Chapter 41 Silence

The arena was quiet. Each guild leader remained silent, but communication was essential at this time. Some guild leaders were familiar with each other, and they secretly communicated through private messages. Black Index Finger was the busiest at this moment. Many people messaged him asking for details, which made him angry. He shouted, "Why are you messaging? How many times have I said it? We're all in the same boat! Why can't we discuss everything together?"

The guild leaders who were still messaging each other paused, their faces slightly embarrassed, but they quickly returned to normal. They looked at each other, and suddenly no one spoke.

"If anyone has other ways to deal with Drunken Miles, feel free to share them for discussion," said Black Index Finger.

Silence. If they had a way, they would have killed Drunken Miles long ago. That was why they were in this situation.

Finally, one guild leader opened his mouth, asking the question everyone was most concerned about: "How do we guarantee that they will stop after receiving the money?"

Black Index Finger glanced at him. "If you have other options, then question this issue."

Everyone was silent again. Black Index Finger meant, of course, that they had no other choice.

However, the guild leader who had been rebuffed by Black Index Finger said unhappily, "If it's unreliable, at least we can avoid losing money. Why isn't this a concern?"

"This is the only opportunity. At least, everyone should have no doubts about the character of Sword Demon from Exceptionally Heaven, right?"

"But Sword Demon is in jail!"

"Is that a problem? We can conduct the transaction in the dungeon, in front of Sword Demon, and get his promise." Black Index Finger's brain had been working non-stop. He had already figured out many things. Of course, trustworthiness was something to consider from the start. He wouldn't forget such an important issue.

"Okay… so let's say we can gamble on this. How many heads do we have left in our guilds?"

"Can't you just count?"

So the guild leaders reported the number of people in their respective guilds. The total was enough to reach 20,000. But compared to the initial roster, several thousand people had disappeared. Black Index Finger noticed at this point that some of the guilds he had contacted hadn't even shown up; they had quietly withdrawn long ago. They only realized this at this moment.

"We have enough for 20,000, but are all 20,000 willing to accept these conditions?" another guild leader worried.

"Those who aren't willing can only be asked to leave," said Black Index Finger.

The guild leaders looked at each other.

"This way, at least we can protect the guild. Otherwise…" Black Index Finger couldn't help but glance at Mu Yun the Shepherd. He wanted to say more, but he couldn't. Unexpectedly, Mu Yun the Shepherd took the initiative to continue, "Otherwise, like our Mu Yun guild, if we continue to be hunted and threatened like this, even if the brothers in the guild are still holding on, how can I have the nerve to let them keep fighting? To be honest, before Guild Leader Black brought this news, I was already considering disbanding the guild and letting the brothers go their separate ways…"

Mu Yun the Shepherd's words were undoubtedly the most convincing. His guild was in the worst situation, already half destroyed. Even if they persisted, they had no idea where they ranked in Cloud City anymore.

Guilds might not mean much to ordinary players, but for the guild leaders, especially those who had created and built up their guilds, the emotional investment was extraordinary. Protecting the guild was extremely appealing to them… That's why this group of guild leaders was considering the feasibility of Black Index Finger's proposal as soon as they heard it, and no one showed any courage… Their courage had long been worn down by Gu Fei's repeated blows. At this moment, they just wanted to protect the important things in their hearts.

"But… if not many members are willing and leave the guild, can we still raise this huge sum of four million?" someone said.

"I've been thinking about this issue too. I noticed that the price of four million sounds scary at first, but when you consider it divided among our people, it's an easily affordable price. So I think they fully considered our ability to pay when setting the price, and they didn't just give us a random number that we couldn't complete to embarrass us. Since they understand this, then when the number of people supporting this event decreases sharply, I think maybe they will make some concessions based on our new number…" said Black Index Finger.

As he said this, even Black Index Finger himself found it hard to look convincing. Because he had been suspecting whether this four million was really considering them or just messing with them. When he thought about the two hundred scrolls, seventy super elites, favor price, and travel expenses, Black Index Finger preferred to believe the latter. But at this moment, he couldn't say these things no matter what. He could see that all the guild leaders were already tempted. Black Index Finger himself urgently wanted to achieve this, especially after seeing the fate of the Mu Yun guild, which made him shudder.

"Let's take a vote by raising our hands. In any case, I'm in favor." Mu Yun the Shepherd was simply the most desperate of all the guild leaders. He needed a lifeline the most. Black Index Finger breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that bringing Mu Yun the Shepherd was the right decision. This desperate guy had indeed influenced everyone's emotions, making them deeply consider the problem from a pessimistic perspective, ultimately forcing them to agree.

Sure enough, led by Mu Yun the Shepherd, many guild leaders quickly raised their hands. Some who were still hesitant slowly began to raise their hands after seeing so many people raising theirs. Moreover, the players who raised their hands consciously stood to one side. In the end, it wasn't a vote by raising hands at all, but a vote by standing on one side. Two minutes later, only three guild leaders remained standing in place, still hesitating.

"What do you three mean? Do you still need to consider, or have you decided not to go along with us?" Black Index Finger asked.

"We…" The three looked at each other, but remained silent.

Although Mu Yun the Shepherd was desperate, his intelligence hadn't declined. Seeing the three's furtive appearance, he had an idea and said, "Do you want us to be the touchstone, and after finding that the conditions are really feasible, you will then go to them to pay for peace?"

The three were startled and quickly denied it, saying that they just wanted to consider it further.

"One minute," said Black Index Finger. "I'll wait for you for one more minute. If you don't participate, I'm sorry, but we will definitely have to say that you three are unwilling during the negotiations, otherwise will your three's debts be counted on our heads?"

Black Index Finger's words cut off the three's little schemes. Before a minute had passed, the three finally stood on this side.

"Okay, then everyone go negotiate with your own guild members! Those who are unwilling, you must explain the stakes to them, and let them understand that they will lose the guild and fight alone," said Black Index Finger.

Everyone's hearts turned cold. One person said, "Do you mean that we need to give the list of those who refuse and withdraw to Drunken Miles?"

Black Index Finger was expressionless. "Otherwise, how will we convince the other party to reduce the price based on the number of people? Or are you willing to pay three hundred, four hundred, or five hundred or six hundred each?"

The guild leaders were silent. The situation that had been settled began to waver again.

Black Index Finger was decisive. He especially disliked these hesitant expressions. He said coldly, "Everyone, our primary goal now is to protect the guild, not to protect someone in the guild. Everything should be based on the interests of the guild. If there are guys who are unwilling to make even this little sacrifice at this time, why should we protect them?"

Silence. This was the nth time the group had fallen silent in this guild leader meeting. After a long while, someone finally spoke, "I think I'll first ask the brothers in the guild for their opinions, and then decide whether to take this path!"

Once this was said, a group of hesitant people began to nod and said that they would do the same.

"Whatever you want!" Black Index Finger was too lazy to say more. He had already decided that even if no guild was willing to do it in the end, he would take his remaining men and negotiate with the Exceptionally Heaven guys to pay for protection. From the moment Black Index Finger had this idea, the alliance to encircle Exceptionally Heaven had completely collapsed and completely entered a state of everyone for themselves.

Black Index Finger completely ignored the people from the other guilds. He took a deep breath and sent a message in the guild channel: "Everyone, try to put down what you're doing. I have something very important to say…"

The arguments for negotiating with the guild members varied. Some talked about the importance of the guild's interests, some talked about preserving the seeds of revolution for future revenge, and some said that there was no other choice but to survive… Anyway, they said it as tragically as possible. During this process, the Mu Yun guild was mentioned as an example 100% of the time.

Admit defeat, pay money.

No matter how eloquently they spoke, that's what it came down to. To the surprise of the guild leaders, they received less resistance than they had expected. When most of the players in the guild heard this solution, they all breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that they were already tired… Countless people were already hesitating whether to leave the guild to avoid this storm, but now, by spending two hundred gold, they could get rid of the entanglement of that terrifying killer. Two hundred gold was a very delicate number. As long as a player had seen a little of the world, they wouldn't feel heartache for two hundred gold. If it weren't for the recent major currency adjustment that temporarily blurred the value of money, most people probably wouldn't even bat an eye at two hundred gold.

"Smooth, very smooth! Our guild has all agreed!!!" one guild leader excitedly said first.

"Our guild lost three!" This result was also beautiful.

"We lost five!"

"I have four here…"

"Players who don't have money for the time being said that they will borrow money to support us!"

In contrast, the Black Alliance had the most people withdrawing, reaching 49. There was no way around it, their guild had the largest population base! And big guilds had more experts. Experts were always more self-respecting. To be honest, Black Index Finger felt very sorry for 32 of these 49 who left. They were guys who were not easy to recruit! But now, Black Index Finger also wrote down the names of these 49 people fiercely. He would hand them over to Exceptionally Heaven without hesitation, so they would not have a good end.

The newly counted number of people in each guild still exceeded 20,000. There was no suspense about the four million gold coins. Black Index Finger quickly sent a message to Han's Little Brother, requesting that the transaction be completed in front of Sword Demon, the guild leader of Exceptionally Heaven, in the dungeon. Han's Little Brother readily agreed and sent a message to Gu Fei, asking him if he wanted to see this historic moment.

Han's Little Brother and the others arrived at the dungeon earlier. Black Index Finger and the others still had to collect money. In addition, the Cloud City was full of war at this time. Although their 20,000 people were already trying to avoid battle, they would still be accidentally involved. But at this moment, each guild leader had issued a death order to resolutely not fight and to recuperate well after resolving matters with Exceptionally Heaven.

In the dungeon, all the players of Exceptionally Heaven logged on. This was of course instructed by Han's Little Brother. He specifically went offline to contact Brother You, and the guys in the prison had left each other's offline contact information in preparation for logging on together. Brother You was one of the contacts. At this time, he responded to every call, and everyone appeared in the prison.

Compared to the last time he came, quite a while had passed, and quite a few people had left the prison. Gu Fei looked around the empty prison and wanted to ask the GM if the problem of insufficient prison space had been solved.

"What's the matter with calling everyone up? Hurry, hurry, I'm about to get out!" Brother You asked anxiously.

"Yes, yes, yes, tell us quickly, we're about to get out." Quite a few people had already served their time and were waiting for the last minute to pass.

"Tell us quickly! We won't be able to hear you if you don't!!" Someone shouted frantically when they saw that Han's Little Brother was still not in a hurry.

Han's Little Brother rolled his eyes at these guys and engaged in his signature crowd taunt: "When you get out, can't you come in through the front door again?"

Everyone was stunned when they heard this. But there was strength in numbers. Someone quickly thought of an excuse: "That requires paying money!" The visitation fee wasn't cheap.

"Money? Hahahaha, what is money?" In the midst of Han's Little Brother's laughter, Brother You and several others who had only one minute left in their prison time left…

A group of guys had no choice but to pay the visitation fee and quickly rushed back. Seeing that Han's Little Brother was still standing there silently, they all said together: "What's the matter? Tell us quickly!"

"It's already been said," said Han's Little Brother.

A bunch of people went crazy. Except for Brother You, who was already used to this guy's wretchedness and could still hold on, the others were very eager to fight Han's Little Brother.

Brother You looked at the others who were still in prison. Everyone was beaming. Obviously, Han's Little Brother had brought great news, but seeing Sword Demon, his expression didn't seem too happy. What was it that made everyone happy, but Sword Demon didn't seem very happy? As Brother You was thinking, Yu Tian Shen Ming was already shouting: "Brother You, we're rich!!!"

"Oh? Rich from what?" Brother You hurriedly asked.

"Four million, this guy extorted four million from those guys!!!" Yu Tian Shen Ming shouted.

"Four million? Ah…" Brother You quickly calculated that if Exceptionally Heaven's fifty or so people split it evenly, each person would have more than eighty thousand. A huge sum of money! It was really a huge sum of money! No wonder Sword Demon wasn't very happy. Of course, he wasn't very enthusiastic about extortion…

Just as everyone was excited, Black Index Finger and his group finally arrived at the dungeon. There were quite a few of their subordinates waiting in the dungeon at this time. When those guys said four million just now, they already felt that something was wrong. At this time, seeing their guild leaders appear in the dungeon all at once, they were stunned.

The guild leaders were also sweating profusely. They had been negotiating with people outside and had actually forgotten these guys who had entered the prison.

"I was wondering why the money was always wrong…" One person said. Each of their guilds had collected a little less money than the theoretical number. They hadn't reacted for a while, but when they entered the prison, they realized that a group of people had been forgotten.

However, each guild had found a way to make up the difference. At this time, they had already brought four million in full. The guys in the dungeon had saved money… It was just that the guild leaders felt embarrassed to conduct a transaction that they didn't know about in front of these guys, including Black Index Finger, who had always been very resolute.

"Everyone, you're here!" Han's Little Brother was enthusiastic, and the players of Exceptionally Heaven inside and outside the prison also showed great welcome. Everyone liked money-giving boys the most.

Seeing this situation, Black Index Finger had no choice but to bite the bullet. He had brought all four million, but he still had to bargain. Black Index Finger walked forward with a troubled expression and said, "I'm sorry, Brother Han. Due to the strong resistance of some brothers in the guild, we have some difficulty collecting money. I wonder if we can reduce the amount a bit?"

"Okay!" Han's Little Brother's answer was so quick that everyone present was surprised. Before Black Index Finger could express his gratitude, the players of Exceptionally Heaven had already shouted "No way" to protest. However, the slightly more sophisticated guys among them remained silent and just stared at Han's Little Brother. They expected that Han's Little Brother's "okay" must have some foreshadowing.

"As long as someone can answer a question correctly, his guild's compensation can be fully refunded." Han's Little Brother's tone was extremely large. He didn't treat money that he hadn't received as his own at all.

Amidst the protests of everyone in Exceptionally Heaven, the guild leaders were overjoyed and nodded quickly. "No problem, what is the question?" Black Index Finger was especially eager to try. His guild had the most people, so their share of the four million was of course the largest.

"This question is a bit difficult. I allow you to answer using private messages. My friend list is open now. Next, please listen to the question," Han's Little Brother announced. The guild leaders scrambled to nod.

"Among these guys, who is the spy?" Han's Little Brother pointed to the players of Exceptionally Heaven inside and outside the prison. At the same time, Gu Fei had already held the Dark Night Flowing Light Sword in his hand.