In the northern part of the Gresh Kingdom, near the Rock Temple dungeon, a few of the Crimson Abyss members were busily grinding, running the Level 40 dungeon again and again.
This group consisted of both inner members and outer members of the guild, along with a couple of core members switching out between the runs.
This was to ensure that all the drops from the dungeon were properly collected and distributed, with the raw materials and recipes going to the crafting-focused players of the guild.
There were still a few spies left within the guild but these players could only be outer members of the guild as they couldn't sign the incriminating guild contract and become inner members.
The poor souls weren't even able to pocket some drops because all the dungeon runs were always closely monitored by the inner members and the core members.
In the beginning, the guild only had about fifty core members. However, because of the structure of the guild, this number was slowly and gradually increasing.
During dungeon runs like this, the couple of core members observed everyone in the party, and if there were any players with potential, they were immediately picked and groomed.
And if these players performed consistently, they also had a chance to become core members of the guild. In this manner, the guild's growth and development were not stagnant. It was constantly evolving.
The only sector of the guild that was almost impossible to enter was the guild High Council. There were only thirty members currently in the guild High Council.
For a core member to become a part of the guild High Council, they need to match the guild contribution points and, not to mention, defeat at least five of the standing High Council members.
This rule also applied to the current members of the High Council. If anyone's contribution points dropped or they slacked off in leveling or combat practice, they were at immediate risk of losing their rank.
Naturally, each tier of the guild membership had its own perks and advantages, including a generous gold coin bonus. This further ensured constant growth.
In fact, Liam had stolen this guild structure from one of the top guilds from his previous life, and right now, Crimson Abyss was thriving because of this. There was a balanced ecosystem established which kept everyone on their toes and gave them incentives to improve.
And right now, this steady state was suddenly shattered.
Another S-Rank guild had appeared out of nowhere in the Gresh Kingdom!
This was the third S-Rank guild in the entire game world, and moreover they had also declared war on Crimson Abyss!
The clock started ticking as only 48 hours were left to accept or decline the war proposal. The eyes of the entire world were now on Crimson Abyss guild.
At first, the outer members had rejoiced and called the 'Dragons of Justice' idiots but after learning that they were now an S-Rank guild, this laughter and mockery completely disappeared.
Surprisingly, the inner members of the guild had a completely opposite reaction. In the inner member guild channel, everyone was busy trying to become a core member and no one paid attention to this nonsensical battle threat.
But now that the opposing party was an S-Rank guild, they also quickly changed their attitude. Now this became an opportunity to showcase their talent, prove themselves in front of the guild higher-ups. So everyone was looking forward to the war and were in high spirits.
A similar atmosphere was present in the Core member chat channel as well with everyone extremely excited about the upcoming war.
It was only the acting guild leader who nervously smiled as she made a note of the general guild morale. Without Liam, Derek and Mia, the entirety of the burden of this war fell on Alex's shoulders.
And she was not confident to bring this home.
Their guild was full of monstrous players who could single-handedly trash an army but the problem was that those monsters were all away. Shen Yue and Mei Mei were still there. However, they could utmost be called above-average players not monsters.
"I need to get this done. Somehow." Alex licked her lips. She clicked on the challenge first to see the details of the event. Apparently, issuing an official challenge was very different from gathering all the players and ganking a guild residence.
It was detailed that in an official challenge, the members of the two guilds would be teleported to a war zone. There were different war zones available and the defending guild held the advantage as they had the option to pick up the zone.
Of course, the challenging guild also had their own advantage as they took the right to challenge first. After a challenge was issued, there was only 24 hours to accept or decline the said challenge.
And the moment it was accepted, the battle would immediately commence. This meant that the defending guild only had 48 hours to prepare. Otherwise, the only option they had was to forfeit.
Alex carefully went through all the do's and don'ts of the guild wars and also the details about the different available war zones.
The rules were quite straightforward. Everything was basically allowed. Potions, food, all consumables were freely allowed. Players were also able to equip whatever they wanted.
The only restriction was on the use of NPC soldiers. Unless they were deemed as followers, NPCs were not allowed to participate in the battle. Also, the NPC crafted cannons and such were not allowed.
Alex carefully read through these rules several times, and slowly a plan started forming in her head. Yes! This battle! They could unquestionably succeed in this battle!
Just as she was thinking about this, suddenly her eyes fell on a small detail that was at the bottom of the challenge description, inconspicuously buried in other details.
A maximum of 500,000 players were allowed to participate in the guild battle. There was no minimum.
"Fuck!" Alex immediately stood up in alarm. All the strategies she had decided on up until now suddenly seemed irrelevant. 500,000 players? This was a ridiculous number.
Sure, it was an upper limit, but what would happen if someone actually managed to touch this upper limit. Currently, with all of the inner guild members, core members, and high council members put together, the total players in Crimson Abyss guild just barely amounted to 20,000.
A lot of players remained skeptical about joining the inner guild because of the special terms and special contract requirement. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage to the guild, but right now, it was mainly a disadvantage.
Sure, with the outer members of the guild, they could somehow scrape together a 200,000 total, but 500,000 was still far off, and more importantly, these 200,000 would be extremely diluted. It was inevitable that spies would slip into the 200,000, and that could lead to a quick defeat.
"Damn it." Alex gritted her teeth. Though it was not possible that any guild could muster this insane number, something told her that this was the fine print that was going to cost them the battle.
'Dragons of Justice' was the second ranking guild in the Gresh Kingdom. Why would they foolishly attempt to challenge them without any trump cards in hand? They definitely had some sort of solid plan, and her gut feeling told her that this was it.
20,000 players against 500,000? It would be a complete massacre. Even imagining it was extremely painful.
"Damn it." She cursed loudly and walked back and forth. This was a huge headache. Moreover, what could she do in a mere 48 hours?
Alex immediately called for a guild meeting. This was do or die. She would never forgive herself if she lost everything when Liam and Mia left the guild in her hands.
So without delaying further, she quickly commenced a guild meeting, and most players were already en route because of this sudden notification.
Soon all the core members were assembled in the huge guild hall, along with some of the high council members. Everyone had grave expressions while Alex filled in on the finer details about the challenge.
"Guys, this is it. It's time to get all hands on deck. I am open to any suggestions. If anyone has any ideas on how to win this battle, I am all ears." Alex announced with a sigh.
Instantly, a pin drop silence filled the huge grand hall. No one opened their mouth to say anything. There was only an awkward, uncomfortable silence as the guild's morale was at an all-time low.
Even those who considered this a challenge and were in high spirits to prove themselves now looked a little shaken.
The huge whopping 500,000 tightened like a noose around their necks. If this worst-case scenario came true… No one was able to think of a feasible solution.
It would be easy to ignore it as it was just a possibility, and they do not know the exact number of players the other party was going to lose, but if they did that now and relaxed, ultimately they might be on the losing side, completely unprepared and vulnerable to a smack down.
They were all capable, skilled players, but their experience in this situation was lacking. They could only silently mull over it in their heads, banging against the wall, thinking about what to do.
With every passing second, this silence only became more deafening and in the midst of this mass confusion, an unexpected message popped in the guild chat.
"How is everyone doing?"
