Fatal Shot

West of Silvermoon City, coordinates (-1223, 0254)

An SN600 bulletproof Energy SUV drove down the path full of yellow sand, continuously passing other players’ vehicles traveling in the same direction.

“Old Wu, just what’s the matter? You can now tell me in detail.”

Feng Luo sat in the back of the vehicle, sipping on an iced beverage from the vehicle refrigerator. Mu Wu was wearing gold-rimmed glasses while he drove.

“Yesterday, when Mu Zi and his team were doing a mission, they discovered a Ruins Area more than 10 miles south of the Lu Conglomerate, and they activated an Exploration Mission!” Mu Wu said with a grave face as he drove.

“Exploring Ruins Areas typically comes with large Merit rewards. Mu Zi’s luck is not bad,” Feng Luo said.

According to the game organizer’s background settings, the objective of players as Adventurers was to explore ruins of the past and eliminate mutant monsters, allowing both parties to earn Merit rewards from the Federation.

Especially in Ruins Areas, the first exploration would typically gather better equipment than the subsequent explorations, so discovering a new Ruins Area was naturally extremely valuable!

“It wasn’t as lucky as you think. There is a large number of Elite monsters of Level 40 and above in that Ruins Area, and their team’s specializations were not suitable for exploration! They only managed to explore a third of the Ruins before they were forced to return!”

“Then, as they were walking out of the Ruins, they were ambushed by another team. With their insufficient preparation and supplies, they were wiped out!” Mu Wu said with a low voice.

Feng Luo was silent.

Honestly speaking, such things happened every day in War, so he did not feel much rage. But if Mu Wu was speaking about the matter with such venom, he clearly had some other reason.

“The team which eliminated them had eight players from the Lu Conglomerate head office!”

As Mu Wu spoke, his expression under his gold-rimmed glasses turned even darker.

“Hm? From Lu Conglomerate?”

Feng Luo creased his forehead, his face darkening a little as well.

“When I objected to merging Nightless Club into the Lu Conglomerate Guild, it wasn’t completely because I wanted to secure power and personal interests,” Mu Wu said flatly as he sped up the Energy SUV. “Nightless City is meant to be Lu Conglomerate’s recreation center for the socialization of some upper-class people in the real world. One-third of the people among the club’s players are considered VIPs!”

“If my guests joined the Lu Conglomerate, the presence of all the VIPs would make them feel uncomfortable and out of place!”

“Right!” Feng Luo nodded his head; to Diamond VIP members such as Sister Rui and Chairman Qian, they clearly would not be concerned at all about whether the guild they joined was powerful. To them, playing a game was just play; joining guilds that were full of fun like Nightless Club would be even more free and unrestricted!

“But those of the head office don’t think this way, especially those newly-joined players who now make up more than half of it. I don’t know who instilled so many hostile ideas in them!” Mu Wu said flatly.

“Newly-joined players?” asked Feng Luo.

“The total number of players in the Lu Conglomerate has already exceeded 50,000, and half of them are the newly-joined players. Furthermore, this number continues to increase by thousands every day. Also, there are more than 5000 NPCs in the city now!” Mu Wu said.

“In the last two weeks? …It’s due to the war plot.” Feng Luo said certainly.

“Yes, because of the start of the war plot. This city of ours is built close to the rebellion and the Federation borders, and it’s in a very good geographical location. Many players have already set their respawn point here, and of course, most of them have joined the Lu Conglomerate!”

“This shows that your prediction was very right. At least, your decision to build a city here and play the war plot seems to be very successful now!” Feng Luo said.

He still remembered the sparks in Mu Wu’s eyes when Mu Wu had talked about building a city.

“If everything goes according to plan, there’s really no need to worry. But still, Lu Chen and that group of people of the board of directors of the Club are too greedy!” Mu Wu’s face flashed with obvious scorn.

“I suggested right from the start that all of this city should follow the construction style of a semi-military base, and that it should not allow too many NPCs to station in it. That way, even though less than a quarter of the city’s construction was completed in the past two months, it still possesses the strength to fend for itself against the war plot!”

“In addition to having the two semi-military cities Silvermoon and Sunset blocking at both sides, there’s no need to worry about the head of the rebellion attacking their targets.”

“Until then, the players’ advantage of being able to be revived can be completely relied on to develop the city step by step during the war!”

At his own prediction, a look of confidence which Feng Luo was familiar with appeared once again in Mu Wu’s eyes.

“It’s just that Lu Chen’s desires are too big, and many people on the board of directors are short-sighted and hot-headed!”

“Before a third of the funds had even been used, the board of directors worried that the coffers would run dry. They actually began to continuously accept NPCs, then they withdrew funds to open a store to allow the city to be expanded faster than it should!”

“So now there are already a lot of NPC armies in Silvermoon City and Sunset City, these two semi-military cities, and the defenses have been increased and made more rigorous. This players’ city oasis of ours, which was originally not eye-catching at all, is now very likely to become an important target in the rebellion’s eyes!”

“To secure capital profit, they jeopardized the city,” Feng Luo said this calmly.

In reality, he was not very concerned about the Lu Conglomerate being in danger or the money he had invested going down the drain.

After all, he was just a temporary deputy manager of an entertainment city, and furthermore, he was now standing on the side of Nightless Club.

However, he agreed with much of Mu Wu’s prediction of the war plot situation.

Not long before, he had already called two NPC staff of the “Feng Zhi Dan Heng Ammunition Store” through the Communicator, asking them to ship all the items and devices in the store over to Storm City by air.

Once plots in War started, there was no setting to make players’ financial property sacred and inviolable. The game company would not compensate players for their losses!

Therefore, one had to depend on one’s own predictive powers to avoid crisis!

“Okay, let’s talk a bit about Mu Zi and the rest. How do we settle the situation?”

Feng Luo changed the topic to yesterday’s matter.

“The ambushing team also entered to explore, but they didn’t get too far at all before they were driven out in a bad state. After Mu Zi told me about this matter, I spoke about it at the director board meeting this morning!”

“However, the board of directors did not have any intention of punishing them; when those people were called up for a direct confrontation, they insistently stated that they were the ones who had discovered the Ruins. Since there was no way of videotaping at the Ruins, Mu Zi and the rest had no way of proving their story!”

“How did Lu Chen react?” Feng Luo asked.

“Until the exploration is completed, a team has to receive the mission in order to enter the Ruins. Since there is a limit of only two teams for the mission per day, Lu Chen decided for us and them to send one team each to enter today.”

“Lu Chen’s way of dealing with the problem doesn’t sound too biased, but he might still know the truth of the situation!” Feng Luo said.

“Regardless, the decision is up to him, Old Feng. I can only plead for your help once more!”

As Mu Wu was talking about Lu Chen’s attitude, his expression quivered slightly, but he was much calmer when he looked at Feng Luo.

“Mm.”

Feng Luo didn’t know why Mu Wu, as a manager of the Lu Conglomerate Subordinate Entertainment City, always went tit-for-tat with the only successors of the conglomerate.

However, Feng Luo was rather interested in this ruins exploration.

At the same time, he did not mind eliminating that group of people from the Lu Conglomerate headquarters if he bumped into them!