Chapter 363 - 347: Ghost Fire Meteor
[Poster]: Anhe City Temporary Council Member · Biqu Country Go 4
[Mission Background]: The fires of war have arrived, but the ignorant commoners still cling to their possessions or refuse to take the threat seriously. To preserve Anhe City’s living forces, extraordinary measures are now authorized.
[Mission Objective]: Move all civilian NPCs lingering in dangerous areas to other regions far from the fighting.
[Method of Execution]: Any means necessary. You are permitted to use methods such as carrying, shouldering, dragging, pulling, and even knocking them unconscious and stuffing them in sacks for forced relocation. You are granted wartime immunity.
[Tactical Warning (Important)]: DO NOT CLUSTER! DO NOT CLUSTER! During the evacuation, you must maintain a dispersed formation! Do not gather all the NPCs into one group! This is to prevent a high-level enemy Cultivator from wiping you all out with a single area-of-effect Magic!
[Mission Reward]: For each civilian successfully evacuated who survives until the end, you will receive a bonus of 500 copper coins on top of the original reward!
[City Guard Channel]
[Biqu Country Go 4 (Council Member)]: Listen up, everyone! I don’t care if they’re willing or not. Carry them out if you have to!
[Madman]: Roger that! The NPCs over here are far from the north gate and have no clue anything’s wrong. They think we’re holding a drill or some kind of festival! They’re just snacking on melon seeds and watching the show! I was about to lose it! Just waiting for this order!
[Weightlifting Champion]: Leave that old tofu lady to me! Matchstick, it’ll be faster if the two of us just knock her out and carry her off!
[Master]: Spread out! Spread out! Everyone on rescue duty, keep your distance! Don’t let those Evil Cultivators take you all out at once!!
[Tomb Raider Captain (Council Member)]: I need a few people to come with me to check the secret passage at the bank where Liu Yue was! It leads straight outside the city. Let’s see if it’s still passable!
[Light of the Righteous Path (Council Member)]: !!!! What’s going on! How is there an event the moment I log on?! You guys are doing it all sneaky-like without inviting me, huh?!
[I’m a Pauper (Council Member)]: Piss off! Read the event rules first, then you can come back and whine!!!
[Tomb Raider Captain (Council Member)]: Come with me to Liu Yue’s bank! There’s a secret passage there that leads right outside Anhe City!
...
At a market entrance, the flames of war had not yet reached, but the atmosphere had already turned tense.
Mrs. Wang, who had once been disciplined by the City Guard for short-weighting her customers, had now switched to selling tofu.
She grumbled as she cut a block of tofu, "Sigh... It’s impossible to make a living these days..."
Mrs. Li, who was selling vegetables nearby, couldn’t take it anymore and sneered, "I’d say you had it coming! If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned. It’s a good thing those City Guards are here. You finally got what you deserved, huh? Does that mean honest merchants like us are supposed to be the ones who suffer?"
"What the hell do you know!" Mrs. Wang shot her a glare and said indignantly, "Mrs. Li, it’s easy for you to talk since you’re not the one in my shoes! You’ve never tasted that kind of money! Once you experience the feeling of making several times your normal profit just by short-weighting customers and mixing in a few things, it’s hard to go back to making money the honest way!"
Just as the two were bickering, a sudden commotion erupted from the direction of the north gate.
Immediately after, many commoners could be seen fleeing from the north, their faces pale with terror. "They’ve broken in!" they shouted. "What are you all staring at? Run!"
A player in charge of this area, "The Little Match Girl’s Seller," was here on a rescue and evacuation mission, organizing the people nearby to flee.
He and several other City Guards who had rushed to the scene immediately began evacuating the crowd, having come over to direct people since this area hadn’t seen any direct action yet.
"Ma’am! Stop selling! Demonic cultivators are attacking the city! Follow the directions of the other City Guards and run! It’s safer that way!"
Although Mrs. Li felt a pang of regret for the vegetables she had just laid out, muttering, "Sigh, we only had a few good days... How did it come to this...," she saw the fleeing crowds and knew what was important. Gritting her teeth, she began to pack her things, ready to leave with the City Guard.
But the tofu seller next to her, Mrs. Wang, was stubborn. "I’m not leaving! Why should I?!"
Mrs. Wang guarded her tofu stall fiercely, staring suspiciously at the two players. "It wasn’t easy for me to switch to selling tofu, and now you want me to leave? I bet you’re just here to cause trouble! Are you looking for another excuse to fine me? Or maybe you want to use the chaos to rob my stall?"
"So what if the demonic cultivators are here? They still have to be reasonable! If it comes to it, they can just kill me right here with my stall! I’m not leaving!"
No matter how the City Guards pleaded, she was completely impervious to reason, acting as if she had nothing to lose.
Just as the players were about to tear their hair out and give up on her—DING!
[Mission Issued: Forced Evacuation · Physical Relocation]
Seeing the mission window pop up in their field of view, the expressions on the two headache-ridden City Guards’ faces changed instantly.
"Our apologies, ma’am!!! Up you go!!"
Before Mrs. Wang could react, the two players flanked her and hoisted her onto their shoulders as if carrying a prize hog!
"AHH!! MURDER! ROBBERY!!" Mrs. Wang struggled with all her might, kicking her legs wildly and screaming at the top of her lungs, "I’m reporting you to the magistrate! I’m filing a complaint! I’ll report you—"
WHOOSH—BOOM!!
Her screams had barely faded when a green meteor, tearing through the air, smashed right into the stall she had just been defending to the death.
"SIZZLE—"
In an instant, black smoke billowed up from the stall as it was slowly consumed by the spreading flames, disappearing completely.
"Uh, well, ma’am, looks like you don’t have to worry about your stall anymore. Let’s get moving!"
Mrs. Wang stared at her stall, now engulfed in flames. She instantly fell silent, her face turning deathly pale.
At the same time, the roar of "One Sword to Rule the World," who had just respawned, exploded in the [Area Channel]:
[One Sword to Rule the World]: "Everyone, look out!! In the sky!! Their Foundation Establishment expert has made a move! That’s Ghost Fire Meteor!!"
[One Sword to Rule the World]: "Dodge it! Whatever you do, don’t try to block it! If it hits you, it causes a continuous [Burning Diffusion Effect] and also inflicts [Corpse Poison]! If an NPC is touched by it, amputate immediately! Healer-class players, be ready! All players on transport duty, keep your eyes on the sky!!"
[Tomb Raider Captain (Council Member)]: [Screenshot] The secret passage over here collapsed! I can’t get through! Is there anyone with a gnome character model? Get over to the bank, now!!!
[No...]
[I don’t think my loli character model can fit, either. It’s still a bit too big...]
[We can’t change cosmetic outfits right now, so there’s nothing I can do...]
[Kabuta Giant]: Pathetic! Step aside and let me handle it! I’ve got a character that’ll fit!
...
Watching everything unfold so suddenly, Mrs. Wang was scared stiff.
Making a scene was one thing, but when death was actually staring her in the face, all of her earlier defiance vanished.
She grabbed the shoulder of the City Guard carrying her, her face a mess of tears and snot. "Go! Let’s go! Officer, I’ll stop making a fuss! I swear I will!"
"I was wrong! I shouldn’t have cheated my customers, and I shouldn’t have cursed at you! Please, save me! I-I-I promise I’ll be an honest person from now on! I’ll never dare to do it again!"
However, as she cried and begged, Ghost Fire Meteors continued to rain down from the sky, and several more came whistling right for them!
In Mrs. Wang’s eyes, those ghastly green Fireballs grew larger and larger in her vision...
’This angle... this speed... It seems... there’s no escape...’