Crack! Crack!!!
The barrier walls between the two regions were grinding intensely against each other, causing large quantities of fragments to flake off and drift down from the sky like cherry blossoms dancing through the air. While the sight was dream-like in its beauty, to the closed beta players watching, the implications of this scene were horrendously ugly—
"The 'Stygian Night Invasion' is starting ahead of schedule!" one of the players blurted out in panic.
The Sixth Region, Yggdmillennia, and the Seventh Region, the Stygian Night Kingdom, were both separated by their region barriers, which closely bordered each other. When the two regions came into direct contact, as they were doing now, as one might expect, the barrier membranes would grind against each other!
The most obvious sign that this was happening was currently visible right above the players' heads. The sky was densely covered with a pattern of criss-crossing rifts, which looked like a spider's web. Each rift was a pitch-black color, matching the color of the sky in the "Stygian Night Kingdom"!
Originally, Qingmu Town was under the protection of the Yggdmillennia Tree, which had kept the nearby spaces in and around the town extremely stable, and stopped any attempts the Stygian Night Kingdom made to invade the area. However, with the recent death of Pulitzer, as well as the withering of the branch of Yggdmillennia, Qingmu Town had lost the "refuge" the Yggdmillennia Tree provided. This, in turn, allowed the Stygian Night Kingdom to proceed with their invasion a quarter of an hour early!
According to all the previous iterations of this story event, the "Stygian Night Invasion" first took place in the Gorse Federation's Pingxi Town, then in the Starry Duchy's Qingmu Town shortly after. This time, however, Qingmu Town had become the first location in Yggdmillennia to be invaded!
The "Stygian Night Invasion" had been set in motion!
The closed beta testers, who were watching what was happening in the residential district, were immediately in an uproar—
"Oh my God, the whole story event is a quarter of an hour ahead of schedule!"
"Pulitzer is dead, and not only that, but at the hands of a player... What's going on?"
"I can't believe this is happening! Can someone please tell me why this is happening to the story event?!"
Before the closed beta testers could respond to what was happening, they each heard the sound of a notification—
System Notification: Hudgens of Qingmu Town has been slain by an assassin. You have failed the Story Event - "Hudgens' Request," and any incomplete quest progress will be automatically erased.
"Hudgens... is dead?!" Bigcat's eyes widened in disbelief.
Yet, the stunned expressions on the nearby players' faces confirmed bigcat's worst fears—
They had all failed the mail delivery quest!!!
Based on the story event from before, Hudgens' time of death was a quarter of an hour later, which gave players enough time to finish "Hudgens' Request" and trigger the story event they were really after—"Winter Army SOS."
But now that the "Stygian Night Invasion" started a quarter of an hour early, the assassins hidden around Qingmu Town had also acted early... They had already killed Hudgens!
When the NPC assigning the quest was dead, naturally, the quest itself would also be failed!
"Quest failed..."
Bigcat was stunned. He stood rooted to the spot as he watched the cold, lonesome figure in the middle of the spring. That "Swordsman player" he had looked down upon and who he despised with all his heart—he was the one who had single-handedly created this mess!
In that moment, bigcat had a flash of clarity, along with an irrepressible feeling of regret—
"I get it now. This was your real objective all along. We were all fooled by you!
"Using the leads from the spring water quest, you got the real mission from the old beggar, and intervened in the Stygian Night Kingdom's story event from an angle none of us even thought of... This was hidden so well, and we were so blinded by our own self-confidence that we never saw through your true intentions."
Bigcat recalled how he had reacted before, and felt like a clown. He had been overconfident, putting on airs in front of a real master, not realizing how insignificant he was in his eyes.
He and all the players in the vicinity... They had all become foils to the Swordsman!
They were just a bunch of clowns who thought they knew what they were doing!!!
Thinking this, bigcat's lips curled up into a bitter smile.
"The Swordsman player, lacuna... Who on earth are you?!"
Alphabetkun, who was standing nearby, felt the same way. A mix of emotions surfaced on his face—sudden comprehension, regret, humiliation, and an inexplicable bitterness. Even so, before he had a chance to wallow in his negativity, he thought of something important.
"Oh no! The other members of our Yokai Legion Guild are still in the wilderness map hunting mobs!"
Alphabetkun immediately opened up the guild communications channel, and switched it to voice-only mode—
"Guild Leader! The 'Stygian Night Invasion' has started. You need to retreat from the Eastern Plains immediately! Fall back now!!!"
However, nobody responded to alphabetkun. He realized, to his despair, that the entire channel had descended into chaos—
"Requesting backup! A Stygian Rift appeared close to our location, and the Stygian Army that emerged from it has us surrounded. Our Holy Cavalier can't hold them off for much longer! Requesting backup! Requesting backup!!!"
"We need help here too. Three Stygian Rifts appeared nearby! Our primary defense unit, the Sentinel, is on its last legs! Please send backup immediately!!!"
By Defense alone, the Sentinel was much stronger than the Holy Cavalier, and was hailed as the best MT (Main Tank) class in "Demon Realm." For a Sentinel to be unable to hold back the enemy, one could imagine how desperate their situation had become!
"Everybody, ignore the rest and prioritize saving Boss aotabo now! The main enemy force has engaged Boss aotabo, and there's an Elite Grade Black Armored Knight among them. The boss is struggling to stay alive, and we need to go help him right away!"
"Okay, we'll be there... Crap, we're surrounded by the enemy. Please send backup!!!"
At that point in time, the entire guild channel was in a panic, and alphabetkun had basically made a fool of himself. Obviously, the members of the Yokai Legion Guild were already well aware of the invading Stygian Night Kingdom armies, because they had already gone head-to-head with them!
After all, the first incursion of the "Stygian Night Invasion" happened in the wilderness map near the city!
Initially, the Yokai Legion Guild planned to pull out from the Eastern Plains five minutes before the scheduled start of the "Stygian Night Invasion" in order to avoid having to fight the Stygian Army head-on. However, Ye Kong's actions had caused the "Stygian Night Invasion" to begin a quarter of an hour early!
The Yokai Legion Guild and the Hegemony Guild... They were now in direct confrontation with the Stygian Army!
This was a result that nobody could have expected!
A result that not even Ye Kong himself expected!
To tell the truth, Ye Kong had thought that assassinating Pulitzer would, at most, result in some chaos in Qingmu Town. He predicted that he would then need to rely on the old beggar to escape from the Qingmu soldiers, or just fight his way out and earn some extra experience.
In the end, however, he had become the catalyst for the "Stygian Night Invasion"...
If alphabetkun knew the cause of this disaster, he would likely be so angry he'd vomit blood. As it was, he could only watch helplessly as the avatars of his fellow members in the guild channel went dark. The next moment, when they lit back up, the level indicator below their avatars had dropped from LV1 to LV0.
Evidently, they had died and respawned back in town. Each of them lost a character level, and were "gifted" with the Vulnerable status by the game system.
"Done... We're done..."
The envelopes alphabetkun held in his hand quietly slipped from his fingers. They fell through the air, disintegrating into sparkling dust before they even touched the ground. It was an apt visual representation of the status of his mail delivery quest, as well as the fate of the Yokai Legion Guild members.
"Our opening gambit is completely done for."