Fatal Shot
chapter-388

"Continue!" Although they got rid of the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group player hiding in ambush, Black Rose did not show any delight on her face, as the team was retreating after suffering defeat.

As the Scout team captain of Veterans Tribe and, now, managing the intelligence department of the guild, Black Rose was quite capable.

However, she made a grave mistake this time.

The first instance was when the Biohazard crisis occurred, she took over command because the guild leader was not online. She decided to contact the other ally guilds to strike at the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group's operation.

In her mind, even if Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group were the first ranked guild in Silvermoon City, and counting the branches and sub-branch guilds, their number did not exceed one-third of the players in Silvermoon City, she thought that Veterans Tribe and their allies would have the advantage in numbers. (During the war storyline, the number of players increased due to an inflow of players from other places). She also guessed that not everyone in Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group would join the rebel army camp, so she imagined they would have far fewer enemies.

Based on the number of online players at that moment, it should have been two versus one.

They had an absolute advantage, and if they averaged it out, the equipment grade and levels were also similar. They would most certainly be at a great advantage during an in-game guild war.

Unexpectedly, Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group, or perhaps more accurately Roaring Dragon Light Wind's actions, completely destroyed their advantage.

The city's power and communications to the outside were cut, internal communications were disrupted, the guards and military outposts suffered attacks, and the spread of the biological virus weapon; Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group's operations caught Black Rose completely off guard.

It was especially true after the communications were cut. Command and cooperation with Veterans Tribe's allies became incredibly difficult. One could even say that loss of communications was one of the three major factors that led to their defeat.

However, she could not do anything about it.

Large-scale battle occurring in cities had never happened before in War, so no one had any experience in dealing with this.

Although Veterans Tribe had prepared more than one scenario for wars against Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group, Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group had been mired in internal power struggles for the past month. From the intelligence she received, though Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group had a financial advantage due to the support of the committee from a large investment firm, Roaring Dragon Invincible was not an easy opponent. The battle should have lasted for at least one or two more months.

As such, Black Rose's caution against Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group dropped. Then, Roaring Dragon Light Wind suddenly made his move in the midst of everything, making incredibly shocking moves.

Biohazard Crisis! An Epic Level storyline mission that produced popup in every player's bulletin. The T-virus that transformed humans into monsters.

The moment the Biohazard Crisis storyline began, Black Rose's focus was on the fact that the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group had decided to switch camps and help the rebel army attack Slivermoon City, instead of the storyline mission.

Due to this information, she believed that Roaring Dragon Light Wind had made the wrong decision in his rush to take power. There was no doubt that most Silvermoon City players would not switch camps easily and give up all their hard-earned Merit Points.

By the time Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group switched sides, their enemies would not be limited to just a few guilds, it would be every player inside Silvermoon City that belonged to the Federation camp. By then, the player number ratio would no longer be two to one, but five to one, or ten to one.

If it were ten to one, how would Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group even win?

...

However, the current situation was that Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group had won without suffering many losses. Almost 70% of players belonging to the Federation camp inside Silvermoon City had died from or had turned into Elite Grade zombies or Foragers.

In four short hours, over 250,000 players died and lost one levels' worth of experience during this Epic Level storyline mission. Silvermoon City had almost 700,00 players, but the online rate was only around half of that at night.

As for the remaining players, there was no way they could withstand the assault of over 200,000 zombies and Foragers, especially when more than half of them were Elite Grade monsters.

Logically speaking, with players not being afraid of dying and being granted the chance to exchange for the anti-virus serum, the situation should not have deteriorated to this state so quickly.

The fact of the matter was that the situation was indeed that bad, and there were three main factors why this happened.

Number one was Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group's suicidal tactic to spreading the virus. It allowed the T-virus to spread on a very large scale since the beginning, creating many powerful monsters like the Tyrants.

One should know that the players who were initially infected did not have enough points to exchange for the anti-virus serum. After these people died, they turned into Elite Grade infectious creatures with strong abilities.

Secondly, though there were many players, not every player had the strength to deal with Elite Grade infected monsters. Especially when almost half of the players were life profession casual players who had low combat strength. Since it was harder to farm monsters and complete missions at night, the number of main combat players who were online was lower. Unfortunately for players, when these weaker players turned into monsters, they actually turned into Elite Grade monsters that were not weak at all.

Another important point was the mental pressure of the Biohazard Crisis storyline on the players. Not every player in the game could calmly face and attack the zombies charging at them. Not to mention the bloody and gory scene of zombies chewing and feeding on players or NPCs.

At least two-thirds of female players chose to log off forcibly within 30 minutes of the start of the storyline. Their bodies turned into Elite Grade infected monsters after they left from a forced log off.

If Black Rose didn't come from the Star Federation's fifth army aviation platoon and had faced many similar from her virtual military training, she might have also logged off after seeing those extreme scenes unfold before her eyes.

"Is everyone offline notified?" As she was reminded of those who had logged off, Black Rose asked an elite Sniper of the guild standing beside her.

"Yes, we've told them to stay offline and wait until after the morning before we see how we can counterattack!" The Sniper nodded before firing a shot from his sniper rifle, taking out a Level 35 Forager behind him.

"Big Sis, where should we turn at the junction ahead of us?" A Scout's request for direction came from the party channel.

"Hmm? Hold on." Black Rose picked up her expensive Level 50 Rare Grade recon meter, looked at it and frowned slightly.

"Odd. There isn't any life signature of zombies or monsters coming from the large swathe of land ahead?"

"Beep!"

An Expert Level Detection was cast. After that, the recon meter's scouting range expanded significantly.

"Beep, beep, beep!" The recon meter began to sound alarms.

More than 20 yellow dots appeared, including a large flashing yellow dot on the virtual screen. There was also a flashing white dot in the middle. Most of the time, a white dot represented an infected NPC or player.

"Hmm? A Tyrant?"

Black Rose did not seem worried, as her squad was one of the best in Veterans Tribe in terms of firepower and gears. Even if two Tyrants were to appear at the same time, they wouldn't be afraid.

It was odd that the white dot player was still alive even after five seconds of being surrounded by one Tyrant and a horde of zombies.

"Coordinates 2030, 0104. Monkey, go and see what's going on!" Black Rose shouted through the party channel.

The team had other Scouts apart from her. As the guild consisted of more than 35% of retired soldiers, Veterans Tribe had a lot more players choosing the Gunner profession compared to other guilds.

The Scout on the channel had already climbed to the top of a building that could better observe the region shown on Black Rose's recon meter.

"Okay!" The Scout replied, replying again after two seconds. "F*ck me! This can't be real… My eyes are playing tricks on me. What the f*cking hell? I really think something's wrong with my eyes! How is this even possible?"

"Monkey! Report!" Black Rose frowned and instructed him with an assertive tone.

The Scout called "Monkey" clearly knew Black Rose wasn't someone who would look down on others after obtaining a high position.

"Big Sis, this… It's better if you come and take a look for yourself. You might not believe me if I say it," he said jokingly in the channel.

"What are you on about?" Black Rose charged and, with the help of her Rare Grade tactical gloves with the Black Eagle's rare attribute, she reached the top of the building with a few leaps and jumps.

Using a similarly top-class item, her rare tactical helmet's attached night vision scouting function, she magnified her vision ten times.

A player shrouded in a dark red mist wearing a gunner's combat uniform was using a larger than normal right hand to hold on to the ankle of a Tyrant whose giant claws had been severed could be seen. Then, the Tyrant was violently swung in the air.

"Boom!"

The Tyrant's head smashed into seven or eight zombies, scattering the tiny yellow dots all around, before the Tyrant was slammed into the stand of a defense platform.

In the magnified night vision scout glasses, the impact of the slam was strong enough to distort the platform.

"I'm not hallucinating, right? This guy… is a player. Moreover, he's a Gunner? Even if a Heavy Armor Warrior who put all his stats on strength wouldn't be able to hold a Tyrant with one hand, right?" Monkey thought aloud.

The Veterans Tribe had one-third of its members as Gunners and would never make a mistake in identifying a fellow Gunner, especially if the person was holding on to a peculiar looking military knife in his hands.

"How is this possible… This strength and damage." Black Rose seemed just as surprised.

Her gears were several times better than Monkey's, making it so she was able to see the number that appeared above the Tyrant's head.

"-3011!"

The player could spin the Commander Grade Tyrant in the air with his bare hands and inflict over 3,000 point damage.

No one would be able to have this strength and deal such damage, even the strongest strength-attack type warriors or the best superstar players, let alone a Gunner.

"What's that dark red thing around him? Is he a hidden profession? Rare skill?"

The number of Legendary Grade equipment was still quite low, and the Force being a requirement for attached skills was not well-known. However, Black Rose did not even think about that, as she was more interested in the player's identity.

"Who is this person? Did Silvermoon City have someone like that? Or is he an outsider?"

After that thought, she saw the person's face clearly.

The Gunner shrouded in dark red mist with T-rex-like strength had just raised the Tyrant again and threw the it towards a hovercraft riddled with bullet holes in their direction.

His body turned around and an unconvincingly familiar face she had seen before appeared under the dark red mist.

"It's actually him…" Black Rose looked utterly shocked.