Chapter 1649: A Mysterious Group
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Shin first thought that such a huge commotion could attract the attention of the other forces, who were fighting in the distance. But he did not expect that they would only bother to send some people to investigate what just happened, but they remained on the chaotic battlefield and did not go anywhere.
Little did he know, the impact that the hooded individuals that he had discovered earlier was much larger than he originally thought.
They not only created more chaos in the already chaotic battlefield, but they also threw everyone in distress after successfully assassinating some of the leaders and the most powerful individuals, who were dealing with the chieftain-rank Plagued Monster, despite being noticed by most of the forces before they could even strike.
Moreover, this mysterious group seemed to have specific targets in mind as they quickly took care of their targets and took something that those fallen people had dropped after dying before swiftly retreating without any hesitation.
Due to most of the leaders of the top forces being taken down, the people from the top forces were forced to be in chaos once again. The formation of the 'allied' forces started to collapse due to being a little disorganized, making them fight among their ranks and only choose to protect those from the same team or people with close relationships with them.
The previous blockade that they had set up earlier to withstand the monster horde started to collapse, making the Plagued Monsters crash most of the players and start wreaking havoc in the middle of their ranks.
The teams and individual players started fighting for themselves, trying to survive the monster horde rather than defeating the Plagued Monsters compared to what they were doing earlier.
Moreover, those players with the highest battle capabilities among them were busy dealing with the chieftain-rank Plagued Monster, which was now free to cause more chaos at the backline due to the death of some of the leading figures of the forces from the top guilds and huge organizations.
Due to all the chaos, these players had no time to care about the huge commotion that Shin had created in the distance.
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When Shin arrived on a cliff where he could see the battle between the players gathered at the Plagued Lands and the horde of the Plagued Monsters.
The moment he arrived, he immediately saw the ongoing chaos on the battlefield. He also realized that most of the most powerful and skilled people who were supposed to be fighting against the chieftain-rank Plagued Monsters were currently missing.
The chaos was much bigger than what he had seen earlier. Moreover, the formation that the players had created earlier was destroyed completely, letting the plagued monsters run wild within their ranks.
Shin could also see the groups that the players had made, signifying the forces that they came from.
There were also quite a few skilled individuals, who were too prideful to work with other groups, so they kept working solo. But at the same time, this showcased their skills and battle capabilities.
This made them look so good, which also made a distinction between them and the rest of the experts on the battlefield.
Others were quite crafty as they were using the experts gathered in groups as a form of barrier to their advantage. It was to make them an extra layer of protection while they dealt with the scattered Plagued Monsters to farm some event points.
These people were like scavengers or hyenas, who were making use of the others to do the work while they took care of the scraps that were left behind.
As for the remaining forces of the top guilds and other organizations, Shin realized that most of them were able to regain their footing and did quite well at holding their ground.
He had to admit that they were worthy of being considered as a top force within the game.
After watching for quite a while and trying to understand the current situation, Shin sent a message to Exheart, inquiring about what had happened when he was away.
He could see that Exheart was still working with his friends alongside Bryan and HellBan, who had regrouped with him. Their group was among those who were doing quite well despite being besieged by a large number of Plagued Monsters from all directions.
Their formation was quite solid, especially with such a good team composition, which covered all the areas they needed in such situations.
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Exheart, who was working hard at fighting the Plagued Monsters, was having quite a hard time due to mental exhaustion. If it was only about his physical abilities, then he was quite confident that he would be able to outlast most of the people within their group. But due to the constant tide of the monster horde, which seemed to have no end, the mental fatigue that he was getting was quite serious.
The constant usage of combat state was quite taxing even for someone like him, who could be considered an apex expert, especially after using it for an extended period.
Even after using the combat techniques, he had under his arsenal to lower the burden in his concentration was quite ineffective due to the number of times that he had to use them, almost without a pause.
But despite all of that, he never complained, especially when they were farming quite a lot of event points from this incident. The situation might be dangerous even for someone at their level, but the benefits that they could get were equally huge as well.
Disaster and opportunity always came together, after all.
*Ding*
Exheart did not have any complaints. At least until he received the message from Shin. The moment when he saw the message from the corner of his eyes, he could not help but roll his eyes, especially after seeing the sender.
"Where the heck did this guy have gone? He had informed us about that mysterious group, telling us to be wary of them. But he had never appeared even until the situation had gotten this worse," he could not help but spit out a series of complaints.
He also felt that Shin was a natural magnet of trouble or even disaster. It was as if he was passively attracting the aggro of the 'boss monster' called 'misfortune'.
He had never felt it during the time he was working with Shin as the latter always found a way to deal with it. But now that they were working separately, Exheart could feel the burden of the 'bad luck' that Shin was always carrying with him.
"This guy will be the death of me if I continue to hang out with him," mumbled Exheart as he tried his best to suppress the twitching of his mouth.
Despite all his complaints, Exheart still found the time to read the message while holding his group and fighting against the Plagued Monsters.
After reading through the message, Exheart realized that Shin was not around during the time that the mysterious group had launched their ambush.
Every time Exheart thought about that group of people, he could not help but shiver slightly as he could feel the danger that was naturally being emitted by their bodies.
He also recalled how skilled and powerful those people were. Even after all the preparations that the 'allied' forces had set up after hearing Exheart's warning, they were still unable to stop those guys from assassinating their targets before retreating unscratched immediately after.
It took some time for Exheart to construct his reply as he was busy fending off the attacks of the Plagued Monsters that were trying to break through their formation. But he was still able to finish everything before sending it to Shin.
He described what had happened earlier a little roughly as the course of events was too fast. But he still put some effort into describing everyone in as detailed and informative as possible, not leaving even the tiniest details that he could remember.
"Now that I think about it, wasn't there a huge explosion in that place during the chaos earlier? Is he the one behind it?" mumbled Exheart as if he remembered something before glancing at the place where the massive storm of energy had been present earlier.
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*Ding*
On the other side, Shin had received and skimmed through the message. He then went silent for a moment and fell in deep thought.
"The group seemed to have a specific target in mind as they only took out the leading figures of the top forces along with a couple of skilled individuals. They had also retreated as soon as they had taken one of the loots that those they had killed dropped."
"They have never cared about the high-quality equipment or unique artifacts that those people have and just taken an old-looking and somewhat tattered old book before retreating," he mumbled. "Strange-…"
He was in the middle of figuring out their purpose when something suddenly flashed through his mind. His eyes suddenly turned wide as he thought of something. "Could it be…!?"
He then looked at the corner of this inventory bag and stared at a black book in there, which seemed to have been collecting dust since he had gotten it.
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