The Purgatory City players were giving it everything they had.
It still couldn't match a single flick of a Ghost Swordsman's fingers.
On the field, nearly every time a Ghost Swordsman was cut down, the players had paid for it with four-digit losses or more!
But even at a thousand for one, the players' side still held a huge advantage.
Because as news of the monster siege on Purgatory City spread fast, the situation kept snowballing.
Inside Purgatory City, beams of white light kept flashing in one after another.
More and more players who hadn't been online answered the call and logged in.
According to the system's real-time stats, in under an hour since the Ghost Royal Guard launched its attack on Purgatory City, the number of players online in Purgatory City had already shot up from 6 million+ to 9.91 million+!
An online rate of a staggering 99.12%!
A new record for the highest online count of any second-level main city on Divine Oracle's Great Xia server!
Even players from other main cities were stunned by the numbers, and started talking about it on the forums.
[King of Slackers] (Male, Level 77 Berserker, Elf Race, Starlight City): "Holy crap! Purgatory City's live online count is 9.91 million? Almost 100% online? That number's gotta be fake, right?"
[Finding My Friend a Black Boyfriend] (Female, Level 76 Physician, Human Race, Warfire City): "Right?! I just checked, and the highest online rate in our Warfire City is only 91%! Oh, and asking for a friend, with that many players in Purgatory City, are there any Black players in there?"
[Skipping Class to Game] (Male, Level 75 Rogue, Beast Race, Deep Sea City): "I wanna know, it's not even five o'clock and I'm still in class! Where are all those office workers and students getting the time to log in? Can somebody from Purgatory City explain?"
[Bathed in Fire, Burning Sky] (Male, Level 77 Elemental Mage, Beast Race, Purgatory City): "Damn it, I'd love to be at work, but the thing is our boss plays Divine Oracle too, and he's from Purgatory City. He not only let us off early to go home and log in to defend the city, he also gave every one of us Purgatory City employees a 500-yuan red envelope!"
[Changing My Name When I Make 10K a Month] (Male, Level 76 Magic Knight, Human Race, Night Sky City): "Holy crap, bro, what company is that? Is your company still hiring?"
[Dream: Blow Up the Principal's Office] (Female, Level 75 Illusion Mage, Beast Race, Purgatory City): "Purgatory City's about to fall, who the hell cares about school?! If Purgatory City falls, tonight this girl's going to blow up her school!"
[Gamer for Life] (Male, Level 77 Magic Knight, Beast Race, Purgatory City): "When the nation's at stake, every man has a duty! My girlfriend asked me to come over to her place tonight to see her cat, and I even turned that down! Brothers, log in!!!"
...
An online rate of over 99%!
Over 9.9 million players online in real time!
With a base that huge, even at a thousand for one, the players still held a huge advantage.
Because not only were there a lot of players, they could also revive at the Revival Spring after dying.
The Ghost Royal Guard, on the other hand, had only ten thousand Ghost Swordsmen in all, and every one that died was one less.
Up front, the battlefield was ablaze, white light kept flashing, and the fighting was in full swing.
Yet the Ghost Royal Guard had been attacking Purgatory City for a long time without taking it.
At the rear of the army, Super God Athena, Chen Feng, Han Cheng and the others, who had held their forces back along with Lonely Island, started to get a little anxious.
"It's been an hour already, and there's no progress at all. Purgatory City's City Defense is still above 95%!"
Super God Athena checked the Divine Oracle settings as she said anxiously, "According to Divine Oracle's settings, in a siege, the City Defense has to drop to 0 before you can break into the city, and then you go in further and destroy the Main City Core inside."
"Only after the Main City Core is destroyed can the main city be wiped out for good."
"At this rate, we won't take Purgatory City even in ten hours! And if we can't take it within six hours, Purgatory City's defense mechanism kicks in, and we'll have to wait out a 24-hour cooldown before we can attack it again!"
Chen Feng, the current leader of Divine Nation, stared at Purgatory City ahead, a sharp glint in his eyes. "Who'd have thought a bunch of players barely in their 70s could hold off an attack from the Level 100 Ghost Royal Guard!"
Han Cheng, who ran the Blood Dance Guild, folded his arms and thought it over. "The main reason right now is that Purgatory City has too many players."
"They're like moths to a flame, one wave after another."
"If we want to break the city, we have to find a way to cut off their reinforcements!"
Chen Feng frowned deeply. "But until the city gate's broken, the Ghost Royal Guard can't get inside Purgatory City, so they can't cut off the reinforcements."
"And if we can't cut off the reinforcements, we can't break the gate. It's a vicious circle..."
Just then, Super God Athena came up with an idea.
"That's it!"
"The monsters can't get into the city, but players can!"
"We gather forces from inside Purgatory City, attack from inside while the Ghost Royal Guard hits from outside, cut off the players' reinforcements, and let the Ghost Royal Guard into the city!"
Hearing this, it clicked for Han Cheng too. "When a safe zone is attacked, it loses its protection for a while!"
"I'll get the Blood Dance Guild people together right now and work from inside the city!"
Chen Feng said, "I'll go mobilize the Divine Nation Guild people too!"
"Our opponent this time is all of Purgatory City!"
Super God Athena said, "Just your two guilds won't be anywhere near enough."
"Godfather, give the order."
"Gather every guild and launch an all-out attack on Purgatory City!"
Beneath the cold black heavy metal helmet, Lonely Island's calm gaze hid a sharp edge. "Divine Nation and Blood Dance stay. You'll attack the city from outside with me."
"You go gather the rest of the guilds and back us up from inside the city."
Lonely Island looked at Super God Athena and said, "I hope you won't disappoint me the way Ji Ningshuang did."
"Don't worry, Godfather!" Super God Athena swore. "Bellina won't let you down!"
Back when Lonely Island had handed full control of more than fifty guilds to Ji Ningshuang, Super God Athena had already resented it.
Now Lonely Island had given the order himself.
Super God Athena, about to take the power from Ji Ningshuang, was suddenly filled with a boundless sense of superiority.
"Ji Ningshuang, if I were you and Godfather gave me a chance this good, I'd have made the most of it!"
"Now you'll never get another chance!"
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
With the Ghost Royal Guard attacking the city from four directions at once, the Purgatory City players had also split up outside the East Gate, South Gate, West Gate and North Gate to defend the city.
At the North Gate, the fighting raged.
In one corner of the battlefield, Qin Ming was using mental commands to direct thirteen Level 80 Skeleton Soldiers, working with the solo players on the field to hold off the Ghost Swordsmen.
Qin Ming blamed himself deeply.
Because if he hadn't released the Ghost King in the first place, none of this would have happened.
So in a way, the disaster Purgatory City now faced was his doing!
Since he couldn't change the situation now, all he could do was give everything he had to keep the losses from getting worse!
Swish, swish, swish, swish!
On the field, the Skeleton Soldiers, boosted by three stacked A-Rank talents, were exceptionally strong.
Under Qin Ming's mental commands, they quickly cut down one Ghost Swordsman after another.
But their outstanding killing power also drew the attention of more enemies.
Whoosh, whoosh!
As a large swath of solo players nearby was wiped out by terrifying dark power, dozens of Ghost Swordsmen closed in for the kill from every direction!
The Skeleton Soldiers were strong when they ganged up on a target.
But one on one, they were no match for Level 100 Ghost Swordsmen. The two sides were 20 levels apart, after all!
The thirteen Skeleton Soldiers met the enemy one on one and were cut down to the last in an instant!
The next moment, those ten-plus Ghost Swordsmen surged forward together and closed in on Qin Ming!
Disaster was a hair's breadth away.
Whoooosh!
Wave after wave of [Blizzard], the Elemental Mage ultimate, came down from the sky, covering the area around Qin Ming and freezing that group of Ghost Swordsmen solid!
At the same time, from behind, Ji Ningshuang arrived leading players from the Holy Hall, Overlord, Drifting Rain and other guilds.
"Go."
At Ji Ningshuang's command, hundreds of knight players from several major guilds raised their shields and charged at the group of Ghost Swordsmen ahead.