Marching forward into the Icy Forest, Strawberry Matcha was no longer flying. Instead, she hugged her battle gown tightly alongside me. A row of white teeth greeted me as she chattered, “Boss, are you not cold at all?”
I threw a glance behind me to to see a row of footprints about 90 meters. Laughing, I replied to her, “Only one who does not fear a death of one thousand cuts will be the one who dares to unseat the emperor”
TL: Proverb meaning to be fearless.
“They already have an Assassin following us!”
“Ah, in a moment we’ll deal with him.”
“Okay!”
……
We continued forward for another 10 minutes. It was as if we were in another ice age; there was frost everywhere. When I raised my head, a towering cliff hung over our heads, and when I looked below the cliff, a chandelier of icicles dangled overhead. A simple gust of wind shook the extraordinarily sharp icicles, and they began to sway slightly with the wind.
Strawberry Matcha stopped suddenly. Her beautiful eyes looked at me while I looked straight back at her’s. Together, we smiled suddenly as we both came up with the same plan, “Borrow a knife to kill a person…” I whispered cruelly.
TL: Idiom meaning to rely on someone else to do the dirty work.
“Boss, you’re so mean…” Strawberry Matcha laughed while covering her mouth with her hands.
Deadpan, I said, “Did you not want to see this trick happen? Let’s go, don’t let them see the surprise. I’ll have Baby Bobo take care of this then.”
“Okay….”
……
I quietly waved my wrist and Baby Bobo starting crawling on the ground, leaving my field of vision before flying up into the air. Settling on the underside of the ice cliff, Baby Bobo waited to spring the trap.
I walked forward while opening the 360 degree view to help me locate where the Assassin was lurking.
It was almost time!
I gave a remote signal and Baby Bobo started its attack!
“Bzzt!”
Baby Bobo suddenly flew forward, his stinger shining gold. A Lv 6 [Combo] struck an icicle hanging from the roof of the cliff, “Pop pop pop pop!” Four consecutive sounds rang through the surroundings as an icicle that was at least 5 meters in diameter shook and fell!
Out in the open space, the footprints of the Assassin suddenly stopped. The Assassin swore loudly as he realized what was happening, “Damnit, shameless!”
“Bang!”
The icicles came crashing down causing snow and dust to fly everywhere along with strands of blood. The dead corpse of a Lv 48 Assassin was revealed to be impaled to death by the icicle.
“Hehe, the strategy was a success!” Strawberry Matcha cried out as she held my hand excitedly in triumph.
Walking forward, I unsheathed my sword and kicked apart the ice to get to the body of the Assassin. I expected items, and sure enough, there was a glowing white dagger; a Lv 41 Gold Tier with decent attack – I’d be able to sell this for a good price. After stashing the item into my bag, I turned to leave immediately. I didn’t want any more trouble to come chasing after us!
……
Smiling as she followed me, Strawberry was quite cheerful as she spoke, “Boss, now I finally know the reason why you are so adamant on fighting [Wrath of the Heroes]….”
“What’s the reason?” I replied.
She laughed, “Because these people are really stupid, they’re so stupid it’s almost cute. To have this kind of rival makes me happy.”
I nodded furiously, “That’s right! That’s why I’m so satisfied fighting against [Wrath of the Heroes], but not so willing to provoke members of [Vanguard]. Jian Feng Han is quite meticulous, the day he wants to kill me is the day I will lose a level.”
“Ah, I also heard that Jian Feng Han’s personality is exceptionally cautious. When he strikes, he strikes to kill, so he won’t send a small group. He would send out 10 groups of 50 people to spread out around the map to guard each and every exit. There would be no chance of survival!”
That bit of news astounded me, “Strawberry Matcha, how do you know so much about him?”
“Do you not read the archives?”
Strawberry Matcha held up a finger, “When it comes to conquering, [Vanguard] takes the spotlight. In the battle against another super guild named [Hui Huang] at the map called.. Dragon Valley. Yeah, it’s Dragon Valley. Jian Feng Han personally stood on top and conducted the battle breaking 30,000 members into 6 divisions of 5000; two groups charged in head on, two others flanked the sides to surprise them, and the last two ambushed them from the rear. In one move, they destroyed the strong 70,000 member guild. The leader of [Hui Huang] was so embarrassed by this defeat that he disbanded the guild and deleted his character thus wiping out the guild from the Guild Rankings List!”
I winced in astonishment, “Huh, Jian Feng Han is that ruthless?”
“He is!”
Strawberry Matcha nodded again, “So Boss, Zhan Long’s wings cannot fly with so little people. It is not time for us to fight against [Vanguard] at the moment, instead, let’s play around with [Wrath of the Heroes] for now. We have to establish the guild first with at least 5000 elite players before we try fighting against [Vanguard] ”
Letting out a breath of air, I sighed, “Ah…that is to be expected.”
At the same time, I looked deeply at Strawberry Matcha while holding onto her delicate shoulders, “Strawberry Matcha, you are far smarter than you appear to be; you joining Zhan Long is like God’s gift to me. Haha, wait until Zhan Long becomes an official guild, you’ll at least be a deputy chief in Zhan Long and my right hand man!”
Bowing slightly to me, Strawberry Matcha gave an authentic smile, “Thank you for your appreciation Boss. It is a great honor to be recognized by you for my devotion, guess I’ll have to give “extra” payment…”
I twitched slightly, “Let’s go, [Wrath of the Heroes] will be here any minute now!”
“Okay!”
……
We continued to march forward. But off in the distance, I could see a bottomless ravine a kilometer away. Beyond that was a mountain of ice, marking the end of the Fire Stone Valley’s mountain range. I felt a chill in my heart as I realized that meant we had no way of moving forward; we would have to face the few hundred players of [Wrath of the Heroes] that were rapidly moving in from the rear.
“Damn it…”
Pulling my sword from my sheath, I was resigned to my faith, “Will this be the day we die then?”
I had not even finished speaking when all of a sudden, the ground beneath my foot crumbled away!
“Boss, watch out!”
A hole in the ice?!