......

While everyone was pretty occupied at catching Arthur and Leonard, there was a certain group of players who were also busy taking down the elite groups from the Powerhouse Guilds and other organizations.

The trio of Shin, Cloe, and Chaotic Luck was currently doing this job in the fastest and sneakiest way possible.

The three of them managed to arrive at this place via special means. Instead of passing the test provided by the Keepers of the Sky Island, they went through the gate provided by the man with the Three-Headed snake.

This certain way of arriving on Sky Island was meant for the Black Nagas accompanying the mysterious man as they were planning to invade the place.

Their original plan was to attack all of the Wingmen off-guard, striking at them at the most unexpected time.

Unfortunately, the scouts told them about the leading tribes of the Wingmen Race which were much stronger than their groups. And due to this, the Black Nagas were forced to halt their attacks for the time being while their current leader was laying all of the preparations needed for their invasion.

The mysterious player sneaked into the Sky Island before secretly entering the camps of the Wingmen Tribes to hypnotize the tribe leaders. And with the help of the Three-Headed Snake, doing all of these was pretty much the same as walking in the park.

With the current strength of the Three-Headed Snake, the Tribe Leaders didn't have the strength to resist the hypnosis of such a semi-divine being.

After controlling the tribe leaders, the mysterious man was planning to proceed to the next part of their plan. But a certain variable got in their way; Daulla and her partner also arrived at the Sky Island at the same time, which forced the mysterious man to delay his plans a little.

He was aware that the Archer was chosen by Garuda to become his descendant. And with that, that person was given the ability to mobilize the special army hidden at the floating castle; they were the most elite group of Wingmen who were taking orders directly from Garuda.

This army was on par with the leading tribes of the Wingmen Race if not stronger. And their main duty was to protect the floating castle from the invading armies of their enemies.

Unfortunately, he couldn't mobilize them for the time being since they couldn't attack their kin unless they directly attack the floating castle.

Aside from this, the Three-Headed Snake was also quite wary of Garuda's spirit since he was also a semi-divine being just like itself. And it was also afraid that the latter was able to break the hypnosis cast on the Tribe Leaders, so the former needed to delay its plans as long as possible until the spirit of Garuda exhausted all of its remaining powers.

The Three-Headed Snake was very cunning. It knew that the mysterious Archer couldn't control the Wingmen Tribes even if he was chosen as Garuda's Descendant, so all it needed to do was to wait until the biggest obstacle blocking their paths disappeared on itself.

And while it was waiting, Three-Headed Snake orchestrated a plan to weaken the forces of the Wingmen Tribes. After all, it was not sure if the Tribe Leaders could break free under its control in the future, so the cunning snake ordered them to wage war against each other under the context of looking for another ruler of the Wingmen Race.

And that was when the players started to arrive at Sky Island one by one. Unaware of the huge scheme of the Three-Headed Snake, these players unconsciously helped it by joining the war.

...…

Shin and the others were unaware of this huge scheme previously since the Black Nagas couldn't disclose any information regarding this matter since they were bound with the system contract.

But while Arthur and Leonard were trying to take the trial to enter Sky Island, they unexpectedly received a hidden quest from the Head Keeper who was tasked to oversee their trial.

The two were aware that the Wingman in front of them was pretty much different from the other Wingmen provided it had a pair of golden wings on its back. Such features were not written in the records that they saw, so Shin suspected that this particular Wingman was one of the key factors that they needed to destroy the schemes of the Three-Headed Snake.

Due to that, Shin asked Arthur and Leonard to finish their trial as soon as possible so that they could see what kind of quest was given to them.

And just like they thought, the quest was really related to the current state of Sky Island.

The quest didn't directly tell them about the Tribe Leaders being under the influence of the Three-Headed Snake's hypnosis.

It only told them to take down certain targets which were going to weaken the forces of the Wingmen Tribes but not devastating enough to cripple their forces.

It also told them to hunt down the mysterious player accompanying the Three-Headed Snake alongside the Black Nagas disguising themselves and hiding among the members of the Wingmen Tribes.

Using the new information that they got, Shin could easily deduct what was really happening on Sky Island which also confirmed his suspicions somehow.

Completing the hidden quest given to them was quite tricky since they needed to identify which among the Wingmen Tribes were the Black Nagas in disguise.

Fortunately, they had captured three of their comrades earlier who became a perfect guiding tool to find their kin.

Naturally, the three Black Naga Players didn't want to cooperate. After all, it was going to foil their plans if they did.

But too bad for them, they didn't have any other choice since they were currently captives. And if Shin and the others really handed them to the Spirit of Garuda, they were pretty sure that their in-game existence was going to get wiped, which practically meant that they needed to restart at the very beginning of the game.

At the same time, Shin also formed a contract with them where they needed to help the group identify their fellow Black Naga members in exchange for their freedom. So, with that kind of deal, the three could only think of survival and decided to help Shin and the others.

After that, Shin and the others immediately started doing their respective tasks as soon as possible.

...

The first thing that Shin did right after arriving on Sky Island was destroying the teleportation portal that they used to sneak in. And since rebuilding this gate was going to take quite some time, they now had enough measures to hunt their targets one by one.

Arthur and Leonard were not only tasked to attract everyone's attention, but they also needed to take down as many targets as possible at the same time. Due to that, they were able to eliminate the Black Nagas in disguise without alarming their hidden enemy.

After all, that cunning snake would surely notice something odd if they directly took down the Black Nagas in disguise. So, by attracting the attention of every player and Wingmen Tribes at them, they were able to dodge their opponent's suspicion.

In the meantime, Shin and the other two were tasked to eliminate the players who had the biggest contribution in this war.

These players were able to gain some influence in the tribes if they reached a certain number of contributions but were going to instantly revert back to zero if they got killed even once.

Naturally, such players were either a leader of the powerful guilds or a hidden expert of a certain organization. At the same time, they could also be a very skilled independent player who was strong enough to stand on equal footing against the former groups of players.

The two couldn't do much against the former groups since they would surely be protected by an elite group of experts. And this could only leave Shin and the other two to target the independent players.

But if they got a chance to eliminate the former group of players, Shin would always welcome such opportunities, especially if they happened to see those groups fighting against each other.

Assassinating someone in that kind of chaotic battle was much easier than facing the groups head-on. So, Shin could easily eliminate their targets without arousing any suspicion with his current assassination abilities.

In certain circumstances, locating those players was quite hard, especially with a large number of chaotic battlefields scattered all around Sky Island.

Fortunately, there was a thing called bounty in such a chaotic place. So, all Shin needed to do was to capture a few players from different tribes before asking which one had the highest bounty on their heads and ask their current locations or 'hunting grounds'.

Shin was quite fearless this time since Cloe had his back. With her top-class healing and perfect support, he didn't have to worry about getting killed instantly or being forced into a corner.

Moreover, they also had Chaotic Luck to support. So, they didn't get much pressure at eliminating their targets.

And with all of that, the group was able to neutralize the current state of Sky Island unnoticed. And they were also able to lessen the threat provided by their hidden enemy who was secretly pulling the strings from the dark.

But at the same time, some of the sharp individuals also started to notice the odd state of the battlefields all around Sky Island. And even if they couldn't put their fingers on it, they could still sense that there was something strange going on without them knowing.

Due to that, they started laying low which immediately caused a great change in the entire battlefield.

At the same time, it was also the sign that a certain individual was waiting to quickly make his move.

......