GOR

A green curtain of light descended. When the curtain of light disappeared, the room they were in had disappeared. Before them was a tent.

Instantly, a heavy rain descended.

The sky above them was dark and gloomy and the dark clouds covered any possible illumination from the stars above. Raindrops the size of beans fell at a diagonal angle, covering the entire landscape.

The heavy downpour and the darkness of the night limited their sight to less than 30 metres. Thus, they could only see the few tents nearby. The tents were set up in a straight line all the way to the edge of their vision. However, they were incapable of seeing where the other participants were.

At the same time, all of them received a prompt through their personal system.

[System prompt: You have entered instance dungeon no. SD 9502. This instance dungeon has a total of 156 participating guilds, 92 solo participants and a total of 1,902 people.

[The quest objective for this instance dungeon is to assist Cao Cao’s faction in killing Zhao Yun. There are no equipment restrictions and time limit. After the quest is completed, the system will distribute the reward based on the degree of contribution. The guild of those killed in action will receive the reward in the deceased’s stead.

[The system will issue a notification regarding the remaining number of participants every hour. The quest will fail when the remaining number of participants fall below 100. When that happens, the instance dungeon will be closed and the surviving participants will have to enter a punishment-type instance dungeon.]

“Go in first to take shelter from the rain!” Chen Xiaolian used his hand to cover the top of his head from the heavy downpour. His other hand pointed toward the tent before them.

After having said that, he made his way to the front of the tent and pushed open the tent curtain.

The tent was very big. The majority of the space inside were taken up by two rows of neatly arranged beds. What little space remained had a brazier, which raged with fire. There was a pile of firewood placed beside the brazier and several soldiers in plain-looking armour sat around the brazier. They had their hands outstretched toward the brazier.

Seeing Chen Xiaolian enter, a soldier in the middle, who looked like the squad captain, gave a slight frown before shouting, “What are you doing? If you want to come in, then hurry up and come in! Don’t let the cold wind blow inside!”

Chen Xiaolian was still wearing modern-day attire. Likewise, his hair was cut in the standard short fashion of the modern age. However, the squad captain appeared unperturbed. Judging by the way he was talking, it seemed as though he was talking to his own comrade.

Chen Xiaolian chuckled to himself. This was probably a setting the system had forcibly arranged in order to make things easier for the participants.

After opening the tent flap, he called out to the others who were behind him, to enter the tent. However, Chen Xiaolian did not sit beside the brazier. Instead, he sat down on one of the beds.

Everyone from Meteor Rock Guild was there. Even Nightmare, who was a member of another guild, was not sent to a different place. Instead, he was together with Chen Xiaolian’s group. It was similar to before the start of the instance dungeon. It would appear that the entry location for participants depended on where the participants were when the instance dungeon began.

“The treatment toward participants this time seems quite good.” Chen Xiaolian turned around to look at the colours on the soldiers. There in a corner was a rolled-up banner. The word ‘Cao’ could be made out on its surface. Chen Xiaolian knitted his brows lightly before speaking through the guild channel, “It is likely that all the participants have been distributed among the Cao army camp and given the status of a soldier from the Cao army. As long as we don’t do anything abnormal, the Cao army will not treat us as irregular existences.”

“That is not a good thing.” Lun Tai sighed. “In large-scale instance dungeons such as this, the key to victory is often to take advantage of the situation by getting the assistance of a powerful NPC. The system’s actions are comparable to that of cheating. It had arranged the assistance of NPCs for us right from the start, seemingly fearful that we will be incapable of completing the quest.”

“Of course it is afraid. Although the system had managed to detect the BUG known as Zhao Yun, it was incapable of directly erasing her existence. It can only borrow the power of Awakened ones to do so. Naturally, it must help us as best it can,” said Chen Xiaolian with a harrumph. “Historically, in the Battle of Changban, Liu Bei was easily defeated by Cao Cao. With over 1,000 Awakened ones, Cao Cao can win without even fighting.”

“But we still have to stop them from completing the quest,” Roddy spoke up. “According to you, the other participants don’t even need to do anything to win. So, what should we do? How about we take advantage of the fact that we are still within the Cao army camp and blow it up?”

“Impossible.” Chen Xiaolian immediately rejected his proposal. “Firstly, the number of participants this time is too high. Once we create a ruckus, they will besiege us. With our current level of strength, even though they are no match for us individually, we will still end up getting killed by them. Secondly, do not forget, our objective for this instance dungeon is simply to save Qiao Qiao and Zhao Yun. Unless absolutely necessary, do not openly make the other Awakened ones our enemy. Otherwise, once we make it out of this instance dungeon… … when we end up becoming public enemy number one of the entire Awakened circle, how are we going to continue surviving? To whom do we sell the Star Sand?”

“Well, what do we do then? Just wait?” sighed Roddy.

“Big, big… big bro…” As Nightmare was not a member of Meteor Rock Guild, he could not listen in to the conversation going on through the guild channel. Thus, he had been staring blankly into the air. Suddenly, he raised his head and spoke up, “Jiang Long has spoken out through our guild channel!”

“What did he say?” Chen Xiaolian quickly turned his attention toward Nightmare.

“He said… … he wants to talk to every participating guild. He wants us liaisons to speak out on his behalf.” Nightmare gave it some thought before continuing, “Like a broadcast.”

“Relay it, then.” Chen Xiaolian nodded his head before turning to look at the Cao army soldiers nearby. Earlier, Chen Xiaolian and his group had been using their guild channel to communicate with one another. Thus, it appeared as though they were simply sitting there. When Nightmare started speaking, however, the squad captain swiftly turned his gaze over and shouted irritably, “Lower your voice!”

“Yes, sir!” Chen Xiaolian quickly stood up and made a slight bow. Next, he signalled Nightmare before leading the others to the side of the tent.

Judging from their surroundings, the squad captain had been designated by the instance dungeon to be their leader. At that moment, there was a need for them to be obedient and pretend to be soldiers of the Cao army. It would be for the best for them to show him some respect so as to stave off any possible troubles.

“Before entering this instance dungeon, a total of 73 guilds have chosen to join our joint action alliance. Although this number only accounts for less than half the participants here, we are satisfied. However, this instance dungeon’s situation is not within my calculations.” Nightmare seemingly entered a paraphrasing-mode as he mechanically repeated the words coming from his guild channel. However, he suppressed the tone of his voice. “Given the information gathered before entering this instance dungeon, I had assumed that our quest objective will be to defeat Cao Cao’s army. At present, it would appear that I have made a serious miscalculation. My original plan has to be put aside. The difficulty level of this instance dungeon is likely going to go up by several levels as well.”

After saying that, Nightmare revealed a look of shock. However, he continued relaying Jiang Long’s words, “If we had been assigned to Liu Bei’s faction, our quest objective would have been to protect and escape. Our numbers are relatively low in comparison to that of the Cao army. It will be easier to split up and attack from various directions. Now, however, our objective is to just kill Zhao Yun… … this will likely be problematic. Looking at the way this instance dungeon is designed, this BOSS is likely… … [S] class!

“However, there is no need to worry all that much.

“Although this BOSS may be of the [S] class, we have enough men on our side. There are also the powerful NPCs from the Cao Cao faction that we can make use of right from the get-go. As long as our arrangements are right, it is not impossible to emerge victorious.

“According to the information given by every guild here, the system has designated us as soldiers in the Cao army. This is a favourable condition for us. Since the system has given us such position of authority, we must take advantage of it. Now, I ask everyone to report their respective positions to us. We also want to know if anyone had been designated as members of Cao Cao’s elite troops, for example, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry…”

“It is so dark; how do we give him our position?” Lun Tai chuckled. “All of us have only just arrived. With the heavy rain outside, how can we check our surroundings to determine our position?”

“Next up, please follow my liaison’s instruction and enter a state of combat,” said Nightmare rapidly, seemingly in response to Lun Tai’s question. “Naturally, we are not really going into a fight. We just want the members of our alliance to simulate a battle. Using the lit-up dots on the radar, we will be able to mark the positions of each guild. In the end, we will be able to come up with a map.”

“Smart.”

Chen Xiaolian gave a harrumph.

That Jiang Long was no ordinary character. He could adapt to the situation and come up with such an idea.

The Starfall Guild fellows had clearly made notes for every guild and their corresponding liaison. As long as their liaison act accordingly and enter a state of combat, through proper communication, they can find out the positions of every guild.

The resulting map was something that only the Starfall Guild could come up with. Although the other guilds could also see the dots on the radar, they do not have the information on the liaison and their respective guilds.

“Boss, Jiang Long has begun calling up names. When its our turn, do we do it?” Nightmare gingerly asked Chen Xiaolian. By then, dots of light have begun flashing on their radars.

“Of course. We are in the Awakened side, after all,” replied Chen Xiaolian without any hesitation.

When it was Nightmare’s turn, Chen Xiaolian pulled out two laser pistols. He tossed one over to Lun Tai. Then, placing their backs against the soldiers from the Cao army, they aimed at each other’s chest and pulled the trigger.

The blasts from the laser pistols erupted out silently. However, the power of their blasts was too lacking, and they could not pierce through the defence afforded by the [A] class protective suits that both of them were wearing. Two dots of light flashed out on the radar. After Nighmare nodded his head toward them, Chen Xiaolian and Lun Tai swiftly kept their pistols. As for the few Cao army soldiers, they remained huddling around the brazier, unaware of what had just transpired.

It did not take long for over 50 groups of the dots of light to flash up on the radar. Their positions were scattered over an area with a radius of around five kilometres.

Although the instance dungeon had sent them all into Cao Cao’s army, there was a fair distance between each of them.

According to history, in the Battle of Changban, Cao Cao had led his army to Xinye to accept Liu Yu’s surrender. Liu Bei, who was stationed at Fancheng, only discovered the fact after Cao Cao had made his way to Wancheng. Thus, he began fleeing toward Jiangling. Cao Cao, fearing that Liu Bei could obtain military supplies in Jiangling, decided to rush forward with little supplies for himself. When he reached Xiangyang, he heard that Liu Bei had already left the place. Once again, he decided to rush forward, leading 5,000 elite cavalries to give chase. Traversing 300 lis in one day and night, he finally caught up to Liu Bei in Dangyang, Changban (1 li = 0.5 km).

Judging by their situation and the distribution of the guilds, it was clear that the encampment had over 5,000 soldiers.

That meant, at that moment, Cao Cao had yet to reach Xiangyang. This was why he had such a large army assembled here.

“In other words, there is at least one more day before the Battle of Changban, and a distance of over 300 lis.” Chen Xiaolian fell into a momentary state of silence. He continued through the guild channel, “It seems the system has sent us into this instance dungeon ahead of time.”

“That is a good thing. We have time to think of countermeasures during the marching process.” Lun Tai smiled. “If this instance dungeon follows historical facts, only 5,000 soldiers will be included in the final pursuit. All of them are Cao Cao’s most elite soldiers. Although the system has given us the identity of Cao army soldiers, given the total number of nearly 2,000 Awakened ones, there is no way all of them could join the pursuing force of 5,000 soldiers. Thus, we will likely be dispersed. All the Awakened ones will have to move about in small groups, giving us a bigger chance to fish in troubled waters.”

“Yes.” Chen Xiaolian nodded his head. “Once the rain ends, we can determine our location and deduce what will happen… … wait!”

Suddenly, his face sank and his brows furrowed together.

Earlier, one dot of light would light up on the radar every few minutes before quickly going dim. That was due to the other guilds’ actions of following Jiang Long’s plan of taking turns to reveal their position on the radar.

Just now, though, a high number of dots had lit up at the same time.

This is… … what is going on?

At the same time, Nightmare whispered out, “Boss, it seems like… … something is happening. Jiang Long is shouting through the guild channel. He wants the liaisons to the guilds that had revealed their positions to report to him what just happened.”

“What do you mean?” Chen Xiaolian put on a façade of calmness.

“I do not know… … even now… … no one is answering.” Nightmare wiped away the sweat from his face.

The lit-up dots of light on the radar only remained for a while before going out. Following that, new dots lit up.

The way the dots were lighting up… they were moving toward Chen Xiaolian’s position.

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