The level 7 players from Winter Guild, who had just entered the sewers, stared blankly at the message on their watches.
Their mission was actually to kill Coffin Guild players?
Meanwhile, the Coffin Guild players who had come down into the sewers with them were totally off guard. One of them even greeted the Winter Guild members and said curiously:
"Hey there, you guys from Winter Guild? Don't worry, our guild leader told us to avoid any conflict with you if we can."
The Winter Guild level 7 players struggled even harder to keep a straight face after hearing that.
Right at that moment, more players from other guilds started coming down through the manhole covers into the sewers. As soon as they appeared, their greedy eyes locked onto the Coffin Guild players.
To them, the Coffin Guild members looked like walking treasure, just waiting to be claimed.
The Coffin Guild players finally started to sense that something was off. Some of them drew their weapons, watching the newcomers from the other guilds with growing suspicion.
Seeing this, a Winter Guild player took a deep breath and drew his weapon as well.
Many Coffin Guild players still had no clue what was about to happen. They didn't realize anything was wrong until the Winter Guild players next to them suddenly attacked, beating the other guilds to the punch.
A level 7 Winter Guild player shouted, "Now! This is our chance, go for it!"
The players from the other guilds who had just entered the sewers yelled anxiously, "Come on! Hurry up, guys! Don't let anyone else get all the Coffin Guild kills!"
In an instant, a full-blown battle against the Coffin Guild erupted.
Within just a few seconds, almost none of the Coffin Guild players who had just entered the sewers were left standing.
If there had been more Coffin Guild members, or if the other guilds hadn't started fighting each other over the kills, not a single Coffin Guild player would have made it out alive.
One seriously wounded Coffin Guild player collapsed into the filthy water, letting the bacteria-filled sewage flow into his wounds.
With trembling hands, he used his watch to send a message on the Coffin Guild channel:
[Guild Leader, help!]
Meanwhile, back at the junkyard, Coffin Guild's leader, [Overlord], could feel the stares of the other Guild Leaders, and it was making him uncomfortable.
There was a hint of pity in their eyes, along with a touch of schadenfreude, like they knew something bad was about to happen to him.
[Overlord] suppressed his unease and walked up to Serena, the Winter Guild leader, taking a deep breath before saying:
"I've already arranged things so that our guild members will avoid any conflict with Winter Guild as much as possible."
"Don't worry, after our players take down the boss, we'll make sure to compensate you."
Serena batted her alluring eyes, staring at [Overlord] in confusion and replied,
"What boss?"
[Overlord] was stunned. The bad feeling in his gut was getting worse, so he quickly asked, "If you're not here for the hidden boss, then what are you doing here?"
Serena smiled and glanced at the other guild leaders. She said: "Of course we're here for your Coffin Guild."
The look of confusion on [Overlord's] face only deepened. He honestly had no idea what was going on.
Right then, someone couldn't help but burst out laughing. They said, "[Overlord], you'll find out soon enough."
"Tsk tsk, some people don't even realize they've pissed off someone who's about to make their life a living hell."
[Overlord] whipped his head around to stare at the speaker. Just then, his watch buzzed on his wrist.
He quickly opened the message and immediately saw the guild channel notifications.
[Guild Leader, help!]
[Guild Leader, we got set up. For some reason, players from other guilds just started attacking our guys out of nowhere.]
[We're getting slaughtered out here!]
...
Staring at the messages in the guild channel, [Overlord] stood there as if he'd been struck by lightning.
He kept mumbling over and over,
"Why? What the hell is going on?"
Serena spoke softly: "Windchaser has a guild hidden quest intel, purple quality, and whoever completes it gets a hundred reputation points."
"All you have to do is kill ten Coffin Guild players in the sewers to qualify for bidding on that intel."
"So now, you should understand what's happening."
[Overlord] staggered back two steps, his legs turning to jelly—he nearly collapsed, but Daydreamer was quick enough to catch him.
At that moment, [Overlord] felt like he was living in a nightmare. He'd poured his heart and soul into building up Coffin Guild.
He was so close to making Coffin Guild the top guild in Safe Zone 9527, and now this disaster had struck.
What happened in Frostspire Tower had already caused heavy losses to the high-level players of Coffin Guild.
Now, among the players who entered the sewer map to hunt down [Windchaser], quite a few were the same people who had suffered death penalties from the Frostspire Tower boss fight.
They had just managed to level up a bit, and before they even caught a glimpse of [Windchaser], they were about to die and face another harsh death penalty.
[Overlord] couldn't even bear to imagine it—if every guild member who entered the sewer map died, Coffin Guild's strength would drop to who knows what level.
He gripped [Daydreamer's] arm tightly, like he was clinging to a lifeline, and shouted:
"Hurry! Get our people out of there!"
[Daydreamer] looked at the endless stream of messages popping up in the guild channel, and answered bitterly:
"Guild Leader, it's too late. Half our people are already dead, and the rest are being hunted down as we speak."
Hearing that, [Overlord] felt like the world went black before his eyes, and the strength left his hand gripping [Daydreamer's] arm.
He collapsed onto the junkyard ground, gritting his teeth, and with a voice full of hatred, shouted:
"[Windchaser!] I swear, I'll kill you! I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do!"
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
At that moment, [Overlord] didn't even bother to think about why this conflict with [Windchaser] started. All he could think about was that [Windchaser] hadn't lost a thing.
Meanwhile, he had poured endless heart, time, energy, and money into Coffin Guild—and now, thanks to that damned [Windchaser], it was all on the verge of collapse.
[Daydreamer] let out a sigh. He hadn't expected things to turn out this way, either.
[Windchaser] was supposed to be just a low-level rookie, and yet he had pushed them to the edge like this.
[Daydreamer] took a deep breath and said quietly to [Overlord]:
"Guild Leader, the only option now is to apologize to [Windchaser], and hope he stops targeting us. That way, maybe some of our guys can make it out alive…"
Before he could finish, [Overlord] roared, "No way!"
"There's got to be a way. There has to be something else we can do!"
[Overlord's] watch was still buzzing on his wrist. Every vibration meant another message in the guild channel.
And what kind of messages could they be?
Of course, they were notifications about members dying.
[Overlord] slowly sat up from the ground. His hands shaking, he searched for [Windchaser's] ID in the friend requests.
In the friend request note, he wrote: [This is Overlord, Guild Leader of Coffin Guild.]
A few seconds later, [Overlord] saw the notification that the friend request had failed.
[Windchaser] hadn't even hesitated—he just flat-out rejected his friend request.
Fury kept rising in [Overlord's] chest, and he was on the verge of losing it.
But remembering the guild's current crisis, [Overlord] forced himself to calm down and sent another friend request.
This time, he wrote: [Coffin Guild was in the wrong. Please, give us a chance. We really need to talk.]
...
Down in the sewers, Ethan glanced at the friend request that popped up on his watch again and chuckled.
Without a second's hesitation, he rejected it again.
But this time, he sent a reply: [You're not even qualified to negotiate with me.]