For a guild to be truly united, a charismatic leader was indispensable!
Suyo turned to face Ronin. "If you establish the guild, we'll all do our best to support you."
Ronin nodded. "Alright, let's do it. Establishing a guild isn't that hard anyway. And with a backer like Nirvana Flame, it'll be even simpler."
Ronin's party formed a contract with Nie Yan.
"What do you plan to call the guild?" Nie Yan asked.
"I already have something in mind, Heaven Song. What do you think? It's the name of an old team of mine," Ronin said.
"Heaven Song…?" Nie Yan mumbled in a bit of a daze, assailed by an indescribable feeling of shock.
"Huh? What's the problem? Is the name no good?" Ronin asked. He didn't understand why Nie Yan had such a strong reaction to it.
"No, it's nothing." Nie Yan shook his head. "The name is fine. Call it Heaven Song." He wasn't shocked because there was an issue with the name, but rather that he knew it. In the previous timeline, late into the game's cycle a guild with this exact name popped up out of nowhere. They quickly rose to prominence, becoming one of the top three guilds in the entire Satreen Empire and controlling over 20 strongholds. Quick as they rose, so they too fell. They waged war against Angel Corps and ultimately lost, after which they disbanded. All that remained of Heaven Song was a rumour of their guild leader killing Soaring Angel in a duel.
As for whether the guild leader of Heaven Song in the previous timeline was also Ronin, Nie Yan had long forgotten. He never paid much attention to the matters in the Satreen Empire back then. After all, he was just a no-name player struggling for survival.
Nie Yan's influence had already changed history. With the support of Asskickers United, would Heaven Song still go down the same path?
"Heaven Song, it has a nice ring to it. I like it!" Suyo said.
Nie Yan didn't expect he would end up participating in the establishment of Heaven Song.
The corpses on the ground slowly despawned. After a while, some Shamans started arriving.
"Ronin, what did you call us for?" A tall Shaman walked up to Ronin and patted him on the shoulder. As he looked around, he spotted Nie Yan. Finding Nie Yan's face a bit familiar, he lingered on it for a moment. Suddenly, his jaw dropped and his eyes widened in shock. He pointed at Nie Yan. "H-he… he… he…"
The Shaman couldn't believe his eyes.
"Downfall, what are you stuttering on like an idiot for?" A different Shaman Doctor who had just arrived smacked his hand away. When he turned to look at Nie Yan, his mouth also gaped open like a goldfish.
"N-nirvana Flame?"
"I must be dreaming…"
Nie Yan looked over. All 10 Shamans had arrived. He nodded at them with a faint smile. "Nice to meet you all."
"H-hello." The Shaman called Downfall was the first to snap back to his senses.
"Ronin, is that really the Nirvana Flame?"
They found the situation hard to believe.
"In the flesh." Ronin chuckled after seeing the reaction of the Shamans. He reacted pretty much the same way when Nie Yan revealed himself earlier.
After Ronin's confirmation, they could hardly contain their shock.
"So, what did you call us here for?" The 10 Shamans all stared at Ronin. Since Nirvana Flame was here, the matter Ronin called them over for definitely couldn't be simple.
"We need your help with a quest. It'll probably take a day."
"Is it dangerous?" Downfall asked.
"It's pretty dangerous. We'll definitely wipe, and not just once or twice. The pay is 2,000 gold. As for any deaths on the job, you'll be compensated for your losses according to market rate," Ronin replied.
2,000 gold for a day's work was fairly decent. At their current level, they would already be overjoyed from making 500 gold a day.
Sure enough, having Nirvana Flame as an employer was something else entirely.
"I'm in."
"Me too."
None of them bothered to haggle. 2,000 gold was already an extremely generous offer. If they tried to ask for more, they would first have to file for a name change to Scrooge McDuck.
Ronin turned to Nie Yan. "They're all brothers of mine. We've been friends since forever. You can trust them."
Nie Yan nodded. Even though they hadn't been in contact for long, he trusted in Ronin's character. Since he claimed these people were his trusted brothers, there was no reason to doubt him.
"Oh man, if you introduce us like that, we'll really have to give it 110% just to live up to your words!" Downfall bitterly smiled.
A while later, one human Thief after another arrived. More and more came until there were 190 in total. They were all top Thieves of Asskickers United. Sun, King of the World, and Mistaken Smile weren't present. Sun and King of the World were still in the underworld. Meanwhile, Mistaken Smile was busy with a quest. However, there were still many high quality Thieves here, such as Hapless Frog and Tyrannical. Many of them only had a name within Asskickers United. Nie Yan and the other Shadow Dancers were simply too dazzling, completely overshadowing them. As soon as Asskickers United was brought up, people would think of players like Nie Yan, Sun, King of the World, and Mistaken Smile. Very few people knew any of the 190 standing before Nie Yan. However, even though they weren't famous and could only be counted as second-rate players in Asskickers United, they weren't any weaker than the top Thieves from other major guilds. After all, they had all improved their skills by learning from the best. Not to mention their equipment was excellent, almost all high level twinked gear.
"Boss, we're here." Hapless Frog walked over.
"Boss!"
The crowd of Thieves greeted Nie Yan. They were all excited.
Nie Yan nodded. "Start organizing yourself into teams. I want 19 Thieves for every Shaman Doctor."
Everyone immediately began grouping up into teams.
Nie Yan had his people head to Orc King City to purchase Resurrection Emblems and distributed them among the Shaman Doctors.
Resurrection Emblem: Special Item
Description: Allows a Shaman Doctor to revive after a set amount of time, 10 seconds at the shortest and up to half an hour at the longest, with 500 health. Cooldown: 50 seconds.
Like this, although these 10 teams were no match for the Level 130 Demon Slaughterer, they would have no problem stalling it for a couple of minutes. Nie Yan would personally attempt to snatch away the treasure. As for whether he could escape its pursuit afterwards, that would be a test of his abilities.
"Let's go."
Their expedition team set off toward the settlement in the heart of the dark elf tribe.
...
Back in Orc King City, Soaring Angel had already received word of his expedition team's defeat. He was gritting his teeth in anger.
"Where's Nirvana Flame right now?" Soaring Angel asked. He truly felt powerless against Nie Yan. Watching the video of Love Shore sacrificing himself to bait Nie Yan, it was the same as all the other videos of players trying to kill Nie Yan. Even when all the odds were seemingly stacked against him, by some kind of miracle he would step out unscathed.
Nirvana Flame was behaving so brazenly in Angel Corps' territory. Yet there was nothing Soaring Angel could do against him.
"According to our latest reports, he's still in the dark elf tribe. Should we send people over?" Stone Splitter asked.
Soaring Angel shook his head. "Send a few Thieves to tail him. Let's find out what they're planning."
Soaring Angel furrowed his brows. It would be pretty much impossible to kill Nirvana Flame by relying on normal methods. As Asskickers United continued to expand, Angel Corps' advantage would slowly be chipped away at. If they didn't do anything about this soon, what awaited them was slow and painful destruction.
"Boss, Sark just finished class advancing," Stone Splitter said.
"Good, have him come to the guild headquarters." Soaring Angel nodded. What made him feel a little better was that Angel Corps also had five Masters now, even if the number couldn't compare to Asskickers United.
"He just received a quest. He can't come," Stone Splitter explained.
...
The dark elf tribe settlement. Nie Yan and the others strolled in right through the front entrance. Lafus raised his sword and buffed everyone with several blessings, sharply increasing their stats.
When the dark elves discovered Nie Yan and the others, they immediately rushed over.
Nie Yan had Lil' Gold lead the vanguard, holding back the dark elves' frontliners. One Explosive Counter after another swept out, sending the dark elves flying. Some tried to get past Lil' Gold, but they were immediately intercepted by the Thieves of Asskickers United. They ganged up on the dark elves in groups of three to five, stun locking them to death.
This makeshift team swept through everything in their path.
They slowly drew closer to the center of the settlement.
"Boss, we just received some information from Orc King City. A Thief in Angel Corps called Sark successfully class advanced to a Shadow Dancer," Hapless Frog said after looking at his chat.
"Sark?" Nie Yan recalled the name Butcher Sark. In the previous timeline, he had occupied the position of number one Thief in the Satreen Empire for the longest time. No other Thief in the Satreen Empire could rival him. Later on, he disappeared and slowly faded from the minds of players. At his peak, he was no less famous than the likes of Sun, Mistaken Smile, and Shadow Killer. It was just that his activities were mostly limited to the Satreen Empire. Most astonishing of all was Butcher Sark's age. He was already well over 50 years old. Normally, after a person passed a certain age, their senses and physical abilities would dramatically decline. There were very few players over 40 that could make it to the top of the leaderboards. Sark was truly an enigma.
Sark's nickname of butcher wasn't for show. Even Sark had probably lost count of the number of people he had killed. His name was always red, but no other players had ever killed him.
Nie Yan recalled that Butcher Sark had indeed stayed in Angel Corps for a time in his past life.
An elven Shadow Dancer, huh… Nie Yan knitted his brows. Given the innate stealth advantage of elves, combined with the abilities of a Master-class Thief, Butcher Sark would undoubtedly be an incredibly difficult opponent.