“This…”

Even though Sanguine Warflag said those words out of spite, he hesitated when he heard Sanguine Stormbringer’s words.

It was understandable. Since he was the boss of one of the largest guilds, how could he surrender just because someone else said so? How would he explain this to his members?

Seeing Sanguine Warflag’s hesitation, Sanguine Stormbringer couldn’t help but add, “Boss, do you think we can defeat the Void Blade with our current situation?”

“That…” Sanguine Warflag lowered his head and said nothing.

It could be said that Void Blade had the advantage with them. Quan Zhen Sect was so overwhelmed by their power that the Sanguine Alliance didn’t even stand a chance. Even if they brought 200,000 reinforcements from Immortal Island, they would still be overpowered by the hundreds of thousands of players from the entire city.

Sanguine Warflag gritted his teeth, “Even if we can’t win, I will never give in!”

“Heh…” Sanguine Stormbringer let out an exasperated laugh. He didn’t know that Sanguine Warflag was so stubborn.

He had no choice. Sanguine Warflag stood on his ground determinedly. Sanguine Stormbringer explained, “This is the game world. It isn’t a matter of whether or not you want to surrender. If we continue to go against Void Blade, we’ll be giving up our brother’s weapons. If we surrender now, we’ll preserve our power. When Void Blade loses their momentum, we’ll have more than enough power to turn the situation around.”

“This…”

By explaining the matter from a different perspective, it gave a different flavour to their actions. With these words from Sanguine Stormbringer, Sanguine Warflag’s perspective changed at once.

He was right. By going against Void Blade’s current momentum, there was a clear difference compared with Sanguine Alliance. As long as his members kept their equipment, they could still have their final stand at Saga City. They’d defeat Void Blade in no time.

“Alright! I’ll explain this to the brothers, then surrender!”

When he came to his senses, Sanguine Warflag slapped his thigh and made the decision.

In reality, Sanguine Warflag was overthinking. Those outside of the first line of attack didn’t understand the pain. Since it was a game, the gains and losses were borne by the leaders while their benefits were distributed to their tens of thousands of disciples. It was like fireworks. Nobody wanted to put their lives on the line for a little bit of benefit.

The Sanguine Alliance’s players were terrified by the enemies that outnumbered them by the thousands. They were only waiting for the order to surrender.

Sanguine Warflag declared his words as the Sanguine Alliance’s players agreed immediately.

“F*ck!”

Sanguine Warflag initially intended to use Sanguine Stormbringer’s words to show off his intelligence. However, he realized that his disciples only amounted to that. He felt dissatisfaction in his heart.

Even so, Sanguine Warflag obediently chose to surrender.

…

Within Void Blade’s head office, they saw their subordinates force Quan Zhen Sect to a corner, to the point where they dared not show their faces at all. Captain Don’t Open Fire was so thrilled that words could not describe his feelings.

Quan Zhen Sect pulled so many different antics in Twilight City that now that the situation had come to this point, Captain Don’t Open Fire and the other guild leaders felt a strong sense of liberation; it was as if they’d achieved something great.

Just as Captain Don’t Open Fire was about to direct hundreds of thousands of players to go after Quan Zhen Sect, everyone from Void Blade suddenly received a system message.

“Your guild’s enemy, Sanguine Alliance, has surrendered and offered their territory in exchange!”

“???”

When they saw this message, Captain Don’t Open Fire was really shocked. Wasn’t all his attention on Quan Zhen Sect? Why did the Sanguine Alliance suddenly surrender? However, no matter what, this was a shock. Captain Don’t Open Fire didn’t focus on that either. That was because he placed all his focus on Quan Zhen Sect.

Captain Don’t Open Fire knew that Quan Zhen Sect was his biggest enemy. Compared to the Sanguine Alliance, Quan Zhen Sect was much more dangerous. As long as they were alive, Void Blade could never live peacefully.

However, while his attention was directed elsewhere, Sanguine Alliance issued their surrender. Captain Don’t Open Fire’s objective was to become the City Lord. On the other hand, the other guilds’ objective was territory. Furthermore, the front-line players wanted to earn their keep.

Once an objective was achieved, there would be a conflict in their fundamental goals.

That was because everyone’s original objective was Sanguine Alliance. Quan Zhen Sect only came along as an addition after that.

To put it plainly, other than Captain Don’t Open Fire and those large guild leaders, nobody was interested in a guild with a few dozen people.

That was why the players under Void Blade lost all their focus once they saw that their greatest target, Sanguine Alliance, had surrendered. They thought to themselves; after battling for more than half the day and giving up thousands of lives, this matter finally came to an end.

Now that they won the battle, they wanted to collect their rewards.

As such, Captain Don’t Open Fire’s power and momentum, together with the full glory of his money, disappeared at once. The players felt at ease again. From warriors who battled in the name of money, they turned into regular players.

However, everyone only had one goal. That was to claim their reward from Captain Don’t Open Fire.

Even though Captain Don’t Open Fire told them not to relax yet and keep a lookout for Quan Zhen Sect’s orders, the players thought nothing of it.

When the Sanguine Alliance was around, their goals were larger. Quan Zhen Sect was in between their goals of defeating the Sanguine Alliance. Even if they couldn’t kill Quan Zhen Sect’s members, they could still collect their rewards from attacking Sanguine Alliance’s players. No matter what, they wouldn’t make a loss.

However, he was asking for tens of thousands of people to keep their eye on a dozen people? Was that a joke? This was a game. If someone changed their equipment and stood next to you, how would you even recognize someone? Wasn’t this akin to searching for a needle in a haystack?

The players’ thoughts were practical. They had clear objectives and understood what they could gain. They worked for their keep; but now, he was telling them to do the impossible. No matter how great the rewards were, they wouldn’t be interested.

As a result, these players didn’t put much of their focus into looking for their targets. After walking around casually and not spotting anyone from Quan Zhen Sect, they left the Central District and returned to the Western District.

His subordinates weren’t interested in executing his orders, while the guild leaders had other intentions in mind.

At first, their target was the Sanguine Alliance and Quan Zhen Sect. Even though the reward was right in front of them, they couldn’t get it. Everyone was upset, so they couldn’t help but stand on the same side.

Now that they defeated Sanguine Alliance and such a huge cake was placed right in front of these greedy guild leaders, how could they execute any other missions?

F*ck the Quan Zhen Sect. After destroying Quan Zhen Sect, Void Blade would become the boss. What did that have to do with the others? All they wanted was the territory. Now that it was in front of them, nobody cared about the Quan Zhen Sect, or whether Void Blade would become Twilight City’s leading guild.

Once Sanguine Alliance surrendered, even before the news was brought to light, 2012 sent a message to Captain Don’t Open Fire. “Captain, I want the Central District’s jurisdiction! If you don’t give it to me, our cooperation ends here.”

2012 was intelligent, and so were the other guild leaders. After 2012’s message, the other guild leaders sent similar messages that were equivalent to what 2012 said. They threatened Captain Don’t Open Fire; either he gave them what they wanted, or they’d leave.