"

I nodded. "Yeah, this is where our players usually conduct their businesses, so we might as well fight here. What about you, Warsky?"

Warsky replied, "I think we’ll defend the western gate."

Lin Yixin joined in the conversation. "Snowy Cathaya will defend the southern gate."

And finally, Dominating Heaven Blade, the guild leader of Gods of Destruction said, "We’ll head to the northern gate then. Is there anyone who would like to accompany us?"

Clad in black armor, Little Piglet stepped out from the crowd and declared, "Hegemon Palace will accompany you, Dominating Heaven Blade. Let us each defend one side of the city gate and see who can hold out longer, shall we?"

Dominating Heaven Blade laughed. "As you wish!"

……

It was at this moment a group of players rode up to us. It was Sword Lord of Jianghu led by Now and Forever. He said, "Don’t forget about us! Anyway, we’ll be defending the eastern gate with Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. The eastern gate is the only gate facing toward open ground and will probably receive the greatest pressure. It can always use more troops."

Lin Yixin’s eyes glimmered a little as she pulled me to the side. She whispered, "Watch out for Sword Lord of Jianghu!"

I nodded. "I know, but don’t worry. They might have their own agenda, I’m sure they aren’t stupid enough to stab us in the back when things get dire."

"That’s true. Still, better safe than sorry, right?" Lin Yixin chuckled a little before adding, "Oh right, don’t forget to release your Ancient Divine Dragon, okay? You need to seize every chance to feed it experience, or heaven knows when it’ll grow to adulthood!"

I laughed. "I know. Now go to your southern gate and set up your defenses already!"

"Okay. See you later!"

The Moonchaser Tiger roared once, and the Fruit Knife Goddess quickly vanished to the horizon. A large number of Snowy Cathaya players followed behind her as well.

Everyone was displaying a surprising amount of unity right from the start. Even sworn enemies were willing to lay down their differences temporarily and fight shoulder-to-shoulder. In the end, we were all fellow soldiers in the face of a common adversary!

……

Back to the present. After I galloped to the frontline, I raised the Purple Ying Sword and shouted, "Ancient Sword main guild and Bloody Mercenaries, move to the front and get ready for battle! Subguilds, rest inside the city and standby for others! This war won’t be ending anytime soon, so we need you to be in tiptop shape when the rest of us are dead! Keep your eyes sharp, people!"

Everyone in the guild responded to my command positively and seriously.

It was obvious that my successes in the WEL had elevated my reputation in the guild, and even the China server itself, tremendously. Although I was known as the Little Heavenly King for a long time now, I didn’t truly have a boastful achievement of my own until recently. Now that my team was the champion of the WEL, and I myself was the MVP of the entire competition, I was finally deserving of my title. In the minds of my own players at least, I was probably the number one player in the China server.

Several thousand Dragonlight Cavalrymen moved to the frontline under Gui Guzi’s leadership. The magic knights formed a shield wall, while the warriors glared at the horizon with their weapons at the ready. At the back, Beiming Xue had spread out the Dragonlight Archers into orderly formations as well.

……

Rumble rumble rumble…

At the distance, angry thunder tore the ground asunder, and red pillars of light shot into the sky. The way bloody clouds were choking the sky of its blue, the earth was shaking, and the unnatural hurricanes were pulling trees and soil into the sky, you wouldn’t be wrong to worry if Sky Forest was about to be wiped off the map.

The apocalyptic sight wasn’t confined to just the eastern side of Sky City either. All around us, it looked like the world was ending. Slowly, a sea of red lights emerged from the horizon, and they were the legions of the undead.

I activated Dark Pupils to extend my vision range. I could spot Corpse Eaters, Cave Devils and the usual mobs you expected to see in a legion of death. What I wasn’t expecting to see, however, was the mobs running into the hurricanes like suicidal moths.

"Oh shit…"

I grunted. I think I know what is coming.

"What’s wrong, Lu Chen?" He Yi asked me in confusion.

I gritted my teeth before answering, "We thought they would fight their way up the floating rocks, but I think we’re wrong. They…"

"They, what?" Li Chengfeng asked in alarm.

I replied, "I think they’re going to rain down from the sky. Tell our fighters to join up with our ranged players. Every three ranged players must be guarded by one heavy-armor player at the very least. Also, we’re shrinking our formation and grouping our damage dealers, main tanks and healers!"

"Got it!"

While Li Chengfeng went away to carry out my orders, I shouted, "Listen up, Ancient Sword main guild, Bloody Mercenaries and subguilds! All heavy-armor players and ranged players are to pair up with one another and defend your ground in groups! Don’t lose your head!"

The heavy-armor players immediately backed down from the frontline. Everyone was carrying out my orders calmly and orderly. The reason we hadn’t expanded our guild size to 500000 members or recruited more subguilds was because quantity couldn’t decide everything in this game. We wanted fearsome veterans with a hundred battles under their belts, not noobs who were just trying to get by.