Before Carl and Anan went to see Vengeful Blood, they first explained the plan in detail to Crimson Night, Ryan, and Kyo.
At present, the combat backbone of Carl's village players was Crimson Night's Navigator Guild.
Alongside them were one or two core mbers of Crimson Sigil brought over by Ryan. As for Kyo, he was purely a freelancer. Whenever a major problem appeared in the recent battles, he would go wherever help was needed.
Even so, the number of players Carl could truly trust, players with enough combat power to be called diehards, was only around three thousand.
The other village players were mostly just playing Oath on the side. They had co to Netherworld Village purely to experience the gaplay. Unless Carl launched so special event, there was no way to mobilize them or count them as reliable combat power.
But in fact, that had been Carl's original intention all along.
Players were free, and they should remain free.
They should not be forced by anyone to play content they did not want to play.
If Oath had not kept pushing him step by step, Carl would never have bothered gathering players to go to war with Oath.
"Shopkeeper, this plan of yours is a little extre."
"It's troubleso."
Ryan, Crimson Night, and Kyo each gave their opinions after hearing Carl's plan.
"By troubleso, do you an I shouldn't bring about the Plague Torrent, or..."
It was the first ti Carl had seen such a heavy expression on Crimson Night's face.
"The troubleso part is that the core executor of your plan is Vengeful Blood!"
Crimson Night likely realized that Carl had not interacted much with the president of the Do Alliance. She brushed her slightly ssy wine-red hair back with her fingertips before continuing.
"Shopkeeper, you might not know that person's past, but among all of us, she might hate the mastermind behind the World Reset more than anyone else."
"Past?"
In Carl's impression, aside from being rather serious, hot-tempered, and carrying a bit of spoiled young lady energy, Vengeful Blood had always seed like a fairly ordinary player.
"How should I explain this?"
Ryan also rubbed the stubble on his chin. Finally, seeing Sophia standing silently beside Crimson Night, he gave the simplest possible example.
"Let's put it this way. The Sophia currently accompanying Vengeful Blood isn't actually her original Sophia. She's more like a copy entrusted to her by the original Sophia. Or maybe sothing closer to a daughter?"
"Ah, that..."
The mont Carl heard this, he instantly understood where Vengeful Blood's hatred for the Plague Torrent ca from.
Simply put, failing to save your waifu was not the most painful part.
Vengeful Blood had likely experienced the joy of thinking she had finally saved Sophia, only for that Sophia to say one thing to her the mont they t.
"Nice to et you. I am Sophia."
Painful.
That was far too painful.
Carl felt that if Vengeful Blood had not stord into the operations team's office and smashed the place up back then, she already counted as having a relatively good temper.
"So you think I shouldn't make her the executor of this plan, right?" Carl asked.
It was not because Vengeful Blood would refuse to cooperate with Carl's plan to summon the Plague Torrent.
Rather...
"After Vengeful Blood won the Trial of Glory, the Do Alliance beca the number one guild in Oath."
Ryan, who was also extrely well inford, said directly,
"And I don't just an number one among players. I an in terms of deeper NPC faction influence as well. At the very least, both the Empire and the Holy Nation now see the Do Alliance as their top recruitnt target."
"Vengeful Blood should have already achieved the goal she had dread of since she started playing Elysium, which is gaining the respect and protection of the strongest factions in this world."
After Ryan finished explaining how the Do Alliance had reached the peak of its influence, Crimson Night took over and explained why they did not want Vengeful Blood to beco the executor of Carl's plan.
"Based on what I know about Vengeful Blood, once she learns that she has a chance to take revenge on the Plague Torrent, I'm afraid she'll throw away everything she currently has for the sake of that revenge."
"Combined with Oath's soft-ban system, if she insists on taking revenge, her main account will definitely be targeted. The Do Alliance, which finally reached the height of its power, will likely fall apart as well."
After Crimson Night finished trying to persuade him, Carl fell into a brief silence.
Just as Crimson Night had said, his plan was indeed sowhat inappropriate.
It was essentially asking Vengeful Blood to abandon everything she had worked so hard to obtain.
Her status as president of Oath's number one guild.
Her position as the strongest player in Oath.
The favor of both the Empire and the Holy Nation, who would spare no effort to recruit her.
"But she still needs to know the truth, doesn't she?" Kyo suddenly said to Carl.
"The Shopkeeper is only placing the choice in her hands. How she chooses is her own business. At the very least, this version of Oath is not the ga world I want."
Was it Oath, boring but comfortable, filled with nursery-rhy-like gaplay?
Or was it a new ga, full of danger and brand-new challenges, where you could fight to your heart's content, defeat powerful enemies with your own hands, and experience that soul-shaking sense of accomplishnt?
"..."
Just as Carl was hesitating, he received a text ssage from Mio.
"Carl! The Oath officials are holding the Trial of Glory award ceremony today! They said it was tomorrow, but that was actually a prerecorded broadcast they prepared because they were afraid soone would cause trouble! You... you're not planning to cause trouble at the award ceremony, are you?"
"???"
When Carl replied with three question marks, Mio imdiately knew things were bad.
"The ceremony has already started! The location is the Imperial Holy Capital! The worldline is the Main World! I've put you in the party setup, so get over here!"
There had been far too many thorny issues to deal with recently. Carl had not expected to be outplayed by Oath's official team here.
He no longer knew how many tis Mio had saved the world by now.
Carl really wanted to say, Oath's greatest mole, how could I ever live without you?
After Carl told Anan about this, Anan's expression instantly darkened.
"The ceremony has already started? No wonder Madam Calamity suddenly stopped her offensive. I will imdiately mobilize the knights under my command and head to the Imperial Holy Capital in the Main World."
Anan made her decision at once, then said,
"The Academy Head and Madam Calamity have temporarily sealed the gateway that lets us return to the Main World."
The Main World could be understood as the world where Oath's NPCs truly lived, while the players' Open Worlds were all projections created from those NPCs.
But during this period, in order to protect the village players' Open Worlds from the Empire's invasion, Anan and the Abyssal Knights had all descended into various players' Open Worlds in their true bodies.
Now, when Anan and the mbers of her knight order tried to return, they discovered that Oath's official team had blacklisted them.
"Carl! This is Madam Calamity's ability. When the ti cos, you only need to have Vengeful Blood summon the Abyssal Knight she contracted. That will be enough. Although it can only bring over a small portion of the Plague Torrent, as the ritual to unlock this gaplay mode, it will be more than sufficient!" Anan said.
"All right. At the very least, I'll put the choice in her hands."
Carl wasted no more ti and transferred his consciousness to the Carl in Mio's party.
(To be continued.)
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