Chapter 275 - 162: Creating Chaos 2
Mei Yuan then took the lord at the front of the line, turned, and walked out of the main tent. He ducked into a small tent behind it, leaving only a few other lords behind to maintain order.
A few minutes later, the lord who had followed Mei Yuan into the small tent emerged.
"Hahaha! Everyone, I’ve just received permission to enter the third stage!"
"Really?"
"How’d you do it?"
"How many spots does Lord Mei have left?"
...
"I can’t disclose the specifics. You’ll have to go in and see for yourselves."
Hearing what this lord said, the crowd grew even more enthusiastic.
Wei Gang, however, sensed that something was amiss.
[Make-a-Killing-on-Points Group]
Wei Gang: "Everyone, is it just me, or does this scene feel a bit familiar?"
Zhao Tang: "Not really!"
Yan Feng: "It feels a little like that time we were told to bring our Excellent-grade heroes for promotion."
Zhao Tang: "No way. Don’t tell me it’s the Eye Demons again."
Wei Gang: "I’ll have my guards go take a look. Anyone else with heroes skilled in stealth? Have them go into that small tent and see what’s going on."
Wei Gang: "Seeing is believing!!"
Shi Min: "Count me in!"
Wei Long: "Me too!"
...
A short while later, a Hero Squad of five Exceptional-grade heroes quietly concealed themselves within the crowd.
They followed a lord who was on his way to sign the contract, walking out of the main tent.
A few minutes later, the heroes followed the same lord back into the main tent, returned to their masters’ sides, and presented the videos they had recorded.
Several videos were shared in their private group chat.
The dozen or so lords began to watch intently.
In the video, the heroes walked out of the main tent and discovered the area outside was filled with guards. The watching lords recognized many familiar faces among them—without exception, they were all heroes belonging to Mei Yuan and the other Core Lords.
"Fuck, that Mei Yuan has no shame! He tricked our heroes into going to support the front lines while his own are all here guarding the tent."
"The key issue is that our heroes have all been sent away. If we wanted to fight our way out now, it wouldn’t be easy."
...
As the lords muttered amongst themselves, the video continued to play.
The heroes followed the lord into the small tent.
The moment the lord stepped into the tent, he was seized by heroes standing guard on either side. Then, a soldier approached.
As the soldier walked, he rapidly grew thinner and weaker. By the time he reached the lord, the soldier collapsed, turning into a pile of dried bones.
An Eye Demon crawled out from behind the soldier’s remains, leaped onto the lord, and scrambled onto his back.
Amid the lord’s terrified screams, the Eye Demon burrowed into his body, taking him as a host.
After a few minutes of acclimation, the lord stood up, nodded to the others in the small tent, and walked back to the main tent.
After seeing all this, the dozen or so lords in the private group chat went into an uproar.
[Make-a-Killing-on-Points Group]
Wei Long: "Son of a bitch! I knew it! That bastard Mei Yuan is nothing but trouble! If he’s got the guts, why doesn’t he go after the ranked lords? Why come after us poor, unranked schmucks who are just trying to scrape by and earn some points?"
Wei Gang: "Enough with the cursing. Let’s figure out what to do!"
Wei Gang: "We can’t delay. If we wait too long, everyone else will be taken over, and our only way out will be to kill ourselves and respawn."
Shi Min: "It’s hopeless. There are too many heroes out there. We wouldn’t be able to fight our way out even if our own heroes were here, let alone now that most have been sent away and some have already been taken over."
At this point, the lords in the group chat all tacitly agreed: the heroes Mei Yuan had ’promoted’ to Exceptional grade had all been taken over by Eye Demons.
Shi Min: "Let’s just kill ourselves. If they capture us, we won’t even get the chance."
Zhao Tang: "Don’t be so negative! We should at least try to fight our way out!"
Shi Min: "How are we supposed to fight? We can’t win! I’m scared of pain... can one of you guys help me out when the time comes?"
Wei Gang: "I still have some Magic Scrolls. We can have our stealth heroes plant them outside and set them with a delayed activation."
Wei Gang: "When the Magic Scrolls go off and cause a commotion, we’ll use the chaos to make a run for it."
Zhao Tang: "Xiong Da just sent me a private message. He said if we can create a huge disturbance in the camp, he can come rescue us."
Shi Min: "Well, in that case, I can pitch in some Magic Scrolls too."
Cui Mengzhu: "I have some Magic Scrolls as well."
...
In the end, the lords pooled together over a hundred destructive Magic Scrolls. The scrolls were distributed among their various heroes who possessed good stealth abilities.
By the time the heroes had finished planting the Magic Scrolls, many more lords had gone to sign the contract, only to be taken over by the parasites. Seeing the number of unafflicted lords dwindling, Zhao Tang and the others grew increasingly anxious.
"Old Zhao, aren’t you going to sign the contract?"
Just then, a lord who had already signed the contract—and been taken over—named Liu Jie, noticed the dozen or so inactive lords in the corner and approached them.
"Oh, no, we just figured the line was too long, so we’re waiting here for a bit. As long as there are enough spots, it doesn’t hurt to wait."
A crafty look appeared in Liu Jie’s eyes. ’I can’t let Mei Yuan take all of these lords for himself,’ he thought. ’I need to recruit some of my own and earn some credit.’ A plan began to form in his mind.
"Ah, Old Zhao, you’ve got it all wrong. There aren’t that many spots available."
"Look, I’ve got a good friend who’s part of Lord Mei Yuan’s core team, and he can get you a spot. You can come with me to sign the contract and skip the line altogether."