Chapter 184: Feeling Great
Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Addis
Noticing Watermelon’s tone, Su Mo asked again, “15 people need 10 assassins. I want to bring those from before. Do you want to come over and play?”
After being asked again, Watermelon suddenly felt a bit unsure. “…Then I’ll stay here.”
Su Mo said, “Alright then.”
Apple remarked, “Why are you being so weird? First, you say you’re going, then you say you’re not.”
Strawberry added, “Exactly, I almost thought you were 007.”
Watermelon retorted, “Damn, can’t I just think it over carefully?”
Actually, the main thing was that he suddenly had a bad feeling, like nothing good would come of him going over…
Watermelon thought about it again, “Forget it, maybe I should just go after all.”
Apple exclaimed, “You’re so annoying!”
Strawberry was speechless.
The Xia God’s side needed BrokenOracle to hold off the main group, and Qiu God’s point also needed to create the illusion of a strong attack. They couldn’t pull too many assassins away. Su Mo had calculated earlier that 15 people were the limit, and even with that, they didn’t have much time left.
The main force from Xia God’s point split into two groups for Su Mo, and the group leader was an assistant commander familiar to BrokenOracle. At the same time, Su Mo took 15 people from the two groups holding out at Qiu God’s point. Out of those 15, 10 were assassins, while the remaining 5 came from a fixed team within Banana’s group.
Not long after, new arrangements were made outside Chun God’s point.
“Disband the group?” The newly arrived assistant commander didn’t understand the maneuver. “Disbanding the group might mess up the formation.”
“It won’t. Put all the warriors in one group as the front line, ranged DPS in the middle, and healers at the back,” Su Mo instructed. “Leave the remaining melee professions behind for later ambushes.”
Watermelon had traveled a long way to catch up and asked, “What about us assassins? Flank around for a sneak attack?”
They had 10 assassins with them, and combined with the main group’s assassins, they now had a total of 20 assassins.
Su Mo said, “Assign 7 healers to the assassins.”
Watermelon was shocked. “7!?”
20 assassins paired with 7 healers? That was incredible!
The assistant commander was stunned for a moment. Although losing 7 healers wouldn’t impact the main group too much, it still seemed like a large number to pull away. The squishier professions in the main group would have less support. He double-checked, asking, “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Su Mo replied. “I’ve scouted the terrain. Just follow my plan. Their defenders aren’t strong. The main group will push from the front, the melee group will flank on both sides. Watch out for their retreat and flanking attacks. The assassin group will follow me.”
The assistant commander didn’t quite understand the strategy but still said, “Alright, we’ll do as you say.”
Watermelon suddenly felt something was off. “Actually, 5 healers would be enough… The main group probably needs more healing.”
The assistant commander nodded, “Yeah, having more healers on our side would be better.”
Su Mo smiled and looked at Watermelon. “Are you sure?”
Watermelon responded, “Huh?”
“Because two of the healers are assigned to you,” Su Mo casually said. “Our assassin group isn’t flanking for a sneak attack. We’re going to steal the boss.”
“I originally planned to do it myself, but you’re more skilled at playing assassins. Since you’re here, why don’t you take the lead?” Su Mo added. “If you think one healer is enough…”
Without thinking, Watermelon quickly changed his mind, “Let’s add one more.”
The assistant commander was confused, “?”
Watermelon boldly pushed further, “Actually, I think one healer isn’t enough. Can you give me three?”
The assistant commander was speechless.
The team at Chun God’s point was still discussing the allocation of healers, but the command channel had shifted to a different atmosphere.
“Do you think he can take Chun God’s point?” Haitang glanced at the time left in the battle for control and chose to privately message BrokenOracle.
It was already 11:20, and there was still over half an hour left until the battle ended. If it were her, she wouldn’t be confident about taking Chun God’s point in the remaining time.
“This isn’t about believing or not,” BrokenOracle responded. “If we can put pressure on Chun God’s point, it would be very advantageous for my side.”
Haitang understood then—BrokenOracle hadn’t given up.
Splitting off two groups certainly made things harder for them, but if Su Mo could use those two groups to pressure Chun God’s point, it would force CloudTraveller and his team to send people back to defend. The moment CloudTraveller’s side let their guard down, BrokenOracle’s team would have a chance to rush in and seize Xia God’s point again.
They had already killed the boss, and to take control of Xia God’s point, they just needed to hold the monument there for 15 minutes. That was tough, but if they got a chance to get inside, it wouldn’t be impossible.
With the absence of the two elite commanders, even Xiao Huangyu had gone quiet in the command channel. Everyone, seeing this situation, understood that those few must have gone off to discuss plans for taking Chun God’s point.
Everyone else in the group was speechless.
The team at Chun God’s point was still discussing the allocation of healers, but the command channel had shifted to a different atmosphere.
“Do you think he can take Chun God’s point?” Haitang glanced at the time left in the battle for control and chose to privately message BrokenOracle.
It was already 11:20, and there was still over half an hour left until the battle ended. If it were her, she wouldn’t be confident about taking Chun God’s point in the remaining time.
“This isn’t about believing or not,” BrokenOracle responded. “If we can put pressure on Chun God’s point, it would be very advantageous for my side.”
Haitang understood then—BrokenOracle hadn’t given up.
Splitting off two groups certainly made things harder for them, but if Su Mo could use those two groups to pressure Chun God’s point, it would force CloudTraveller and his team to send people back to defend. The moment CloudTraveller’s side let their guard down, BrokenOracle’s team would have a chance to rush in and seize Xia God’s point again.
They had already killed the boss, and to take control of Xia God’s point, they just needed to hold the monument there for 15 minutes. That was tough, but if they got a chance to get inside, it wouldn’t be impossible.
With the absence of the two elite commanders, even Xiao Huangyu had gone quiet in the command channel. Everyone, seeing this situation, understood that those few must have gone off to discuss plans for taking Chun God’s point.
Seeing the situation, a commander in the channel asked in confusion:
“Can two groups really take Chun God’s point?”
“I was wondering the same thing. CloudTraveller definitely has people defending Chun God’s point. What can two groups plus 15 people even accomplish?”
“If we had some reinforcements from Qiu God’s point, maybe we could push through here.”
“We’ve already killed Xia God’s boss, and we only have 15 minutes left.”
Apple spoke up, “What are you guys thinking? If we pull groups from elsewhere, do you really think CloudTraveller won’t notice? He’s not stupid.”
Someone argued back, “So what if he notices? When Su Mo takes his group over, they’ll notice that too. Chun God’s point might already have defenders by now.”
Having failed to take Xia God’s point after all this time, the mood in the command channel grew tense. Some of the more hot-tempered commanders were already suggesting gathering everyone for one last push. They knew they were at a resource disadvantage, but if all the groups attacked at once, even if CloudTraveller sent reinforcements to defend, they might still be able to seize Xia God’s point. They were just 15 minutes away!
“So, what now? There’s still half an hour left. If you gather everyone here, half of the Eclipse faction from Qiu God’s point will flank around to support CloudTraveller, and soon Night Bell will use their numbers to overwhelm our home base at Dong God’s point,” Haitang argued. “If you give up Dong God’s point to take Xia God’s point, we’ll end up with just one point in the end.”
Someone replied, “We can hold for 15 minutes and then immediately return to defend Dong God’s point.”
“Don’t forget, they are defending three points. They can quickly return to defend Xia God’s point,” Haitang countered. The defenders had the ability to instantly teleport back to their points, though it required resources to use. Apple added, “If we pull reinforcements from Qiu God’s point and Dong God’s point to support us, what happens after we push in? While they quickly return to defend, do you think we can hold out for 15 minutes? And after that, would there be enough time to rush back and retake Dong God’s point? The group attacking us is led by Night Bell. They have a resource advantage and are better at capturing points than we are.”
“So what do we do!?”
“Just keep dragging it out here? That might as well be giving up. We could all head to Chun God’s point or Qiu God’s point instead.”
“But pulling away two groups now is already weakening our strength. In the end, Chun God’s point might not even be captured, and the advantage we had from killing Xia God’s boss will be gone.”
At this point, the marksman, who had been at the front providing firepower, spoke up, “That’s why he only asked for two groups.”
“What can two groups even do!?”
“CloudTraveller might have two groups at Chun God’s point as well.”
“In this kind of encirclement…”
“Those two groups can do a lot.” Yu Zhen’s eyes locked on an assassin ahead, pulling out the assassin who had planned a sneak attack from the crowd with a single arrow. He continued, “Two groups is a safe baseline. Taking two groups from here won’t affect our standoff with CloudTraveller, and pulling 15 people from Qiu God’s point won’t disrupt the balance there either.”
“He knows we have the advantage of killing the boss, and he knows we need to push through and hold for 15 minutes to fully capture the point.” Yu Zhen chuckled. “But just having Qiu God’s point as a threat isn’t enough, so that’s why he went for Chun God’s point. Chun God is the weakest. He knows we still want to take Xia God’s point, so he’s planning to use two groups plus 15 people to force CloudTraveller into making a decision.”
“Momo has a good sense of the bigger picture.”
BrokenOracle added, “He knows I still want Xia God’s point. If Chun God’s point is threatened, CloudTraveller will have to make a choice.”
“Split his forces to defend Chun God, or continue fighting us to the end over Xia God.” BrokenOracle’s gaze rested on Xiao Huangyu’s ID. “But the key is whether he can actually push into Chun God’s point with just two groups.”
The command channel went silent for a moment. They were anxious, but in the current situation, rushing things wouldn’t help.
Just as they continued discussing, a new message popped up in the battle log.
—[Faction·Control Battle: [Chun God] is under heavy attack by the Abyss faction!]
***
Within the Eclipse faction:
Night Bell asked, “Weren’t we told the other side wouldn’t touch Chun God?”
The Abyss faction already had the defense buff, and the healing buff was useless to them, so it made more sense to go for control or attack buffs. From the beginning, they had assumed Chun God’s point was the safest, leaving the weakest defense there. In fact, BrokenOracle had indeed pushed toward Xia God’s point. They just hadn’t expected that, in the final phase of the battle, the other side would come back to retake Chun God’s point.
CloudTraveller was surprised when he received the news, “What’s going on at Chun God’s point?”
“The other side didn’t just send a regular group—they brought their main team,” reported the array master kawaii, who had been guarding Chun God’s point. “We got boss-sniped.”
Kawaii hadn’t expected anyone to come for a steal at this stage, let alone bring their main force. She immediately led her team to resist, but their defense wasn’t on par with the main group left at Xia God’s point. They had to rely on resource-bought buffs just to match Abyss’s strength.
And just at that moment, Abyss launched another sneak attack.
CloudTraveller was a bit surprised when he received the news. “What’s happening at Chun God’s point?”
“The other side didn’t just send one organized group; they brought their main team,” reported the array master kawaii, who had been defending Chun God’s point. “We got our boss stolen.”
Kawaii hadn’t expected anyone to attempt a steal at this stage, let alone bring their main force. She immediately led her team to resist, but their group wasn’t as strong as the main team stationed at Xia God’s point. They had to use resource-exchange buffs just to match Abyss’s strength.
At that moment, the Abyss group launched a sneak attack, aiming directly for their rear to steal the boss.
This created a difficult situation. Chun God’s area was mostly open plains, with no terrain that was easy to defend. To fully protect the boss, they had to guard its perimeter. However, the other side had brought assassins, and most of their marksmen had been sent elsewhere, leaving the remaining marksmen too few to counter Abyss’s assassins. That’s how the boss got sniped.
The enemy clearly understood their setup and had reorganized their group accordingly, completely overwhelming them.
CloudTraveller was surprised and asked, “You can’t hold it?”
“We can’t hold it,” kawaii replied. “The attack came too suddenly. We have three assassins guarding our respawn point, but they still have over a dozen people flanking and attacking the boss. With so many assassins, the aggro is focused on them.”
“Strange, how does BrokenOracle still have the capacity to redeploy people?!”
“And they’ve redeployed two entire groups.”
CloudTraveller checked the time and saw that Abyss’s large group was still present and had not retreated but had sent people to attack. “Send all three groups to Chun God’s point to defend. Kawaii, you and your team find a way to buy time. We won’t go over.”
He understood now: the enemy was forcing him to choose between healing buffs or attack buffs.
Now, adding another group meant he couldn’t afford to lose Xia God’s point, and he didn’t want to give up Chun God’s point either.
But CloudTraveller’s plans were thwarted. When he sent one group over, hidden forces emerged from the shadows to ambush them. Their three groups clashed with Abyss’s two groups, dragging the standoff from outside Chun God’s point to the boss’s vicinity, effectively turning it into a full-scale melee.
He never anticipated that the enemy commander was so familiar with his defensive arrangements at Chun God’s point. They didn’t opt for a standoff but instead used their main force to engage the defending teams while deploying their melee group to flank and ambush his supporting teams. It was as if the enemy had anticipated from the beginning that he would send reinforcements and had prepared a counter-strategy.
“Can’t you push through?” CloudTraveller asked.
“They’ve dispersed their teams, and the perimeter is all heavy fighters,” kawaii said. “The boss is being killed very quickly. We can push through, but we’re afraid of running out of time…”
CloudTraveller frowned. “Where did they get the resources to fight the boss?”
“Their assassin group,” kawaii shouted. “They’ve sent a full team of assassins to kill the boss.”
Assassins had very high burst damage. With a full team of assassins, the kill speed increased significantly. CloudTraveller hadn’t expected the enemy’s assassins to focus entirely on the boss instead of flanking. This brought the situation to an extreme. CloudTraveller quickly realized that the main and melee teams were stalling for time, providing the assassins with an opportunity for a rapid kill.
CloudTraveller said, “Find a way to kill their main tank and make Chun God’s boss aggro wildly.”
If the boss’s aggro was chaotic, it would shift to other players, and the area attacks would become uncontrollable. At that point, the vulnerable players within Abyss faction would be easily weakened by the boss’s erratic attacks, giving them an opportunity. Moreover, with the assassins, once the main tank was down, the boss would deal with the assassins quickly.
Soon, kawaii spoke up, “We can’t kill him… Their main tank isn’t a warrior.”
CloudTraveller was taken aback, “They’re using an assassin as their main tank?! Who is tanking?”
It was hard to believe that an assassin could hold aggro.
“Yes,” kawaii confirmed, standing high above and looking at the fluidly moving assassin in the crowd. “It’s Watermelon from Fruit Platter… He has three healers with him.”
Watermelon hadn’t expected that his request for three healers would actually be granted. The favor from momo left him pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t until he held the boss’s aggro and felt two healing lights on him that he began to sense this reality.
The plan to have the assassin group steal Chun God’s boss was effective. It was well-concealed with the main force providing cover, and with no large-scale marksman presence at Chun God’s point, their stealth and flanking were quite enjoyable. However, danger also came with it.
The aggro of assassins would be very close. The main tank had to be a warrior; otherwise, the similar aggro would quickly cause over-aggro (OT), leading to erratic aggro and unnecessary casualties. However, they couldn’t use a warrior. If they did, the stealth plan would be immediately discovered and targeted.
From the beginning, momo planned to use assassins to steal the boss and also to tank the boss. They needed to find an assassin with the highest burst damage and strongest abilities, who could stabilize the aggro at critical moments and hold out until the healers arrived. As long as the main tank assassin stayed alive, the assassin group would be safe.
In simple terms, the assassin group would flank, steal the boss, and bring the boss to a predetermined location, where the healers could provide immediate support. This required a lot of skill from the assassin players.
Watermelon was the perfect choice.
As the main tank, he was easily targeted by enemy ranged players. However, assassins were different. Known for their agility, assassins could use skills that involved teleportation and shadowing. In a chaotic battle, locking skills were ineffective against them. The advantage of an assassin main tank over a warrior main tank was that, in the midst of the chaos, the enemy might struggle to lock onto him within the crowd.
So, once the assassins managed to steal the boss, they could use their stealth to quickly move the boss to their desired location, such as pulling it out of the Eclipse faction’s protective zone. As long as the boss wasn’t disengaged and the assassin survived until the healers arrived, the boss-stealing plan would succeed.
This required two things: the main force needed to push into the point, and the assassin group had to steal the boss and pull it out.
Time ticked away, and with three groups fighting against two, Abyss’s forces were firmly defending Chun God’s point, dragging the boss into battle with them. Amid the chaos, one assassin stood out, always protected by three healers. After over eight minutes of stalemate, Chun God’s boss was successfully killed in the melee.
Once the boss was killed, the point’s monument changed color immediately.
The Eclipse faction grew more anxious, but Abyss’s forces only increased in number. With insufficient time, the people stationed at Autumn God’s point abandoned their defense and rushed to support Chun God’s point. In this back-and-forth struggle, Chun God’s point held out for fifteen minutes in the chaos before being taken over by Abyss faction.
At the end of the battle, the Eclipse faction retained control of Xia and Autumn. However, Abyss faction managed to seize Chun and Winter at the crucial moment.
Although the captured points weren’t ideal, at least two points were secured in the end. By the conclusion, CloudTraveller was still defending Xia’s point, clearly not intending to give it up. So, when Chun God’s boss was killed, BrokenOracle sent the remaining forces from Autumn God’s point to support Chun God, while he led his main force to hold back CloudTraveller’s main army.
BrokenOracle said thank you.
“You’re welcome, I had a lot of fun,” momo, using the voice of Little Yellow Fish, replied. “It’s a bit late, so I’m logging off now.”
It was already midnight, and those who were familiar with momo knew that this was past his usual bedtime. Shortly after he logged off, UnchainedWanderer also left, leaving the people in the command channel staring at each other.
The deputy commander clearly admired momo and was explaining to others how they had just captured Chun God’s point.
Banana chimed in, “Yeah, our assassins at Autumn God’s point had a blast, especially with the flanking and shadow clones. After holding back for so long, it was the first time they felt so exhilarated. We got more energized as the fight went on.”
The deputy commander who went to Chun God’s point said, “Right, right. When momo initially asked for eight healers to support the assassins, I was puzzled. The main force was so short on healing. Later, he used warriors and array masters to shield and tank. By the time we brought the boss to the point, the healers had caught up.”
After hearing this, Apple asked, “Wait, so you’re saying the boss was tanked by the assassins?”
“Yes!” The deputy commander responded with a hint of envy. “With three healers watching over them, as long as they weren’t killed instantly, we could save Chun God’s boss even in rage. The assassin group had 20 people, and eight healers were covering them.”
The others in the command channel hadn’t expected the fight to be so thrilling.
“I’m thinking I want to join the assassin group too.”
“So it’s this great to be an assassin!!”
“Watermelon, next time your group needs people, count me in!”
“Learned about aerial stealth, I can use it next week at Autumn point.”
Strawberry said, “But I heard Watermelon say that momo’s assassins used to have a tough time.”
Banana added, “I think I also heard Watermelon say that during that period, he wasn’t making any progress.”
Apple said, “Now that you mention it, it seems like Watermelon always had to pull the mobs whenever he was on a run…”
“Ahem,” Bitter Melon said, “Well, it wasn’t that bad, was it?”
Hearing this, BrokenOracle was also curious and said, “Is that true? I thought momo was quite familiar with assassins and really liked them. This time, he specifically requested to have an assassin account.”
Everyone’s gaze turned to Watermelon, seemingly waiting for a clear answer.
Feeling a bit uncomfortable with the others’ envy, Watermelon felt like the momo he used to run dungeons with was a different person. But in today’s faction battle, compared to the struggles of other players, their assassin group definitely felt like winners. Aerial stealth and stealing the boss were exhilarating.
“Momo’s leadership was indeed impressive, not to mention before…”
“…The three healers, it was definitely great.”
“Maybe… perhaps…”
Others: …?
Watermelon held back and said, “Maybe it’s the power of love?”
Others: ???
Watermelon added, “Isn’t that what they say online?”
“That thing, ‘Love makes people unrecognizable.’”
