Chapter 278: Chapter 53: Battle of the Camps

“Fish Soar, have you figured it out? This second task should be a camp confrontation task.”

After a moment of silence, Sing to the Sky suddenly spoke, glancing at his companion.

“You’re right, Sing, after all, the term used in the task is ‘hostile forces’.”

The Flying Goldfish rolled his eyes, returning the disdain Sing to the Sky had just shown with the same tone.

“No, what I mean is that the camp we’ve just joined seems to be a High Rank one, right?”

Without responding to his companion’s sarcasm, Sing to the Sky just stated calmly.

“You’re right, and then what?”

The Flying Goldfish didn’t immediately grasp his meaning.

“The enemy of a High Rank camp should be of the same High Rank, but the Challenge Level for this task is only 20+. As a top task for a High Rank camp, since the Challenge Level isn’t very high, then the problem can only lie in the scale.”

Sing to the Sky analyzed slowly.

“Therefore, I suspect that the scale and reach of this confrontation are likely to exceed our expectations!”

“…I think you make some sense.”

After listening to his companion’s analysis, the Flying Goldfish couldn’t help but glance at the second task again.

At the same time, he suddenly remembered the tasks given to the peripheral members to join the society and thought of the number of peripheral members, which made him somewhat alarmed.

….

Anvis founded the Secret Ceremony Society, and the referral tasks he issued attracted attention not only from the White Light eSports Club.

Silver Blue, Star Dust, and other smaller clubs were also drawn to this special NPC camp that had suddenly spread among players.

After some research, they too decided to let their sub-guild members join the Secret Ceremony Society.

However, unlike White Light, they did not demand all members to join the Secret Ceremony Society, but opted for an attitude of neither encouraging nor stopping them.

Unlike White Light, which was ready to bet all on Anvis, other clubs had not yet been in contact with Anvis and knew little about the Secret Ceremony Society, also the news reached them later than it did the White Light Club.

Yet even so, the Secret Ceremony Society managed to amass a terrifying number of over ten thousand formal and peripheral members in less than half a month.

The rule that Anvis set for the Secret Ceremony Society was that peripheral members could also directly take on and complete tasks. However, they needed to complete the task of inviting new members, or reach a total of ten thousand Contribution Points to officially open the exchange store.

Before obtaining official member status, they could only see their Contribution Points balance and the list of goods, unable to exchange any items.

Furthermore, Contribution Points were non-transferable.

As Anvis’s arrangements were executed one by one, the underlying situation in Karlars Province suddenly underwent a new change.

Duke Carrot no longer sent people to suppress rumors, including other major cities in the province directly under the rule of the Olivendi Family, and the City Guard Armies that were originally hunting down those spreading rumors disappeared.

All personnel responsible for dealing with the rumors were withdrawn and returned to their original posts.

It was as though the upper echelons had lost their patience to deal with the matter and were now completely allowing the rumors to spread unchecked, intending to let them die out as time passed.

In the eyes of some interested parties, this scene undoubtedly represented the Olivendi Family’s indifferent attitude towards the situation.

But they did not have long to feel pleased before the direction of the rumors among the common people suddenly changed.

The entire Karlars is going crazy! Behind the terrifying monster attacks! It turns out to be a conspiracy masterminded by a mysterious figure stirring up strife…

Shocking horror secret! The mastermind behind the city’s monster attacks turns out to be someone else! How did he do it?

The monster attacks on the city were commanded by Earl Elinor! Earl Elinor was present when the slums were destroyed!

Before summoning the monsters to attack the city, Earl Elinor visited the ancestral graves to offer his respects. Suddenly, he heard strange noises from inside a grave, and when he opened it, his father was found inside playing Secret Magic Cards!

…

Other than some inconsistent rumors, when the rest of these rumors began to spread, it immediately reversed the previous public opinion situation in Karlars Province.

At the same time, when the actual tasks began, the Secret Ceremony Society players who were originally concerned about the scarcity of targets suddenly found that the number of enemy players spreading rumors was surprisingly large.

Thus, the largest player faction battle since the server opened swept through Karlars Province like a sudden storm.

Unlike the openly existing Secret Ceremony Society, the Eye of the Pupil could only secretly send people to issue tasks and didn’t dare to have too much contact with the players who accepted the tasks for fear of being traced back.

Therefore, players who accepted the task of spreading rumors from some mysterious individuals did not receive timely information about the counter-tasks.

Except for some who got the news from friends early and stopped on time.

And a minority who also joined the Secret Ceremony Society and realized that the rewards of the Secret Ceremony Society were more generous than those of the Eye of the Pupil, thus they switched sides.

The rest of the players were ambushed by a large number of Secret Ceremony Society players. With the element of surprise on their side, the players who spread rumors everywhere suffered heavy losses.

Due to the heavy death penalty and the fact that the opposition had overwhelming numbers, most players did not seek revenge or continue their tasks immediately after revival.

Instead, they temporarily hid and started searching on player forums to find out what exactly was going on.

Later, they also learned about the tasks of the Secret Ceremony Society.

Some players directly chose to switch sides and join the Secret Ceremony Society, helping to promote their cause while seeking retribution for past grievances.

In the death notifications on the system panel, the cause of death and the killer’s name could be seen, but this kind of internal strife would not be intervened by others, left for them to settle among themselves.

As time went by, there even emerged a very small group of players who, with the mindset of ‘wanting it all’, spread both types of rumors.

Their method for doing tasks was to first spread the rumors from the Eye of the Pupil, completing one side’s task.

Then they would deny those rumors and supplement with the rumors from the Secret Ceremony Society, completing the other side’s task.

Of course, this was not safe at all. It was easy to fail on both sides, and only some truly brave souls dared to do so.

At the same time, several players who spread rumors and some local residents were captured by the Secret Ceremony Society and locked up in the Karlras City Prison, which had already been expanded four times.

Although players preferred to turn their enemies into experience, there were always a few exceptions when there was a large enough base.

For these captives, Anvis arranged for specialists to record their confessions with Image Capturing Crystal Balls; the things they were instructed to do by the people behind the scenes, and then play them to the public all day long.

After this reversal, the direction of public opinion suddenly changed.

Many ordinary Low Rank Professionals had an ‘epiphany’. Feeling that they had been foolishly used as pawns for free, they immediately turned their anger towards those lesser nobles.

There were also some who had been coldly observing, who now felt wise for not having rushed to judgment. Looking at their colleagues who had been ‘duped’, they suddenly felt a sense of intellectual superiority.

Of course, there were also some who refused to believe anything, insisting that the real mastermind behind it all was the Four Great Families, and the so-called ‘truth’ was just fabricated by those wanting to whitewash the Four Great Families!

But in the end, these people were the minority and were despised by the first and second types of people.