...
Mowglee immediately understood that they would be at disadvantage in this negotiation if he continued to let Shin dictate the pace of this meeting.
He took a brief moment to reorganize these thoughts before trying to dig for more information from Shin. "I wonder where you got that information? It sounds like you are too familiar with it given that you are confident with your words."
Shin smirked inside as he could see that Mowglee was trying to probe him out. Unfortunately, he didn't have any intention of revealing his real intentions.
Mowglee was bound not to get anything from him as Shin would continue to play with his words. "The truth is-… It is just a suspicion. But given your reaction, I guess I just get the confirmation about it, so I must thank you for that."
The expression on Mowglee's face immediately became grim as he realized that Shin was only toying with him.
Fortunately, it was still not the end of the rope for him since he still had some cards to play. "Maybe you are right about it, but it doesn't mean that you are the only ones who can achieve what we want."
"You should know by now that the Corrupted Cult invited powerful groups to help them deal with your group. We can still ask them to help us instead since they are already here."
Shin scoffed at those words and refuted them. "Yeah, that is true. But I wonder why you guys approached us first given that you have a better choice?"
"And aren't the Corrupted Cult and the Demonic Churches practically on the same faction? This makes me wonder why you choose us, the ones who you guys have a grudge with, over your 'allied' faction?"
This was the real question that Shin wanted to answer. It still confused him why these guys from the Pandemonium Descendants and the Corrupted Cult were not working together this time.
There must still be a hidden piece of the puzzle that he was missing. There must be a reason why it was the case.
**********
Meanwhile, on the temporary camp where the rest of the expedition group was staying, Arthur was currently wearing a deep frown as he read through the information about the group that Immortal hired.
There was not much to look at the Silent Night since he was already familiar with them. But it was a little different for the Earners since that group seemed to have some major adjustments in ranks based on what he heard.
He knew quite a few from their ranks, but he was not sure if it remained the same after the recent reformation.
After reading through the information that he got from the Hand of Midas, he immediately knew that they were in trouble.
"I am not expecting that most of those guys are going to join this group," he muttered as he fell into deep thought.
It was at that moment when Lawless approached him and overheard his words. "What are you talking about?"
"It is quite unusual for you to wear such a heavy expression. It looks like being dumped by some girl or something," he added teasingly.
Even though Arthur loved to fool around, he still knew that this was not the right time for it. He released a heavy and helpless sigh before sharing the screen that he was reading.
Lawless was confused at first but still, read the content that was displayed on the screen. It was at that moment that he understood why Arthur was wearing such a heavy expression.
He might not be around any virtual games in the last two years, but he was still familiar with the experts that he faced during his time of being active. Especially when he was playing the most successful and difficult game before the appearance of ?Destiny's Fate? Online, the ?True Era? Online.
Every player from that game could be considered a Ranker if they were compared with the current players.
Meanwhile, the top players of that game, who were known as the Monster Class Players, were undoubtedly top-notched players even in the current era.
All of them were either a Godlike Player who had an official title, or a Maverick God, who possessed a similar level of skill and power but choose to not participate in any kind of official event.
And right now, their current opponents seemed to be composed of those kinds of players. Every member of their group was a Monster Class Player from ?True Era? Online.
"This is insane. Thirty of them? For real? I wonder who the current leader of that group is and how he managed to gather all these people," commented Lawless as he continued to read the information displayed on the virtual screen.
"Fortunately, they only send fifteen of them for this current commission. Though, it is still not necessarily a good thing for us," he added with a deep frown.
He might be confident with his current skills and the rest of their group could not be underestimated either, but given their current numbers, they were at a great disadvantage.
Including himself, Lawless counted the number of people who could fight against the current members of the Earners Mercenary Group.
"We have eight Godlike Players on our side, and if we include the combined strength that Ravier and Ember have, they can at least deal with one more member of the opposing side. Then the rest can deal with at least two to three more people."
"Tsk! Tsk! It is still not enough. Those guys have two more people to spare at the very least. Whoever gets that spot will still be a great threat to us."
It was not he was underestimating the other members of their group, but he was just saying the truth.
He knew how powerful the Monster Class Player of ?True Era? Online was. He knew that even if the other members of their team were skilled and powerful compared to most of the players, they still didn't stand a chance against those monsters who played that extremely hard game.
Forget making Faker and himself as an example since they were out of form after their short retirement. Just putting Arthur, Leonard, Zero, and Cloe into consideration was more than enough to prove how strong those Monster Class Players were.
Arthur nodded his head and quickly added. "And there is still Immortal and the members of the Silent Night to consider, we are in deep trouble right now."
Lawless also started to feel the gravity of their current situation. This had gotten more serious. They only had a limited number of experts. They also couldn't call more people from the outside since the portal needed to be guarded all the time.
The Hand of Midas and Assassin Union, who were helping them, were also too busy to send them any kind of reinforcements since they needed to oversee the situation in the Saint Heaven Kingdom.
Asking for some help from Dragon Pavilion and Titan Guild was also impossible since the Hydra Guild and Blood Carnival were keeping them in check.
On the other hand, the Wing's Alliance was dealing with the internal conflict within their guild, which was also pretty serious.
No matter how much compensation they offered to help them, no one from those three Powerhouses could lend them a hand.
"Have you informed Shin about this yet? He should be aware of this as soon as possible," asked Lawless.
Arthur shook his head and answered with a bitter tone. "I've got this information from the Hand of Midas just now, so Shin was still unaware of it yet."
"Should we ask for some help from our friends?" asked Lawless.
Arthur rolled his eyes and replied. "I don't know about you, but I don't have a friend that can respond to our current situation right now. If I am being honest, most of them are even hoping for me to fail this quest when they learned our current predicament."
Lawless gave Arthur an odd look before shaking his head. "Such a circle of friends that you have. Or should I say that is what you can get from always messing with everyone?"
He then put stroked his chin before shaking his head. "Though, I also can't say I am in a better position."
Thinking about that, Lawless couldn't help but admit that they need the help that the Pandemonium Descendants could offer.
At the same time, he also remembered something. "How about that guy Diablo? Can we lure him to our side, or at least ask for some assistance when the opportunity presented itself?"
Arthur shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know about that. Shin is the one who makes a contact with him, so he is the only one who can answer that question."
"Though, we might have a chance fighting the Earners if he can lend us a hand. After all, he managed to fight Shin on an equal footing," he added.
He was confident that they had an overwhelming advantage if they were only going to face the Earners Mercenary Group alone. After all, they had a powerful trump card on their arsenal, the Reality Manifestation.
But it was going to be a little troublesome if they put Immortal and the Silent Night into consideration.
Even if the two groups happened to operate in separate ways and they defeated one of them, there was still no guarantee that the other side would take advantage of them after being exhausted in battle.
"Ahh!! This is the reason why don't like to think about the intelligent stuff! It is only making my head hurts!" said Arthur as he ruffled his hair.
Learning that Earners Mercenary Group had grown this powerful was really a shock even for him.
If they were only facing Immortal and the Silent Night, then it would not be a problem at all. But with such a powerful backup, even someone like Arthur found out hard to believe that they were going to win.
"What's more, that woman is also in their ranks," muttered Arthur to himself as he found something more problematic with the current predicament that they were in.
...…
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