Finding a wolf-type Variant Lord was already quite difficult. However, Nie Yan was adamant on getting a Demonified Lord mount. It would take the entire Thief corps most likely several days, if not more, to find one.

Nie Yan went to catch the remaining Violet Eye Dragons. It was better to get this out of the way first while he had the free time.

In the middle of catching a Violet Eye Dragon, Guo Huai sent Nie Yan a message.

「Nie Yan, good news!」Guo Huai exclaimed.

「What is it? Did you find a Demonified Lord wolf?」Nie Yan asked skeptically.

「No.」Guo Huai shook his head.「You’ll never guess it. Hall ranked up!」

「W-what? Really? You mean Hall the Beast Tamer, right?」Nie Yan asked in surprise.

「Yeah, him!」Guo Huai said with a face full of smiles.

Nie Yan knew the significance of Hall advancing from a Grandmaster to Sage Beast Tamer. The time it required to tame the Violet Eye Dragons would be substantially reduced. If a Violet Eye Dragon could be tamed before the final battle with Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group, it would become a great trump card!

「How... How did he do it?」Nie Yan asked. It was incredibly difficult to rank up as a Beast Tamer. Hall’s sudden advancement left him baffled.

「That’s all thanks to you.」

「Me?」Nie Yan asked in surprise.

「Yes, you! Didn’t you have him hatch a Divine Eclipse Dragon?」

Nie Yan was dumbstruck. Did hatching the Divine Eclipse Dragon really lead to Hall’s break through? This was certainly a possibility. After all, the Divine Eclipse Dragon was a dragon king. Hatching a mythical beast like this was definitely a once in a lifetime chance. After being stuck at Grandmaster for a long time, this just happened to be the last little push he needed! Nie Yan didn’t know when the first Violet Eye Dragon would be successfully tamed, but it wouldn’t be far off.

This piece of news left Nie Yan ecstatic. With a Sage Beast Tamer taming the Violet Eye Dragon, it would become far more obedient!

...

Over the next 10 days, Soaring Angel and Cao Xu felt like the world was collapsing around them. While they were preparing for the final battle against Asskickers United, bad news continuously came flowing in from the side of Pantheon. Fallen Angel’s offensive was too fierce. Pantheon was pretty much losing on every front. Only in a small few battles did they achieve victory.

Soaring Angel and Cao Xu were forced to give up a portion of their strongholds to concentrate their forces. For the sake of the final battle against Asskickers United, they mobilized everyone under them and recruited several dozen more large guilds and gaming organisations into their campaign. Their army size reached an astonishing 3,500,000 and countless war engines of every kind. Their troops were stationed in the Wild Plains of the Satreen Empire, which directly neighboured the Abernathy Great Grasslands.

...

Under Guo Huai’s command, Asskickers United assembled around 2,500,000 troops. Though they couldn’t compare to the Century Financial Group and Angel Corps in terms of raw numbers, their average level, equipment quality, and so on were far higher. There was also Radiance Edge. They weren’t a proper army, but many would be taking to the battlefield and try to complete a few of the missions issued by Nie Yan.

The army formations of both sides gradually took shape. Nie Yan rode on the Darkwing Dragon and surveyed the world below him. Before his eyes were millions of players stretching as far as the eye could see. At the forefront were 3,500 catapults split into five columns arranged in a rectangle. Further back were 1,200 trebuchets arranged in a crescent shape.

Asskickers United had utilized all their resources to produce this many siege engines. Apart from the catapults and trebuchets, there were also 600 tanks placed on the flanks. They resembled giant steel dragons covered in sharp spikes. These tanks were powerful killing weapons, fitted with magic cannons which gave them long-range firepower. They were also incredibly fast. Anyone unlucky enough to be caught under them would be crushed to death. Even the powerful war machines would crumble beneath them.

Behind the war machines was an endless ocean of players, supported by 20,000 flying mounts circling in the sky above.

Asskickers United’s big advantage was their aerial strength. Ever since the battle in the City of Sin, Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group’s air force had been completely wiped out. Even if they worked around the clock capturing new flying mounts, they’d be lucky to have even a few hundred, which was pretty much negligible in a battle of this scale. Additionally, Asskickers United had produced another 50 Kamikaze Drakes. It might not be much, but it was more than enough to deal Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group a heavy blow.

Controlling an army of this size was extremely difficult. They could only give general orders on how to move. Ultimately, it would be up to the individual captains and leaders to command their squads. It would be a chaotic battle, no doubt. Once the battle was underway, one of Asskickers United’s advantages was that their individual troops were far stronger than Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group’s. Of course, no matter how strong their individual troops were, if they were ganged up on all sides, they would still die. Even Masters couldn’t fend off a horde of ordinary players that had them completely surrounded.

「The battle will likely take place on the border between the Wild Plains and the Abernathy Great Grasslands. We also have to be careful of any movements from Judgement Valley. A large number of players from the Evil Faction are flocking up to the surface. My best guess is that they’re going to try and fish up some easy benefits. It’s better if we take precautions,」Guo Huai said. He and his subordinates were overwhelmed with work. Their team of only 300 was directing an army of 2,500,000. One could imagine their stress.

「Any idea which guild they’re from?」

「Some are solo players. The others are from a few dozen different guilds. The Evil Faction is having its own civil war right now between Fallen Angel and Pantheon. These players are probably afraid of those two guilds, so they came here to get some easy benefits since we’re part of an enemy faction anyway,」Guo Huai said. The appearance of these players was an additional variable.

「Do you know how many of them there are?」

「About 400,000. When the battle actually starts, probably more.」

「It’s fine. We can make use of them. They’ll prey after whichever side looks like it’s losing and stay far away from whichever side is winning.」

「I’m just worried Cao Xu has a hand in this. That guy will employ any method.」

Nie Yan knitted his brows. This was a problem. If Cao Xu bribed these Evil Faction players to attack Asskickers United, it would become troublesome.

「It’s fine, just pay close attention to their movements when the time comes. This battle isn’t just about numbers anyway. Absolute strength is all that matters. Siege engines, Forbidden Magic, summons... who knows what sort of aces they have up their sleeves. Just don’t let yourself fall into their trap,」Nie Yan said. Asskickers United had many trump cards ready, including the Kamikaze Drakes, Magic Tanks, Arachne Empress Finas. He hoped the taming of the first Violet Eye Dragon would be finished in time as well. Furthermore, he also planned to catch a powerful wolf mount before the start of the battle. If he couldn’t find anything better, he would have to settle for the Level 160 Frost Dire Wolf.

「Our scouts have just reported back. Angel Corps has 2,700 catapults and 1,100 trebuchets. Seems like their production ability still can’t compare to ours.」Guo Huai chuckled.

「They have many more arms factories than us. It’s not that their production ability isn’t good enough, but rather they lack the materials. With their resources, it’s impressive enough that they were able to produce so many catapults and trebuchets. Who knows how much money they had to spend and how many favours they had to call in,」Nie Yan said. His heart was filled with pride. The Century Financial Group was buying gold from the real-world trading platform non-stop and spending even more to maintain their gold farmers. However, all of that still wasn’t enough to compete with Asskickers United. This was definitely something for him to be proud of.

「Even though Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group seem weaker than us on the surface, who knows what sort of trump cards they have. I’ve received reports that Angel Corps have secretly assembled an army of giants. Cao Xu is a crafty old fox. I haven’t been able to get any information out of that side. It’s just like with the airships. We haven’t unearthed a shred of information,」Guo Huai said. He had managed to insert spies into the guilds under the control of the Century Financial Group, but he had no way of penetrating their upper ranks. The Century Financial Group wasn’t established only a few days ago. They had long since built a solid system. It would be incredibly difficult for him to infiltrate them.

「We’ll just have to be ready for whatever comes our way. No matter what move they make, we’ll deal with it when it comes. No point in worrying over it,」Nie Yan said.

「I guess so.」Guo Huai agreed. While chatting with Nie Yan, he never stopped working on the war preparations.

「How much gold do we have?」Nie Yan asked.

「Don’t worry about that. We still have 600,000,000 gold, and that number is rapidly growing every day. We’ve pretty much bought all the equipment and materials from the marketplace that we needed. It’s getting to the point where I have no idea what we can spend it on. We just sold another 30,000,000 gold on the credit exchange,」Guo Huai said. The Starry Night Potion Shop was an unrivalled money machine. Especially in chaotic times like this which caused the prices of potions to skyrocket, their revenue would soar even higher.

「Get in contact with the various large guilds and gaming organisations across the Viridian Empire. As long as it’s something we need, buy it for a premium!」Nie Yan said. No matter how much they spent, the gold would all come flowing back to them anyway. So, there was no harm in buying more useful items. Generally, the truly good items wouldn’t circulate in the marketplace. Rather, they would be in the hands of these large guilds and gaming organisations. Even though buying them would be extremely costly, in this situation, there was no need to worry about money.

「Don’t worry, I’m on it. Oh! I just got word back on your mount,」Guo Huai glanced at his messages. Tyrannical had sent back word that they’d found a suitable wolf boss. It was a Shadow Demon Wolf, a Level 180 Demonified Lord. It would definitely fit Nie Yan’s requirements!