1 a.m..
It was already bedtime.
In Noah’s other cities, those still wandering around at this time were considered criminals.
However, in Natta County, the streets and alleys were still lively.
Players saw three shabby-dressed children armed with a crossbow each, shooting poisoned arrows at a man who just passed the corner; he also saw an old man with white hair and a white beard pushing a small cart. There was a small sack struggling slightly; the players also saw a woman’s calf in red high-heeled shoes, which fell alone beside the trash can.
But in fact, Anderson and the rest of the players initially thought that Natta County would be more chaotic and lively at night. For example, the house would be demolished, robbed, or something. They did not expect to only encounter such minor events after walking through half of the city.
Upon giving it a deeper thought, it made sense.
After all, Natta County did not suddenly become like this. People’s hearts were full of unrelenting panic and fear.
And they had adapted to the life here.
Those who want to stir up something big must have done it. There were no “civilians” here anymore. Everyone knew each other, and a tacit understanding had formed.
Or it could be interpreted as the forces here had already reached a “stalemate”.
Unless there was an opportunity to break the balance… For example, having new influencing figures or attractive and easy targets from outside. Otherwise, the situation was relatively stable.
There were even two groups of people who attacked them.
The first group consisted of three men, each armed with a flintlock and a good machete at their waist, seemingly robbers; the second group consisted of five people: two with rifles, two Bronze Rank Transcenders, and a petite, old ritualist. Their goal seemed to be capturing the players.
Ultimately, these two groups only pushed the players to replenish their equipment and ammunition and dirtied Dove’s fur.
The first group did not even have time to fire a single shot.
They only stared at the Yokai Sensei, who was fumbling for money.
As a result, the silver coin in Yokai Sensei’s hand suddenly turned into a beam of silver light, and the clanging shock wave severed one of their upper bodies. Blood sprayed the area.
They did not expect a Silver Sire Priest to come to Natta County. When the enemy was in a panic, Dove, who had already sneaked behind them, stepped on one of them and broke the target’s neck. At the same time, she lunged at the remaining enemy with all her strength and slapped his temple with one paw.
The three opponents were killed swiftly.
After gradually getting used to killing actual humans, the transcender’s power was displayed solidly.
Although the second group seemed much stronger, their death was worse.
The reason being Delicious Wind Goose had participated.
After Delicious Wind Goose saw the opposing ritualist take out a bottle of frog viscera on the street, he immediately recognized that the opponent wanted to “summon the paralyzing cloud”. Thus, he immediately reacted.
Before both sides could react, Delicious Wind Goose, who was silently at the back of the team, lowered his body slightly. He converted almost all of his Strength attribute to Agility and reached Anderson instantly with a flicker.
Anderson even subconsciously wanted to raise his shield.
But before he could raise the shield, Delicious Wind Goose had already drawn the blade out from its sheath.
The sword body shone with dazzling silver light, wrapped in a moonlight-like sword energy.
—This was the [Steady Sweep] from Bodyguard Swordsmanship, which was used when assaulting in a single direction while under siege.
But under the blessing of [Sword Saint] ability, the released sword energy pierced through the five people with a single slash.
The five enemies were severed in half in an instant.
Those were all one-hit kills.
The corpses of the two transcenders began to dry up and disintegrate, leaving behind a dagger and an empty potion bottle.
This was the “nightmare key” the enemies left behind.
“Fuck, is Silver Rank so strong?” Anderson looked dumbfounded, “You weren’t like this before you advanced!”
If Delicious Wind Goose was his enemy, he could not defend against this blow at all.
Unless he knew Old Goose’s trajectory long ago and made a prediction at least one second in advance, his reaction speed could not keep up with Delicious Wind Goose’s movement speed.
Delicious Wind Goose took a deep breath, and the dark red rune on the back of his right hand gradually faded.
“It’s a curse,” he explained.
Delicious Wind Goose’s initial “Lucky Roll” had saved his life several times. However, the new curse obtained during the advancement stage gave him a massive boost despite its usage being limited to specific scenarios.
His newly acquired curse was called [Unrelenting].
Delicious Wind Goose could not “turn back and run away” in the state of “blade out of the sheath”. It was like the pawn pieces in Chinese chess. The player could not move them diagonally but only forward. At the same time, the pawn pieces could not retreat. Otherwise, just like the pawn chess pieces, Old Goose’s power would plummet and even his muscles would wither according to the distance he fled when he turned his head back.
Although Old Goose could not look back, things like “jumping back” and “rolling backward” were still allowed.
If Old Goose wanted to turn back, he had to put the sword back into the sheath or throw the sword directly on the ground.
On the other hand, as long as Delicious Wind Goose kept charging forward with the blade out of the sheath, the damage of his next blow would be boosted depending on the moving distance and time. The upper limit was a three-fold boost.
This was why he had always stayed at the backline of the team.
If the enemy came from behind, Delicious Wind Goose could turn around and unsheath, finishing off the enemy first. With that, he would not be concerned about protecting the backline while fighting in the front.
If the enemy appeared from the front and his teammates could not defeat it, he could use the distance from the backline to the frontline of the team to launch a [Charge]. That would activate the curse to increase the power of his first “Sword Qi”.
This was their pre-agreed tactic.
To fully exercise the curse, Old Goose needed to charge at least a distance of about 60 meters. This distance would create about a 40% to 50% boost.
Having something was better than nothing.
“Neckless. How much sword energy did you use?”
Dove seriously sent a private message to Delicious Wind Goose, “Your charge distance should not increase the power so much.”
Delicious Wind Goose glanced at the cat calmly and replied, “It’s still plenty. I still have 8 “bars” of qi energy.”
Anderson also frowned, “So, you have depleted two bars of energy? Wouldn’t it be a waste?”
Delicious Wind Goose had to meditate for three hours to accumulate one sword energy bar.
At the same time, he could store 10 bars of energy at most.
The players were certain that there would be no time for Old Goose to slowly meditate and recover his energy in the first few days before arriving in Natta County. It was not like the mana pool that would recover naturally with the sunrise and sunset.
This was why they adopted such a tactic. They would have the tank and the healer at the front and the melee damage output profession at the back.
This was to provide that [Charge] distance to Old Goose to compensate for power and conserve sword energy.
“Being able to act first and keep us in good shape is the optimum approach.” Delicious Wind Goose was calm, “Our resources should be used at such times. Sometimes you can’t be greedy.”
He squinted his eyes and glanced ahead. Then, he said in a low voice, “We have remained stealthy so far, and that’s important.
“Half a street ahead is Rotten Fang No. 21. If we make too much noise here and they notice us in advance, we will lose the advantage of making the first move. Then, we will have bigger trouble.”
The closer the team was to the critical moment, the calmer Delicious Wind Goose became.
There must be someone patrolling near the target.
They were not designated to guard against the player team but the other two gangs.
Dove entered the [Sneak] state to take out the lurking sentries. Under the protection of the night, she silently moved along the wall and advanced.
She detoured for about 15 minutes and silently eliminated a hidden sentry and a stationed sentry. Then, she posted a screenshot on the forum.
“—Their sentry system works in pairs. There are two hidden sentries and two stationed sentries. We can’t get around the last hidden sentry. They are inside with the target. I detoured around twice and still couldn’t get in. They are watching the stationed sentry at the front corner. On the other side, the stationed sentry is looking in the direction opposite to ours. I have marked the exact location.
“Since the stationed sentry doesn’t look in our direction, they may not notice us. Do we use my main body to eliminate the lurking sentry? The sound of the broken window might attract attention instead… Or should we launch a frontal assault directly?”
Dove asked Delicious Wind Goose.
Anderson turned to look at Delicious Wind Goose, “Boss, what should we do? We didn’t bring any rogue with us.”
How to pry the door in?
Or should they go in through the window?
To be honest, Old Goose was a little nervous too.
In the previous few large-scale events, his participation was far from the height the rest of the players perceived.
Since he had to take on the role of a defender ins this attack… even an attack with assassination elements, he began to doubt whether he could do it well.
“You don’t need to shoot the arrow. Instead, we should charge in directly.” Delicious Wind Goose narrowed his eyes slightly, “You guys sneak in first. Then, I will rush over from here and unleash three bars worth of sword energy at the wall. A sword attack with a three-fold boosting effect should be able to simultaneously smash the wall and kill those standing behind it.
“Then, the rest of you immediately confront the enemy. Chocolate, your target is the stationed sentry left outside and then you will proceed to back us up. Everyone else follows me in through the gap!”
If there is a way in through the wall, ignore the windows; if there is a way in through the window, ignore the door.
This was what Brother Sledgehammer taught him.