CHAPTER 39: CONVERGENCE — PART 3
The alerts came in clusters.
[Guild Alert: Member "Dancing Rain" killed in Autumn Forest zone. Attacker: Cold Night (Excellent Dynasty).]
[Guild Alert: Member "Returning Cloud" killed in Stone Valley. Attacker: Shadow Edge (Excellent Dynasty).]
[Guild Alert: Member "Seven Fields" engaged in combat — Stone Valley — requesting backup.]
Three attacks in forty minutes. Three different zones. Three Guild Happy members targeted by players whose names hadn't existed on the 10th Server four days ago.
The Heavenly Domain transfers had arrived.
I pulled up the PRD's tactical display and watched the chaos unfold across the server map. Red markers indicated confirmed hostile positions—Cold Night in Autumn Forest, Shadow Edge in Stone Valley, Divine Light somewhere in between providing healing support. Blue markers showed Guild Happy members, scattered across farming zones without the coordination to respond to a professional-grade kill squad.
This is what Excellent Era money buys.
Three players with tournament-level mechanics, power-leveled to Level 17 in three days, deployed specifically to hunt us.
Chen Yehui's last play.
Tang Rou's message appeared in officer chat:
[Soft Mist: Orders?]
Orders.
She's waiting for me to solve this.
To call the shots like I have for every crisis since the bounty dropped.
But I can't be everywhere at once.
And neither can she.
Time to find out if Guild Happy is a team or just a collection of players following Lord Grim around.
"Split response," I typed. "You take half the guild and break the dungeon lockdown in the eastern zones. I'll take Steamed Bun and two defenders to hunt the transfers directly. Chen Guo handles the propaganda response."
[Soft Mist: You're delegating command?]
Yes.
Because that's what leaders do.
They build systems that work without them, not systems that collapse when they're not watching.
"You've been running the defenders for a week. You know their capabilities better than I do. This is your operation—I'm just handling one piece of it."
The pause before her response was longer than usual.
[Soft Mist: Understood. Eastern squad, rally on my position.]
The guild split into three operational groups.
Tang Rou's squad—six members including two of the original defenders—moved toward the eastern dungeon zones where Excellent Dynasty had established blockades. Their mission was straightforward: break the lockdowns, restore Guild Happy's farming access, demonstrate that we couldn't be contained.
Chen Guo's response was less direct but equally important. Chen Yehui had posted a server-wide message declaring Guild Happy a "front for a disgraced player's ego project" and threatening blacklists for anyone who joined. The propaganda attack was designed to poison our recruitment pipeline before it could develop.
Chen Guo's counter appeared in the server forums within an hour:
[Re: Guild Happy and Lord Grim]
You want to talk about disgraced players? Let's talk about Excellent Dynasty's spending—180,000 yuan in guild materials burned on a vendetta that accomplished nothing. Let's talk about the Heavenly Domain transfers they imported because their own players couldn't get the job done. Let's talk about a bounty that's been active for weeks without breaking Lord Grim's record streak.
Guild Happy doesn't need your approval. We need your respect. And we're going to earn it the same way Lord Grim always has—by being better than everyone who says we can't.
She's good at this.
Better than I expected.
The source material showed Chen Guo as a supportive figure, the heart of Team Happy's operations.
It didn't show her as a natural PR combatant.
Another thing the anime undersold.
My squad—Steamed Bun and two defenders, one Blade Master and one Striker—moved toward Stone Valley where the PRD showed Shadow Edge's last confirmed position. The Assassin-class transfer was the most dangerous of the three: stealth capabilities, burst damage, and the mechanical skill to exploit any positioning mistake.
But Assassins have weaknesses.
They're built for single-target elimination, not sustained combat.
Force them into extended engagements and their resource pools drain faster than other classes.
The question is whether we can survive long enough to make that happen.
[PRD Alert: Shadow Edge detected. Stone Valley, Sector 7. Movement pattern: Hunting. Current target: Unknown.]
Found you.
Stone Valley's terrain favored ambush tactics—narrow passages between rock formations, limited sightlines, plenty of shadows for an Assassin to exploit. Shadow Edge had chosen their hunting ground well.
I led the squad in from the western approach, keeping our formation tight enough to respond to flanking but loose enough to avoid area-of-effect attacks. The Blade Master took point; the Striker covered our rear; Steamed Bun bounced between positions like a hyperactive guardian angel.
[Steamed Bun Invasion: I SENSE SNEAKY PEOPLE! MY PUNCH SENSES ARE TINGLING!]
His instincts are actually reliable.
Chaos recognizes patterns that order ignores—and stealth patterns are just another kind of order.
The attack came from above.
Shadow Edge dropped from a rock outcropping with the precision of someone who'd practiced the maneuver hundreds of times. Their opener was textbook Assassin burst—Shadow Clone into Instant Stab into Throat Cut—and it would have killed the Blade Master instantly if Steamed Bun hadn't body-blocked the final hit.
[Steamed Bun Invasion HP: 100% → 54%.]
"Scatter and engage!" I typed.
The squad split. The Blade Master circled right; the Striker went left; Steamed Bun charged directly at Shadow Edge with the single-minded determination of someone who'd taken the attack personally.
Shadow Edge vanished—stealth cooldown activated—and the engagement became a hunt.
This is where HD-tier tactics fail.
They're trained for Heavenly Domain combat, where gear levels are capped and everyone has access to detection items.
On the 10th Server, our detection is limited.
But so is their gear.
And at Level 17, Shadow Edge's stealth duration is shorter than they're used to.
[PRD Alert: Shadow Edge stealth duration estimated at 8 seconds (HD baseline: 12 seconds). Cooldown: 45 seconds. Current position: Unknown.]
I counted. Three seconds. Five seconds. Seven seconds.
The shimmer appeared behind the Striker.
"Behind you!" I typed.
The Striker dodged—barely—and Shadow Edge's attack hit air instead of spine. The Assassin's mechanical skill was obvious in their recovery: smooth transition from missed attack to defensive stance, ready to disengage and reset.
But I wasn't giving them the reset.
Lord Grim closed the distance with a weapon swap to lance form, the reach advantage forcing Shadow Edge to either engage or retreat. They chose engagement—HD-tier confidence in their one-on-one capabilities.
Mistake.
You're not fighting a normal 10th Server player.
You're fighting someone who knows exactly how Assassins work.
The exchange lasted twelve seconds.
Shadow Edge's mechanics were clean—better than anyone I'd fought on the 10th Server. But they were playing with Level 17 gear against my Level 32 equipment advantage, and their HD-trained instincts kept telling them to make plays that required stats they didn't have.
I exploited every miscalculation.
[Shadow Edge HP: 100% → 71% → 43% → 22%.]
They tried to stealth. The cooldown hadn't refreshed.
[Shadow Edge defeated by Lord Grim. +280 XP. PK bonus: +70 XP.]
One down.
Two to go.
Cold Night was harder to find.
The Sharpshooter had learned from Shadow Edge's defeat—the guild chat was already buzzing with reports that Cold Night had repositioned to a zone with better sightlines and longer engagement ranges. Sharpshooters excelled at kiting, and Cold Night's mechanical skill made them dangerous even at lower levels.
I pulled up Tang Rou's operation status while tracking Cold Night's movements.
[Soft Mist (Officer): Eastern blockade broken. Three members lost to PK during the push. Dungeon access restored. Returning to regroup.]
Three members lost.
Acceptable casualties for breaking a coordinated lockdown.
Tang Rou made the call to push through rather than retreat and regroup.
Aggressive, but correct—the longer the blockade stayed up, the more resources Excellent Dynasty could consolidate.
[SRM Update: Soft Mist resonance during independent command: 68% → 70%. Category: Leadership under pressure.]
Seventy percent.
Higher than it's ever been.
She's not just following orders anymore.
She's making decisions that matter.
Cold Night appeared on the PRD's tracking data fifteen minutes later—Autumn Forest, eastern ridge, with sightlines covering three approach paths. Professional positioning for a Sharpshooter planning to kite.
"I need a distraction," I typed to the squad.
[Steamed Bun Invasion: I AM THE BEST AT DISTRACTIONS! WHAT DO I DISTRACT?]
"The Sharpshooter on the ridge. I need you to approach from the north—visible, loud, everything you normally do. Draw their fire while I flank from the east."
[Steamed Bun Invasion: I WILL BE THE LOUDEST TARGET! THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RESIST SHOOTING AT ME!]
That's... actually the plan.
Cold Night is trained to prioritize threats based on engagement range.
A melee charging directly at them is the highest-priority target.
They won't be watching for a secondary approach.
The engagement unfolded exactly as planned.
Steamed Bun's Brawler charged up the northern slope with all the subtlety of a freight train, drawing Cold Night's attention and first volley. His health dropped—78%, 62%, 51%—but his erratic movement pattern made the Sharpshooter work for every hit.
I came in from the east while Cold Night was mid-reload.
The fight was shorter than the Shadow Edge encounter. Sharpshooters had less survivability than Assassins, and Cold Night's positioning—optimized for kiting—left them exposed to a flanking attack they hadn't anticipated.
[Cold Night defeated by Lord Grim. +280 XP. PK bonus: +70 XP.]
Two down.
Divine Light—the Cleric—is still out there.
But Clerics without DPS support aren't threats.
They're targets.
[PRD Alert: Divine Light logged off. Timestamp: 3 minutes ago. Likely response to Cold Night's defeat.]
Smart.
They know they can't fight alone.
They'll regroup and try again tomorrow.
But tomorrow, we'll be ready.
The post-battle analysis happened in the café's back room at 4 AM.
Chen Guo had printed a timeline of the night's events—a minute-by-minute breakdown of every attack, every response, every decision that shaped the outcome. The guild had lost five members to PK across all three fronts. We'd killed two HD transfers and forced the third to retreat. The dungeon lockdown was broken. The propaganda counter was gaining traction in the forums.
First real test.
First real survival.
Guild Happy exists, and it can defend itself.
Tang Rou sat across from me, her expression carrying the focused intensity of someone processing a high-stakes learning experience. She'd commanded six players through a combat operation and come out the other side with the objective completed and acceptable losses.
[SRM Update: Post-operation resonance check. Soft Mist: 70%. Steamed Bun Invasion: 65%. Guild average: 51% (↑3%).]
The guild average went up.
Shared crisis builds chemistry faster than shared success.
That's a lesson I should have remembered from the source material.
"The transfers will try again," I said. "They're not done—Excellent Era invested too much to pull back after one failed assault."
Chen Guo nodded. "What's next?"
I pulled up the PRD's server event calendar. One notification pulsed at the top of the list:
[Server Event: Wild Boss Spawn — Midnight, December 31st. Boss: Frost Wyrm (Level 35). Location: Frost Peak. First-kill rewards: Rare equipment, guild reputation bonus, server-wide announcement.]
Frost Wyrm.
The rarest field boss on the 10th Server.
Every major guild will mobilize for this.
Including whatever's left of the alliance.
"Wild boss," I said. "Midnight tonight. This is the opportunity to break them permanently."
Tang Rou leaned forward. "How?"
"The transfers are regrouping. Excellent Dynasty's resources are depleted. Chen Yehui has one more play—commit everything to the wild boss fight and try to deny us the kill. If we take the boss despite their interference, the message is clear: Guild Happy can't be stopped."
And if we fail...
If we lose the boss fight after tonight's victories...
The momentum shifts back to them.
Everything we've built becomes a footnote in someone else's story.
"We need everyone," I said. "Full guild mobilization. Every member who can fight."
Chen Guo was already pulling up the roster. "Thirteen members. How many can we field?"
"Eleven, if we leave two for zone coverage." I ran the calculations. "That's not enough for a contested boss fight against multiple guilds."
"Then we get more." Tang Rou's voice carried certainty. "The defenders who didn't officially join yet. The players who've been watching Lord Grim's records and waiting for a chance to prove themselves. We have until midnight to build a coalition."
A coalition.
The same tactic the major guilds used against us.
But we're not building it through threats and resource pooling.
We're building it through opportunity—the chance to be part of something that matters.
"Do it," I said. "Reach out to everyone who's shown interest. Make them the same offer we made the original defenders: fight with us tonight, and earn a place in what comes next."
Tang Rou nodded and started typing.
The clock on the café wall showed 4:47 AM. Less than twenty hours until the Frost Wyrm spawned.
Less than twenty hours to build an army.
Less than twenty hours to end this.
The wild boss notification pulsed in the PRD's display, a countdown to the moment when everything would converge—Guild Happy, Excellent Dynasty, the remains of the alliance, and a server watching to see who would emerge victorious.
I saved the timeline to the USB drive, next to the record screenshots and the Umbrella editor data. Evidence of how far we'd come. Evidence of how far we still had to go.
The source material showed Ye Xiu winning the wild boss fight through individual brilliance and manipulation.
Maybe Steven Grant wins it differently.
Maybe this time, it's not about one player being better than everyone else.
Maybe it's about a team that refuses to lose.
Midnight was coming.
And so was the end of the beginning.
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