Chapter 1 When the Dust Settles

When the battlefield was cleared, Nie Yan returned to Cripps Fortress. The fortress was a hive of activity. Many players had received the gold coins and contribution points issued by the guild. They were rebuying or retrieving equipment from the guild warehouse, reorganizing their gear. Many had lost five levels and were forming groups to head to various leveling spots.

"Hey, Xiao Su, wanna go to Sograt Buried Grounds?"

"Sure."

"We're still short a priest. Any priests in the guild want to join?"

More people than usual were calling out, looking for groups to level up. Many, after losing levels, were eager to get them back.

"Nirvana Flame, Guild Leader!"

"Nirvana Flame, Guild Leader!"

When the players saw Nie Yan, they greeted him one after another, their faces filled with excitement and joy—the joy of victory.

Nie Yan entered Cripps Fortress's guild headquarters. The elite players of Asskickers United were gathered there, chattering amongst themselves. Seeing Nie Yan enter, they all rushed over to greet him.

"Nirvana Flame, Guild Leader, we won!" Undying Scoundrel said, deeply moved. Their victory had been hard-earned. Seven or eight out of ten of the guild's elites had been killed. Only the Mages had survived in relatively large numbers because they had summoned Crypt Lords and hadn't directly participated in the fighting. The casualties among the other classes were much higher.

"We won!"

This one sentence encapsulated everyone's feelings—a sudden clarity after weathering a storm. Their efforts had finally paid off. Asskickers United had survived the storm, defeated all the powerful opponents, and unified Calore. Everyone felt a sense of relief.

It was an emotion beyond words.

Nie Yan understood their feelings, smiled, and said, "Yes, it's over. We won. Everyone, level up properly. From now on, Calore is ours! In this territory, we'll be the ones calling the shots. Anyone who's not on good terms with Asskickers United will be purged. Those who don't obey will be killed until they do! We'll live peacefully with players friendly to Asskickers United, and we'll be fair to everyone!"

As Calore's number one guild, Asskickers United had to establish its authority, brooking no challenges.

Hearing Nie Yan's words, the crowd buzzed with excitement. After struggling for so long, they had finally obtained Calore. It was something worth celebrating!

The road ahead would be smooth.

The entire guild was jubilant. Many people in the guild's group chat were too excited to contain themselves. With Asskickers United unifying Calore, their status would naturally rise as well.

Nie Yan took this opportunity to improve the benefits for all the players in Asskickers United. Now that Asskickers United's position was secure, it was only right that the players of Asskickers United should receive tangible benefits, so that they would be truly loyal to the guild.

After improving the benefits, he arranged for Brilliant Cutlass and others to lead a group of players to clear out the remaining fortresses. Once those fortresses were developed, they would generate considerable revenue for Asskickers United. In addition, Asskickers United had to assist War God Tribe in continuing to compete for fortresses. War God Tribe needed more fortresses in order to generate revenue for the Nie Family Consortium.

Nie Yan handed the blueprints for the siege crossbow to the mechanics of Asskickers United, telling them to speed up the production of crossbow bolts. These city defense weapons were essential for protecting the fortresses. Equipped with them, they could greatly enhance the fortresses' defensive capabilities and prevent harassment from the League of Mages and Sacred Guardians.

After a brief period of excitement, Asskickers United immediately got busy. They understood that now wasn't the time to be happy. The League of Mages and Sacred Guardians might launch a counterattack at any time. They had to level up as soon as possible, so that they wouldn't be at a disadvantage when the time came.

Seeing that Asskickers United was running smoothly, Nie Yan felt relieved. In the near future, he could take the elite players of Asskickers United to level up, make a trip to the underground every so often, and make more money. In addition, he had to get the remaining fragment of the Shadow of Sotghro. Once he got the remaining fragment, he would have his first complete Legendary-grade item.

The Sotghro Shadow Boots!

After collecting all the fragments, the attributes of the Shadow of Sotghro were still quite considerable. It would also be a pretty good piece of powerful equipment.

During this time, after a long period of recollection, he wrote down on a piece of paper the locations where some Sub Legendary, Legendary fragments, and Legendary equipment appeared, distributed the recorded locations to some of the elites of Asskickers United, and let them go find them themselves. If they could get one or two, it would greatly improve their equipment.

As for the Shadow Dance skill from the previously obtained Shadow Plunderer, he copied several copies and distributed them to some trusted Thieves in the guild. As their levels increased, they would all have the opportunity to advance to Shadow Dance.

After arranging all these things, Nie Yan finally had some free time. He suddenly felt that something was missing. After this guild war, he hadn't seen Yao Yao. He looked at the friend information and found that Yao Yao's name was dark, meaning she was offline.

The time now was probably around two o'clock in the morning in the real world. It was a bit strange that Yao Yao would log off at this time.

Nie Yan suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart, but then he shook his head and chuckled. Maybe she had something to do and logged off temporarily.

He really wanted to share his current joy with Yao Yao. Those terrible shadows from his past life were dissipating bit by bit thanks to his efforts. Soaring Angel and Victorious Return had become history. He had weakened the Century Financial Group's power in Conviction. Although the future was still uncertain, he firmly believed that he had the ability to change everything from his previous life.

The gloom had faded away, and a bright future awaited him. He and Xie Yao would be together, accompanied by happiness!

Just as Nie Yan's thoughts were drifting and he was momentarily distracted, he suddenly received a message from Xie Yao: "Nie Yan, some people came to my villa. They disabled the villa's security system. I'm very scared."

This was a message Xie Yao had sent from her cell phone in the real world.

Xie Yao's parents had been busy with their own affairs recently and weren't at home, leaving only Xie Yao alone.

When Nie Yan received this message, he became extremely nervous. He quickly said to Guo Huai, "I have something to do. I'm logging off."

"There are still many things to deal with in the guild. We just received news that War God Tribe..." Guo Huai was about to tell Nie Yan something. War God Tribe's actions had touched the interests of the Tuoba Family, and the Tuoba Family had already organized their five guilds to launch a counterattack against War God Tribe.

"No matter what it is, postpone it until I get back. Even if the League of Mages and Sacred Guardians break into Cripps Fortress, postpone it!" Nie Yan said in a deep voice, cutting off the voice chat before Guo Huai could finish speaking.

Nie Yan exited the game pod, threw on some clothes, grabbed a few things, went to the garage, took the car, and sped off in the direction of Xie Yao's house.

The security measures in the Bisha Cloud Villa District were the best in the entire Hua Hai. All the security equipment here was connected to satellites. It was impossible for some dangerous individuals to enter Bisha Cloud Villa unless they had relatively advanced equipment that could interfere with the satellite.

Once the satellite was interfered with, the management of Bisha Cloud Villa would immediately receive the news and implement a comprehensive lockdown of Bisha Cloud Villa, unless the other party could be completely invisible under the satellite. This was a confrontation of technological means. The satellite of Bisha Cloud Villa was one of the most advanced satellites available. It was impossible to be completely invisible under the satellite unless the other party had the military's most cutting-edge technology.

It wasn't impossible for the other party to have come prepared and obtained military technology.

If something happened to Xie Yao...

Nie Yan's heartstrings tightened. He immediately dismissed the thought from his mind. He wouldn't allow such a thing to happen.

The car sped along the road in Bisha Cloud Villa. It stopped at a corner, about fifty or sixty meters from Xie Yao's house. To avoid alarming the enemy, he didn't dare park the car in front of Xie Yao's house.

He jumped out of the car, crouched down, and approached the corner of the wall. An almost instinctive skill penetrated into his bones—stealth! He was used to hiding behind obstacles, avoiding the gazes of others.

Nie Yan understood somewhat why the Federation wanted to promote Conviction. Conviction could greatly enhance everyone's combat skills, like a national conscription. Since playing Conviction, Nie Yan's physical fitness had greatly improved.

He glanced at the surrounding surveillance equipment. The surveillance equipment appeared to be still working, but it must have been interfered with. He leaped up, as light as a swallow, and jumped over the wall. He jumped down from the wall, entered Xie Yao's garden, hid in the dense bushes, and looked towards Xie Yao's villa.

He forgot to put on a black suit when he came over.

The inside of Xie Yao's villa was pitch black, extremely quiet, quiet to the point of being a bit strange.

Nie Yan slowly approached the villa in front of him, getting closer to the gate. At this moment, two black figures came into Nie Yan's sight. They were standing on the open space in front of the villa, confronting each other. He was a little surprised. Were these two people the two people Xie Yao was talking about who had broken into her house?

They should have come for Xie Yao, but why did they seem like they were about to fight? Could it be an internal conflict?

Nie Yan put on his night vision goggles. He had grabbed them casually when he went out earlier. He didn't expect them to come in handy.

In the night vision goggles, a flashing light point on a rooftop a thousand meters away was captured in Nie Yan's eyes. Good heavens, it was a heavy sniper! The guy holding the heavy sniper was aiming at one of the people on the field from afar.

What exactly was going on? Could it be that one of them was here to save Xie Yao?

Fa Biao De Wo Niu