Nie Yan summoned Lil’ Gold and Paladin Lafus, adding whatever he could to the team’s combat strength.

“Shit! Their physical defense is too high! We can’t secure their aggro!” Bladelight anxiously cried out. He could only deal 1,000 or so damage to the Behemoths while the Mages were regularly critting for 8,000 to upwards of 10,000.

KWAANG! A Behemoth knocked Bladelight aside and charged toward Tang Yao.

Tang Yao executed several consecutive blinks and dodged the charge. He chanted an incantation and let loose with a barrage of fireballs.

With the Warriors out of play, the Mages could only rely on themselves to stay safe.

Nie Yan entered stealth and dashed toward one of the Behemoths.

This same Behemoth closed in on Summer Bug and swiped down on him with its massive claws.

Summer Bug was just about to blink away, when he noticed a silhouette dashing by. His heart thumped. Buffing himself with Windwalker, he dodged to the side.

The Behemoth turned around and wanted to pursue Summer Bug, when Nie Yan appeared behind it and struck out with a Backbreaker. BANG! It was immobilized.

In the blink of an eye, a deluge of spells rained down on the Behemoth.

...

Elsewhere in Conviction, many large guilds were stirring restlessly. Everyone could sense the tension in the air. Fallen Angel’s forces had already arrived at the underworld passage. It was reported they’d fought off a team from Pantheon that had intercepted them. Though they suffered some losses, their main force was still intact.

Angel Corps’ aerial force patiently waited in the northern district of the City of Sin. Even though they had dispatched a large number of Thieves to search for Nie Yan’s whereabouts, they failed to find anything. It was almost as if he’d vanished into thin air.

...

The Clemenci Stronghold. The higher-ups from Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group were holding an emergency meeting. There were 30 people present in the conference hall.

Soaring Angel glanced at Cao Xu beside him. “What are we going to do next? I’ll leave it to you.”

Cao Xu nodded before turning to face the rest of the people in the room. “Soaring Angel and I have come to an agreement. In two hours, we will declare an all-out war against Asskickers United. No more holding back. We’re going to put everything on the line and defeat the enemy! I hope everyone here will spare no effort.”

Cao Xu’s words went off like a bomb. Though the fighting with Asskickers United had never stopped, the clashes so far were restricted to local areas. Both sides were still holding back in order to avoid taking too many casualties. As long as they could keep the other in check, it was fine. However, once an all-out war broke out, casualties would soar until only one side was left standing.

“Boss Cao, what are our chances?”

“50%, maybe a bit higher.”

“Only 50%? Why are we taking such a huge risk? At least right now, we’re able to maintain a stalemate, and we can keep our strongholds in operation. However, once we enter an all-out war, it’ll be impossible to maintain any semblance of stability, to say nothing of Fallen Angel glaring at us like a tiger from the sidelines. This is a terrible idea!”

“Putting off the inevitable will only cost us more. Plus, we have a good opportunity right now. Fallen Angel’s main forces have already arrived on the surface. Their headquarters are defenseless. Pantheon will support our efforts by declaring an all-out war against Fallen Angel in two hours. Asskickers United and Fallen Angel are colluding together. If we wait for them to deal with Pantheon first, then when they turn their sights on us, we’ll have already lost the initiative,” Cao Xu explained.

Those in the room exchanged glances. So it turned out Pantheon was planning to declare an all-out war against Fallen Angel. Just like with Asskickers United and Angel Corps in the Righteous Faction, between Fallen Angel and Pantheon, only one could rule over the Evil Faction.

“Sine it’s like this, we have no objections. Though may I remind the boss that our expenses will soar once the war begins.”

“Don’t worry. Your boss and I will take care of this. Within three days, we’ll have 10,000,000 gold ready and another 30,000,000 in the near future,” Cao Xu said. As the CEO of the Century Financial Group, he had ample resources. Soaring Angel didn’t lose out either as a potential successor to the Brutus Capital Group. The two of them had swept the real-world trading platform clean of all gold. Even the high level equipment up for auction wasn’t spared.

Of course, their actions had caused a huge upheaval in the market with the price of gold skyrocketing by 300%, as did the price of high level equipment. One could only imagine how much money Cao Xu and Soaring Angel had poured into the game.

When Cao Xu and Soaring Angel were spending money like madmen on the real world trade platform, Nie Yan was raking in the cash; the gold and equipment for sale was his. After converting it into real world credits, he would transfer the funds over to World Bloc’s bank account. He had no way of stopping Cao Xu and Soaring Angel from acquiring gold enmasse. The exchange rates they offered were well above the market’s. So, he was better off simply making money off of them.

“40,000,000 is a lot of gold, but it still isn’t enough to go toe-to-toe with Asskickers United. According to my intel, they have several hundred million gold in reserves as well as an endless supply of potions. Once the war begins, we’ll be burning through our supply of potions. Before long, we won’t have a choice but to secretly buy more from the Starry Night Potion Shop. If nothing changes, our expenditure on potions alone will be in excess of 60,000,000 gold within half a month! What if we haven’t won the war by then?”

“Boss Angel, Boss Cao, if you think we have sufficient funds, we won’t hesitate to go to war with Asskickers United!”

“We do. Go and prepare. In two hours, we’re declaring an all-out war against Asskickers United!” Cao Xu said.

Going as far back as two years ago, Cao Xu and Soaring Angel had already fallen into the plan Nie Yan delicately laid out. The Starry Night Potion Shop was a giant net, covering the entire potion market of the Righteous Faction. In the face of his high potion prices, even two leviathans like Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group had no choice but to bow their heads. Every month, they barely broke even with their expenses. Once the war started, these two guilds would become money burning machines, to the extent that Cao Xu and Soaring Angel would have no choice but to pour in frightening sums of money from the real world to sustain their war efforts.

Nie Yan was selling gold while Cao Xu and Soaring Angel were buying gold, which in turn would be used to purchase potions and equipment. In the end, most of the gold would fall right back into Nie Yan’s pockets. It was basically the same as them throwing their money at him in a never-ending cycle.

In all likelihood, Cao Xu and Soaring Angel had already noticed this trap. However, they were helpless to do anything about it. After all, they couldn’t just abandon their investments in the Satreen Empire. Regardless of the costs, they would make it worth it!

...

Nie Yan and his team were still fighting the Behemoths. Two of the three were almost dead.

「Nie Yan, are you guys done yet?」Guo Huai anxiously asked.

「No, not yet. Why?」

「I just received a report that three armies composed of 1,800,000 troops from Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group are marching towards the Abernathy Great Grasslands amd Viridian Empire from three different directions. It seems like they’re planning to go all out,」Guo Huai said.「All the gold you put up on the real world transaction platform has been sold. What do we do?」

Nie Yan’s eyes widened in surprise. He didn’t expect them to act so fast.「Immediately assemble our troops! Deal with the ones coming towards the Abernathy Great Grasslands directly. As for those going to the Viridian Empire, make use of our strongholds to hold them off and chip away at their strength. Can you also list up another 50,000,000 gold for sale on the real world transaction platform?」

Guo Huai was shocked. He could understand the first two orders, but wasn’t the third simply giving away resources to the enemy?「50,000,000 gold? Won’t that be a problem?」

「Here’s what you’re going to do after putting the gold up for sale. Triple the prices of all goods sold in the Starry Night Potion Shop. Nothing comes for free,」Nie Yan said with a smile. He’d thought long and hard on this plan.

After he thought on it a little, it seemed all so obvious to Guo Huai.「You first had them rely completely on the Starry Night Potion Shop, to the extent they had no alternative left. Then, all you had to do was to wait for a war to break out. They need potions, and can only get them from us. This places a heavy burden on their finances. They need to fork up at least another 50-60 million gold. No matter what we do with the price, they can only accept it. Best of all, even when we raise the prices so high, it won’t affect the business of the Starry Night Potion Shop.」Especially this last point was an important factor to Guo Huai. After all, the Starry Night Potion Shop was the main financial pillar of Asskickers United. Without it, they would be broke before the day’s end.

「Trust me. I had a scholar research it. In the event of a war, the demand for potions will double, while the supply of raw materials will drop by approxamitely 30%. Supply won’t meet demand. We’ll blame the shortage of raw materials for the price hike. Sales to ordinary players might drop. However, to stay relevant in this war, Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group will be forced to keep buying our goods. It might not increase our profits, but they won’t fall either, while our enemy will see their expenditures shoot through the roof.」

It seemed like Nie Yan had it all planned out. Guo Huai felt relieved.

「Have we started manufacturing siege weapons in Okoron yet?」

「Yeah. We have 50 factories up and running. On a daily base, they can make 120 catapults and trebuchets. There are enough raw materials to last us another 15 days. However, it has cost us 120 million gold,」Guo Huai said. He’d started working on this half a year ago and was finally starting to see the fruits of his labour.

「Don’t worry. Money is not a problem,」Nie Yan said straightforwardly.