Chapter 57 - The Returning Comrades

Chapter 57: The Returning Comrades

A video was posted on the homepage of Battle Online’s forum by one of the players that was forced to log out after being killed in the game.

[Our friends have died! I appeal for the return of my comrades to battle with me and avenge their deaths!]

In the video, Lu Mo and the rest of the team could be seen exhausting their last bit of power to push back the rest of the players. In the end, they were set on hellfire and burned to ashes.

The video had completely stunned the players who were not in the game.

Crayon_Shinchan: “I could still remember our heart-to-heart talks with Big Brother Lu at night and the fine liquor that he shared with me. Rest in peace, big brother! I shall avenge your death!”

Cantabile_years: “Rest in peace, brothers! I shall slaughter Cha Na and his army to avenge you.”

Xueli_The_Strongest: “I never thought this would happen while I was away on a date outside. I, Xueli, requesting to join the team! I’m going to kill Cha Na for revenge!”

Foodie_XiaoJia: “Just the thought of not being able to taste Fatty Chef’s food anymore makes me so angry!!! Wait up, I am on my way home. Hold on, my fellow brothers!”

The death of Lu Mo and the other NPCs angered the players. Many of them contacted each other and were rushing home to join the alliance.

During this time, most of the Battle Online players had learned about the incident on Christmas night from their guild’s chat group or from messages between friends.

And the players’ rage had been fully ignited.

Somewhere in an unnamed hotel room, a man was hastily dressing up. While his exasperated girlfriend was giving him a bewildered look, he rushed for the door.

At a certain karaoke joint, several guys simultaneously put down their microphones with indignation, quickly bid their friends goodbye and headed back to their homes.

In one of the bars, while a group of revelers was happily drinking, a man picked up an unexpected phone call and his expression immediately turned somber. He proceeded to say a few words to his mates. Then, the few of them immediately walked out of the bar and cabbed back to their homes.

Somewhere in a billiard room, a person was forwarding the message he received to his fellow pool players. At once, they paid the bill and rushed back to their homes.

……

Just like that, similar events happened in many places.

One by one, the players appeared in the game. Once logged in, they were all invited by their comrades to join the battle for vengeance.

From the Demolition Guild’s live chat channel, the guild master’s roar sounded in the members’ ears, “Brothers, I will be at the forefront. If I were to die in the battle, I want all of you to step over my corpse and charge ahead! Kill!”

From the Avengers Guild’s live chat channel, Wu Guoyi bellowed, “Unity will keep us together, let us protect the Mansion of the Dead! Onward with me!”

From the Great Dragon Guild’s live chat channel, Chen Ziyu yelled, “For the glory of the King of Beiqi, for our lost friends. Let there be no regrets tonight! Kill!”

From the Invincible Myth’s live chat channel, Invincible_Loneliness spoke in rage as he waved his long sword while staring at Cha Na from far, “Tonight, I vow to kill Cha Na, and I won’t stop until he is dead!”

……

At this point, every guild had decided to let go of their conflicts between each other and were preparing to launch a forceful attack at Cha Na.

Even Cha Na was stunned when he was faced with an increasing number of creatures gathering in front of his eyes. The number of creatures had impressively reached more than 300,000. On top of that, he did not even know where these creatures were coming from. It seemed impossible to exterminate them completely.

Lu Wu felt encouraged when he saw the players unite together. He then retrieved the music file from Ba Lun’s email and let Bei Li digitize the data before uploading it into the artifact.

Thump! Thump! The sounds of the war drum resonated throughout the realm from the back of Cha Na’s army. At the same time, background music started playing in the ears of all the players.

“The Phoenix (The Immortal Bird)”

Put on your war paint

You are a brick tied to me that’s dragging me down

Strike a match and I’ll burn you to the ground

Setting fire to the sky

Here, here comes this rising tide

So come on

Put on your war paint

Silver clouds with grey linings

So we can take the world back from a heart attack

The music resounded throughout the battleground, concealing the beat of the drums while firing up the passion within the players.

“Roar!”

“Kill!”

The two torrents collided once again. The players turned their anger into strength, showing an overwhelming power of combat against their opponents.

The frightening thing in a battle was not one’s weaknesses, but the lack of determination to fight to the death.

Under the influence of the background music, the players went on without a single step back and even managed to push back Cha Na’s army.

As the heat of battle continued to rise, Cha Na was starting to feel helpless against such a huge number of players, even with his own attack. What scared him even more was that the number of players was still increasing by the moment.

In this battle, the players’ forces were slowly overpowering Cha Na’s army in terms of morale.

“Charge on, fellow Night Killers!” under the command of Ye Xue’er, the group of assassins gave a loud roar and rushed toward the frontlines.

One after another, large red figures emerged from behind the enemy’s army, shrouding over everyone. With a few swings of their gigantic bloody blades, fresh blood splattered in the air.

This squad of assassins was assembled by Ye Xue’er with a huge amount of coins. Consisting of ten members, each of them had farmed more than 10,000 points of Blood Essence to become the first batch of players to advance their character classes to Cursed Apostles. Hence, they were able to unleash their powerful energy in this battle.

The Night Killers were slaughtering the Yin soldiers with their demon-like powers while Cha Na could only stare in horror.

“Night Killers! Naraka Realm! You are the descendants of the Cursed Clan!” Cha Na exclaimed with a horrified expression.

He recognized the power of the Cursed Clan. He himself used to be a member of the army team that laid siege on the Cursed Clan, a powerful clan that required the King of Beiqi himself to defend against.

He would not have guessed that the weaklings before him had found out how to use the forces of the Naraka Realm. The fear in Cha Na’s heart started to spread.

Not to mention, the deaths of Lu Mo and the others had utterly fired up the anger in the players’ hearts. Their desire for vengeance was unceasing and their attacks were unstoppable until the blood of Cha Na is spilled.

“Roar! Cha Na you old thief, I want you dead!” a berserker broke away from the crowd. With reddened eyes, he darted toward Cha Na while swinging his Greatsword and slashed at Cha Na’s thigh.

Memories of his breakup half a month ago and his heart-to-heart talk with Lu Mo at that time floated in his mind. Recalling Lu Mo’s sincere advice and genuine smile, he became even more infuriated.

“Kill!” Invincible_Loneliness from the Myth Guild took off his cape to expose the etched runes on his body and proceeded to clench his fist. As an emerald lit up, he leaped toward Cha Na. Next, a ruby glowed as he concentrated all his strength into his fist and smashed onto the top of Cha Na’s head, knocking him a few steps backward. The punch also left an imprint on the top of Cha Na’s skull.

After spending a huge sum of money to acquire soul coins, Gu Yu had finally gathered all the materials required for class advancement. He became the first-ever Rune Master in the game and he had shown powerful skills.

In the meantime, a figure leapt onto the battlefield, capturing the attention of the Yin soldiers.

This person yielded Nine Spiritual Swords. A circle of Sword Qi revolved around him and a blade storm followed his presence, creating a space of vacuum.

Under Ao Jian’s control, the Spiritual Swords demonstrated unparalleled power as they reaped through the bodies of the army like the scythe of a Grim Reaper.

Ao Jian was not aggrieved by what had happened, but he knew only one thing, that Jian Chou was his mentor and his mentor had always been loyal to the King of Beiqi!

Cha Na was so stunned by the entrance of Ao Jian and could not help exclaiming, “That’s Jian Chou’s swordmaster! I thought he was dead!?”