Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

On the way back, Whisperwind wore a thoroughly displeased expression, looking as if he might explode at any moment if he did not find someone to vent his frustration on.

At last, he could not hold it in anymore. “Boss, are we really just going to hand that vein over to them like this? No matter how strong Cloud Edge is, they’re still just a guild that recently arrived in Wynwater City. We’ve been stationed here for a whole week already! Since when does the guest get to become the master?”

The others watched him speak but did not stop him. Instead, they remained silent. Clearly, they all understood what had just happened, and the resentment simmering in their chests was difficult to swallow.

“…” Duskwraith let out a quiet sigh. After a moment, he slowly said, “Whisperwind, you’ve followed me for so long. Don’t you know what kind of person I am by now?”

Whisperwind froze for a moment. Then his eyes suddenly lit up. “You mean…”
“That’s right. Wynwater City doesn’t only have our Nether Dawn guild. If Cloud Edge wants that mineral vein so badly… then let’s make that place lively!”

***

In Mapleblossom Grove, the Royal Treant lost its final sliver of HP under a barrage of small yet powerful punches. With the effects of Armor Break and the Bard’s buff, the weak-point strike had reached a terrifying power of over 2000 damage.

One had to remember that most mages currently only had around 1.5k to 2k HP. It was easy to imagine that if Snowy managed to close the distance and get within melee range, a single punch might very well be enough to kill them instantly.

“Let me do it, let me do it! My hands are super lucky!” Nangong rubbed his hands together excitedly and hurried toward the boss’ corpse like an impatient monkey.

“Om mani padme hum! Oh mighty game devs above, let an Epic-tier item appear!!”

“…” The others stared at him speechlessly.

Nangong’s face quickly turned ugly, clearly indicating that nothing good had dropped.

“Damn it, you cursed b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲!” Endless Sea scolded. “You’ve looted three bosses already and not a single piece of equipment dropped! Do you really have no idea whether your luck is good or bad? Next time, let someone else do it!”

“Come on, don’t say that… those three were just sacrifices! Believe me, the next one will definitely drop something!” Nangong declared confidently.

“I want to try opening one too,” Snowy suddenly said.

“Then let Snowy open the next one. We can’t keep going without any equipment drops,” Shiu nodded thoughtfully.

“It should’ve been like this from the start. That guy… always trying to sneak past fate, refusing to recognize his own bloodline. Ah, the tragedy of a poor African soul…”¹ Wanderer sighed while waving his hand in mock pity.

“You guys…!” Nangong pointed at them, looking as aggrieved as a newly married bride being bullied.

Just as he was about to say something else—

A regional announcement was different from a world announcement. It was limited to a specific area. This particular message only reached players within Wynwater City, and players could even choose to block such announcements.

Of course, each announcement cost 5000 gold coins, which was not something ordinary players could afford to throw around.

Incidentally, due to the huge influx of gold coins dropped during the city siege, the value of in-game gold had plummeted dramatically. It had already fallen to a ratio of 3.7:1, and some equipment in the auction house was even being priced directly in Chinese Yuan.

This single announcement immediately caused a huge uproar throughout Wynwater City.

A mineral vein! Whether in reality or in a game, mineral veins symbolized wealth. For Drake to share such information so generously… he was probably out of his mind. Of course, anyone with a bit of insight could sense that the matter was not as simple as it appeared.

No matter what, countless players would soon head there. After all, Frostcrystal Ore was one of the primary materials used to forge Level 20 Epic-tier equipment. Since most mainstream players were already above Level 20, the timing could not have been more perfect.

Inside the Guild Hall. After turning in their quest, everyone received a decent amount of experience, and someone even got lucky enough to obtain a Rare item.

The rewards from Adventurer Party quests were truly generous. Naturally, the difficulty was equally high. Even though this was only a C-rank mission, it required killing three Rare bosses. Missions of higher rank would undoubtedly be even harder.

Their Adventurer Party experience had now reached 1/10. Since a Level 1 Adventurer Party could only accept C-rank missions, they would need to complete ten of them in total.

Fortunately, their adventurer party was currently the only one in Wynwater City, so they could freely choose any quest from the mission board.

“Frostcrystal Vein… should we go take a look?” YoyoPink asked, glancing at the others.

“This is too strange.” Shiu frowned. “Everyone knows what kind of guild Rainflower is. There’s no way they’d share something like this so easily.”

“That’s right.” Endless Sea nodded in agreement. “I can roughly guess what’s going on. There’s probably some extremely powerful guardian there… or the place has already been occupied by another guild.”

“Eh? Then should we still go?” Dukeette asked worriedly. She feared that if they got dragged into a PvP fight, the levels they had worked so hard to grind today might end up wasted.

“Where’s Zanny? What does he say?” Zaria asked.

Endless Sea shook his head. “I already sent him a private message earlier, but there’s been no response at all. I have no idea what’s going on.”

“I don’t know either. He already went home,” Shiu said helplessly.

“What about Starry? Did she respond?” DumbCitrus asked curiously.

“Nope. She’s probably entered some kind of special map again,” Endless Sea replied, already used to this kind of situation.

“I think it would be better if we go take a look. There will definitely be far more players heading there than just the few of us,” Seraphine analyzed calmly.

“Then… let’s put it to a vote!” Endless Sea opened the voting system and set up two hidden options.

The result— unanimously approved.

It seemed everyone wanted to join in on the excitement.

“Alright then, let’s head for the Frostcrystal Vein! Just so happens I saw a few suitable C-rank quests earlier. We can complete them there as well.”

***

“Guildmaster! This is bad…” the archer player with the ID TribalChief said anxiously.
“Quiet down. I saw the announcement,” Skypride replied in a deep voice.
“…”
“This Nether Dawn… they’ve given me quite a surprise.”

Although the regional announcement had been posted by Drake of the Rainflower Guild, Skypride instantly grasped the connection behind it.

Duskwraith must have already informed the other guildmasters about the discovery. Whether Rainflower actually had the authority to reveal it was another matter, but the fact remained that they had received the information.

Knowing full well that clashing head-on with the other guilds would likely be futile, they simply allowed the entire player base of Wynwater City to learn about the vein. That way, amid the chaos, they might still find an opportunity to profit from the situation.

“Hahaha! These people are quite interesting. Far more capable than those useless fools in Flowerdance City!” Skypride burst into laughter.

TribalChief stiffened at the sight. Could it be that the guildmaster had been so shocked that he had lost his mind!?

“TribalChief!” Skypride suddenly shouted sharply.

“Ah, I’m here! Wh-what is it?”

“Call over all the brothers in the guild who are above Level 20! Cancel today’s leveling activities for now. I’m going to make them lose so thoroughly that they’ll have no choice but to accept defeat!”

‘What? Bring everyone over!?’ TribalChief could not help but grow excited. It had been a long time since they had mobilized with such scale!

“Yes!” he responded, already preparing to crush a Return Scroll.

“Wait!” Skypride called out again, stopping him. “Mention it to Calmstep as well. Try to bring Leafyleaf back if possible.”

“Ah…?” TribalChief knew who Leafyleaf was. She was one of the beautiful female players in the guild and possessed the hidden class Starlight Sorcerer. During the last battle in Flowerdance City, her performance had been astonishing. Alone, she had almost rivaled the strength of an entire army.

Unfortunately, due to the insufficient number of NPC defenders, Flowerdance City had still ultimately fallen.

Still… This person was extremely elusive, like a dragon whose head or tail could scarcely be seen. Since the game launched, TribalChief had only encountered her twice.

He had heard that Leafyleaf was the cousin of the vice guildmaster Calmstep, and she would only appear when absolutely necessary. Moreover, even after Cloud Edge had been established, she had never formally joined the guild. Her temperament was notoriously peculiar.²