After the deafening blaring of the horns finally subsided, a dead silence as thick as a blanket descended over the entire world.
The next second, a dull white noise echoed in the distance, which slowly became louder and more prominent. Soon, this became thunderous as a gigantic army of beasts stomped their way toward the human kingdoms.
For a second, all the players who witnessed this scene became speechless. They have never seen anything like this in their entire lives. The beasts were simply countless. They did not have a beginning or an end in sight.
Huge and small cities alike were being overrun by this sea of seemingly infinite beasts. When they announced this event, none of the players had expected a beast tide of this magnitude.
What was this? How were they supposed to fight against this? This felt as if it were the end of the world! If this beast tide washes over them, not even bones would be left!
Thankfully, another round of loud horns sounded, snapping everyone out of their trance. The players on the walls, who were the first to witness this unbelievable sight, gulped and started their work.
They raised their weapons and started firing. Their hands were shaking. Their figures trembled. Some players started attacking simply out of fear or on impulse. Half weren't even aiming at anything.
What were they supposed to aim at? There were all sorts of ferocious and terrifying beasts in the horde, the likes of which they had never seen before.
The mere sight of these beasts was enough to instill fear in many players. They just randomly started emptying out their mana and arrows by shooting attacks one after the other.
Worse, some players were too terrified to stand on the walls anymore and jumped down to run away from the borders.
After all, death in the game was carried over into the real world. If one died enough times, one would end up permanently dead. Moreover, no one wanted to die facing the pain of being stampeded and crushed like meat paste.
So many players began to fall back and run away. They had greatly underestimated this so-called beast siege event and they were completely unprepared for a hell like this.
Only the truly talented and skilled players who had spent most of their time in the game world were able to somewhat adjust to this scenario and start fighting back.
The NPC guards on the walls also joined these players, and finally, the initial shock and trauma from the appearance of the beast horde died down. Everyone started attacking wildly.
The first wave of beasts crumbled under the relentless onslaught of the players stationed on the border wall, and because of this, the next wave of beasts slowed down slightly and was more manageable.
But this was only for a couple of minutes, after which the border was inevitably breached and the beasts began spilling into all the main cities.
Of course, the conditions in the neighboring villages and towns were even worse. Within seconds, they were completely overrun, and destruction ensued.
Thankfully, most of the people in the villages and towns had already relocated to the big cities before the beast siege so the loss of life wasn't too great.
Not that any of the players had time to care about the NPCs' lives. The fate of their own lives was at stake. After the breach of the border, the insides became chaotic as well.
All of a sudden, there were beasts everywhere, in every nook and cranny. There was no safe place in sight.
"Fuck this event! I am logging out!" Many players even tried doing this, but to no avail. A system message promptly appeared, stating that during the beast siege event, no one would be able to log out.
Everyone was completely enraged. The few who had already died realized that they were once again getting resurrected in the city's graveyard itself! Smack dab in the middle of the chaotic fighting!
Even if they died, there was no escape from this hell! What were they supposed to do now?
Just as the entire realm was in chaos, suddenly a few figures walked out to battle in every major city in the respective kingdoms. These men were members of the royal family. They were followed by the royal army.
Immediately, there was a sudden turn in the tide of events. The beast horde that was running wild and unrestrained struggled slightly.
And using this small chance, the top players and guilds in various cities started taking action. They also began dealing significant damage, dispatching several of the beasts.
Slowly, the other players also joined in. There was no escape, so they might as well fight. Soon, the situation became only slightly overwhelming, and the guilds even started competing with each other.
The various groups stationed all over the city started taking care of their zones and striking down everything in sight. The death toll became a lot lower.
A new pop-up screen appeared in the system interface that showed the contribution rank of each guild. This further encouraged everyone as the fight against the beast horde officially began.
The top guilds were slowly showing their worth and started appearing at the top of this list. Surprisingly, the main Gresh Kingdom guilds, the Assassin guild, Storm Troopers, War Brothers, and a new guild, Rightful Defenders, started rising in the ranks.
They were doing even better than the S-Rank guild Battle Gods. Everyone was shocked by this result. What was happening? How did the Gresh Kingdom guilds suddenly become overpowered?
The surprising thing was that Crimson Abyss, who was nowhere to be seen and was missing in action, was also rising in the ranks. In just 15 minutes, they passed all the other guilds in the rankings and moved up to the top spot!
What the heck? How was this possible?
The players who went to the towns and cities were completely mauled and killed, so everyone assumed that the Crimson Abyss had made a mistake on their part and followed the wrong strategy this time.
However, once again, without any surprise, they rose to the top!
While players were still stupefied by this development, another frightening piece of news arrived. Players started noticing something else that was off about the Gresh Kingdom.
The beast horde in this particular kingdom alone was much smaller and more manageable. All the players gaped in shock. What the hell?
In the other kingdoms, everyone was going through hell, but here in the Gresh Kingdom, guilds were playing in easy mode instead of hard mode? This was too unfair!
Now they understood why Gresh Kingdom guilds were at the top of the ranking board. With a smaller horde, they were happily grinding away. No wonder Crimson Abyss even managed to obtain the top position.
If there was a game master for this game, all the players would have already rushed over and pelted the guy with stones. How was Crimson Abyss trying to find loopholes in every fucking event and coming out on top?
All the players, without exception, were convinced that this was the case. And… they were not wrong…
Not too far from the main cities of the Gresh kingdom, a single person was wreaking havoc.
